#other dynamics i enjoy with tenko- kokichi and ryoma

[templegate]

I actually wish Tenko got more positive relationships with the guys in drv3 cause some of those dynamics are really fun. Look me in the eyes and tell me Kaede Kaito and Tenko aren't a power trio in the works.

[catgirl-catboy]

sorry if this comes off as rude or in bad faith but i'm interested in hearing your reasons on why you dislike saiouma? again, not trying to be rude, i'm just interested since it's one of the big popular ships and i think you have interesting danganronpa takes

@crowssoul2 sent another ask with the same idea, so allow me to respond to them both here instead of trying to cut an essay in half.

Nah! You didn't seem rude at all! I am more than happy to overanalyze Danganronpa, since I love Danganronpa to death. I am just as happy to be asked what I thought they failed @ then to be asked what I liked. Hell, I'll even enjoy civil discussion about why you disagree with my takes. (except maybe my take on the great Chihiro discourse, since bystanders always get pissy at that one)

Also, to preface this, this is a ship and let ship blog. I'm glad all you Saiouma shippers are having fun. Also, I love all the ship art you make. If you enjoy what we got, this isn't a personal attack. Honestly, I wish I were one of you since there's so much more content that way.

I feel like I dislike Saiouma because their canon dynamic went against the themes of the work. Kokichi, as a character, represents lies, which is one of the major themes of Drv3. (The same way Makoto represents hope and Junko represents despair) This seems really obvious to say, but is important to my point. A characters relationship with Kokichi should mirror their relationship with lies.

A good example of this done right is Kaito. Listen, his writing irks me, but his relationship with Kokichi is one of my favorite things about him. (Still can't get behind Oumota bc of Kaito's personality, but that doesn't mean I dislike the foils OR the shippers)

Kaito pretends to hate lies, as heroes should. But his heroic personality is in fact, a lie he tells. Not out of malice, but because that's who he wants to be. (Think Kaito:Hero as Gundam:Dark God) He lies to protect people, and hide his illness. As a result, he's willing to work with Kokichi to... protect Maki, conceal his identity, (which includes hiding his illness) and from a certian POV, be a hero! It makes perfect sense.

Another good example of this is Maki. She hates Kokichi, because she hates lies. Her hatred of Kokichi is actually tied to him revealing one of her lies, a lie that was causing her quite a lot of stress. But... she also directly benefits from Kokichi. He saved her life. Unrelated tangent (sarcasm), what was revealed to be a lie in Ch6? Her feelings for Kaito. Let me rephrase that sentence: She hates LIES but she also directly benefits from them (her feelings for Kaito improving her mental health)

I wish that theme carried over into other characters the same way it did for those two. There are some other parallels I can draw (Ryoma liking Kokichi to an extent, Kirumi playing tag with him) but those two are the most obvious and explicit.

So its sad that characters with a complicated relationship with lies don't also have a complicated relationship with Kokichi, the embodiment of lies.

Himiko lives a lie. Lying is needed for her job. But her lies almost got her killed in chapter 2, and Tenko going along with her lie doesn't help. How does this reflect in her interactions with Kokichi? It doesn;t.

Kaede lied to us, the motherfucking audience. Honestly, thats arguably just as impressive as Kokichi ever pulled. What is her relationship with Kokichi? Kokichi acts sort of like a mentor figure to HER in the tunnels, and stands up against her. I like that, but give that plot beat to someone else. (Kaito makes the most sense, but give it to Tenko since I love her.)

Danganronpa itself is a lie, a work of fiction. And Tsumugi is obsessed with it.

In fact, this applies to the v3 casts dynamic with Kokichi as a whole. Almost everyone dislikes and distrusts Kokichi, despite the big reveal of being liars themselves. I'd write it as "everyone pretends to hate Kokichi (lies), but actually don't mind him that much. However, they think everyone else hates Kokichi so they go along with the group." to foreshadow the big reveal that they themselves are lies told by Tsumugi.

And Shuichi suffers from this the most.

Shuichi's Ch1 arc is summed up by "Shuichi learns to face the truth for the first time with that case, and stops averting his eyes." In other words, on the Truth vs Lies scale, Shuichi begins the series aligned with LIES.

The rest of the game shows Shuichi gradually becoming a paragon of Truth to go against Kokichi's lies- ONLY FOR IT TO BE REVEALED IN CH6 THAT HE HIMSELF IS A LIE.

That he is, a fictional character and a pawn in someone elses game. It then becomes a Schrodinger's cat on the alignment scale I mentioned earlier. Was Shuichi's journey to the Truth end of the scale fake or not?

The game settles upon a hesitant no at the end of it, (I disagree, since the games mechanics tell a different story) when Shuichi ventures out into the world with the other survivors to find the truth upon whats out there.

Thats a HECK of a complicated relationship with lies. It should equal a heck of a complicated relationship with Kokichi, right? WRONG.

The canon Saiouma dynamic is basically

"Kokichi likes and teases Saihara, while Shuichi is annoyed by Kokichi until his death, when he gradually begins to come around. Despite this, Kokichi (and the lie mechanic) is surprisingly helpful in trials"

(actually the localization changed this quite a bit, but I'm going off the English version since this is what I actually played. That being said, its a fascinating topic that you should look into if you're as obsessed as I am.)

While the fanon is more akin to:

"Shuichi gradually gets drawn in by Kokichi and learns to accept his quirks."

(maybe shippers will disagree with me about those dynamics, since again, not my cup of tea.)

Meanwhile a Saiouma dynamic I can get behind is:

"Shuichi is drawn in by Kokichi (lies), and feels a sort of magnetism to him. But he knows it isn't a good idea, and he knows it isn't right. Kokichi's feelings are unclear at first due to his nature, but it turns out he has a love-hate relationship with Shuichi (truth). He'll rely on him sometimes, but rebuff him at others with seemingly no logic from his end."

In other words, I'd do a semi-reversal of the canon dynamic.

NOTE: I am not saying I'm a writing genius or anything. Hindsight is 20/20, and I'm sure if Kodaka could magically remake his games he'd stomp my rewrite to the ground.

You asked why I dislike it, and that's my explanation. But please allow me to go a step further and speculate why things are this way.

At about the same time you sent me your ask, my good friend Crow sent me this:

"I don't like Saiouma because well Komahina is exactly what the black romance should be while Saiouma is just feels like another Shuichi ship. Do you get my point?

Shuichi and Hajime is entirely different characters while Komaeda and Kokichi different af too like, they can't hit the Komahina dynamic like they intended to do, this is why Saiouma is just another Shuichi ship while Komahina is THE SHIP.

