#kokichi is the most frustrating one....

[pumpkinhimiko]

"Mistranslations" that are not mistranslations

Now with an additional part 2.

NISA has made plenty of mistakes while translating the Danganronpa series (and I've complained about them before), and so they have a reputation of being untrustworthy. But because of this reputation, I feel like fans are too quick to trust whatever anyone that isn't NISA states as absolute fact. So, I want to examine some instances of fan translators claiming NISA has mistranslated something, when, no, actually, they didn't.

Kokichi's last words

人にやらされるゲームなんて…楽しい訳あるかよ… A game you're forced to play... how could that be fun...

This is probably the most widespread myth in terms of "mistranslations that aren't", with the original post that makes this claim having over 2k notes: that Kokichi in the original Japanese actually says, "How could a game where you're forced to kill people be fun...?" Unfortunately, it's just not true. Fortunately for me, there's a reddit post here that breaks the line down in detail, so I don't have to do any work.

Anyway, I really wanted to make this post because of this thread, which makes several false claims.

 Kokichi says he's afraid of friends in general

オレは、そういう『仲間』が他人よりも怖いけどねー。I'm more afraid of those kinds of [friends] than strangers.

So... souiu, meaning that type of/that kind of is right there, directly before nakama (which can mean friend, especially if it's in a shounen anime, but can also just mean companion/member of a group). I don't understand how you can miss this. Not only is it right there, this claim on its face doesn't make sense. Why, in this context, would Kokichi suddenly blurt out that he's afraid of having friends? It has nothing to do with the conversation they're having.

Shuichi's words to Kokichi after the 4th trial

王馬くん、もういいだろ ? Ouma-kun, isn't this enough? その話を聞かせてくれよ。Tell us about that.

Okay, you've probably heard the phrase mou ii a lot if you watch anime, and it's almost always accompanied by a frustrated huff. Because it is, in fact, something you say when impatient, fed up, what have you. It literally means "good already", carrying pretty much the identical meaning of the English phrase, "that's enough" or "I've had enough". Shuichi does not say it's okay as in it's daijoubu, which is the word you use when trying to comfort someone. He is very much frustrated here and telling Kokichi to fess up.

Citation needed

I couldn't find a line like this in Kokichi's FTEs, but maaaaaaaybe I missed it? Shuichi's narration comments quite a few times on Kokichi acting childishly throughout the game, but I couldn't find anything like this in specific.

EDIT: Correction, I did find it, and it's covered in part two. Suffice to say, the OP got this line completely wrong.

That Kaito thing

Yeah this is patently false. It's also already been touched on in this thread with comments backing it up, so there’s another thing I don't have to get into. I'll put the text here though.

オレはテメーみて一に胸クソ悪い真似までして、If I have to mimic your sickening behavior, 生き残りて一とは思わねーんだよ。I don't think I want to survive.

Shuichi's words to Kokichi after the 4th trial part deaux

I've seen varying claims on how these lines were translated, from them being slightly tweaked, to the claim they were completely butchered to make Saihara too aggressive. I'm just going to leave it here and let you come to your own conclusions.

ダサいのはキミの方だよ…王馬くん。The lame one is you... Ouma-kun.

百田くんの周りにはいつも人が集まってくる… Momota-kun always has people around him... でも、キミの周りには誰もいないじゃないか。But, there's no one around you.

キミは…その程度のヤツって事だよ。That's... what kind of person you are.

This is snappy in its own way, though, if you consider that 程度 is closer to meaning grade/level/degree rather than simply "type of". "That's the level of person you are," basically.

And if you doubt me on any of this, I encourage you to do your own research, get second opinions if you can. I know not everyone knows Japanese, in which case you can't really help but rely on someone else and hope their translation is accurate. That said, at the bare minimum, I think people should provide screenshots and the original Japanese text if they're going to claim something is a mistranslation. Like, I don't think you should be able to say "actually in Japanese Kokichi says he volunteers at animal shelters in his free time but NISA cut it!" and have half the fandom believe you with no proof.

[bronze-and-silver-keys]

For the ghost au: how do the ghosts react to their killers getting executed?

Spoilers under the cut of course

THH

Sayaka harasses Leon during the investigation and the trial, because she's rightfully pissed about being murdered. It didn't really hit her how fucked up the executions were going to be until the automatic pitcher fired the first ball.

Chihiro was just as inconsolable as Taka before Mondo was dragged away to his execution, repeating that he didn't mean it and it was an accident. He didn't deserve this fate, not for this. The second Mondo's ghost emerged from the motorcycle cage, Chihiro ran to him and gave him the tightest hug.

Taka and Hiufmi remained silent through Celeste's execution. They both were understandably bitter.

SDR2

Byakuya was stone cold during Teruteru’s execution but let himself break upon remembering it was only him in the afterlife. He'd failed his classmates. He couldn't protect them anymore, and one of them was dying because of him now. It must've been frustrating being so powerless after committing yourself to protecting your loved ones.

Mahiru felt the same as Sayaka did, being bitter and angry up until the execution. Fuyuhiko and Peko's final conversation before the start of the execution really pulled her empathy into the driver's seat. During the execution, Mahiru's logic and emotion were fighting a war.

Hiyoko was definitely cheering for Mikan to be executed, right up until the huge arm came out. Even she felt like no one deserved that fate, especially with Mikan's past. Ibuki had no clue what was going on for most of the trial, and even less during the execution, but shared the sentiment of no one deserving that.

Nekomaru was ugly sobbing and saluting Gundham through the entire execution, calling him a legend and a badass.

Nagito was spiraling like never before, mainly because the exact opposite of what he wanted to happen happened. Something something, luck cycle, something something, the murder plot he made went down without a hitch but Hajime's hope outweighed his own and he figured it out and rendered his plan useless.

DRV3

Rantaro was wildly confused during the trial since he didn't see Tsumugi or Kaede before he died. At the end of the trial, he made Tsumugi flinch by voicing his disbelief ("It was KAEDE?") And that's what tipped him off that Tsumugi killed him. During the execution, he was ready to greet Kaede with open arms and forgive her immediately.

Ryoma was silent until Kirumi reached the top of the vine, and he started cheering her on. It was a sliver of hope he felt for the first time since they got here. Alas.

Tenko was fucking SCREAMING cheering on the Monokubs as they were adding fuel to the fire. She felt very strongly that this brutal of a death was deserved, ESPECIALLY when Kiyo’s ghost got exorcized. If Tenko didn't get to be with the one she loved because of him, he didn't deserve it either! Angie was cheering beside her, of course.

During the trial, Miu was constantly screaming and swearing at Kokichi, calling him out for being a coward making Gonta do the dirty work. Even the gorgeous girl genius isn't immune to tears at such an unfair death.

Kokichi was rightfully pissed that his plan failed and Kaito was getting executed, but the second Kaito made it to space and began trying to end his own life before Monokuma could take it, you KNOW Kokichi was cheering him on. Get one last final Fuck You in before dying. They definitely high-fived when Kaito became a ghost.

[yanderes-galore]

(Danganronpa + Romantic) Kokichi concept with a reader who dislikes him? - Dredge anon

Sure! This doesn't really focus on game plot, this is just me making ideas based on his personality.

Yandere! Kokichi Oma with Darling who dislikes him

Pairing: Romantic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Obsession, Manipulation, Possessive behavior, Jealousy, Clingy behavior, Stalking, Restraints, Threats, Forced relationship.

You not liking Kokichi is understandable.

Not many did upon first meeting him, in fact during the game some people still didn't.

You're one of those people.

To you, there was no point in liking him.

Kokichi is a liar... he's manipulative, childish, and annoying to you.

His mischief and mean demeanor does not win him any favors in your eyes.

You can tolerate him when you have to...

Other than that? You despise him.

Kokichi, on the other hand, has very different feelings.

Kokichi is aware that you hate him.

In fact, that just makes him want to pester you even more.

He's known to be a prankster and mischief maker.

Of course he's going to target you.

Considering the fact he has romantic feelings for you...

He'd definitely try to mess with your emotions to make you pity him.

Kokichi has stated he doesn't really enjoy violence... so he mostly just messes with you.

His obsession probably just started as a fascination with annoying you.

He likes to see your emotions, to see you get all worked up about his actions.

In a way he exhibits emotional sadism.

Would he ever harm you physically? Most likely not.

At first he just enjoys annoying you.

Over time he wants to see if he can manipulate you into liking him.

He begins to grow attached to you as the Killing Game continues.

You always suspect him of something, he's used to it.

Many hate him due to his behavior.

