#a weeby way to confess

[laniemae]

What are some of your favorite fanganronpas and characters from them?

Ooooh this is an interesting question.

I have had quite an attachment to the original danganronpa another I’ve just found it so charming to me and I absolutely love analysing all the themes and stuff. Especially with the theme of dedicating oneself to something, and essentially integrating it into part of your identity and for it to become toxic. And when that ideology is questioned and destroyed for it being no different from denying one’s existence. It’s a theme bought up that I still think about so regularly and there’s a lot to go into it.

Also on the topic of DRA well, there was a big incident that happened where bc I was watching Weeby’s playthrough of it I started liking Kinji and him being my favourite character only as a joke. And then he became legitimately my favourite character and one of those types of characters I can’t stop thinking about. Soooo when chapter 3 happened I was literally sobbing and crying so much and welp it was devastating. And to rant about Kinji bc I love him so much I feel like his breakdown in trial 3 goes way under the radar as people say it’s out of character and he went evil for no reason but I’ve thought about it so much lemme explain. To me how he broke down in a fury of rage is because we’ve seen Kinji constantly be stoic and isolated throughout the game and especially in his free time events it’s implied that he’s this way because he was trained to be a priest at a very young age and had to repress his emotions in favour of faith. And like repressing your emotions for such a long time especially when it was conditioned can absolutely lead to built up anger and emotional distress which finally burst in his chapter 3 breakdown. And how it was subverted that he wasn’t a typical secretly evil chapter 3 killer and rather after understanding it being a realistic response in line with his character is just so interesting. And especially how shocking the presentation was with the horrifying sprite and the slurred speech, screaming and swearing. And being in such a distressed mental state he accidentally confesses to his crime. Like I love this scene so much with Kinji and I think it goes greatly unappreciated aaaand looks like I rambled again.

Ok but another fangan I’m also super intrigued in is (he)artless deceit. Because the prolouge is already super interesting and the characters all seem to have much more going to them rather than just being typical archetypes. And especially themes present throughout the cast on how they view their ultimate talents specifically and themes of prestige ughahhhh I love running themes like that. The way it also has a side story exploring the world outside looking for the missing students happening at the same time it’s something I’ve never really seen other fangans do and it has such good potential and could absolutely make the overarching story super unique. It’s one of the beginning fangans I’m most interested in to see where it goes.

So yeah that’s my fangan ramble and edens garden chapter 1 is also coming out really soon which I’m super exited for as well

[y0uc4n7kn0w]

Here we go again...Let's talk about Hanabi

A while ago we talked about how much we enjoyed hairpins... Now it's fireworks. #anime #aniblog

Remember when I, Star, went off on hairpins? I’m about to go off on Hanabi (fireworks) pun intended.

Alright we’re skipping past the pleasantries. As avid anime watchers know there are many tropes in anime and this time I’m talking about the fireworks episode. Like the beach episodes sometimes this cliche comes hand in hand, and usually this is a monumental moment of characterization or drama…

[gilmesc1]

Do you have any thoughts on fictional portrayals of DID, like danganronpa, spl!t, and others?

Yes, I usually would take time to do research but lucky for you I already did XD

I looked into Danganronpa a while ago since we have 1 or 2 system mates from it, and in that case, prepare yourselves for a hot mess of my opinion and facts I got from a google fest.

So, to start out, I guess I might share spoilers?? So you hath been warned. Additionally I’m not going to sit here and rephrase the entire story so, honestly why am I even explaining this. Anon at least knows what’s going on XDD

So Danganronpa is a psychological mystery anime that focuses heavily on the themes of hope and despair, where in most versions of the story characters are forced into a killing game where they have to kill each other. Bet you couldn’t have figured that one out on your own XD

One thing I like about it is that the characters overall are written fairly well. Many of them are complex multi layered gems of writing with good development and story arcs. One thing that I found interesting is the semi accurate portrayals of mental illness and how it impacts the characters in this insane situation.

