#Dangan Ronpa: Return to Despair Academy

[drrtda-official]

Well… I think this has been a long time coming but I’ve been in denial for the longest time.

DRRTDA’s fuckin dead Fred

I should’ve known it was happening but I just don’t have the passion for this project anymore. Not to mention Danganronpa as a fandom has gone really quiet.

Am I going to give up on the story as a whole? Fuck no. But I’m probably not going to continue the YouTube series. At best I will complete the story as a fanfic and make some music videos and animatics as content.

I love the characters too much to let DRRTDA go as a whole but I think it’s time to put the YouTube series to bed.

Thank you all so much for supporting me since 2016!! I love you all so hugging much and I’m glad I met each and everyone of you! I hope we can all still be friends forever.

Thank you again and remember: Monogin loves you!!!

[ao3feed-danganronpa]

coping with regret via universe hopping (a guide to comprehending the fragility of a human mind by makoto naegi)

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/c6WC25f

by delightfullydiscordant

Everyone Makoto Naegi touches turns into a corpse.

Weary and burdened with grief, for the first time since escaping the horrors of the first killing game, he returns to Hope's Peak Academy. His purpose: to bid a proper farewell to the lingering ghosts that haunted the periphery of his existence.

But, with his luck being what it is, everything swiftly unravels and explodes into chaos, catapulting him into an entirely different universe. Familiar faces surround him, yet their roles and the storyline has been rewritten, leaving the luckster stranded and bewildered.

Now, he has to navigate this unfamiliar place, desperately seeking a way to return to his own world and time.

…

Or

…

All he had wanted was a few minutes to himself — had that really been too much to ask?

But, now staring into the faces of people he saw die, he thinks maybe he should have taken up Komaru’s offer to visit Towa, after all.

…

Or

…

“I’m Makoto Naegi.”

“Yes, we know who you are.”

“…Oh, right.”

“Makoto Naegi. Previously confirmed dead. Killed on a live broadcast.”

“…Huh!?”

Words: 2104, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Dangan Ronpa Series, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Super Dangan Ronpa 2, Dangan Ronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls, Dangan Ronpa 3: The End of 希望ヶ峰学園 | The End of Kibougamine Gakuen | End of Hope's Peak High School

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Characters: Naegi Makoto, Kirigiri Kyouko, Enoshima Junko, Ikusaba Mukuro, Fujisaki Chihiro, Togami Byakuya, Maizono Sayaka, Class 78 (Dangan Ronpa), Asahina Aoi, Hagakure Yasuhiro, Fukawa Touko, Naegi Komaru, Ultimate Despair Member(s) (Dangan Ronpa), Remnants of Despair Member(s) (Dangan Ronpa)

Relationships: Kirigiri Kyoko/Naegi Makoto, Ikusaba Mukuro/Naegi Makoto, One-Sided - Relationship, Enoshima Junko & Naegi Makoto, Class 78 & Naegi Makoto

Additional Tags: Despair, Hope vs. Despair, Post-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Remnants of Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, Alternate Universe, Dimension Travel, Despair Era (Dangan Ronpa), Survivor Guilt, Killing Game (Dangan Ronpa), erm, not sure what I’m doing with this, revisiting canon dr, but making it non-canon, trust the process I guess?, who knows if this will last, does this count as Danganronpa IF, tagging it anyway, Danganronpa IF, a version of, Angst, obligatory angst tag, What am I doing, I’m Makoto Naegi, Yes We Know Who You Are, Doctor Who References, I love Harriet Jones, what a sweetheart

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/c6WC25f

[recentanimenews]

Manga the Week of 8/19/20

SEAN: The Yen Press juggernaut is back.

Let’s start with Yen. They have a couple manga debuts. Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai is the manga version of the popular light novel. This arc is a done-in-1 omnibus.

I Love You So Much I Hate You (Nikurashii Hodo Aishiteru) is an office romance yuri about two professional working women with a rivalry… or is it?

MICHELLE: I hope this is something kind of complicated, but I guess we shall see.

ASH: I do like that we’re starting to see more yuri with adult characters.

MELINDA: Yes, I do too.

SEAN: I Don’t Know How to Give Birth! (Shussan no Shikata ga Wakaranai!) is a comedic essay manga about the author struggling with her first-time pregnancy. It looks fun.

ASH: I’m super-curious about this one.

ANNA: I am too!

SEAN: Also from Yen this week: Teasing Master Takagi-san 9; Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization 6 (the final volume); Spirits and Cat Ears 9; So I’m a Spider, So What? 8 (manga version); an omnibus version of the Puella Magi Madoka Magica manga; Phantom Tales of the Night 5; Overlord: The Undead King-Oh! 4; Magia Record 2; Kakegurui 12; Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon: Sword Oratoria 12 (manga version); Hinowa Ga CRUSH! 4; Black Butler 29; As Miss Beelzebub Likes 10; Aoharu x Machinegun 18 (the final volume); and Angels of Death 10.

ASH: You weren’t kidding about the return of the juggernaut! And this is just the manga. Out of these, Phantom Tales of the Night is what has most of my attention.

SEAN: As for Yen On, it also has some debuts. Interspecies Reviewers should already be familiar from the manga and anime: this is a light novel version.

The Demon Sword Master of Excalibur Academy (Seiken Gakuin no Maken Tsukai)… yup, another demon lord in a magical academy.

MICHELLE: How many does that make now? At least three.

SEAN: Also: Sword Art Online 20, Rascal Does Not Dream of Petite Devil Kouhai, Final Fantasy I*II*III: Memory of Heroes, Do You Love Your Mom (and Her Two-Hit, Multi-Target Attacks?) 6, The Dirty Way to Destroy the Goddess’ Heroes 4, Bottom-Tier Tomozaki-kun 4, and 86 ~Eighty-Six~ 5.

From Viz: Venus in the Blind Spot is a best of collection from Junji Ito, and also has the exact same meter as “Mirror in the Bathroom” by The English Beat.

MICHELLE: My brain automatically went to “Heroes in a Half-Shell.” Which is strange, considering I never watched that show.

ASH: Hahaha! Whatever the meter, I’m always glad for more Ito in English.

ANNA: Always a good thing.

MELINDA: I’m on board for this!

SEAN: Also from Viz: Urusei Yatsura 7, Ooku: The Inner Chambers 17, Golden Kamuy 17, and Blue Flag 3.

MICHELLE: Hooray for more Ooku, but after the cliffhanger at the end of volume two, it’s Blue Flag I am desperate for.

ASH: Oh! This is a good week for Viz. And a bad week for my wallet; I’m reading most of these.

ANNA: Yes, super anxious to read the next volume of Blue Flag.

MELINDA: Ooku! And okay, I’m behind on Blue Flag, but I definitely want to know what all the fuss is about.

SEAN: Vertical has the 3rd Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro.

Udon has a 3rd Rose of Versailles omnibus, meaning I’m already behind.

MICHELLE: I only just got volume two last Friday!

ASH: I got the second volume on Saturday, but go ahead and bring on the third!

ANNA: Me too!!!

MELINDA: Help!

SEAN: Tokyopop has a 2nd volume of The Fox and Little Tanuki.

Sol Press has the 3rd Redefining the Meta at VRMMO Academy novel.

Seven Seas debuts a spinoff. The Ancient Magus’ Bride: Jack Flash & Faerie Case Files (Mahou Tsukai no Yome Shihen.75 – Inazuma Jack to Yousei Jiken), which should be a lot of fun for fans of the main series.

MICHELLE: Huh! I’ll have to check this out.

ASH: I’m a fan of The Ancient Magus’ Bride and I’m a fan of the writer Yu Godai, so I’m doubly-excited for this release.

SEAN: Also from Seven Seas: Toradora! 9 (manga version), Skeleton Knight in Another World 5 (print), Reincarnated As a Sword 3 (manga version), Plus-Sized Elf 5, How to Train Your Devil 3, How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord 8 (manga version), Haganai: I Don’t Have Many Friends 18 (print), and Bloom Into You 8.

MICHELLE: I believe that’s the final volume of Bloom Into You, as well. I need to get caught up.

SEAN: No debuts from Kodansha. But we get, in print, Sweat and Soap 3, Saiyuki 2, O Maidens in Your Savage Season 7 and 8, Love and Lies 9, Gleipnir 7, and the 5th Cardcaptor Sakura Collector’s Edition.

