#Very light NDRV3 spoilers near the end.

[manlyronpa]

Long ass DR venting

Man I really just wanna give up on everything, I’m really tired of pretty much loving something but overall not feeling like I’ve gotten anything out of it. As a fan I’m completely disappointed, as I feel the series creators and writers never once considered me a part of their demographic at all. Like everything that appealed to me or interested me from the series just kinda got unceremoniously swept under the rug or mainly used to make other characters look better. I can’t emphasize enough how shitty it feels knowing you have a favorite and that the only time they get brought up is to kind of rub it in your face that they fucked up and they don’t get a second chance. It’s especially shitty when they make it feel like none of them matter and that their only relevance to the story is that their losers. For fuck’s sake, it would not have been that hard to have something, anything for them that doesn’t make them feel like absolutely no one in this series gives a shit about them. The closest I got to that was in AE and AE turned out to be something that had interesting ideas and things, but none of that shit gets explored! And I dunno maybe that’s my biggest fucking gripe with this fucking game series. It plays everything too fucking safe now and it’s fucking uninteresting when it takes those routes. Like god damn, do I even need to bring up DR3? Like how the hell is a long time DR fan supposed to feel about that shit? There’s absolutely no way people who actually love the series as a whole can say it was anything but shit. Did it have cool stuff? Yes. Did it have interesting ideas and great potential to properly go into things and give us a unique view on things? Yes. But the big thing here is that it didn’t do any of that shit. It took the laziest god damn route which was to play everything fucking safe, no one dies, all the SDR2 kids are actually pure cinnamon rolls who did nothing wrong and best of all any and all inconsistencies from previous entries get either cut off, retconned or my personal favorite, out right ignored completely! How dare I get invested in the larger world of Danganronpa or expecting it to deliver at all, especially after SDR2 pussied out on killing anyone. All in all, I love the majority of the characters, I feel almost all of them can bring something interesting, new, or different to the table. Yes, even the SDR2 kids. I don’t fucking hate them as much as people seem to think, I just give them and the DR1 survivors a particularly hard time because they are fucking survivors, I expect more from them. And it’s disappointing the route they took with every single one of them. Even Touko/Syo who should’ve grown since the events of AE just came off as completely regressed or worse than before AE’s events. And that fucking sickens me, the game was supposed to end on the note that Touko was finally detaching herself of her obsession on Togami, so why is she regressing to being worse by tenfold? On top of that, I do enjoy the ideas and messages Kodaka tries to push or tell the players. I feel that they can be interesting to think about and in some cases challenges how someone may see things. But at the same time, Kodaka’s a bit of a two-faced shit because he goes back on a lot of these messages often or contradicts himself with these messages or what is more common with him is that there is no power behind his messages. His execution is weak and flimsy, and while I can understand where he’s trying to come from, his actual execution leaves someone like me unsatisfied and often times frustrated like I am right now. Well whatever, I can accept that maybe the writing is just not for me, and that the survivors are not for me, and that 85% of the series is probably just not for me. So I should move on right? Nope, it’s not that easy especially since it really did leave that much of an impact on me. Recently someone told me they think it’s sad that I love and hate this series so much, yet I can’t move on from it like I have other things. And I’m inclined to agree with them, it is kind of sad that I can’t let go of it. But I firmly believe it’s because I think this series did help me as a person, especially the 1st entry. And it’s that appreciation I have for the most part that keeps me going. I don’t know, I want to see this series succeed. I don’t hate it, it’s more so a strong feeling of frustration of having to deal with a writer who has changed so drastically as Kodaka. While NDRV3 was alright for me, after playing it, I feel like Kodaka needs to be the one that moves on from it and to leave it to a more capable and admittedly, firm writer. Kodaka’s biggest problem is that he had a solid message in the 1st game, which was to keep going forward, no matter what happens. And he again had a solid message in the 2nd game about how you don’t have to live life the way everyone sees you, you can reinvent or renew yourself. However in the jump to DR3, Kodaka went back on his word for the 1st game. Rather than move forward, he went back, bringing back the DR2 kids. And not just a few, but literally all of them, even Chiaki in a weird way got brought back by turning out to be a real person. On top of that, AE’s complete lack of onscreen deaths and complete pandering to what the fans want in the DR3 anime kinda sealed it that Kodaka had gotten completely soft. I’m not gonna lie, I bet if people were being just as vocal about the dead DR1 kids as they were about the SDR2 kids, Kodaka and Lerche would’ve brought them back to life. After all, Kodaka said he wanted them to be more involved in interviews, he wanted them because they ARE important to the story. But for the most part it feels like the fanbase not only don’t care about them, but also feel like they don’t matter at all. So Kodaka took that in mind and decided not to use them, despite the fact it was something he fucking wanted. And the fact the anime actually kind of portrayed them as unimportant no doubt made my own heart sink. Lastly is while the fanbase is so vocal, they do not like even the slightest bit of criticism, especially when it’s about SDR2 or DR1 survivors. I constantly see AE shat on, I constantly see dead DR1 kids shat on, but man point out the flaws or bad writing in DR2 or DR1 survivors and everyone is quick to defend it. That’s admittedly why I love NDRV3′s release so much, due to the message given at the end of the game and also Kodaka’s acceptance of everyone’s opinions on it. I love that Kodaka is basically saying everyone’s opinions on everything concerning NDRV3 are completely valid. If you think it’s shit? That’s fine. If you think it’s good? That’s fine too. Do you not give a shit either way? That’s fucking fine too. I wish the other two entries were handled that way, because then I wouldn’t feel like my opinion isn’t just gonna be seen as negative. I mean, as most know, I haven’t really made many (or any?) friends in this fanbase, despite me contributing to it as much as I can and being so passionate about the series. Currently I have no one to really talk to about this series much with, as everyone I’ve met have moved on and this leaves me conflicted as to where I wanna go with things. I don’t want to quit DR, but I have to face the facts that while I loved NDRV3, it did not leave as much of an impact as 1 did. And that as much as I love the 1st game, none of my favorites are ever going to come back or get anything special. Those characters stories are firmly done and at this point Kodaka saying ‘Well as long as you love them, they’re still never truly die’ isn’t helping since I do love them, yet DR3 made sure I don’t forget that they’re dead and no one gives a shit. So most likely, after I finish my current engagements(NDRV3 Anthology, SDR2 anthology, Chiaki manga, Genocider Mode), I’ll move on to just doing what I love about the series. This probably means I’ll only really push or work on DR1′s anthologies and 4-koma kings. And once those are done, I think I will properly quit and leave behind all my resources and raws to let anyone who wants to do the leftover DR2, DRAE and possibly NDRV3 stuff to the fanbase. Ultimately I know all anyone will shift to only giving a shit about NDRV3, but at least if I do that I will feel like I contributed, did what I wanted and that I legitimately tried my best to make everyone happy in the fanbase.

