! I got spoiled on Nanami given the trailers and promos that aired before it began. However, as happy as I am to see her around and in motion, it is a bit horrifying to realize that her being there and not being a remnant of despair probably means not happy fun times for her in upcoming episodes.
But that aside, it was a pretty zany introduction to all of them and for the most part I'm really pleased with how they function together. Sonia in particular was super likable and her rejection of Soda fairly amusing. Transitions were also pretty cute, and Komaeda is already creeping me out.
But biggest highlight was all the info about Hope Academy and about Chisa. Didn't like her much last episode, but in this one she was so intense it was awesome. The way she stood up to Kuzuryu in particular made her rise in my likability charts rather quickly. Really eager to see how they go back and forth between despair and mirai to flesh out her character and that of those around her.
Dangan Ronpa (Translated VN via SA) [Spoilers through DRV3]
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! So.. Real world or the simulation again? Was it Junko trully the origin of the despair or…
! Also, how did this teacher so close to the ground zero manage to survive? -
Jees (Future ep 2 spoilers)
! Damn, I was hoping Bandai wouldn't get chumped. He didn't even get a real chance to shine. I kind of want a comic or something about the time during the tragedy so that all the dead future foundation guys can get to be cool. Asahina, too, though, jesus, I thought she'd be the one from their class to survive. I was getting dead flags from Gozu the whole ep and then it bait and switches to Asahina. Well I'm glad Gozu is around, but damn that's a price to pay. This makes the obvious suspects Gekogahara and Gozu, but I don't think it will be that easy. There's a lot to consider here. Looking forward to seeing this unfold.
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Jees (Future ep 2 spoilers)
! Damn, I was hoping Bandai wouldn't get chumped. He didn't even get a real chance to shine. I kind of want a comic or something about the time during the tragedy so that all the dead future foundation guys can get to be cool. Asahina, too, though, jesus, I thought she'd be the one from their class to survive. I was getting dead flags from Gozu the whole ep and then it bait and switches to Asahina. Well I'm glad Gozu is around, but damn that's a price to pay. This makes the obvious suspects Gekogahara and Gozu, but I don't think it will be that easy. There's a lot to consider here. Looking forward to seeing this unfold.
! I don't think either Gozu or Gekogahara is the perp. It wouldn't be a wise plan for the traitor to willingly trap themselves in a room, kill someone and severely narrow down the list of suspects for everyone else. It's a tad counterproductive in my opinion. On the other hand, breaking in the room, murdering Aoi and making sure to erase evidence that you did so and break the established trust between the other in the name of DESPAIR would be in line with their MO. Kinda sad about Asahina too; just how many times will DR3 go completely against my expectations? Then again, in hindsight it might have been a little naive of me to assume surviving one killing game makes you guaranteed to survive a second.
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! Check the openings with what we know now.
Considering how Bandai and Asahina died as foreshadowed, then how exactly did the teacher die?
! What was Asahina's action? She was scared about it when she was about to protect Naegi. -
Well that sucks .
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! Oh man, I was so ready for Gozu to die this episode, up until Asahina thanks Naegi which was pretty much a death warrant.Interesting concept and I can see how they can make things go faster for the sake of limited number of episodes. Bandai got chumped super fast, though it kinda bothers me a bit how the pharmacist was the only one to confirm he died after pouring something in his mouth. Ruruka and the blacksmith dude super annoy me, and I can see how they're painting white suit and his lackey as the ultimate jerks but that probably keeps them safe for a while. I also like that they grouped Mitarai, Kirigiri and old dude.Miayi being Usami was an interest reveal and I'm kinda happy with that. Means her character will at least last a while. Hope Gozu can also be a lasting character, because damn, losing Asahina is like Sakura's dying wish getting stomped on. Losing Gozu on top of that is just awful.Oh yea, where's Yasuhiro?
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! Hagakure was safe and sound outiside the building last episode, worrying about his crystal ball which just broke
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! That was awkward to say at least.
So, how did Junko get into the school? Did she got in to the paid program, or did she get scouted? The girl at the end was the gangster sister, sooo yeah. -
! That was awkward to say at least. So, how did Junko get into the school? Did she got in to the paid program, or did she get scouted? The girl at the end was the gangster sister, sooo yeah.
! I thought she was scouted as super high school level fashion girl or something like that. Wasn't she Naegi's classmate?
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! That was awkward to say at least. So, how did Junko get into the school? Did she got in to the paid program, or did she get scouted? The girl at the end was the gangster sister, sooo yeah.
! Paying people don't get any Ultimate titles. They just get to enroll into the school. It's quite clear she was scouted.