So, let’s break into that. I focused on the portrayals of NPD and DID specifically, and I could go back and look into others, but we’ll focus on those for this post. And just going to throw this out now, I think it’s interesting and also kind of a bold move to tackle those kinds of things in an anime.

So let’s look at the DID portrayal. The character’s name is Toko Fukawa, and she is a fucking wreck. Confirmed emotional abuse gives a lot into her character, and we see her as this timid, deflective, honestly broken shell. Later in the series we are introduced to her alternate personality, I know, exciting.

However it’s a literal serial killer. So like. Yeah.

I don’t love that part. I mean, out of all of the portrayals for this alter, you had to go with serial killer? And not only that, but a really famous, generally acknowledged as insane serial killer. Thaaaanks writer.

To recap what a lot of tumblr says, this kind of portrayal is dangerous because the majority of DID portrayals are of crazy violent stereotypes. It was quite honestly disappointing, and I wish that the writers hadn’t used this as their big reveal.

But hey, neutral standing here, let’s look at why he did do that from a different perspective. Since the theme of the game/anime is killing, it does make sense plot wise to have a serial killer. Additionally, it’s a clever way to get said serial killer into the game in the first place. Plot wise and with a few things I’ll mention in a second, it does make sense in a twisted way.

But let’s get the bad out of the way first. One thing I really don’t love is her appearance. It’s like someone took the original character design of fukawa, took some drugs, and then drew a nightmare creature. Seriously, there’s crazy eyes, hair flying everywhere, and this freaky inhuman tongue that the alter has out no matter what she’s doing. Like whaaaaaat the fuck.

Firstly this spreads misinformation that we can change appearance at will. Like don’t get me wrong, I wish I could, but the best I got is changing clothes if I have the time. Also the tongue I really hate because it gives the impression of the alter being this inhuman monster. Also again with the impression that we can morph stuff when we switch. I mean, if I had that, I’d be having a lot more fun in my day to day life than I do now.

Do what you will with that information.

Additionally we do see Fukawa’s tongue, and it’s not a weird demogorgon kind of thing, so, yeah, the tongue thing is weird.

Finally her name. It’s Genocider Syo/Jack/Jill. Not a normal name, no the only name we have for her is her serial killer name which I feel serves to continue to show her as this inhuman thing where we all go, Oh god oh fuck time to be afraaaaid.

But hey, let’s look at what they did right.

The backstory of how genocider came to be is really accurate to how it works. Fukawa has a history of abuse at a young age, and genocider eventually comes into the picture to protect her.

Let me explain: So this is a theory on my part (Check out Weeby Newz’s youtube video, that’s where I got this) but Fukawa was revealed to have suffered massive emotional abuse at the hands of a boy who she had romantic interest in. Since he was moving away, she decided to confess her love to him in a letter before this happened. Turns out the boy pinned the letter in her classroom so everyone would make fun of her. Dick move.

I think genocider formed after this specific event, firstly because this is a huge defining experience for Fukawa. Additionally, the way genocider acts serves to prove this. Her target victims are boys, and her first victim was the boy who hurt Fukawa. I mean yeah, killing was waaaay extreme, but bear with me on this next part:

I’d say that genocider is a protector. A lot of her initial actions were to protect Fukawa from getting hurt in the same way, and protectors do have a history of going to the extreme to protect their hosts and systems. Even though she seems like a persecutor, I don’t think any of her actions have been directed at herself and Fukawa, they actually seem to have a decent relationship, and to end this theory that is completely non canon and just me pretending I’m smart, I’d call her a protector.

Next, looking at the relationship they have. Genocider at one point tells the protagonist that they have a “non disclosure policy” when they switch when the other is in the middle of something. (like murder??) And I personally really liked this, as it was a kind of realistic DID humor in my eyes. Take it or leave it, that’s my opinion.

