Danganronpa 3: The End of Kibougamine Gakuen - Zetsubou-hen
Duração: 23 min per ep
Gênero: Action, Horror, Mystery, Suspense
Estudio: Lerche
Sinopse:
Hope's Peak Academy's unconventional class 77-B is about to have an even more eccentric addition: Chisa Yukizome, an alumna with the title of Super High School-Level Housekeeper—and their new homeroom teacher. Cheerful, passionate, and capable, Chisa immediately sets about correcting the students' problematic behavior and strengthening their relationships. It may not be easy dealing with diverse pupils ranging from princesses and nurses to yakuza and impossibly lucky students, but anything is possible with the power of hope.
Meanwhile, Hajime Hinata, an unremarkable boy from the school's Reserve Course, longs for a talent. One day, he has an unexpected meeting with class 77-B's Super High School-Level Gamer Chiaki Nanami, who presents to him a new, hope-filled outlook on life. However, unbeknownst to him, the school's upper echelon is about to execute a sinister project centered around Hajime that will bring Hope's Peak—and the rest of the world—to its knees.
Zetsubou-hen chronicles the daily lives carried out at the talent-cultivating academy, and the darkness that lurks beneath. As despair slowly infects hope, plans are put into motion to start the Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History, and the end begins.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
Keirik
(Spoilers for the Danganronpa games) As half of the Danganronpa 3 anime experience, Side Despair's purpose is to provide backstory for Side Future as well as fill in Super Danganronpa 2's blanks. Neither should should be watched without playing the first two games in the series, but with Despair's final episode over with I can in good conscience say that they shouldn't be watched at all. Side Despair's problem is that it's boring, safe, predictable, and pointless. As a companion piece to Side Future it does its job fairly well, but in every other regard it's an absolute failure. Danganronpa and Super Danganronpa 2 left severalquestions unanswered, mysteries left up to one's interpretation. DR3 Side Despair aims to solve these riddles and provide answers to what exactly happened to Class 77 before SDR2's events.
This was a terrible idea.
Class 77's backstory is largely shoved to the background in favour of crossovers with Side Future and an insider's view of series antagonist Junko Enoshima's infernal machinations. When the time finally comes for their big defining moment, none of them have had the development to warrant it. Instead, aside from outliers Nagito Komaeda, Chiaki Nanami, Ryota Mitarai and the Ultimate Impostor, all of them are mushed into one entity. Class 77 is no longer a cast of different characters, but one singular plot device the series has been chained to. Most of the Class 77 segments is spent building up to the demise of the one student missing in SDR2, and when it finally hits it's neither impactful nor entertaining.
Junko Enoshima herself has also lost all of her charm. In the games, she appeared only at the very end of DR1 and SDR2. Now she's a main character in Side Despair, and it really hammers home the point that she's best used sparingly. In short, she's just not a very interesting character when you get down to it. She's evil because she's evil, and every single one of her evil plans always goes off without a hitch. What she ends up doing to plunge the world into despair is also incredibly stupid and hokey. The charismatic supervillain who capped off both games on their victory laps is now an omnipresent, transparently evil mwahahaer with little to do or say except ensure that all of SDR2's major backstory beats are hit. The one shining beacon of hope is one of the new anime-original guys, Juzo Sakakura, an excellently written character with a compelling and tragic arc. However, most of his big moments happen in Side Future, though vital setup occurs in Side Despair. Juzo is one of the best additions to the series yet, and his presence alone saves the show from being scored even lower.
In the end, I liked SDR2 better when I didn't actually know what happened before it. Every answer we get in Side Despair is far lamer than what I'd envisioned, and just about every character is cheapened by the Persona 4-esque herd treatment. Just about the only character who escaped mostly unscathed was Komaeda, and even he, who was THE defining driving force of SDR2, ended up underutilised and mostly there to provide context for Side Future's events. This show not only fails on its own, but it serves to also make SDR2 a much weaker story once you know just how uninteresting its backstory is.
Side Despair is woefully written and dreadfully directed. The animation is also clearly low budget, with the excellent music and voice work, as usual for the franchise, being its only saving graces. You probably already watched this if you're a hardcore fan of the series, but I recommend everyone else give this a skip. Side Future is undoubtedly the stronger show of the two, though even then it'd hard to recommend that one either.
relenita
As a major fan of this series, I was expecting this anime to conclude the story for the three games and this arc was a surprise to many as we got a prequel of the second game to explain many mysteries involving the characters and the entire plot for the rest of the games. Sadly, there's a huge problem when, instead of giving you answers or even more questions, this anime leaves you with contradictions about what you already experienced in the games. Danganronpa 3: The end of Hope's Peak Academy - Despair Side falls into this situation repeatedly. The selling point of this workis, as shown in their PV, the evolution of the 77th class into despair. They're barely present in the series. Barely. And they were the selling point.
The development about the characters we all knew and love is null, there's nothing to add into what the games already showed us and at points it contradicts what you have done in the games.
The pace of the writing is wonky at best, with jumps in time that aren't explained of make sense in the huge timeline of the franchise, there's fanservice just to cover up the huge plotholes this anime leaves and it doesn't feel like it's a gift for the fans who have played this game for more than 4 years.
Just as an example: The final scene from this anime in the credits contradicts the very five minutes you play into SDR2. And that isn't supposed to happen if you're going for a ground-breaking project like this and expect to make people who are already more than familiar with the story be angry or nitpicky because of the poor attention to detail.
The few things that save this anime is the music, which is very nice in both Op/End and their OST, the voice acting which is top notch and the appearance of the Despair Twins and their dynamics and also the dynamics between the Future Foundation main Trio.
The protagonist and focus of this arc is weak, the introduction of a fan favourite to turn her into the mere shadow she was in the games for a plot device is simply insulting and her classmates are barely in there. Other than Impostor and Health Committee member, no one else gets development in a refreshing way or have any weight in the plot.
As an advice I recommend to not be hype about this anime if you're a die hard fan of the series or do it as me: Play the three games in a row, then sit to watch this; because you'll notice all the plotholes and contradictions and you'll be more focused into that than the entire story they poorly presented.
Dream95
First things first. You need the play the two DR games (DR 1, SDR2) to fully understand and enjoy the two DR3 anime. If you were a fan of the first installment of the Danganronpa anime, you'll love the games, so please, if you haven't so already, turn around and play those two games (or watch a walkthrough) for the best viewing possible. DR: Another Episode is also mandatory especially for Future arc. Also be sure to watch both Future and Despair arc in broadcast order (i.e. watch future arc ep 1 then watch despair arc ep 1, and so on). There are parts wherethe story and characters might overlap, so be sure to watch it like that for better understanding.
DR3: Despair arc is essentially a prologue to the DR story. It centers around the 77th class of the Hope's Peak acadmey, who btw are the main cast of the 2nd game: SDR2. The setting, once so happy and carefree, turns into one of the darkest points in their history: a prologue to the Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic event in human history. As the title and premise says, don't expect a happy ending to this. Although it starts off like your typical slice of life school anime, there is a brooding tone that constantly evolves as the episodes contiunously progress, awaiting to become a monster that destroys the students daily lives with despair. This tone starts as lighthearted then transitions into a darker mood, eventually becoming something outright disturbing. Suddenly, the happy, slice of life school setting is no more, instead it becomes violent, bloody and despair-inducing.
One thing I liked is that they didn't linger or focus too much into the events the game already touched to an extent, like the Twilight Syndrome case. Just showing things in Hajime's point of view, and that was the better thing to do for the series.
One thing I would've liked was to see the 78th class just a bit more than a cameo, like their original interactions with Junko, but with the anime being just 1 cour, it's understandable that they had to leave that out.
A disappointing isssue was that he pacing is a noticeably off. I feel like 11 episodes for the 77th class wasn't enough in the end. If it could have gotten a little bit more time, and cut a little bit more of the fanservice, I think the whole tragedy and the aftermaths could have been done better.
(SPOILERS: For example, the scene of "her" death and the 77 class turning into despair could have used an in-between scene. Maybe one that goes more in-depth of how the class fully submitted to Junko. The skip between the death scene and the finale was too sudden, considering the two were a couple months apart.)
The animation of the characters are really fun to watch as a fan. Just seeing all those characters I loved so much from the 2nd game animated is just so exciting. I felt that one good touch was that as episodes progress and tends to get darker, the art itself progresses to a more darker mood along with the story. Even the opening changes during the middle, to a much more darker color. It was a very nice touch to have, considering what was coming.
The OP/ED is pretty good, and the soundtracks were decent, although it could've been better. One thing I did like is how they used some game soundtracks for good nostalgia. The voice acting is fantastic as usual though, just like the games. The voices fit so well with the characters, which always helps the experience.
The most important part of the despair arc (and the rest of the danganronpa series in general) are without a doubt the characters. If I didn't care for the characters, I would never have felt anything for them and thus I probably wouldn't have cared what happened to them. Now, since the most of the cast were fleshed out pretty well in SDR2, it wasn't that hard to make me like them from the get go. However, one thing I would've liked to see is just making the cast even stronger. I know that Chiaki, Hinata, and Nagito are indeed the important characters, but I also would've liked those without too much game time from SDR2 to get a bit more exposure and development, like Teruteru and Mahiru to an extent. What I'm glad though, is the screen time the Ultimate Imposter got. Anyways, even if some characters are not getting the desirable screen time, they are still enjoyable to watch. This is also an important reason to play the games before watching this. You just get to know the characters better and smile as they are finally interacting cheerfully without being forced to kill each other. And of course, feel a lot more sadness when they are forced to go through "that process". However, one thing that I am really glad Despair arc managed was Mukuro and Junko getting a bit more depth, as well as Mitarai.
One thing I didn't really like though, was how it put focus on the future arc characters for a couple of episodes, halting potential DR0 scenes and even halting the depth of the characters and their downfall. It's a shame that the despair process did not go as I imagined thanks to this, as I would've preferred the "despairification" process to be on a more personal level. Having more than 11 episodes would have helped.
