#other character have interesting possibilities too (even dr1 + v3) but I Care Hinata so. he gets spotlight for a sec

[mycatmoo]

Y’know what? Screw it. I’m gonna voice all my headcanons (and some opinions) (okay its mostly opinions) cause I don’t see why I should not be allowed to voice my own headcanons. Until Kodaka comes out and says that a headcanon is canon, then it is not canon. If you wish to harass me for my view on these characters then go ahead. I’ll just block you. I’m not going to respond to any hate comments (especially since I can guarantee that the majority of those people will be too scared to come out of anon) unless one is one I feel I should respond to.

That being said, if you wish for clarification (since I’m not giving out reasons here, just the headcanon or opinion) or wish to have a civil discussion, then I’m all down

-I’m just going to get the big headcanon out first that will get people even outside of the DR fandom angry at me: not every character is apart of the LGBT+ community (though tbh I don’t have an opinion on most of the casts possible sexualities so if I don’t say a sexuality for a character its because I don’t have a headcanon for their sexuality)

-Chihiro is not trans

-Toko x Byakuya is a disgusting ship

-Kyoko x Celeste is adorable 

-Junko is the most boring villain to me (at least game wise. I’ve never watched the anime nor do I care to)

-Sakura x Aoi is adorable

-In au’s where the v3 cast is in the rest of the DR universe, Mukuro and Kokichi knew each other

-Makoto is the most boring protagonist (like seriously I always seem to forget his name) (Sorry Makoto I’m trying but just.) (Komaru)

-Hifumi fucking creeps me out and not in a good way like Korekiyo

-Hifumi is second worst character in the series

-Ishimaru is super boring to me

-Chihiro and Celeste are two best characters from this game

-Sayaka is bi

-Hajime is Second Best Protagonist

-I wish we saw more Izuru in game and if I ever watch any of the DR anime it’d be to see more of him

-Chiaki is just kind of... boring to me?

-Chiaki x Sonia is fucking adorable

-Speaking of Chiaki and Sonia, I can see those two having a lot of fun interactions (hell I may at some point make a fic where its just Sonia dragging Chiaki out to do Normal People Stuff)

-Gundam x Sonia is also freaking adorable to me

-I just... don’t like Hiyoko

-Mahiru is the mother of the group

-Nagito is gay

-Fuyuhiko deserved to live more than Hiyoko

-I don’t understand Gundam’s motivation for his trial

-Komaru is Best Protagonist (and second best character in the whole series)

-Komaru is bi

-Tokomaru is fucking great

-Hiji Towa is worst character

-Toko sucks in DR1 but is the second best character in UDG

-Monaca is the best villain in the series

-UDG is the best game in the series

-This isn’t an opinion or a headcanon, but... So UDG was really my first exposure to DR and I was watching my sister play this game and when Nagito first showed up I was all like “Well this dude is into some serious BDSM”

-The best characters are Sonia, Hinata, Nagito, Gundam, and Fuyuhiko

-I have a lot of opinions on Kokichi so I’m going to put them all in one place

-Kokichi is Best Character in the Whole Series

-Oumota is great

-Saiouma is just... boring

-Kokichi is bi

-Kokichi and Miu would be great friends

-So would Kokichi and Angie’

-Kokichi is not a pure cinnamon roll that needs to be protected. He did fucked up shit and you should not act like it isn’t his fault

-But you should also not act like he is the anti-christ

-Kokichi’s talent is in leading not in lying or in like luck (though I am all for lucky!Kokichi)

--Saioumota is not very interesting 

-Oumamomatsu is more interesting 

-Kokichi is Gryffindor and you will have to pry this headcanon from my cold dead hands

-Kokichi is a Nintendo fanboy

-More specifically, Kokichi is the biggest fucking Pokemon fan and you’ll also have to pry this headcanon from my cold dead hands

