#I need to draw the rest of the sdr2 cast more

[bananashakexx]

Can u draw teruteru teach akane how to cook, i really love this step siblings in my hc hjhjhhj

(((not exactly teaching but oh wel

I love these kinds of hcs theyre so cute <//3333

[jesterable]

am i danganronpa posting in the year of 2023? yes. i am. anyways sdr2 will forever be one of my favorite casts of characters and i love them all dearly. so i basically just drew all of them as stylized as i could. 

these were 90% done from memory except for mahiru bc i forgot what she looked like entirely besides her color scheme.

thought process for all of them under the cut in order of when i drew them

mikan: my brain went to that one sprite of her as it does. and she’s purple and honestly doesn’t have enough specific craziness to have more than one color so she’s very one-color 

kazuichi: very sharp. very square. very pink as well, but just pink didn't feel right. he has to have that gross green 

akane: i couldn’t see her colors being changed v much but not so much that its. too normal.

 teruteru: very proud of his face. he's very oval.  and still not crazy enough for many colors 

hiyoko: it was a very specific vision to have her with the UGLIEST yellow hair. also i don’t like the banana shape so i tried several other pigtail shapes to be normal about 

gundham: took me about 3 tries to get his drawing right. i still have a crush on him. he’s mostly magenta but i felt like that was too little so i gave him red eyes

ibuki: i am proud of her. needed her to look fucking radioactive 

sonia: silly girl! she's relatively normal looking but she is not a normal lady. very :3 coded 

chiaki: im sOOO proud of my color choices for her. idk why but the dull pink and blue combo is my fave. also i completely went off base with her design on purpose bc i don’t like her actual design. my girl is a GAMER. let her look like one. 

mahiru: i don’t know much about her i actually had to google just her so i knew what her hair looked like. ok bowl cut you eat that up! 

nagito: he’s fucking insane. don’t like how his hair looks ingame so i made it better. i also totally forgot his outfit if you couldn’t tell. love giving crazy people neon eyes 

fuyuhiko: made him accidentally smaller than the rest but i think it fits. baby face... little fucker 

peko: tried to make her colorful but at the same time incredibly gray. she gives gray to me. she radiates gray

monokuma: i don’t like the strictly black and white design so i might it alot more red, and just made all the extra bits bright fucking red 

imposter: i didn’t know what to do with him but my brain told me to make him orange so i did. 

nekomaru: originally he was just gonna be blue, but my brain was like no... give him a more prominent smile. so i did ! 

monomi: had to make her soo pink and silly coded... gave her a closed eye, a tongue out, and made her folded ear just tilted down a bit more. 

hajime: i tried to make him the most normal looking out of all of them. he just had to be.

[strawberri-draws]

OKAY YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MUCH I WANNA MAKE AN OC FOR YOUR DRV3 AU, SO CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT THE CIRCUMSTANCES? (SORRY ABOUT THE CAPS, THIS HAS GOT ME HYPED UP AND IDK WHY)

Yeah, ofc! I've been pretty busy lately so I haven't had much time to work on it, but essentially all you need to know is stuff like

- drv3's killing game takes place around ten years after the sdr2's casts first year of school, so like kokichi (for example) is around 5 years old when Hajime and the sdr2 cast first goes to hopes peak and 15 when he is ~taken~

- around 5 years after the sdr2 cast thing (basically the beginning) is when the tragedy (finally) starts to cool down, after the future foundation killing game. In this period, future foundation is still mainly a force for good/recovery, but corruption (and despair) still has its root's pretty deep in the ff and in society itself. (Japan, especially hopes peak area, is where the tragedy hit the hardest. The rest of the world felt it, but it wasn't quite as extreme.)

- So in towa city, we have DICE, which is Kokichi, Maki, Miu, Keebo, Gonta, Himiko, and Ryoma. Maki, Himiko, and Kokichi were part of the brainwashed Monokuma kids, and the others were kinda surprise adopted/begrudginly bonded lmao. Basically the situation in Towa is that life has started to kinda pick up again, but things are still very tense between adults/children. Komaru and Toko (plus the Warriors of hope who are kinda redeeming themselves or at least trying). DICE operates mainly as a secret gang that either A) plays stupid, obnoxious pranks to keep spirits up and have fun and B) is a general nuisance to Corrupted, despair people, specifically the future foundation members that keep trying to start shit in Towa. They begrudgingly work with komaru and toko sometimes but hold grudges against the WOH lol.