ASH: I’m a little behind, but O Maidens in Your Savage Season is so good.

SEAN: Digitally we get That Blue Summer 8 (final volume), Space Brothers 37, Shojo FIGHT! 12, Orient 5, Mikami-sensei’s Way of Love 8 (final volume), Living-Room Matsunaga-san 8, Kakushigoto 6, GE: Good Ending 8, Fairy Tail: Happy’s Heroic Adventure 5, Dolly Kill Kill 5, and Cells NOT at Work 3.

MICHELLE: I have been enjoying That Blue Summer. Hard to believe it’ll be over so quickly!

SEAN: J-Novel Club has one debut, but it’s a biggie: Slayers!. The classic fantasy light novel has been rescued and is coming out with a new translation. The first volume is out next week.

Also out from J-NC: Wild Times with a Fake Fake Princess 2 and How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom 12.

Ghost Ship gives us To-Love-Ru Darkness 16, Saki the Succubus Hungers Tonight 3, and Parallel Paradise 2.

Lastly, Dark Horse has the 2nd volume of Dangan Ronpa 2: Goodbye Despair.

Mo’ volumes, mo’ problems. What’s weighing you down?

By: Sean Gaffney

[detectivetheory]

I WAS A BROKEN BRANCH GRAFTED ONTO A DIFFERENT FAMILY TREE.  /   HC: FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS.

born on october 6, 19xx to KIRIGIRI JIN and KIRIGIRI MICHIKO (nee UZUCHI) ,  kirigiri kyouko knew from the start that she was to be special. different. ultimate.

her RELATIONSHIP TO HER MOTHER had always been significantly better than the one she shared with her father, to reasons unbeknownst to her. michiko had been a singer by trade, and she had caught the eye of the ever-elusive kirigiri jin during one of her shows. patiently waiting for michiko to be finished with the show, the two of them had fallen into a passionate love, quite like a flashfire. just like a flashfire, it had dimmed as soon as it had lit, and kyouko was exposed to the aftermath of it. while jin was busy with teaching and building the prestigious institute of hope’s peak academy, kyouko was under a close eye of both of her grandfathers: KIRIGIRI FUHITO and UZUCHI TOHACHIRO. both of them wishing for kyouko’s presence in their lives as their successors, only michiko’s demands of raising a young girl kept them at bay. this consistent presence of overbearingness and objectifying kyouko as a successor put strain on the relationship between the exiled jin and his father, fuhito, and only michiko’s presence kept their family together. consequently, michiko and her father  —  a world reknowned martial artist, knowing seven japanese styles   — had a strained relationship due to this behavior as well, and jin’s care kept the two of them in good standing.

nonetheless, kyouko was admitted to see both of her grandfathers from time to time, and both of them expressed interest in making her their successor. though her paternal grandfather was more exuberant about making kyouko the next kirigiri detective ( seemingly picking up where her father had failed ), tohachiro had spent a great deal of time teaching her self defense and using his contacts to make sure she was prepared for the world  — some reports claim that he had hired an american soldier to teach her how to shoot a firearm.

while kyouko was visiting her grandfather and studying under him, michiko had contracted an illness known as lymphangioleiomyomatosis  —  a rare lung disease that affects women ages 29-40. while waiting for her lung transplant, the doctors believed that she wasn’t going to make it in time, and kyouko, age ten, returns to see her in the hospital. those present in the hospital would say that kyouko did not shed a tear as her mother passed away before her very eyes, and kyouko herself claims that her last memories of her mother are of a ‘ white face floating above a hospital bed ’.

after her mother’s death, kyouko returned to live with jin briefly and at the disgust of her paternal grandfather. jin, enraged that fuhito hadn’t been affected by michiko’s death and wasn’t giving kyouko enough time to mourn, inevitably walked out on the two of them. burying himself in his work, kyouko’s contact with jin had sharply become nonexistent, feeling as though she lost both parents. IN A TOXIC MANNER, fuhito had encouraged kyouko to hate her father, immediately entering her into a strict lifestyle. mild disassociation began to affect kyouko, unable to separate “kyouko the individual” and “kyouko the detective”. hardening herself and bearing an unremovable resentment towards her father, kyouko too buried herself in her detective work, leaving her mental issues completely unchecked.

only after learning her father’s occupation as headmaster of hope’s peak academy, kyouko began presenting herself as a prospective student. she was careful and articulate in all of her statements to the presses and paper. her actions as a young adult brought fame and glory back to the kirigiri name, and she recieved her first rank of 919 in the detective library. after her acceptance into hope’s peak academy, kyouko begins to question her father’s actions, demanding answers  —  why he left her, why he refused to mend things with his father.

explaining fuhito’s actions only sent jin into an even further state of discontent with his father. frustrated beyond belief and horrified that jin would encourage kyouko to hate him, the two of them began to work on their relationship as father and daughter. unfortunately, due to the mental strain and years of hating him, kyouko struggles with being able to love her father properly. those around them would describe their relationship as “professional, like an agent and client”. however, it is evident that the two of them trust each other, as detailed in dangan ronpa zero , where jin expressed pleasure with kyouko’s work when she investigates matsuda yusuke, and calls her off of the case when he worries for her safety.

generally, kyouko’s relationship with FUHITO is better than her relationship with JIN, and that is revealed through the events of dangan ronpa another episode: ultimate despair girls, when fuhito is a captive during the canon of the game. however, kyouko experiences guilt and regret upon finding her father’s remains in his office during the events of dangan ronpa: hope’s academy and despair’s students. makoto is the only one to ever look in the box and find the remains, however, and kyouko vehemently claims their relationship is just “one of family and nothing more”. the grief she experiences is that of a mourning child, however, as she realizes that both of her parents are indeed dead.

[the-apocryphal-one]

More than a Waifu: or, an analysis on Chiaki

This was typed up for a thing over on reddit, and I decided to share it here because I already put several hours into it, no sense letting it go to waste, right? Basically, it’s an analysis on Chiaki (both of them) and why she’s an interesting and relatable character, beyond mere “waifu bait”, as she is sometimes derogatorily called.

I’m aware DR3 doesn’t have the best reputation among the fanbase, but I still think covering the Chiaki there is important for understanding AI Chiaki, and I genuinely like her. So, let’s start:

Chiaki in DR3:

We’re introduced to Chiaki Nanami in the first episode when she literally bumps into Hajime while playing her game. After a couple seconds, she mumbles that she’s okay and is ready to move on with her life when he asks if she’s playing Gala Omega. Her blank demeanor changes and she becomes super excited, talking about how it’s such a classic and asking him how many times he’s played it as she gets up in his face. At this moment, Chisa arrives to pick her up, and before she leaves, Chiaki tells Hajime she thinks having a talent isn’t a big deal—“all I have are games”, while he can “go anywhere and become anything”.

An intro should establish some character traits, and this does a good job—she’s into games, she’s got some social awkwardness issues (not noticing she’s literally walked into someone or that he’s holding his hands up when she enters his personal space), she’s kind, and she doesn’t think much of herself or her talent. She’s also got some cute, romantically-lit moments with Hajime, establishing herself as #1 love interest candidate and a potential friend/emotional support.

Over the course of DR3, she has an arc where she grows from loner to class rep (and no she did not do this in less than a day, there’s mention of multiple lunches or classes, so it took her several to put everything together), becoming the heart of Class 77 and bringing them all together. She doesn’t do this on her own, however, because she feels that she can’t make friends with games—it takes Chisa’s encouragement to get her to try, and later Chisa’s pushing and nomination for her to actually accept the class rep position. She also, as expected, becomes Hajime’s friend at Hope’s Peak, reassuring him whenever he dwells on his lack of talent. Unfortunately, she’s not able to do enough to help him, and after he gets beaten down by Juzo Sakakura in Episode 3, he goes through with the Kamukura Project, disappearing for a whole year.

Episodes 4-7 don’t show us much of Chiaki, probably because they’re very focused on first Nagito, then Junko, Ryota, and Izuru. When we do see her, she’s usually looking sad, playing a game as she waits at their old haunts. I have my grips with this section because Episode 4 should have had more focus on Class 77’s reaction to Twilight Syndrome, to say nothing of how the six-month timeskip in Episode 5 should have been an episode of itself, because that would have been a great time to show more of her leadership growth. The qualities exist, but like almost everything else, they’re brushed over. Her waiting around does, however, indicate she’s very attached to Hajime and either very patient, clingy, or both, which makes sense—her various comments in Episode 1 indicate she had no friends before HPA, and he was the first one she made.

