#I've been kind of thinking about going back to DR2 but also I don't really want to do anything in there or want to in general

[nakanotamu]

I want news about the new fuckin WRC game so baaaaaaad ugh like they were showing stuff MONTHS ago but everyone from the press who got to see it is still under NDA and it seems likely EA just decided they didn’t want to be running promotion for 2 racing games at once but like. I just want that game to be out and I want it to be good what I wouldn’t fuckin give for a WRC game that’s as good as the F1 games apparently are I wouldn’t know I don’t like F1 so I haven’t actually played them

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

Rpg Anon: For the Bingo: Hinazumi, Soudaionji, Togahina, Naegiri, Fuyupeko, Tokomaru, Soruko, Saimatsu, Tsumioda, and everything. Yeah that's right. I'm throwing all the ships at ya.

//Aight, that's fair. Might as well get it out of the way.

//I really do wish that Mahiru was a more integral character to DR2's plot, because her interactions with Hajime in the Free Time Events are probably the cutest the game has to offer. Originally I was more of a Hinanami fan, and honestly I still am, but I've been corrupted by these two.

//Mahiru and Hajime are perfect catalysts for each other's character development, since one counters the others past trauma. Being someone who's just a meer photographer, Mahiru also has the potential to relate to Hajime more as a talentless individual.

//Ship is hella underrated, it needs more love.

//Outside of Survivor, I'm not CRAZY about this pair, and honestly, the only place I can think of it starting from is that one manga where Usami creates a Japanese festival and they have a bonding moment.

//It's kind of like a Nagatoro/Senpai relationship where the girl mercilessly bullies the boy because she likes him, and with these two, I can get behind that.

//Especially because of how much opposites attract. Hiyoko has a graceful design but a less than graceful personality, wheras Kazuichi is an honestly nice guy but looks and acts pathetic. There is potential there, but due to it being such a meager and not-well established ship, it lacks the fanbase movement to make it worth it.

//I didn't write down romantically or platonically on this one because the basic pair can go either way. This pairing is basically the definition of that high-school movie couple that's the pompous rich girl and the jock, except the gender roles are reversed, and honestly, I think that's pretty funny.

//Hina and Byakuya's progressions from adversaries to friends in DR1 and DR3 is actually pretty fun and natural, and the idea of Byakuya softening up around his classmates is one that I can more than get behind. Hina being the catalyst for it is also perfect.

//I kind of wish more people talked about this one.

//Don't think anyone's gonna argue with me for holding Naegiri in high regard. Makoto is the character who I have the MOST ships with, because I also think Sayaka and Mukuro make for amazing partners, but because Kyoko has spent the most time bonding with

//They have this theme where they can bring out themselves in each other to help balance out where their characters lean. Makoto is usually optimistic and wistful, but Kyoko can help bring him back down to earth and make him face reality if he ends up in a tizz. Alternatively, Makoto's optimism breaks Kyoko's ordinarily stone-cold expression, and it's shown in DR3 that she's gotten to the point that she is unashamed to speak highly of Makoto, because she's come to respect him and value him as a friend, something she would not have done in early DR1.

//They make each other the best versions of themselves and that's all a good relationship needs. Plus, the cool girl and lame boy dynamic is rarely ever not fun.

//These two got married after DR2 happened and nobody can tell me otherwise.

//Honestly though, as cute as I think Kuzupeko is, their actual canon relationship is kind of toxic. I know that's the point, but I like to think that Peko works herself out of that horrid mindset of being Fuyuhiko's servant and nothing else once she realizes how much he really loves her, not just romantically, but as a friend.

//Peko's also pretty good for Fuyuhiko's health. Even before any relationship upgrades I imagine he always vents to her about stupid shit because he can't trust anyone else with it, and thinking about that makes me realize how much they trust each other. They deserve one another, and no one else should have them.

//What I find most hilarious about Tokomaru is that it's basically just Naegiri with baggage. Rather, MORE baggage. Also, lots more screen time and room for development, since UDG is basically ABOUT these two and outside of every horrible thing that game brought, this relationship was not one of them.

//Like her brother, Komaru can be easily overwhelmed, emotional and sometimes too optimistic for her own good, and Toko helps mediate this with her more cynical and realistic personality. In turn, Komaru's more ordinary high school girl nature and her own quirks as a character suit Toko well, normalizing HER fucked up writing and bringing out the human side that she SERIOUSLY lacked in DR1.

//Speaking from the heart, I actually think these two are my current favourite couple in DR Survivor. I already talked in a previous post how writing Toko is one of the most fun and engaging things I've ever done, and I'm proud to see the natural progression of this pair and how far they've come together. If only DR weren't cowards and made them canonical lesbian lovers.