As a huge fan of the danganronpa series, I feel both love and disappointment with the DR 3. On one hand, I loved seeing the characters I loved so much animated, interacting with each other. Even the first two episodes which were basically fan service was enjoyable to watch. Although honestly, they could have made the slice-of-life moments shorter just so we could've had more plot development earlier on. And on the other hand there were pacing issues, like I've mentioned. Also, the despair arc is also a big 'what could have been'. What if they would have personalized the despairification process? I think that would have been a better way to showcase and further the depth of both the characters and how they became "despair". Nonetheless, I had this huge smile while watching the first couple of episodes, only for it to turn to sadness and eventually into complete anxiousness as I knew what would eventually happen to the cast. It could have been much better, in fact, after rewatchign the series a couple of times, I just feel disappointed in how the revelation of how the 77th class turned into despair. It's still a fine watch.
Give the entire series (games + anime) a try! It's definitely worth your time.
GoldenDevilGamer
As Danganronpa fans, we only get to hear stories about the high-school life of the characters and how “The Tragedy” happened, but we never actually get to see that. But with Danganronpa 3 – Zetsubou-hen, we get just that. Zetsubou-hen takes place prior to the events of the first Danganronpa game, primarily focusing on 77th class of the main course and their story about how they became the “Remnants of Despair”. Labeled as a story that begins with hope but ends in despair, it definitely won’t have a happy end. But this is a treat for Danganronpa fans as they get the happy moments oftheir favorite character, until all hell breaks loose.
~{Story}~
Despite being titled as Danganronpa 3, it is actually a prequel to the first game. However, it is meant to be watched after playing the second game as it spoils the plot twists of Danganronpa 2. Being a prequel however, you will already what will happen and how it’ll end. But the sole purpose of this anime is to show you how it happened. The story focuses on the 77th class (the main cast of Danganronpa 2) and their life at Hope's Peak Academy. But the story focuses on our Danganronpa 2 protagonist, Hinata Hajime, and how he tries to find himself a talent. The story also focuses on the new characters that were introduced in Mirai-hen and give more background for them. And as you’ve probably predicted, it doesn’t take too long for Despair to appear with Enoshima creating the “Remnant of Despair” and “Kamukura Izuru Project” taking place. Overall, the story is handle very well and it remain “almost” consistent with what we’ve heard before about “The Tragedy”. The reason why I say “almost” is because there are some things Monokuma/Enoshima told us before that don’t quite happen in Zetsubou-hen. But then again, they were Enoshima’s words… you can’t really trust that, can you?
Story: 9/10
~{Presentation}~
Zetsubou-hen is the Danganronpa you know and love. It starts off in a happy tone, similar to the fun moments for the second game. But then despair kicks in, which is to be expected from anything Danganronpa related. One thing that is well-done in Zetsubou-hen is how the writers manage to remember so many tiny details mentioned in the second game and apply them to this anime. Remember Tanaka saying something about defeating a giant Pomeranian in his. If you don’t remember, don’t worry… the writers haven’t forgotten. And they also applied Saionji’s height change later in the series too. The first couple of episodes of the series is basically fanservice for the fan base. We get to see the Danganronpa 2 characters we know with their unique personalities being shown. We get to see the happy moments of the 77th class before “things” happened. But the rest of the series is what fans expect from this prequel story; despair. The series has the same wacky and zany, yet dark and disturbing tone of its predecessors. The pacing can be a bit too fast as times, but that was to be expected with the amount of plot points that needed to be covered.
Presentation: 9.5/10
~{Character}~
Zetsubou-hen primarily focuses on the 77th Class and Hinata Hajime prior to becoming the “Remnant of Despair”. The characterization for these characters are very similar to their characterization in the second game. Hinata’s still kind of cynical, Nanami’s still adorable, Komaeda’s still kibou-sexual, Tanaka’s still a chuunibyou, Souda’s still pathetic, Mioda’s still loud, Nidai still needs to take a dump, Saionji’s still a b*tch, and so on. Zetsubou-hen is very loyal with its characters and keeps them as how they’re supposed to be. But out of these characters, Hinata, Nanami and Komaeda are the ones that play a bigger role, while the rest are mostly there as comic relief or just for the sake of the plot. Hinata’s inferiority complex kicks in right when we get introduced to him and his accepting the Kamukura Project plays a big role in the series. His complexity is well handled when he’s Hinata. When he’s Kamukura, his more of a flat character, but that’s how his character ends up being. Nanami, who’s appearance was quite surprising since she was known to be simply an A.I. in the second game, plays a big role in this series too. And she ends up being the most unpredictable character since you actually don’t know how things will end up for her. Komaeda is here quite a lot, though it may not always be for the sake of moving the plot, but because we get to see more of his ultimate ability, Ultimate Asspuller… I mean Ultimate Lucky Student. But Enoshima Junko’s also a major character in the series, but that is too be expected since she is the conflict of the series. Zetsubou-hen also builds up on its Mirai-hen characters, like Yukizome and Munakata, and it’s done pretty effectively. For that sole reason, it is meant to watch together with Mirai-hen.
Character: 9.5/10
~{Art}~,
The art in Zetsubou-hen is pretty good, but it’s the art style that succeeds more. The art is fairly well detailed and the backgrounds are fairly well done. But the character designs are the most impressive. The characters in Danganronpa 2 all had quite unique character desings, and that same uniqueness can be found here. Some characters look slightly different, like how Tanaka’s hair style is different. But the most notable thing is that the art style is very vivid, especially when compared to the franchise. This creates a contrast to Mirai-hen’s darker-than-normal art style. This vivid art style might have been used to represent the hopefulness the series initially started with and this art style might’ve been used as a contrast for the darker despair moments that comes later in the series. Overall, it was a pretty smart choice to go with an art style that contrast with Mirai-hen
Art: 9/10
~{Animation}~
The animations are fairly good in the series, but it isn’t anything extraordinary. However, that is to say that the animation quality is fairly consistent throughout. Generally speaking, the animation is fluid enough and there aren’t any noticeable animation quality drops. Backgrounds feel a little static though. However, the lighting helps in adding more volume to the visuals. Though if we compare the animation quality to Mirai-hen’s it is a little weaker. But unlike Mirai-hen (which is more action-heavy), Zetsubou-hen doesn’t have any demanding moments that needs high-quality animations. Lerche did a good job in animating two seasons during the same time, which they aren’t used too.
Animation: 7.5/10
~{Voice Acting}~
The seiyuu cast is the same as the games and Mirai-hen. All the well-known seiyuu are back to represent their character. Takayama Minami does the Danganronpa 2 protagonist, Hinata Hajime, and does him and his alternate personality, Kamukura Izuru, perfectly well. Ogata Megumi (the same seiyuu as Naegi Makoto), does Komaeda Nagito again, and she does his voice amazingly well. Just like Danganronpa 2, Ogata has time to shine and show her talent as a character like Komaeda. Hanazawa Kana reprises her role as Nanami Chiaki and does her character very well. Unlike her A.I. personality in Danganronpa 2, Nanami sounds a little less listless, but it matches her character more. Toyoguchi Megumi does both the Despair sisters, Enoshima Junko and Ikusaba Mukuro, and she does a great job with both, but her talent shines with Junko more. Nakahara Mai does a very good job as Yukizome Chisa. Her character didn’t play a big role in Mirai-hen, but in Zetsubou-hen, she’s one of the main characters. And other seiyuu such as Sugita Tomokazu, Kayano Ai, and Fukuyama Jun all do a great job with their characters.
Voice Acting: 9.5/10
~{Music}~
One of Danganronpa’s strong point is its music and Zetsubou-hen is no different. The OP, “Kami-iro Awase”, didn’t take too long to become one of my favorite anime openings. The music, the vocals, and the lyrics are amazing for the song. And there’s a lot of symbolism in the song too. The ED, “Zettai Kibou Birthday”, is sung by Komaeda’s seiyuu and it’s very good. The vocals and music are nice and it matches the tone of the hope in the series. The lyrics is quite weird… but so is Komaeda! Most of the background music consists of music used in the first two games, which is a good thing since the two games had some amazing music. The background music creates a sense of nostalgia due to its familiarity. Till this day, the closing argument theme is my favorite OST and every time I hear it, I always get a sense of joy from it!
Music: 9.5/10
~{Enjoyment}~
As a Danganronpa fan, this is exactly what I wanted out of Zetsubou-hen. It felt really nice to see the Danganronpa 2 characters again and see how their past was. As someone who always wanted to see how everything turned out the way it ended up to be, I was really satisfied that we were able to see that with this anime adaptation. This anime covers “The Kamukura Izuru Project”, “Twilight Syndrome Murder Case” (albeit a little rushed), “Student Council Massacre”, how the “Remnant of Despair” were created, and “The Tragedy”. Though my rating for enjoyment is high, it’s really hard to enjoy a series like this. You’ll mostly just get despair from this series and a whole lot of tragedies. But Zetsubou-hen manages to keep my attention all of the time. Zetsubou-hen and Mirai-hen are easily one of the most enjoyable things I have watched this year.
Enjoyment: 9.5/10
In the end, Zetsubou-hen is definitely worth watching if you’re a Danganronpa fan (though you probably already have). Due remember though that Zetsubou-hen, despite it being a prequel chronologically wise, is meant to be watched after playing the first two game. Due note that you must play the second game in order to fully appreciate both Zetsubou-hen and Mirai-hen. Danganronpa’s first game or its lackluster adaptation isn’t enough. But with great handling of its characters, and satisfying adaptations of stories we were only told about in the previous games, Zetsubou-hen manages to be the perfect treat for fans. It may not be an easy watch due to depressing moments, but it manages to keep your attention. But that is to be expected since the it’s a story that begins in hope and ends in despair.
+ Great prequel anime for the Danganronpa series, that adapts many key plot-points that were mentioned in the games.
+ Danganronpa 2 characters are handled well and loyal to the second game.
+ Great OPs and EDs and the background music is the same as the games.
+ Not only develops its Danganronpa 2 characters, but also the characters from Mirai-hen too.
+ Lots of fun and satisfying moments for fans of the franchise.
- Pacing can get a tad bit too fast at times.