While he originally thought of your hate as fun to play with...

He finds himself wanting more than this whole... frenemy thing.

Kokichi soon develops romantic feelings for you.

It's ironic... You still hate his guts and he feeds into that...

But he's slowly becoming infatuated with you, scared to lose you even.

Kokichi is unpredictable.

He's just going to find new ways to pester you.

While his teasing originally was just to get a reaction from you...

Now it's oddly seductive or flirty just to see if you react any differently.

Truth is, Kokichi wants you to like him as much as he likes you.

He knows it's difficult due to the Killing Game...

But can't you push aside your hate and allow yourself to indulge in his games?

He acts like your feelings don't affect him.

In reality, it does, it does a lot.

He starts to get frustrated when you don't consider his advances, his teasing, anything.

Not even when the Love Suite opens up!

Kokichi is going to be irritable due to this.

He hates seeing you so happy with others.

It gets to the point where he's even more clingy, following you like a puppy as he continues his teasing act.

Who knows, maybe he'll even play into your suspicion?

Maybe he'll threaten those close to you unless you learn to work with him?

Kokichi loves to toy with you, but if he loves you...

He's going to have his limits.

He hates that you won't look at him, that you accuse him at every trial....

Fine, see him as suspicious, maybe he should act on that.

Maybe one night Kokichi corners you, perhaps even restrains you.

He waits for the right moment, watching your every move... before pouncing.

He can't really kidnap you, but he can certainly get a message across.

If you want to hate him, fine.

But fear is still a good tactic to use, a mastermind would certainly use it.

Kokichi, if desperate enough, would make you think he could kill you.

He doesn't actually want to kill anyone... But he's good at acting.

He'd tie you up, whispering in your ear about how he's been 'playing nice' with you in this game.

He's getting quite tired of being ignored....

Don't you know he could plan your murder?

He won't... but the others might.

So why don't you team up with him?

Why don't you rely on him to prevent you from being killed?

If you don't, well, you or someone close to you may just be another victim.

Here's the deal... He'll let you out of the ropes if you accept his offer.

In return for accepting his protection, you or anyone close to you won't be hurt.

There's a good chance you'll accept Kokichi's lies in fear of actually dying.

To Kokichi, this is a win.

You may still hate him and you certainly fear him...

Yet you're allowing him to do whatever he wishes now!

He clings to you, nuzzles you, maybe even kisses you.

He watches you like a hawk to show he's protecting you.

In return, you get to be a pretty little doll for him.

It isn't exactly the way he wanted to confess or date you...

But he'll take what he can get, especially since you're all his now!

[starbunii]

Sorry if this is against the rules, but can I get HCs of Kokichi, Sonia, Tenko, Hiyoko, and Mikan with a fem!S/O who has Huntington's Disease? It's totally cool if not!! Totally understand this is a squick kind of topic!! If not all those characters, then Just Kokichi and Sonia is fine, but again, no pressure!! <3

ooo i would love to write this one!! ty for requesting it, i've never gotten sm characters in 1 req before! i'll organize them alphabetically :3c

danganronpa characters x fem!reader with huntington's disease !!

im sorry if i didnt portray it properly! i researched to the best of my ability!

+ ° . ୨ ♡ ୧ . °

╰╮🩰🧁〣 ♡ 〢🥛

hiyoko saionji

when you first meet, she kind of just makes fun of you, not quite understanding that you can't control the twitching and moving

hiyoko, being hiyoko, will make fun of you at first (bc of course she would)

however, once you explain everything, she'll make an effort to understand!

if you forget something, she'll politely remind you (if she remembers)

might tease you if you forget something important, but nothing too mean

rlly tries being patient, which is hard. but she loves you so much that she tries anyway

kokichi ouma

he rlly doesn't question it too much when you first meet

he's met a lot of different types of characters, being the leader of D.I.C.E and all, so someone with Huntington's? not a big deal

might tease you from time to time, but nothing too mean

he knows you can't always control the way you move, so he tries not to dwell on it too much

keeps an eye on you while you're eating, given that having trouble swallowing can be a symptom

if anyone looks at you weird, he'll fight them! or at least try to

mikan tsumiki

like kokichi, she doesn't seem to mind or be too bothered by it

she's a nurse; she's seen a lot of things and is well aware of what Huntington's is

the occasional jerk or twitch might startle her if she's not expecting it; but overall, she doesn't mind too much

very wary if your hands are twitching, just because of her past traumas

however, if it's your face that twitches more, she doesn't care too much

if it's getting frustrating or too uncomfortable, she'll gladly comfort you!!

doesn't mind if you forget things; bc she does too

if you have a wheelchair, she'll push you around wherever you want to go, even if she's not that strong

startled at first; but after asking a few (million) questions, she'll understand

since she's been sheltered most of her life, she doesn't understand a lot of outside experiences, but she is more than willing to learn

will ask you how you cope with it all, and will assist the best she can!!

she'll happily drive you to physical therapy in her expensive sportscar, making sure you're happy and comfortable the whole way there

you are spoiled like a little princess <33

tenko chabashira

immediately sees you as someone she needs to take great care of

a girl? with an incurable disease that causes her to twitch and forget things? yeah, she's all over you, helping out the best she can

writes things down for you, even if it's something you know you can probably remember yourself

sometimes she just needs a strong "no, im ok" or a "no, i can do this myself" to remember that you've got everything

will 100% carry you if you get tired, or just don't want to walk!!

tries to do her best to support you physically

knows insomnia is a symptom, and will take naps with you just to make sure you go to sleep

she's ready to wake up when you do <3

starbunii 2024 — all rights reserved. do not redistribute or translate to any other platforms -- thank you for reading !

[m-y-fandoms]

COMMISSION: Kokichi Ouma dating a taller woman (headcanon list + drabble)

Word Count: 1.4K words approximately

Warnings/Details: SFW was requested, so any NSFW headcanons would have to be a separate piece. Expect fluff, romance, and possible unhealthy relationship elements because it’s Kokichi, but still SFW overall.

(A taller woman is defined here as literally even an inch taller than him, all the way up to a major height difference. I’ve dated a man only an inch shorter than me and definitely noticed that inch difference so we have a wide height range to work with here! I personally am imagining a woman at least a good five inches taller than him in my mind, but again, anyone taller than him in any way would work!)

As friends before you two were officially dating (but he had a crush on you):

Kokichi is definitely the type to tease and pick on the people he likes. It might even be hard to tell he has a crush on you because he’s mischievous and obnoxious with everyone. Depending on your personality type, you might enjoy just having his attention so often or, you might think he hates you or is just trying to bully you.

If you respond by liking the attention or teasing him back, he would get super confident and a little more touchy each time. It would become increasingly obvious that he’s flirting with you.

If you responded by pulling away or getting offended, he would become frustrated. In his mind it would be obvious that he likes you. Why else would he be giving you so much of his precious time and attention??? He would be a little whiny when you responded poorly or eventually feel the need to explain that he really likes you, but he would hate having to explain it. His cheeks would get all red, he’d roll his eyes, talking to you like you’re some idiot for not picking up on his cues.

Kokichi lies to everyone, even himself, so even though he acts like his height doesn’t bother him and even might joke about it sometimes, it probably bothers him at least a tiny bit deep down. He doesn’t make it a focus in his life but doesn’t like when people point it out, even if he plays it off and has a sarcastic rebuttal for them.

Therefore, when he finds himself crushing on you, a woman taller then him, he for sure would use your height to tease you. If he’s going to feel insecure, then everyone’s going to feel insecure. He doesn’t want you to think his height matters/is a flaw, so him teasing you will prove he’s confident in himself, right?

You’d definitely hear a bunch on uncreative jabs and nicknames: tree trunk, giraffe, skyscraper, stretch, bigfoot, lamp-post, daddy long legs, gigantasaurus, Goliath, stilts, rooftop, and so on and so forth.

He might surprise attack you, running and jumping onto your back and latching on. Whether or not this takes you down to the ground or you carry him around like a baby sloth matters little to him.

After you two start dating:

Sometimes, he will like to prove implicitly that he is not weak and not to be looked down upon for his size…

When you two are alone, he sometimes will pull at your hair or the collar of your shirt to bring you down to his height so he can kiss you or whisper in your ear. 

He likes to put you in physically uncomfortable positions to fluster and corner you. Feeling like he’s in control and can make you nervous excites him.

He will corner you in hallways, push you up against walls and trap you in between his arms.

He’s much stronger then he looks, but like with most aspects of Kokichi, what you see initially, isn’t always what you get.

