#.... but I guess Junko could also be the narrator of dr

[princescar]

PIXEL ART PRACTICE BC MY TABLET NEEDS TO COOL OFF

Dr1 pixel style

Pixel Chibis

Dr1 underwear (yes, they are different, the have different bit rates):

Dr2 and V3 underwear:

If this does decent enough, I'll probably do the rest of the dr cast as dr1 chibis (they are my favorite sprites)

Flavor descriptions for undies under cut

Yasuke's Underwear

A simple pair of boxer briefs with a pattern of the face of the main character from his favorite magazine, Comic PonPon. Despite the very childish looking briefs of a very serious young man, they are worn out. Clear signs that they are very well loved.

Ryoko's Underwear

Very plain panties with a simple bow and generic strawberry pattern, befitting of her sweet but boring personality. Bought from a simple department store, its unclear why these are deemed her favorite pair. She'll probably be looking for them tomorrow... Maybe you should return them.

[ronpatrash]

oh boy i am gonna talk about my experience with danganronpa v3 and the ending. tldr i loved it and am incredibly haunted by it! now where do i begin

First off, if you wanna get your friends into danganronpa, stream the game on sporadic discord/zoom calls with everyone (my friends and i were a group of 5), and get everyone to narrate the characters. trust me. It may take you guys months but prolonging it makes the brainrot last longer! It's crazy how quickly we formed attachments to the students too because we're all having fun with these destructive teenage characters, and we all get to hang out and goof around again like we did in college irl before early 2020 went down

did i also mention drv3 is my introduction into this bonkers series? yea. what a great way to start! I was really rooting for kaede from the start....after class trial 1 i was hooked on the series and then prozd and jay started their dr1 playthrough, so it was a great time to get started on hyperfixating on this series in may.

also after class trial 1, i went on the danganronpa wiki page so i could read more about kaede. No new fan...should do what i did. i read like one sentence about everyone's memories being fabricated and i just. stopped and tried to purge it from memory cause i really didnt want to get spoiled further ahjfjdjfdkj

also do not look up their sprites on the wiki page, or google i guess. i looked up tsumugi and.

right there. it was unavoidable. i knew tsumugi was the mastermind and had to try purging that memory too. fortunately, it happened to most of my friends too while they were looking for refs of tsumugi to draw hAHA

so. by the time we finished class trial 5 (and ho fucking boy. class trial 5 took us till 3am on a weekday cause we all desperately wanted to know who the fuck was in that exisal and what really happened), I had known these spoilers:

- everyone's backstories are fake, flashback lights created false memories

- rantaro's title is the ultimate survivor (idk. what it really meant. i just thought he was like bear grylls or smth)

- tsumugi is the mastermind

we were all already playing along that tsumugi was the mastermind and calling her out on her pretend bullshit during investigation for chapter 6, it was very fun

class trial 6...we were all already unsurprised when tsumugi revealed herself to be junko. but we didnt expect that she was still,,, cosplaying. we didnt expect the entire thing to be cosplay, or the previous dr games to be fictional within this fictional universe...or that everyone pregame were volunteering themselves for this truman show killing game.....or the whole undertale-esque breaking the 4th wall gameplay. that was siiiick all of that was so fucking cool

anyway. danganronpa v3.......what a nice send-off. I feel like the ending was a warning for fans who get too immersed in any form of media, but it kinda makes it funnier to think about pregame characters now. they were all huge weebs!!!!! they might've been wanting to throw away their lives cause they needed an escape! the ending leaves a lot to think about too, like how shuichi, maki and himiko are gonna cope with the knowledge that everything they thought they knew and were was a lie. i wanna draw...so much fanart. i get why people love this series now.

cant believe i thought danganronpa series was a meme cause of all the komaeda x sans memes my friends were sending. this series is great. drag more of your friends into it tbh, but uh. make sure everyone's like college-age lmao be safe with this heavy stuff

[vulpiximisa]

Okay current list of rants before I forget everything because there was just soooo much:

Unfortunately I had already been semi spoiled for the mastermind. I don’t remember where but I saw a figurine of Tsumugi with Monokuma and I was hoping it was just representative because there has been figures of Kyoko with Monokuma but alas 😔

So knowing that, and me being on Naegi’s wiki trivia section, seeing that Tsumugi has done a cosplay of him, makes me either guess that Danganronpa was a fictional world or she Can cosplay real (in their world) people if they are dead (under the assumption that drv3 actually took place in the future like they said)

Okay where can I start complaining.