Overall: 9.0/10
mkzxwing
*Spoilers ahead* Now this.. How should i put it... This is by far one of the worst anime i've ever watched. certainly in my top 10 worst list. The only things it has going for it is how it reveals a few very minor details, how well it worked along with the other arc, and that the visuals aren't too bad (They aren't even close to being good though). Now let's go through what makes this (and every other anime), and then sum up what we have. 1-The plot. It is horrendous. I understand that it was set and there wasn't much room to work withit, but it still doesn't change the fact its bad. The internal logic falls apart quite often. Plot holes are absolutely everywhere. Plot convenience tools are used left and right. There was a story to tell somewhere in there, and it could have been interesting, but instead, it was just a rush job with only the final outcome in mind, and it ended up developing in the most boring, predictable and cliche way as possible.
First, we've got an introduction to our class of gifted individuals, yet it was extremely rushed and thus completely redundant - the fans of the game already know the characters well, and a new audience wouldn't have gotten much from such a tiny introduction. Another reason it was redundant is because... Well, its nothing new is it? I mean every second school anime has that in abundance, and that's not the point of the anime as well, so why waste time on it?
Now for the character and their interaction with the story. The story IS the interaction of the characters with it. Yet, in this story, most of the characters where completely isolated from the story (You could say only Junko had a role in the whole anime), and everyone who did have a chance to do something or interact in any other way, was either a bystander, or had such a level of incompetence, that even a sock puppet would seem like a rich character next to him. You could pretty much replace every line of dialogue in the anime except Junko's with "it can't be helped" and not much would change. The saddest thing about it, is how the anime is trying to keep the story seem important, dark, and meaningful, by constantly jamming in death, and rubbing it in the viewer's face.
The art. Its ok, BUT, the level of detalization of characters was greatly diminished compared to the game, in some cases leaving characters almost unrecognizable. The sound is ok too, bot bad but nothing special as well.
So, what do we have left? Well, nothing really. While i don't really believe in spoilers in the first place, the end of this one was spoiled to begin with, so while nothing else, i expected that to lower the score this anime gets further. I was rather surprised to see it got such a high rating instead.
Well, now that you know my analysis of this.. Thing... And my opinion on it, feel free to agree or disagree, but please, don't give me baseless arguments and claims such as "you're wrong cuz that's your opinion only", or "You're just hating". I always analyze anime objectively by comparing it to others as well as consulting my knowledge of movie making and story writing that i got from filming school. Such accusations will simply be ignored due to their illogical nature - i found the other arc ok, and the adaptation of DR1 pretty decent after all.
AoiHonoo
Danganronpa 3 Despair has become divisive among the fanbase. From expectations not being fulfilled to false advertising, a good portion of fans we're not satisfied with how the anime was handled. On the other side of the spectrum, others believe it to be a great work that holds the franchise well. Lastly, there are those in the middle that still enjoyed it but recognize it's flaws. I'm also in the middle. While I did enjoy this series, I also had many issues with it. First off, knowledge of both DR: Trigger Happy Havoc and Super DR2: Goodbye Island of Despairare necessary. Even going into this prequel, spoilers are abound right off the bat due to revelations as early as episode 1 spoil critical mysteries you won't find answers to until near the end of the game. Also, Despair arc runs alongside Future arc, and episode order is one Future arc episode then Despair arc, watching both series simultaneously. This issue should be brought up as soon as possible, as all the criticism of the anime stems from this format.
The false advertising I mentioned earlier is that while Despair arc's premise is about the 77th class of Hope's Peak Academy. The POV starts and gives plenty of focus on a character from the Future arc, Chisa Yukizome. While she first appears to bring the class together and bonding with them, the story shifts to her investigation about the hidden secrets of the school to the point it takes away time from the 77th class. That's not all. Other characters from the Future arc appear later, and get an amount of focus in relation to what's going on in the Future arc at the time. The fact that no characters from Future arc were even hinted before in promotion materials to be in Despair arc led to the accusations of false advertisement and how Despair arc was used to provide more characterization to the characters from the Future arc that itself couldn't provide. Two one cour series with each having many characters to focus on rarely gives consistent and equal characterization, and a good number of them will get be sidelined. And while the attempt is creative, was it worth all the cutting corners in the narrative to fit these plotlines together.
In the end, the main characters, the 77th class, get relegated to being side characters in what was supposed to be their own story and get treated more as a collective than individuals. Some exceptions are Hajime, Chiaki, Nagito and the Super High School Level Imposter, though very slightly, and for specific plot reasons. Hajime has a adequate amount of characterization because a good deal of focus is on him in the beginning, but it only lasts a few episodes. Those who played the game know the inevitable change that will befall him, and how he will be erased to make another character take his place for the rest of the series Izuru Kamukura. This had fans hyped because of who this character was and that we would finally see him in action, but then grew dissatisfied as episodes passed and he rarely did anything. Hajime who was an interesting character is replaced by Izuru who fans were hyped about, hoping he would play a big role, yet he merely serves as a walking plot device with no character.
Chiaki plays a key role that ultimately leads to one of the most divisive episodes of the anime. The premise of the show is about the 77th class, and how they would later become a group Super High School Level Despair that destroy the world. There were expectations built up from the second game on how the main antagonist Junko Enoshima managed to turn these beacons of hope into envoys of despair. The way it was executed left much to be desired, and it's in part due to the existence of another character from the Future arc, Ryota Mitarai. This one character is so deeply entrenched in both storylines that many of the decisions for DR3 as a whole was based around him, making him a divisive character. Chiaki was meant to play the role of the hope of the 77th class, and in order to turn the rest of the 77th class to despair, she was doomed to die. Ryota was to provide the means to help the transformation, a brainwashing anime. The characterization of the Super High School Level Imposter is also mainly dependent on this character as well, forming a give and take relationship with him that later becomes friendship.
77th class as a whole already got relegated to being side characters in their own series that their characters as individuals were already diminished, but now the way they're converted, what's supposed to be the focal point of the series, is the same lazy way as a group like some kind of hive mind. Those who played the games know they aren't just a class of students. We know they have their own backstories, characteristics (not just the ones used for comedy), and ambitions that made them each who they are. To have that all tossed aside and have them be treated as a single entity is disappointing.
Again, the format is a huge factor, but also, the way it was executed and how it fits in the narrative have problems. I mentioned before that viewers need to know the storylines of both games before watching. That could not be anymore true. You could not hope to understand even half of what goes on in this series without that knowledge, and even then you have to stretch your imagination on how things progress and how it connects to the games.
Important events are also condensed to one episode, incidents with enough material that could have been made each into their own series. One example is one of the most brutal events in the series, the first killing game. If the purpose was to freak the audience out, it succeeded. However, once you calm down and start evaluating what happened, you realize that what happened didn't make any sense. The 16 students weren't captured; they were summoned. Even when threatened that if they didn't play they would die, the threat diminishes when the ones doing the threatening leave the room. Junko gives them all sorts of weapons, and only one of the students suggest using them against their coercers, and he promptly gets killed soon after by another of his fellow classmates. After that, mostly everyone just degrades and start becoming sadistic killers for no reason other than to hammer in the nightmare fuel. They weren't locked in, had options outside of killing each other, and were left with means that could have just as easily been used to defend themselves and escape rather than turn on each other, but because this must end in tragedy and in such a short time span, the characters have to move the story along no matter what. In the same vein, afterwards, the school just covers it up, because the board of directors are generic one-dimensional scumbags and Junko can't be caught yet.
The same line of thought goes into Junko's motivations. Why did she particular choose the 77th class to begin with? You never get an answer other then her just being fickle about it. How did she notice Ryota provided the means for her agenda? She just had a feeling. You always get a half-baked answer or no answer at all. Being a prequel means the main plot points are all foregone conclusions. However, this point is taken to nauseously exploitative handling.
For example, Mikan goes missing after being captured by Mukuro and has been brainwashed. The other classmates split up and go search for her even with riots going on outside. Nagito and Chiaki find the secret room Junko had Ryota held up in by Nagito using his luck, in which has them meeting Izuru and Junko as well, Ryota escaping and running into Chisa, Nagito getting injured and Chisa intervening. Mukuro was being kept occupied by Peko who Nagito requested she distract her. How he knows about Mukuro or anything that's been going on with Junko is left unanswered. Chisa volunteers to stay behind for no good reason, and that leads to Chiaki to carry Nagito back to their classroom where everyone else is, excluding Peko.
Next, Chiaki comes up with the brilliant idea of everyone going together to save Chisa to which they all inevitably agree. During which Mikan who was missing suddenly returns with Peko who got injured. You expect since she was the reason everyone was searching for initially, they would ask where she's been and why she's been absent. No, they don't inquire anything about that. They head towards Chisa who has now been captured and brainwashed.
On the way, they encounter rioters just outside the gate that is now open for some reason, and there is no security around. It takes a very special kind of lazy to have this, because in previous scenes, the gates were closed, guards were struggling keeping them out, and you get atleast two scenes of that. Now, no one is there except the rioters and not only that, they immediately resort to cold-blooded murder. They were angry before, but here, they are calm, quiet and slowly walk up to Chiaki and everyone. Nekomaru and Gundham stay behind to deal with them. Chiaki takes them to the secret passageway, where Mikan manages to separate her from everyone else through convenient trap doors and when the others wonder why she's missing, they accept Mikan's excuse that she's wasn't "feeling well and rested in a room they previously passed". Nevermind, she was well just a moment ago, also how that contrasted with her determination shown earlier, and you know, the fact this is enemy territory! Nekomaru and Gundham catch up at this time, getting the location from Mikan. Chiaki wakes up to find Chisa who lies that Izuru helped her escape, and they decide to meet up with the rest of the class. From then on, well, it goes as well as you'd expect...
Chiaki's death made me sad but it wasn't as tearjerking as it could have been. All of her exploits of keeping the class together were just told to us and mostly off screen. The build up to her execution was poor by having everyone passing around the idiot ball to have plot happen. Also throughout it all, I couldn't hold back my disbelief on how Junko managed to configure all those traps and build the trial room all in the span of at least days, and none of the authoritative figures in the school or the board of directors noticed, either because they will either ignore it anyway or are grossly incompetent.