If you want to do a homoerotic Shuichi ship who would be the next Komahina you shouldn't do that with Kokichi at all, maybe Rantaro? But Rantaro isnt work well too like there is no Komaeda for him to work the Komahina. Saiouma felt poorly executed idea of a black romance, if I need to be honest Oumaede would be more fitting for the Komahina dynamic despite Kaede is just pov character.

So yeah there is no Komahina in drv3 because they tried to play the same tropes with very different characters and very different stories, I even felt more interested in Saihoshi despite Ryoma only been around 2 chapters than Kokichi. That is the problem in here"

I felt like I can't answer one of these asks without referencing what I said in the other ask, so I just both answered them both together. (no hard feelings?)

In case you haven't read Homestuck (wise call, honestly) Black romance is basically non-sexual hatefucking. Usually, there's an undertone of mutual respect, but not always. Felt like that context was important.

Komeada and Kokichi ARE different characters. From a narrative standpoint, Komeada completely turns existing themes like Hope and Talent into complex issues in the Drverse, while in THH they were pretty black and white. Meanwhile, Kokichi's introduction is the introduction to the theme of truth vs lies.

In other words (Makoto is to Nagito (and later to Hajime and Izuru) as Kokichi is to Shuichi) The second takes the theme from the first, and massively expands on it! ...Despite Shuichi and Kokichi being in the same game.

Despite this, the reason people think they are similar is because Kokichi piggybacks too hard on Nagito and Komahina's success.

What does Nagito have in common with Togami, other than being an antagonistic force. Not much, actually! Togami fucked up a corpse while Nagito fucked up his own body, and that distinction is all that needs to be said I think.

Togami would look down upon Nagito if they ever met, and Nagito'd be into that.

What does Kokichi have in common with Nagito?

They want to make an unsolvable murder in which poison was involved and they got someone to kill them.

They both have a one sided crush on their protagonist, that the protagonist doesn't think exists. (Kokichi confessed, but perks of being a chronic liar)

They both are the MVP in almost every trial they are in, with one notable exception for each of them. Thats... kind of a lot, actually! I do think they are noticeably different characters, especially on a thematic level, but I can see why people notice that. I can also see why people would find that bad! Nagito was the star of Dr2, hands down. If you were one of the few people that isn't a total Nagito simp, then a very simmilar character getting screentime might be annoying since you have Nagito fatigue from the last game. and if you are a Nagito simp, then Kokichi will likely never be his own dude with so much in common. You'll see him as a lesser Nagito and want him back. I agree with Crow when he says "Saiouma just feels like another ship. I found it hard to articulate why I feel that paradoxically feels like a rip-off of another ship I liked, but also had no bite to it. And then it hit me. Until Chapter four, Kokichi never did anything that warranted Nagito levels of hatred. (of course, this is entirely subjective. I hate Kaito pretty much for being annoying and fitting into tropes I dislike without commenting on it. If you think this is enough to hate Kokichi, power to you!) By the end of chapter one of Dr2, Nagito:

Attempted to 1st degree murder a fan-favorite character, with a deliberately confusing and unsympathetic (at this point in time) motive to do so.

Goaded another character (that most fans hated, but still) into committing that murder FOR him. The only time we ever saw that level of insanity was Celeste, and Teruteru is no Hifumi in terms of gullibility. (Celeste had plot armor anyway.)

Sat back and monologues while everyone's ass was on the line. If Hajime and the others voted wrong, everyone would have died.

Showed NO remorse over any of it. Seemed to enjoy it.

This one is more meta but: he shows despair eyes, which previously were only seen on the big bad of the first game. Characters have every reason to hate the guy. Soda and Nekomaru were absolutely correct in taking him out, and I'd argue that you should maybe go father by putting him in a public area and gagging his mouth unless it's mealtime. Meanwhile, by chapter three, Kokichi has:

Stood up to Kaede in the tunnels, which most students agree was the right call.

Showed emotions over Rantaro's death, but due to his lying they can't be sure if they were genuine.

Was civil (if a bit wierd) to Kaede right before her execution.

Bullied Kiibo. Yes, bullying is- bad but look me in the eye and tell me its worse than murder. You can't.

Shared the motive videos in the insect meet and greet. This is the major strike against him, but its reasonable to assume he did this with good intentions.

While doing that, tortured them with bugs when it wasn't really needed for the plan to work.

(okay, this one didn't actually happen and I will die on this hill, but the main group thinks it did so I'm counting it) Tricked Gonta into helping with his plans.

Saved our asses in the second trial.

Saved our asses in the post-trial portion of chapter 2

Not joined a cult that was forming in our school. Also did not stop Gonta from joining the cult, which doesn't point to a pattern of controlling behavior from Shuichi's POV.

Was key in getting to Angie's body. Pun intended.

Helped out during the seance.

While arguably not the MVP in trial 3, he still contributed a great deal. Do those lists of crimes seem equal to you? It takes Kokichi 3 chapters to do something that is, at most, Hiyoko level. Maybe Byakuya level, but thats pushing it. Yet, the characters treat Nagito and Kokichi with about equal annoyance and disdain. The v3 cast, of course, doesn't know that Nagito exists. But we, the players, know. Its like we got prologue Nagito for almost four chapters, but prologue Nagito was also kind of a bitch? But also possibly well-meaning and OP as fuck. This concludes my analysis! Do you agree? Disagree? I'd love to hear thoughts.

[gontagokuhara]

2019 vs. 2024 hot takes exactly 0 people asked for (now with opinions on the dr3 characters!)

and because im mentally ill im elaborating below the cut because at least i’m cognizant of how few people share this illness with me ❤️

first of all. some categories were edited (+added). we shall address them all in due time 🫶 but just for posterity before we begin: top of the category is the one that best exemplifies the category title and it moves in descending order; so as gonta is my #1 my GOAT, pedo udg guy is the one i want to kill himself most. understandable? ok 🫶

2019 top 5-tier is slightly unfortunately named but other than that changes in 2024 are somewhat minimal. as is perhaps obvious if you have seen even one (1) danganronpa post from me: gonta is My character hes mine spike chunsoft dont get him like i do. AND i love sdr2. nagito is my very very close second i am so incredibly mentally ill about him Oh if you all could see the hundreds of thousands of words ive written about that fucking guy. also true of hajime. still true of sonia (<3 i love u girlie) and fuyuhiko but to a lesser extent (i have written so much sdr2. its a problem. we persist). they are characters we see a lot of and in that same vein give SO much to build upon in further character exploration. and boy do i do that. holds the five of them In my arms i love you babygirls