And that’s really all I have on that behalf. Genocider really isn’t shown as a “normal person” often, which I guess is the point but also leaves me with nothing to evaluate. (Side note, this is only V1 of the series and I’m aware she changes but dear god go easy on me)

Finally, here are a few things that I find a little weird tbh.

At first glance when they switch, it’s a touch accurate, if over dramatic. Losing consciousness and coming to as a different alter is possible so I do like that, however they also have her constantly switching when sneezing, which is a little out there.

I mean, I think I’ve done that before, but for it to be a consistent theme, idk. Maybe overdramatized again.

Secondly, there is a voice change, which is accurate, but it really just serves to fit the crazy image, so I’m conflicted on that.

So that is really all I can say on that specifically, to end things I’m going to talk about one other character Fukawa has interactions with, Togami. (He has a first name but I can’t spell/remember it.)

So I gravitated towards him while watching the series because he reminds me of me, hence me saying that he seems to be a dead ringer for npd. Let me explain.

He’s very cold and distant from others and obviously feels superior, additionally he is willing to fight tooth and nail to consistently be on top and win in any situation, leading to him doing some fucked up things.

But like I feel for him. It’s like watching me XD

His past was a very competitive cuthroat environment, where he was taught that losing is worse than death. Additionally he was almost groomed to be this untouchable figure so it’s no surprise that he believes that. I might make a second post about him because there’s a lot more I can say, but I’m going to double back to Fukawa now.

So Fukawa gains a very unhealthy obsession with Togami, despite him wanting literally nothing to do with her. He’s verbally abusive to her and does go out of his way to attack her, but she thinks it’s a sign of love. Poor Fukawa.

This also kind of fits with NPD, because we can have some pretty gravitating personalities. I think the attraction has a lot to do with Fukawa’s mental state, but I just found it interesting that the emotional abuse victim gravitates to Togami of all people.

So I brought him up for that above thought I had, and also to compare this last point. So Fukawa was confirmed to have DID, like it was specifically stated. To my knowledge it was never stated that Togami has NPD, but I strongly assume that he does. (key word assume, I could be wrong.)

So I found it interesting that Togami has this very accurate portrayal of NPD without ever confirming that he has NPD, while Fukawa is specifically confirmed to have DID while having a semi accurate portrayal. I think the writer really wanted to include mental illness in his story line and I doubt he intended anything to be intentionally harmful.

Writing mental illness into a story is very very very tricky, and it’s practically impossible to satisfy everyone, but the fact that he did do it is in my opinion, very bold.

He made good and less good choices, but overall he did make very compelling characters. Genocider admittedly fits better in this plotline as a crazy killer than she would as a realistic alter, but this is fiction.

So final statements: Toko Fukawa is not a bad character. I like a lot about her and overall I think she is very well written. Genocider is very less developed and more of a surprise plot twist than a character, which is unrealistic. The writer made some very awkward choices from a realistic standpoint despite it fitting well with his story.

So overall, she really isn’t a good portrayal of DID. You can enjoy her character like I did, but the main takeaway here is to not take her as a realistic portrayal. I know it seems obvious but this is the kind of thing that forms unhealthy ideas in viewers.

I’m not hating on Danganronpa or Toko, I actually really loved both. I’ve tried to stop ranting about fictional works that I hate. I used to be a loose fucking canon but I realized that I had been bashing a few autistic friend’s special interests, so now I try to be hyper aware that a fictional work might mean everything to someone even if I personally disliked it.

But that isn’t the case here because again I loved Danganronpa XD

So friends, that about does it for me. I liked doing this kind of analysis so if you want me to do more, send them my way XD

My next post will probably be the syscourse analysis if I can get that done before I get an easier topic. So thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, thank you for the ask anon.