-Kokichi, Kaede, and Rantaro should have formed a trio

-Kokichi grew up in the same orphanage is Maki and this is another one you’ll have to pry from my cold dead hands

-I don’t like Kokichi’s skeleton beta

-Shuichi is boring 

-No surprise but I’m also on the Kaede Should Have Been The Protagonist bandwagon

-Rantaro is straight

-Rantaro should have survived longer

-Angie would have had an interesting development if she survived chapter 3

-Angie should have survived instead of Himiko

-Angie is aro/ace

-Tenko x Himiko would be better if they talked about how creepy Tenko was to Himiko

-Tenko is either aro or gay

-Gonta x Ryoma is a ship I don’t get

-Kaede x Rantaro is great

-Kaede x Shuichi is boring

-Kaede is bi

-Miu is fucking great

-And fun to write

-Kaito is bi

-Kaito is the biggest fucking Disney fan ever

-Maki is a fucking horrible character

-And her design is the most boring design EVER

-They should have went with her beta design with the cloak

-Kiibo is not an innocent cinnamon roll that needs to be protected at all times

-It would have been interesting if Shuichi died and/or committed a murder

-V3 takes place in a vr and you’ll have to pry this from my cold dead hands

-Kaito was poisoned in game 

-DR1 has the best female caste

-DR2 has the best story

-V3 has the best cast

-DR2 is the best game in main series

-Strangely enough though, despite all its problems, V3 is my favorite game out of the main series

[oumakokichi]

A lot of people seem to miss the point on otaku culture in V3 to a pretty severe degree. There's a reason why Shirogane is the ringleader people.

I feel as though alot of people in the western part of the fandom might be sort of unfamiliarwith how much the idea of being an “otaku” is intrinsically tied with verynegative connotations in Japan. It’s easy in the west to treat it as a kind offunny term which basically just means really liking anime or Japanese media ingeneral, but it goes much deeper than that.

There is quite a lot of societal pressure to succeed in theJapanese education system. The same applies anywhere, of course, moresonowadays when millennials get looked down on no matter what they do or don’t doand the opportunities for successful jobs are slimmer than ever. But in Japanspecifically, there is a high rate of depression and suicide attempts amonghigh school students who cannot “keep up” or “fit in” with the pressure tosucceed academically.

These pressures include not only the usual things such asgetting good grades and getting accepted into a good school, but alsoexpectations such as attending club and cram school in one’s “free time.” Notparticipating in club activities or going to cram school (preferably a very good, well-accepted cram school) meansnot trying one’s hardest. And all of this, of course, is on top of otherexpectations such as responding to familial obligations, hanging out withfriends, possibly even having a part-time job. And school is five days a weekwith an extra half day on Saturday, usually.

Understandably, this pressure is just way too much torespond to sometimes. There are many high schoolers who respond to the pressureby simply holing themselves up in their rooms, refusing to participate in anyof it, passively rebelling against the norm by engaging instead in activitiesor interests which aren’t usually considered important or interesting to “normalpeople.” Otaku and NEET culture definitely emerged as a result of this forcedpressure to succeed—and the stigma associated with being considered either ofthese things is very negative.

I feel as though DR as a franchise has always tried toreflect and provide commentary on these super unrealistic expectations of highschoolers in its plot. The very concept of “SHSL talents” and Hope’s Peak as aschool for only the best and brightest in dr1 was very much a metaphor for theways in which only the smartest,strongest, most talented students will be provided the environment and materialsthey need to succeed, while the rest will be thrown by the wayside. Sdr2’s anddr3’s addition of the reserve course and Hinata’s character arc only fleshedthis metaphor out further.

Just as in real life, in DR, students who don’t exhibit any “noteworthy”talents or abilities are discarded and thought of as useless to society. There’sso much pressure and so many expectations on these kids that not being able torise up to those expectations causes them to want to do basically one of twothings: 1.) Give up and die, quite literally. Or 2.) Escape somewhere else withsome other option where they don’t have to respond to these expectations andcan be around people with similar interests and mindsets instead.