S tier excellents again prove i am an sdr2 enjoyer. i think it also showcases how much i REALLY love the v3 characters while absolutely hating the plot they were stuck in. kaede and shuuichi are SOOOO special 2 me u dont understand…….im going to have so many thoughts and be So mad when i replay v3. kokichi is VERY interesting and my thoughts on him are endless (hi evan) and there is soooo much there even if i also have to fundamentally hate him somewhat because of 3-4. also a wide array of sdr2 characters are here of course……on my most recent replay i have come to really appreciate imposter (better sexier byakuya ❤️) and ibuki . and i was kind of surprised how high some of the dr1 characters are (besides chihiro who has consistently been my dr1 #1) but sorry dr3 made me love the makoto/kyouko/aoi trio sooooo bad.

lots of variety in the A tier which are all characters i enjoy, they just arent my Favorite barbie dolls to mash around u know. so many very unique personalities like mahiru, angie, tenko, and ryoma that weren’t explored as well as possible in canon, so its harder for me to personally invest in them. junko is iconic and she gets worse as the games go on but god. dr1 was craaaaaazy so she and mukuro have to be given props for that. im ignoring e-girl junko and v3 entirely <3 also again in watching dr3 while replaying sdr2 i really came to appreciate natsumi and her dynamic with hajime :[ rip girl i miss u. also also i liked koichi way more than expected LOL it must just be cuz hes hot but his death was sick as fuck and i liked his thruline with jin (the weird flirting with kyouko aside……)

B tier! bit of a mixed bag, from characters i like very begrudgingly (byakuya, sorry, i latched onto him as my rich terrible boyfriend when first playing years ago and the fondness kinda stuck 💔) to ones i do genuinely like, but they were not given much to do in canon (ryota) or their arcs fell flat (kirumi). also here are dr3 + udg characters i didnt mind or were just somewhat nice to makoto (also chisa, who is very interesting but i very much disliked how her character ended off) so shout out them (they are all dead) (or orphaned like monaca and kotoko).

C tier is basically my ‘i barely remember’ tier sry……i did not finish udg so i have so very few opinions on most of the characters. chihiro aoi and yasuhiro’s parents are chill tho shout out. not much to say tho

and now we enter the hater zone with D tier……look. some of these are hot takes and some arent. as much as i love sdr2 i just cannot ever make myself like hiyoko and teruteru. theyre kinda fucked from the getgo theyre never treated as especially serious characters but their glaring flaws are so bad i cant bring myself to care when the rest of the cast is SO GOOD. i also do not like kazuichi LMFAO as a sonia ride or die just as i cannot look past teruteru’s sexual harassment NEITHER CAN I LOOK PAST KAZUICHI’S ‼️‼️ yes i think he can be fixed but sonia needs a restraining order + when she was hoping he was the ch4 killer i was cheering. everyone else this category are just mid ass dr1 characters and the dr3 characters i found actively annoying. also monokuma. hes cringe but iconic and doesnt fit anywhere else

not much to be said about F tier. i did not finish udg but i know enough that i need haiji towa to die. i need the asshole who beat up hajime to die. i need the asshole who tried to kill makoto to die. i need that stupid old fuck heading the future foundation to die. the monokubs are fucking annoying. the only like Real characters here are 1) miu because she is written terribly and her cool talent is wasted, treats gonta like shit, isnt funny, is just nasty perv bait and her most meaningful contribution is to be fodder for the 2nd worse written case in the game. and as for NUMBER ONE WORST: tsumugi mostly just symbolizes my hatred for v3’s ending because outside of her role in 3-6 she has very little impact on the story before her reveal. also got my girlies kaede and rantarou killed God i hate the end of thisgame

and finally: oh my poor sweet bastards. why would they do this to you. these characters are either underutilized in a way that is DEVASTATING (izuru 💔) treated like shit as joke characters their potential is totally squandered by dogshit writing (everyone else — sdr2 you could have been so much better WHY!!!!!!). mikan and korekiyo’s motives are dogshit and make the ch3 double murder so much weaker. nekomaru and akane are played as jokes essentially their entire screentime and akane is especially egregious because shes a survivor among characters like FUYUHIKO!!! like SONIA!!! like HAJIME!!!!!!!!! AND YOU SQUANDER HER LIKE THIS!!!!!!!!!!! kaito suffers from really flip-floppy writing and he sucks a lot of the time Especially pre-localization but ive adopted him a little bit in writing him and i love my construction of him in my brain.

ok thats it. im so mentally ill. give me ur thoughts or do the tierlist urself. now pointy objects lockdown time 👍

[rovelae]

Stop Writing Abusive Pregame Saiou

I’ve been holding off on talking about this for a while— figured it just wasn’t my business— but honestly I’m so sick of it that I’m going to come out and say it now. This garbage has to stop.

This essay is addressed primarily to Saiouma fanfic writers, specifically those responsible for the frankly disgusting content that so often surrounds interpretations of V3’s pregame personalities.

(CW: discussion of abuse, rape)

I’ve been a part of this fandom for around five years now, and during that time I’ve read countless phenomenally creative stories. As a reader, it’s awe-inspiring to see the branching plot lines people come up with, the twist endings and canon divergence, and as a writer, it’s inspiring to read different stylistic choices regarding characterization, interpretations of canon interactions, alternate universes, and so on.

Saiouma is my favorite ship. I relate to and love both of the characters, and I enjoy exploring their personalities and character development in different situations. I consider the two of them to be made for each other, and I see them as perfectly balanced emotionally and intellectually. So, as you can imagine, my least favorite portrayal of Saiouma is any form of characterization involving abuse of one by the other.

I’ve spoken at length already about Saiouma’s relationship dynamic and why portraying it as abusive is incorrect, so if you’re here to argue about that, you’re in the wrong place. If that in particular isn’t why you’re here, then you’re probably about to point out that the V3 pregame personalities aren’t the same as those in-game. And actually… that might not be true.

If you look back at V3’s prologue, line by line, none of the characters are acting or speaking any differently than they usually do. Tenko’s got the same energy, Miu’s still just as foul-mouthed, Ryoma and Kiyo are both quiet and observant. As implied by the Monokubs, all that they’re missing are their Ultimate talents.

In a sense, it’s a “nature versus nurture” sort of thing: Shuichi and Kokichi’s innate natures are the ones they portray in the game, though that portrayal is heavily influenced by their surroundings and experiences. Before the game, they were still the same fundamental people— the difference is that they had the memories, upbringing, and experiences that allegedly led them to audition for Danganronpa in the first place. So, V3’s pregame characters should in actuality be seen as an AU of sorts: Shuichi is still Shuichi, and Kokichi is still Kokichi, just with different backstories.

So why is it that in so many of these pregame fics, Kokichi is suddenly a pathetic, spineless crybaby who attracts the worst kind of attention from everyone, and Shuichi is suddenly an obsessive and sadistic maniac at best or an actual rapist and serial killer at worst?