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! There was this novel that explained her backstory as an amnesiac redhaired girl.
! Yeah, she was not a natural blonde. -
! Well, that was an extremely delightful episode, aside perhaps from the extremely fan-service-y moment that was a bit cringeworthy.I think overall I'm just extremely extremely pleased to see Chiaki in the limelight so much given she's my favorite. The whole section with her bonding with others over games was just adorable, and the transitions are extremely cute, and I think I'm actually going to watch that again because it was just awesome. Even that one weird bit was made so much better by Chiaki beating the shit out of Teruteru.Also nice to see some of the mirai characters getting more fleshed out. Old man seems alright. And the Celeste mention is making me wonder how much we'll see of that class in this, since we inevitably have to see Junko and Mukuro.
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Future ep 3 spoilers:
! Okay, that plot twist actually made me mad. I knew Gozu had death flags last ep, but that's just rubbing it in. Seriously, what was the point? I guess Asahina's alive, but at the cost of the narrative. If Kodaka comes up with a good explanation to legitimize this decision, I will cry.
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Future ep 3 spoilers:
! Okay, that plot twist actually made me mad. I knew Gozu had death flags last ep, but that's just rubbing it in. Seriously, what was the point? I guess Asahina's alive, but at the cost of the narrative. If Kodaka comes up with a good explanation to legitimize this decision, I will cry.
! Felt exactly the same way. There was no reason for a bait and switch and it just makes it questionable in terms of why the killer would bother doing that with Asahina. In terms of the rest of the episode, a lot of these characters are annoying in terms of how obtuse and illogical they can be, namely white suit and his friends. Guy's being a gigantic ass. Ruruka and her boy toy are also super irritating. And given all this I'm assuming they live.Meanwhile, alcoholic teacher, pharmacist and Gekkohara are in the likable spectrum. Overall though, I'm looking forward to and enjoying the Despair arc a lot more… feels less restricted and the silliness makes it super enjoyable. This one's a bit tiring in how heavy it is.
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Well that was a big ol' slap in the face. WTF?
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! Asahina shenaningans aside, I lost my shit at Monokuma's Mona Lisa. I can't look at that with a straight face
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Damn, episode 3 of despair. As one person on reddit put it:
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There's something funky about the ultimate impostor..
! When we meet him on the island on the 2th game, he already was posing as Togami, but if we base the timeline around Hinata's personality, then the memory reset was to the start of the school year, so why is he posing as someone different to whom he was posing when his memory was altered?
! Taking in the info of side future, we know that he acted as Togami during his time as a remanant of Despair.
Taking the fact that Kuryu's eye and Komaeda's hand go back to normal on the island, then the limitation wasn't about his state at that moment.
If he suddenly found himself disguised as Togami, as when he was put on the simulation they just gave him that body, would he go ahead an play the roll without questioning the specialy weird circumstances surrounding himself? Probably.
Did he actualy start the year as Togami, but then changed to the animator, only to change back to Togami after Junko's death? Maybe.
If Hope academy already knew that the remanants of despair were THAT class, then they would know that they have an extra Togami and are missing one animator, or the correct shape of the impostor.
Maybe the impostor was very flexible and prepared and when he found himself not in the situation that the animator would be useful, he just discarded it and became the heir.
! The animator could be a survivor from the class of despair, I think that there is something weird about these two characters. -
Future Ep 4 spoilers:
! Huh, well there's that mystery solved. I didn't think they'd be so up front about it. Psychologist was one of my suspects from the beginning for the involvement in the Neo World Program. I had this discussion with someone before, but somebody had to have leaked knowledge or given the Remnants of Despair access to mess with the program in order for DR2 to happen, otherwise they couldn't be sure that Junko's program would work or that they'd be able to install it. I just wasn't sure if they would go for this angle since I thought it might be too easy/suspicious. I still think there were more interesting outcomes, like Chisa having been the traitor. I guess this doesn't exclude that possibility; this is DR and if DR does one thing consistently, it's weird twist endings. Monaca being in control of the game is nice, but unsurprising to anyone who saw the end of UDG. Glad it isn't Junko, I guess, but there has to be more to this. That is, unless they decided to make this series more about action and drama than anything else.
! This ep was pretty much nothing but a display of action. While badass grandpa was played a little too straight, he definitely gets points as a character now. Best moment of the episode was him calling Munakata out about necessary sacrifices and Chisa. I knew he was going to die this ep, if for no other reason than him having become the best character. Boxer is still biggus dickus of the series, despite the fact that his actions got one person killed (and started pretty much all of this, indirectly). I hope he gets what's coming to him, but he'll probably survive because of that. The story with the pharmacist and her prey seems really unrelated to the rest of the events. I wonder if they're even going to bother tying it in. -
Timeline time!
