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I was away for a week, but I figured I'd let Future Side 08 air before I noted down my (extremely lengthy) thoughts on the past few episodes:

Spoiler

Regardless of the apparent simultaneity of certain explosions, the fact that Togami has arrived on the scene poised to get everyone out of the killing game - along with the fact that the whole HQ collapsed at the end of the episode - essentially confirms the "different building" theory; in fact, I thought this after episode 6, because there was no way it was going to be that easy.  This explains Kirigiri frowning at the wall in the second episode - noticing that the mark where Izayoi's weapon had hit the wall had vanished; her deduction from that accounts for her lack of interest in the "secret entrance" which should lead to the outside.  While the attack helicopter was keeping Hagakure busy, I assume another vehicle was smuggling the unconscious Future Foundation members out of the building, and to the real location of the final killing game.

As to where they actually are - well, a lot of people are saying that there's an underwater replica of the entire building, and hence the water around Kimura's body, but that to me raises a lot of questions about when and why it was built and also how this would be fundamentally any different from just having them be trapped in the surface building.  (Edit: Though I'll admit it does line up with a couple of things in the opening.)  Personally, I don't think it's a coincidence that Despair Side has been showing us a lot of that tall shiny Hope's Peak new building.  Since the FF HQ was originally intended to be a Hope's Peak overseas branch, it makes sense that they would have a similar internal structure, and a little remodelling would complete the illusion.  The Hope's Peak new building being the true setting also brings everything back around to the title, The End Of Hope's Peak, and unites the story in place with Despair Side.

And on that note... Hagakure's been implicitly counted in the "remaining survivors" counter on the grounds that the counter was OP-only and he was seemingly in the same general area anyway.  But if the "different building" theory is confirmed, then Hagakure is out of the picture, and as such that will also implicitly confirm the idea of a sixteenth person hidden in the building - though I don't imagine it'd be so simple as them being the attacker, as that'd be far too predictable.

I talk a bit more about Monaka below, but the implications of her not being in any way involved with proceedings are pretty significant.  The fact that she staged Asahina's prank death confirms that the Gekkougahara drone was awake, or at least active, during the supposed asleep periods - which means that she almost certainly knows who killed Chisa and Great Gozu, since those deaths would've happened right in front of her.  And yet she claims to not know who the mastermind is.  This strongly suggests that the attacker is obviously just a catspaw and not the real mastermind - which in itself points to the "alternating attacker" theory.

Of course, Monaka being out of complicity and apparently having confessed the extent of her involvement makes it highly unlikely that she is the one responsible for the staging of the bodies, which creates big problems for the murder of Great Gozu (if just one attacker) or the staging of the attacker's victims more generally (under the alternating attacker theory).  The locked-room problem focusses this problem; Asahina being unconscious to be pranked by Monaka rules her out as the attacker, and Great Gozu's hardly likely to have strung himself up to commit suicide, while Monaka's implicitly sworn off involvement.  Even if Naegi were the attacker - brainwashed, say - then I simply don't buy that he had the strength to arrange Great Gozu's body the way it was done.  This suggests either that there was a way into the locked room which we don't yet know about - perhaps that famous secret entrance which Izayoi was killed over? - or that there was a way of leaving the room whilst leaving the door apparently barred.  For now, I'm going to stick to the idea that, regardless of the attacker's identity or identities, there is an additional force in the building responsible for arranging the bodies after their murder.

On the subject of Great Gozu's murder, incidentally, there is some argument that Tengan may have killed him, and hence his ability to convey the truth of the "alternating attacker" theory to Munakata.  I am dubious about this because, the way I see it, there must be some kind of rule preventing the attackers from 'fessing up, or else any one of them could at the very least leave a dying message and then commit suicide...  I suppose, if there's an additional traitor staging the bodies, then they could always mess up any dying message that might have existed (in much the same way as Tengan's apparent "dying message" was almost certainly a hoax), and relied on the attackers to keep quiet out of self-protection.  My initial theory that Great Gozu was nominated as attacker and tried to get around it by faking Asahina's murder is now out of the picture, but he still looked very much like he'd gotten into a fight, and the amount of blood on his body doesn't suggest a postmortem stabbing after a death by NG Code (see Izayoi).  Could he have been nominated as attacker and fought with the traitor?  If so, it's frightening that the traitor could win such a fight.  Or did the traitor simply mess up Gozu's mask as part of the staging of his body?  This murder is certainly the most problematic of all of them.