- for the Monokuma kids specifically - junko had the WOH kinda slowly infiltrate/kidnap the all the kids, more targeting like orphans and people who wouldn't be as noticed at first, slowly brainwashing until they had most of the kids in the city. Monokuma kids are aware the whole time, and while they can kind of fight, the specific brainwashing used kinda made them like, not realize anything was wrong? so. Eventually Miu and Keebo help out and create tech to unbrainwash kids without exploding their heads, and when the WOH fail the Monokuma kids are left kinda directionless? So they goof around and commit crimes and make gangs basically until they are freed. But they see everything as a game, which is very problematic depending on how badly the kid wants to win. (Speaking of them, there were a few given specialized roles, like Maki as a "Ninja" or something aka assassin fighters. Don't ask why Monaca thought it'd be sick and everyone else was like "yeah sure".)

- The rest of the cast is kinda more spread out, but generally Kaito, Shuichi, Kaede, and Maki are a squad that travel and solve mysteries/crimes, Tenko appears in towa a lot as a contract fighter for Future Foundation, Kirumi is like Byakuya's adopted niece and unofficial secretary, Ranter used to work at ff but eventually kinda settles with Korekiyo and Angie on Angie's island for a bit until DRV2, and tsumugi is uh,,,, having a time :) again drv3's pregame plots kinda span over ten years so there's a lot lol.

- yeah I have a lot more ideas/worldbuilding to do for this au but I hope this kinda helped? im planning on drawing more stuff for it soon so look forward to that I guess :D sorry my thoughts are very scattered about it rn lol

[frightfurtabby]

Himikiyo Week 2021 Day 5: Anniversary Party

// Cute and fluffy, make-up smearing kissies, slow dancing, and awards... enjoy~

Word count: 1434

Links

AO3- https://archiveofourown.org/works/34196977

Amino-  (coming soon)

I need to catch up on cross-posting to amino so I’ll be doing that too.

//

The anniversary party was an important occasion. All actors from the danganronpa franchise were coming together for this event. 10 years ago was the release of the first series starring Makoto Naegi as the protagonist, since then there have been 3 further series and a spin off that took place between the first 2, though it had aired afterward. And they were all gathered together.

There were already plans for another spin-off that was summer camp themed and would be finished later the next year. It was really big but sometimes there were years of waiting between new productions and that led to a lot being covered by tabloids and other media outlets. Korekiyo moved up to a small town in Aomori prefecture with Himiko to stay as quiet as possible, keeping in contact with certain people from among their castmates.

The couple were sitting together in a backstage private dressing room once again, Himiko taking time to brush Kiyo’s hair. Most of their outfits were already in place, a puffy purple dress for Himiko, her matching magic hat sat on the table in front of them.It was so pretty and only a little bit difficult to move around in at first before she was getting used to it. The anniversary celebrations included a dance in the ballroom and awards for the newest batch of fan popularity polls.

“Babe are you sure you want to go for that hat, I don’t know if it fits with the rest of what you’ve got going on.”

Kiyo was wearing a white button-up long sleeved blouse with a burgundy vest, a green coat over both and a long black skirt. Near Himiko’s hat was their own for this occasion, a black fedora which was what she was referring to in her comments..

“I personally think it looks nice.” Kiyo gave an exaggerated pout.

Touching up both their make-up was all the couple needed before they got to head out to the event proper. Kiyo hadn’t decided on lipstick before they had to go to avoid running late. They could do without that but not without eating, which they had to finish on the way out.

When she was finished brushing she helped gather their locks together and band it to make a ponytail.

She chuckled. “Of course you do, well since you insist. Here, have this one, I think this color will compliment everything nicely. Now come closer!” She grabs a nice dark blood red shade. Kiyo had used it plenty of times, including the year they dressed up as a vampire for Halloween, so it was a classic go-to.

Kiyo leaned in like she asked. Puckering their lips out to give her a more complete canvas for her to work with. However, before Himiko touched the tip of the lipstick onto their lips, Kiyo stopped for a moment.

“I wouldn’t want to smudge this so soon, so please give me a kiss?”

Himiko giggled. “Alright, okay. But first…” Her free hand extended and her pointer finger booped them right on the nose.

The former Ultimate Anthropologist feigned shock. “What did I deserve that for?”

“For being cute, ya silly goose.”

They were gearing up for a follow up joke but they were pulled in by the collar and smooched. They leaned into and savored it. Even if it did ruin the set-up, it was fine. Any time was a lovely time to smooch Himiko.