And I’m now out of words. You all should be happy. XD

[jewell-chan]

Why I ship Kaitouma/Oumota

I decided to copy/paste a few of my more popular and personal amino blogs here. Starting with this one, please keep in mind I wrote this before NISA’s translation so it may have some lines in the Japanese that were removed in NISA’s version such as instead of Kaito calling Ouma pure, he calls him naive. Spoilers under the cut:

Source: https://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=61976368

Hiyo once again, it’s no surprise that I absolutely adore the ship Kaitouma/Oumota. I constantly praise it on my blogs, state that I love Kaito and Ouma as characters individually and I often refer to it as the best and cutest ship.

I noticed that confuses a lot of people, particularly people who haven’t seen proper translations or mostly Momoharu and Oumasai shippers. Or just those people that hate Kaito or Ouma as characters to the point of refusing to ship them with anybody. And that’s perfectly fine, although people should keep in mind that there are good ships out there, even for characters I dislike.

The ship in general is incredibly misunderstood or dumbed down because the two characters strongly hate each other, even to the end and if you didn’t already know, it’s a killer/victim ship which I’ll get to. I saw twitter and instagram in particular don’t like it, even a recent confession claiming it was a toxic ship in the comments.

So with my constant ship posts recently and that recent confession getting a lot of flak, I guess it’s time to explore exactly why I love this ship so much. A little note: This is NOT a post to convince you to like the ship. There are dislikable aspects to this pairing such as just disliking rivalry pairings as a whole and Ouma needing someone who can figure him out step by step which Kaito refuses to do. It’s a post on why I personally ship it and not a persuasive post. You are perfectly fine with having your own opinion.

If you couldn’t already tell, a major spoiler warning for the game, all the way up to Chapter 5 which is each Danganronpa game’s climax. Also, some adult themes and coarse language may come up so be wary of that too if you’re sensitive. Now it’s time to get into C O M P L E X territory and get started. This is why i ship Kaitouma/Oumota… And yes, I don’t know where to begin.

Overall dynamic

Kaito and Ouma are rivals, dare I say the main rivalry in the whole game. A misinterpretation is that Ouma and Saihara are rivals which is clearly not a case and an attempt to compare Oumasai with Komahina again. Ouma doesn’t even antagonize Saihara outside out of the scrum debates and even obeys him judging from how Saihara scolding Ouma at the end of Chapter 4 got him to calm down.

Oumasai rant aside since I’ve done not one, two, but three posts on that, Kaito and Ouma heavily dislike each other to say the least. Ouma’s always screwing around with Kaito specifically to rile him up and very well succeeds in doing so. It’s kind of like an annoying little shit of a brother and a short tempered older brother. I guess you could consider Saihara the one normal middle child and Maki the stuck up sister that spends time in her room 24/7.

I personally love the dynamic between Kaito and Ouma. Even with Ouma screwing around with Kaito, what he says isn’t necessarily false. Kaito’s ideals really are simple-minded and telling the truth is harsh which Kaito needs to accept but he refuses to do so. Due to this, they’re constantly bickering throughout the trials and possibly even have the most interactions in the game. Even in the demo, Weeby News picked up on their interactions.

Interactions

I briefed over their dynamic since there’s a lot more to explore with said dynamic. One of those things are the specific interactions between the two during the killing game. And while I won’t go all over all of them, we’d be here all day, there are a few example ones I could mention which summarises how they interact throughout the whole game.

Back in Chapter 1, Kaito goes on his usual rant on how he’ll reach space and live there but Ouma jokingly says “Isn’t that how you’ll die?” which references Kaito dying in space in Chapter 5. Ouma obviously didn’t know Kaito was actually going to die in space but it’s a funny bit of foreshadowing. More Chapter 5 foreshadowing in Chapter 1 is Ouma’s reflection after Kaede’s execution has Monokuma compliment Ouma and predict he’ll last long in the killing game. Kaito then reflects himself and Monokuma treats him like an idiot, predicting Kaito will die quickly. This is incredibly ironic when Kaito ends up killing Ouma.

They have quite a few key interactions in Chapter 4 as well. Not once, but twice does Ouma twist Kaito’s speeches into making him say a sentence that resembles saying he likes Ouma in some way which gets Kaito worked up easily. When Saihara runs into Ouma, he says that Kaito ran into him and started lecturing him.