The last remaining issue at present is what might be called Monaka's prophecy - that one of the Hope's Peak survivors is going to die, and it'll be Naegi's fault.  Assuming it isn't based on something that hasn't even been hinted at yet, I would suggest one of two interpretations of this: One, that Naegi is the attacker by some sort of brainwashing, in which case him eventually killing a Hope's Peak survivor seems inevitable; or, two, that the alternating attacker theory is correct and Naegi is in the rotation.  Under the latter interpretation, there is only one possible Hope's Peak survivor Naegi could kill if appointed as the attacker: Himself.  To be honest, I thought this was going to happen anyway, and the prophecy seals the deal.

As far as the overall mastermind is concerned, the fact that no known Remnants of Despair have been showing signs of activity and the uncanny timing concerning the fate of the DR2 kids is increasingly pointing to a surviving Chiaki Nanami.  The fact that she didn't die in the Student Council killing game the way people were expecting now leaves her with no obvious gruesome fate.  If this is correct, she's probably also the presently unnamed Future Foundation 13th Branch Head (Asahina's strangely absent boss, the only Branch Head who hasn't been identified); this is also suggested by the fact that the 13th Branch Head didn't go and I think it said that Ryouta wasn't even invited to the meeting to decide the fate of Naegi and the Remnants of Despair, because Munakata would likely have arranged the meeting with a bias towards the execution of Naegi and the Remnants - retrospective authorisation for the decision he had already taken.  Former classmates of the Remnants, natural sympathisers, he would obviously have excluded.

With only a third of the anime left, time to put myself right out there with an anticipated death and survivor list:

Spoiler

Makoto Naegi: DEAD (Episode 10 or 11 cliffhanger; suicide as attacker)
Kyoko Kirigiri: Alive
Aoi Asahina: Alive
Miaya Gekkougahara: DEAD (Episode 9 or 10; she's a berserk robot, she's basically a free death)
Kyosuke Munakata: DEAD (Episode 12; suicide by NG code, sacrificing himself to open a door for everyone else)
Juzo Sakakura: Alive (redemption arc in progress; survivor of the Munakata-Chisa-Sakakura trio)
Ruruka Andoh: Alive (there's always one initially horrible person who survives; survivor of the Kimura-Izayoi-Andoh trio)
Ryota Mitarai: Alive (turns the killing game into an anime to bring hope to his former classmates and the world, becomes the second Ultimate Hope per his voice actor playing Naegi in the DR1 stage play)
Chiaki Nanami: Alive (send her straight to Jabberwock Island to be stuck in the Neo World Program)

 

On 25/08/2016 at 6:14 AM, Celestia Ludenberg said:

New Episode of Future-Hen has me so conflicted.

It was nice seeing Monaka again, she became one of my favorite child characters from a video game but at the same time the whole episode without spoiling anything just made Absolute Despair Girls irrelevant and there was another lame ending to the episode to get people to keep watching. The entirety of Dangan Ronpa 3 has just been bait and switch cliffhangers with no follow up or pay off.

Just want it to end already so v3 can be a clean slate. The Hope and Despair stuff gets old.

 

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Monaka had the right idea though in a meta sense, leave it all behind because it's just getting lame

 

 

Spoiler

I'd have to agree that the way they handled Monaka, just turning her whole character and origin game into effectively a big joke and red herring, was rather lame.  I don't see why she couldn't have been contributing to the set-up of DR3 using her resources and have been depressed instead at not being the mastermind and not being a big deal.  Very odd decision.

 

On 28/08/2016 at 8:26 PM, Crow the BOOLET said:

You know I might be slow on this but I thought about it last night and put 2+2 together annnnnnnnnnnddddd......

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Whether or not he does it directly, Mitarai has to be one responsible for the DR1 cast losing their memories. He mentioned various brainwashing techniques and applying it to anime when Junko came over. The fact that he's hanging out with Junko, creating his anime could mean he's working on a way for Junko to erase those memories away. I'm not sure if he realizes it or not but he might be in league with Junko.

I wonder how this is going to come into play in the Future. Mitarai is in a high position but he could be trying to atone for his sins or he could be the attacker. You never know with this series.