When you two are alone in his room, he will cage you below him on his bed to kiss you, hold you down, be more assertive and initiate make-out sessions.

If you’re sitting together talking or playing games, he might pull you onto his lap, reassuring you in his own immature, aloof way that you’re not too heavy for him.

The teasing never stops, and certainly not in public. Kokichi isn’t one to bring down his walls and be vulnerable and romantic in front of others. Protective, possessive, or jealous maybe. He reserves his true feelings and mushy moments for when you two are alone, and threatens you with death should you tell anyone.

If he does let out some PDA with you, it’s purposely to fluster you or scare away others that he thinks are interested in you.

Also, he’s very much the “Only I can make fun of Y/N” or “Only I can hold Y/N’s hand” type of boyfriend, especially if you’re insecure about your height already. He gets clingy and jealous even when you’re just being platonic with others.

You were sitting in your dorm room for once. Usually, you found yourself spending the night in Kokichi’s, but he was being rather secretive about his room for some reason this week. You sat next to him on the ground, looking at a splayed out deck of cards on the floor. You often spent the nights like this: with him, either wandering the school grounds and getting up to trouble or in his room where he could have you all to himself. He could be selfish like that, clingy. Sometimes seeing others get close to you made him more jealous than he’d like to admit.

And you could most definitely tell when it was one of his more needy days. He’d be more whiny, showing his true feelings through a furrowed brow here or a scrunched nose there. He sighed, tired of leaning his head onto your shoulder. He wanted more, more contact with you, more of you entirely. Without warning, he grabbed both hands firmly onto your legs and pulled you into his lap. He was sitting with his legs criss-crossed, and with an unexpected show of strength for someone of his size, he sunk his slender, pale fingers into the meat of your thighs and slid you effortlessly into his lap. He snuggled you in and you slotted perfectly into the cavity of his hips and thighs.

You squirmed in protest, gasping a little at the surprise of being lifted so suddenly. Your cheeks warmed up at the close contact and intimate position. He placed his chin back onto your shoulder, nuzzling against it every so often and resumed the game, handing you cards and promising not to cheat and peek at your hand (probably a lie).

When moments passed and you still squirmed about uncomfortably in his lap, he grunted, irate:

“Sit still, I’m trying to get comfortable!” He tilted his head, biting down into the skin of your shoulder in a childish display of frustration.

“Well… Kokichi… aren’t I a little heavily? Are you sure you want me to sit here like this…?” You finally voiced the apprehension behind your wriggling. You were bigger then him, and his frame was so lithe and petite. You felt like a beast crushing it’s prey. It wasn’t that you didn’t like the closeness and his touch, but you couldn’t help but feel self conscious.

“Why would I put you here if I didn’t want it, stupid head?!” He puffed his cheeks out in exasperation.

“It just… I mean I feel like I’m grating your pelvis into dust right now…” He wouldn’t say it directly, but he hated comments like this. Though he knew it was your own insecurities against yourself at work, he couldn’t help but be offended for himself, like you thought he was puny and weak at the same time. You would never say that to Gonta or Kaito, right? Even Kiyo, who was thin as could be would be spared from such comments. Why? Because he was 6’2”. Kokichi frowned at your comment, trying not to take out that anger on you, though he really wanted to.

“If you move even an inch, I’m going to bonk you over the head and knock you out…” he grumbled, wrapping both arms around your torso and crushing you into his chest in a show of dominance. He wanted to prove that he could hold you, he could be strong and in control, he could handle all of you.

You relaxed into his hold, feeling the beating of his heart against your back and deciding to let the topic go for now. 

BONUS: In a NON-DESPAIR AU

He gets pissed, crossing his arms and practically steaming when you guys go to amusement parks and people imply that he’s not tall enough for certain rides.

He finds your body super attractive, content to sit back and simply watch you try on clothes without complaint.

He refers to you as his “tall gf” or “huge gf” in many different scenarios, even if you’re just the least bit taller than him.

[ultimateplaylistmaker]

As someone with an ougoku visitor's pass, I think the reason people get weird about it is because there was a lot of emotional hurt to gonta and kokichi's relationship that isnt in most blackened/victim ships. Ch4 is.... an experience. Not that this should stop people from shipping it, of course. Im personally not into it but its about as textually emotionally toxic as oumota so I feel like it shouldnt be that big of a deal fandomwide.

Oh yeah there’s definitely more of an emotional weight to chapter 4 then like, basically any other trial. I 100% get why people would be turned away from the concept, it just frustrates me a bit because of how fast ship wars and ship dislike swings from “I don’t like this ship” to “everyone who ships this is an abuse apologist and evil and bad” and people can’t seem to resist making digs at the shippers. Which gets extra annoying when it (likely incorrectly) feels like no other ship is getting this flack.

like nine times out of ten when someone doesn’t like it that’s usually fine, but it’s just that 1/10 who sends people like 1k words of anon hate or talks about how people who ship it are bad people are just so much louder for ougoku then other ships and makes people more jumpy which causes people, including myself I’m no saint, to get more defensive and it’s a very annoying spiral. I know logically it’s just a small handful of people being very annoying on the internet but the loudness and rudeness tends to make them seem more prominent then they actually are.

Plus it always feels like both characters get very flattened, like even if you don’t think they were actually more then allies or don’t consider them friend, Gonta’s death clearly gave Kokichi some kind of breakdown to have him borderline beg for death in Gonta’s place (something wildly out of character no matter how you slice it) and Alter Ego Gonta seems very sure of his agency in the scheme, it’s complicated, and we never learn the full depths of that complication because Kokichi keeps things so close to his chest and away from the camera. Really, it’s one of the best trials in the series, but also extremely ironically by the themes of that trial it makes people think very emotionally about the characters involved instead of logically to the point of ignoring or denying things that actually happen. Everyone is Kaito when it comes to chapter 4.

[sammylbir]

Non-Binary Tenko Hcs

Here are some HCs for NB! Tenko. Remember, you don't have to agree with me, it's just how I see it. Okay? Good!

She first questioned her gender identity, upon realising that her love for fighting and violence and her aggression weren't traditionally feminine.

Ever since then, Tenko began to embrace those aspects and rethink her mindset about men and women, and was conflicted whether she was the one or the other.

Tenko then began to fear that she was somehow male and wanted to test it, by doing "manly" activities and hanging out with one of the more masculine cast members, like Kaito and Gonta. Training with them filled her with fire, but at the same time she was put off by Kaito's recklessness and insensitive nature.

She then tried to spend a day with Kirumi, in order to feel more "lady-like" again, by dressing politely and speaking softly. Tenko however was often too impatient to act like that and quit. Kirumi tried to ask her, if she has to fit into the norms, but Tenko ran off too quickly.

Frustrated by that stuff, she eventually remembered that Keebo is technically neither male or female, so she tried spending time with him in order to ask for advice. Keebo told her that he didn't fit into any of the roles and didn't need to. He was himself and that's what mattered. He asked Tenko why she desperately wanted to fit in with the rest and Tenko admitted that she was afraid of being seen as a weird outcast, something Keebo sympathized with and told her that she doesn't have to be afraid to be herself. In his own words: "You are Tenko Chabashira. You can be whoever you want to be. It is your one life, so maybe make the best of it."

Ever since then, Tenko began to actively describe herself as "the best of both worlds" and decided to be fine with that.

She uses She/They and began to dress a tad more boyish, by wearing more baggy clothing. But at the same time, her facial features are still clean and her hair well-kept.

Tenko then began to dislike boys a bit less now and instead of being mean to boys, she began to only antagonize them if they showcased the worst traits of being masculinity (being insensitive, being overly macho, being a sexist and being too reckless.)

Most in her class were fine with that change and accepted her, for who she is. Kokichi is the only one who teases her for it and Tenko ends up chasing him more because of it.

And that's it. Reblogs and likes are appreciated.