“Okay, now we can do it.” she chirped.

Kiyo re-assumed the proper position and reached out, gently caressing Himiko’s cheek. A deep look into her eyes. “Alright, go ahead.”

She reached up to hold them still with one hand and eased the lipstick close. Drawing it, focused as close as she can on the precision. Even though they had just kissed, she was tempted to ruin it again.

So she did.

They giggled as soon as she let them go. “God I’m so lucky wearing a mask is my trademark. I’m sure people would have a field day if they actually saw how smudged you always end up making this.”

“Yeah well, I’m lucky to have you.” She said, making cute faces in their direction.

Kiyo pulled their mask up and put the fedora on, taking Himiko’s hand as a way to get up out of the chair.

They turned and exited the door. Upon entering the hallway they met up with Shuichi and Rantaro, spending time catching up. Talking about how the cats were doing, how busy it was lately, more recent gigs they’d lent their talents to, that kind of thing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Upon entering the ballroom, the couple noticed there were danganronpa themed decorations all over. A big banned reading “Happy 10th Anniversary'' went along the rafters. It was certainly doing its job of seeming like a mix between prom and a high school reunion.

At least this one was full of people both of them liked better than most people who’d been at either of their actual proms from back in the day. Even with personal problems here and there it was still more tolerable than that.

A slow waltz tune echoes around the ballroom. All the couples were paired up, most having stuck together pretty much the whole time up to this point regardless, but the Junko was making a big deal up on stage about how  “If you’re not already, couple up and dance!”

Kiyo’s hand was around the back of Himiko’s head. They took time to pet her and look into her eyes as they performed slowly just like they had practiced. It felt nice and warm. Both could close their eyes for a bit and had a good amount of space to nuzzle up.

“I love you dear.”

“I love you too.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few dance tracks later, Junko Enoshima got up and did a little bit of MC’ing. “And now everyone, having a good time? Well, it’s time to announce the first batch of winners from the polls! And here to read those names is someone we all know and love. The mysterious…”

She started getting a head count of all the danganronpa alumni, dragging it on for comedic effect. “The mysterious 40-somethingth student that was lying hidden somewhere in this very building… Mukuro Ikusaba!”

The crowd of students clapped, Himiko and Kiyo included. As Mukuro took time to further introduce the concept, showing off the envelopes for good measure, the lovers had a small conversation.

“Do you think we’ll win anything this year?”

“I hope we do. I’m not sure though, since competition is very stiff in all categories.”

“It’d be really cute if we won the couples one” she smiled, holding their arm close. “We may not have won it yet, but there's always a chance.”

“I’ve seen a little bit of buzz online telling fans to vote for us. So we might pull it off.”

It came time, the third category: the cutest off-screen couple. The options were always more open, as there were very few canonical on-screen romances in the show. Mukuro cut open this envelope, like she had done the previous two.

The MC cleared her throat. “Ahem. The winners are… Shinguuji Korekiyo and Yumeno Himiko”

The V3 cast members hooted and hollered. The other 2 main series had just picked up 1 win each and usually SDR2 would sweep these anniversary award contests. Picking up a surprise win would hopefully be a sign.

Escorted by several classmates like they just scored the winning points in a sport together, Himiko and Kiyo went up, and had to make up a speech off the cuff. That’s how much of a last second blindside actually pulling it off was.

Himiko took her spot close to Kiyo’s side and they both stood in front of the mic. Kiyo gently taps it and clears their throat.

“Thank you all, I’m… surprised. I thought for sure it would be another year of us being passed up.” they said

She added “The fans really pulled through!” She raised her award and held it up to clink it with Kiyo’s. “I’m not sure what else to even say.”

“We are grateful for the nomination, and thank everyone who cast a vote.” Asked if they had anything more to say, Kiyo finished with “As difficult as some fans can be, it's always good to feel appreciated.”

Everyone went back down, further winners were to be announced. Neither cared much, but would support friends who could get it. For now all they wanted was to cuddle up together on the bleachers. The rest of the night was for relaxing.

[hollowisthyname]

Hello, Icarus! Please infodump to me about Danganronpa?

okay so! I had written out a whole thing but then tumblr deleted it! so that was fun! /s but now that I know what I'm going to write it's much easier, so that's good 😌

n e ways, I'm gonna do like a basic timeline w explanations and some other stuff that hopefully I'll remember once I start writing!! so let's go :D

a list of everything danganronpa in chronological order (not the order that you should play/watch the stuff in, I'll put that in the explanations)

Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School - Despair Arc (DR3) - second anime, watch along with the Future and Hope arcs after playing the first two games (and UDG if you want to). backstory for the cast of the second game.