 

 

Spoiler

I agree that Mitarai may well have been an unwilling party to the background of Danganronpa 1; this would account for the total undermining of his confidence and his lack of any apparent interest in anime in Future Side.  The reason I say "unwilling" is because, despite having literally been in the same class as the Remnants of Despair, nobody has accused him of anything; indeed, he's been permitted to rise to the rank of Future Foundation 10th Division Head.  Considering that Munakata was planning to have the remaining Remnants of Despair quietly killed, the fact that neither he nor Sakakura have voiced any suspicions against Mitarai suggests to me that there must be some unknown that puts him absolutely above suspicion, or they'd never have let him reach the rank he is and would never have left him alone in the final killing game.

With that said... it's looking more and more likely that Mikan's mysterious "beloved" who motivated her to murder in Danganronpa 2 must have been Mitarai or the Impostor; everyone assumed it was Junko at the time, and that was probably correct at the time the scene was written - but in DR3 Junko hasn't said a kind word to Mikan, but the Mitarais have been nice and the real Ryouta is poised to spend quite a bit of time with her.  The real Ryouta also has red eyes in the current Despair Side OP, like the rest of the Remnants...

Oh, but speaking of the Impostor, more than anything else I want him to be revived and turn away the Future Foundation peacekeeping force by disguising himself as obese Munakata.

By the way, I hope "Ryouta's anime" theorists noticed that the end title card of his anime would be a perfect fit for Danganronpa 3 itself.

Edit: Well, Despair Side 8 sure fielded some of these questions.  Everything is starting to come together.

Edit Again: After considerable thought, I think I've cracked the attacker's second killing, and it ties into my Grand Unified Theory of Danganronpa 3.

Spoiler

"Different building" theory being more or less confirmed, it is obvious that the "secret entrance," not least by virtue of its very name, does not actually lead outside; rather, I would imagine it leads either straight into the room where Great Gozu was killed, or, rather more likely, into a hidden network of tunnels which the difference between the building's imagined structure and its real structure serves to disguise - and which has one exit into the room where Great Gozu was killed.

Despite my reservations above, I'm going to go with the idea that Tengan was nominated as the murderer this round.  I would suggest that he wanted to survive in order to guide the others, and thus could not kill himself, but also was reluctant to kill anyone weaker than him; thus he decided on Great Gozu as his victim as a compromise, in that this would make himself less secure, Great Gozu being his bodyguard.  Tengan presented this resolution to Monokuma, and Monokuma, who generally is pretty obliging about helping criminals out, agreed and showed Tengan to the secret entrance.  Tengan used it to kill Great Gozu and departed, probably but not necessarily concealing the doorway behind him.

Now, as far as the staging of Great Gozu's body and all others is concerned, there was a detail I had failed to take into account: That Monokuma hacked Usami in the second episode.  I think we can reasonably assume that, Gekkougahara being nothing but a robotic drone controlled remotely by Monaka, to hack Usami is the same as to hack Gekkougahara.  (I think she stated that she didn't have a web connection, but since Monaka was controlling her then that's obviously a lie and possibly self-defence.)  What I am suggesting is that the mastermind further hacked Gekkougahara during the various sleep periods in order to pose the bodies.  This accounts for the massive strength employed in staging the bodies, which created the illusion of an attacker who was both omnipotent and ubiquitous.  During the hacked periods, Monaka would not necessarily have known what the drone was doing; we've seen that she'd lost control of the drone and had to reboot it before, when Sakakura knocked it down in the fourth episode; the drone could also have been opportunistically employed by the mastermind to pull off useful tricks like helping to transport the participants to their new location, and killing all those armed guards (the murder method has been noted to be the same as that used to kill the real Gekkougahara).

Edit Once More: Future Side 9: The great thing about a grand unified theory is that even if it's wrong it can still be better than what actually happens.

Spoiler

The setting being an underwater replica of the Future Foundation building is confirmed, and it being directly under the real thing is more or less confirmed - though there is still the possibility of the location being elsewhere with the falling debris and convenient explosions being red herrings caused by something else, e.g. the attack on Jabberwock Island.  At least they seem to be hinting that yes, this is a totally ludicrous idea that demands a proper explanation.  If the replica is under the real Future Foundation building, it 100% points to one of the big cheeses being behind it - Munakata, Chisa, Tengan, with a low but non-zero chance of it being kept secret by whoever it was from the other two.  With this in mind, Chisa is, sigh, looking highly likely to be a Junko-style death-surviving mastermind at this point, judging from the way the game has explicitly favoured Munakata, Chisa's NG Code requires him to stay alive, and even his hypothesised door-opening NG Code could be considered a form of protection.

