DESCRIPTION

CAST

ANIME HorrorDanganronpa: Kibou no Gakuen to Zetsubou no Koukousei - The Animation
NOVEL ActionDanganronpa Kirigiri
NOVEL MysteryDanganronpa/Zero
MANGA ComedyDanganronpa 3: The End of Kibougamine Gakuen - Mirai-hen/Zetsubou-hen Dengeki Comic Anthology
MANGA ComedyDanganronpa 3: The End of Kibougamine Gakuen - Comic Anthology

REVIEWS

• 

  Otto

  73/100
  A good show with some flaws but still a must watch for any Danganronpa fan. [SPOILERS]

  Note: This review is only covering the Despair Arc and not the Future Arc.

  ---

  Intro

  I never have written an anime review before nor did I ever plan to but after seeing no reviews for this show at the time I am writing this, I decided to give it a shot. So bear with me.

  Danganronpa is a franchise that I am going through right now and I have been enjoying it. I played through the first and second games and decided to skip over Ultra Despair Girls because, well, for no reason in particular. As per the usual path, I decided to watch the animes after finishing DR2. Let me be extremely clear about this, you NEED to play the games to enjoy the animes at all. Since the setting of Danganronpa is so complex, reading a summary of the games will not do you justice. Furthermore, there will be jokes in the anime that will seem to make no sense or seem very odd if you have not played the games. Finally, the games are fun so you should try them. There will be SPOILERS for the first two games and the anime ahead.

  ---

  Plot

  Let me start with a quick synopsis. The Despair Arc details the events leading up to The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History. It explains how Junko Enoshima got control of Hope's Peak Academy by initiating The Tragedy of Hope's Peak Academy and causing the Reserve Course students to rise up. The transformation of Hajime Hinata into Izuru Kamukura is also explained.

  I came into this anime with a lot of excitement as I had just finished DR2 so my expectations were quite high. I actually didn't expect the show to meet my expectation (and it never did) but the Despair Arc is still a decent show. Ignoring the anime-original characters and their plotlines for a moment, there wasn't anything that I didn't expect due to the fact the events leading up to The Tragedy were explained within DR1 and DR2. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed watching them take place rather than just reading about them. I loved watching interactions within the 77th Class and seeing how Junko slowly extended her control over the school. Despite this, I still have three major problems with this show.

  1. The Twilight Murder Syndrome Case was extremely boring. This can probably be attributed to the fact that I already knew everything about the case and who killed who, so it ruined the mystery. Although I understand that it had to be included, it still was a boring arc.
  2. The way that the Remnants of Despair were formed was terrible. Coming into this anime I was expecting that Junko would win the school over due to her charisma or some other method and not due to some brainwashing video. I was disappointed by this boring and unoriginal explanation.
  3. My biggest gripe with this anime, was The Tragedy of Hope's Peak High School scene. Coming from a person who believes he is already desensitized with violence and gore, I was shocked by this scene. The grizzly way the people were killed was horrifying. I hate to go into detail about how the people were killed, but if you want to refresh your memory you can watch this Youtube video (at your own risk).
     I understand why this was included, but this was way too far. A simple before and after scene would have worked fine. I even think the way Chiaki died, which many already consider quite shocking, was not as half as bad as this.

  With the anime-original characters, that were originally introduced in the Future Arc, seeing their history at the academy is interesting. I especially liked the fourth episode which told of the three students' expulsion from the academy as well as the twist where Chisa is shown to actually be a Remnant of Despair. Nothing really stood out to me as bad in the plotlines not explained in DR1 or DR2.

  ---

  Characters

  I have mixed feelings about the characters in this show. As I stated earlier, I loved seeing the interactions between the members of the 77th Class, but Nagito basically carries them. He is my favorite character from the first and second games so when the writers decided to remove him I was furious. I was even more furious when he came back after a supposedly long absence and have absolutely nothing change about him. What was even the point of removing him? Junko is even worse. At first, she's bearable but then she just gets outright annoying as her personality NEVER changes (I get that's kinda a paradox because her personality is that she has many personalities but you get what I mean). Her insanity isn't even close to being entertaining as Nagito's so it's very painful to watch. I understand that the writers couldn't change her personality because it was already established within the games, but that doesn't mean that they couldn't have added something extra to make her character more enjoyable.