The reopening of the first case, making Kaede out to be totally innocent felt a little hm. Tsumugi’s bathroom excuse is only flimsy because we find the hidden passageway but she literally could have just gone to use the bathroom. If she wanted to lie about seeing Kibo or whoever the other accused was in the bathroom she could have done it because LITERALLY WE LIE IN COURT ALL THE DAMN TIME. Anyway, it was a flimsy argument but she didn’t fight back too hard and just pulled the Junko card to get out. (Ngl seeing the case reenactment with Rantaro nearly getting hit with Kaede’s ball is Hilarious. He probably thought “oh damn, I almost died 😂” only to get clobbered by another ball.)

My early theory was that they actually were normal kids with no Ultimate skills and I guess I was right. And I wish they just stopped there. I hate Hate HATE that every single Flashlight meant ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. That’s not good writing, that’s bullshit. It’s like, the point of building a mystery is to give the viewer clues, but if you’re telling me all the information is false, then what’s the fucking point.

I’ve had my problems with DR writing from the beginning, where everything Revealed is literally just Info Dump from THE VILLAIN. So like, are we SUPPOSED to believe any of that? Also in DR2, I HATED that the Countdown Timer was made to be a big deal and then revealed that No, It Did Absolutely Nothing. The protags having memory loss makes it so that the narration is unreliable already but if even the little bits of information were slowly start getting through out the story is BULLSHIT then What The Hell Am I Supposed to Believe.

For all the shit that I give Professor Layton mysteries, where they are over the top and Super Ridiculous, at least the narrative takes itself seriously.

Then they started going all meta/fourth wall breaking. I really could have accepted it if it was just “Tsumugi is a big DR fan and wanted to reenact the killing games” but then they had to keep going and give the poor characters existential crisis and then pull the “entire world” into it. Look, I’m a new DR fan, so you can’t pull the “you guys asked for this” with me, because I literally thought it could have stopped with the first game. This is Kodaka’s way of saying “don’t ask me for anything ever again” 😂

Like I understand that Hope vs Despair wasn’t all black and white. We got that from DR2 from Komaeda’s whatever he is. I get that Shuichi here is suppose to represent the absolute neutral with his One Truth. Making us go through the mini games to just not play them really feels like it’s pushing for time. We got it after the first two mini games Please.

Man I really hope the rest of the game can save this plot twist because I’m feeling really bitter about it.

[oumakokichi]

So was the world in v3 implied to be messed up or was that just part of the game's script

I plan on writing a much longer piece on my thoughts regarding Tsumugi’s act in Chapter 6, the epilogue (and how it ties in with the prologue), and the outside world, but as far as what I think personally… I definitely think the outside world is messed up, at least to some degree.

First and foremost, I think most of Tsumugi’s speech in Chapter 6 is a deliberate attempt to make the cast fall into despair, rather than “the whole truth.” Considering lies and truths are the central theme of ndrv3, it makes sense that the ringleader would lie, even at the very end.

I think most people were somewhat turned off of the final chapter and the ending because they’re inclined to take most of what Tsumugi says at face value–Junko did, after all, usually tell the truth once she was outed as the mastermind (though she had her white lies in Chapter 6 as well, and ultimately told the survivors that what they believed was up to them). But Tsumugi operates in a very different way than Junko; not only is she entirely different as an antagonist and a ringleader, but her motives are different as well.

What she wanted had little to do with actually inflicting despair or ending the world. Her first and foremost priority was carrying on the show. Anything that would put things back on track and continue the show, all the while making it as entertaining as possible, was good and fine by her.

She wanted to send the other characters spiraling into despair not because she was actually obsessed with making others despair the way Junko was, but because Danganronpa, and particularly the Hope’s Peak arc, centers around having characters nearly fall into despair, only to find their “hope” at the very last moment. It’s pretty obvious that she wanted them to play into those tropes and deliberately told them anything that would break their spirits in order to do so, so that Kiibo could later come in as the “SHSL Hope Robot” and play the Naegi role to her evil ringleader role.

This means that most of what she said was probably a combination of truths and lies, rather than the absolute truth. We know there are some things she said that have to be true, because there’s considerable backing and evidence for them. However, it’s just as clear that she lied about other things, in order to try and make the show more entrtaining for the audience, and in ordr to try and more quickly pressure the rest of the group into falling into despair and carry on the “hope vs. despair” narrative that DR is so well-known for.

The most obvious piece of proof that she lied about the outside world being “peaceful” and “fine” in my opinion is Momota’s illness. In Chapter 6, she takes credit for it, claiming she wrote him to be ill as part of her scripted scenario, then uses that as a springboard to claim that she actually wrote Maki’s romantic feelings for Momota as a deliberate ploy to spice the show up. But there’s pretty solid evidence that she absolutely did not write Momota’s illness, or even know that he was sick in the first place.

In the Chapter 5 post-trial, Momota finally comes clean about the fact that he’s terminally ill, and Saihara guesses that he must have the virus which they found out about from the Hope’s Peak flashback light earlier in the same chapter. This virus supposedly came from the meteorites which crashed into the earth, and wiped out most of humanity within a very short span of time.