I’m sick of opening the Saiou tag on AO3 only to be greeted with yet another “what if saiou abused and tortured and raped and murdered each other” fic.

Look. On some level I get it— It’s compelling to explore characters’ dark sides, or experiment with alternate universes where one or both are evil. But you’re going about it the wrong way.

There’s a difference between writing a story— crafting a setting, seeing where the characters fit, and tying everything to a cohesive plot­— and vomiting up torture porn. Anyone can hurt a character. You don’t need any skill or experience or creativity to do so, and there’s nothing powerful about the end result. That’s why stories that can be summed up with a simple “Everyone was miserable and then died; the end” turn out so tasteless and boring.

Ask yourself: Why are you doing this? Do you enjoy seeing characters in abject misery with no way out? What is the point of what you’re writing?

Do you think writing a story people will regret reading makes you good at writing?

Good writing has to say something, even if that thing is as simple as “I like these characters.” Look at the Saiou fandom’s favorite pieces and you can see that the authors had something to add, every time, something they wanted to show you. “Reaching” asked, “What would happen if Kokichi could start over until he found a way to beat the game he was made to lose?” “Psychobabble” said, “Here’s how a greater sense of vulnerability might affect the relationship between these two.” “you've got the right to remain right here with me” said, “This is how Saiou might meet and fall in love in another universe and what unique conflicts might arise as a result.”

Look at you. What are you saying?

If the only thing you bring to the table, if the only thing your fics say is “rape, torture, murder,” your writing is bad and you should feel bad about it.

You’re glorifying and romanticizing abuse, and you’re making it clear you care more about shock value than the characters you’re writing. Stop it.

[bullshittierlists]

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR DANGANRONPA V3 (and probably the other games, too, just to be safe)

So, just as a heads up, I made this list a few months ago, I think in the middle of chapter 4. I was going to update it, but I realized that any feelings I had were just made stronger and the list was still relatively accurate. Here are my thoughts:

I see no god up here other than me

Kirumi Tojo - As you may know about me, I can typically tell who my favorite characters are going to be before I indulge myself in a series. This has especially rung true throughout Danganronpa, I was able to correctly guess Taka and Gundham as my respective favorites before actually seeing them in action. Let me tell you that Kirumi surprised me. I originally guessed K1-B0 as my favorite and while he’s still up there, he is nowhere near Kirumi. I realized she was my favorite the moment chapter 2 ended. Not only were her execution and plan wonderful and brilliantly done, her last-ditch plea to convince everyone to let her live sold her for me. Not only did this plea make sense, it almost worked and I kinda wish it would’ve. Her motive was almost completely selfless and she worked damn hard to escape. Her execution was the only time I cried during this game because I wanted so badly for her to escape, but I knew that all of her efforts were futile. I know her biggest criticism is that her plan from hiding Ryoma’s body was completely unnecessary, but I like to believe she was just nervous and overthought the whole thing. I mean, this had to go perfectly in order for her to save her country, of course she’s going to add a few too many steps.

Miu Iruma - Okay, I know this is going to sound fake, but I actually really love the dichotomy of her character. The way that she acts so self-righteous but is actually quite self-conscious really stood out to me. Of course she’s funny and hot, too, but I feel it’s important to really appreciate the way her character was written. It amazes me that she was written to be the least likable character in the entire series and still ended up being one of my favorites.

You’re the best

K1-B0 - Yes, I type out his name every time. As I already mentioned, he was my original guess for favorite character, but it obviously didn’t work out that way. He stayed in his position of first for a while, but I always knew it wasn’t meant to last, I just didn’t know which character would take his place. Even besides my doubts, I still love K1-B0, I just wish more could’ve been done with him in the earlier chapters. There are several opportunities for him to be a really funny character and have good interactions with Kokichi and Miu, but he just comes off as annoying. I feel like he only really started to be utilized after Miu died with Monotaro and I really enjoyed their dynamic, I just wish we could’ve had some of this side of K1-B0 before this point.

Kokichi Oma - This spot probably isn’t as subjective as I’d like it to be. Every time Kokichi was on screen, I would get visibly annoyed, but I knew I was in for a treat figuring out his deeper intents behind what he’s saying. The only reason I really like Kokichi at all is because he’s fun to analyze. It gets boring to analyze Nagito because his motivation is pretty much just a mix of “hope” and “he’s crazy.” Kokichi’s character trait of lying makes it so fun to individually analyze each of his lines to figure out whether he’s telling the truth and why or why not. Other than that, I guess he has some funny dialogue with Miu sometimes.

Gonta Gokuhara - I really don’t know. I know this is way too early to be unsure about characters, but I just know I couldn’t put him any lower, but I also couldn’t put him any higher. He’s just such a sweetheart, but that’s about where the substance ends. I adored every time he was on my screen, but everything that would’ve been fun to analyze about him just leads back to Kokichi. I still really enjoy his presence, though. I’d like a big Gonta hug.

Kaede Akamatsu - I’ll just say it, I think she would’ve made for a better protagonist. I’ll talk about this later, but Shuichi’s character development doesn’t really feel like it goes anywhere and the twist doesn’t feel worth it because of that. I think the twist should still have been incorporated, but with the roles reversed. Either way, we got what we got, and what we got was tears from Clair de Lune. But seriously, she really is a great pianist. I’ve been trying to learn the piece for ages and it’s still too complicated for me. I mean, it’s in 9/8 for God’s sake. Good for her, regardless.

Tenko Chabashira - Tenko’s a weird case. I didn’t actually care for her that much until quite literally a few lines before she died. Fun fact: I spoiled this entire series for myself before I ended up playing it and I’m still mad at myself. This meant that I was just waiting for all of the deaths to happen, especially Tenko’s. I was fully aware that every line could be her last during the seance, but I wasn’t aware that she would pull on my heart strings before she went. When she tells Himiko that she’ll do the seance in her place so she can talk to Angie, I literally almost started crying. Before this, Tenko was just kind of annoying, but not too bad, but this moment really solidified her spot for me. She really just wanted to help Himiko and I wish she had chosen a better target for her affections.

