I never saw Monica's eyes as being swastikas

everything else JM said about why her character is nonsensical and idiotic even for DR standards is right on-point tho

She actually can walk.

She's still in a wheelchair though

Only to play the victim card. In the end she doesn't use the wheelchair anymore.

Someone said she was short. Someone else said she wasn't short, she was in a wheelchair. Whether she can walk or not doesn't matter, she's still a walking person who was sitting in a wheelchair, making her appear shorter

Monaca used the whole wheelchair act to get people to feel sorry for her like for example her Father and step brother. As for manipulating, she used the monokuma helmets on the kids to brainwash them into killing the adults and teens as well. In the end, Monaca is saved by Servant Komaeda before the flying fortress would be destroyed. Explains to her that he will make her into someone even Junko could never be. If you saw the link I send before, you would know this

Ren is the first character who gets killed... supposedly. Turns out SHE is the mastermind behind the Doubt game. Her abilities of hypnotising and manipulating people is real and she used Mitsuki, from the group, to be her killer if she hears the sound of a phone ringing and the words "For the ones I love" (Aishiterumono no tame ni... or was it Taisetsunamono...? Either Loved or Treasured ones, I've seen both used for translation)

Ren has several people under her hypnotical spells, she is actually NOT handicapped and faked her death, so nobody would suspect her of the killings. She also has moles all over the place, so she's NEVER caught for what she did.

Faking being crippled is really not a new or unique idea or concept.

Doubt was the third piece of media I've seen where that was a plot point, just out of what I can remember off the top of my head.

Many pieces of media. Just check TV tropes

Faking the Dead
Death Faked for You
Obfuscating Disabilty
Evil Cripple
Genius Cripple

And it's stupid in AE because we're supposed to believe an 8 year old is smart enough to pull it off (and if I couldn't believe that, the other stuff that she supposedly did because of how "smart" she is...)

Monokuma: Let me get this out of the way, I started this series via the Project Zetsubou translation of the original PSP game, and I loved his Japanese voice. So, when I found out there was a dub for the Vita, I decided to listen to it on YouTube. However, when I heard his dub voice, I nearly had to stop before I had the chance to hear the rest of the voices because his voice was creepy for all the wrong reasons. Later, when I finally got a Vita of my own, I bought Danganronpa 2 and saw that the dub had several voice actors I liked, so having heard that Monokuma's English voice does get better when he's not trying to sound sickeningly sweet, I decided to give the dub a try. After playing through most of the prologue, and being fairly happy with most of the voices, Monokuma showed up, and I had to switch back to Japanese because I'd forgotten how much I hated his English voice.

Later, I tried watching Danganronpa Abridged Thing, and his voice was a little scratchier than I was used to, but it eventually grew on me. So when he tried imitating Brian Beacock's Monokuma and all the characters cringed in response, I chuckled quite a bit.

So, when the dub came out, and Greg Ayres gave Monokuma a scratchy voice, not unlike the one from DRAT, I accepted it immediately. Granted, I kind of miss "upupu" (which I know could work since DRAT pulled it off), but "nyuk nyuk nyuk" fits his portrayal here, and beats "puhuhu" any day. Sure, his new voice lacked the "evil, cute thing" vibe from the original, but given how badly it went when I heard the game dub try to do the same thing, I wasn't going to complain about it. Given the script though, I'd say Monokuma's voice fits pretty well (not to mention, I love his dialogue here enough to wish J. Michael Tatum could localize Monokuma's dialogue alone whenever DR3 gets localized).

Naegi: I thought his portrayal was fairly good. I generally give a dub a free pass when they get a male VA to voice a male character that was originally voiced by a female seiyuu. Most of my problems with his portrayal stems more from the script making him sound totally radical at times. That said, I rather like his normal speaking voice, and his yelling voice is pretty awesome, but his sad voice (read: the voice he had mourning Maizono's death at the end of episode 3) sounds pretty forced.

(Side note: despite Nagito Komaeda sharing the same voice actor/seiyuu as Naegi in DR2, I most definitely prefer Nagito's seiyuu as she portrays certain aspects of his personality far better than Papenbrook does).