Thanks for reading ^^

[thelyingjoke]

what's something new you noticed on your rewatch of v3?

ah this is an interesting one!!! also a little difficult, since my memories on things like this tend to blend together quite quickly, so i’ve had to think a lot about how to answer (which is why this took so long, along with typing it all up, sorry for that!). i probably don’t have everything, but luckily i did take some screenshots while watching! so there’s some bits i definitely know that i noticed!!!

i was really focused on exactly how kokichi’s character develops because i did Know generally beforehand but i didn’t have a full clear progression in my head—and well it’s kokichi so there’s not really ever gonna be 100% full clear progression for him but i think i see it a lot more now!

like how he’s a lot more open to cooperation in chapter 1—he loudly supported going through the tunnel the first times, and was the one to suggest the daily dining hall meetings!

he’s much more open about his intentions in early chapters (there’ll be more examples of this later, but here’s one for ch1! himiko quickly brushes it off as a lie but it really doesn’t feel like one)

and he’s the one that’s the most insistent on monokuma being dead and the killing game being over. he REALLY doesn’t want anyone to get the idea of starting it up. and then there’s the shock when monokuma does show up (he quickly brushes it off with “at least it’s not boring” but you KNOW he’s screaming on the inside)

actually, i’m just noticing this now, he seems to have a strange amount of optimism towards the idea that everything will just work out in ch1—he doesn’t even investigate because he thinks everything will be completely solved through the pictures, and to do so would be pointless, which he later expresses regret for. it’s overshadowed for most people, i think, because of the tunnel scene and his later behavior, but honestly the fact that he even tried it without skepticism in the first place, along with his insistence about monokuma being dead and thinking that rantaro’s case will solve itself… wow he is showing Quite a bit of belief here without reason! hmmmmmm!!

i’d say he probably compensates for that for investigating even outside of cases in ch2, and being more skeptical of things. when everyone tries to ignore the killing game, kokichi brings it up (he’s tried to ignore it before. it didn’t work). kaede’s death also had him believe that cooperation would be punished—she was the one encouraging it, after all, and look at what happened to her—upping his paranoia, and the fact that he still believed there’s a mastermind didn’t help matters! now he has to be careful not only about working with anyone out of fear he’ll be punished in some way, but also about who he works with, destroying any good chances of working safely with the group as a whole!! yippee!!! that’s probably even more frustrating for him considering his talent is literally being a leader of a group

“Don’t get the wrong idea. I’m not saying we shouldn’t care about killing or dying… But I think it’d be better if we didn’t cooperate with each other… Actually, we *definitely* shouldn’t cooperate with each other!” […] “Think back to all of Monokuma’s actions so far. Whenever we tried to work together, Monokuma would retaliate with a plan to make us suffer. It happened when Kaede wanted us to cooperate, and again with these motive videos, right? Which means, the more we try to cooperate, the more he’ll try to make us suffer. That’s why I had no choice but to screw with you guys. But you ingrates didn’t even notice.”

THIS BIT GETS ME SO MUCH like Honestly he couldn’t be clearer with his intentions here. he denies an assumption he doesn’t care about death; he states his beliefs; he clearly outlines why he believes this with examples; even directly says Yes he screwed with them for a reason they just didn’t notice and tells them Why! (although he still has to insult everyone of course. he’s an ass who thinks he’s better than everyone else [affectionate]) but it goes ignored, and the reasoning is really interesting. shuichi’s thoughts are:

It’s *because* we’re trying to cooperate that Monokuma is making us suffer…? But what about… everything we went through..? What was the point of Kaede sacrificing herself…?

it’s been like 2 months since i was on ch2 so i don’t remember Exactly but i’m pretty sure nobody brings it up after this. it’s so interesting to me, i don’t have the brainpower to put my thoughts together more eloquently but i’m rotating it in my head. (i remember you bringing it up in the tags of the kaede/kokichi parallels post actually!!! mixed in with that bit about kokichi suggesting a family member of rantaro being the mastermind. i misremembered this the exact same way too until i went back to check i could’ve SWORN shuichi brought up the promise to kaede then but he didn’t💔iirc he actually considers the possibility? which was interesting but then it was never brought up again. Anyway back to the post)

rantaro also says something similar to kaede in ch1:

”You have what it takes to win…” ”What…?” “I was just thinking, what you said back there would have pissed off whoever’s running this. They definitely don’t want us holding hands, workin’ together… …They’re going to come for you, Kaede. With everything they’ve got. I’m a little worried about you. You’re just so…straightforward.”

and kaede just goes “geez that guy could stand to be a little less cryptic!” IT’S A REALLY INTERESTING PARALLEL TO ME and the fact that both him and kokichi describe “winning” the game 2nd survivor kokichi real

oh and also something i’ve been thinking about! i think kokichi had the mastermind plan forming in his head relatively early, but he didn’t actually want to do it at all, and didn’t start going “okay, i have to do this now” until about ch4. it’s more of a plan B, “if nothing else works, at least i have this”. but the issue is that in order for that to work, he has to keep it in mind until he knows whether he has to use it or not, which puts another barrier between him and working together with everyone else. even if other plans would be better if he could gain everyone’s trust, he has to keep the option available, so he can only gain people’s trust indirectly. he’s more actively looking for other ways to do this earlier on though, particularly in ch2. he expresses distaste about how people treat him early on (this bit immediately reminded me of the 4th trial where he’s like “bullying? yeah, what about it? that’s what you do in this game, right? you guys blame and gang up on me, but now you pretend to be good people?” and i was like Woa!!! his frustration in that scene does not come out of nowhere!!!)

it’s also the reason he frames the motive video watch party the way he does. if he says outright he’s trying to prevent more murders, and people don’t watch the videos, a later mastermind plan wouldn’t work! BUT, if he can get everyone to watch them, then his motive video plan works and people would know he doesn’t mean harm because they would see his video, better convincing them than he could do so himself! best case scenario there are no murders and people will see he’s being serious when he says he’s trying to help them. of course, watch party ends up not happening in the end, and also he’s lost quite a bit of trust from his closest ally (which could have also been prevented had he not been so paranoid since gonta DID agree to get everyone to watch the motive videos), so he’s getting closer to that mastermind plan.

another thing in ch2 is kokichi losing much influence in the group. this isn’t just because of the insect meet & greet! from the beginning people are wary around him, but he’s actually able to steer conversations in his favor at times, and if you look closely you can see his leader talent popping up. when he speaks up against kaede, the majority agree with him; the majority agree with him when he insists that the killing game is cancelled; again, when new flashback lights are presented, he expresses concern and everyone agrees not to use them. except kaito. and shuichi, i guess, but he doesn’t even get to answer before kaito cuts him off. people question kaito, he gives a speech to convince everyone to try them, and though it doesn’t work on kokichi, it sure works on everyone else!

they’ve clashed before, but now kaito is the one making things sway his way. this happens in the trial, too. kaito says he believes in maki without any reasoning, kokichi calls him an idiot, and everyone starts to agree. but things end up going in kaito’s favor. almost everyone else thinks he’s an idiot, but then tenko and shuichi switch around to his “side” of wanting to believe in maki despite all seemingly logical reasoning. most people still don’t agree with kaito before maki admits to seeing ryoma, but those two do, and kokichi is so baffled by shuichi believing in this (i feel like this could be worded better but i can’t think of anything right now, hopefully you get the idea though!)

the mastermind plan grows ever closer with ch3 and more being added to the courtyard message. it’s still not something he’d like to do. i’m unsure of the exact timeline, but i believe ch3 is around the time he asks miu for the inventions (possibly even earlier for the bugvac)? he wouldn’t be able to do it with her around, and he wouldn’t want to kill her just to keep to the plan. he’s probably trying to find the best moment to present the stuff to everyone so they can fight monokuma, and waiting for miu to make enough of them so that they can, considering there’s only enough electrohammers for the remaining people by ch5. but the guy’s in a tough situation, because on one hand he wants people to trust him so they can work together but on the other he needs them to distrust him in case plan B becomes necessary. he needs to be careful so that monokuma doesn’t notice him cooperating, because he also wants to keep being his favorite (i love it when he goes “riiiiiiight, monokuma? aren’t i so evil and twisted haha don’t you love me i am so entertaining if i died it would make the viewers mad haha right” he’s trying so hard). he doesn’t know who the actual mastermind is. people are already rightfully distrustful of him. but he still wants them to know his actual intentions, if they’re willing to. it doesn’t seem like it’s too late yet. (he is so wonderfully contradictory and human, i love him. paranoid asshole who wants to be Known but the idea is also terrifying and dangerous and he ends up sabotaging any opportunity for that to happen) so, he presents a piece of information he hopes will make people trust him: maki’s talent.