One of my favorite moments was during the trial, the two are constantly going back in forth like animals which results in a funny cross back argument where Kaito calls Maki Harumaki and Ouma responds in calling Saihara shumai, a joke on how Harumaki is a type of food in Japan in which Kaito responds in “Who the fuck is Shumai?”

During Chapter 3, when the revival book was handed out, Kaito was afraid of the idea of ghosts being around them, in which Ouma took advantage of and occasionally but quickly teased him over which got big reactions out of him. He plays with his dislike of the occult several times throughout the game and in other chapters too.

Their interactions go throughout the entire game like this, and when their rivalry is taken to a more serious level, there’s a lot more depth behind it than one may think.

How similar they really are

Despite their constant bickering and different methods of going about it, the two of them really are quite similar in both their ideals and their morals. The same could be said for Maki.

Kaito and Ouma both have a strong bias against killing, and think of the best way to avoid it. The difference is that Ouma prioritises his own life above most things which results in him being a coward and Kaito is self sacrificial and selfless.

In Chapter 2, Kaito suggests to Saihara that they should have shared the motive videos and he was thinking about doing so for awhile, in which Saihara points out that’s exactly what Ouma wanted to do but failed. Kaito is surprised but then says the two of them can’t talk to Ouma about it because he’ll likely brush it off with his supreme ruler talk again.

In the same chapter, when Kirumi claims Ryoma let her kill him, both Kaito and Ouma can see through her lie and while admit she’s noble, she’s still heavily at fault for her actions. They also called her out on trying to emotionally manipulate the cast into letting everyone die for her, which they also called out.

Their views on Kaede’s actions are also very similar, with the main difference is how much Kaito looked up to Kaede and saw her as a leader and Ouma, who thought Kaede was too naive and saw through her ideals to be a leader. At the end of Chapter 1, Ouma did admit he sympathized with Kaede but also said she was in the wrong for participating in the killing game in the first place, her ultimate cause of death. When Saihara is thinking about how he could have saved Kaede, Kaito reassures that’s not true and it was Kaede’s choice to participate in the killing game.

This shows an example that their ideas and ideologies are rather similar and their endgame goals are almost identical. However, they both do and don’t realize it which results in their actual approaches being different which also results in more bickering. In a way, they loath and respect each other.

Why Kaito dislikes Ouma

At first, Kaito hates Ouma for fairly obvious reasons. He’s a little shit who screams about enjoying the group’s suffering. For the first few chapters, he can tell he’s not serious or just doesn’t know any better but it’s obnoxious nonetheless. Especially for someone as short tempered as Kaito.

However, as the game goes on, it becomes the same reason Maki hates Ouma: Relatability. Kaito doesn’t act like Maki in which she uses her and Ouma’s similarities to project her self loathing onto him but he does show in Chapter 4 he has a huge bias against Ouma to the point of risking his and Saihara’s friendship over Saihara listening to Ouma.

By the time Kaito punched Ouma(since Ouma was claiming to enjoy the group’s suffering to an almost psychotic level) the two were constantly antagonising each other, and Kaito seemed to demonize almost everything Ouma did. He wants to go find the remembering light? Clearly, that’s awful(technically, it was but he didn’t know the story behind that.) Ouma says Gonta is the killer and all evidence adds up? Clearly, he’s lying.

Well, that last part was Kaito’s bias against Ouma and his jealousy of Saihara, but you understand the point. It’s like if Kaito doesn’t want to relate to someone like Ouma, or if he demonizes him to avoid relatability. And who can blame him?

Why Ouma dislikes Kaito

Ouma has an interesting reason to dislike Kaito like he does. He constantly criticizes how simple minded his way of thinking is and practically throws a temper tantrum against him in Chapter 4. Granted, Kaito was antagonising him but so was Tsumugi, whom Ouma paid no attention to.