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (THH) - first main game, play first. also has an anime that's basically the same as the game, but since there's not enough time to put everything from the game into the anime I definitely recommend playing the game. high school students from a prestigious school trapped in said school are forced to play a killing game, hijinks ensue.

Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls (UDG) - third game, not main. play after playing the first two games. very different game mechanics from the main three, and widely considered not cannon by the fandom. I like it though, and it introduces a lot of really interesting characters along with giving a v underdeveloped character from the first game a lot more character development. it's not necessary to play it (though one of the characters plays a pretty big part in the third anime, so that would make more sense if you already knew her), but I think it's interesting and fun. there are also robot fights.

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair (DR2 or SDR2) - second main game, play after playing the first game. same basic premise as the first game, except it's a different class (same school though) and this time they're on an island. even more hijinks and plot twists than the first game.

Super Danganronpa 2.5: Komaeda Nagito to Sekai no Hakaimono - (I could only find the Japanese title for this one, sorry 😔) kinda also part of the second anime? watch after playing the first two games (and UDG if you want) and watching DR3. character is woken up from a coma via overdramatic and overpowered other character.

Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School - Future and Hope Arcs (DR3) - second anime, watch along with the Despair arc after playing the first two games (and UDG if you want to). aftermath of the first two games.

Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony (DRV3) - third main game, fourth game in total. I don't actually know when it happens bc they're v secretive about everything, so I'm just putting it last. play last. same premise as the first two, the class is trapped in a school with a courtyard and a huge sort of dome around everything. peak hijinks, too many plot twists to count.

woo!! that's the timeline as I know it, hopefully I didn't miss anything. and I have managed to remember what else I was going to say, so let's move on to section two:

the mechanics of the games

danganronpa is, at its core, a glorified visual novel. every character has a certain amount of sprites for when they talk, as well as voice lines that aren't usually the exact text on the screen but fit the vibe of whatever they're saying. and as I've said before, there's quite a lot of talking. these games have more plot than should really be possible and most or all of it is done through dialogue. cutscenes and class trials are the only parts that are reliably fully voice acted, but there are a lot of those.

as for the parts that are less visual novel-y: you can walk around, and the settings are pretty much as 3d as the 2d-ish style of the game allows. you can also click on things, and sometimes clicking on stuff will get you monocoins, the currency of the game, which means you'll be able to buy presents for the characters!!

"now why do I need presents for the characters?" you ask. well, that's because you're given a certain amount of free time each game to hang out with characters you want to get to know better! the game's ending is fixed, so you won't change the course of the game by who you do or don't hang out with, but you can learn more about characters and become closer to them! giving them presents they like makes them like you more :D

and the most exciting part of danganronpa, what a lot of people play the games for, the true lure of the game.... the class trials!!

so these characters are in a killing game, right? basically, they're faced with a sort of lose-lose predicament: stay trapped in the school forever, or kill one of your classmates to "graduate". but it's not as simple as that, because in order to graduate, you can't be caught. and how do you determine whether or not a criminal has been found out? well, a trial of course!

enter the class trials. every student (barring dead or severely wounded ones) is required to participate in a kind of mock trial- except someone's really dead, and they need to find the murderer or they'll all die too.

(right, did I forget to mention that? only one person can graduate. getting out alive insures that none of your classmates get the luxury of doing the same.)

so, yeah. the class trials are a true fight for life on both sides, because who ever loses will be executed.

and they're really, really fun.

entirely voice acted! enough minigames that the list of them is probably longer than this entire post! the joy of solving the mystery! the... execution, right in front of everyone.

hey, it's a dark game. not like they're trying to hide that. and the executions aren't actually all that gory most of the time, but they're still very much there and onscreen. also as close to fully animated as the games ever get, which is pretty cool.

so how the class trials work is this:

there's a murder. dun dun duuuun. you investigate everywhere related to the murder to get "truth bullets", which are the reason you don't immediately fail at the trials. you don't have to remember all of them, they're all written down in your e-handbook. plus, the protagonists all seem to have really good memories.

time for the actual class trial!! Monokuma (asshole bear running the killing game) introduces everything, explains the rules. and everyone starts talking.

