It's a 25 minute ova episode, just watch it if you're already watching DR3. I watched it after the Hope Arc episode, but I think it would be better to watch it before the Hope Arc. It does end with "continued in side:hope" so I think that's how its intended. That said, it definitely can be watched after.
I don't believe there is an official dub, so if (like me) you were watching the DR3 dub, the sub voices will take a sec to get used to.
I found myself generally enjoying Nagito's fantasy dream land. A Nagito who despises talent and doesn't know about HOPE was an interesting twist, and yet he remained remarkably Nagito-like otherwise. This is partly because his dream self only gets the bad luck and none of the good, although he still attempts to use it to his advantage in his final confrontation with "the world destroyer" (Because Danganronpa names will always be edgy).
It was interesting seeing Nagito's dream world. Everyone getting along and living their best lives (Even the warriors of hope and some light novel characters were given a quick showing of them being happy) really gave it a happy dream quality. Even Hiyoko and Mikan seemed to be getting along. I'm not really a fan of shipping Kazuichi and Sonia together, the cut from sonia looking at a pic of them together after their date to Kazuichi's funeral was funny.
The world destroyer did feel a bit underwhelming, but considering it's just a program designed to snap Nagito out of his delusions and "destroy" his fantasy world that he'd built for himself, it was fine. The world destoryer was basically just a somehow less interesting Izuru, right down to the whole "how boring" shtick.
The episode is kinda insubstantial in a way that makes it hard to really criticise. If this was an episode in the future arc or was combined with the hope arc, then I would consider it a good episode as part of that. By itself it is a short exploration of Nagito as a character that ends up being a little shallow, but still enjoyable. Its brevity may be to its favour, as it's possible that a longer runtime would've left it feeling drawn out.
I do like the transition from Nagito with his Junko arm when Hajime helps him out of the pod to Nagito having a robot arm when he joins everyone on the boat. It's a good way of showing both him and the remnants as a whole moving on from their days as Junko's puppets. I wish we got more from the remnants in DR3 as a whole. This and the hope arc are basically all we get (and a tiny montage earlier in the series).
Overall, this episode feels like a good episode from a 7/10 show. Which it basically is.
As my last review for DR3, I'll also include a brief review of the whole thing. 7/10. Future arc was alright, despair arc was stupid but fun, hope arc was not good, 2.5 (this) was good.
Farewell Danganronpa,
(until 2x2 that is)
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