//WHERE IS UDG2 GOD DAMMIT!?

//Soruko is a pair that I love, but I have a hard time writing because Sora can sometimes be a MASSIVE DICK to her wife. Not that she means it, but sometimes I feel like I inadvertently make Sora this big dick energy monster who wants dominance over Yoru, and that's NOT what these two are.

//I get why they don't want to just write proper ships in even the fangames, but these two had such an intense amount of sexual tension between them for most of Another 2, and the way their stories end is frankly tragic and bittersweet.

//I have LOTS of problems with Another 2, really, I do. But these two were one of the things that actually drew me into the game. I think they should have kissed at least

//This is my favourite ship in canon and has been so since the dawn of time. It takes aspects from all the other relationships in Danganronpa I love and meshes them together in a sweet romantic lasagna.

//My biggest GRIPE is how little we got to actually SEE of these two, and the fact that whatever romantic scenes we get of them are called forced by a majority of the fandom. And I will admit, stories like Three-Point Shot and others like it portray Saimatsu in a much better way than the main series does. But the potential is unmatched.

//Like Tokomaru and Naegiri, one is an optimistic girl who is given reality checks by the more serious boy, who also has clear past trauma and depression that is quelled by the optimistic girl. It's the PERFECT healthy dynamic, and the good thing about it is that neither Kaede nor Shuichi are ever portrayed as perfect protagonists. In fact, they perfectly cover for the other's flaws to help sustain that balance. Their designs reflect this as well with Kaede's faded but colors being the basic reverse pallete of Shuichi's darker ones. Even as one of Shuichi's more well established ships, these two deserve more attention.

//Ooooooh fuuuuuck...I have a LOT to say about this one...

//This is probably my favorite ship in the series, possibly only beaten by Saimatsu. More people need to talk about this pair, it's frankly the best that the both of them can find among whatever pairings they might have.

//They have basically no interactions in the games and I think that's REALLY sad actually, because their dynamic of the emotionally strong girl and the emotionally frail girl has potential that just isn't explored, when it SHOULD be. Especially considering that Ibuki is probably the only character who can definitively FIX what's wrong with Mikan.

//Ibuki's entire Free Time Event storyline is all about her being herself, but also subtly helping Hajime overcome his fears and insecurities as a person by naturally taking his mind off them to have fun, and this really does help Hajime. If ANYONE needs therapy like that, it's Mikan. And Ibuki is just so naturally optimistic and charismatic, even Mikan should be able to see that nothing Ibuki does is foreplay or taking advantage of her.

//LET THESE TWO BE A THING!

-Mod

[hopeymchope]

Been wondering this for a while. When exactly did Hijirihara and Asano join the Future Foundation? Or where they already joined from sometime but promoted? I'd assume Hijirihara joined the FF first and the other later since a piece of dialogue from Killer Killer in the beginning mentioned 'Spring', but then again I'm not getting any exact dates. Or is there simply nothing? Another thing is that would it work timeline/story-wise had they joined earlier, or not?

There's really no way to get any exact dates on much of anything in the Danganronpa series, lol. We almost never have precise spans of time (the closest we get is Komaru saying in UDG that she was held captive for "a year and a half"), and we sure as hell never have precise years. You just kinda have to glue together what information you can using what little context we get. We don't even know for certain how much time passes between DR1 and DR2, y'know? There's always going to be guesswork involved.

At least we can tell the order the franchise's stories go in... uh, mostly.

But okay. What can we determine about Danganronpa Gaiden: Killer Killer and its characters?

The obvious answer here that is Asano and Hijirihara could've joined the Future Foundation in *some* capacity at any time since its formation but BEFORE DR3's Future Arc. The Foundation's formation is a vague event that occurs somewhere after the start of The Tragedy but before DR1's Killing Game. Based on that, we can at least intuit that the Future Foundation was officially put together during the year the 78th Class was in lockdown. It's entirely possible, however, that Hijirihara and Asano only joined up after the surviving members of the 78th class were rescued...

Killer Killer as a whole takes place after the 78th Class survivors have been freed and joined up with the Future Foundation... but before and/or possibly even during the time when Naegi goes rogue with Class 77-B and plugs them into the Neo World Program. (We know this because Kirigiri shows up as a member of the Future Foundation in the first half of Danganronpa Gaiden: Killer Killer, and she also shows up at the end of DR2 working with Naegi AFTER he'd been receiving messages from the higher-ups ordering him to bring in the Remnants of Despair. But she's obviously not in any kind of trouble with the Foundation when she appears in DGKK, so... there you go.) Also, for whatever it's worth, we do see that Tengan is already twisted by the back half of the manga. But since we don't really know exactly when he was radicalized, it's probably not worth much.