there are a lot of different parts to the class trial, but most of it is "nonstop debates". everyone talks one after the other, and you have to find inconsistencies and shoot the right "weak spot" with the right truth bullet. you refute the lie or mistake and everyone goes back to arguing normally.

there's also hangman's gambit (weird hangman to find a key word), multiple choice things (self-explanatory), and plenty of others.

near the end of the trial (or sometimes only a little over halfway in, it varies), the killer will.... kind of become obvious. there's a specific kind of change in behavior that's the mark of the murderer in these games, but I'm not sure how to describe it exactly. a lot of times there's an accent change, and in general they start acting much more erratic. since it's a trial, though, even after this presents itself you still have to prove your case beyond reasonable doubt.

and once it's become clear to the killer that they're backed into a corner, you have to do the "bullet time battle". it goes by different names in different games, but the basic mechanics are the same: you battle against a student (usually the killer, but not always) in a rhythm-based battle where you have to click to the rhythm to refute your opponent's statements. once you've dealt enough damage, you shoot the final piece of evidence, and that's the end of it.

the murderers react differently different times. sometimes they break down and confess. sometimes they keep denying it. sometimes, they're just calm. however they act, though, the end is the same. they are caught and punished accordingly.

but before that, there's one more thing to do. the closing argument.

your final task is to explain how the murder was committed, from idea to execution (look, a pun! see I can be funny too 😌). and you have to do it... as a manga.

you don't have to draw the whole thing yourself ofc- you just have to fill in the missing panels and then watch as the protagonist narrates it to the rest of the class.

and that's all for the class trial, not counting the long talks after every execution while still in the courtroom.

wow, this is getting...... really, really long. there's only one more thing I'm gonna add, and I promise it will be much shorter than the other two bc it is late and I am officially Incredibly Fucking Tired.

with no further ado, a very short part three:

my general impression of the game. its vibes or smth, I dunno this is just what i think about it

when I first heard of danganronpa, I thought it was a horror game. I can now assure you that it is not. thriller? maybe. debatable. but definitely not horror.

and despite its extremely dark premise, this game is not all doom and gloom. there's so much stuff about hope, and overcoming despair even when it seems impossible... it's not exactly a happy game, but there's a lot more of that in there than you'd probably expect.

all in all, I love this game. so much. it means a lot to me, and I think it's a really good game. thanks for letting me talk about it so much asdhfd :D

[oumakokichi]

Hi, I wanted to rant a bit to you about people who hate on Ouma without understanding what type of character he is. I saw some people call him overrated and "useless to the plot", while just generally overlooking the type of impact he had to the game. One person even said he was only useful to chapter five and the rest he's just an annoying character. I got really mad towards these people but I didn't want to say anything because I get scared and shy easily. I thought you might listen to me :)

I understand your frustration—andthe getting scared and shy bit too! It can be overwhelming in a fandom as bigas DR to voice opinions on the games or the characters because as with any bigfandom, there are going to be a lot of differing opinions and the fear ofbacklash can be pretty intimidating. That was one of the reasons I was actuallynervous about starting up this blog in the first place, although thankfullyeveryone’s been very kind and welcoming to me since I did so!

I can understand why peoplemight not like Ouma as a person. In fact, I think it’s pretty understandable.Ouma does do and say very horrible things after all, and even though he has hisreasons for doing them, that doesn’t excuse them, nor does the narrative orOuma himself try to act like it does. I personally love him as a character andfind myself super interested and invested in everything he does, but I canunderstand why other people might not be able to put aside their personaldislike for the kinds of underhanded tactics he uses or the things he says inorder to like him.

However, I do think it’s alsotrue that there’s a certain degree of dislike associated with him in thewestern fanbase right now that’s almost entirely a result of: 1.)mistranslations and false information, and 2.) a certain association with Oumaof being “Komaeda 2.0” and a dislike for how popular he is without realizing oracknowledging why he is so popular. Isaw quite a lot of backlash here on Tumblr for Ouma in the days following thefirst results of the Japanese popularity poll; many people seemed to assumethat Ouma’s popularity was either “rigged” or an “annoying” result of him “justbeing a fan favorite even though he’s so horrible.”

I certainly don’t want to tryforcing my opinions on anybody. If people don’t like Ouma, they’re absolutelyfree not to, and that’s okay with me! People have different taste incharacters, and I can understand why people wouldn’t like or approve of Ouma’sactions. But saying that he’s “useless” to the plot or “doesn’t do anything,”or even questioning why he’s so popular when that poll was specificallytargeted towards Japanese people who have actually played the game (and didn’tneed any translations to do so or have any fake information) seems, in myopinion, to be missing the point a bit.