Anyway, after Episode 7 and the Tragedy of Hope’s Peak Academy, the Reserve Course starts parading, Mikan goes missing, and to top it off, it’s raining. Nagito makes his return from his year-long suspension, telling everyone he saw Mikan on the grounds, and they all split up to look for him—Chiaki going with Nagito. They stumble across the real Ryota Mitarai and Junko Enoshima, where Nagito reveals that he plans to kill her so she can be a stepping stone for hope. Chiaki protests at the idea of killing anyone, but its all moot as Nagito spends too long on speeches and Izuru comes in and shoots him. Chiaki recognizes Izuru as Hajime, but he doesn’t recognize her, and while they’re holding gazes, Chisa comes in to rescue them! But she stays behind to cover their escape. So Chiaki half-carries Nagito back to their class, where she rallies them together to go back and save their teacher and Hajime! And here is where everything goes downhill for her, because of her.

First, let’s just start with the fact that she didn’t tell anyone where they were going, or even leave this to the authorities. We know they have cell phones, we see her using hers as a light, and we know there are police. Hell, someone should have stayed behind with Nagito, who is half-conscious and just got shot in the chest—probably Mikan since she’s the nurse. Nobody in Class 77 thinks of this, but I hold Chiaki the most accountable since she’s their leader. She was warned several times—first by Chisa herself telling her to leave, then by Peko coming in injured from her fight with Mukuro, and then by Nagito Komaeda telling them to give up (and while he says he was testing her, she has no way of knowing that at the time)—and she still charged in, without a real plan and without a way out if things went wrong. She genuinely believed they could do this, that the power of their bonds as a class would triumph and save the day like in one of her video games. So no need for planning, right? Wrong.

Her attempted rescue goes exactly as well as you’d expect—Junko outplays them, separates Chiaki from the group, traps her in a dungeon, and then brutally tortures her to death while making Class 77 watch. It’s still really sad two years later and I’m not going to cover everything she goes through, but even here she still shows her grit and determination as she struggles on through a lot of wounds to make it to the end. Which is a trap, of course, and she’s impaled several times over. With that, Junko successfully brainwashes Class 77 into despair—which is a sticky issue among the franchise, and one I’m not gonna get into more than to point out that it was a combination of the brainwashing and the death that made them Ultimate Despair; Chiaki’s death on its own wouldn’t have worked.

Izuru comes in to talk to her, at which point she starts crying as she talks about how she regrets not being able to help anyone, how she doesn’t want to die, and how she just wanted to play games with him again. After she stops moving, he then picks up her hairpin and cries too, and is seen carrying it around with him after. It’s been established multiple times in Dangan Ronpa that people who lose their memories still carry feelings; Ryoko is still in love with Yasuke, Toko and Genocider both share their feelings for Byakuya and friendship for Komaru, and both the DR and SDR2 casts reform their bonds very quickly. So Izuru retaining Hajime’s feelings for Chiaki follows the series’ trend.

That’s pretty much the end of her story, except for two things—one, her struggle, speech, and death motivate Izuru to examine hope as something that could bring unpredictability into his life, which is why he masterminds the Killing School Trip. And two, in said Killing School Trip, there’s an AI who scans the patients’ memories so it can form their ideal person. As it happens, the entire class had an ideal person in mind, leading to…

AI Chiaki:

AI Chiaki stays in the background for most of the prologue—she doesn’t make herself a huge presence, like the Imposter or Nagito. Hajime’s introduction to her is similar to her DR3 counterpart, in that she’s gaming and there are some long pauses where she doesn’t respond, but it’s also relatively different. For one, she starts to nod off near the end of the conversation, and for another she stays relatively calm all throughout it. I mention this because while she’s based off human!Chiaki, she’s not the same person as her, and has her own differences—two of them being, she falls asleep a lot (theorized to be because she’s an AI and ‘loading’, but there’s no real proof of that), and she’s far calmer and more rational. The fact they aren’t the same person is something I think needs to be emphasized, because I know there are some people who consider them the same character.

In the first chapter, she’s relatively minor, keeping to herself. The moment she first starts to stand out is at the party, where she offers to stand guard with Monomi, and after the Imposter is murdered, where she uses her knowledge of video games to suggest keeping watch at the crime scene. She’s useful throughout the trial, but her big moment comes around the time Nagito reveals himself to not be your “ally character” like you’d thought, which I think is good timing. She makes the deduction that the ‘killer’ found their way to the table using the lamp cord, which stops everyone from giving up and moves the case forward.

After this, she becomes more important during the chapters—she’s Hajime’s primary investigation partner in Chapter 2, she helps him investigate the hospital in Chapter 3, she puts together what she thinks is a map of the Funhouse in Chapter 4, she stops Hajime from going into the Final Dead Room in that same chapter, and she’s a trial-point-getter up until her death. Before I cover that, I’m going to cover something else—her personality, or why calling her a Mary Sue is just using a stupid blanket term that doesn’t even make sense—*deep breath*

AI Chiaki is strange. If you’ve heard the term ‘Manic Pixie Dream Girl’, she’s like that, except instead of drawing the protagonist in with her strangeness, she irritates him. She’s either falling asleep when they investigate a new area, or she’s got her head in the clouds. And when she wants people to go somewhere, like to or from the ruins in Chapter 2, she gets a little forceful about making sure they go to that place. In the first two chapters, Hajime makes several inward comments about how annoying or pushy she is. Even after he’s warmed to her, he still gets baffled by her train of thought, sometimes wondering, “what even is this conversation?” She’s also kind of childish, which makes sense since she hasn’t been alive very long—during the Chapter 3 investigation, she tries to pull a prank on Hajime by pretending she wants him to gouge his eyes out before turning on the light in a room, because it’d be embarrassing if he “saw”. It’s like something in a bad anime, and it falls flat on its face. The writing and drawings in her diary are sloppy and crude, more akin to what you’d see from a pre-schooler than a teenage girl. This quirkiness is endearing on the surface, but in-universe, it’s not.

Her Free-Time Events also show that she lacks a lot of basic knowledge about the world, like what Girls’ Day is or where milk comes from, and mentions the flaw tied back to that strangeness—she doesn’t get dating sims. Or, to be more serious, she doesn’t get people. In her words, she’s not good at games where she has to maintain relationships and guess what characters are feeling. She can be good at the latter (which I’ll mention below), but she also makes her share of misses (as mentioned above) and isn’t the greatest at knowing when to share her guesses. She’s nervous about how people will react when she does something, and feels she’s best standing on the sidelines. This is why she doesn’t take a leadership role except in trials—the Imposter tries first, so she doesn’t feel it necessary, and after he dies the group just…splinters. You’ve got Kazuichi and Nekomaru tying up Nagito, Akane running off to fight Monokuma, Fuyuhiko sulking on his own, Hiyoko bullying Mikan, they’re a mess. She’s good at games dealing with calculations, so she can handle the trials, but she doesn’t feel like she can handle her classmates, so she doesn’t try—and this ties back to her human counterpart well. Yes, human!Chiaki became class rep, but only after being pushed to by Chisa. Without that push, she would have stayed on her own, like AI Chiaki does. It’s a nice little character trait that got strengthened by the anime, in my opinion.

So she’s kind of a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, except her strangeness isn’t what makes Hajime like and rely on her more—it’s the moments where she’s kind and sensible. Like her human counterpart, she has a strong moral compass, and whenever she displays it, that’s when Hajime’s impressed. She’s usually compassionate towards the murderers and even jerks like Hiyoko or pre-development Fuyuhiko. She’s insightful, if a bit insensitive, like when she suggests the reason Fuyuhiko lived isn’t because of luck, but because Peko deliberately sacrificed herself for him, while Fuyuhiko is in the room and feeling depressed that is Peko is dead. Surprise, surprise, being reminded that Peko died for him makes his mood take a dive and he just wants to be left alone. She also has a very firm stance on killing: it’s wrong.