[izurukuras-blog]

ndrv3 boys with their S/O on Halloween?

this was really fun to write!! i hope you enjoy! :D HAPPY HALLOWEEN FOLKS! *in the beat of the cha-cha slide* it’s time to get spooky

Shuichi Saihara

doesn’t really want to go out

would much rather just stay in and do whatever

that’s how you ended up watching movies

you didn’t wanna pressure him if he wasn’t going to enjoy it anyway

you popped some popcorn and grabbed the bowl of candy you were going to pass out

sleepy hollow ended up being a movie of choice

nothin like a good ol tim burton film

you just kinda sit in each other’s company

you end up asleep on his shoulder with 20 minutes left in the movie

does he wake you? does he turn it off?

he ends up finishing the movie himself before waking you up gently and suggesting you two move from the couch

Kiibo

doesn’t dress up 

i mean does he really need to?

you’re out trick or treating, it’s a fun time

until someone compliments his costume

stress

“W-what do you mean, costume?”

the person just kinda stares and blinks

you take his hand and guide him off the porch

“Was that person being robophobic?!”

he’s a bit upset now

you have to explain to him that they meant no harm, it was a compliment if anything

he’s unsure but takes your word for it

you head home after that

Kaito Momota

oh god, help him

you probably stay in passing out candy

you will not be able to drag him to Halloween attractions under any circumstances

he doesn’t care if it’s fake, he’s terrified

of course he won’t outright say that, he’ll make up an excuse

but you know

you still dress up though!!

Starlord and Gamora from Guardians of the Galaxy? Yes please.

he has a lot of fun with it, gets really in character when kids come to the door

you can’t help but smile

you may just be able to get him to watch a scary movie or two later on in the evening

he just has no excuse not to

but he gets to hold you so, hey, a win for him

you end up holding each other, you’re both scared shitless

Rantaro Amami

you’d been the one to suggest going to a haunted hotel attraction

but he was totally down

and you couldn’t tell but also totally excited

you held his hand and stayed really close to him

he Protec

he was doing pretty well, he’d jump at a few things

he’s the kind of guy to start conversations with the actors

“Oh, hey, how’s it going?” “Nice weather, huh?”

gives a few “Man, do you want a mint?”

even if you run ahead because something scared you from behind, he keeps his pace

he laughs as they chase after you that is why you don’t run folks

he does catch up and “saves you”

you near the end and you smell the gasoline, putting two and two together

but he doesn’t

you enter a room with stobe lights and fake meat hanging from the ceiling

then, you hear it, the revving of a chainsaw

suddenly, Rantaro is out of there

he actually books it, they chase him, it’s your turn to laugh

Kokichi Ouma

oh you know y’all are going trick or treating

pulling some pranks later on in the night too

but are you surprised? not in the slightest

gets mistaken for a little kid, but that has its benefits

basically he goes up with a large group of younger kids first and then again with you

he’s pleased with the biggest smile on his face

it’s actually really pure he’d have so much fun

and then, the pranks begin

“Do we really have to?”