! The Therapist was probably replaced somewhere along the program, Nanami's code was indubtely in the side of reforming the kids, also why even bother to use Monomi… Fuck. Monomi is too close to Monokuma to not be designed by the same person.
! Does that means that there is just one traitor and it's the most heavily armed one? I just hope that this isn't like the last 2 chapter endings and it's undone the next one.
! That was painfuly obvious in retrospective, just for the hair and wheelchair. -
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! ^^lol
What did the poster exactly say? The subs didn't bother to translate it -
! getting back to the present, komaeda waking up, wether junko or not, is not a good thing at all.
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! Maizono cameo= Insta Win.
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! Man, fuck Ruruka, such an ass. The whole episode I just felt bad for Seiko.
! But great to see Nagito's twisted intentions + his luck actually play a role in messing things up pre-despair. That bit at the end was extremely harsh with Chiaki taking responsibility for everyone, knowing what's gonna happen… Fuck, anything Chiaki in this is heartbreaking. -
! So the friendship was destroyed all because of a misunderstanding…Usually it's frustrating when problems can be solved if only the characters bothered to freakin talk but Seiko being bad at communication is a believable character flaw in this situation.
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! Just saw a video about how the episode had the side-arc of Gundham posting all these posters for the lost puppy and omg, that poster is freaking hilarious. Particularly the whole "Wanted - Alive or Alive" bit. Fucking adorable.
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! Good night sweet angel, may your dreams be filled with happy pills.
! What did the old guy mouth? He's supposed to be unable to lie, but I don't get that he actually KNOWS who's the despair. Maybe it actualy was the teacher? Was Munakata having the serum means that he attacked Seiko?
! The thing is that they were pretty close to getting Ruruka some much needed empathy. Just say it "As my talent is sweets, if you didn't taste them, then you don't know me at all", these people focus on their talents so much that they can't relate to someone who just can't appreciate them, and just use them. I wanted to be sorry for her, but too little to late.
! I'm guessing the dude's forbidden action is "to eat sweets" and she's going to accidentaly kill him.
! And it's all but said that boxer dude that ruins everything's forbidden action is to actualy use his fists. -
! Goddamn, with this they made me truly care for Seiko, which is when I knew that she'd be the one to die.
! And yea, seems like Munakata is the attacker since he's awake and has Seiko's drug. But I can see a situation where Chisa was killed by someone else and then Munakata set loose to kill other players with the mentality that one of them did it. Or someone else is the killer and is assisting Munakata with the intent on playing with his resolve for chaotic consequences?
Still really weird that in the same episode Seiko refuses to kill Munakata and then apparently is killed by him.
! Overall I enjoyed this episode quite a lot, of the future ones it's the one that felt like it had the most weight and character development. -
! So, exactly when the Ultimate Dispair formed? Before or after the first game?
When did Junko corrupt them? Before or after the neurological experiment?
The 77th class decided to seal themselves for their second year right? The first year was when the super despair incident happened?
! And the impostor originaly enrolled as byakuya, so that's solved. -
! OMG, that was an amazing episode.
! Junko is living up to just what you'd expect from her, and it's nice to finally get to see Mukuro in action and as an individual. On that note, the mystery of Byakufat being solved was very welcome and I look forward to seeing how he will be sent into despair given that his intentions with Mitarai seem truly benign and caring. Not to mention him forming a bond with Tsumiki, who was someone I thought wouldn't really get a lot of interaction with anyone else aside of Hiyoko and Junko.
Really hope that later episodes also do justice to other despairs like they did in this one with Byakufat. Naturally it must be hard to juggle so many characters, but what this episode had was nice enough that I hope all others have their moments like this.
Wonder also if the class from the first game will be interacting with the despairs much. Some of those interactions could be fun to see, like Nanami with Fujisaki.
! Haha, also, the bit with Gundham and Sonia. I died of cute inside, it was just great. -
! The Super High-School Level Spy was in this episode btw.
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Future side, ep. 6
! Well that was pretty interesting, wasn't expecting Izayoi to die so suddenly. Kind of a bummer to see Ruruka still being so irritating, was hoping that finding out about Seiko's death would hit her pretty hard but instead she's being a brat about not having Yoi around.
! Still have no idea what Munakata's deal is, but I'm more and more convinced he's kept awake during the attacks for chaos reasons, and while he went for Seiko to get medicine the actual mole went for Izayoi pending on w.e. it is that he discovered. Still have no idea who the main bad could be, though I'm more and more inclined toward the recruiter given how intent he is about following Kyoko and his bit in the beginning where he "guessed" Gekkogahara was the traitor.