Momota, who didn’t use the Hope’s Peak flashback light because he was being trapped in the machinery bay by Ouma at the time, had no clue about the virus, but notes that it’s “very strange” that he’s sick. Even he’s not sure why he’s ill. Most tellingly, he notes that “in his memories of astronaut training,” he doesn’t remember being sick at all. This part is actually so important that it’s noted in yellow in the game, meaning it’s supposed to deliberately serve as a clue.

These memories of astronaut training (memories of his talent, in other words) are the same memories Tsumugi takes credit for writing. They’re part of the “scripted scenarios” for her show, the “character backstories,” in other words. Had she actually, deliberately written Momota to be sick, there’s no way (in my opinion) that she wouldn’t have included memories of his illness among the other memories she implanted using the flashback lights. Momota’s illness is entirely missing from his “scripted backstory”–which means, in my own opinion, that Tsumugi couldn’t possibly have written it.

This leads me to believe that Momota was probably already sick prior to the killing game and just wasn’t showing symptoms at the time. Tsumugi herself seems to have had no idea that he was sick whatsoever in Chapter 5; she freaks out almost as much as Maki, and most of her questions for Momota seem to center around his illness, rather than, you know, pretending to be sad that he’s going to die. Clearly, him being sick wasn’t a part of her scenario, and she was somewhat shaken and alarmed to realize that someone with a very contagious, deadly disease had been living among them the entire time without showing any symptoms until now.

If Momota’s illness was real, then that raises… some very interesting possibilities. Most of those possibilities circle back to what we see in some of the other flashback lights. No other possibilities for his illness are brought up besides the virus–and the virus supposedly came from the meteorites.

The same virus was even foreshadowed by Ouma long before Chapter 5; he comments that “it wouldn’t be strange if the meteorites carried some deadly disease that wiped out humanity,” to which everyone replies that that sounds way too fake, like a twist out of a sci-fi novel. He replies by saying that they deal with things like Exisals and flashback lights on a daily basis, so they’re already basically living sci-fi.

This seems to imply that something very well could have happened to the outside world, though it’s unclear what, specifically. A virus of some kind seems to be pretty certain, but where it actually came from or how many people it killed is up in the air. At any rate, it’s equally obvious that the ndrv3 characters are not the “last survivors of humanity,” so the entire world can’t possibly be in shambles either.

But I do think it’s possible that whatever disaster happened could just as easily have led to a forced assimilation to the “peaceful world” that Tsumugi describes. That’s essentially what Mitarai tried to do with his brainwashing in dr3–and it very much seems like DR as a whole exists to entertain the masses in the ndrv3 universe so that they get their fill of bloodshed and violence from TV, rather than by actually resorting to it in real life.

It’s also worth noting that in the prologue, we catch a few glimpses of what the outside world might be like through a few brief moments of narration from Kaede. Kaede’s cynicism and distrust for others shows through loud and clear. When she talks to Saihara, recalling how she was kidnapped, she mentions how jaded and bitter she felt at how “disgusting” the world was, and wasn’t surprised in the least that no one tried to help her, even though her kidnapping supposedly happened in the middle of broad daylight.

It’s only a small hint, to be sure, but it definitely suggests that the “peace” Tsumugi describes in Chapter 6 is nothing but a thinly crafted façade, reinforced by the media. Which is… well, very Brave New World. Given Kodaka’s love for references and throwbacks, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was intentional, actually.

Anyway, those are just a few of my thoughts. I definitely don’t think the outside world is nearly as okay or peaceful as Tsumugi pretends in Chapter 6, and Momota’s illness is the clearest evidence that something was going on. She couldn’t possibly have written him to be sick as part of a scenario when she herself had no idea that he was ill in the first place. But I don’t think the world is a complete, smoking pile of ash, either, since there are obviously still other people around. As usual with ndrv3, I think the answer probably lies… somewhere in the middle.

Anyway, thank you for asking, anon! This is one of those questions that’s always really fun to discuss, so I hope I could help!

[junkobears]

1,16,22!

Bless your soul for giving me more ask meme questions to ramble over! I’ve already answered #1 in a previous ask, so just #16 and #22 here! Ho boy there be V3 spoilers here for sure.

16. If you could change anything in the show, what would you change?

Do I even gotta say it at this point anymore? V3′s Protagonist Switch would be reversed immediately, that is absolutely what I would pick no matter the scenario, if I was rewriting the series, if I could only make one change, etc. It’s just so garbage and basically sets up every other issue I have with V3 and its writing in general. 

