Each train on the Dodonpa has a different face. The mouth stretches in a scream under the train so that the seats are between the teeth. When the Dodonpa opened, the faces were: Father, Mother, Sister and Baby. These were later changed to: Cheetah, Snake, Zebra and Strawberry.

Dodonpa, is named for musical sounds, (similar to Do Re Mi, but percussive) and is also the "chant" referred to occasionally while you wait in line for the coaster.

While the park writes "Dodonpa", a more accurate natural pronunciation would be "Dodompa" (with a "m"). Many Japanese use "n" by Japanese roman lettering convention.

Dodonpa closed on October 2nd, 2016 and reopen on July 15th, 2017 as the Do-Dodonpa after many changes. Most significantly, the top hat was replaced by a 49m tall, 39.7m in diameter vertical loop. The speed increased from 0 to 172 km/h in 1.8 seconds to 0 - 180km/h in 1.56 seconds and the length increased from 1,189m to 1,244m. In the former configuration, the duration was 55 seconds, height was 52m and g-force was 4.3.