To start off, I want to preface that I've never played any of the Danganronpa games. The only game I've played that's even remotely similar would be Persona, but those are two different genres of game. I had also never even heard of Danganronpa either and just stumbled upon it. I went into watching this with no expectations nor any bias.
Danganronpa definitely has an interesting premise. A bunch of clueless kids trapped inside a school with a sadistic bear mascot for a principal, with the only way out being to get away with the murder of a classmate. As someone who enjoys watching murder mysteries, I was definitely interested.
____
Characters: 6/10
Danganronpa explains the personalities of each character in the first episode by giving a brief introduction with their name and a specialty, which often reflects back to their personality. Such as when introducing Mondo Ohwada, who's speciality is "Super Highschool Level Biker" and acts like your typical rough and rowdy biker gang member. The characters are very surface level, but beyond the surface, there is also a layer of depth tucked away, waiting to be revealed. The characters are definitely one of the strongest aspects of this anime, my favorite was Ishimaru, the Super High School Level Hall Moniter! But like a lot of short animes, there isn't enough episodes for me to become emotionally invested with the characters, I sympathize with their dilemma, but I don't feel a personal connection to any of them. Except for the scene of Ishimaru where
Plot: 7/10
I really loved how the anime was formatted. When a murder occurred they would have a information gathering period and then a trial to determine the murderer. What was very fun for me was getting to see each piece of the puzzle and making my own conclusion before the actual murderer was revealed. Some of the cases were easy to figure out, others I realized as the trial was unfolding, but I don't think any of them had me truly stumped until the very end, except for
Visuals/Animation: 9/10
Now the overall animation of the anime is pretty solid. I loved that during the trials they used "bullet" points to refute points or ask questions, which is something they referenced from the games. Most of everything in the trials is unique, definitely reminds me of Ace Attorney. But the animation I really loved was the animation they used during the punishments. The style change really caught my attention and was refreshing to see. I also wanted to highlight the final trial ~!against Junko Enoshima, when they showed her talk, she would strike different still frame poses, which reminded me of a video game.~
____
Now I've talked about what I thought the anime did right, I want to talk about what I felt was lacking or I disliked.
MOSTLY SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
Characters:
Namely Touka Fukawa's alternate personality, serial killer Sho, and the main villain, Junko Enoshima. When discovering Fukawa's alternate personality, I was interested, but as the character Sho kept reappearing, the dialogue become extremely repetitive and unfunny. It feels like they tried using the character as comic relief, a serial killer with an obsession, but it become old very fast, and that's saying something considering it's 13 episodes. Junko Enoshima was also a poorly written villain. It just seemed like a sadistic kid with no stake in anything. Yeah I get it, she wants to spread despair and make everyone who watched the show lose hope (also weird that it was a show), but why? No backstory? No villain monologue? I know not all villains need to have a reasoning, but there was so much left out with the character.
The Final Trial:
During the entire anime they never used the word "despair" a single time, and then in the final trial it was used so many times. It felt like the word was being shoved between every sentence. Despair. despair, despair, I get it, I get it, I get it. Don't get me wrong, the concept of "hope" versus "despair" is interesting, but the dialogue coming from Enoshima was just the same things over and over again. I did love the hope bullets Naegi shot at the very end to each member of the trial.
I also want to highlight the punishment for Enoshima. I felt conflicted about it. It felt weird to me that Naegi says that they won so no one else would die, and immediately they kill Enoshima with every punishment that came before. It was unsatisfying and didn't highlight the "hope" aspect very well.
The Ending:
A lot of information was left out at the end. Who funded this project? How did the true principal die? How did Enoshima and her sister sneak into the school? What was the reasoning for wanting to make this show? Who even was watching the show? If the outside is inhabitable, like she said it was, who would be watching the show? Etc etc etc, I felt like there were so many questions left unanswered. But in 13 episodes, I can understand it.
My Final Thoughts
Danganronpa is definitely an interesting anime. Is it a masterpiece? No. But is it bad as everyone says it is? I don't think so. If you have a couple hours free and want to watch something while you cook dinner or watch something instead of doom scrolling that doesn't require every moment of your attention, I'd say give this a watch.
TL;DR - It's aight
9 out of 11 users liked this review