Throughout the game, AI Chiaki makes declarations that she hates the murders and won’t allow it to happen, but she frequently fails to accomplish this. In Chapter 1, she stands guard, but she’s at the completely wrong area to stop a murder (and even if she were in the cabin, she probably couldn’t have stopped it anyway). In Chapter 2, she plays the game, but doesn’t get the special prize before Fuyuhiko. In Chapter 3, she tries to find a cure for the despair disease with everyone else, but a murder happens first. In Chapter 4, there’s nothing to be done except starve to death. Her efforts are either wasted or not good enough.

Chapter 5 is the first time where she really could have made a difference—the conflict of that chapter is that Nagito is seeking the Future Foundation ‘traitor’, which is her, and takes increasingly drastic measures to do so. First by blowing up the hotel, then by threatening to blow up an island, and finally by masterminding his own death to get everyone but the traitor executed. As Chiaki herself muses in the final trial, if the traitor had revealed themselves, maybe Nagito wouldn’t have gone so far…except she literally couldn’t, because it was against her programming. When she was able to earlier help, her actions weren’t enough to prevent a killing; now that her actions could have prevented it, she is unable to do them. All she can do is drop a butt-ton of hints that she’s the traitor, forcing Hajime to oust her in order to save everyone else.

And there’s the crux. For all her declarations, all her tries, she’s powerless. Her programming, her very nature, makes her powerless. She could break it enough to think that she wanted to save everyone, and that’s incredible, but she needed the others’ help to complete her sacrifice. If Hajime hadn’t gone along with her, or if her diary hadn’t been found to prove she was the traitor, would she have been able to convince them anyway? We don’t know. What we do know is that her thinking freely is a miracle, yet she was still bound by her coding.

Her execution probably highlights the differences between her and her human counterpart the best—while human!Chiaki is crying, gasping in pain, and screaming, AI Chiaki keeps a relatively blank face all throughout. She doesn’t panic or flinch when the huge tank is bearing down on her, nor when Tetris blocks are falling all around her. She tries to escape, but when she has nowhere to run, she accepts it. She goes to her death willingly and with a smile, whereas human!Chiaki had a more, well, human reaction of not wanting to die.

Finally, AI Chiaki makes an appearance to Hajime in the last trial, when he’s spiraling into despair and doubt over all the pressure being placed on him. She delivers a speech about how he’s not part of the game and can make his own future, while reassuring him that she knows he’s scared and that she will never disappear so long as they keep moving forward. She also acts more like her human counterpart here, reciting words human Chiaki told Izuru (“If you just do it, things will work out okay!”) and referencing that she knew him in the past. The scene is pretty ambiguous about whether she’s really there or just Hajime’s hallucination/memories, and I think it’s the better for it, honestly. However, some small part of her is able to help him defeat AI Junko, as shown by her declaring “no, that’s wrong!” in time with him, and she answers his thanks (after he’s gone, of course) with a declaration that she’ll always be watching them…from somewhere. It’s a poignant moment made more poignant when you compare it to last chapter; then, who and what she was—a traitor and an AI—stopped her from preventing a disaster, and it was only with Hajime’s help that she was able to successfully sacrifice herself. Here, who and what she is—Chiaki Nanami, Hajime’s emotional support/love interest/friend/potential ghost or hallucination—is what enables her to successfully prevent a disaster, and she’s able to lift Hajime up on her own.

She doesn’t show up in Side:Hope for more than a brief moment, and fun fact, it’s still ambiguous if she’s really there and if Hajime can see her or not—his dialogue is written in a way that could be construed as him talking to himself. Her brief screentime has her explaining what I explained at the beginning—that she’s an AI who took on Chiaki’s form from their memories—and that this is the future she gave her life for. She then fades away with a smile as Hajime rejoins the rest of the class.

Conclusion:

Frankly, I think there’s a lot to love about Chiaki. She’s a socially-awkward gamer, which is something a lot of us either like (being gamers) or can relate to. She has an arc about growing from that loner to someone who can be counted on. She’s a sweetheart who does her best to help her friends succeed; sometimes that isn’t enough, like DR3 Chiaki, and sometimes she needs help herself, like AI Chiaki, but she doesn’t let it stop her from still trying. There are stumbles in DR3 Chiaki’s writing, but I still believe she’s a good character, and that both she and her AI counterpart have nice relationships with Hajime and Class 77. They’re great girls, and I hope this analysis helped fans remember what we love about Chiaki beyond “she’s my waifu”.

[ao3feed-komahina]

by lake_writes

The Tragedy won't happen again. Everything will be fine.