Hey, I think you’re pretty cool, I like you a lot

Shuichi Saihara - Time to elaborate on what I said for Kaede. I actually really enjoyed Shuichi’s character development throughout the first three chapters. Before coming to Hope’s Peak, he was afraid to hurt people with his detective skills. Kaede notices this and helps him through it, passing the reins to Kaito once she passes. Shuichi convicts Kaede and later Kirumi, much to everyone’s detriment, but they’re all okay with it (Nobody was really super sad about Korekiyo to begin with, lol). Then, starting in chapter 4, everyone just kinda flips on him. Shuichi + the rest of the gang - Kokichi all believe that Gonta is innocent and Shuichi tries to prove this. Instead of supporting him, everyone (especially Kaito) tries to... stop him??? from proving it??? They’re all just in agreement that it wasn’t Gonta, but don’t want to proceed with the investigation to figure out who it was instead. It’s really frustrating and made my overall experience much less enjoyable. This is bumped up a few notches in chapter 5 with Maki. I understand that she was part of the whole case, but that doesn’t make it any less annoying that she won’t let me prove Kaito was the victim. It just feels like the character development was all for nothing and every student feels like a human obstacle (except K1-B0, of course). Still relatable and emo, though.

Rantaro Amami - I would make the joke everyone expects, but I’m on my laptop and I don’t know how to get to the emoji keyboard.

Ryoma Hoshi - I genuinely don’t have anything to say about Ryoma. He’s my halfway point because I don’t have anything particularly for him and I don’t have anything particularly against him, either. Go off, funky little cat man.

Kaito Momota - He got on my nerves in chapter 4, but he was a genuinely sweet character that I really enjoyed talking to. Any time he would talk about the stars, I would swoon because he’s just such a natural romantic. Not really my type, though. Very average.

Monophanie - Legally you can’t ask me why the monokubs are where they are. She’s voiced by Natalie Hoover (Sonia) and I guess that’s my only reasoning.

Monotaro - I really just liked his interactions with K1-B0 in chapter 4. Other than that, I greatly disliked his and Monophanie’s presence in Gonta’s execution. 0/10 worst use for monokubs.

Monodam - A nice, non-distracting addition to Korekiyo’s execution. But he had so much potential and just threw it all away. Apparently I’m a basketball dad from a high school movie now.

I remember you

Angie Yonaga - Many times, I’ve found myself asking who I ship from the series and this love triangle comes to mind. Of Angie, Himiko, and Tenko... I only really like Tenko. I don’t hate Angie’s cult stuff as much as everyone else seems to, but she didn’t have nearly enough of a presence for me to latch onto outside of the cult stuff, which was funny, I will admit.

Maki Harukawa - I was so excited the whole game for her to get cool. I knew she was going to get cool, I just didn’t know when or how. But then, it was chapter 5 already and she hadn’t gotten cool in my eyes yet. I was really meh on her by that chapter anyway, but her being annoying really knocked her down a few pegs. She got a couple extra points for surprising me during the case, but not enough to bump her up any spots.

Himiko Yumeno - I was rooting for her to be crushed under the rock at the end. She was fine before chapter 3, but then they tried to develop her with the Akane treatment and it didn’t work for me at all. She just got on my nerves during the third trial and continued to contribute nothing throughout the rest of the game. During chapter 5 and 6, it’s like the writers just completely forgot that she was there. This would’ve been fine if they weren’t the last couple of chapters and she was one of about 6 people left alive. She had a role to play and didn’t play it in the slightest. The most she was utilized after chapter 3 was as Miu’s replacement post-chapter 5. Someone needed to fill the dirty jokes quota and I guess Himiko was chosen. #GiveTenkoABetterLoveInterest2021

Monosuke - The only thing I remember him doing throughout the entire game was distract me from Kirumi’s exectuion. Not a fan.

You are the worst. Literal scum. Leave this planet and never return

Korekiyo Shinguji - Okay, listen. He’s not that bad. His design is actually one of the best, in my opinion and I love his dedication to his craft. However, he just creeps me out whenever he’s on screen and I’d prefer not to be around him. It’s not even the sister thing, I honestly think that’s funny and a nice change of pace, but his overall demeanor is creepy. Not to mention he’s played by Todd Haberkorn and he’s been in one too many roles recently. Hopefully I’ll get over it, but as for now, that loses him points.

Tsumugi Shirogane - I know, not exactly an unpopular opinion. She’s just annoying and downright pisses me off a lot of the time with her “plain” shtick. I already knew she was going to be the mastermind, so most of the game was just me waiting for her to reveal it. I swear, I almost couldn’t take it every time she said something like, “What if there isn’t a mastermind?” “What?? There’s a mastermind????” Just stfu Tsumugi. You all are lucky I don’t have the energy to talk about 3-6 right now.

Monokid - Hate the tongue sprite, that’s literally the only reason he’s down here. He’s also kind of annoying, but made the best addition to an execution out of all of the monokubs. His death was one of the few things that surprised me in this game and it was a welcome twist. I was sick of him by this point, but was still incredibly shocked when he was pushed into the execution. Then, his severed head rolls out to all of the students looking on in shock at Kaede’s death. Masterful. Still hate the tongue sprite.

There we go. Definitely my least favorite cast out of the whole series, but it’s still fun to love on and hate on a lot of the characters, as per usual. There are just a few too many in the middle tier (metaphorically speaking) that are either uninteresting or just don’t get their time to shine. Maybe they’ll eventually grow on me more, but I doubt it.

[dangan-meme-palace]

Do you find Saihara's characterization weird in chapter 6? Because I do :( He's become super confident, optimistic, and leader-like too fast, especially if you compare to ch5 and before...I understand that in the last chapter all protags get pumped up to end the killing game but...he's quoting Momota and he also developed a 'hunch' like him...even Harukawa says 'sometimes you're so much like Kaito' pls no I like Saihara the way he is, meaning, not like Momota :( but that's just my opinion! ^^

Shuichi's characterization is all over the place. It's not even like... "he's inconsistent because humans are inconsistent" or whatever, it's literally just that his personality changes whenever the narrative needs it to without anything but loose, barely-there excuses to try and justify why it happens.

Chapter 1:

No problems with believing in his detective work, he's actually quite shockingly confident in them for how much he downplays them.

His actual problem is not thinking his skills are where they should be according to professional standards, which is an accurate assessment if the rest of the game is anything to go by actually.

Calls Kaito a reckless idiot for doing something reckless and idiotic. This is the only time he does this.

Learns a lesson?? I guess?? The lesson was apparently supposed to be "don't be afraid to reach for the truth" but it came off more like "you shouldn't let everyone die just because you liked Kaede the most, picking favorites and having bias is bad because you have a duty to remain unbiased so everyone doesnt die"

Then everyone conveniently forgets that he was willing to let them die.

Chapter 1 was the best for his characterization except for the trial. I wish he had acted like this throughout the entire game.

Let him investigate. Dear god why doesn't the detective investigate, or even cast doubt?

Chapter 2:

Kaito is starting to become his Bro now. He's not super biased like in later chapters, but you can start to see it happening.

This is the chapter where he tells everyone not to let their biases get in the way of logic, which is funny considering what he's like in other chapters.