I mean I liked all the continuity nods and fanservice provided, but that's not enough to hold the story together. When it came to the Despair arc, the fanservice and establishing ties to the Future arc were more important than telling a coherent story.
What I also liked was the portrayal of Junko and the resulting disillusionment for a good portion of the fanbase. Another aspect I believe this series intended to do was really hammer home how Junko is a irredeemable character. Mukuro was also disillusioned to many.
Despair arc has fanservice and hit-or-miss humor going for it. Many things happen because they need to and not if it makes any sense. The format really limited the series as there was simply not enough time to expand on all the plot points, resulting in too much going on at once and not enough focus on the main characters, the ones the story should mainly be about.
turboemo
As a fan of the Danganronpa games, specially the second one, I was quite looking forward to this anime. I wanted to see more about the main cast of SDR2 and learn about how they fell to despair. [This review may contain spoilers] In my honest opinion, if it weren't for the simultaneous weekly release along with Future Arc, I think this anime would've felt way weaker. That was the purpose, after all. While it still felt a bit weak to me, I did enjoy it. I do think this anime greatly surpassed the first installment in the anime adaptations for the series. As for thestory, we mostly knew the basics. We knew how it would go down. Starting from a slice of life, sliding into a despairful mess of chaos. What I definitely mostly enjoyed was the change into the actual title of the series - DESPAIR. However, it escalated rather quickly which made it feel less realistic, but since they had to tuck in a lot of content in such a small amount of episodes, I won't pay that much attention to that detail.
In the end, the strong point from Danganronpa are its characters. It managed to get me attatched to the new characters. The introduction of the trio investigating (Munakata, Sakakura, Chisa - being her the narrator) Hope's Academy was a good thing and created a refreshing contrast between their point of view and the students'. Also, it painted the academy in a whole new light. However this also was the cause of how apart and plain the main cast from SDR2 felt. They barely got focused (with some exceptions) on and almost felt like supporting characters.
About the characters, what mostly bugged me was how Nanami was created as a real person for the anime. While at the start it was well handled, it all went down and became a bit disappointing when she just literally became a tool for Junko. Coming from SDR2, I was expecting Junko to act like Junko and destroy every characters individually, or at least more slowly than how it went down on the anime. This both made Junko's and Nanami's character feel more lazy than they actually are.
The music was okay and I specially enjoyed the remakes of the original tracks from the games. It made it feel more like Danganronpa. Both OP&ED were really great and really well handled in the smallest details. The original tracks from the anime weren't specially outstanding or memorable, so I wouldn't say the music was one of the strongest points of the anime.
As for the animation: I am really picky and critical about this point. While they did a good job with the colors (contrasting with the dark palette of Future Arc) - something that gradually changed along with the tone of the anime-, the animation could've been way better. The movement was really not fluid and most of the time it felt kind of awkward. This is completely a biased opinion but I feel that the animes never really imitated Rui Komatsuzaki's art that well.
Anyways, as a whole I really enjoyed the anime. I'm still a fan and did get emotional with my favorite characters and even the new characters. It's better than the first anime and even if it has some weak points it's definitely worth watching if you're a fan of the games.
ktulu007
Welcome to the last week of this year's horror anime month. In order to wrap things up, let's look at the other instalment of Danganronpa 3, Zetsubou-hen. Is it an improvement over the other half of Danganronpa 3, just as weak or worse? I suppose the only way to find out is to watch and determine for ourselves. So, let's take a look. Story: Zetsubou-hen opens with Yukizome taking a teacher's role at Hope's Peak Academy as part of an investigation into the Academy's more shady pursuits. She's assigned to the 77th class and begins her work in earnest, both as a teacher and an investigator. Allwhile events are moving towards the great world-changing event of ultimate despair.
Therein lies the biggest flaw with the series. If you saw the first Danganronpa, you know how it's going to end. Even if you haven't, the series itself calls it a tale of hope that ends in despair. Which could work, if they built up some tension in another way. But the series never bothers. About half of it is spent on vaguely slice of life school life with very minor references to Yukizome's investigation. Then we get a bunch of episodes setting up Junko's machinations. Most of the series is just build up to a pretty disappointing climax. To make matters worse, if you happen to have watched Mirai-hen first, like I did, then you'll know the exact plot points to expect. The series also shares Mirai-hen's weakness of having a lot of bad, over-blown speeches. The only difference is that the ones in Zetsubou-hen are mostly about despair instead of hope.
That being said, I do appreciate what the series was trying to do. When it comes right down to it, it's trying to humanise the group that Naegi got called a traitor for protecting. It's trying to get you to connect with and understand them. There's just one problem with that. Let's talk about the characters.
Characters:
The Danganronpa series in general isn't good at providing compelling characters. The first anime got around that by providing good mysteries. The Mirai-hen part of Danganronpa 3 tried to do the same, but ended up spending too much time with strangely absurd action sequences and puerile hope speeches. This series doesn't even have that to fall back on. We know that Junko's the villain as soon as she shows up. We see what Hope's Peak is up to before there's much investigation into it. We know that things are going to end in despair. So, what we're left with are shallow archetypical characters who spend the bulk of the series doing nothing interesting.
Art:
The character designs continue to be a weakness. Although this may be the part of the series that's least effected by it since a good half of it is about the students just being students. The series does have a strange habit of making the non-important characters just look like blue humanoid blobs. Maybe they didn't want normal looking people and they didn't want to bother coming up with stupid looking designs for background characters. I will credit this series for having bloody sequences that are fairly competent. Although they do use bizarre neon colouring for it. Maybe they were on a time slot where they couldn't show much blood so they worked around it by making the blood not look like blood.
Sound:
This is one area where I have to give every instalment of this franchise credit. They are good at casting. Ogata Megumi, Hanazawa Kana, Toyoguchi Megumi, Takayama Minami & Nakahara Mai are all good in this. In spite of their characters lacking any real complexity. Really, none of the actors do a bad job. They're all basically competent. The music is also decent enough.
Ho-yay:
There's a bit. Junko's sister seems to have a thing for her. I have no idea why they included that, but it's there. The photographer has a girl that she seems to have a thing with. The chef is openly bisexual and it's revealed that a certain gent is in love with another man. That being said, this stuff barely comes up and is, mostly, not important to the plot.
Final Thoughts:
And that's Danganronpa 3: Zetsubou-hen. Ultimately, its big failing is that its whole raison d'etre is to get you invested in bland characters. In the interest of doing so, it lacks mystery and has very little that could be charitably called horror. If you're a big fan of the franchise and you really want to see the events that built up to the grand hyper worst despair-inducing situation, you might find it interesting. Maybe. For myself, I'm going to give it a 3/10. While it is pretty bad, there's nothing truly terrible about it. Next week I'll open November with a review of 91 Days. Have a happy Halloween and retain your fabulousity.
Raibury
I'm using my small introduction for reviewing both this and Future so you may see this twice. I used to be a big Danganronpa fan. I got the VITA for the sole purpose of playing the games, when SDR2 was only getting translated by some random people on the internet and the first game had just gotten localized. I've spent a lot of my time on Danganronpa, analyzing it, doing fanarts, discussing theories with other people, reading the fan-translated novels, playing Ultra Despair Girls, and although it had some flaws, I really the Danganronpa series overall. But when I knew that they announced an anime, I justhad this bad feeling. Danganronpa: The Animation wasn't really good, as the quantity of episodes was just not enough for the hole plot and it tried to fit like 20+ hours of gameplay in 13 episodes of approximately 25 minutes. 20+ of gameplay, details, plot, characters, into less than 6 hours approximately of an animation. And obviously, the adaptation wasn't really the best. But I thought, "Hey, they won't make the same mistake twice. Besides, two arcs? That's a total of 24 episodes, so maybe it will be different!"
Oh, how wrong I was.
Both despair and future side just tried to throw in a bowl and mix a lot of characters, random plot ideas, deaths with no meaning, and terrible death flags that screamed "hey lol i'm gonna die now". One of the major things about Danganronpa that I liked was how ridiculous, yet interesting the plot twists were. Even if you expected some of them, it was interesting to see how the dots connected, the contradictions, the solutions, and the characters going through that trip to the truth. And sometimes the twist would make you go "holy shit", because you didn't really get to see them coming.
Danganronpa 3 didn't include any of those. Instead, the supposedly "plot twists" were so predictable, they basically screamed to your face "enjoy this characters because we are going to kill it". All the raising of death flags was painful to see, it felt like watching a Blue's Clues episode of how obvious everything was. A lot of cheap and mediocre tactics to get the ratings up, including unnecessary weird fanservice (although I kind of can let that pass because almost all animes do that), fake deaths of loved characters to keep the "cliffhanger up", and most of the "cliffhangers" were basically thrown out to hell next episodes as they killed the hype.
Supposedly, Despair side was about the class of SDR2 (which I'm not getting into as it may spoil, but if you plan on watching it, at least watch a playthrough of the game if you want to understand). It started fine, as most of the watchers are at familiar with the cast, with the typical cliche unnecessary fanservice, including a small ecchi scene, but not that terrible to throw it all to hell. But around the fourth episode, they started skipping stuff. Important stuff. Weird, unclear time skips that just didn't make a lot of sense. At first, I personally believed it was just for the sake of time, as they had other characters from the class to dig in. But I was wrong. Instead, the time was mostly spent on other characters that I won't give names, because again, it would spoil a little bit.There was almost no development on the SDR2 class, and they were mostly joke characters filling the background for some minutes.
A lot of stuff contradicted the canon, the novels were not considered, Nanami Chiaki went basically to a whiny Mary Sue depending on Hinata Hajime despite knowing him little, looking like on of those over exaggerated cliche shoujo protagonists. Komaeda Nagito was only a "hope boner" instead of an interesting character with different views that were interesting to analyze. And others character didn't get the stage for more than 5 minutes. Knowing the characters from SDR2 was totally pointless, as they were made into cliche, badly "developed" characters, if you can call that "development.
The anime just killed the essence of Danganronpa itself. No surprises, no cliffhangers, no plot twists, no character development. Just a terrible ripoff of Dora the Explorer with murder and some crappy hope vs despair plot.