However, the reason of this isn’t pure hatred but pure envy. Kaito, even with his stupidity compared to Ouma’s intelligence, is the person that Ouma strives to be. That is exactly why they’re so similar. Ouma wants to be selfless, Ouma wants to be a group leader, Ouma wants to socialize and connect with others.

However, Ouma is merely a coward. His trust issues causing him to shut away prevents him from being the figure he wants to be, and like Saihara tells him, it results in him being forever alone. As a result, Ouma watches Kaito accomplishing everything he wants, but fails too, and how confident he is about it despite how he’s not even the sharpest tool in the shed. It creates envy, which also makes them even more similar in a way.

Kaito feels jealousy for Saihara while Ouma feels jealousy for Kaito. It’s in different ways, but the two do feel envy and jealousy towards people that they want to be. Couple that with all of their other similarities and it’s what sets up this rivalry so well.

Ouma exposing Kaito in Chapter 4

At the end of Chapter 4, Kaito is understandably pissed at Ouma, but he temporarily ignores his behaviour in the trial. Ouma exposes Kaito harshly, but effectively. He punches him in the gut and teases him about it with a sadistic grin on his face until Saihara finally confronts Ouma who leaves.

When Maki and Kiibo come to help Kaito, it turns out the punch made him cough up blood, exposing the disease he’s been hiding the entire time from everyone. His lie he hid was fully exposed to the people who Kaito trusted the most, and he was left unable to explain things properly and similar to Ouma, ran off by himself. Maki following after him.

This moment is what caused Kaito to regret his behaviour in Chapter 4, with his attitude in Chapter 5 and giving Saihara the silent treatment being part of his reflection. When Ouma returns after a few days, Kaito chose to convince the group to trust his idea to try the death road again despite everything between the two.

When Kaito tries to fight Ouma despite how he practically had control of the whole area at the time, Ouma comments on how Kaito never seems to learn his lesson before knocking him unconscious with the exisal. When Saihara approaches Kaito in his “cell” he apologises to Saihara on his treatment of him, and admits it was all out of jealousy towards Saihara.

Kaito and Ouma’s plan in Chapter 5

There’s no way I can talk about this ship without referring to this. This was the exact time that Kaito and Ouma reconciled and set aside their rivalry to reach the ultimate goal that both of them wanted, and even fail with their initial plan, only succeeding afterwards through coincidence and the suicide notes.

Kaito obviously wants out of the chamber, so he asks Yumeno to retrieve a crossbow for him to try and restrain Ouma, in which she does. Ouma does come in the “cell” again, presumably to feed him, and Kaito confronts him with the crossbow. Judging from the CI and Kaito’s traits in general, it seems he used the crossbow to try and scare Ouma and make him back down, but when that failed, he decided to shoot Ouma in a non-vital area as a warning shot, his arm.

Ouma still resists and makes a break for the exisal remote which causes Kaito to go after him, and the two get into a tackle fight. Their fight is interrupted by Maki, who shoots Ouma and injects him with the torture serum(it’s referred to as torture serum more times than it is poison, so I’ll be calling it that) when he tries to run for the exisal remote once more.

After failed interrogation, Maki tries to kill Ouma in which Kaito jumps in the way and gets shot and injected to save the two of them. Maki freaks out and tries to get the antidote, and Kaito and Ouma are left alone for a bit while injected. Ouma used Kaito’s shoulder to get to his feet and close the exisal hanger, so Maki can’t get inside.

The usual happens where Ouma pretends to drink the antidote so Maki can fuck off, and then actually feeds it to Kaito. Something to note is that Ouma could have let Kaito and Maki die for his plan, but refused to. Despite how Maki and Kaito treated him, he still viewed them as friends, even if it was one-sided. He says such after Maki chokes him, heavily implied that he’s not lying.

As a result, he chose to let himself die instead of the two of them, even though Kaito was dying anyway and both Maki and Ouma don’t have the best relationship. Although, he does imply in this and the flashbacks that he’s willing to forgive Maki for everything since he’s grown to understand both her and how similar the two of them are.