Big sad about Kaede, but a few of the characters (Ryoma, Tenko) comfort him so he's choosing to turn this tragedy into a growth moment. I guess it's kinda like what Chihiro did, except a girl had to die for it and he didn't get brained with a dumbbell at the end.

He's the nicest to everyone in this chapter. Don't worry, it won't last long :)

If he had kept the weird sort of optimism he had during this chapter plus the logical thinking instead of leaning into the angst he might've actually developed and Kaede's death might've been worth a damn.

Chapter 3

Maki gets the spotlight so there's not much to say except for the fact that he's gotten super awkward and is getting progressively dumber.

Honestly Maki is kind of right when she keeps calling him a dumbass for asking questions with very obvious answers.

Literally how the fuck did he ever solve infidelity cases when he can't even figure out shit that's this basic.

Smh.

Oh yeah, the odd hopefulness is gone now. It's buried next to my hope of him turning out to be an interesting character.

Put your hat back on if you're gonna angst again emo boy.

Investigation? Dont know her. I only know the Grind 💯 and hanging out with the Bros 😤👊

Chapter 4:

One of his worst chapters. I fucking hate this chapter.

Everyone patted him on the back before the trial and it felt shoehorned in. I'm not even sure why they did it honestly?

Kokichi = Evil

Kaito & Maki = Good

But dont worry guys, he's totally not biased or anything! (/s)

He's mega biased.

During the trial he has a lot of confidence, like the good kind he had back in Chapter 2. Especially when he lied and when he stood his ground against Kaito. He'll be punished by the narrative for going against Kaito, but for now I'll enjoy his limp-dicked rebellion.

Apparently he cares for Gonta except he never once talked to him during the main story and even insulted Gonta in his head during their FTEs. When did he start to care about Gonta? He didn't, but now he does I guess.

Chapter 5:

Another bad chapter. Hate this too

Officially graduated from Kaito's Bro to Kaito's Simp.

Also his confidence is entirely dependent on Kaito. When Kaito wants him to do something, he's sure Kaito's plan will work and gives him all of his support. If Kaito expresses displeasure, he's ashamed of himself and has no confidence. I-... y'know sometimes I genuinely worry about their dynamic.

Kokichi = Evil ×2 combo

No detective work or reasoning. Why would the gofer project want a cosplayer to go to space and preserve humanity? Or an ex murderer? Or an assassin? Or a detective? Are they going to be solving space crimes? Shuichi should have been so god damn suspicious- the MOST suspicious, even- but he's practically braindead at this point in the story.

Investigation skills, when will you return from the war?

Goes from suicidal to "uwu I'm a hopeful student of Hope's Peak Academy" way too quickly for someone with supposed confidence issues.

Seriously, how did he go from "the world has been destroyed and I cant fix it so I might as well die" to "yeah! we will definitely fix it! we dont know how yet, but we'll totally do it because we're Ultimates even though in Chapter 1 I didnt even think I deserved to be an Ultimate but shhhh" so quickly?

Kiibo and Shuichi kinda sounded like Kaede when they saw the Hope's Peak Flashback and it's so fucking weird because there's no justification for it

Chapter 6:

Literally what was this chapter

Why did it take Kiibo threatening to blow up the school to get him to investigate the mastermind again? 9 people have died since Chapter 1, but he acted as though he couldn't do anything about it. He even says he "can only help after people die", but Chapter 1 disproved that because he literally almost caught the mastermind without anyone dying so-

At least he investigated, I guess. It's sad that a detective investigating is considered a miracle, but here we are.

During the trial he's rapidly switching from hopeful to suicidal to hopeful again and it gives me so much whiplash, like god damn. Chill out a bit, buddy.

Much like the now-late Kaito, Shuichi tries to convince everyone to die with him to make some sort of stand against TDR. Somehow this worked and they also somehow didn't die and we aren't given justification for either.

The confidence came from the fact that the narrative needed him to be confident. That's it. There's literally no justification for this. There's no justification for anything, honestly.

What even was that ending, like what the fuck was that? None of their arcs got wrapped up at all...

So basically

Shuichi is confident but he's not but only when Kaito believes in him but he can stand against Kaito when he needs to and also he's not actually confident and Kaito needs to baby him. Shuichi is also not biased because he learned a lesson about that, unless your name is Kaito, Maki, or Kokichi, in which case he is incredibly biased to the point of putting the lives of other people on the line, but he wants everyone to survive because he learned a lesson about that. He's also incredibly dismissive of most of the cast in his head, to the point of being cold, but it should be noted that Shuichi really cares about his friends and is really nice and supportive of others. He's a big doormat except for when he doesn't want to be, unless it involves Kaito, because then he is always a sidekick except for when he isn't.

Hope that cleared things up! As you can see Shuichi is a very consistent character :) (/s)

-tech

[murasaki-murasame]

Danganronpa V3 Liveblog Part 5 [Chapter 2 - Daily Life]

Thoughts under the cut.

I knew I said before that I expected Ryoma to die, but I’m kinda sad that it happened so soon. Though in hindsight it makes sense, since he got a lot of focus up to this point. Honestly I was bracing myself for it to be Kaito, since basically everything about him in this chapter thus far feels like death flags galore. It’s kinda the main reason why I’m immediately suspecting him to be the killer, even though it doesn’t really make sense in terms of his personality and his whole attitude about the killing game.

Before I say anything else, I just wanna say that this whole part nearly took me five hours and to be honest I think about an hour of that was probably me just doing stuff at the new casino the game opened up. It’s kinda addictive. I at least got some new skills out of it. Mainly the ones that max out my influence and focus, which will be appreciated in the next trial. I got closer to losing the first trial than I was expecting, so any extra bit helps. I think I got one or two other ones, but I can’t remember. I at least didn’t have any room to equip anything other than the first two. In addition to the skills I had previously, that is.

If I keep using the casino, I think I’ll probably just work toward getting skills and stuff, before getting any cosmetics. We’ll see. The casino is surprisingly fun, so I might do a session of it once per chapter.

Anyway, moving onto this chapter’s story itself, I like it a lot thus far. Though before I forget, I just want to say that that beginning scene is super incredibly suspicious, and makes me feel like we might even be setting up for some kind of ‘they’re all in purgatory’ twist or something. Who knows. My guess as to what this game’s overarching story is going to be in the end kinda got thrown off in general in this part, mostly with how the game decided to spell out at least part of the whole Ultimate Hunt thing. Thus far it’s as I suspected, more or less. There was some sort of social push against the Ultimates that lead to all this. I wasn’t expecting them to already explain the whole thing of everyone being hooked up to machines, though. So they all decided to voluntarily wipe their memories in order to avoid prosecution. I vaguely remember that in the ‘first loop’ before the game properly began, nobody knew they even had talents, so that makes sense. I can’t help but be suspicious of all this since we’re being told it so early in the game. Especially since they’re being really vague on the details, and so many little parts of the game keep alluding to the idea that none of this is real somehow. The whole ‘I want to die with everyone’ line also makes me lean toward this being some sorta purgatory, but that feels almost too obvious.