Chiaki__Nanami
This review is also based off the game Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair. (Possible very minor spoilers) The story is about how the characters from the game Danganronpa 2 became Despairs. So the story is about what happened before Danganronpa 2 took place and how they came to be Despairs, which is obvious cause it's called the despair arc. Which I think they have did a good job of trying to accomplish this, but I have a few minor disappointments. Besides that the story is very interesting. But in my opinion it felt a bit rushed. The art is good and is it very true to the series.But with a few disappoints such as, Gundham Tanaka and Hiyoko Saionji's hair is different. Besides those few minor details, they did a great job. Chiaki Nanami is THE Ultimate Waifu, enough with this "Ultimate Gamer". (she didn't deserve what happened to her in episode 10)
I really like the opening for this animei and its pretty catchy in my opinion. I didn't hear much background music throughout the anime, so there's nothing really I can say there.
The characters personalities have stayed the same as in the game, so no disappointments there. They kept Peko and Fuyuhiko's relationship between them secretive as they did in the game. They did a lot of these things, such as, Hiyoko's loathful attitude towards Mikan. Akane and Nekomaru's rivalry between each other and Kazuichis one-sided love for Sonia, etc.
I really enjoyed watching this series this season, definitely something worth checking out. I really recommend you watch a playthrough of the game or play it yourself before you watch this anime, it will make a little more sense if you do.
Haijo
This review will be split, first half my review for it, and second half (W/ spoilers) Will explain this whole thing to people who are confused about this chapter. Alright, lets start :3 To begin with, I know this anime is based in the past before this whole Despair thing came into play, but I see no Asahina, or Naegi (I ship them both, damnit kirigiri's death.) But this chapter is complete crap, this was an unnecessary chapter, the killing didn't come in until like episode 9, I was so bored I had to skip around 8 minutes after episode 7, I was getting to bored, but thecharacters were hard to get into because 1. Asahina, Naegi, had a past, they were in Danganronpa 1, (It was the best) and this one was.. very hard to feel for the characters, Kirigiri's death had me emotional (sorry if it was a spoi- wait, if you haven't watched chapter one then shoo. But heres my ratings;
Story: 4
Art: 8
Sound: 4
Character: 1
Enjoyment: 3
Overall: 4
Worst Chapter yet.
Okay, heres explaining time, filled with spoilers, you've been warned.
Mk- so this chapter was set before the whole killing with Junko thing, like how you see it in the first chapter, you see, the first chapter was based on the new killing game, in the big freakin' building and such, while this is set before that, you remember when --Ohh whats his name, ahh you know him, big, skinny, short white hair dude who tried to kill Naegi, yeah,him. he was explaining Yomizona or whatever her name was, her death, and how Despair was her fault, ahh I forgot most of it but bare with me, the reason the blood is pink is because Junko is still alive, and her theme is art, poppy, flashy stuff, also it's taken place before the new killing game, chapter one, with red blood, as Junko isn't in charge. But shit I am disappointed in this chapter, I wanted main characters, :( Everytime I want a ship going these amazing people sit there like "Dhuuur letz kill dem guyz mk?" Not well done on their side. :/
mythia-san
I N T R O D U C T I O N I've been a fan of the Danganronpa game series since 2012. In 2013, Danganronpa: The Animation came out, and honestly, it was crap. The animation and art was pitiful, the characters were barely grazed and hardly as deep as the corresponding game had it, and it was just rushed. But that's the thing with animating an entire game in 13 episodes-- it's not possible to fit every scenario, so the anime had to condense it for only the main plot points to appear. Now, why do I mention the first animation when I should betalking about the 3rd Despair Arc? You need to be aware of my disappointment for that, so that you can understand I was overall impressed with the effort put into Danganronpa 3, both sides. The Despair Arc cannot be seen without knowing the plots of the 1st and 2nd Danganronpa games, so unless you've seen it, you'll likely be thoroughly confused. But anyways, Despair Arc explains the events before the 1st game, which had me interested to see. It's like more puzzle pieces were given to the viewer, to try to fathom all of this "hope" and "despair" madness. I wasn't very disappointed with what I got, thankfully enough.
S H O R T C O M I N G S
I was introduced with the students of SD2 (Super Danganronpa 2) and some characters from the Future Arc, such as the homeroom teacher, Yukizome Chisa, the leader of the later Future Foundation, Munakata Kyosuke, etc. Getting to see them animated, along with new characters that I welcomed fairly enough, was exciting. However, I only get glimpses of their personalities, it seems? My personal expectations in an anime this short isn't very high on character, but again, I felt like I got only a taste of what the students were truly like (I won't spoil anything from SD2). I honestly wish I'd gotten more.
For the first two episodes, you feel like you're watching a slice-of-life, ridiculous comedy with friendships and rainbows and idealistic school life (also with that one perverted cook and that fanservice of pantsus). Then, well I love this, but it all just goes downhill and you know it. However, it felt like the beginning could've been more blended to the more despairing episodes that come after. It felt a bit more sudden than what it could've. It's somewhat predictable too as a whole, but I've already known the aftermath of these events, so I suppose it can't really be helped.
This kind of goes back to the characters, and maybe I'm not so forgiving for unrealistic scenarios, but these characters don't make sense. When you see someone you care about get killed, you won't follow the killer and do what she wishes, right? You'd either plot revenge or try to move on, almost ignoring what had happened. Or something else. Just not follow the one who murdered someone you care about. Also, some of these character's motives, their passion, are somewhat strange. One character is so passionate about making an anime to the point of sleepless nights, skipping school entirely, and acting like a high-strung, insane, desperate person. It seems like none of these characters are normal, which is kind of the thing Danganronpa has, but IS IT TOO MUCH TO ASK FOR A SANE PERSON? And no, I don't want just the principal, that old man, and that drunk guy! And Junko, control yourself! (I was joking, don't stone me)
When I watched this, I was starting to expect two things: more explanation for Enoshima Junko's motives, and more story to Kamukura Izuru. I honestly didn't get much from either, at least, things I didn't already know. Kamukura was okay, but Junko felt so stupid to me. Like, is she just evil because she's just evil? She looks like a fool, honestly. I liked her in the 1st and 2nd games because she wasn't that big of a character, sort of, but now that she's a more appearing character, with her actions open like a book, it feels like she just does ridiculous things just because. And it feels stupid! No backstory, just because. And she has everything her way.
But then again, WWII happened, and this might be somewhat the same deal.
P R O S
I could go on for a while regarding the good points. Again, seeing SD2's characters animated was real fun to watch. I was especially curious about Komaeda Nagito, Hajime Hinata and Nanami Chiaki. And, in case you haven't noticed, I watched this first before Future Arc, and finished it first too.
What I got from this was pleasantly some Ikusaba Mukuro, which for some reason I didn't expect that much of. Even though her character was somewhat dissed off, I got to see her devotion to her sister and sides of her I otherwise wouldn't have seen. I also found more importance in Chiaki. Not that she wasn't important to the second game, but I always thought she was a little strange and off. Seeing her hope throughout this anime, in the midst of despair, was impressive. I also enjoyed most of the characters, as they kept this anime light, mostly.
As for the little tidbits, I think I see most of the characters in Despair Arc in Future Arc. Since they aired around the same time, I could switch back and forth if I wanted, and I found that doing so will explain things in the Future Arc. It'll explain some bad and good relationships between characters there. I also appreciated the cameos of the characters in Danganronpa 1.
And the art, along with the music. I was majorly impressed. The animation was well done, and the art was consistent, and effort is shown in that department. It seemed like the games' tone was split in half, creating the tones of the Despair and Future arcs. The signature pink blood remained, but the colors were much brighter and lighter. As the story progressed, the colors did change, and oh my gosh the opening changes as you watch, I loved that. It just got darker and darker, and I was warned in the beginning that the story will end in despair, but still-- it's so enticing! And hearing Komaeda's VA sing the ED was heavenly.
At first, I didn't really like the OP and ED, and that was because it didn't feel Danganronpa-like. It didn't have that jazz-pop feel that I adored. But it started to grow on me, and it made me realize that the despairing events occur midway of this anime, so it was appropriate. Midway, the soundtrack does switch a bit more to the familiar tunes you often get with Monokuma, so I'm satisfied.
C L O S U R E
This is probably the longest review I've written, but I literally just finished this anime and it's Saturday. I've yet to finish the Future Arc, and I know I probably spoiled some things without realizing it, but it's nothing explicit and in fact, you should expect the above things already? It's Danganronpa, wake up.
I think this animation was amazingly done, compared to the first season. This isn't based off of any game, just shows events outside of the games. I'm glad the creators made that choice, though, as these events aren't exactly game-material and more for something like this. As I learn more and more about Danganronpa's story like how Once Upon A Time shows it (present to past, to present, to past), it's like more puzzle pieces are coming and eventually, will show a masterpiece.
I can't wait for that day, when I know all of it. Hope will triumph over despair, you guys. ;)
Story: 7
Art: 9
Sound: 8
Character: 6
Enjoyment: 8
Overall: 38/50 ~ 76% ~ 8/10
Akai-zetsubou
Man I love Danganronpa. Guys I am a BIIIIIIG Danganronpa fan ...I mean look at my name and picture.When I finished the First game I was shocked of how AWESOME that shit was.I thought there will be no way Danganrona 2 be better than the first....but i was wrong...........oh boy I was ......and thats when I have fell into ETERNAL ZETSUBOU!!!!!Ok I apologize for the long intro, what I am trying to say is that every entry in the series sets the bar so high for the next entry to overcome. When Danganronpa 3 was announced , I just couldn't wait to see it ...andi honestly I was anticipating the despair arc more than the future one and I gotta say...........I am quite dissapointed :(
Art 8/10
Despair arc keeps the hyperbolic vibrant colors from the past entries and WOW it is GORGEOUS.....The abundance of cheerful colors in this anime really makes you feel the hope atmosphere,it is really beautiful.However the character drawings in some instance are really horrible compared to the game designs...I felt like the details for the characters were decreased and that honestly made it feel as if an amateur was drawing the character ...kind of reminds of higurashi. Overall the art is really beautiful...it takes the danganronpa aesthetics and applies them into a hope world where you can literally feel the solace in the scenes but I honestly preferred the future arc art which I would be reviewing later
Sound 7/10
The soundtrack is actually shared between future and despair arc but each anime recycles certain past soundtracks that fits its themes. In this anime I am not gonna say I was wowed....I felt it was pretty lazy.The new tracks were honestly not as good as the ones before...But I am always a sucker for any of the past danganronpa soundtracks which i really loved hearing them again here.Last but not least....I loved the opening....DAMN I would they really made a nice choice with kami iro awasi, the song's has the feel of serenity and nostalgia,Definitely something that fits the anime perfectly.