Kirigiri's death may yet be invalidated, for people have noticed a vial suspiciously similar to one of Seiko's near her body.  Could she have escaped NG Code death by taking the Cure W antidote before being NG Coded, rather than after?  I'm not sure which I like least; the cheapness of her death, or the cheapness of her life.  The strongest case for her surviving her death is simply that she's done pretty much nothing useful the entire time.  Great Kirigiri, you solved the one murder the attacker wasn't responsible for, good job!  ...People have also noted that her death renders Kizakura's sacrifice meaningless, so yeah, she's probably coming back.

Sakakura also has a distant chance of remaining alive.  We didn't strictly speaking see him definitely die, and since he shrugged off a crowbar through his upper body then I imagine a katana to the torso might also be survivable for him if it missed his heart.  I kind of hope he's still alive, because if he's not, we are down to the absolute bare bones of the cast now, just the characters who were obviously going to be the most important from the beginning, and where's the fun in that?

Ruruka's death was the attacker's work, but was simply brutal; her body was pretty much torn apart.  It's hard to pin this level of resentment down on any of the living characters; Seiko back from the dead might do it, but it seems out-of-character with her mood when she died, too.  It could be an elaborate red herring involving her eating candy when she fell asleep, the floor collapsing under her and delivering those horrible wounds, and then the attacker mercy-killing her, though, and I think I might go for that.  Unfortunately, her death also means that the entire Ruruka-Izayoi-Seiko trio was entirely pointless and existed as nothing but filler.

Who could have killed Ruruka?  Under the "alternating attacker" theory, the only candidates we can take seriously are a surviving Sakakura or Mitarai.  There's a theory going around suggesting that, once the attacker chooses a victim, that victim also wakes up - and hence the "hunter" terminology and the open eyes and excessive wounds on some of the victims; they fought back against someone who had a knife (and could conceivably have won).  This still doesn't account for other aspects of the posing, though, but hacked Miaya is still eligible for posing the bodies, given that her "brain" had everyone's NG Codes on file, which Monaka wouldn't have known in advance. 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

A new trailer for New Danganronpa V3 has been released from TGS! We got character designs, what could be the protagonist and a white and red Monokuma!

Oh, and the game has been delayed to 2017.

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Text translation here, voice translation here.

Well, they're a weird bunch, but given that the setting itself is considerably weirder this time around, perhaps that's fitting.  Some of them do look a bit more normal than the rest, but knowing Danganronpa, they'll probably be the weirdest...  I do find it interesting that the apparent main character has musical imagery on her hair ornament and skirt, so presumably she's quite the musician.  Whether or not that translates to a talent remains to be seen; given that the game is supposed to be a kind of quasi-reboot, I personally doubt that they'll have talents per se, though there's sure to be some kind of categorisation system.  Some people have speculated from the name of the school (which can be read as things like "Gifted Inmates' Academy") that they might all be criminals, so maybe they could each have committed a particular type of crime; one's an arsonist, one's a fraudster, one's a jaywalker and so on.  And then Monokuma comes in and demands that they try to get away with the ultimate crime...

The five "Monokumaz" at the end were so ridiculous I had a hard time even knowing whether they weren't just a joke at first.  But somebody out there caught onto something interesting: In the Class Trial, Monokuma's podium has five more podiums in front of him, so the suggestion is the Monokumaz might be forming some kind of jury system.  Hence their absurdly different designs and specialisms...  I could get behind that; the vote in the class trials was always more of a narrative device than a gameplay one, after all.  It would tie into the speculative greater thematic emphasis on crime, too.

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So this showed up under our radars! A trailer for the Playstation VR came out today and a certain someone makes an appearance! (Along with Aoi)

So it looks like Cyber Danganronpa VR is gonna be more than just a tech demo!

 

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Famitsu scans and translations.  SHSL titles are confirmed for the new series.  The Monokumaz/Monokumars claim to be "Monokuma's children."  Their ludicrous white-red leader is called Monotarou.