The transition into Shuichi being the new protagonist is going pretty well. I still really like him as a character, especially with the character development he’s undergoing. I like that he’s still understandably depressed about things, but is still moving forward in his own small ways. I feel like his design is sort of incomplete without his hat, but I appreciate the idea behind him abandoning it.

His new-found friendship with Kaito is also a big reason why I like how this is going. It just feels kinda refreshing and unique to have another character be the more pushy, outgoing one who sees the protagonist as their sidekick. I really hope that Kaito can at least survive past this chapter, so that we can see this dynamic play out for a good while. It’d also feel a little . . . predictable and depressing if Shuichi goes from trusting one person who immediately dies to trusting ANOTHER person who immediately dies. We’ll see.

I liked Kaito before, but this chapter’s making me really like him, especially since I got to do his first free time event [it was the only one I did, since my other two were spent unsuccessfully talking to Kaito, and unsuccessfully talking to Keebo]. He’s just a really good dude, even if he doesn’t go about everything well. But he’s still trying to keep everyone happy and confident, especially Shuichi. At least someone’s trying to reach out to him. I already kinda ship them. It was also a good thing I did his first free time event, since it helps establish how hard-working and educated he is. Which we kinda knew before, but this helped contextualize it a bit.

I should probably just keep talking about the characters before I get into stuff with the motive and murder and my vague preliminary speculation.

To be honest, I still don’t know if I like Kokichi that much. He’s definitely a good character, and he’s really central to the group dynamic and whatnot, but I just can’t help but be kinda annoyed at his chronic lying and overall attitude. I’m aware that it’s probably covering up some kind of tragic backstory, but still. I’m pretty sure that he’s a fan favourite, considering how many twitter/tumblr icons I’ve seen of him, but he hasn’t fully warmed on me yet. I don’t exactly hate him, I just think he’s a bit annoying. He’s also really creepy at times in ways that I was not expecting. On top of that one goddamn disturbing expression from the last trial, I think he did a variation of it with a creepy black/white filter, so that was kinda terrifying. Not to mention that part where we get a really zoomed-in close-up CG of his face when Shuichi wakes up in Gonta’s lab. Though while I’m talking about him, I just wanna say that even though it’s unlikely, I’m pretty heavily speculating that he’s actually lying about what his talent is. Considering how much of a compulsive liar he is, it’s incredibly hard to trust his absurd claims about being an evil supreme leader. It also feels like he makes smaller lies every time he says that, to make the basic concept seem more realistic in comparison. I feel like this might be easily verifiable though, especially when we see his lab, so I’m not entirely sure about this. [On that note, if we eventually find Rantarou’s lab, I wonder if it’ll reveal anything about his talent]

I really like how much this chapter’s giving screen-time and development to Tenko, Himiko, and Angie. They’re a trio I wasn’t quite expecting to see form, especially in the exact way it’s playing out here. I think I said before that Tenko was my least favourite character, but she’s really growing on me. I can’t quite pinpoint why, since she hasn’t exactly changed, but still. I at least like seeing her be so incredibly awkward and blatant about her crush on Himiko, and her contrast between believing in Himiko’s magic while being skeptical of Angie’s belief in Atua.

And on that note, I wasn’t expecting to see Himiko become converted to Angie’s religion like that. But it makes sense. She’s obviously struggling a lot with stress and anxiety and fear, but Tenko isn’t really doing a whole lot to help, in spite of her crush on her, which is also clearly making Himiko uncomfortable. So it makes sense that she’d turn to someone else for comfort. Considering that Himiko is probably going to be a huge suspect in this chapter, I wonder how Tenko will be during the trial.

Angie still disturbs me a little, honestly. It’s just getting creepy how little she seems to care about the idea of people dying, and how if anything she seems to enjoy the prospect of it. In general her eternally upbeat and smiley attitude is the sort of thing that just feels unpleasant in this sort of situation.

Gonta is still precious and I adore him. It’s kinda sad how he’s just constantly being lied to and kept at arm’s length by everyone. Especially since chances are he’s gonna die sooner or later. Maybe not. We’ll see.

I’m pretty intrigued by Maki during this chapter. She’s certainly being suspicious. But since she’s so suspicious I at least doubt that she’s the killer. I want to try and have a free time event with her next chapter, if I can. I wonder what the deal is with her being so defensive about her lab. It’s hard to tell what’s up with her in general. 

Keebo still feels a little odd to me as a character, so I dunno what to say about him. I did feel pretty bad seeing him get tossed into the water tank though, and it was cool seeing him get his moment to shine and derail Kokichi’s plans.

I hope that Tsumugi, Kiyo, Kirumi, and to a lesser degree Miu get some focus soon. I mean, at least Miu got a bit of focus in chapter one, but the other three definitely feel like the least important people thus far.

I kinda want to do everyone’s free time events, just to learn more about them, but you really don’t get much time to talk to people. Oh well. I’m pretty sure that there’s a bonus mode you get after beating the main game that lets you do everyone’s routes really easily. I never really looked into the ones for the past two games though, so I forget how they work exactly. But I’ve heard that some sort of mode like that exists in this game. I think it’s literally called Dating Sim Mode, which is kinda hilariously on the nose. Though I wonder, would Kaede be the protagonist in it, or Shuichi? I guess if it plays out like an alternate timeline where no murders happen, it’d logically be Kaede. But it’d be amusing if you could at least choose to play as Shuichi for it.

And on the note of free time events and stuff, it’s hard to tell, but I THINK that the number of friendship fragments you had technically stays the same? I’m not sure. It said I had one fragment in my skill screen. But I don’t think I had an option to look at Rantarou’s detailed info screen. Oh well. It’s not a big deal, so nobody needs to tell me. But the way chapter one played out makes me think that I should have just tried to fit in two sessions with Rantarou, since talking to Shuichi was kinda pointless.

Speaking of Rantarou, this chapter’s making me wonder if instead of gaining the memories of his talent, he gained the memories of the Ultimate Hunt that we saw everyone else get here. He at least knew enough to know the name. I’m getting more and more curious about him. Especially since we still don’t know exactly what his plan was when he went to the basement.

To bridge over to discussing the murder, I should say that I still really like Ryoma as a character, and I wish I could have talked to him more before he died. But there were other characters I was prioritizing over him. I just really like his whole grizzled, realistic, but self-deprecating attitude. I wasn’t really expecting him to feel like such a big voice of reason, but he really was.