Togami: Togami had one of my favorite voices in the Japanese version, as he had this really smug, arrogant tone that fit his character perfectly. The game dub's Togami just kind of sounded... bored and phoned in. So, when I heard Josh Grelle was going to dub Togami, I wasn't really sure how it would turn out at first, given my only other experience with him was as Armin in Attack on Titan (and to a lesser extent, Yuki in Future Diary, but I switched over to the unofficial sub of the televised version mid-episode 4, as the dub had some imagery that was more explicit than I'd like, while the tv version usually had it covered up one way or another). But when I heard him playing Togami, I was really surprised. He, more than most of the other VA's, really nailed the character, so he's one of my favorite changes.

Kirigiri: My other favorite voice from the Japanese version (based on how it sounded, can't comment on the acting), so my standards for her dub were kind of high. Admittedly, my first choice for her dubbed voice would have been Kate Higgins (C.C. in Code Geass), as her vocal aesthetics seemed to better match Kyouko's Japanese voice at first glance. That said, I knew Caitlin Glass was capable of pulling off the quiet moments based on what I'd heard in Fullmetal Alchemist, so I was actually looking forward to hearing how she did. Surprisingly, she didn't sound the way I expected, but she did such a good job with her portrayal I don't really care about the vocal aesthetics (esp. compared to the game dub, where she sounded kind of wooden).

Maizono: I've gotten kind of sick of Monica Rial's voice after watching A Certain Magical Index. I know this is more or less what her voice actually sounds like, but I still have a hard time with it when I know she has a really impressive range but doesn't seem use it on characters that would probably benefit from a less squeaky voice (side note: I did actually like her portrayal of May Chang in FMAB). But since Maizono's the first to die, it's not that big of a deal. As a side effect of this though, her Japanese voice didn't leave much of an impression on me).

Enoshima (Ikusaba version): She was okay. The valley girl accent reminded me of DRAT, so I didn't have a hard time accepting it at all. Much like the above though, she dies so soon, her Japanese voice didn't leave much of an impression on me.

Kuwata: Again, he was okay. Again, he dies so soon, his Japanese voice didn't leave much of an impression on me. His voice in the game dub was pretty normal too. No complaints anywhere.

Fujisaki: In an odd inversion of the typical practice I see with dubs, his seiyuu was male, but his voice actor was female. I wasn't horribly put off by the dub voice, but I wasn't particularly impressed either (same with the game dub). On the other hand, I didn't notice his seiyuu was male until after I found out Fujisaki was male, so the original wins here. Granted, your mileage may vary. Amusingly, my sister was surprised when the other characters learned he was male, but she was only surprised because she thought he was male the whole time, and didn't even realize he was pretending to be a girl.

Oowada: Sabat's portrayal was a little over the top sometimes, but otherwise a perfect fit. His game dub voice wasn't bad either, but I got more of the tough biker vibe from Sabat's version.

Ishimaru: Was Austin Tindle a little over the top? Yes. Do I care? No. His voice was another one that sounded like it drew inspiration from DRAT, so that's another win for me (I was kind of disappointed though that they never had him say "X is not acceptable in a school environment!" even once). That said, the over the top voice fit pretty well when he turned into Ishiwada. The game dub on the other hand seemed kind of reserved in comparison to even the Japanese voice.

Yamada: This was the only character I didn't like even a little bit, so I didn't care too much how the voice sounded as long as it fit. The game dub seemed fairly close to the Japanese version, but this one sounded closer to the DRAT version (again, a little disappointed they never had him say "do you like video games?"). All in all, I was fine with it.

Celes: Her voice, much like her original voice, matched the character perfectly. No complaints (I'm really not sure why the game dub gave her an accent, tbh).

Oogami: Her voice here was more obviously feminine than her original voice, and I'll admit it was a little off putting at first, but it eventually grew on me. Her game dub voice though sounded like her VA was trying too hard.

Fukawa/Genocider: I actually thought her voice sounded decent here. Maybe her seiyuu was a little more convincing as Genocider, but I didn't think she did a bad job. Considering the game dub had to get two different people play Fukawa and Genocider, I've got to give her some extra credit for pulling off both voices herself. That said, her seiyuu managed to pull off three distinct modes for Fukawa, that is, her normal mode, her "I <3 Togami" mode, and her Genocider mode, and they all were pretty distinct. Her anime VA was good in normal mode, passable in Genocider mode, and just kind of... okay in "I <3 Togami" mode. I didn't get a chance to hear her game voice in that mode, but her normal voice was just okay, and her Genocider voice reeked too much of "evil Chie" for my tastes.