ok, well, that sounds like a lot of guessing stuff that’s not really in the game. i suppose. but i do have a reason!!! these lines stood out to me as i was watching:

he doesn’t even follow up with “that might be a lie” or anything. he really does want to work together with everyone, it’s just that finding a good opportunity to show it safely is Difficult and people don’t believe him. and he is really set on the idea that trusting people too much is a bad thing. there’s a few reasons why he only chose to reveal her talent now instead of before, when apparently “given his position” he’s known since the beginning: kaito’s blind faith in maki prompting him to show that actually, she Isn’t trustworthy! the believing thing is stupid and false, see? hopefully getting more people on kokichi’s side rather than kaito’s side. he tries again later to get people on his side, accusing kaito of trying to turn everyone against each other by defending maki and dragging her places

everyone mostly ignores him though and moves onto the flashback lights. as this and the next chapter go on he continuously tries to provoke maki, probably to get her to snap and show people she really Is just a killer or something, although she doesn’t budge until later. this was probably me reading too much into it but all of that did really stand out to me

well all the Good Plans fall apart with ch4. they could’ve all worked together using miu’s inventions but then The Case happened kokichi has a chapter-long mental breakdown ough it makes me so sad to think about. i mean after all that there wasn’t much coming back from it, the mastermind plan was likely the best thing he had. the “everyone hates me so the role of villain is perfect for me” always made me sad but especially This time after looking for everything else. dude…negative character development…..so good but also making me cry! me when i have good intentions but my own distrust and paranoia becomes my downfall as i start to have no one to turn to. me when the same person’s death that led the main character to become more open and outgoing towards others led me to become closed off and solitary despite both our earlier attitudes!!

he also succeeds in provoking maki in the end. i don’t have any particular comment for this i just took the screenshot i can’t remember what my thoughts were on it

i don’t have any other screenshots to do with this so that’ll be the end of that i guess!!! not super eloquently worded i’m just kinda throwing ideas out there, i can elaborate on any points that might not have been super well-explained if you want !

oh and for more silly stuff:

i like this maki line, it’s after shuichi says “about the size of a girl”. there’s one later (in ch4, i think) where i don’t remember what the first part was but she says “not to sound like tenko, but you men can really be like that”. these are 2 very throwaway lines but they almost make me think she was supposed to be the new feminist after tenko’s death (just without the weird stereotyping and much less extreme). she should’ve been. especially given kaito’s casual misogyny at times this would’ve been cool! unfortunately we didn’t get that :(

oh and

shuichi is a yo-kai watch fan, kokichi is a pokémon fan. this is a source of conflict between them and it is unknown if they can overcome this

okay i made this WAY longer than i should’ve. i’m sure there may have been more things but they’re slipping my mind. hopefully this is sufficient!

[silverraindropliliacsky]

For @k0k1ch1111

‘Why me of all people?’ Ouma thought to himself, to his dismay he could come to no immediate conclusion. ‘What does Saihara have to gain by this lame attempt to get to know me. Is he serious? Maybe he’s trying to stake me out, catch me off guard by pretending to be my friend so that I’ll “trust” him like all the other delusional members of this class’ It was no good, every train of thought was met with a counter option that seemed equally as likely. The real issue here was that Kokichi really didn’t know Shuichi all that well yet. On one hand, he had saved everyone's life by outing Kaede as the culprit, ‘easily explained’ he thought to himself. ‘Detective boy just wanted us to think he was on our side and felt no issue about revealing Kaede because he was lying about their friendship. Similar to why he would be lying now… Yeah okay sure he ditched the hat, that could mean nothing.’ He didn’t want to believe it could be Shuichi if he was being honest with himself (he wasn’t) because his instinct was telling him the hunch was incorrect. ‘If Shuichi is the mastermind here then I can’t trust my own instincts!’ No use, Kokichi had been deliberating this idea back and forth in his mind for what seemed like days now, he really had no leads at all. With woe he gazed up at his whiteboard across the room and let out a dramatic sigh as he flopped onto his provided mattress to examine his prospects.

“Well…” he started out loud, despite being alone in his room. “I know it least can’t be these two.” As he spoke he walked over to the board and moved the cutouts of Kaede and Rantoro to the left top corner drawing a sharp arrow from Kaede to Rantoro with his black expo marker. “Because it turns out Kaede had it in her afterall.” There was a pained bitterness in his voice as Kokichi spoke, a long past realization that the situation he… everyone… was in, is real. People are actually going to start killing each other, playing right into Monokumas hands. With desperation daring to hint in his otherwise neutral expression he diligently looked over his other classmates' photos. He had questions, particularly around these three individuals he set over to the far right side of the white board. “Something isn’t right about this one, she’s clearly lying about her ‘Ultimate Talent’ but what’s her motive? It’s suspicious.” Which he was sure to note as such by writing the word suspicious aside Maki’s photo. He nodded in approval as he compared the word to her face. “And you..” Ouma started, his eyes shifting over to Kiibo’s portrait. “Are weird.” The statement was made plainly and with a certain matter of fact quality that Kokichi felt no need to further elaborate. It should be obvious, why the hell is there a robot amongst us. ‘Most likely a spy of some kind’ Kokichi thought flippantly. ‘The only other robotic beings we’ve seen are Monokuma and his annoying cub henchmen.’ There were no inner protests as he marked the word ‘Weird' beside Kiibos' photo. For good measure he also added the word ‘Annoying’ above the photo cut outs of cubs.

“And you.” As he spoke he could feel his resolve faltering slightly, which was irritating him but he continued nonetheless as he observed Shuichi’s photo and attempted to remain critical. Kokichi crossed his arms and raised his thumb to the space between his chin and lower lip as the same questions came flooding back into the teens brain, causing Ouma to bite his lip in frustration. “I need more information.” A simple declaration.

…

Kokichi squatted down by the greenery beside the dormitory building and began his stake out. His objective? Hiding in plain sight. If anyone approached him he could easily say some lie about wanting to find a bug to prove Gontas' no bug theory wrong. Or he could tell the truth, they’d probably assume he was lying either way so there was no need to sneak around. As if on queue Saihara exited the building, noticing Kokichi squatting in the grass immediately. The two boys stared at each other momentarily with blank expressions. The exchange lasted only a mere two seconds but it felt like a thousand words could have been exchanged between the two. It was Shuichi who broke the silence, “Ah, Kokichi, hello what are you up too?”

Kokichi immediately stood up straight and threw his hands behind his head leaning backwards in an incredibly nonchalant manner. He let out his signature laugh and responded, “Nyhehe! So you wanna talk to me, eh? You must be pretty reckless, Shuichi! I'm the Ultimate Supreme Leader, y'know?”

“So you’ve said…” Saihara’s expression was challenging yet sympathetic, as it often is. Kokichi really disliked the way Shuichi looked at him sometimes. As if he could see through him. As if, maybe, he knew more than he was letting on. Well Kokichi wouldn’t give him the satisfaction and retorted back, “Oh wow, y’know Shuichi if I were you I’d probably have come here to beg for my life.” Kokichi spoke plainly, as if what he was saying could have merit. Shuichi sighed looking a bit defeated and thrown off at the same time, “H-hold on now, why would I do that?”

“Huh? I told you already last time, remember Detective? I have to keep my Organization a secret! No one from outside the syndicate can know about us, soooo… I’m probably gonna have to kill you.”

Shuichi didn’t respond, he just looked at Kokichi with an unknowing expression, probably deciding whether or not to take Kokichi seriously. Quickly Kokichi spoke again, “Weeeell, do it already! Get on the ground and beg like a dog! Ooooh, I wanna see you slit your stomach too! C'mon! Do it, pwetty pweeeease!?” Kokichi exclaimed with stars in his eyes as he made an over dramatic pose to express his enthusiasm to the idea.

“Kokichi!” Shuichi firmly exclaimed, “If I did that, then I would definitely die!“

“Aww booorning, you’re no fun I guess you caught me, okay how about this then: If you wanna live, you have to complete my quest”

Again Shuichi looked at him with uneasy sternness. “A quest?”

“Nyehehe! I knew you’d be up for it! Okay ready? Your quest is… Make me Dinner!!!”

Shuichi visibly relaxed, getting the sense that maybe that’s what Koichi had wanted all along?

“Kokichi, can’t you make your own food?”

“Nyu-uh! I’m used to having food always available being served to me whenever I need it! It’s been a big culture shock coming here, I’d normally ask Kirumi but she told me she was busy.”