! Kind of a bummer that it still is taking so much time for Kyoko to do much, and was also hoping that Mitarai would be more interesting this episode after what we saw of him on the despair side.
I was however pretty hyped about seeing Byakuya and him bringing up a problem on Jabberwock Island, which makes me hope that we get to see the reformed despairs in the end of this. Should be interesting to see where that goes. -
Despair Ep 6:
! Looks like things are getting despair. With this ep, it makes me realize that we really haven't spent much time at all with the class, and more about learning background stuff to the rest of the series. That's not so bad, in fact there's some good content in this ep (Junko's motivation for one (the fact that she's an analyst is from DR0 if you missed it)), but I wanted to see 1000% more Gundham. I was looking forward to seeing the characters individually falling into despair, but it's looking more and more like it will happen in one fell swoop.
! And oh boy, what is happening with Mitarai. Somebody pointed out in the subreddit discussion that the bits and pieces of the anime he's making are all from the two animes. Damn, that is really clever. I mean it's the sort of meta joke I might expect in most places, but in a series like this, it has a lot of meaning. In UDG, the ending also used the abstractions of he medium and justified them as existing in their world (the concept of the 'game' they were in) and here we have the ultimate animator potentially being responsible for what we see before us in these anime series. I thought that his 'anime to bring hope' thing was odd and needed to be touched upon. I was beginning to think that he might end up being a surviving hero in DR3, but the ending of this ep seems to make it clear that that isn't the case. Cool beans.
! Edit: A small lingering feeling I have about Ryouta is the possibility that it's a red herring. The ract that she knows real Ryouta means she'll instantly know that the imposter is an imposter, hence being able to lead him to despair. Now it could be both, with real Mitarai being a real traitor, but the purpose of the meeting could have easily set up either. I still think the emphasis was on real Mitarai, I just wanted to bring up this thought. -
The opening is starting to get filled with more despair.
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Thoughts on Despair ep. 6
! wait what
what the fuck O_O -
! What if Hagakure's prediction is actually true then?
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Welp.
! Monaca just fucked off into space. I have to admit that I don't think I've ever laughed harder at something in DR, just because of the utter ridiculousness of it. I knew she was too obvious to be the real villain, but…
! -
Foreshadowing?
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So that happened
! And of course it's going to be Kyoko in danger. Of course. 'Cause Chiaki probably dying in a super gruesome way won't be enough, they also kill off Kyoko. Whatever man.
! Alternatively, maybe Monaca was referring to Makoto's actions from DR2 which will lead to Togami dying in Jabberwok at the hands of Nagito or Izuru? Possible, but given how characters I like keep dying I'm assuming it's Kyoko that dies T-T -
Finally got time to start watching this after a week of though work. Just finished today, and boy, it was worth the wait, I must say. Some thoughts regarding Future arc.
! First and foremost: having played DR2 all the way to the end, I have already spoiled myself on two characters that are going to survive the Final Killing, but is no big deal.
! But for fucks sake, producers, that troll with Asahina was kinda infuriating. I was going to break something, then it turned out to be a fake-out. Then they pulled another one with Kirigiri, but this time it was too obvious.
! Sakakura please, can you stop sucking away the mood ouf of the atmosphere?
! Finally, somewhere in the building, the real Chisa is sipping a cup of coffee while she looks at a group photo of Class-77 placed on her desk. -
! I ask myself: What if Hagakure's prediction is actually true and no one died after all?
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! I ask myself: What if Hagakure's prediction is actually true and no one died after all?
! The old man who got his throat slitted with a katana as well?
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! The old man who got his throat slitted with a katana as well?
! His prediction have a 30% chance of success.
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! That is not appropiate for a school environment.
! I hope that we at least see the 78th class. -
WELP.
! I knew we were going to dark places, but I didn't expect to wake up to Battle Royal freaking 2.
! Though I'm not sure why all of them went berserk. Just one of them going crazy makes some amount of statistical sense, but there's no reason why the couple that was running away, for example, couldn't escape. If they could make it that far away from everyone else, they could make it out of a building. -
! We didn't actually see all 12-13 of them die. One of them is supposedly alive, the president, but the fat one and I belive one of the girls, the short haired one, weren't shown dying. I don't have the stomach to watch it again right now, but considering the censoring, maybe they died in a particulary despair inducing way. There's also Junko's motives, she could have pushed them in a particulary suicidal way to make them kill eachother.
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Reminded me of this.
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! I think I speak in everyone's behalf when I say that nothing could have prepared me for this. Nothing.