Story 3/10
ok lets stop with the small things and get down to buisness. The thing about the 1st danganronpa adaption is that it fails to adapt the narrative style of the game. Danganronpa 1 and 2 were pretty slow but the narration was perfect...you really feel the moment of every scene but the anime adaption fail because of restricted number of episodes and as result it ended up being to fast and not as good as the game. Now they did the same risk here and I gotta say....HOLY SHIT...The narration style of this anime is GARBAGE!!!Like seriously you don`t feel as if the anime is telling a story, you feel like the anime is just a series of flashback and and events that are transitioned sooooooooooo SHITly if such a word exist. Let's take a closer look. Honestly the first 2 episodes were PERFECT..Literally what I wanted from a prequel. It starts of really upbeat and hopeful. You even get see how the new characters introduced in danganronpa 3 future had influence in the past events. Not to mention how you get say the times spent between Hinata and Nanami which was SOOOOOO SWEEEEET..But then everything gets broken....you see the anime goes at an EXTREMELY FAST PACE....I am not kidding, this is the worst story pacing i've ever seen in an anime. You have that episode that is entirely covering the twilight syndrome events..I honestly had goosebumps when I knew that it's finally gonna happen..but that episode had everything wrong with danganronpa 3 despair arc....It was so brief and summarized and there are certain things that I was longing to learn about from this episode wasn't there!!!!! It was awful. From this episode the anime starts to just link side stories and skim through events...and that's a big problem. Another example, there is this episode that is dedicated entirely to further build up few characters from the future arc. I do appreciate that to some extent...but when you look at the bigger picture you will realize that it was awkwardly placed there...it is the most boring episode in the anime....and then a HUUUUUUUUUGE TIME SKIP!!!!!!!!!! The last thing that really disappointed me in this anime is the "Master plan" leading to the tragedy..I will not talk in details here to avoid spoilers...But I really found it underwhelming, it wasn't as despairing as i thought it would be and...wait *SNIFF* *SNIFF*...what is this smell???.....OMG......it's PLOT HOLES????????Ok now there were some parts that were good in the story i wont lie...there were themes at least....but i still can't believe that spike chunsoft made a BROKEN and HALF-ASSED story....I am shocked seriously...Really wouldn't have lost any part of the experience had i just read the story through the wiki pages...it's the same thing....BLAND AS HELL
Character 5/10
Ok i wouldn't say the characters are bad but it definitely was mediocre. First of all, The ENTIRE Danganronpa 2 cast were USELESS in this anime WITH few exceptions: Nanami and Hinata. I felt sometimes that those characters with the hollow figures were more interesting. I mean literally they have verrryyy little to do here...they just goof around the entire series. Although I mentioned exceptions but even those exceptions were not that good. At the beginning there were really nice relationship scenes between Nanami and Hinata, but The anime just decides to minimize it at the end in favor of including more SHIT. I even felt that Enoshima Junko was...well just Enoshima Junko..nothing new. There wasn't alot of moments were I really felt disturbed from her. Infact, she started to feel annoying. However What really saved this anime for me at least are the new characters ESPECIALLY Ryota Mitarai. I felt the anime build them up really . Actually you cant tell that there was more focus on them due to their screen time and they did a good job , but sacrificing some parts to improve others is not what a great anime does
Enjoyment 6/10
The only thing that pushed far to complete this arc is my danganronpa fetish. Honestly there are some parts that i really enjoyed from my heart but there are other parts that I forced myself to enjoy. Honestly, There are ALOOT of plot points in this anime that would've been more awesome given that would've been great had the the direction was better. I found myself thinking about the anime several times and realize...well actually that was pretty good but yeah it wasn't effective. usually Danganronpa is the type of story that will grip your heart untill the very end. but that's not the case here. The anime really failed to deliver some interesting plot points in an interesting way
Overall 6/10
Ok maybe it's not that bad as I have made it sound..there were some redeeming qualities..add that to your despair addiction and you will find yourself enjoying this anime at few parts. But let's be honest here...Kodaka can make PERFECT GAMES!!!but anime...there are restriction when it comes to anime and one of them is time...We all know that danganronpa is a story that likes to take its time building a great story..but in anime this is hard. IN my personal opinion with this type of quality it would've been acceptable if despair arc was just a 2 hour movie without adding alot of shit...that way future arc would've been given more episodes and time to build itself.Future arc is WAAAY better than despair arc but it still have some issues...I will make a conclusion on the entire Danganronpa 3 series when the hope arc comes out.In the end, Dangonronpa 3 is a fair anime with a broken story elements and missed opportunities that had some enjoyment in it
TehNumberSeven
With me being such a big fan of the games and the first game anime adaption being fairly lackluster my expectations for the future and despair arc were quite mixed (although that didn't stop me from being super hyped), but now that shows over I think my hype was rightfully placed. Also quick disclaimer, you should have absolutely played the first two games before watching these. In the despair arc the anime follows the characters of the 2nd game taking place when they first join Hope's Peak Academy before the events of either game. The show starts off fairly slow and laid back but don't befooled because the show only gets darker and darker as it progresses, you may think you've hit the peak of despair in one episode then BAM the despair hits even harder later on until we eventually hit "The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History".
Coming into this season I was really wondering how well they would portray the characters because I absolutely loved the cast from the 2nd game and let me say they did a spot on job capturing the unique quirkiness of all of them, right down to Mikans incredible clumsiness, Akanes never ending hunger, Hiyokos total bitchiness towards Mikan, TeruTerus pervertedness and etc. The show also does a great job throwing in nice little tidbits of information/back story at you through out, stuff like Hiyokos random growth spurt, where the Ultimate Imposter comes from and the relationship between Junko & Mukuro. Overall they do a great job with the characters and the character development, they are absolutely the shining point of this show.
Now like I said the show starts off slow but very quickly changes into a never ending ride on the despair train with no brakes. But with that being said it never stops being entertaining to watch, whether it was watching the shenanigans of the 2nd games cast, the interactions between Junko and basically everyone else whether she be in a playful mode with her sister Mukuro or being in total despair mode and ruining the lives of everyone else. Now I will say there was one point in the show that was so dark it actually left me feeling pretty upset, since most of you should have played the 2nd game before watching this you should have known that a certain event will take place and let me just say this, prepare yourselves because I certainly was not but I do give the show props because they must be doing something right if they can make me feel this deeply about it.
In the end the show does a good job rapping this prequel story up and sets things up nicely to roll into the 1st games plot. Now while it did end things off nicely, that's not quite it for the story, for those who've been paying attention to the news you should already know but a new "Hope" arc has been announced and is said to be the end all of the story. Now that I am done with this I am definitely pretty hyped for the end of the story, although perhaps a little sad too having this big story come to an end that had me so captivated through out but all in all I do have high 'hope' for a great ending.
Overall, I really enjoyed the show, my fairly high expectations coming into this season were not let down. I guess I should also take quick note that the art is nothing special but certainly nothing bad and the music is great (aslong as you liked the soundtrack to the 2nd game that is). To anyone who enjoys the games even a little I highly recommend you watch this anime!
Whoahoho
The prequel has ended, and as the the anime franchise ends, it was a bit of a disappointment when, this anime ends with some plot hole at it's Kibou-hen arc. So, let's get down to my review business of this prequel: Storywise, I give it a 7 over 10, though this prequel did performed as what the synopsis said it was, thought there were still some plot holes in this prequel, like how can such video created by Mitarai cause some Hysteria among the students of the reserve course, and how was Junko able to know who to go for her master plan. Also, scene like howPeko killed Sato wasn't added that would have give some spice to this anime's story line. Let's not forget as to how exaggerated the character's were, like why would a school like Hope Peak dabble in human experiments like cearting someone like Izuru Kamukura, when it would be better off if they make a super computer that is an advance form of AI.
Art, If I were to choose who's the coolest among the characters in terms of illustration , I'd say, Junko would be one of them, followed by Chisa, MUnakata, Hajime and Sonia, the rest were just too plain or too dorky like
Souda,Gundam, Ibuki, Seiko, Andou, Peko, Yuuto, Hanamaru, Izayoi and Mikan who were the dorksters. Others like Nidai and Owari were a league of their own which was just too rugged, btw the only fanservice one would see is Owari at the anime's opening. The rest were just too plain and having said that this category is a 7 over 10.
Sound, ok, some of the character's here weren't suppose to sound like adults, like Gundam, Owari, Sonia and Seiko, they all sounded very much like grown ups, but I still like some of the seiyuus who did their voices, some of the character's sounded too girlish, like with Mikan,Hanamaru, Andou and Miharu. of course there are thsoe who sounded just right given the character's characteristics, like Nidai, Chisa, Sato and
Ibuki. Though, generally speaking the seiyuus who did the character's voice were ok, I'm still gonna go for a 7 over 10.
Characters, I were a Mensa member( organization of people with high IQ), I would be giving this anime/manga/game original creator, Kodaka, Kazutaka a piece of my mind, let's face it the characters were very much overly done that the concept of them being this Super High School Level thing
kinda makes them more of an oxymoron, I mean how can such talented people be given the superlative of either Super level or Ultimate, also since when does being a House keeper have such title, when the character's occupation itself was more of a vocation than a skill or a talent, in fact such superlatives contradicts the character's themselves, let's go over them:
Junko Enoshima the Super High School Level Fashion Diva, Super High School Level Despair / Super High School Level Analyst and her lackey Mukuro Ikusaba a so called Super High School Level Soldier. one is nothing more than a megalomaniac psychopath, her character is one big plot-hole, since we never got to know as to why she became like that, while the other is more of a henchman than a soldier, I meant she only has a knife , but no guns,we also never get to know her past, since in the first Danganronpa, she was killed off instantly.....( I don't know if she has any background info about her from the manga).