Hagakure: I didn't really like his game dub voice at first, although after hearing it some more, it's not too bad most of the time, but when it's bad, it's pretty bad. Bevins' portrayal on the other hand seemed to match the original's vocal aesthetics pretty well, but like gotMLK7 over at AAO said, played up the dudebro aspect a little too much sometimes. So, the seiyuu wins here.

Asahina: I like all of her voices, actually. Cassandra Morris was probably the best of the game dub portrayals I've heard (really, the only one I liked other than Naegi, tbh), but I find Felicia Angelle's portrayal to be pretty equal. And both are on par with her seiyuu's portrayal. No problems here at all.

Junko Enoshima: I have to agree with gotMLK7 from AAO here. She was done incredibly well, and I really have to give her credit for pulling off Monokuma's scratchiness while in her Monokuma mode. Really, about the only voice she did that didn't seem to work that well was her valley girl voice when reverting to "normal" mode, but I have no idea if there was some kind of vocal or dialogue aspect in the original that was best localized that way in order to get the point across. So, as far as the dubs go, the verdict goes to Jamie Marchi for the majority of her modes, while normal mode goes to Erin Fitzgerald. As for whether Jamie Marchi beats Junko's seiyuu, I honestly couldn't say. They're both good, so I don't really have too much of a preference.

Monomi: What's that? You didn't know she was in this? Well, she is, and she's at the end of the credits as a teaser for a second season that may or may not eventually see the light of day. The first voice of hers I'd heard was her game dub voice, which wasn't bad, but I wasn't horribly fond of it (I had the same problem with Nunnally's voice in Code Geass), but when I switched to the Japanese audio, I thought her voice was kind of adorable (particularly her "uhuhuhu"). Her voice in the anime dub though was just awful. Way too scratchy, which could possibly work if they explained it as Monokuma's doing, but they didn't, so for all I know, her Usami voice would sound the same. So for now, my preference goes seiyuu > game VA >>>>> anime VA.

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Amusingly, Junko's seiyuu played Winry in the Japanese version of Fullmetal Alchemist (2003), whereas Kyouko's voice actress played Winry in the English dub. Doesn't have any bearing on their performance here, but it's kind of funny nonetheless.

Mankind’s Most Despairingly Maleficent and Monstrous Malefaction turned out to be what seemed to be monuments being defaced with Monokuma heads. The second game explained it a little better, but it was still pretty stupid. And then, the final Nonstop Debate devolved into an episode of My Little "Super High-school Level Pony": Hope is Magic. Ugh. (the second game's sappy final Nonstop Debate handled that a little bit better too, but only just).

On the other hand, how come your sister didn't notice he was crossdressing? Was the puffy skirt not obvious?
Strange thing is, I read that Fujisaki's voice actor is actually damn good in imitating a female voice. Granted, this was (probably) the first time I ever heard the guy, but I instantly heard it being a 'man trying to sound like a woman' voice. (Heck, MasakoX was better in DRAT by using his Child Gohan voice)

Though, I admit, I don't like how Fujisaki got a female voice in the English version. It's like, um, it's pretty obvious, anyway, so why even bother? This is like the opposite of Naoto - in the Japanese version, they used Romi Park for her. Did a somewhat decent job of throwing certain players off, since Romi is known for voicing boys. (I still figured it out instantly, cause it's just plain obvious) And then the English version also got a female voice actress... who didn't even attempt to do a male voice.

There's the kingly mode, the hand-covering-face mode (I'm assuming this is the one you're thinking of), brainy mode, cutesy (pigtail) mode (which was accomplished by occasionally using baby-talk, iirc), mushroom head mode, angry punk mode, Monokuma mode and "normal" mode which includes three moods: normal (shows up right before the Hope is Magic moment), pissed (shows up after the final confrontation), and ecstatic (after realizing the ultimate despair of her impending death).