...These details are making me more and more doubtful of the line they're pushing about this being a quasi-reboot that's not connected to the Hope's Peak storyline.

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A TV Spot for New Danganronpa V3 has been released. Nothing substantial, just maybe a second or two of new footage and Monokuma rambling.

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The cover art for New Danganronpa V3 is out:

tumblr_odtezjeAHk1rsbou7o1_500.jpg

...And you can actually make out some of the SHSL titles in the top-left and lower-right corners!

Spoiler

Aikido - probably the girl in blue in the lower right, who appears to be striking a martial arts pose.
??? - but naturally, though given that the protagonist has musical notation all over her, this has got to be someone else.  Black cap guy opposite the protagonist on the cover?  The red girl who was front and centre of the initial promo work?
Doctor - nobody leaps out as this, actually.
Inventor - people are calling the top-right girl in pink with the goggles, who also appears to have a satchel with something suspiciously like an arm sticking out of it.
Robot - gee, I wonder who this could be.
Painter - Okay, this is a bit tenuous, but you can see at the bottom of the top-left list that another title apparently begins with a P, but the remaining letters are unclear because it's hidden by the logo and messed up by the background - but people have been pointing to apparent paintbrushes on the dark-skinned glowing girl's design for a while, and she may even be holding a paint roller on the cover, so all this suggests that the title might be Painter.

It's also been noticed that the little guy appears to be holding a tennis racket and has tennis imagery on his hat; the maid is holding a long-handled instrument that's presumably a mop but which some have labelled a scythe or even a fencing foil (held two-handed, though?); the enormous guy has been widely called as a bug catcher; the really spooky guy in military costume with his mouth covered is holding a mask, possibly a Noh mask; the blue-haired girl with glasses appears to be holding sewing clippers and a spool of red thread; the purple-haired guy at the bottom is holding what may be a long bamboo fishing rod but may also be just a visual effect.  Oh yeah, and the witch girl speaks for herself, if it's not witch it's got to be something like cult leader.

...I also have things to say about Danganronpa 3 the anime, but at this point it's probably best to save it until it's all cut and dried.  Well, okay, maybe one thing (Future 11):

Spoiler

It's 99% Chisa, because she would have been able to join Munakata's peacekeeping force and use it to collect rather than eliminate the Remnants of Despair on Jabberwock Island, for some as-yet-mysterious intention.  The 1% of doubt is because of the dodgy OP survivor count implying that the extra person is in the building; maybe the one death was whoever her double is, but she still counts because she left the game (and is probably even still wearing a Monokuma bracelet), unlike Hagakure who was never in it?

 

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I'm not really feeling the character desing there, too beta-ish for me... (I believe the girl in red was one of Junko´s beta designs?) They will probably grow on me once we know their personalities more, though.

 

To be honest the little guy´s design annoys me a lot, I want him to be one of the victims somehow xD

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Some of the designs do appear to be derived from unused designs, yes; I believe the girl in red who was prominent in the original teaser is based on an unused design for Komaru, and others have bits and pieces of various beta or minor character designs in them.  Let no character design go to waste, I guess; the characters throughout the series do have a lot of cross-pollination and parallels in their designs, which if nothing else is good for red herrings.

I was also weirded out by the character designs at first, but they're starting to grow on me.  Over time I've started to feel like some of the SDR2 cast looked a bit too normal, so the weirdness of the NDRV3 designs is kind of a pick-me-up now that I'm getting used to them.  What I don't think I like is them still having SHSL talents in something that was meant to be a new story while at the same time there's an anime which is explicitly intended to wrap up the Hope's Peak storyline.

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gaCqVeH.jpg

Titles and tentative names from Famitsu, via Siliconera:

Spoiler
  • Korekiyo Shinguji: Ultimate Folklorist
  • Angie Yonaga: Ultimate Fine Artist
  • Zanbi Toujou: Ultimate Maid
  • Shokichi Ouma: Ultimate President
  • Tsumugi Shirogane: Ultimate Cosplayer
  • Kiibo: Ultimate Robot
  • Tenshi Chabashira: Ultimate Aikido Practitioner
  • Kaede Akamatsu (Protagonist): Ultimate Pianist
  • Kaito Hyakuta: Ultimate Astronaut
  • Maki Harukawa: Ultimate Nursery Teacher
  • Shuichi Saihara: Ultimate Detective
  • Ryoma Hoshi: Ultimate Tennis Player
  • Rantaro Tenkai: Ultimate ???
  • Himiko Yumeno: Ultimate Magician
  • Gonta Gokuhara: Ultimate Entomologist
  • Usagi Iruma: Ultimate Inventor

Some familiar talents in there, some not so much; some title assignments as expected, others wildly unpredictable.