“... Is that why you were waiting out here in the grass? Were you waiting to ask me to make you food?” Shuichi spoke with disbelief but this was still the lie he was choosing to believe so Kokichi just laughed in response. “Kyhahaha, y’got me! “ Shuichi rolled his eyes but did agree to go to secure a meal for his classmate, even if he didn’t exactly believe everything Kokichi had just said. The second Shuichi had left his sight, Kokichi snuck into his room, picking the lock to get in. (This would be the first of many times this would occur.) He quietly shut and locked the door behind him and examined the room. The first thing he noticed was that it was incredibly clean and organized, the bed had been made, no clothes, no decorations, no trinkets or anything at all except for the shelves of Monokuma figurines. There were only a few on the shelf but it was clear the intention was to fill it up. A chill went down Kokichis spine, this room was too suspicious. There’s no way the real mastermind would be so blatantly stupid to advertise their devotion to Monokuma in their own bedroom… would they? Maybe a hiding in plain sight situation? Kokichi walked up to Saiharas desk and flipped through his note book, pausing on a page that happened to be about him,

Kokichi Ouma and I grew a little closer today… I don’t know what it is about that guy, I don’t understand him. It’s like everything he says has a hidden meaning, It can be so exhausting talking to him. In a way, I actually think I enjoy it, he isn’t easy to read, he’s challenging. If we weren’t in the situation we were in, he and I may have even been friends, if he would just take the situation seriously and stop messing with everyone's heads. How can we trust someone who is like that? I want to keep talking to him, to see if I can get a better understanding of him. He told me he was the leader of an organization known as “D.I.C.E.” and they control the underground and all major crime syndicates, however, something tells me this isn’t the entire truth. I don’t think Kokichi is dangerous, His actions so far have led me to suspect he isn’t the murdering kind. He just wants us to think he is… why I wonder?

Kokichi scoffed and shut the notebook, ‘Friends? He seriously thinks we can be friends?’ Despite his thoughts he couldn’t fully ignore the way his heart rate had increased upon reading those words. ‘Friends… seriously?’

He was struck from thought by the sound of the door unlocking. If his heart hadn’t been racing before he definitely couldn’t deny it now as he rushed to hide, immediately deciding on the closet out of instinct alone. As soon as he was securely hidden the door was already open and Shuichi had walked into his room and laid down on his bed with a certain harrumph. Kokichi could catch glimpses of Shuichi’s figure through the cracks of the closet and choose to quietly observe his classmate. He noticed how Shuichi had brought his hands to his face and was sighing, no maybe he was shaking? Then he heard it, he was crying. Shuichi seriously came back to his room in the middle of his quest to … cry? Kokichi remained neutral as he watched Shuichi sit up on the bed and wipe his tears away. He walked to his desk and sat down to begin writing. After about 6 minutes or so Shuchi had gotten up again and walked into the bathroom. ‘This is it’ Kokichi thought as his muscles tensed up readying themselves for movement. The moment Shuichi had shut the door Kokichi had opened his. He quickly and quietly left the room and as much as he wanted to see what Shuichi wrote he would have to hold off for now or risk getting caught. He quickly left the room and dashed over to his door carefully watching to make sure no one saw his escape. Upon arriving at his door he noticed a small box on the floor with a tiny white note attached to the top. Ouma swiped the box from the ground and brought it into his dorm, locking his door behind him. ‘What is this’ He grabbed the note card first and read aloud

Sorry I couldn’t find you, hope this means we’re even now.

- Shuichi

Kokichi examined the note thoroughly and then set it aside, he carefully opened the box and inside he found a plate of sweet and spicy curry. ‘It could be poison’ It could… Kokichis stomach growled in response to his apprehension. Reluctantly he sat down and stared at the food, and at the note. He recalled what he observed in Shuichi's dorm. Suddenly and without warning his hand raised a spoon full of his favorite meal to his mouth.

He audibly gasped, “My own arm, betrays me!... Okay fine I’ll try it.” He hesitantly took the bite and….

“And…”

and…

“And…”

…

“and nothing”

Kokichi sighed in relief and finished the whole plate. Thoroughly satisfied he walked back over to his white board and hesitantly added “Trustworthy??” beside Shuichi's photo.

He then collapsed onto his own bed and curled himself into a ball of sorts, as he sorted through all the information of the day his mind (and heart) continued to land back on shuichi. ‘Maybe…’

[thelemoncoffee]

anyone remember like- a really long time ago how i said i had an au idea where kokichi wrote fake love letters as fictional characters as a creative writing hobby, but then had the bad idea to write a real one to Shuichi? remember how i said i wanted to get back to it in a later post but never did?

well look at me i'm finally getting back to it.

Okay so first things first, the actual process of witting his love letter was much more difficult than he expected: where his fictional ones are well crafted to be in character with set stage pieces and character analysis behind them, this real one has absolutly none of that.

he can't character analyze himself and Shuichi and how the two of them reacting to stuff like this to craft a scripted love confession, all he has is his very real and very messy feelings to put on a page. he despises the shocking lack of control he has over the situation.

i can imagine the first few drafts he keeps trying to make it staged but it keeps feeling wrong and bad in a way he can't explain, and the more he tries the more frustrated he gets. then he finally gives in and tries just once to just dump whatever feelings come to mind on the paper. it ends up being both the best attempt yet, and the most cathartic experience he's had in a very long time.

it's extremely raw and disorganized and sloppy, so he tries to make a second version where he rewrites the dump to sound more clean and purposeful, but it makes it feel wrong again so he just takes the original and sticks it in Shuichi's locker. it's unsigned cause he decided if he was going to give something with such raw emotion in it he wasn't going to reveal himself- that's pushing it too far for his comfort. he's content with Shuichi at the very least knowing he has a secrete admirer now.

now this is where it gets fun, cause now Shuichi's got it, he can read it and see all the pretty raw emotions, and his detective brain demands he figures out who made it. it ends up being harder than he expected, seeing as Kokichi's dishonest ass isn't exactly at the top of his radar for something so heartfelt. but there is one thing that tips Shuichi off-

remember how i said it was the original heart dump he gave? as in the one where Kokichi just wrote whatever he felt till he got it all out?

now it's not his neatest work, it has mistakes and scribbles in it. but Shuichi sits right next to him in class: he's seen Kokichi's messy "in the zone" notes in his class notebook, he knows Kokichi is left handed and smears ink when he writes, he knows he uses exclusively red ink pens, he knows what his handwriting looks like. if there is nothing else about the note that helps help him solve it, the handwriting is what will

after landing this conclusion, i imagine he'd probably spend a bit of time dissecting the letter with the perspective of Kokichi being the one who wrote it in mind for a while before confronting. considering how raw and unlike Kokichi it is, he'd need some time to think about what all is going on in it. he'd eventually either run out of speculation juice, or have so much juice he needs to bring himself in and mentally yell "too theoretical" at himself. either way at that point he'd decide he'd had enough and wants the truth, so he'd spend some extra time with Kokichi trying to slowly reveal his case to him.

how smoothly that goes is very much up to debate. he wants to conform his conclusion for sure (totally not because he has a fat crush on Kokichi and really want him to the the culprit), but doesn't want to scare Kokichi off by being too upfront. unfortunately Kokichi is also keen of eye and gets sus of him pretty fast cause why tf is Shuichi suddenly spending extra time with him- not that he minds, it's just bizarre for him to do and raises some flags in Kokich's mind

[ohwell-itsme-but-danganronpa]

The age-old question: Is Kokichi the villain?

Ves: this one whiplashes back and forth from objectively correct to SO SO WRONG so much idk how to feel

Me: well, they're right on their main point and simplified some things to get there and at the end he's an anti-hero, not a villain

Ves: i get being frustrated with woobfication but acting like the cast NEVER treated him unfairly is. UHHHHH Kokichi Is An Asshole, But! - my thesis statement also "bragging about how he got two people killed without a hint of genuine remorse" not a HINT!? NOTHING?? YOU CAN'T REMEMBER A SINGLE THING FROM THAT POSTTRIAL THAT SEEMED REMORSEFUL TO YOU!? 'start looking at him as a villain instead of a clueless victim' this is NOT a zero sum game both of those options r wrong

Me: they treated him Like That before he earned it and in his speech at the end of the 4th trial there's a portion when he says he's just stepping up to what's expected from him

Ves: NO LITERALLYYY THE SCENE IN THE DEATH ROAD LIKE….