But is that the truth? Or is that just wishful thinking?

~~~~~~~~

Link to my Discord Server: https://ift.tt/2WbznLw

Words: 2056, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing, Super Dangan Ronpa 2, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: Multi

Characters: Naegi Makoto, Hinata Hajime, Oma Kokichi, Saihara Shuichi, Shirogane Tsumugi, Akamatsu Kaede, Harukawa Maki, Iruma Miu, K1-B0 (Dangan Ronpa), Momota Kaito, Tojo Kirumi, Chabashira Tenko, Yumeno Himiko, Shinguji Korekiyo, Yonaga Angie, Gokuhara Gonta, Hoshi Ryoma, Amami Rantaro, Komaeda Nagito

Relationships: Oma Kokichi/Saihara Shuichi, Oma Kokichi & Saihara Shuichi, Hinata Hajime & Oma Kokichi, Komaeda Nagito & Oma Kokichi, Hinata Hajime/Komaeda Nagito, komahina is the only ship that actually happens really

Additional Tags: komahina parent au, kokichi's adopted by hajime and nagito, Alternate Universe - Hope's Peak Academy (Dangan Ronpa), The Tragedy of Hope's Peak Academy (Dangan Ronpa), sorta - Freeform, Despair, Hope vs. Despair, Future Foundation (Dangan Ronpa), the remnants of despair joined the future foundation in this timeline

[sanctferum]

Dangan Ronpa chapter 3 freetime part 2!

Here we go. Himiko’s free time event! …I can’t trigger it. I’ll try again next chapter, assuming she’s alive then. Gonna try Gonta or Angie, or maybe Kiyo.

I’ll go for Angie. There’s too much detail paid to how her lab locks and on which doors are which locks. She has a good chance of dying this chapter. …Nope, can’t get a free time event from her either. Kiyo, then?

Kiyo time! The difference between anthropology, archeology, and history…History is records, archeology is items, and anthropology is folklore and customs. Customs and superstitions can only come into being in places where they can be shared amongst people…Shuichi doesn’t get it, though.

When Kiyo thinks of a kappa, and when Shuichi thinks of a kappa, they aren’t the same creature. Monsters originally were formless – people’s superstitions and emotions given shape are what much of today’s mythologies are composed of. Culture changes, and so does the form a kappa takes…

Now let’s use our next free time event to check in with Keebo! Nope, looks like we really can’t hang out with anyone who’s on the student council…that leaves Kaito, Miu, Kiyo, and Kokichi. I doubt Maki is ready to hang out with us.  We’ve already gotten all of Kokichi’s events, so let’s go chill with Kaito.

Kaito claims to be busy…he looks preoccupied with what happened this morning. Fine. FINE. I’ll hang out with Miu, and give her this stupid groper tentacle from Ultra Despair Girls. She better not turn me down to pay attention to the computer…

OK, she’s pissed off about the Student Council, but calms down enough to accept a present. Here, have a pervy item!

Miu decides she’s gonna devote her time to “Poo-ichi”, as she has been calling Shuichi since the beginning…Shuichi starts to wonder if this is actually a good idea. He gets dragged to the Ultimate Inventor Lab, despite his protests. She immediately starts showing off her inventions. Like this sensor! Which senses something, right? It’s…it’s called the “Hookup Counter”…an invention to try and determine how many people you’ve had sex with. Rather than tell Shuichi what her sensor said about him, she gets her next invention out. An arm with a boxing glove…Shuichi, you might wanna duck, I think this invention is gonna sock you in the face.

It’s the “Auto-Puncher that Punches You For Telling Terrible Dirty Jokes”. Nevermind, if that socks anyone, it’s gonna hit Miu…it has a description for a name cause she was too lazy to come up with a good name for it. She compares naming every invention she makes to if Shuichi felt the need to name every sperm cell he shoots off while beating the meat. Then the auto-puncher socks her in the fucking face. It works after all! Hooray!

A…good punch? Are you a masochist? Actually, don’t answer that?

One more invention! Shuichi sounds absolute delighted to hear that. By which I mean he sounds like he would very much like to be somewhere else right now.

A ray gun. A sci-fi ray gun. OK.

Oh no, even worse. It’s a gun that teleports underwear off the person it hits. The “Going Commando” gun. Well, at least we aren’t teleporting bread.

Why can the gun only teleport underwear anyways? Actually I still don’t want an answer to these questions.

Incredible technology! That she is wasting on underwear. Good fucking grief, skip the rest of your character arc and just go make millions in the sex toy industry already.

Miu looks like she’s about to cry after Shuichi calls her inventions odd, she he lies and says they look pretty cool.

What kind of fun are you talking about, Shuichi? ;)

OK she bounced back pretty quick.

I don’t think she meant testing her inventions on you. Especially with the word “blow” involved.

Wow that event was super awkward.

Evening, and the Monokub announcement is here! Monotaro got KO’d by Monodam as punishment for some misstep or other, so only Monophanie is here. The Monokubs will be taking a break from announcements…but the announcements will still happen! That’s Monokuma’s new job! He’s still catatonic, though, so…

Kaito did not look well last we saw him. Will we still be training tonight? Well, the doorbell is ringing, so…I’m guessing it’s someone else besides Kaito. Maki?

It is Maki! Kaito says he’s not feeling well…we should train without him, he says.

Shuichi and Maki train together, and as they do…Maki asks Shuichi why he’s training. A detective doesn’t need to do this…but when Shuichi is with Kaito, it’s like all that stuff about the problems here and what he needs to do just fades away. Shuichi goes on to describe why Kaito, while no role model, is exactly the kind of friend he needed.

100 pushups again way before Shuichi was done. Maki is really good at this.

“I used to be forced to do push-ups until I passed out. 100 pushups is nothing.” Uh. Are we gonna find out about Maki’s past? I wonder how much of her orphanage backstory is real…

Maki thinks Kaito is useless. But in a way…she’s…jealous of him. He has all these strange little things about him, but Maki? What you see from Maki is what there is. Anything else – anything superficial, anything nonessential – she lost. She was forced to lose. She was forced to lose all the things that make people human, so “they” could mold her as they saw fit. Even now, she can’t be sure of what she really is…she didn’t want this life. But she had no say in the matter. And now…she’s more of a robot than Keebo, and he’s a literal robot. But even he acts more human than Maki does. But…she had no choice, because…

At this point she clams up again. Shuichi talks a bit about how he never wanted to be a detective. Uncovering people’s secrets for money…it’s not what he wanted. But…in this situation…he has friends relying on him. If it can help the others, he’ll do as much detective work as he needs to. Without Kaede and Kaito, he would have been lost…it was his interactions with them that opened his eyes.

Maki doesn’t care about his story and walks away. Shuichi goes back to pushups, still worried about Kaito.

Maki returns to the dorms to find the Student Council all assembled there. They’re here to make sure none of the others go out at night. Monokuma’s regulations permit people to go out at night, but after Kirumi’s crime…it might be best if that stopped.

Maki thinks that the Student Council is trying to take away the other Ultimates’ freedom of movement.

Atua wishes for the school to be more peaceful, so-

Tenko interrupts Angie to speak bluntly: People are afraid of Maki. That’s why the Student Council is here.

Fade to black…

Monodam theater! Humans start out as invalids and end up as invalids. In the end, an old person can only do as much as a baby. Humans are pointless. End theater.

Monokuma announcement: silence from Monokuma, then the monitor turns off. Good morning, guys! Let’s go eat breakfast.

Kokichi’s in the dorm hall, hungry, but also sad that he can’t eat Kirumi’s cooking anymore.

Outside, on the way to the dining hall, is Maki, and a bit closer to the dining hall, Kiyo. Maki asks if Shuichi is OK, then tells him not to worry about it when he has no idea what she’s referring to. It turns out to be the Student Council thing from last night. Maki is barred from walking around at night. Maki warns Shuichi to be careful that Angie doesn’t seize too much power, or else those not on the Student Council will end up with fewer and fewer freedoms.

Shuichi decides that the situation needs to be dealt with, lest the group end up being torn in half.

Kiyo wants Shuichi’s help with cleaning his lab. We agree to help him later on, and Shuichi observes that Kiyo’s been a bit obsessed with seances ever since discovering the Caged Dog book and artifact.

Inside the academy, Miu is very tired. She stayed up all night figuring out stuff about the weird computer on the 4th floor.

Groin muscles? Um. What. What are you making the computer do, exactly…?

Let’s. Um. Go into the dining hall and oh what the hell is this.

Kaito versus Atua…I mean, Angie. Oh boy.

Kokichi was hoping for some discord in the group…he doesn’t like boring things. Asshat.

Kiyo believes depending on a god is a sign of a corrupted mind. There’s only one thing that can be fully depended on…oursel- er, that’s, what? Love? Excuse me? That’s not what I expected from Kiyo…

Why so mad, Kaito? Is it cause they treated Maki like a potential blackened?

Oh fuck. The Student Council blocked off the underground passageway in the name of preparing to stay here forever. Until Gonta can be convinced to take the boulders he put on the manhole off, we can’t access the escape passage.

Angie…knew exactly what to say to get Shuichi to shut up. She also brainwashed half the remaining students…she’s a dangerous one, that’s for sure.

Leaving the decision to Atua is just leaving the decision to Angie, who can claim Atua said whatever and they have no way of refuting her.

After Tsumugi explains why they didn’t listen to everyone’s opinions, Angie hugs her like she did Himiko and Gonta. Is that part of the brainwashing trick? But, Tsumugi already is following Angie…

Tsumugi asks when she can meet Atua…is that foreshadowing? Is she gonna die?

Yeah, this is a bad situation.