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Something tells me Rantaro is going to be the new Komaeda

Pretty funny that the robot is called "Kiibo", which sounds like "Kibou" (Hope) and he resembles a certain someone we all know

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1 hour ago, Ristar said:

Something tells me Rantaro is going to be the new Komaeda

Pretty funny that the robot is called "Kiibo", which sounds like "Kibou" (Hope)

I can't wait for the localisation to translate it literally so people will have to know Japanese to get the joke!

Edit: In retrospect that was unfair.  The localisations are only literal where they really needed to be creative... and vice-versa.

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I had a feeling Kaede would be talented somewhere in the musical spectrum. Just surprised it's "pianist" and not "singer" due to her VA: Sayaka Kanda, who actually sang Recall - The End for Danganronpa 3: Future Arc.

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Omg, I'm so excited for this game. I love how the new characters look. Hopefully they're personalities are good.

Speaking of which, I should really start watching Danganronpa 3 at some point. I'm probably missing out on a lot.

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5 minutes ago, YoshiParty said:

Omg, I'm so excited for this game. I love how the new characters look. Hopefully they're personalities are good.

Speaking of which, I should really start watching Danganronpa 3 at some point. I'm probably missing out on a lot.

You really should. Despite having plenty of issues I have with it (mostly Despair Arc), it's still enjoyable for fans of Danganronpa.

Unless you want more Monokuma. He's barely there.

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3 minutes ago, Failinhearts said:

You really should. Despite having plenty of issues I have with it (mostly Despair Arc), it's still enjoyable for fans of Danganronpa.

Unless you want more Monokuma. He's barely there.

Monokuma doesn't appear that much? That's a little disappointing, but I won't let that stop me from watching the anime. 

I'll start watching it soon. It should be an exciting watch.

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So, now that the dust has cleared from Danganronpa 3, and I look back with an objective eye, then... well, sadly, it's a bit easy to be disappointed.  Normally, when I look back on my early theories for mystery stories, I feel regret that I missed clues that were right in front of me, or can see the directions where my logic went wrong.  But here, it's hard for me not to look back and think that my ideas actually had more of a grasp not just on basic logic but on what Danganronpa is really about than the actual anime itself did.  And while I do think the anime had one good idea that it executed very well... I feel that it also fundamentally conflicts with Danganronpa as established and would have been better off in a completely original series altogether.

Whole-series spoilers under the tag, obviously.

Spoiler

So, the suicide monitors.  All through the series I really liked the menacing imagery of the overpowering red glow shining on the corpses of the dead.  The mechanism was gradually built up and established throughout Despair Side in a way which made both halves of the anime feel like relevant parts of the mystery.  There's a really strong sense of horror evoked, for me, by the idea of something so messed-up happening right next to people while they're all asleep.

It was a really terrible idea for a Danganronpa mystery, though.

Danganronpa's foundation is murder mysteries.  The game is structured around them, they're all clear fair-play mysteries which are more or less achievable in real life, all the rules of normal logic apply.  You can cite luck magic or 30% prediction success all you like, but all the actual methods of murder in the games are things which would work in real life, and in fact the characters' talents are only very rarely employed in committing a murder.  Relative to this, a video which psychologically disturbs people to the point where they feel compelled to commit suicide is essentially magic.  And, much though I hate to admit it as I like the concept, NG Codes are also 100% magic.  How could an automated system possibly tell if somebody was standing on Seiko's shadow or not?

But you know, even the suicide monitors wouldn't be so bad - many people thought Yukizome or even Gozu committed suicide anyway.  It's easy to construct a way in which that would make sense, like having their loved ones threatened if they didn't commit suicide, or everyone being executed.  The real problem stacked on top of this is that the posing of the bodies makes absolutely zero sense in the context of suicide.  Why did Yukizome clamber up onto a chandelier before stabbing herself, and then put on a distraught expression?  Why did Gozu stab out his eyes and then go mucking around in ceiling cables?  How did Seiko give herself a stab to the heart and then stretch out her stabbing arm to form a perfect crucifix pose?  These were pure red herrings and had no explanation.