“Nishishishi~ Well of course, S/O, what’s the point of trick or treating without any tricks?”

he has a point

don’t worry, they’re harmless and nonviolent pranks

still he picked another neighborhood so you wouldn’t have angry neighbors

harmless or not, toilet paper is a pain in the ass to clean up

you’re on the third house when suddenly their lights turn on

you drop everything, minus the candy obviously, and BOLT

Korekiyo Shinguji

he wants to go to a haunted house

no, not an attraction, an actual haunted house

you convince him that an attraction will suffice

he reluctantly agrees

is convinced it won’t be as enjoyable

surprisingly calm when people are jumping out at you?? he even laughs???

he likes you jumping and clinging onto him the entire time though, he finds it utterly adorable

afterwards when you ask him how he wasn’t scared whatsoever he just says “Oh, S/O, real encounters are much more eccentric than that.”

that explains it

he didn’t expect to enjoy it so much, but he surprisingly did??

probably because you were so close to him the entire time

now every year he sets to find the scariest attractions possible, it’s the closest he can get to the real thing with you

he’ll still try to get you to participate in some sort of ritual though

Gonta Gokuhara

“Haa-low-eeeen?”

after you explained, he was excited and all for it

he loved the idea of dressing up

you help him figure out a costume

“What is the best costume for gentleman?”

LIGHTBULB!

a knight and you’re a princess/prince

he’s really excited now

chivalry is not dead my friends

he gets really into the character of a knight

it gets you both extra candy from some people because he’s acting so cute towards you

he has a really memorable experience!!

looks forward to it every year after

Ryoma Hoshi

you two just stay in watching films

it’s a very chill, laidback night for the two of you

the house was decorated solely by your request

not very jumpy so jumpscares don’t get him

he’ll gladly hold you if they get you though

you make a point to try and scare him yourself

spoiler: it doesn’t work

he just glances at you, blinks, looks back to the tv

you tried, A+ for effort

enjoys the time spent with you

you bring him joy

[oumakokichi]

I don't know if you've answered this before, but I was wondering what the reason behind kokichi revealing maki as the ultimate assassin is. On the surface it just looks like a rude move yakno

I have discussed this question before, but I don’t think it’sbeen any time recently! With the localization officially out now, it couldn’thurt to go back over some of the same questions, to help clear things up fornew fans!

I’ll go into detail about this, but it will involve somespoilers for later chapters of the game as well (including who themastermind/ringleader is) so if you haven’t gotten that far you might not wantto read if you’re not comfortable with that!

What it boils down to is that upon discovering her truetalent, Ouma saw Maki as a potential threat. Or rather than simply a potentialthreat, it might be more accurate to say inevitable, like a ticking time bomb.It’d be one thing if her talent was something non-lethal but something shewanted kept private—but that wasn’t the case. And in a killing game, a scenarioin which all their lives were constantly at risk, her talent gave her aninherently unfair advantage.

It’s an absolute fact that Maki had killed people before, aspart of her in-game backstory. It’s also a fact that she was trying to keepthat secret from everyone else. She had her reasons, to be sure: mostly she wasinterested in trying to keep people from suspecting her or coming after her outof fear and mistrust, which she later says is something that’s happened “everysingle time” anyone found out about her talent. But it’s still a fact that shewas trained to kill people, that as a result of her training she does have askewed perception of the value of a human life, and that she was withholdingthat information from the rest of the group even though they definitely had aright to know it.

It’s also a fact that her plan for keeping her talent asecret was… well, shaky at best. Maki is neither a long-term planner nor a deepthinker. Her plan extended to little more than guarding her lab 24/7 so that noone could get in to investigate and see that she wasn’t who she said she was,only going back to her room in the middle of the night to shower and thencoming back (I’m assuming she was doing the same for getting food during theday since she couldn’t go at night but she doesn’t clarify, so we’ll neverknow).

This solution wouldn’t have worked for long. It didn’t work for longer than one chapter,but even without Ouma’s interference, I can’t have seen it lasting much longer.Not only was Saihara curious, considering natural curiosity is his specialty asa detective, but staying in her lab 24/7 also meant that she had no interest inattending group meetings, getting to know the rest of her classmates, or eveninvestigating during other murders (as she shows by holing herself up in herlab during Hoshi’s investigation).

She was cutting herself off from the rest of the group andonly making herself look extremely suspicious in the process. This kind ofbehavior not only made her classmates more and more curious as to what she wasdoing in her lab while refusing to come out, but also more and more distrustfulof her, especially given that her attitude wasn’t cooperative and that she waseven threatening people if they came anywhere near her lab.