Ouma is central to the entire plot of ndrv3. He’s one of, if not the, mostimportant character to the main story (yes, even weighing out over Saihara andTsumugi in my opinion). People don’t have to like him, but these are the facts.Disliking Ouma won’t make him any less plot-relevant or important to thenarrative, nor will it change the fact that his themes as a character arelargely one and the same as the themes of ndrv3 as a whole. In a game that’sall about lies and especially about illusions or fabrications getting acceptedas reality, it’s not really a coincidence that the character most well-knownfor lying in the entire game happens to be as popular as he is.

Trying to discount Ouma’simportance to the story and the narrative would be like trying to say thatKirigiri was unimportant to the events of dr1. Similar to Kirigiri, Ouma is afigure who is neither a protagonist nor an antagonist, but a central figure touncovering the mysteries of the story, someone who fights behind the scenesagainst the mastermind/ringleader the entire time. Like Kirigiri, he refuses toput his trust blindly in people, even at the cost of making himself looksuspicious or unlikable (people tend to rather forget the fact that Kirigiriwas not well-liked by the dr1 castuntil very late into Chapter 6).

More than that, Ouma is the most central figure in keeping the groupalive. Without his diagrams, drawings, and plans, the group would never havereceived the items essential towards uncovering secrets and helping them accessmysteries within the school. The electric hammers, electric bombs, bug-catchingjar, and other items he had Miu make were the only reasons the group was ableto get as far as they did in later chapters.

Very much like Nanami in sdr2,Ouma as a character is essential to trying to keep the group alive—and even intrying to get them to work with one another instead of killing each other. It’sjust that where Nanami was a leader figure by encouraging them all to trust inher and in each other, Ouma worked in the opposite way, encouraging them toband together by putting himself up as an easy target to hate.

I could list all the ways inwhich Ouma’s actions are central to the plot or where he keeps the group aliveor functioning, but that would probably take far too long. Just to list a few,starting from Chapter 2 and onward, Ouma is the only one who recognizes thatMonokuma shows up to try and give them an incentive to kill each other wheneverthey start talking about friendship and cooperation. His calculated façade of “enjoyingthe game” and trying to stop everyone’s warm and fuzzy speeches about workingtogether are much more for the sake of trying to keep Monokuma at bay and thegame “more entertaining” for the audience than because he actually enjoys beinga force of chaos. Ouma’s “chaos” is actually exceptionally calculated, andalways targeted at ending the killing game.

In the Chapter 2 trial, he isthe only reason the trial doesn’t completely trail off with no one knowing whothe culprit is. He provides vital clues and hints about the fact that Kirumiwas the only one who could have done it, all while trying to act as if he’s nothelping. And had the whole group actually carried out his plan to get them allin one room and watch everyone’s motive videos together and discuss them, it’svery likely that a murder would’ve actually been avoided, or at least deterreduntil later on.

In Chapter 3, again Ouma is themost notable source of clues and hints which were necessary to keeping the groupalive and well. The only reason Saihara even participates in the kagonokoritual at all is because Ouma asked him to switch places with Kiibo. HadSaihara not been present, he would’ve had no way of knowing about any of theevents that took place directly at the time of Tenko’s murder. Ouma presentedhim and the rest of the group with clues about the kagonoko ritual book afterthe fact too, and was the only one tonotice the floorboard trap being set in all four rooms, not just the one whereTenko was killed (and he made sure to present this clue to them even though itgot him a literal concussion).

Ouma is the driving plot forceof Chapters 4 and 5, for better or worse. He does awful, morally questionablestuff, he says horrible things, he gets two people killed—I’m not really surehow anyone can actually play through ndrv3 and understand the text fully andsay Ouma is “useless” or “unimportant” to the plot here. It’s perfectlypossible to go through Chapters 4 and 5 not liking Ouma, hating him even, butthere’s not really any way to deny that he’s a central figure to the plot bythat point.

Not only that, but more andmore information keeps coming to light about him even after he’s dead and gone.Uncovering the truth of his moral code and his honest desire to end the killinggame is one of the most tragic things about Chapter 6, and it’s his trail ofbreadcrumbs which leads Saihara and the others to Amami’s lab, which helps themuncover the whole truth about the 2-person rule and the killing game show’scycle to keep repeating.