Me: he was asking to be executed too, but sure, no remorse

Ves: what are we defining as remorse?? because that seems like literally the most remorseful a person could get to me oohhh i forgot remorse can mean REGRET yeah he's not very regretful neither is gonta! they're both crushed w guilt but that's not the same i guess

Me: the whole. everyone believing him when the lies fit what they want to see. bullshit he's a liar until he's saying he's evil, until he's taking something back, because surely he wouldn't lie about lying without saying the catchphrase

Ves: yeag like,,,when it's 'half my lies are told with good intentions' and 'i'm just trying to give gonta good advice, he'll get killed being so naive' and 'monokuma is going to make you suffer for cooperation like he did kaede' and so on and so on…. that's DEFINITELY a lie guys

Me: he left room to be seen through, he gave hints, he gave so many opportunities for them to get it, that he can't be doing it openly, but they went in with pre-packaged distrust specifically for him I love the theory that Tsumugi had them brainwashed to be opposed to him as a default to push him into his role

Ves: you're right but i wouldn't even describe it as HINTS, he has TWO SEPARATE MONOLOGUES about the danger of public cooperation that honestly monokuma should've clocked [sob emoji] but that's getting more into danganronpa writing than kokichi's morals i love giving him stuff that makes them inherently unnerved by him from the beginning

Me: this is also related to how much of "script" I believe there was for the game, I think they were given cues for how they're supposed to feel, little unconscious suggestions, a vague outline set with motives, nothing actually set in stone, the flashback making machine wouldn't need multiple options if there was a whole defined script that's expected to be executed to a t

Ves: i always thought tsumugi's claim that everything was scripted didn't. make sense. but i can never really feel out how much of it was

Me: she gave them roles, and then left them to improvise, she also has a lot of lines that cue you in on what she wants you to think of other characters, she wouldn't need to be doing that if she already controlled what you thought of them, but she's checking in, if you'll agree

Ves: truuuuee the way she talks about gonta always makes me shudder and the way she talks about kokichi always makes me giggle SNDJBHSHF she's sooo bitchy about him i love her

Me: she wants to shoehorn him into being a classic antagonist so bad and he just doesn't fit, like, I could swear she makes a reference to Nagito at least once when talking about him

Ves: THE WAY SHE TALKS ABT RANTAROU FITS THAT REALLY WELL TOO she KEEPS bringing up him being the fanservice character a playboy and he keeps shooting her down

Me: She fucking hates Rantaro and it's so funny, what did he dooo that finally puts her calling him a normie in a context, he ruined a cliché she was trying to pull, that's punishable by death

Ves: it's like when she yells at shuuichi in the FTEs for trying to say she isn't plain

Sini: I will say this, even though he did in fact show remorse in that instance I can’t blame the others for still being bitchy and pissed with him. Even if he had a good reason, which he did, what he did was still majorly fucked up. He was an asshole throughout the whole trial, an asshole to Gonta until that one moment, and then led him to his brutal death. I’m not saying how they treated him at that moment was good, but they aren’t really going to be thinking too rationally after all that. Ig one thing you could say is that they tend to not treat other culprits like Kirumi that way, but in that case I’d say they should’ve overall had written the characters reactions post trial or what not differently in general

Ves: oh no i absolutely think how the characters treat kokichi after ch4 is justified. i just think the op's casual dismissal is. UHHHH shoulda specified i was talking abt them and not the cast, sorry! kokichi was absolutely an asshole and deserved to get treated like one, but i think op fell too in line with the characters

Me: it was a situation where everyone sucked, nobody ever could begin to be equipped to deal with this shit, and so, nobody handled it well the end of the world was involved

Sini: Yeah, like, he’s a liar. Everyone only assumed he must be lying when trying to be helpful or didn’t mean well when he was spitting straight facts. No one bothered to listen to him. I get he’s an asshole, but fuck man, they cozied up to Maki. Wth is her excuse?

Ves: maki is the wall i always run into here maki is just as mean as he is and FARRR more dangerous but. her being an assassin was added later than her being a waifu

Mauri: i love maki. but in canon why the fuck did everyone love her she choked him out after he revealed that she was a fucking TRAINED KILLER and no one was worried abt that ??? kodaka dont make every single female character waifu bait challenge (almost impossible bc miu my love my life)

Ves: they literally cut to the next day when they're all looking through her lab and not ONCE do they comment on how that debacle…ended. DID ANYONE HELP HIM???

Sini: If Kokichi was a girl, I swear, things would’ve been a little different

Ves: if kokichi was a girl but written the same ppl'd say he EATS BABIES if he was written like kodaka likes to write women he WOULD eat babies but it'd be like, fine

Sini: Kokichi literally revealed a threat to the cast. And yet they still treat him like he’s this big villain….WHAT? Okay, but literally people treat Celeste better than Kokichi. Celeste is worse than Kokichi in everyway (personality wise)

Me: Celeste is evil in such a simple way, it's easy to brush over she's just greedy, a materialistic girl in a materialistic world, who could blame her? murder? god forbid women do anything

Sini: She’s very slay, but it’s just shitty cause you know people only excuse her cause she’s a cute girl

[glareandgrowl]

you know what?! NO! I WON'T just stop there!

This has really frustrated me as a creator who puts pride and effort into the characters I create. I'm giving myself until the end of this 30 min playlist to put my thoughts together so forgive the mess it will inevitably cause.

I have seen the take many a times about Dangan games and it's characters that fans and enjoyers are upset their special guy didn't get the screentime they deserved due to whatever reason; It's understandable really. You see a character that has such potential in your eyes its a shame its all wasted away. But I have seen the idea thrown around that the lack of care for a majority of characters' deaths and roles in the story is based on the sheer number of bodies and stories to tell. With so many characters there would never be enough room to allow all of them to flourish before they die! That's just the curse of these types of stories.

I am here to tell you that is BULLSHIT! It's bullshit and I refuse to believe it!

I, for the longest time, have hated the writing of the dangan games. It has always seemed sloppy, rushed, and far too drawn out for its own good. And no, that's not because the trials can be a little funky and rough around the edges when it comes to details. Though, that does coorelate to the negativity I have towards them as a whole. No.

I full-heartedly believe what is to blame is the free-time events. In Dangan 1, it was a fun gimick. Theres a large cast of characters, it only makes sense that a select few would stick out to the player as an interesting one, with a desire to learn more about them.

Shoddy writing of THH aside, I do feel it was a bit of a bandaid on the issue of a too-large cast. If there were optional ways to spend more time with certain characters, they didn't need to spend all that valuable plot time giving them exposition and relevance! The players can find the relevance on their own!

Except... Instead of using the plot time they saved for making a better, more cohesive story, all they did was fill it with dead air, bloated trials and a clear favoritism for the few remaining survivors. (IE in THH Byakuya, Kyoko, Makoto (obv hes the mc I can't complain there.)) Instead of focusing on the group as a whole, its dynamics amongst the survivors at the time, the plot instead magnets to favorites in an attempt to make you like them more.

I know its been mentioned a million times, but the game makes it incredibly hard at times to imagine these characters as once being friends.

(I will say from what I have seen of the next two games they do remedy this at least a little bit, with the group dynamic at least being tolerable to borderline good in v3 (yes before you come for me goodbye despair was good too.))(it also does seem, imo, to be a problem specifically with THH, as the next two DO do a better job at characterization, aside from the rogue one or two "mystery" characters that are put WAY too much emphasis on. (cough cough Kokichi, Rantaro, Kyoko, Byakuya to an extent) Most of whom I don't really care for due to that specific emphasis put on them. Not that their characters are bad, the games just reaaaallly want the player to care about these guys. Which makes me not want to.

Back to individuality.

The argument of a too-large cast as the reasoning for characters being left behind in terms of narrative importance, i feel, would be easily remedied by removing free time events entirely. No more backstory exposition dumps and underwear gifts for friendship points. No more mono-mono machine. If the writers were instead FORCED to give each character their time in the limelight, if they were forced to actually give a shit about each individual personification as much as those freetime events lead you to believe, then the plot would grow to accommodate.

Half the shit in the trails is unnecessary. Half the shit in the plot is unnecessary. Half of it is pandering, or shipping bait or funny haha jokes! We're so quirky!

The plot needs to care about your characters as much as the writers do. Which should be as much as your audience does. And if it doesn't. if the plot only cares about giving the audience a reaction, or if it only cares about its surface level motivations and schemes, then all you're going to get is surface level, unmotivated, wasted potential characters.

Now. I've ragged on about dangan for a bit. Does that mean I hate the games, the stories and the characters? Hell no. Of course not. If I did, I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't spend my time making fanart and writing fanfiction. I like the games. They're interesting, funny at times. The writing has its moments of sincerity. It's made me cry once or twice. I LOVE the ending to goodbye despair. I think its the best in the series by far.

I guess what I mean to say in the ending of all this, the TLDR if you will, is that the dangan games COULD have made the characters work. It could have made you believe each one was special and important to the story. If it cared enough to. It's no excuse, though.

(Also yes this is about Taka and how he was robbed. You could say the same about a fair few characters. I just spend hours a day thinking about his character anways so this is it's natural conclusion.

[pumpkinhimiko]

thoughs on ougoku?