NISA mistranslated the line, but she specifically tellsSaihara that if he comes anywhere near her lab again, “You’ll hear screaming. Your screaming.” She also threatens torip out Gonta’s tongue if he touches her when he tries to bring her to the “InsectMeet and Greet” (that particular nickname for the meeting was brilliant). Shedoesn’t shy away from making these threats that bely her assassin training evenearly on, and it’s very likely that someone’s curiosity would’ve inevitablygotten the best of them. And that could potentially have led to a very, verybad outcome.

Ouma exposed her identity to everyone before any of thosedangerous scenarios had a chance to come to pass because he saw her as a huge threat:she had expertise in killing people for a living, and the brutal training sheendured meant she was taught from a young age not to think anything ofmurdering people, but to simply eliminate targets and take orders. Whenexploring the school at the beginning of Chapter 3, there’s an optionaldialogue segment with Ouma where he even says that he exposed her “for everyone’ssake,” and that he’s “always thinking of everyone.” He sounds cheeky whilesaying it, but given what we discover about Ouma in later chapters, it’s prettyclear to see that it’s true.

More than anything, he saw her as a risk because despite howcalm and collected Maki often seems on the surface, she’s actually extremely reckless, and prone to actwithout thinking at all. And he was right about this. At the very end ofChapter 2, we can see Ouma testing the waters with this, provoking her tosee what her instinct would be upon realizing someone had discovered heridentity. And her instinct was to grab him by the throat and choke him, withoutpausing to think about the fact that she was in front of everyone else or lettingher self-control take over.

All Ouma had to do for her to try and kill him on the spotwas reveal that he knew her identity. He didn’t even have a chance to say whatit was, or say anything else at all really, before she began trying to outright kill him, even though everyone else was watching. That’s precisely the reason he exposed her in front ofeveryone else, actually, rather than trying to talk to her about it alone: he wanted tomake sure there were a lot of witnesses around, and he likely suspected thatshe would never agree to tell the group herself and would only see him as athreat if he threatened blackmail the way Hoshi did.

But nothing proves just how reckless Maki is quite so wellas Chapter 5, when she abandons the group’s plan to try and talk Ouma down “asthe leader of the Remnants of Despair” (very much paralleling Naegi and the dr1survivors’ attempts to talk Junko down from despair), lies to them all andtells them point-blank she won’t do anything, and then goes off to try andmurder him. Despite promising to cooperate with everyone else and not to gotrying anything on her own, her solution when presented with a difficult problemwas still to fall back on her assassin ways: in other words, to eliminate atarget by killing them.

That impulsive recklessness of hers is exactly what Tsumugiwas counting on, when she left that remember light (maybe I should startcalling them flashback lights now, actually) lying in the dining hall. Tsumugiherself wanted Ouma “removed” from the game, because his entire act ofpretending to be the ringleader was nothing more than a ploy to try and forcethe killing game to a halt by snatching the game from the real ringleader. Soshe left a flashback light full of fake memories tying the characters to Hope’sPeak, and tying Ouma himself to Junko and to the Remnants of Despair, knowingthat elevating him to such a full-scale threat was bound to make someone likeMaki decide to take things into her own hands.

Due to Maki’s decision to try and kill Ouma, things spiralentirely out of control in Chapter 5, resulting in yet another murder and thekilling game starting back up again, just like Tsumugi wanted. And the mostironic thing is, despite the fact that there were clear signs that Maki wasgoing to go off and act on her own, no one in the group ever even thought shewould attempt to commit murder, despite knowing for a fact that she was, infact, a trained and dangerous assassin. Saihara even sees Maki come in with a knifeinstead of her electric hammer on the day that they’re going to “talk Oumadown,” and doesn’t think much of it until after the body discovery.

Ndrv3, and Ouma in particular, put a lot of emphasis on howthis kind of blind belief in one’s friends is extremely dangerous. Time andtime again, Saihara, Momota, and the other characters believe that Maki wouldnever try to kill someone simply because “she’s not that kind of person,” evenwhen all the evidence and even Maki herself say very clearly, “yes, she’skilled people before,” and that blind faith is what ultimately leads to thingsworking out the way Tsumugi wanted them to in Chapter 5.

While ndrv3 is the game that emphasizes it the most,however, both dr1 and sdr2 also had their moments of bringing up the fact thatbelieving in other people blindly is actually a bad idea, not a good one. Notfrom the characters you’d expect, either—Kirigiri and Nanami are actually thetwo characters whose lines are the most similar to Ouma’s when it comes totopics like suspicion and cooperation. Kirigiri says as early as Chapter 1 indr1 that blind belief is just as dangerous as rampant paranoia, and in theChapter 3 trial of sdr2, Nanami says that in order to truly believe in someone,you have to doubt and suspect them first, and that “belief without doubt issimply a lie.”