It’s not a coincidence that we’ve had a variety of otaku orNEET characters in DR throughout the years.

While Yamada was little more than a joke character, it couldbe argued that he’s the one who first started the whole “2D > 3D” languagethat is featured very prominently in ndrv3 with Tsumugi later on (my mind keepsgoing back to the “Yamada timeline” fake ndrv3 spoiler and I keep laughing).Meanwhile, more recently added characters to the franchise like Mitarai,Saihara, Tsumugi have touched heavily on what it means to truly become arecluse from society and reject the world around you.

Because of the way in which societal pressure quiteliterally can drive students to want to kill themselves, there’s definitely anunderlying degree of sympathy in the DR franchise with most characters who holethemselves up in order to engage in some kind of fiction or escape fromsociety. The pressure to succeed, to socialize, to behave “normally” whilestill striving to be “the best” and compete with everyone around you, isimmense and ruthless, and I’ve always respected that DR as a franchise handledthe topic rather well in addressing that it’s perfectly normal andunderstandable to be unable to respond to that pressure.

But the series has also not shied away from touching on the muchmore negative aspects of otaku/NEET culture too, and I also appreciate that. Asmuch as DR includes gross jokes and character tropes that it shouldn’t, it canbe serious when it tries to be. The ways in which otaku culture can and hasbeen used to defend very gross/insensitive topics by claiming “it’s just fiction,” “it’s not hurtinganybody,” etc. is something that got brought up specifically in ndrv3, and I’mvery, very glad for it.

Tsumugi’s desire to escape into the realm of fiction and “theworld of Danganronpa” because of the escape it presents from reality is easy tosee from an otaku context. Unlike the real world, where more questionable orsensitive subjects would never get to be thrown about carelessly, anything goesin fiction as far as Tsumugi is concerned. DR is a world based upon tropes,parodies, and super-caricaturized fictional characters. Blood, gore, death,sexual innuendo, you name it: it all goes, and it’s considered “exciting” andan “escape” from unchanging, bland, everyday reality—“because it’s justfiction.”

Ndrv3 highlights very clearly the dangers of throwingoneself into this mindset too thoroughly and too wholeheartedly. By castingaway one’s willingness to actually interact with or open up to people and to acceptthat reality is something which can be impacted by our choices and ourinterests, we run a very dangerous risk of not caring about anything thathappens as long as we can turn a blind eye to it.

There’s a very clear reason why Saihara and Tsumugi andprobably many of the other ndrv3 characters were so convinced that the killinggame show was “the best” and the onlypossible escape from the pressure in their lives: because they were taught tothink so. Because they lived in a society which made them feel worthless aslong as they weren’t performing according to ridiculous and extremeexpectations, and if they couldn’t perform to those then it’d be better off tobe part of something else that could actually help them forget about the realworld entirely.

Tsumugi as the ringleader in ndrv3 is undeniably aninteresting choice, and she’s absolutely incredible as an antagonist. The factthat she switches from seemingly harmless otaku who makes occasional referencesto visual novels and anime for most of the game to an incredibly effectiveblank-slate chameleon who has no empathy and no sense of self is chilling—moresoknowing that she’s actually a producer forthe show, in the same way that Mitarai who had a similar problem of escapingreality (though without being evil) made anime, rather than just consuming it.Again, I maintain my stance that Kodaka’s not trying to make fans of DR out tobe the villain in ndrv3: quite the contrary, it’s Team Danganronpa and thepeople who staff it who are seen as the biggest problem.

This was really fun to write about, thank you so much anon! There’sa lot with DR that comes back to these themes and social commentary, and I wasvery glad to see ndrv3 continue that trend. The franchise is hardly perfect,but its willingness to criticize the horrible societal pressure that’s soprevalent in Japan has been a constant, and it’s something I think Kodakareally does feel strongly about.