Other things which had no explanation: Why there was a perfect replica of the Future Foundation headquarters underwater beneath the Future Foundation headquarters.  I mean this both in-universe and out-of-universe.  Why would they ever build such a thing?  Why does the Future Foundation HQ have exactly one window despite clearly being mostly made of glass from the outside?  But also: What function did this serve to the plot?  Like it made the characters slightly harder to rescue but didn't really make a difference?  And while we're at it, how did Tengan convince a bunch of Future Foundation staff to build a bunch of Monokuma-themed monitors and hide Monokuma daggers inside them?  Did they not suspect anything?  And hey - is Tengan the one who killed all those guards in the first episode?  Did he drag everyone down to the fake building all on his own?

And the sad thing is, many of these giant plot holes could easily have been fixed had the anime only fixed its own massive blind spot: Monaca.  Why she was set up to be a big deal in Ultra Despair Girls only to be dismissed as an irrelevant joke who infiltrated the game for no reason in this show is absolutely baffling.  Her Miaya drone could've posed the bodies, it could've dragged everyone into the false building, Monaca could've provided both the building and the technology - it's all there.  Why was she irrelevant?  It's such a bizarre decision.

What there's no fixing, though, is the total mess that is character motivation, on both Sides.  On Despair Side, it's easier to articulate: All depth ever possessed by Ultimate Despair is dead now that we know they were all brainwashed.  This big question posed by the end of SDR2, how these normal, likeable people could be pushed into committing unspeakable atrocities, how they could have become so evil, has as its answer: There is no reason, they were just crazy!  They were literally insane, actually not in control of their own actions; no legitimate court could possibly find them guilty.  They were insane.  That's all.  They have nothing to atone for if their brain functions were altered, because they were literally not themselves.

Oh, but Future Side, oh boy.  If anything, the motivations are even worse, because it turns out that the reason everything happened was because Tengan was using the most oblique, obtuse, indirect method ever of getting Mitarai to do something which Tengan wanted him to do so badly that it was worth killing a dozen people rather than just doing it himself - or, you know, asking him.  And if Tengan wanted Mitarai to use the Hope brainwashing video so badly, why, when Mitarai actually showed up at the meeting, did Tengan not only admit him into the game - at which point he couldn't transmit the Hope video anywhere - but also gave him an NG Code explicitly preventing Mitarai from doing the one thing which Tengan really wanted him to do?  This is a critical plot hole which destroys the series.  But I guess I can't blame Tengan too much, as he was manipulated by Yukizome who anticipated and caused everything by giving him two USB sticks.  This is like a stupid person's idea of how intelligent people work.

The 13th Branch head was irrelevant.  Monokuma was irrelevant.  Naegi was irrelevant!  Despite being counted as a survivor in the OP, Hagakure was irrelevant, less important than Togami, and probably had less screentime than Komaru and Fukawa - he wasn't even a red herring to cover some twist.  The only survivors were the characters who from the beginning were most obviously relevant, including the DR1 survivors having unshakeable plot armour but multiple fake-out deaths (Kirigiri had two!).  And there are many other questions which somebody has compiled into a highly critical document here, which I consider to be essential reading.

So many decent people from Danganronpa 1 and Danganronpa 3 are dead, but everyone from Danganronpa 2 revives with no changes to their personality whatsoever, and they take the rap for something which was 100% the result of the Future Foundation being as rotten to the core and corrupt as Hope's Peak, which despite the entire series being about how awful a place it was, Naegi manages to reopen in a few months with him as the principal despite having no conceivable qualifications for the role.  As an ending, it's lazy, thoughtless, and hypocritical.  As a series, it's a disaster.  I guess anime was a mistake after all.  Thanks for nothing, Ryota!

...Roll on V3 being a genuine reboot, because I don't think I can stand The End Of Hope's Peak being canon.

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I'm definitely gonna get that bundle. Was originally going to get the Steam releases, but I guess I'll just go with the PS4 versions, since I tend to be on my PS4 more often than my PC.