The other characters see all the signs pointing to Maki’srecklessness, they see the way that her life and hardships have shaped her intosomeone who acts first and asks questions later—they even see her choke Oumanot once but twice in front of all of them, and still none of them think thatshe would actually attempt murder or act behind their backs until it’s toolate. This is the exact situation Ouma was concerned about in the first placewhen he exposed her to the rest of them, but the other problem that arises isthat he seemed far too untrustworthy and too suspicious for them to take hiswords at face value, even when all the signs were there.

if Ouma revealing Maki’s talent seemed “rude” at the time,it’s important to keep in mind the fact that the characters are all stilltrapped in a game where they’ve been told to kill each other, and that someonewith a talent specifically meant for killing others is undeniably dangerous,even if they have the best intentions. He exposed her because he wasprioritizing the group’s safety, and because he didn’t want her refusal to tellthe others about her talent to result in a scenario where she’d wind up killingsomeone to keep her talent a secret.

But ultimately, between Maki’s impulsivity and his own extremearrogance, paranoia, and miscalculations, things wound up playing out prettymuch like he feared in the end. He refused to confide in anyone at all abouthis plans to stop the killing game until almost the very end; had he done so,it’s possible that perhaps things wouldn’t have turned out the way they did.But it’s just as important to remember that although her backstory certainlycontributed to her mindset and behavior, Maki still had full control over herthoughts and actions as well. She didn’t have to lie to everyone and decide toattempt murder—but as an assassin, that was the most common “solution” that shewas aware of, and so that’s what she went with.

This has gotten pretty long, so I’ll stop, but I hope I wasable to clear some things up for you! There are a lot of actions which Oumadoes which often seem mean, rude, or just plain bizarre on a first playthrough,but it’s much easier to see in hindsight how he was attempting to look out forthe group and prevent more murders from taking place. Thank you for stoppingby, anon!

[dangan-millie-madness]

NDRV3 Dangan Salmon Mode Theory

⚠!STOP RIGHT THERE!⚠

This DanganMillie Madness post has spoilers for New Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony's bonus game Dangan Salmon Mode, spoilers for New Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony's anthology chapter 1, and New Danganronpa V3 Killing Harmony character spoilers (aka I mention the mastermind and I spoiled some character deaths). Please proceed with caution if you haven't played through the game!

Hello everyone! I'm DanganMillie, and welcome to a small fan theory that I've recently created after playing through NDRV3's bonus games and rereading the NDRV3 anthology. It isn't a conspiracy or anything like that, just something I noticed and made connections to.

In one of NDRV3's bonus games, Dangan Salmon Mode, you can play through everyone's free time events, unlock their skills, go on dates with them, and then get a graduation ending with them. Well, everyone except for Shuichi since you're playing as him, though you can get 2 free time events with Shuichi if you spend your Chapter 1 free time events with Shuichi when you're still playing as Kaede.

I had just finished getting my affection level all the way up with Miss Mastermind Tsumugi. Surprisingly, I really enjoyed her free time events, and her graduation ending was actually very cool because you get to see two of Tsumugi's mastermind sprites in it and Shuichi's internal dialogue states how he sees the light leave her eyes for a small moment. Tsumugi also mentions something about how Shuichi's Katana cosplay will be even better than her current cosplay, which Shuichi responds to with a question about what she means. I actually have a theory about that that I'll post soon after this one!

But anyways!

I had just finished all of that up with Tsumugi, and I had reread some of the NDRV3 anthology in between.

I decided to get my affection level with Kirumi all the way up next because she's one of my top waifus in the entire series along with Kaedead, Card Captor Sakura, and the Nom Nom Queen Ibuki. When I finally found her, I noticed that she was nearby Gonta, and made a mental note to get my affection level with Gonta all the way up after I did so with Kirumi. But then, I noticed where they both were, in the courtyard near the dormitory where Shuichi, Maki, and Kaito did their training before Kaito upped and fucking died (I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT KAITO IS FUCKING DEAD #overused vine) all while making Monokuma pissed in the process like the G he is.

Right then, I recalled something that I had just reread in the NDRV3 anthology. It was one of the mini stories inside of the first chapter where Kirumi spends the day buying things from the MonoMono machine with Rantaro to see if any of the items trigger his memories of his Ultimate Talent. At the very start though, it shows Kirumi searching around the courtyard for bugs with Gonta. Rantaro shows up and sees this and asks what she's doing, which is when she explains that she's searching for bugs with Gonta. Since he asks this right around noon, Kirumi tells Gonta that she's going to help someone else because she agreed to help him until noon. Gonta cheerfully says goodbye and thanks her for helping him look with that adorable smile and blush that we all love.

My theory is that Kirumi is helping Gonta look for bugs in the Dangan Salmon Mode bonus game since the setting is all too similar to that of the previously mentioned mini story in the first chapter of the NDRV3 anthology chapter. An additional support to this fact is that when you approach Gonta and talk to him, he sometimes is already looking for bugs. And this might just be due to the way he speaks, but it sounds like he's already looking with someone when he asks Shuichi to help him look. Again, that part could just be from the way he speaks, but it could also be a supporting fact.

