Ok ok so this is more of a Headcanon if anything but I thought I'd share this.

So say Tsumugi was telling the truth that Danganronpa (in their world) is a TV show. Let's say that.

So what if the characters in Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Super Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, Another Episode Danganronpa: Ultra Despair Girls and the anime are just animated characters. Like in the anime.

But what if the characters in New Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony were real people (in their world)?

Here is the crazy part. What if they (the people behind Team Danganronpa in their world) got tired to animating anime characters so they resulted in using real people who are fans of the show. Mainly teenagers.

Crazy right? And the teenagers had to apply to be in the show, which is why we see Shuichi's audition tape, Kaede's and Kaito's.

And they kept this up but I have no idea for how long. Had to be before Rantaro's killing game since he survived that one and he is in this one. But it had to be after Goodbye Despair and the anime.

Whether the games were real and everyone who died, died or it was fake and nobody technically died is up there in the air.

That is my thought process and not really a full fledged theory so it's just a Headcanon for now.

And Danganronpa S would be considered non canon I think since it's more of a what if scenario where they all met up so the theory wouldn't make sense.