I know people will argue that it’s important to have the switch to represent the truth/lie theme of the game, but honestly? I think it could work even if we never switched POVs. You already have Akamatsu acting as an unreliable narrator with her death trap set-up being hidden from the player until the trial reveals, and if Saihara gets executed in her place (the evidence implicates him too much for Akamatsu to properly refute, he takes the fall, w/e) then you already have Monokuma’s false verdict in play right from the get-go. Then the central mystery of the game would be WHY Monokuma would go along with the lie, alongside Akamatsu as MC being defined more by her failures as a leader getting people killed instead of generic “YA GOTTA BELIEVE IN YOURSELF” shit. Etc it ties in with the overarching theme just fine nerds.

Although I think it could also work with Saihara as the initial POV too, but it’d be much more difficult to pull off the narrator trick obviously. But, like I’ve said before, he could’ve been used in the promo material as the perfect sequel protagonist, being the shy timid bland dude unsure of his skills + being a detective directly this time, which directly links him to the DR formula + truth/lie theme. Then surely having him killed off and replaced by Designated Love Interest Character as THE protagonist would be much more a shocking swerve??? God I fucking hate the actual canon twist the more I think about how it could’ve been really unique and subversive if done in any other possible way than the shit we actually got.

Current endless salty rambling aside, other major changes I’d make to this series: Yukizome as DR3 Future Arc’s mastermind, Junko would not get the DR2 kids to join her despair cult via a random brainwashing anime she stole from a nerd dude who’d never been mentioned before, Matsuda (and DR0 in general) would have never existed, the DR2 dead kids would stay comatose forever, AND Saionji would replace Souda as DR2 survivor.

22. Popular character you hate?

Haha, oh hun, ya sure I gotta answer this one?. The top three culprits are Saihara, Komaeda and Naegi, who all basically personify everything I hate about both the DR series and fandom culture in general. I guess those are the low-hanging fruit options though.

So how about I pick some characters from all the major installments that I don’t DISLIKE, but find very… average/boring and overrated compared to the fandom love for them instead? Much more interesting an answer IMO. They’d be Fujisaki, Imposter, Nagisa, Great Gozu/Bandai, and Gonta, respectively.

Fujisaki: Gender discourse has ruined him forever, from BOTH sides of the debate being awful in every way possible. Beyond that I find him to be kinda bland in general compared to the DR1 cast, I don’t think he actually has any real NEGATIVE flaws? I mean I guess he has issues with gender roles but other than that… there’s not much else to the character. I feel the game and fandom both portray him as too angelic and innocent in the overarching narrative, I guess?

Imposter:  Okay I don’t dislike this character at all and in a story that actually used them for more than a cheap fake-out I might actually find their character dilemma interesting, but I REALLY, REALLY do not understand the fandom love for the Imposter. I mean, I found it super lame to bring back a survivor character from DR1, kill them off first and then just reveal it as some random dude who was impersonating him for no reason beyond “We had to shock the players without actually killing off a fan fave (at the time)!”. That’s such a shitty move, writing-wise, and I’d have found it LEAGUES more interesting if it had actually been Togami who died, who’d entered the program willingly as another Observer to guide the DR2 kids to rehabilitation.

Togami’s brand of ‘noblesse oblige’ leadership in DR2 was a pretty logical/fascinating progression from his character growth in DR1, IMO. I find the whole thing super disappointing as a whole, but the fandom apparently loves this character and I have seen numerous posts saying that the Imposter’s character is one of the objectively better written parts of DR2/DR3. What the fuck? If someone wants to explain this opinion to me, I’m all ears.

Nagisa: Like the above two, another character I don’t dislike and there are things about him that I appreciate/like, but he seems to be the majority’s favourite Warrior of Hope and I just don’t really get it personally? I found his form of child abuse to be the least realistic, if I’m honest. The whole “my parents treated me as a customizable RPG character who must be a perfect lab rat at all times” thing. I just find the other four kids’ backstories and characters much more interesting/realistic I guess. Also I can’t lie that brand of anime hair looks so ridiculous IMO… it’s way OTT haha.

Great Gozu/Bandai: They both were dead by the end of Episode 3, did jack shit and had no real character depths, but they seem to be ranked favourably by a lot of fans. Why? Is it really just the beloved Good™ People and Kind-hearted Bara tropes in effect? Was it because everyone else in Future Arc actually had flaws and some of them were pretty awful people (aka actually interesting as characters) so you gotta stan for the pure wholesome characters instead? I just will never get this fandom trend personally.

Gonta: He’s the one character in V3 who I find to just be… there… Even Shinguji kinda interests me more as a character, and Saihara at least makes me actually angry. Gonta just bores me. Frankly the level of gullibility just started to annoy me by the time he died. He really just seemed to exist to be used to further Ouma’s character IMO. Maybe it’s just me? I’m clearly not into the Beloved Bara dudes in this series that everyone else seems to adore, haha. Also the caveman speak in the English localization is SO ANNOYING… RIP Gonta I’ll never grow to care much for you.