That's about as far as my mini theory on this goes! Please feel free to comment and tell me your thoughts on it and perhaps share a theory of your own!

[oumakokichi]

Hi! can you do an analisis on Shirogane the same way you did with Ouma? I love reading your posts

Thank you so much! I’m sorry to have left this message forso late, but I wanted to go through absolutely every inch of the Chapter 6trial from start to finish really carefully before answering this, because Ifeel like Tsumugi deserves a really full, well-done analysis, and I wanted tobe able to write one to the best of my ability!

Tsumugi has jumped up in my character rankings since gettingto actually see her in action for myself. She’s a fantastic antagonist,absolutely fascinating as a character, and she is just all around fun to watch in the final trial. There’sso much about her that leaves room for speculation—the entire ending andepilogue is all about speculation, after all, and there’s no way to really besure with her, because like with much of ndrv3, she’s someone who wants to puther entire existence into a “catbox” of sorts and make sure the mystery can’tever really be solved for sure.

I don’t think anyone would be reading this post if they didn’talready know a bit about Tsumugi’s character and the things that happen in thelater chapters, but just in case, this post will contain heavy spoilers forChapter 6, so don’t read past the read more if you’re not comfortable!

So I’ve talked a bit before about how one of the mostfantastic and enjoyable things with Tsumugi is that she’s not Junko. We finallyfor the first time in the core series have a well-written, effective antagonistwho is not the same as Junko, who was foreshadowed very well in advance, andwho was among the group the whole time. Compared to twists like “mastermindTengan,” which was the single biggest letdown dr3 had to offer, the twist withTsumugi is outstanding.

It’s so hard to pin down exactly what makes “her,” becauseher being is entirely comprised of fiction. We see her for the first fivechapters, hiding in plain sight, clearly prone to human error and makingmistakes where she shouldn’t be, and without knowing anything about her as themastermind, it’s easy to buy into exactly the kind of act that she’s trying toplay: that she’s boring, plain, thatshe doesn’t contribute anything, isn’t worth paying attention to because she justflies right under the radar.

I feel like one of the core things to understand aboutTsumugi is this: that while the Tsumugi we see for most of the game, the “boringand plain” one who slips right by without catching anyone’s notice is certainly“the real” Tsumugi, from her own perspective, it’s just one more character that she plays.

Tsumugi is completely marked and defined as a character andas an antagonist by her complete inability to distinguish reality from fiction.The reason it’s so hard to tell how much of what she says is a lie and how muchis true (without catching very specific hints) is because she really, reallydoesn’t care. She makes anything and everything into a “lie” or “reality”according to whatever scenario she’s trying to pull, and she can start weavingnew scenarios from nothing at only a moment’s notice, true to her SHSLCosplayer ability. Tsumugi Shirogane is a person to us as the people playingthe game, and to the other characters around her. But to herself, “TsumugiShirogane” is just one more character she plays among an ensemble of fiction,as she tries to keep maintaining a fictional world in a fictional game for thesake of the only thing that feels enjoyable to her anymore.

In the Chapter 6 trial, it’s easy to sort of fall into thistrap where everything Tsumugi is saying gets taken as a sort of “truth bomb”and even when it sounds horrible and we want to deny it, we brace ourselves toprobably admit it was true, because that’s how things were with Junko. Junkohad a few lies here and there in her own final trial and showdown in dr1, butfor the most part she dropped truth after horrible truth, from everything aboutthe state of the outside world to the fact that the Togami family had fallen,and both the players and the characters in dr1 sort of had to take her at herword at some point because she was such a force of nature.

But Tsumugi is no force of nature, but merely an imitationof one. She is all about imitation. She emphasizes that her cosplays arethemselves “perfect imitations of the real thing.” The only way she canpossibly achieve that result is if she has no “real thing” of her own. Only bydiscarding one’s “true” sense of self and throwing oneself into fictionentirely can one achieve this perfect ability to camouflage and even believe orhonestly feel “what the characters are feeling.” Tsumugi has no real sense ofself, because she relies on Danganronpa, and on fiction, to give it to her.

She’s just absolutely fascinating. Certainly, she admiresJunko. She understands Junko, and she wouldn’t be able to emulate Junko ormimic her so perfectly in the trials without knowing how vital Junko is as acharacter to DR. In some ways, it’s even true that Tsumugi does crave “despair”in very much the same way that Junko does—because despair itself is such aconstant, vital presence in DR overall. Without “despair,” there’s no DR asTsumugi knows it. That’s the entire reason she tried to pull the stunt with theremember light in Chapter 5, and convince the group that they were all tied toHope’s Peak Academy.

