GOOD ANIME... BAD CIRCUMSTANCE
Danganronpa is the story of 15 uniquely talented school children who end up in a deadly game of lies, murders and betrayals. With no way of contacting the outside world and the psychotic bear Monokuma dictating the events before them can any of them survive long enough to unravel the secrets of Hope Peak Academy? The Battle between Hope and Despair Has BEGUN!!!
Based off the very popular gaming series of the same name by Spike Chunsoft, Danganronpa is best known from its unique Horror/ Suspense style and of course, its over the top executions through out its lifespan so it was no surprise when they turned the original Happy Trigger Havoc into the anime series known as Danganronpa: The Animation. The Main Protagonist is Naeegi Makoto also known as the Ultimate Lucky Student who arrives at the most prestigious school in Japan known as Hopes Peak, a school that guarantees those who graduate success in their lives... However upon arriving he suddenly faints and wakes up in a classroom with all the Windows covered, heavy security all around and seemingly no means of leaving >.<
He soon discovers that he is not alone as 14 other students have also been trapped into and seemingly have no memories of how exactly that ended up in this situation... However it would soon be revealed that they have been "imprisoned" inside Hopes Peak by a bear like mecha known as Monokuma who tells them that if they want to leave they would have to "Graduate" from his school system...and how do they do that? SIMPLE - they have to kill one (or more) of the other students and get away with it in a class trail of course :) Of course failure to do so would result in a rather gruesome PUNISHMENT.
Although they seeming reject this idea to begin with, its not long before Momokuma is attempting to manipulate individuals into doing his desired bidding and thus the story of the series really starts to unfold.
The biggest issue with this series is its history, to recommend this over the game is impossible because honestly if you haven't played the game yet I highly recommend that you do first because its worthy of the praise it gets in the community...but once you have played the game the Anime does not really do anything majorly different apart from bring the characters to life >.< so you would essentially just be watching a massive 12 episode cutscene recap of the original game and for many that may be a pretty dull idea after you just put up to 50 or so hours into the game itself if that makes sense.
Another issue is that the anime does leave out alot of key facts that really drive home how certain characters are and what kind of people they are throughout and in some cases you will find that someone you may really hate for their "actions" in the anime you will discover were actually the actions of another in the game itself (with no spoilers but those who played the game "Trail 2"..that's all I am saying).
So maybe its all comes down to how you want to approach it - You can watch the anime and then play the game to get deeper into the Lore, the cast of characters and the actual story or you can play through the game and then watch this anime as a massive cut scene because you really loved the game as much as I did... I don't believe there is a right way to do.
In short, I recommend this anime if you are a fan of the game, you may enjoy it if you are somewhat a fan of mild Horror or Suspense Thriller anime but just remember that whether you go game or anime you will spoil a majority of the other so pick which one you wanna do first and make sure you do it before going onto the next :D