When Kaito asks why someone like Ouma would save him like that, Ouma doesn’t seem to give a proper answer since Kaito doesn’t explain why other than his plan. Now onto the plan: With Maki screwing up his plan, he went for his backup plan. To create an unsolvable murder and have Monokuma break a rule, making the killing game a lie and the audience watching abandon the killing game.

Of course, Ouma doesn’t know what type of audience he’s up against, nor the truth about Amami and Kaede, but it’s a solid plan nonetheless. So solid that Kaito seems to really like it, which I’ll get to. When Kaito refuses to commit murder, Ouma reminds him that Maki had shot him and the serum was killing him as they speak, in which you get another “Ha ha ha I’m so evil” moment from Ouma before his laugh is interrupted by heavy coughing and asking Kaito to get this over with. Kek.

Of course, there’s Ouma’s infamous breakdown. When Kaito asks Ouma why he’d want to end a killing game when he enjoys it, Ouma starts stuttering and claims he was lying with his despair sprite. He then breaks into more tears and stuttering(presumably from both tears and the serum)about how he hates the killing game and all the suffering it brings. Kaito is understandably surprised by this reaction.

When Kaito is exposed in the trial, he doesn’t give any further flashbacks of that between then and Ouma’s death meaning you can headcanon anything you want happened between them during then… I headcanon Kaito pet his head or hugged him out of pity.

In the trial, Kaito starts to go on for a while for how much he liked Ouma’s plan and commented on how interesting it is. Kiibo even comments on this, saying it’s like if he and Ouma were close in a way in which Kaito responds to Kiibo saying he hates Ouma.

Despite everything, Kaito still told the group about Ouma’s breakdown, and then suggested he was lying to get sympathy from him. However, Kiibo said it would be more shocking if he was lying since he was on his deathbed, in which Yumeno denied and Saihara was unsure. Then they moved on.

Even if Kaito couldn’t figure out Ouma entirely, if he really was a paranoid kid with trust issues or just someone to who wanted to beat the mastermind at his own game not caring for anything else, he was leaning towards the former, which is why he told the group in the first place about Ouma’s breakdown. The two may have not come to like each other, but they did come to understand and respect each other enough to reconcile and meet the one goal the two of them both wanted from the moment the killing game begun.

Subtlety

Despite Kaito hating Ouma so much, there’s a lot of subtlety that shows he does care for him to some extent and that Ouma also cares about Kaito in ways, linking to the killing bias they both show.

In the bonus event between them, Ouma says that he feels Kaito and he will meet again in which Kaito says he dreads it, and when Ouma implies Kaito may care about him, Kaito is quick to deny it.

In the main game, Kaito saves Ouma from being killed by Maki several times. From choking him both times, to shooting him. He doesn’t want anyone to be killed. He also says in Chapter 3 that just because Ouma’s a little shit doesn’t mean he deserves to die, connecting to Chapter 4’s trial where Kaito says he refuses to let someone like Ouma make it out of the killing game alive.

Even in Chapter 5, despite Kaito being so sure Ouma was the mastermind, he refused to actually let him get killed. He didn’t do the deed himself until the obvious happened, and he still saved Maki and Ouma despite the belief of the students that the killing game ends once the mastermind dies. Ouma’s words to Maki could have made Kaito figure things out, but he seems pretty surprised in the flashback when Ouma says he wasn’t the mastermind.

And with that previous mention of Ouma saying Kaito was lecturing him in the halls before his FTEs also show that Kaito did want to try and convince Ouma to change his ways, showing that he does see humanity in Ouma and doesn’t 100% fall for his act.

A huge example of Kaito and Ouma having a subtle care for one another is Chapter 3. Kaito ends up calling Ouma pure, much to Ouma’s shock which puts him in a monotone state. If you look closely at said screenshot, the face Ouma has is a subtle smile. He then says that’s the first time someone has said that to a liar like him.