With the pretense of being worried that the others harbor thoughts of escape still, the Student Council grabs more power. It’s not just Maki, now. No one but the Student Council members can walk around at night. Angie claims that there’s an exception for the Student Council members cause none of them want to leave anymore anyways.

Someone on the Student Council is lying, I’m sure of it. Possibly Angie herself. I haven’t forgotten Celeste’s case from Dangan Ronpa 1…she was the one who forbid walking around at night, and who urged everyone to adapt. And it turned out she was the most desperate to escape. (Except possibly Sayaka?)

Kaito, though. Kaito wants to escape. If he lives here forever, he will never be able to go to space. Before he can continue, the Kubs show up. Right. Fighting is not allowed. And in order for us to get even closer to each other...Monodam presents…a flashback light! But before anyone can use it, Angie grabs it and breaks it on the floor. The Student Council has decided that flashback lights are now banned. By which we mean, Angie has decided. What do people who are gonna stay here forever and ever need with outside memories?

Without the flashback light, whatever the Kubs plan is cannot proceed. Monodam is freaked out enough that he leaves without another word, and the other two follow him.

The non-Student Council members are outraged. Angie then says she has a plan for the resurrection ritual. The more friends here, the less people will want to escape.

Another time limit motive would be bad…so her plan for the ritual is…in that scenario, have the resurrected person die as a sacrifice so the other people can survive. Angie…you’ve been here in Monokuma’s academy too long. You’re starting to think like him…or like Kaede ended up thinking…either way…

Kaito brings up that the Necronomicon is a motive for the killing game. Shuichi notes that Kaito is looking worse and worse by the moment…

Angie is planning to bring back Rantaro, because “Atua says so”. Kaede and Kirumi killed. Angie refuses to bring them back. And Ryoma was a criminal who broke the group’s rule about not sharing motive videos. Rantaro would be the only one of use to the Student Council…

Shuichi can’t begin to grasp how nuts all of this is, and any attempt to do so is interrupted by Angie deciding to gather the Council and depart to start the ritual.

Atua’s will…Angie’s will…they’re the same thing. Either Angie is right and Atua channels himself through Angie, or, more likely, Angie is making up what Atua is or isn’t saying. This situation is bad.

Kokichi is eager to fight the Student Council. He starts to order Maki to kill them off, but Shuichi won’t hear of it, obviously. And all this time, Kaito is not looking good.

Kokichi wants to go to war. But he doesn’t want Rantaro to be brought back. I dunno how genuine he is about anything, let alone wanting to resurrect Kaede. I’d think he’d rather resurrect Kirumi.

He talks about an anime about a death game, where the mastermind sacrificed a family member to get the killing started. Is it called “Danganronpa: The Animation” by any chance? I’ve seen that one. It’s good but Trigger Happy Havoc is better. Oh well, adapations don’t always work out. The Princess Bride is a rare exception.

Rantaro could’ve been working for the mastermind…that’d explain how he knew about the secret door, if he was the one disturbed the card reader dust. He seemed almost at ease with the situation, like he was used to it. Still, I have a strong doubt about that.

Maki of all people is asking if there’s a peaceful resolution to this possible…but she doubts there is. So if there are two sides, why not remove one of them? Well, she doesn’t want to kill anyone. It’s just an option from the kind of world she’s from…

Miu’s just happy that the resurrected student will be first in line to die instead of her. Girl, what the fuck.

Kaito just has a chill. Nothing wrong here. Hey Kokichi, call him out on this obvious lie, will ya?

Kaito can’t stop the chills running through his body? Did someone poison him or something? I’m not so sure he was lying about that, now…

Shuichi still want to escape this place, with everyone. Kaede’s wish…Shuichi has to do something.

Free Time…who can we even hang out with? I wonder…yes! We CAN hang out with Maki! Dunno if we can get her Free Time events, but I’m gonna try!

What would she even like? I…I have no idea. I’m gonna give her random shit and see what happens.

Many resets later…she apparently liked the beret item. It’s red, true, but…

Shuichi questions Maki over her assassin talent. Maki states that assassination organizations would disband once people knew about them. Does she work alone then? Who’s the “they” she mentioned before?

The Holy Salvation Society…the assassin organization and cult that Maki belongs to. Wait, so one of the non-Student Council members is a part of a cult, but a different one than Atua’s?

It sounds more like a mafia to me, the way Maki is describing it. But apparently, the cult part is just as real as the actual assassination part that the cult is a front for. Except that most believers are “in” on the truth. But there are some who have no idea.

The founder and boss of the Holy Salvation Society doesn’t believe in God, at least not in private. And yet, he and his cronies haven’t been punished for it, or for killing people. That’s why Maki believes God doesn’t exist.

Maki and her fellow assassins are as devout as the boss. Aka, not at all. She’s affiliated with the cult, but not a cultist herself. The assassins don’t interact with each other often…so much for any friends there. And when the time comes, an assassin will have…outlived their usefuleness. And Maki? Maki just accepts that’s how life is. That’s how it works. Even if it means she could one day be betrayed and killed by them. I don’t know the details on how the cult raised Maki other than the pushups part, but they really fucked her up in the head…

Kiyo, Maki, Miu…with Kokichi finished last chapter, and Kaito feeling sick, those are our choices. I’ll go with Maki again.

This time the topic is the weapons in the Ultimate Assassin Lab. Depending on the situation, different weapons are useful. Maki knows how to use all weapon types, in case she needs a particular tool for the job. There’s lots of weapons. Knives, poison, sniper rifles, martial art techniques, bombs…the bombs are used when you’re making it extra clear that the target did something your client did not want them to do. With a blast like that, there’s no mistaking it as something other than a warning to others – don’t do that, or you’ll be next. Maki’s taken out entire building floors before with bombs. Usually, though, that isn’t necessary.

As I figured, assassins in real life (well, video game real life, which according to a theory I have isn’t even that) are no secret heroes. They kill good people or bad people, no questions asked. Who the person is doesn’t matter at all. Orders are orders, and business is business. Maki’s killed many people without learning more about who they were than it took to come up with an assassination plan. But she’s also had to kill people she knew well…including people she considered friends. A yakuza leader’s daughter, whose mother had no connections to the mafia. The yakuza’s elites knew of her father’s love for her daughter, decided that it could cause problems if a rival gang kidnapped her or something, and just…got Maki to get rid of the problem. And so, a friend from school died. According to a local religious group, it was an act of God…that religious group was, of course, Maki’s organization. But Maki doesn’t believe in acts of God, and she has no intention of blaming others for what she has done. And yet it was after killing her friend from school that she realized not just what her life had become, but that it would keep being this way. And so…she did what she had to to survive. And she believes her victims did the same, until it was no longer possible. She is a killer. She kills. But she’s all too aware that she can be killed too.

Night-time already. After the Monokuma announcement, in which Monokuma is still as catatonic as ever, we go to check up on Kaito, see how he’s dealing with Angie’s curfew. But before we can even ring the doorbell, the door opens and Maki steps out. What?

She looks mad, and Kaito, who thankfully isn’t dead or anything, still looks awful…he hasn’t been able to eat or sleep since yesterday. He’s skipping training tonight. He’s about to figure out what to reschedule the training session to, when Maki stops him. No rescheduling, Angie and the Council be damned.

Kaito’s training made Maki think. It made her think about how to confront “it”. Her enemy? Her past? Her employers? She leaves to train alone.

Kaito must be really unwell to not be opposing Angie and her chumps…

Outside, Shuichi tries to explain that Kaito is sick to Maki. Maki turns around to face him…and the face she’s making is not a good one. She’s glaring at him, looking almost murderous. No, not at him. Past him. At Tenko.

Tenko refuses to back down, but it’s clear she’s terrified of Maki. Maki says she doesn’t want to fight Tenko, and that she thinks Tenko is here for some reason other than enforcing the curfew. She wants to ask Maki for a favor. A personal favor.

Tenko doesn’t sound brainwashed…now that I think about it, she wasn’t as enthusiastic as the others in praising Angie and Atua, and we didn’t see her get hugged by Angie. But if she wasn’t brainwashed, why did she join the Student Council? Because Himiko did?

Tenko praised Atua before, but she confesses now that she could never believe in him for real. The only thing she can believe in is Aikido.

Yeah, she’s in the cult to try and save Himiko, as I thought.

Himiko doesn’t like to spend energy. And thinking for yourself costs energy. But Tenko knows that Angie is dangerous.

Angie believes in Atua. That’s no lie. She thinks she’s Atua’s vessel. It’s not that she’s using Atua as a convenient excuse…it’s that she’s attributing everything she does to the will of Atua. Which means she’s always perfectly blameless and can do no wrong.

But to ask Maki for a favor…does she want Maki to kill Angie?

She does. But just because she wants Angie dead doesn’t mean she’s gonna take action that will kill Angie. That’d be murder, plain and simple.