So with ALL THAT preamble said... I think the manga makes it pretty clear that Hijirihara was part of the special investigations unit before Asano was paired up with him. I've no idea how long he was there, but consider this: Asano says that she's newly assigned to the Special Crime Investigations unit on page one of the manga. That could imply either a previous post within the FF OR that she's just been assigned a place within the Future Foundation as a whole for the first time. Can't say. But it'd make the most sense if she was elsewhere in the sixth branch specifically, because then she'd already have a police background before joining the special team.

Then again:

"Recruiting newcomers" could be interpreted to imply that Asano is totally new to the sixth branch. Or does it just mean that she's a newcomer to this particular team, and nothing more? Choose your own adventure! (Also, if we assume that Dōgami isn't just making up the story about her predecessor as a way to frighten/motivate Asano, then at least it's safe to say that Hijirihara's had other partners before her.)

Uh, so... yeah. We can't even definitively say how much experience, if any, the POV character has when the story begins. This is the kind of thing we have to deal with. But this sort of hazy timeline gives fans a lot of wiggle room in terms of how they want to headcanon things or what they wanna write in fanfics.

[mystxmomo]

for the unpopular opinions thing,

I think izuru is one of the best characters in dr.

Hmm

Now. My answer to this question depends entirely on what you mean by this

Izuru being the best character, in the idea of what his existance means for Hinata's character and the plot of DR2?

strongly agree | agree | neutral | disagree | strongly disagree

Kamukura being his own character, entirely cut off from Hinata's.

strongly agree | agree | neutral | disagree | strongly disagree

Like I'm going to be real with you. Kamukura on his own isn't actually much of a character. Like realistically, physically he's not in the series all that often. The Imposter probably has more screentime than Kamukura has in the original game, only really given more character development in Danganronpa 3 the anime. And even then, all it did was solidify events that were already canon to series, making it more tangible for people to wrap their heads around. I would argue that the biggest thing the anime did for Kamukuras character is make the main Characterization of him less outwardly malicious and more Laid Back, even if he's always kind of played this roll of a character that sits back and watches things happen. (Or, that's what I've noticed as someone that's only been in this fandom for a year and only has old fanfiction vs new fanfiction to go off of)

I think Kamukura's character, realistically, is entirely dependent on Hinata's. A lot of what makes him sympathetic and human, at least in my writing, is rooted directly in Hinata's character. Kamukura's existance as a the physical embodiment of Hinata's own Hubris, being the cause of the very killing game they're going through, forcing Hinata into this end game moral Panic of either going back to being this person that's completely different to who he currently is or stopping the end of the world, the sheer lengths it shows Hinata as willing to go to get what he wants. Like, all this together is damn near poetic story telling. Kamukuras existance on Hinata's character, I would argue, is one of the best plot twists in the series. Never mind the fact his existance was foreshadowed all the way back in danganronpa 0, and how cool it must have been for people who consumed 0 before danganronpa 2, or the post-game implications that it can have on his personhood. Just that right there is enough to make Izuru Kamukura a really cool concept.

I find the most interest in Kamukura as Hinata, in a stage of Hinata's life where Hinata doesn't remember being Hinata. It's a more extreme version of a person that gets in a car crash and forgets their past is. They're different now, sure. But they still have that history of the person they were before behind them. I think it's actually interesting to explore this idea of like... You're never going to be the same person that you were before. Some people change drastically over the course of five years, and some stagnate. But you do change and grow, and Hinata the reserve course growing into Kamukura the talented man made god, growing into Hinata, post game regretful of his past and in complete denial of what he's done and who he is now. Beautiful. A work of art.

NOW granted. I don't think treating Kamukura as something that needs to be Healed is an appropriate way of going about it either. It's something I see a lot with like... KamuNami. Where Kamukura's existance is written like a parasite on Hinata's being, that needs to be treated with love and and reminded that he's Hinata Hajime with a flash of her sexy gamer titties.

(Tangent; would also argue that's less of a flaw of the ship or characters and more a flaw of the Hetrosexual Romance genre. The idea of a gentle, quiet, and very determined female lead coming in and Saving this stronger, sexier, and more dangerous male character from himself or his past, and inevitably changing him as a person is very prevalent in the romance genre. I would even argue that it has its place to exist just fine, and that I do see why it can be appealing. But it's also not a trend in romance I'm fond of, you know?)

Izuru Kamukura deserves to have his own characterization, and to play the part in the story somewhat seperate to Hinata. His story shouldn't be JUST about becoming Hinata again. But I don't think he can exist entirely on his own, as a character seperate from Hinata? Without that, He's just a mean little eugenist with a god complex. Interesting, absolutely, but not the complex mess of a character study he is when existing within the timeline of Hinata's life.