In Chapter 4, when Kaito punches Ouma, his fail turns down completely, showing Ouma in full despair. This is what links back to that scene in Chapter 3, someone who called him something like that punched him out of anger of his behaviour. While Kaito was 100% justified for punching him, Ouma did feel the impact of his behaviour due to this. Something he needed at this point.

Also, Kaito is a massive tsundere in some aspects. He starts going on about how great Ouma’s plan was in Chapter 5 and when Kiibo points out how much he liked it, Kaito reassures he hates Ouma before talking about the plan some more. When he tells the group about Ouma’s breakdown, he’s says it’s probably a lie to get sympathy, but if that were the case, why tell them in the first place?

The fanartists and fandom

A bit of a stretch, but the fandom for this pairing is amazing. It’s no secret that I’m an analyzer, and I don’t care for how much fanservice the game gives me(by fanservice, I don’t mean perverted fanservice, but genuinely things that pander towards the fanbase like cinnamon roll stuff and a female protagonist)like a lot of other people do.

A good majority of people who ship Oumota/Kaitouma also happen to be this case, and like to analyse the relationship between the two. This way, there’s no bias between them and they can regularly discuss things about the relationship the two share without getting personal. This results in massive praise of how Kodaka wrote the two of them.

The fandom is also small, so unlike Oumasai, Tenmiko or Saihamatsu, it doesn’t seem to bug any other sides of the fandom with their popularity and overemphasis from the fandom. I could say the same for Momoharu and Oumaki shippers, but not as much to an extent. I’ve seen a lot of bias for the former and the latter isn’t well liked.

Not only that, but the Japanese fanartists for this pairing are some of the best. Most Chapter 5 fanart is great anyway, but the Kaitouma artists really capture the pairing well, or just look great in general with distinct art styles. Personal favorites of mine are @_urcs and @zitsuhaudon on twitter.

Enemies to Friends to Lovers type of pairing

This is the exact definition of this pairing. This also relates into the fandom a little, since while the fanfictions on AO3 for this pairing are limited, they’re really well done and fit this theme perfectly.

I’ve always liked Enemies to Friends to Loves type of pairings, and I’m glad this ship managed to make quite a number of them on AO3. My favorite one in particular is the recent one of Kaito and Ouma in the afterlife, the name slipped my mind but it should be easy to find through the tag.

Overall

The best and cutest ship, and my favorite relationship in the entire series. Kaito and Ouma’s rivalry is one of the most complex and well written parts of entirety of NDRV3, and I will forever stand by that for the above reasons. It’s severely underrated by the English fandom and I will forever love their dynamic.

This could have been longer, but recently, both Comun and Shiro.Tru(who is a recent member, but I highly recommend her V3 blogs since they are amazingly written so far)did amazing overviews of Kaito and Ouma’s rivalry which I’ll link here. Both I highly recommend giving a read to:

http://kaibutsushidousha.tumblr.com/post/164506869694/what-compels-you-about-ouma-and-momotas

http://aminoapps.com/page/danganronpa/4630123/my-favorite-relationship-in-danganronpa-v3-spoilers

They’re both similar and different in many ways, have amusing interactions, a lot of depth between both their relationship and as individual characters and their relationship develops throughout the whole game until they decide to reconcile to meet their one true goal. It’s a perfectly written dynamic and I will forever give Kodaka praise for it.

Once again, this is not to force you to like this ship. Hell, this might just get you to appreciate the relationship itself but dislike the pairing. This is just my two cents on why I love this ship so much, and I don’t like how snubbed this ship gets in the west because of it being a killer/victim pairing or the two hating each other. Thankfully, I think this ship has gotten some appreciation on amino recently which makes me happy.

What else can I say? I love this relationship, I love Ouma, I love Kaito and I love blogging. I hope you enjoyed, and if you like this ship, I hope I managed to briefly do it justice for you.