But it’s not justabout despair. It’s about “hope vs. despair,” and it’s about the core,essential ideals that make DR what it is. The desire to see that conflict, tosee the suffering and then the climactic resolution, and to see the characters’resolve and how they overcome these things again and again, is precisely whatis being commented on, and it’s those desires that have let the killing gameshow in ndrv3 go on for as long as 53 seasons.

Junko’s primary goal in dr1 was to prove her theory aboutdespair right, to show that even the “hope” of the world with the 78thClass from Hope’s Peak would kill each other and fall into despair with onlythe slightest provocation, and to pull all of this from behind the scenes andget away with it as long as possible. Although she came to accept being “defeated”by hope because it was so despair-inducing, and allowed herself to go to herown execution, getting caught and beaten wasn’t within Junko’s calculations,and it wasn’t what she wanted.

But getting caught is exactlywhat Tsumugi wanted, once the game is clearly getting to its final stages. Itdidn’t have to be her: it could have very well been Ouma, as she trieddesperately to set him up to be the Junko-figure of Chapter 5. It could havebeen “Kaede’s twin sister.” It could have been a million different fictionalscenarios that she kept planning on the spot, lying about, coming up with,because fiction has so much infinite potential to her—unlike reality, which hasnothing at all worth living in.

Once everyone was in need of a mastermind in Chapter 6,Tsumugi was more than happy to step up to the plate herself. She was fine withexposing herself, and leaving extremely obvious clues that would get the gameto that point, because the trial itselfwas her goal, not making her classmates despair or suffer. The trial is part ofthe show, and the show is everything to her. It’s the most exciting, climatic,popular part of the entire killing game broadcast. It’s the reason people reliedon Danganronpa, on the killing game broadcast, and she wanted to put on that show, and was willing to do anything andeverything, and break any and every rule in order to do it.

The reason why she’s so terrifyingly effective as anantagonist is not because she’s a super analytical, super infallible force ofnature like Junko. Tsumugi can be wrong about things, is often blindsided orcaught off guard by developments she didn’t foresee. She’s very, veryintelligent, but she’s not Junko or Kamukura or Ouma levels of intelligent. Herintelligence is very human. But what’s terrifying is that she doesn’t need tobe right about everything or able to predict everything, because she “weaves” a new fiction and a new web oflies at every single turn.

It doesn’t matter if she didn’t see certain things coming,because she knows that within this world which is essentially an unopenedcatbox to the rest of the characters, there’s no way for them to prove that she’swrong. Not objectively, about everything. If they catch her off guard and takeher plans in a new direction that she didn’t see coming, she just takes creditfor it anyway. They’re all just “scenarios” she can put to use and utilize tomake sure that DR and the killing game broadcast continue.

While her words and claims have left a lot of peopleconfused on how much can be trusted, the more I pored over the Chapter 6 trial,the easier I found it to tell when she was lying on at least a few points. Herclaims about Ouma as a “pawn of the mastermind,” for instance, have left manypeople wondering if this was actually true or if it’s just a bluff—and I cansay with relative certainty that it’s the latter.

Ouma’s stunt with the Exisal and all the things he pulledbehind her back and all the ways in which he got in her way were not supposed to happen according to heroriginal scenarios. He was supposed to be compliant, easy-to-manipulate, and alittle puppet on strings for her to shape up into the real mastermind, becauseshe felt his character would have “matched” with Junko’s so well. So when thecharacters begin realizing things about not only her being the mastermind, butabout the truth of the world around them and their memories being implanted,she rolls with it. She retcons his role. She lies her ass off, basically,because that’s her element.

The wording she uses specifically, rather than “pawn of themastermind,” is more along the lines of “he was a blind devotee to a god.” Sheeven says all of this as Junko, still perfectly in character; the rest of thecast by this point were not anywhere near realizing that the world wasfictional or that they were in an actual reality show broadcast. She’s not evensaying this as a producer of the show; she’s saying this from a role in whichshe’s written Junko to be “the realone,” and she was just posing as “Tsumugi,the fake character,” hiding among the cast and pulling strings “just like shedid with the Hope’s Peak killing game.”

Her lines about Ouma are specifically said whilein-character as Junko, who is “like a god of despair” and a force of nature whoshook the entire world. And that makes it surprisingly easy to see that this isa revisionary tactic made to get back at Ouma, precisely because Saihara andthe rest were pointing out just how much he’d gotten in her way. He ruined aperfectly good fictional scenario she had planned, from her perspective, so shegets back at him by revising him and claiming his character was “just areligious acolyte” all along and that he was a “huge fanboy who had Junko ashis idol.” And all of this is so blatantly untrue because Ouma had no ideaabout Junko, or about the Hope’s Peak memories from the remember light. This isliterally just Tsumugi being simultaneously petty and brilliant at revising her own story, and I love it.