Nagito "The Servant" Komaeda, the Super High School-Level Luck, Really, luck is a talent? Man, his character was just sooo lame, should he even be in this thing? gosh, if he's that lucky maybe they should have made him as this Super Level Gambler, wtf was the original creator thinking?
Hajime Hinata the reserve course student,a.k.a Izuru Kamukura, tsk, tsk, tsk, he should be this super level envious guy, since he just entered into something that he already has, being the protagonist.
Chiaki Nanami the Super High-school Level Gamer, the 1st of 77th class to die. Yuuto Kamishiro the Super High School Level Secret Agent a fat guy who for a while pretended to be Mitarai. Ibuki Mioda a Super High-school Level Light Music Club a girl masochistic tendency after becoming one of the remnants of despair. Sonia Nevermind the Super High-school Level Princess, ok so where is her title , bodyguards and crown? some princess she was, she hardly does anything, super level primadona is what she should be.
HA! Should all be classified as super level lazy bones or loiterers, since what they do was very much what a lazy bone would do, waste their time for nothing.
Ryouta Mitarai, the Ultimate Animator, the chicken shit who created the despair video for Junko and Mikan Tsumiki, the weak link and a so called Super High-school Level Nurse, should both be classified as super level pussies, cu'z their both pussies, except one is a smart pussy, and the other is a stupid pussy.
Kazuichi Souda the Super High-school Level Mechanic, Gundam "Forbidden One" Tanaka a so called Super High-school Level Animal Breeder with an eccentric and rather dark personality and Teruteru Hanamura the fat guy, with a masochistic tendency,. who happens to be this Super High-school Level Cook
should all be classified as the ultimate oddball trio, who probably should all see a shrink.
Nekomaru "Mechamaru" Nidai the Super High-school Level Coach and big eater , Akane Owari a Super High-school Level Gymnast and Nidai's sparring partner also big eater, should be in a relationship and have the title the super level fighting duo, in fact they should be duking out with Peko and Makuro, too bad, creator, Kodaka, Kazutaka did thought of it.
Hiyoko Saionji the Super High-school Level Classical Dancer, how the fuck did she grew up fast after 6 months? Mahiru Koizumi the Super High-school Level Photographer, both should be called the ultimate wall flowers, since they're just for display without any function at all.
Let's not forget the Ultimate kick-out trio:
Ruruka Andou the Ultimate Confectioner who got got kicked out of Hope peak, along with Seiko Kimura the Ultimate Pharmacist and Sounosuke Izayoi the Ultimate Blacksmith, who is also Andou's man bitch. Whose skills and talents should not be in a high school but in college, spoiler, since they got kick out before Junko's Despair scheme , they never become part of the Remnants of Despair , never the less in Mirai-hen they're no different at all from the Remnants of Despair. But I kinda like them, since in the end they turn against each other, but it's a pity that Sieko live as a sucker and she died as a sucker, all because she can't say no to Andou, so she should have the title as the super level high school sucker, as for Andou, she should also have the title ultimate manipulator since in the most part all she does is manipulate everyone most specially Seiko and her man bitch Izayoi. Izayoi n the other hand should be this ultimate sacrificial lamb, since he's just too stupid to let himself be manipulated by Andou.
Peko Pekoyama the Super High-school Level Swords-woman, Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu's bodyguard/ hit-woman and Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu the Super High-school Level Gangster, both belong to the category of super level crminals in prison, since that's where the two should belong and not in Hope Peak Academy.
And lastly:
Chisa Yukizome the teacher of 77th class of Hope Peak Academy and the Ultimate Housekeeper, HOUSEKEEPER?! is someone who can be classified as the Ultimate WTF. Her role as a plain teacher would have been enough, but giving her such superlatives is crazy.
Kyousuke Munakata the vice-leader of Future Foundation and the head of the 2nd Division, who once held the title of Ultimate Student Council President when he was a student at Hope Peak, was pretty much a well suited antihero and so as his gay admirer, Juuzou Sakakura the Ultimate Boxer, leader of the 6th Division and in control of the Special Crime Investigation Unit. In this prequel I kinda hate that they failed to anticipate such mayhem that has ravage the school and the world, where one would have wish that they should have deal with Junko in the first palce if it weren't for Juuzo's chicken shit secret that Junko has over him.
So, for this category I give it a 3 over 10, since in this prequel nobody is the protagonist, every character here are an antagonist , and such oxymoronic concept of them is something I really hate.
Enjoyment, I give it an 8 over 10, despite of the character's oxymoronic concept , this is one episode that one would enjoy from the start to the end, also the them about despair vs hope would really get to you, But.............
Overall, it may have an pen ending given that this is a prequel, but , not getting Junko in the first place by Juuzo, is a disappointment, so this prequel is good but not that good, so it's a 7 over 10. then again the Kibou-hen makes up for this prequel's short coming, but that's another review.
FU,FU,FU,FUUU!!!!!
Omnikronfull
Starting my first review, I want to make some things clear. First of all, this isn't a good anime. It's not even decent, despite my score. Danganronpa 3 is just bad. If you didn't play the game, you probably won't understand anything. And if you did play it, you will probably end up disappointed, just like me. Secondly, it's this type of anime that is just poorly arranged. It has plot holes and doesn't offer anything that haven't been in this universe before. Also there will be spoilers from the rest of the series. Okay, let's start the proper review. Danganronpa 3 was supposed tobe supplement for both Danganronpa 1 and 2. Yet it failed miserably. Well, maybe not exactly, since you do get the reasons why some characters went bad, and you do get to see Twilight Syndrome Murder Case, student council massacre and the rise of Izuru Kamukura. But it's neither well-written nor interesting. Everyone expected that anime adaptation of Twilight Syndrome Murder Case will be something with a huge impact on the characters, something tragic, something that could lead to despair. In the anime this major problem was solved in one episode, which presents almost nothing that we wouldn't know from game. It also doesn't seem like anyone remembered it for more than two weeks.
So how about main plot? Do we get to see an interesting manipulation that leads class 77 to despair side? Yes, we do get to see what leaded to despair. And it's probably the biggest flaw in this anime. It's just so disappointing and became objects of many memes. Seriously, I'd never thought that main flaw in Danganropa would be plot. But how about other things? Maybe we get something interesting like interactions between DR1 characters and DR2 characters? Or maybe DR/Zero characters appear? Maybe even a Hope Peak's Elementary? No, no, no, don't count on it. The whole DR/Zero is completely ignor- oh no, I forgot that they've shown two characters for like 5 seconds and that's it. Only the first two episodes were about characters, and they were honestly the best ones.
Class 77, despite being main characters, is mostly absent, aside for fan favourites like Komaeda or Chiaki, but I didn't care about them. Why would I? Chiaki became perfect waifu that only plays games and is good-looking. And obviously every character likes her. Nagito on the other hand, while being an overally interesting character, has "power of luck" and talks about hope non-stop. He didn't change at all. Sometimes Mikan or Ultimate Impostor appear, but only UI gets development. Mikan only serves a cheap fanservice purpose here, which made me hate her even more. In the second half there also appears Junko Enoshima and her sister Mukuro Ikusaba, the 16th student, lying somewhere hidden in the school, the one that's called the ultimate despair. It's nice to see our main antagonist back, but instead of making her intelligent and ruthless manipulant, like she was in the game, she became an unoriginal and boring Joker-like villian. She just lost her charm.
The rest of the "main characters" almost don't appear in show, which is another reason why I don't like this anime. Why not include more of Ibuki, another fan favourite? Why not explain Hiyoko's or Mikan's background? Why does Mahiru act like a completely different person? Seriously, it's just wasted potential. So what about new characters? In Zetsubou-hen most important new characters are Chisa Yukizome - teacher in Hope Peak - Juzo Sakakura (former ultimate boxer) and Ryouta Mitarai, another ultimate student. The first one is a typical, energetic teacher that could appear in any other anime. Frankly, I didn't quite care about her. I won't write anything about Juzo, because he's probably the best character in this anime and his story is alright. The last one, Mitarai is a whinny, weak person, whose biggest passion is anime. He's also one of the reason why the plot is so bad. There are also a few others like Munakata, but I'll write about him in my Mirai-hen review. I appreciate the fact that they tried to create new characters, but I still prefer the old cast.
I really don't care about graphic, but for me it's decent. There are some flaws in animation but I didn't notice them while watching or I just simply ignored them. The music is really nice to listen to. There are some familiar tracks that every fan will recognize. Opening is also really pleasant to the ear. As for ending - sung by Megumi Ogata - it's not bad, but it's not my favourite either. Like every adaptation should, this one does include the original VAs. They are as good as always, despite being on screen for a short time.
So did I enjoyed this? While it was airing, yes. But only because of threads on 4chan or other websites and that I hoped it will have something that I mentioned earlier. Well, maybe hype ruined it, but I don't think so. It was supposed to be about class 77, relationship between them, their backstory and how they ended up as the bad guys. They tried, but failed. And now, after the year has passed, I can say that I didn't enjoyed it.
DimDito
This anime should NOT be watched before playing DR1 and DR2. This anime SHOULD be watched alongside Mirai-hen one episode at a time. DR3 appeals to quite a niche audience and they'll watch it regardless of how good it is. I know I did. Let's face it, as an anime, Zetsubou-hen is pretty mediocre and decent at best, but the story it set out to tell is still as interesting as a Danganronpa story should be. Unfortunately though, I have to review this as an anime. Zetsubou-hen is equipped with fully realized characters and a good outline of a story, but its execution is...pretty poor. A lot ofit is just exposition with meager attempts to convey emotion via mundane dialogues, lacking in any sense of stakes or scale and full of cliches. The characters are treated as plot device and less as actual human beings, those of class 77 especially. The anime spends most of its time holding our hands through every bit of detail in the story, expecting us to not be able to pick them up ourselves. Frankly, I had this issue with the games as well, but it wasn't nearly as apparent then.