  On the other hand, Chiaki proves to be a great character as well as Hajime, and seeing their friendship as well as Hajime's transformation was something that I always looked forward to watching. As for the anime-original characters, the dysfunctional relationship between the Ultimate Pharmacist and the Ultimate Confectioner and Ryota being manipulated by Junko were both very enjoyable.

  ---

  Sound/Animation

  As for the sound and animation, there isn't much to note other than that it was mediocre. Reusing the Danganronpa OST and keeping with the Danganronpa art style was to be expected.

  ---

  Conclusion

  The Despair Arc was a good show that was enjoyable to watch but with some flaws. I'd probably never rewatch it simply due to the fact that there are better shows to watch. However, the Danganronpa 3 animes are certainly a must-watch for anyone advancing through the Danganronpa franchise.

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• 

  Tiredluny

  50/100
  A barely mediocre anime full of bullshit

  (This is my first review ever lmao please help me)
  Let me get this straight, Danganronpa is one of my favorite game franchises ever. The concept is creative and the characters are amazing. BUT OH BOY, WHY DID THEY MAKE THIS ANIME?
  There are so many things wrong with it, but first let me say the things I liked

  • The characters are interesting, wich is not a great accomplishment since they were literally from the games but I guess that is a good thing...
  • The animation is okay, I liked the intro
  • the dialogue is interesting sometimes...I guess....
  • Ryota babey
  • The interactions with the 77th class were cool sometimes

  Now with that said let's talk about the MESS that the whole thing is
  Firstly, a thing that really pisses me off. This anime didn't need to exist. In the games we already knew how the tragedy happened, no one really needed to see it but if they are making an anime that's nice, right? No, they destroyed the main antagonist completely. [Spoilers from the game] Junko was a psycho manipulative genius who infected the world with despair herself, but haha the information we recieve in the anime is that it wasn't her directly, it was a BRAINWASHING GORE VIDEO that she didn't even made herself, she forced Ryota to edit it to her. This is so fucking stupid, a video that make people kill themselves??! The whole world?! I call BS
  It's such a uncreative, boring and laaaame way to manipulate people and plan. [okay you can read from here]

  The writing is so horny. They make so much unnecessary fanservice from these teenager school girls for no reason.
  They throwed the whole incest trait in Mukuro's character that uhhh, I guess makes sense since she was manipulated BUT DID THEY NEED TO DO HER THAT DIRTY? And you can't even use the argument that it shows how horrible Junko is because the show itself doesn't portray it as a bad thing, instead they use it as comedic relief.
  And the plot? The plot is everywhere and I'm scared.
  Is this anime a slice of life, gore, comedy, horror, mistery or what? Decide yourself, Kodaka!
  I guess it was better than the Hope Arc but jesus christ
  Everything is so confusing even for the people who know the lore of the games and is IMPOSSIBLE TO WATCH IF YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED ALL THE GAMES BEFOREHAND.
  Another thing that pains me is how boring some subplots are like Mahiru fight with Fuyuhiko's sister that I won't even go in detail because it physically hurts to talk about.
  Fuyuhiko's sister is a stupid character no one cares about, can't she just shut up?

  Well, about Hajime, a funny thing that happens in this anime is Hajime's instant transformation into Izuru Kamukura. In the games it was established he went through a lobotomy, (correct me if I'm wrong) wich is a real thing where you cut connections from your brain prefrontal cortex. My guess was that he suffered the lobotomy and other experiments after and with time he became that long haired scary guy.
  Nope.
  The anime invents a weird thing where he enters in a machine and INSTANTLY changes personality and grows his hair and idk why I think it's so funny.

  Now let's talk about a specific scene I have mixed feeling about, wich is the Tragedy of Hope's Peak scene, the murder of the student council.
  That shit took a turn I didn't expect to happen. All of the deaths were shocking even with the pink blood.
  I like how they made a mini-killing game for them instead of killing them directly and all.
  In short, the scene is horrifyingly well done and is the core of the whole brainwashing video and mundial tragedy.
  My problem is, did it need to be shown? It shouldn't.
  We should never know what is in the video, only know it's something terrifying happening to the council.
  Yes, I just said the scene is super shocking but leaving it to the public's imagination is not only better but would make the brainwashing video a more plausible thing.
  Everyone's concept of what is the worse death you can imagine is different and it should be used by the anime in it's favour.
  But no, time to show a 10 min long gore scene.