She wants Maki to stop Angie. The resurrection ritual is dangerous. Very very dangerous. We still haven’t learned what exactly Angie needs to do…

Angie must be stopped.

Shuichi is included in this request? Despite being a degenerate male? Damn, Tenko is desperate. She has no one else she can turn to. Kokichi would tell the Student Council to stir up trouble. Kiyo is creepy, Miu is Miu, Kaito is sick. It’s up to us.

And so we head to Angie’s lab, where she is no doubt dead already. No one in the entrance hall of the school. The coast is cle- oh hi there Kokichi. Fuck, we’re busted.

Tenko says she rounded us up since we were walking around at night. You don’t need to be Kokichi to see that the way she gives this statement is very suspicious. Lying to Kokichi won’t end well…but he apparently has his own schemes, and after subtly letting the group know he knows that it was a lie, he departs, supposedly to bed.

Let’s see who is dead here…my bet is still on Angie.

The door is locked. Maki starts pounding on it vigorously. But Angie won’t open the door for someone else unless they’re a fellow Student Council member. Tenko, you’re up!

Angie recognizes Tenko’s voice…which means she’s currently alive. Huh.

We step into the lab, to see…statues. Realistic statues of four people. Four dead people.

Is the ritual supposed to use these statues to create new bodies for the dead?

Oh, not statues. Wax effigies. An effigy is needed for the ritual…

Monokuma’s motive…but, it wasn’t. It was Monodam’s motive, right?

The effigies are almost an exact representation of the deceased. The only thing that’s different is that they have no trace of a soul about them.

“A soul, desperate to live, struggling, fighting for life…that’s something that can never be replicated. No matter what technology you have, you can’t fake a soul.” If my theory holds any water, you yourself might not have a soul, Shuichi.

Angie is forced to accept the truth. They’re dead.

…which means that the ritual IS needed for them to come back! Dammit Angie…

Maki tries to make Angie understand that this isn’t Atua’s will, it’s her own. Angie does not believe her at all.

No point in talking…so then…Maki, do you have a plan? One that does not involve killing Angie?

Shuichi, Tenko, and Maki are forced to give up for now. No progress, and now Angie knows Tenko is a spy. Himiko shows up as well. Angie dismisses Tenko’s betrayal as “nothing”. I expected her to turn Himiko against Tenko, to be honest.

Tenko grabs Himiko, trying to make her remember herself. The Himiko that proudly called herself a mage, the Himiko that thought her own thoughts. If she can’t tell she’s been brainwashed, then Himiko is no true mage.

Himiko is mad, but you wouldn’t guess so by her expression. It’s the same as always…except Himiko is refusing to look Tenko in the eye. Well, this sucks.

Back at the dorms, Tenko has a meltdown over saying awful things to Himiko. Maki suggests Shuichi teach Tenko how to apologize properly, but Himiko says she’ll use her own words to do so. Someone is dying from this, and it’s either Angie, Tenko, or Himiko…there’s no way this will end well.

Shuichi decided to think of some other, less orthodox way to stop Angie. I mean, I’d suggest destroying the effigies, but I don’t think Shuichi would be able to destroy Kaede’s…Maki says she’ll think about some other ways of doing something about the situation. Everyone returns to their rooms.

Monodam theater, featuring Monodam as ET. Monodam attributes his determination to make everyone get along to a past life as a fish who was bullied in a human school.

Morning! Time to see who’s dead today! Oh, and there’s the doorbell. Tenko? Maki? Kaito?

It’s Maki. And soon after, Kaito.

“Maki Roll” is a cute nickname. I dunno if she’ll appreciate it though. Yeah, she doesn’t. Anyways, Shuichi and Maki are gonna go stop the ritual. Kaito is their backup plan.

So that’s why Kaito has been so sick…he’s been scared this whole time. Terrified…of the dead. He does have “the occult” listed as a dislike in his profile, so fair enough.

He was scared so bad he didn’t even go to training. Maki is less than impressed. Kaito always acts unafraid of anything, but he has one thing he is scared of. Terrified of.

Maki is upset that Kaito thinks she’s weak. Kaito, of all people! The person who’s shitting himself over ghost stories!

Angie isn’t in her room.

Well, time to see who’s dead! I’m still thinking it’s gonna be Angie.

Good morning, Kiyo! And Tenko! Tenko has been looking for Himiko. She’s missing, huh? RUH-ROH.

Himiko is outside the art lab. Is someone dead inside?

Well, there’s been no response from inside the lab, no matter how much Himiko calls for Angie. Things really are not looking good for her chances of not being dead at this very instant, huh?

Both doors are locked. How are both doors locked? One of the keys was eaten by Monodam.

Someone’s inside, right? (Probably not someone besides Angie’s corpse. I bet there’s a third way of the room.)

Kokichi you little shit, where’d you come from? Oh right, he can pick locks. And he seems way too excited. He must at the very least suspect someone is dead, if not outright already know about it.

Shuichi is fearing the worse, and is panicking. And rightfully so, my boy! Angie’s no doubt dead. There’s like a 95% chance she’s dead.

We open the door, and…someone has hung the manikins upside down by their feet. And on the floor…is something. Something that raises that 95% chance to 100%. And honestly, as someone who was getting sick of Angie, I’m not too sad that she’s deader than a virus. (The joke is that a virus isn’t alive in the way other organisms are in the first place. Not a computer virus, FYI. Those aren’t alive at all.)

Announcement time! Monophanie is blue in the face. I can’t imagine Monodam is too happy, considering how much he emphasized the co-operating game. He’s mostly a robot, so it’s hard for me to tell from his tone of voice whether he’s happy or upset. Monophanie pukes again at the mention of a dead body.

I guess we’re just standing there in shock, because before we know it, everyone is here. Keebo suggests praying for Angie, that Atua guide her soul to heaven. Gonta concurs…it would seem Angie’s death hasn’t magically gotten rid of the brainwashing…but as Maki points out, clearly Angie wasn’t protected by a god from the blackened, so maybe they’ll come to their senses…

Hey, I spy Kiyo’s antique katana buried in Kaede’s effigy.

Kokichi’s right on the ball as usual. This wasn’t an accident. This was part of the killing game.

Tsumugi is about to suggest that the blackened isn’t a student, when the Monokubs show up, Monophanie still puking.

Monodam believes overcoming this incident will bring everyone closer together. I guess to him, Angie will act as stepladder to friendship, as a certain Danganronpa 2 character might put it.

In fact, murders might be necessary to bring everyone together as one…thus, even though Monodam is in charge, he’s still gonna hold the class trial.

Monotaro suggests everyone knock off this whole dying thing. Monophanie pukes again. Monodam gives us the Monokuma File. Unless it’s the Monodam file this time around. Then the Kubs leave.

Kokichi suggests that by this point, people must be getting used to dead bodies. Gonta refuses to, though. Maki says no one should ever have to get used to dead bodies. Kokichi finds that insincere coming from an assassin, but of course Maki would say that. She wouldn’t wish her kind of life on anyone else.

The four wax figures are suspended from the ceiling girders, with Angie in the middle in a pool of blood. This sure looks like a ritual, if not the one we were expecting…

We’re Kaito’s sidekick again. Tsumugi again wonders if the blackened is one of us…could it have been the transfer student? Well, all the wax figures are still wax, not flesh, so I’m guessing not.

Still, Tsumugi is worried about the possibility. Could one of the dead have come back to life, and killed Angie? Kaito goes into freakout mode and has to step outside for some fresh air. We’re partnered with Maki, it would seem.

The Monokuma File is still the Monokuma File. The time of death is 2 AM…the cause of death is a stab wound to the back of the neck. Her forehead has a cut on it as well.

Tsumigi believes that if everyone had followed the night-time rule, this wouldn’t have happened. Kiyo suggests that the culprit could as well be part of the Student Council as not, so the nighttime rule might have been pointless.

Maki can’t sit this one out, but Himiko intends to. She can’t bring herself to examine Angie’s body. She can’t do this anymore. Even if it means everyone dies, including herself. She doesn’t care. Surviving…is a pain. And might very well be a waste of energy if the killings continue and she ends up next.

Kiyo has a plan for the investigation. There might be a way to revive Angie. Or at least, to hear her testimony. The Caged Child séance. He’s certain that it will work. And Angie can confirm that the ritual was incomplete. If she does that, Tsumugi won’t have to suspect a transfer student, and can accept that one of us is the blackened. Kokichi offers to help with the séance, as does Himiko. Himiko would do anything to talk to Angie one more time. Tenko promptly offers her help as well. Himiko shrugs off Tenko’s offer and tell her to do whatever she wants. Sorry, Tenko, I don’t think this relationship is meant to be. Five people are needed for the ritual. Kiyo, Tenko, Himiko, and Kokichi make four, so Kokichi volunteers Keebo. The séance must take place in pitch blackness. Hmmm. Those empty rooms sound good? Yeah, Himiko also brings them up. The séance will take place in the middle room. The five leave. Maki thinks a séance is a waste of time, and Shuichi gets to work investigating. Which we will do tomorrow. Till next time, then!

[demos-cloud]

favourite anime(s) of 2016?

Admittedly, I didn’t watch many new anime series this year. I was mostly watching older series, particularly those 5-minute ones. They’re pretty amusing and are short enough to sneak in between classes or during a homework/study break, aha. If I had to choose though...