The anime appears to be a show of a turn-of-events and just that; history. Scenes are drawn out past their relevance and feel pointless where they could've been used to build characters past what we already know about them. The story rises with mostly slow pacing to a dissatisfying payoff, and most of the enjoyment was makeshift inside my head by analyzing the story and characters way past what the anime could've possibly intended.
Expect cheap animations, sub-par screenplay, nice but underused characters, and some classic DR fanservice. If you're not into DR, why bother. If you've played or read DR material before, treat this as a 12-episode cutscene instead. It'll give you some closure to questions and loose ends you probably have, but that's the only incentive I can think of.
Loved the opening song though. Also <3 Junko xoxo
LucisKitsune
Of you come because you wanna know what was before Danganronpa 1st story... If you think that the Despair was great an Danganronpa, well this anime it's like the factorial, Despair gets exponentially augmented by the past... Before start, I really recommend you play at least Super Danganronpa 2, because this anime, although it was created to explain why Kiboumine Gakuen end like it is in the future, at the same time it could explain all more in detail connecting points that Danganronpa and Super Danganronpa 2 left behind, the most important, the class relations and situations. First things first, the characters that you will see here principallyare the protagonist of Super Danganronpa 2, the Psycho Tropical squad at their start, each one resembles of course the students at the first anime, but each one has his own abilities and together have a new path so, you gonna feel a fresh class with the help of some another students and persons of interest that would be necessary for some information in the Mirai-Hen.
The scenarios are truly more of a more polished Kiboumine Gakuen, but all conserve the air of the past stories, in essence, more like the first story.
The sound and BGMs are from the 2nd game in almost all the cases, so if you played the game, you gonna feel a great environment and super nostalgic feel that gonna boost all the story and situations.
Connect and explain, those 2 points maybe are this review conclusion but the anime is the idea that give you since the beginning, so if you follow the steps of see 1 Mirai-hen chapter and 1 Zetsubou-Hen chapter, you gonna be full prepared for Kibou-Hen end and of course to say: "At last, all have sense!".
This is all I think, playing the games is not mandatory but recommended, you can't miss those hours on enjoyment, to enjoy this to the 100%, if you feel this review with hope or maybe despair, anyway thank you to reach this point, and happy anime (and maybe gaming) and may the hope light your way to the Happy End!
FactoriesFarAway
This is a review simply for the Despair arc. I have not finished watching the Future arc yet, but really needed to share my thoughts on this absolutely tragic disaster of an anime. Before I start the review, I'll say I've played Danganronpa 1+2. I liked the first game for what it was, but I did not like the second game very much, honestly, because I found the ending rather stupid. I've also seen the Danganronpa anime, which I thought was an utterly average adaptation of the first game. This is not going to be like my other reviews, in which I talk about things I likedand disliked, because I cannot reasonably do that with this anime. There were so many instances of this anime being absolutely unjustifiably ridiculous that I'm going to talk about the entire story and point out when something I dislike happens. Which will be a lot.
~*~*~*With that being said, spoilers start here and continue throughout~*~*~*
This anime arc functioned as a prequel to Danganronpa 2, explaining how the ultimate despairs came to be. It started out with a bunch of fluff to get to know the characters, a lot of which I found cringeworthy at best and difficult to watch at worst. Teruteru and Kazuichi are two characters I could not stand in the game as they were creepy and stalkerish, and this anime only exemplifies that. Regardless, this only lasted a short amount of time and it commenced with the story after a couple of episodes setting the scene.
So it starts with their class of 15 students, and Hajime is in the reserve course, paying high fees to attend the world class Hope's Peak Academy. To begin with, the anime focuses a lot on Chiaki, who to begin with is very shy and somewhat aloof, until their teacher, Chisa, tells Chiaki that it's more fun to play with friends. This is how she befriends Hajime.
Meanwhile, Hajime, despite his friendship with Chiaki, decides he's not happy with the fact that he lacks talent like the Super High School Levels in the main course, and volunteers himself to secret Project Kamakura - a biomedical project to create a superhuman with all talents - the Ultimate Hope, who would be named after Kamakura Izuru, the founder of Hope's Peak, and could potentially save the school from all the terrible things that had been happening (THAT COULDN'T POSSIBLY GO WRONG). Terrible things, such as TWO STUDENTS BEING MURDERED, which whilst was talked about in Danganronpa 2, the game, I expected more of an explanation of in the anime. Needless to say, I didn't get said explanation.
In the meantime, Komaeda Nagito gets himself suspended, as well as 3 other students expelled, which other than to set a scene for the conflict in Future arc, seemed pretty irrelevant to the story, and honestly felt like an after-thought.
It was at this point where I felt the story just got really silly and I just couldn't take it seriously anymore. I kind of lost all hope (no pun intended) in this anime being any good whatsoever.
The first year at Hope's Peak was over, and a new group of students had entered the school - the cast of Danganronpa 1 - including Despair Sisters. Almost immediately upon being introduced, Enoshima Junko is painted as truly, irrationally evil, and her sister just kind of watches in awe. It's very clear Makuro is a masochist, but I find the dynamic of these two honestly uncomfortable, especially given that in DR1 she was willing to be sassy and fight back with Monokuma, who she very clearly would've known was Junko. One could argue she was perfectly okay with being killed by her sister and agreed to it, but Junko said at the end of that game that it was a spur of the moment decision and she only decided to kill Makuro as she was getting in her way. Maybe it's a minor thing to be so nitpicky about, but her characterisation seemed way off.
Junko goes to meet with Izuru, who despite the inhumane experimentation Hajime was put through to create Izuru, was in a room by himself under no monitoring or supervision. Makes sense, right? Junko speaks to him, tries to convince him that hope is boring and despair is exciting, so he should switch to the dark side, obviously wanting to use him, as someone with as much talent as Izuru could be absolutely devastating and wreak all kinds of despair on mankind.
Izuru decides to meet with her, and they lock the 13 student council members (don't ask how they all agreed to meet up in that room with Enoshima, because that's never explained) and Junko & Makuro basically say "Kill each other or we'll reveal all of your darkest secrets and everything you don't want anyone to know". No clue how she set this up, how no one in the school noticed, and why they decided to listen to her when if they just stayed put, everyone could've been saved by teachers and Junko would've been caught, meaning the tragedy never even had to happen, but we'll roll with it for now.
Junko somehow just happens to run into Mitarai, the Super High School Level Animator, who for the record, had not been attending Hope's Peak, with the Imposter taking his place instead. The one time he does leave the house, he bumps into Junko, who asks him who he is, and she insults anime. So Mitarai goes "WELL I'LL SHOW YOU, MY ANIME IS GREAT" to literally a stranger who he's never spoken to in his life. He takes this girl he's known for 5 minutes back to HIS HOUSE and lets her watch this anime he's been making, meant to make the world a better place. His style of animation changes people's brain signals to make watchers feel any way the animator wants them to. Of course, this leads Junko to threatening him into making an anime she wants, that will invoke despair onto those who watch it. When I say anime, it's an edited video of the classroom killing between the student council members.
Junko takes Mitarai to her lair underneath the school, which again, for some reason exists and no one in the school knows about. How it was built? When? God knows. I don't think they thought that far ahead.
Mikan is the first subject of the despair inducing video, and it works on her. How Mikan got wrapped up into this is something I didn't bother to explain before and certainly won't now. Anyway, Nagito, Chiaki and their teacher Chisa go to find her, and discover Junko's lair. Nagito gets shot and lives (because Nagito), and Chisa tells Chiaki to run away with Nagito and go back to their classmates.
Chisa begins to interrogate Junko about what's going on, who shows her she has the power to brainwash people, and proceeds to a very unnecessarily uncomfortable scene of a student trying to saw off his own head with a hacksaw.
She proceeds to brainwash Chisa using the video, with another uncomfortable awkward scene, where despite the fact that she's clearly being tortured and you can hear her screams, the anime thinks it's somehow appropriate timing to show close up shots of her breasts and legs. This is a huge complaint I had about Danganronpa 2, as well. Inappropriately timed jokes and fanservice. But this scene really took the cake....
Chisa's class decide it's a good idea to go back to the lair to save their teacher. Chiaki gets separated from the bunch and meets with Chisa who she assumes is trying to help her. In actual fact, Chisa leads her to her execution, which is used to invoke despair into the minds of Chisa's class, making them all Ultimate Despairs.
Junko went on to brainwash all the reserve students into suicide too.
Meanwhile, Izuru stuck around Junko, watching, sometimes commenting, but not really doing anything, which made it really hard for me to think of him as a bad guy or as if any of this was his fault at all.
Those who Junko didn't brainwash, she manipulated into not speaking up, which is frankly stupid. How much power do they really think a high school girl and her masochist sister have? Not just that, but she WAS suspected, and in spite of that, they still went along with locking her in Hope's Peak, setting the scene for Danganronpa 1. I personally don't understand why, if they had the slightest bit of suspicion that Junko could've caused the Tragedy, they would lock her in the school.
Last of all, I'd like to add that all of this "reserve student" talk retcons the beginning of the first game. The whole idea was that it was purely by luck that Makoto got into Hope's Peak despite his lack of talent, when you could all along. It was very thoroughly stated in the first game that only talented individuals got into Hope's Peak. They kept insisting Makoto's talent is luck, completely retconning why his talent was luck in the first place.
Basically, this anime is an absolute disaster because it retcons bits of canon, has absolutely illogical plot points (Junko's lair underneath the school? Basically anything Junko does?) and overall is a very lazy way to explain why Danganronpa 2 ended the way it did. "They were all brainwashed by anime" is honestly one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard.
This anime has cemented to me that Junko is somehow a Mary-Sue VILLAIN. She's perfect in every conceivable way and manages to make things happen which frankly she shouldn't have the power to, and it's utterly mind-boggling to me.
If you want to watch an anime where the world goes into dystopia because of an actual reasonable threat to mankind, either watch Death Note or Devilman Crybaby. A haughty high school girl making anime does not justify the world's downfall to despair, frankly.
But hey, it still hasn't beat Citrus as the worst anime I've ever seen.