Hopefully, Ultra Despair Girls gets ported at some point.

 

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A collector's edition for Danganronpa 1&2 Reload has also been announced!

dg12-ultra-3d.jpg

Ain't it snazzy? For those who missed out on the Limited Edition for Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, items such as the Monokuma Coin and Monokuma Sunglasses will be included.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Cyber Danganronpa VR's demo came out. Surprisingly, it was even dubbed and localized. I thought it would be Japan only.

I love how you can shoot your classmates and Monokuma just for fun.

 

And it included a little V3 tease. DRV3 localization confirmed?

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  • 2 weeks later...

We got a new trailer for New Danganronpa V3!

What's important here is that we get to hear the voices of the new characters and the Japanese release date: January 12th 2017.

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  • 2 weeks later...

We got a new trailer! This shows off a couple characters, but we do get a good batch of new game footage.

 

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We got full bios on the characters shown off in the trailer. 

http://gematsu.com/2016/11/new-danganronpa-v3-details-kaede-rantaro-miu-kokichi-monotaro-monokid-first-character-trailer

New-Danganronpa-V3_11-07-16_001.jpg

Kaede Akamatsu - Ultimate Pianist:

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A girl who grew up playing piano from a young age, who played to the point where her friends referred to her as the “piano fool.” Before long, she won awards in a number of competitions, until she was finally awarded the title of “Ultimate Pianist.” She has a cheerful and positive personality, and spares no effort to achieve her goals. She feels a strong resentment towards Monokuma, who forced everyone into an unreasonable mutual killing game, and inspires the other students by saying “if we get out, we’ll all be friends,” while struggling to escape with everyone.

New-Danganronpa-V3_11-07-16_002.jpg

Rantaro Amami - Ultimate... who the hell knows?

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A boy who cannot remember his “Ultimate Talent.” He doesn’t particularly worry about it, but rather says he is “looking forward to finding out my Super High School Level talent.” While he gives off a somewhat superficial impression based on his appearance, even when the other students fall into disorder, he calmly confronts the Monokumas about their intentions, and has deep insight on the situation at hand. He sometimes acts as if he knows “something” the other students don’t. While without a talent, he is also a character of many mysteries.

New-Danganronpa-V3_11-07-16_003.jpg

Miu Iruma - Ultimate Inventor

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An inventor who has created groundbreaking products, starting with the “Eye Drop-Style Contacts” that were commercialized. However, for her herself, the Eye Drop-Style Contacts were a failure, as her greatest theme is “How comfortably can one live while asleep?” She is confident and has a terribly sharp tongue, and utters reckless remarks and dirty jokes whenever she opens her mouth. Her attitude becomes timid when she is attacked by others, though.

New-Danganronpa-V3_11-07-16_004.jpg

Kokichi Oma - Ultimate Leader

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A boy said to be the “Leader of an Evil Secret Society of Over 10,000 People,” who possesses a talent that may or may not be true. As for this secret society, as an organization even “Super High School Level Detective” Shuichi Saihara knows nothing about, the specifics of it are shrouded in mystery. He is a self-proclaimed liar who says suitable things on a whim, pretends to cry, and is considerably elusive. Contrary to his innocent smile, he freely criticisms other students with no hesitation, and never seems shy, saying, “I’m the evil dictator.”

New-Danganronpa-V3_11-07-16_005.jpg

Monotaro... the ninja Monokuma?

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The leader-like Monokuma who summarizes the derailments of the other Monokumas. There’s a childishly clumsy side to him.

New-Danganronpa-V3_11-07-16_006.jpg

Monokid. The rock and roll Monokuma.

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The rudest among the Monokumas, he is quick-tempered and has a sharp tongue. He’ll suddenly start talking without context without really listening to what other people are saying, and is often the one who derails the conversation. He regularly teases Monodam, leading Monodam to shut out his feelings. He has a habit of shouting, “Hell yeah!”

 

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When I first laid eyes on the Monokumaz, I assumed they were literal joke characters; it didn't even occur to me that they were actually in the game, because their designs were so goofy.  But it turns out I didn't know how much I really wanted a bunch of ridiculous Monokuma OCs in the game.  I just can't get over the fact that one of them is a robot-themed Monokuma, even though Monokuma is already a robot.  They're so stupid; it's great.

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