Ouma’s actions are full ofintentional ambiguity and riddles; he’s constantly challenging not only Saiharabut also the player themselves to see if they can decipher what’s true and what’snot in the things he says. The whole point of a second playthrough with anygame, and with a mystery game like ndrv3 in particular, is to go through andtry and spot what you missed on the first playthrough, to try and see whichmysteries are being foreshadowed or alluded to early on which might have flownright over your head when you were playing before. There are the obviousmysteries to decipher, like the truth of the outside world, Tsumugi’s status asthe ringleader, etc.—but there’s also Ouma himself.

Ouma is so undeniably importantto moving forward the plot of ndrv3, to Saihara’s growth as a protagonist, andto the themes of truth, lies, and the huge moral grey area that spans betweenthem. It’s entirely understandable to not like him for personal reasons or tofeel that he’s annoying out of personal dislike, but trying to trivialize hisimportance to the narrative or acting as if his unpopularity with otherportions of the fandom is unwarranted just because of personal dislike towardshim suggests a lack of understanding of what the real themes of ndrv3 were allabout.

I haven’t seen nearly as muchdislike for Ouma coming from members of the Japanese fanbase who have actuallyplayed the game fully. This isn’t definite proof of anything of course becausepeople’s tastes in characters will still vary due to individual preference, butit does suggest that playing the game without relying on preconceptions, fakerumors, and mistranslated information will give you a different perspective onOuma’s character and behavior.

Anyway, I’ve talked for longenough probably. Again, I can understand your frustrations anon! But all I canreally say is that it’s okay if people don’t like a character. It’s veryfrustrating when character hate gets tagged or made extremely public, moreso ifit seems like these people haven’t actually played the game yet for themselves(I track Ouma’s tags and I’ve seen similar stuff on a pretty regular basis),but it’s not really worth starting any kind of argument about. I started thisblog because I wanted to be able to provide people more accurate informationand clarification about the game and its characters—if I’ve managed to do thatmuch at the very least, then I’m happy!

Thank you so much for stoppingby! I’m always willing to listen to people in my inbox, and I really do find itfun to write about and discuss these kinds of things!

[oumakokichi]

Hello!! Sorry if you've already talked about this before, but do you have any thoughts on Tenko? o/ I love your blog!

I don’t think I’ve ever actually answered a question justabout Tenko herself! Thank you so much for asking, anon!

As with fanart, it’s hard to find content of Tenko just onher own. I love, absolutely love herwith Himiko as a ship, and I find her interactions with some of the othercharacters very fun or sweet, but I really wish there were more appreciation forher on her own. It’s true that she perhaps doesn’t get the most time to standalone even within canon, but still. I love Tenko, and I feel like withcharacters who make similar sacrifices like Kaede and Momota, it’s important toremember Tenko as being really great all around and appreciating her as acharacter in her own right.

Tenko is a character I know a lot of people were wary aboutprior to the game’s release, although without much to go on. Her design wascute but there wasn’t much that really stood out or indicated her talent, andher lines from the first few trailers and her likes/dislikes released with thedemo just indicated that she really didn’t like men.

What I was primarily concerned with prior to the game’slaunch was that she might get relegated to some kind of joke character—not inthe same way that I was worried about Ryouma getting treated as a jokecharacter because of his design, but mostly because I thought that if theytouched on her dislike of men at all, it would be in a way to try and make theplayers hate her, view her as an “unreasonable” or “stuck-up” character, andmostly all-around try to treat her as some kind of joke character who wouldneed to be “put in her place” or “taught” to open up to men after all.Thankfully, this is not what happened at all, and I’m so, so glad every day.

Tenko is one of the fairest, easiest-to-get-along-withmembers of the group. She treats pretty much everyone respectfully, and she’s ateam player through and through; her personal boundaries extend to not wantingmen to compliment her or touch her at all, and these things are regarded aspretty understandable by the rest of the cast. Even when her reactions to “DANshi”result in hilarious expressions and perhaps a few exaggerated outbursts playedfor comedic effect, she’s clearly well-liked by Kaede, by Saihara, and by prettymuch the whole group at large.

Even her honorifics reflect her sense of fair play. Unlikemany of the cast, who use “-kun” for boys and “-san” for girls as a staple,Tenko is one of the only ones besides perhaps Kirumi who uses “-san” for both.If she truly were trying to be mean or aggressive to boys only, then she’d useno honorifics at all, or some sort of rude and insulting nickname for each ofthem individually (the way Miu uses rude nicknames for the entire group at large,not just boys).