I don't like it. It just seems like the kind or relationship where Kokichi's the only one benefitting--but not in the way he needs in the long run, because Gonta doesn't know how to call him out on his shit. I can see Kokichi being drawn to Gonta because he's the most forgiving of his behavior, only to get frustrated because he knows that the trust that Gonta puts in him has nothing to do with Kokichi himself; it's just Gonta's baseline.

Also it's kind of hard to get behind it when, despite being the character that spends the most time with Kokichi off-screen, Gonta doesn't even have any particularly strong or unique opinion on him. Gonta cared about Kokichi in the messianic way Gonta cares about everyone, but nothing suggests that Gonta, like... really thinks about Kokichi outside of the times Kokichi seeks him out to do his bidding? It'd be different if we had, say, a line or two where Gonta offhandedly mentions how he noticed X interesting thing about Kokichi, but we don't get that. Or even better, we could have had scenes where Gonta pushes back against his classmates when they chastise him for trusting Kokichi--Gonta could insist that the Kokichi he knows is different, that he actually has reasons to trust him. Instead, he just accepts that they're right and that he was foolish to listen to Kokichi.

(Also also this isn't a fault of the ship in canon but the way Gonta gets fan-portrayed like he's Kokichi's spoiled morality pet grates on me. Kokichi talks down to and insults Gonta all the time, he doesn't get special treatment.)

[plaindangan]

you mentioned that Maki becomes a big subby if someone squeezes her ass. Is there someone in partical that she does that the most? How would Maki play it off to them? 5 bucks says its makoto~

Disclaimer: R18 material! If not to your liking then please do not view!

"E-excuse me?!! That's just utter bullshit!! There's no way in Hell that's true!! I do not become some...subby pushover just because some fucker manages to squeeze my ass!! Where you listening to Kokichi's lies again? Or was it Miu? That Toko girl from Class 78?!!! I swear, I'm gonna-Aaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!~"

"Y-yeah, that's gonna be enough. No need to get angry, Maki. Everyone has their kinks! It's perfectly natural!" said Makoto, who had one of his hands underneath Maki's skirt. Fingers pushing in and squeezing that soft, ample, booty in quite the vice grip!! Slowly, that frustrated look on Maki's face turned into a bashful, borderline shy, glance at Makoto.

"I-i...they...nghh~" She softly moaned, as the grip went even harder and her own will to fight against him dropped as well. "O-okaaaay! F-f-f-fine!!! But...just this once, I'll let them off! F-ffffuuuuuck!! O-okay, even if they bring it up, I won't k-kiiiill them~ J-j-just...." she mumbled out in a quiet whisper. "Don't...s-s-stop...pl-please~"

"That's great!!" Makoto said chipperly, rewarding Maki with his other hand squeezing her other cheek. Furthing turning the grump of V3's class into the good, bashful, woman he couldn't help but dote on~

[a-student-out-of-time]

So everyone in season 53 had connections to someone from our time that helped prevent the tragedy minus Rantaro and Omigawa since they were the survivors from last season? That means Himiko must be related to one of us one way or another

So, wait, you don't know who all their relatives are?

No, and that's the frustrating part. We know most of them, but a few others are missing.

________________________________________________

Time travel analysis also isn't omniscient. We can't just zoom in and find someone, we need data. We need an idea of who we're looking for.

Might help to refresh everyone's memories as well. Here's who we've got:

________________________________________________

KNOWN RELATIVES:

Akamatsu Kaede and Erika- Grandchildren of Hinata Hajime and Otonokoji Hibiki; Kuzuryu Natsumi

Saihara Shuichi- Grandson of Kurosaki Taro and Kamii Tsubasa; Kobayashi Eito and Kimura Tomoe

Momota Kaito- Grandchild of Inoue Sunako

Chabashira Tenko- Grandchild of Deguchi Estu and Tamon Mayumi

Ouma Kokichi- Grandson of Ouma Hirota and Naegi Komaru

Shinguji Korekiyo- Grandson of Kutsuki Kikue

Yonaga Angie- Great-Granddaughter of Yonaga Mio

Iruma Miu- Granddaughter of Mori Miwa and Fujimori Fumio

Hoshi Ryoma- Grandson of Hanamura Kojikoji

Tojo Kiurmi- Granddaughter of Yomiuri Nikei and Taira Akane

Harukawa Maki- Granddaughter of Esumi Masa and Harukawa Naoyuki

Gokuhara Gonta- Grandson of Owari Teruko; Ibarazaki Ai

K1-B0- Third-generation model created by Souda Kazuichi, Fujisaki Chihiro and Arima Ayumi

UNKNOWN:

Amami Rantaro

Omigawa Kiko

Yumeno Himiko

________________________________________________

So nothing much has changed...although I do see some new names.

Ai-san too, huh?

________________________________________________

I'm afraid so.

________________________________________________

Seems like a lot of people we know, huh?

Hmmm...

The list is incomplete either way. You've got just a few listed here, not both sets of grandparents.

________________________________________________

As I've said, we can only extrapolate so much without any clear data. We're relying a lot of them from you all.

[raspbeyes]

Alright imma say it

It totally makes sense why everyone would be more upset over Kaito's death than Kokichi

Idk why theres this sentiment that Kokichi's desth was unfairly overshadowed by Kaito BUT YEAH NO HARD DISAGREE literally none of those remaining classmates would have any reason to show compassion for kokichi over kaito

Shuichi: as he is mc/player character his perspective matters most, so ill say the most on him. Sorry to saiouma fans (dw i do think the ship is cute but honestly works better under different circumstances for the two) but Shuichi has spent more time with kaito. After Kaede's death, it is Kaito (in Kaito's questionable way) who helped get Shuichi's willpower back. Kokichi says as much in ch 4. With shuichi being a very sensitive detective, he needed that pillar of support from kaito, one kokichi, while providing help in trials, doesnt give emotionally. Sure u can argue bias on Shuichi's part, but it is Kokichi's plot in ch 4 that caused him and Kaito to have a falling out, injured and captured Kaito in a bunker, and is the reason Kaito becomes the blackened Shuichi is forced to exposed and now watch be executed

Maki: Self explanatory af, but kokichi exposed her talent to everyone to have her be isolated due to kokichi's own distaste for murderers, regardless of maki's intent. Kokichi is the one who fucked around in ch 5 with her feelings, making her harbor guilt over supposedly killing kaito. It's his plot that gets Kaito killed off as blackened so yeah dont expect sympathy from her

Tsumugi: while idk if confirmed whether Kokichi had gone off Tsumugi's script, if that is the case, Tsumugi would 100% frustrated for kokichi messing up her plotline. Shes devoted her life to dr and has been a writer in numerous prior seasons. To have some kid try to attack the mastermind directly by messing with the game would to her feel like infringing on the game's intended entertainment. Besides, if everyone else hates kokichi, it's best for her to go along with it to blend in

Himiko: there def is a weird dynamic between the two, with himiko falling for exisal kokichi twice which is weird ... but yeah no overall himiko has a negative opinion of kokichi. While he did indirectly help her releasing her bottled up emotions in the end of ch 3, it's Kokichi’s way of doing things, meaning it usually comes off as rude. Pretty sure what Kokichi (and Gonta to an extent) caused in ch 4 is unforgivable for himiko, since literally everyone liked Gonta. Himiko out of everyone believed kokichi was the mastermind, feeling great despair once he revealed the truth of the outside world. While not specific, himiko is more of a case of kokichi's general creation of distrust in others. In contrast, kaito is uplifitng to himiko, being the one to defend her in ch 3 when tenko's death was ignored and moving the group along during ch 5.

Keebo: keebo admittedly has the most sympathetic view of kokichi after the trial, alluding to his "hopeful" nature and such, as well as his logical understanding of kokichi's motive. But generally, kokichi is just robophobic to keebo for the sake of pestering keebo, as well as asking invasive questions (do robots have di-?)

Kaito: without getting into kaito and kokichi's relationship/rivalry, kaito id argue does have the second most sympathetic reflection on kokichi, providing the group with Kokichi’s last words. Tho he does doubt them, mentioning he believed kokichi's plan wouldnt work (i personally hc that as just bluff to make shuichi feel better tho). And since its kokichi who blackmailed him into the plan, kokichi is in a sense responsible for Kaito's death so he'd probably wanna focus on making Shuichi and Maki feel better

Kokichi is my fav dr character but ngl he's a little shit to the remaining survivors. While i as an audience memebr feel terrible for him, im not upset or shocked by the characters' disinterest in his death