Thread:Mr. Waddle Dee/@comment-3014359-20170225214339/@comment-443399-20170226054540

First hand information from someone who played the game: the characters' former selves all willing signed up for DanganRonpa because all of them loved the series this much. Later they were kidnapped without knowing they were selected, but got excited when they realized this was DanganRonpa.

About the DanganRonpa series in-universe, it started as games like in the real world, 3 was an anime like in the real world and they went through different media until they settled with the reality show format somewhen along the way.