Re: Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu - I had a love-hate relationship with this series but I will admit I enjoyed it a lot. I adore the “regular human gets trapped in a video game/fantasy world” trope and the return by death ability was very well incorporated. Many of the characters were enjoyable too, and I love love love seeing Crusch depicted as the strong warrior and wise ruler-candidate she is, without destroying any of her character for wasteful fanservice.

Dangan Ronpa 3 - The End of Hope’s Peak Academy - Side: Future / Despair / Hope - I wasn’t expecting the series to end with the anime, but it was a really wonderful ride! The animation quality was a huge jump compared to the anime adaption of the first game, and the characters were all so emotionally stirring. I wouldn’t consider this my top favorite of 2016 though, simply because I didn’t like how many of the characters were killed off and left at that. There’s usually a lot of development for each character, so that you can get to know them better, and I felt that this was lacking in DR3. Some characters appeared in both side Future and Despair which helped with that development, but others like Daisaku Bandai felt like mere death fodder.

Other Anime I watched if you’re interested (it’s not a lot www):

Sakamoto Desu Ga? - A friend and I watched this together. Although the episodes felt slow, it was an incredibly amusing series. I read the manga first, so I was fascinated by how the anime replicated the scenes almost exactly.

Nanbaka - A very colorful series about a group of prison breakers. It reminded me of Prison School without all the ridiculous ecchi, but it ended up being an unexpected “this is so stupid” comedy. Later on it took another unexpected turn and became an action-heavy shounen anime. I still need to finish it, but I do enjoy the characters’ interactions quite a bit.

91 Days - It had a great start, and I had high expectations from Studio Shuka, but the show seemed to drag on and on with little progress. I wanted to see how it would progress, but getting to episode 9 felt like a drag so I eventually cut it off there.

Occult;Nine - The summary sounded interesting but the overall show seemed bland and generic. I couldn’t find myself getting interested in it.

Keijo!!!!!!!!! - I watched this on a whim as I had heard of how bad it was. I couldn’t even last 15 minutes. I dearly want to purge this from my memory.

[drrtda-official]

Have a DRRTDA memes master post. Spoilers for Prologue and Chapter 1

[ao3feed-danganronpa]

Dangan Ronpa; Despair Returns

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/1NFpe8M

by brolavekun

Shinakio Shimuzu, the ultimate Producer, wakes up on what looks to be a college campus. Except.. he wasn't meant to arrive at the all new Hopes Peak University for another month. Finding himself among sixteen other students he finds that something is incredibly wrong, but they're left to their own devices for an entire year before they get any word from the people who trapped them there. Bonds have been formed, stakes are high, how will our protagonist cope when he and his friends are thrown into a killing game run by a monocolored cat?

Words: 709, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing, Super Dangan Ronpa 2, Dangan Ronpa Series

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death

Categories: F/F, F/M, M/M

Characters: Shinakio Shimizu, Botan Oshiro, Kurumada Chisu, Orime Kikuchi, Hideyoshi Kou, Uchickosi Sato, Eichi Yoshida, Chio Koyama, Nakahara Dai, Onagi Rei, Furaki Rikio, Watanabe Tatsumi, Moto Zenshiro, Harada Kazuo, Murakami Gin, Eito Aikiya

Relationships: Original Character/ Original Character, non-canon plotline - Relationship

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Hope's Peak Academy (Dangan Ronpa), Killing Game (Dangan Ronpa), Fan Killing Game (Dangan Ronpa), I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, This is a product of my own brainrot, My 2014-2019 hyperfixations are coming back to haunt me, post canon lore - Freeform, screw monokuma Im making my own murder stuffed animal

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/1NFpe8M

[ao3feed-danganronpa]

Carry

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/SxrRbzK

by Storyflight

“Of course, I won’t let you fall,” Kirumi vows. Her voice is laced with tenderness and warmth, typical for someone caring like herself. Nothing more nor less. “I will have to keep a slow pace, if that’s alright”

“No problem…” They mutter. Kirumi nods and steadily heads back to the front of the school, no hints of bouncing or suddenly losing balance.

---

Rantaro fell and Kirumi helps them. They return the favour later that day

Words: 2532, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing, Dangan Ronpa Series

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: Other

Characters: Tojo Kirumi, Amami Rantaro, Yonaga Angie (mentioned), Oma Kokichi (mentioned) - Character, Iruma Miu (mentioned), Ishimaru Kiyotaka (mentioned), Chabashira Tenko

Relationships: Amami Rantaro/Tojo Kirumi

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Hope's Peak Academy (Dangan Ronpa), Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Pre-Relationship, They/Them for Rantaro, Injury, bridal carry, Pining, written in 2020, Rantaro hates it when others care for them, Siri play Miss Independent, shoutout to me finishing 2-3 year old wips, Kirumi has anthophobia, In reference to...ya know!, Kirumi and Kiyotaka are friends cause I said so, Light Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, The first half is rather lighthearted and then idk what happened the second part, hints of dereality, Also Rantaro wears glasses cuz uuuuhhhh

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/SxrRbzK

[drrtda-official]

Episode 10 is finally uploading~ Our loving class mates have a slumber party!! but for one person attending, the slumber party becomes an eternal one.

[drrtda-official]

So after a lot of umming and ah-ing I finally picked out my inktober theme. I’m only doing 18 days instead of 31 as I believed it would be less stressful for me as I have a bit on this month. And the theme is going to be a Killer Instinct AU for the characters of the show Danganronpa Return to despair academy.

Killer Instinct is like every other fighting game, except it contains monsters, heroes and creatures from a variety of mythology and folk lore. So basically I’m turning the cast into edgy monsters.

Day 6: Oracle the Oracle.

Design; her name is Oracle!! What else was I supposed to make her!? Ok jokes aside, her design is mostly inspired by the Oracle from the movie Aladdin and the King of Thieves. However the Eye symbol was definitely stolen from the Millenium Items from Yugioh. Well they are meant to represent the all seeing eye of Horus so I guess it fits.

Lore: the Oracle sees all and knows all, knows all that is good and evil and knows the beginning and the end. That is her fate until she passes on, to prevent the end of the World at any cost, thing is, she only knows of what’s to come and not how to prevent it. That being said she does have a fair idea on the source of the destruction, and that is were the psychic’s long and harrowing journey shall begin...

[drrtda-official]

So after a lot of umming and ah-ing I finally picked out my inktober theme. I’m only doing 18 days instead of 31 as I believed it would be less stressful for me as I have a bit on this month. And the theme is going to be a Killer Instinct AU for the characters of the show Danganronpa Return to despair academy.

Killer Instinct is like every other fighting game, except it contains monsters, heroes and creatures from a variety of mythology and folk lore. So basically I’m turning the cast into edgy monsters.

Day 4: Korina the Exorcist

Design: NO I HAVEN’T SEEN THE NUN AND I DONT PLAN TO. Though the design doesn’t 100% show it, her outfit was actually heavily inspired by Shanoa from Castlevania: Order of Ecleasia and Castlevania: Judgement. I was originally going to Make Korina a Harpy or a Mutant after two references in the show, but then I decided we needed more superpowered humans and who better to have on your side with monsters running around than an actual exorcist?

Lore: what do you do? Humanity is under attack and monsters are running rampant. Do you hide in bomb-shelters like the rest of the rich people and hope for the best? Not if you’re Korina and the rest of the Aizawa family. Korina was sent to a convent her family had ties to for centuries and trained to be a master exorcist under the guidance of Mother Poppy Petrov. Due to the dire situation she studied hard in order to complete her training sooner rather than later. Once completing her training she started hearing a voice, believing it to be God, Korina followed his orders to slay all monsters. But was that voice really the man upstairs? Or something else far from Holy?

Mother Poppy is a reference to @oddlovergirl ‘s series

[drrtda-official]

So after a lot of umming and ah-ing I finally picked out my inktober theme. I’m only doing 18 days instead of 31 as I believed it would be less stressful for me as I have a bit on this month. And the theme is going to be a Killer Instinct AU for the characters of the show Danganronpa Return to despair academy.

Killer Instinct is like every other fighting game, except it contains monsters, heroes and creatures from a variety of mythology, folklore and media. So basically I’m turning the cast into edgy monsters.

Day 1 Kuroyami the Hellborn.

Design: I wanted to go for something that was a hybrid of his human and full-on-hellbornform... I have no further justification.

Lore: being a necromancer is rough enough as it is, but being the vessel of the Hellborn, a demon said to be as powerful as the devil himself, is worse. Kuroyami has dedicated his whole life to keeping his powers at bay or at least as a force for good. However the curse of the Malevolent Witch that struck Kuro had forcefully fused both himself and the demon inside him together, trapping them in a half demon state. Now they roam the earth in search of the witch in hope of reversing the curse, with as little blood on his hands as possible if he can help it

[drrtda-official]

Votes are in so here's splash art number two!! the Super Highschool Level Baker, Little Debbie- I mean Purin Touka aka Baking Bad!! She coming in with the cakes! grab your forks!! Who do you want to see next?