There’s at least a few other of these similar points whereit’s pretty easy to tell that she’s lying, in my opinion. One of them revolvesMomota and Maki, and I’m going to save that for a later explanation, becausethere are a few questions about the Momota and Maki relationship in my inboxcurrently. But there are other points in the trial where she switches fromrelatively believable explanations which fit with the objective proof we gotfrom characters like Amami or Ouma, to taking credit for anything andeverything, almost desperately, and those are the points that strike me as theweakest in her claims.

The state of the outside world is just one example. When therest of the characters reflect briefly on how they saw the scene of itdestroyed and horrific with their own two eyes, Tsumugi happily claims that itwas all a “set” prepared by the killing game staff, a perfect imitationachieved by her talent. But when the group immediately rebounds, thinking thatat least if the world is fine and peaceful then that means they actually havepeople and places to go back to, she really, really starts revising her story.She absolutely latches onto trying to prove that they’re “just fictional,” that“all the people and places they remember are fictional,” that they “havenowhere to go back to.”

It’s because to Tsumugi, the last thing she wants is themopening her catbox. With her fictional world exactly the way it is, she can sayanything and have it be considered true—because there’s no way to proveotherwise. It’s the perfect set-up for writing millions and millions offictional scenarios, as opposed to “a single unchanging truth.” But the momentthe group thinks about wanting to get out, wanting to see the outside world forthemselves, that means the catbox ceases to exist, all the fictional scenariosfade, and only the truth remains. If there weren’t very obvious flaws in herstory or things that would immediately come to light and be proven when thegroup got to the outside world and checked, then she wouldn’t try so hard to crush their willpower and getthem to accept staying in the killing game instead.

The things she targets (their friends, their families, theirloved ones, their homes, their emotions and feelings) by saying that they’reall fake, fictional, that they never existed in real life, are all the thingsthat really, truly take away their will to investigate or go on. Knowing thatthey weren’t actually Hope’s Peak Academy students or that they didn’t haveSHSL talents shocked them, sure, but once they got over the initial shock, theywere all sort of back to being excited about the prospect that they had a home.That there might be somewhere for them to go.

Tsumugi immediately noticed that, and pinpointed the thingsinstead that might give them willpower or strength to go on, by claiming all of it was fiction, all of it was her doing. These claimsare so large, so over the top, and it’s precisely why it’s easier for me tothink of it as a lie than her other claims, which actually matched perfectlywith evidence provided from Ouma’s or Amami’s labs, or things other charactershad said or done. If there weren’t actually some real life counterparts orsimilarities with their memories that would give them incentive to end thekilling game, there wouldn’t have been any reason for Tsumugi to have targetedthose things so hard and sospecifically in order to try and keep them from wanting to go out.

Tsumugi is a character who thrives on the fictional in orderto “elevate” it to the level of reality. Fiction is her everything; it’sreality that’s meaningless. As long as she can continue creating new scenarios,new lies, new works of fiction to counteract boring, bland, meaninglessreality, she has her niche, and that itself is her meaning to go on. Butwithout that…there’s nothing. Once it’s all stripped away, she literally wouldrather go straight to her death, because “there’s no point in a world withoutDanganronpa.” There’s no point in a world in which she can’t keep creatinginfinite new fictional scenarios and seeing the same grand climax unfold againand again.

This itself is a terrifyingidea for an antagonist, and I love it. She was absolutely astounding from startto finish in Chapter 6, and watching her come slowly to the forefront, puttingon a spectacular act, and ultimately blasting both the characters’ and the players’subversions out of the water because her objectives were so different fromanything that previous antagonists have done, was so much fun.

The only way to fight against her, an antagonist who thriveson lies and presents them as “truth” because there’s no way to disprove her, isto come up with your own lies, and to accept them as your own reality. Just asthere was no way for the other characters to objectively disprove Tsumugi’s “truths”about the outside world, there was no way for her, in the end, to disprove their“truths,” that their lives had real meaning and that the experiences they wentthrough were very real for them. Once again, the Umineko resemblance was verystrong, and I loved every bit of it.

Tsumugi is always going to be a hard-to-read antagonist,because her entire character wanted to stay in that catbox forever, and shepreferred dying willingly to being dragged out into “the truth.” There’s no wayto ever eliminate doubt and suspicion over all her words. But I think inkeeping with the themes of ndrv3 overall, it’s a safe bet that there are plentyof lies and truths in the things shesaid, because that’s the way it’s been with her every step of the way, and withpretty much every other character in the game besides.

I’ve seen many people so far trying to determine whetherJunko or Tsumugi was “better” or “more effective” as an antagonist, but I haveto say, I think it’s a lost cause. It’s like comparing apples to oranges. Bothof them have different mindsets, goals, processes. Both of them are terrifyingand incredibly well-written in their own right, and I think Tsumugi will get somuch more recognition and appreciation from the fanbase once the English localizationcomes out and people can appreciate in full just how much of a terrifically fun,lying asshole she really is.