  However I will give points to the anime for the [Spoilers] Chiaki's execution

  The conclusion, Danganronpa 3: despair arc is a mediocre anime about things that would be better if left off to the fans imagination. It has some good scenes here and there and Junko is pretty entertaining, but overall the anime is barely mediocre. Don't watch it if you haven't played the games, do something else.
  Thank you for reading and byee~

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• 

  Kuropiko

  1/100
  Danganronpa 3: Zetsubou-Hen is genuinely the worst, most awful, most despair inducing anime I have ever seen

  I watched all of Danganronpa 3, Side:Future Episode 1 to Side:Hope's concluding act. All 24 episodes, in a single day. I'm a bit lost for words writing this review, and I hope any of you reading this will understand, because this is it. This is the bottom of the barrel, I can't go any lower than this.

  Danganronpa 3 is the worst anime ever made.

  

  That's a very strong statement, that's a very divisive statement, especially since my implication is that Side:Despair is the worst part. There's a lot of weird love for this terrible anime, and let me tell all of you right now, you're wrong. It's not good, you either didn't play or didn't get Danganronpa 2 to even consider that idea. Beyond even that, if you didn't play it, you must have remarkably low standards for anime. Allow me to explain.

  Side:Despair completely and utterly butchers every returning character, in addition to its own original cast. Every returning character is laughably out of character, in a way that just leads me to believe I must have been completely wrong in any reading of DR1 and 2, or the writers didn't care. The Ultimate Imposter is an adolescent struggling with identity issues and wants to be his own person but struggles to show his real self? Nope, give him 20 seconds in this anime and he'll pour his heart out. Nagito was a self-imposed antagonist, seeking to use himself to brighten the hopes of his classmates through harsh methods? Nah, now he's just slightly weird and doesn't even push his classmates to the extreme like in DR2, despite DR2 being who he was when he entered high school. Chiaki was a fake AI based on Chihiro's image, so unrealistically perfect that completing her FTEs is actually an allusion to the fact that she doesn't really exist outside this little world? No, somehow she was real, against all the odds and how she was scouted NEVER BEING EXPLAINED.

  I wouldn't be this mad if it was one or two instances, but it's fucking constant. It never stops, and it seeps into their own original characters. Sakakura Juzo, a man who would do anything for his best friend, ultimately ends up being the catalyst for the series BECAUSE HE WON'T COME OUT AS GAY. Normally this wouldn't be an absurd idea, but it makes him look morally reprehensible because he knows Junko was involved in 16 murders OF CHILDREN. Meanwhile, his romantic interest Munakata is over in the corner saying some shit about "I must kill despair" while he watches his girlfriend ALSO MURDER CHILDREN. It's absurd to a level where I can't give it any credit at all. It does nothing with these concepts that MAYBE could work.

  I could go on about what I don't like forever, and what I do like is limited to just a video of Munakata in Episode 10 screaming, because it looks dumb as hell. But, I won't, I'll keep this "review" brief. So, I'll end this by not really talking about Danganronpa 3, but moreso the feeling it left me with.

  In the aftermath of this, I spent around 10 minutes in dead silence. I stared at my computer wondering "Why did I do this?" I had seen Danganronpa 3 before, it wasn't an anime that I needed to rewatch, yet, here I was. I had watched all 24 episodes. Just over 8 hours of content. In that time time, I could've watched the around a quarter of what is left in my Dragon Ball Z rewatch. I could've cranked out most of Legend of the Galactic Heroes Season 2. I could've finished a seasonal, I could've watched half of Ashita no Joe 2, I could've finished any anime on my paused list, I could've done so many other things. But, instead I watched Danganronpa 3. Instead I watched an anime I knew I hated, for 8 hours. 8, unbroken hours.

  Maybe, I shouldn't watch anime. Maybe, this whole medium was a mistake. But, I can say with complete confidence. No matter how bad any future anime I watch could potentially be. It will never, ever be as bad as Danganronpa 3.

  

  CONTINUED IN THE FUTURE SIDE

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