I’m glad for this, because it’s clear that by making Tenkowell-liked and a staple of moral and emotional support for the group, she wasn’tmeant to be a joke character of any sort. She’s highly encouraging to anyone atall who’s been upset or traumatized. While there’s no denying she’s much morecomfortable around the girls in the group, and that she particularly reallylooks up to and wants to be around Himiko, with less-aggressive orless-irritating boys in the group like Saihara, or Gonta, or Kiibo, she’s quitepolite, and very supportive to them.

And at the same time, while Tenko is undeniably a goodperson, I liked that she still had flaws of her own. Not huge, glaring flaws oranything, but just normal flaws that any ordinary person struggling to do theirbest might have. I still feel like ndrv3 did such a good job, better than anyDR installment in the past, with making the whole cast of characters feelparticularly more balanced and less one-sided. The characters who die early onin dr1 and sdr2 are certainly likable, but in my opinion, it was always alittle hard to get a feel for them. If you asked me to explain what flaws someof them had besides “being a little clumsy” or “too loud” prior to readingtheir FTEs or school mode, I probably wouldn’t have been able to tell you.

But with Tenko, a huge part of her character arc, and ofHimiko’s, was the fact that Tenko’s protective streak was also precisely whatwas pushing Himiko away. Since very early on, Tenko was thrilled with the prospectof Himiko’s talent, and clearly foundher very cute and funny to be around. Himiko was someone who inspired such aprotective urge in her that she wanted to be around her more and more, and sheclearly wanted to inspire her to get out and have fun and maybe be a littlemore open with her emotions.

But she came on so strongly that there’s no denying Himikowas a little uncomfortable at first. Someone as introverted as Himiko onlyfound Tenko’s attempts to draw her out of her shell tiring—and more thananything, Tenko’s insistence that she could protect her from anything andeverything, and her attempts to make sure Himiko was never in danger or doinganything too risky or outside her comfort zone kind of miffed her, becauseHimiko has a definite urge to prove herself and show off a bit preciselybecause of how small and seemingly helpless she is.

This kind of overprotective, somewhat coddling behavior is areally believable, understandable flaw, and something I think we’ve all been guiltyof at some point or other. I feel like there’s plenty of times for most peoplewhere we maybe assume too much about someone else’s abilities or don’t quitethink before trying to do something for them. And even if we don’t have any badintentions, it still hurts the other person, and I like that this kind ofbehavior was something that was addressed with Tenko.

And her good intentions were also addressed, and it wasclear that despite the fact that she sometimes came on a little too strongly orwas perhaps too smothering in her attempts to protect Himiko at first, shereally, genuinely cared, and she wanted to be Himiko’s friend in the truestsense of the word (and also her girlfriend). Tenko realized in the Chapter 2trial what a lot of characters in ndrv3 took much longer to realize: thatdoubting someone is perhaps sometimes necessary, but that trust is all aboutcoming to a conscious decision to believe in someone even after doubting them.

Tenko was killed off too early for my liking, and just aswith Kaede, I would have loved to see her take a more central role in the plotor receive more development, but I am at least glad that she was such a lastinginfluence and presence on Himiko. Tenko’s sincerity and affection for Himikowere so obvious to the entire group at large, many of them specifically commenton her feelings for Himiko even after she’s gone, and Himiko herself carriesTenko with her in her heart and keeps going for her sake specifically eventhrough the worst scenarios.

In addition to all these really fantastic reasons to likeTenko too, the cherry on top for me was realizing that the dislike of men and notwanting them complimenting or touching her was thankfully really not played assome comic relief thing. I’ve yet to read translations of any of Tenko’s FTEs,but I know that even in the Chapter 2 trial, Tenko specifically has a lineinvolving the fact that her father was drunk, and that he yelled a lot, which strikesme as a strong implication that hewas probably verbally abusive at the very least.

Given Tenko’s interest in neo-aikido and its measures ofself-defense, I was really glad to see a female character with this kind ofabuse implied her past whose aversion to men wasn’t treated as somethingneeding to be “fixed” or “gotten over,” and that everyone pretty muchunderstood that she’d be polite and nice as long as her boundaries wererespected.

Tenko is great, and I adore her, and as with most of thecast, I really, really wish she’d lived to the end. Couples rarely ever getoutright confirmation in the DR franchise, let alone happy endings, but I’dhave loved to have seen some AU with himitenko both making it until the end andbeing if not entirely happy then at least somewhat comforted by having eachother around.