Though before I talk about his death specifically, I want to talk about the motive this time around. I really like how it’s technically the same motive as the first one in DR1, but it plays out really differently because everyone’s motives got mixed up. Which is why it’s going to be REALLY interesting to see how the hell someone got motivated to kill Ryoma if they got somebody else’s motive. It’s a really simple twist on the idea, but it does a whole lot to change the situation and make the motive less clear.

I feel like there was probably some tablet-swapping going on in the background that we didn’t get to see, even counting for how Kokichi’s plan for doing one big binge-watching party failed. The fact that he spent some amount of time alone with Gonta, and that he got caught up in some unexplained event while he was getting the tablets, is making me really suspicious about what’s going on. Maybe someone just managed to find and view their own motive and decided to kill, but that seems a little . . . simple. I wonder if the exact situation of who got which person’s motive will play into the logic of solving this case. Other than Shuichi having Kaito’s motive, all we know is that everyone had a different person’s motive, and that Gonta had Tsumugi’s. And I guess we also know that Maki never looked at whichever one she got. The fact that we got Kaito’s motive is really interesting to me, since it seems like it was done to make him less suspicious, since we as the player would know that Kaito never saw his motive, and so we’d assume that he had no motive to kill. But it still felt like this chapter was signalling his death in an almost Stephen King sort of way. I hope not.

As for the murder itself, it definitely seems that the issue will be more to do with figuring out how Ryoma’s body got into the water tank, than how he actually died. It’s fairly obvious that he died sometime during the night, or right before the magic show, and was drowned in the pool. The game just about spells that out though, with how Shuichi immediately guesses that the time of death being hidden meant that he probably died elsewhere. I mean I guess it could be, like, a double subversion, but I doubt it.

I feel like anyone who was present at the magic show is probably largely free of suspicion since I’m not sure exactly how anyone could have moved his body into the tank if they were standing elsewhere in the room. Since we saw the contents of the tank before the curtains got drawn over them, he had to have been actively moved into the tank during that one-minute time frame.

From what I remember, the characters not present at the magic show, excluding the currently dead people, were Kokichi, Maki, and Kaito, from what I remember, so those three are pretty suspicious, but Kaito seems like the only one of those three who probably did it, in a metagaming sense. I just can’t see Kokichi dying so soon, and Maki’s being set up as a suspicious character, so by process of elimination Kaito seems like the most suspicious of the group. I feel like it’d lead to a more interesting mystery if the killer was someone physically present in the room during the magic show, though. It almost feels too easy to suspect the people who weren’t there. And honestly I almost feel like them not being in the room at the time would have made it harder rather than easier to set the body where it ended up.

At least in terms of the people in the magic show, Himiko is obviously really suspicious. Funnily enough, Kokichi even spelled out the whole ‘she seems suspicious, which almost makes her seem NOT suspicious, but maybe that’s what she WANTS us to think’ thought process that I had in mind. It’s really easy to fall into that sort of loop, especially when you try and metagame it. Realistically speaking, she obviously had the best ability to physically set up the body, since she was in the tank at the time, but I doubt that she’d try and murder someone in a way where it’d be so easy to pin it on her.

Obviously a major part of the mystery here is going to involve her being stubbornly silent about explaining how the escape trick worked because she wants to tell us that magic did it, and so it’ll be hard to figure out the mechanics of how a body could have been moved there.

Though, wait, I guess it’s actually pretty easy to guess that Ryoma might have been hidden inside the small piranha tank, and got dropped into the water tank along with them. I’m not sure how they would have kept him from being eaten before the drop happened, but still, it’d be a convenient way for him to have gotten into the tank, especially since, as a timer-based mechanism, the killer didn’t need to be the one to, like, drag him into the tank. In which case literally anyone could be a suspect, whether they were in the room at the time or not, but I guess a big question then is figuring out how someone got the body there in the first place, especially if they weren’t involved in the preparation of the magic show.

I wish I could remember where Ryoma would have been during the night and morning before he died, and who would have had alibis and whatnot. Although, come to think of it, since even touching the pool water during night-time is forbidden, then if he was drowned in the pool I guess it must have been during the morning, since he would have died via the Exisals if he’d broken a rule. Which narrows down the time-frame to between 8am and whenever the magic show happened, which I think was very soon after that.

I wonder how much of a puzzle there’ll be to figuring out the exact mechanics of how he got drowned, though. The pool’s overall layout, and the detail put into describing the exact dimensions of the pool itself, and the detail about it being only half-full, make it seem like there must have been something more to it than just ‘someone dragged him there and shoved his face under the water until he died’.

If it’s Kaito, then it almost feels too easy, in a way. Especially with how I think he didn’t do a training session with Shuichi the night before the murder, and how he wasn’t there at the magic show. And as I said, the thing with Shuichi getting his motive feels like it might be a way to mislead the player from guessing that he did it. It really would confuse me if he did it though, since he didn’t see his motive. Unless Monodam actually gave everyone their correct tablets when he returned them all. We’ll see.

I think my main issue is just that I have no real idea who ELSE could have done it. Nobody else seems genuinely suspicious. I haven’t done the investigation yet, but as of now, we mostly just have a few characters who are being immediately framed as suspicious people, which feels like shorthand for ‘they didn’t do it’ at this point, and a whole bunch of people who have the same amount of evidence pointing at them. Kaito’s the only one who has any amount of signs pointing at him, though a lot of that’s me using a metagaming perspective, since I have no clue why he’d do such a thing.

I guess the only other particularly suspicious people would be, I dunno . . . Angie and Kirumi? Since Angie was working with Himiko on the magic show, and Kirumi helped with the curtains. That’s about it. I’m curious to see if my guesses might change once we have actual evidence. I hope it’s not quite as simple as that. I know that there’s no real chance of it being as much of a mindfuck as the first case, but it’d be lame to go right from that to a case where I immediately guess it correctly.

Oh, and before I forget, I have no goddamn clue what’s going on with that writing Gonta found. I just can’t even begin to formulate a guess about that. I don’t even know if it’ll be relevant to this case, or if it’s a hint toward a future plot point.

I think that’s about everything worth going over. Judging by how chapter one went, I might do the same thing and play both the investigation and the trial tomorrow [with a break in-between to write about the investigation before I do the trial], but I might take a break tomorrow and do it the day after since I have something else I need to do sometime over the next few days. It might work better to take a break after the end of this chapter, though. We’ll see.

[blueseadespair]

DrV3 Mastermind AU Chapter 1 Post Class Trial

Disclaimer: Same as usual, and some more of my poor art. This one is a short one. Please Enjoy.

Monokuma: Ding-ding-ding!  The one that killed Angie Yonaga the SHSL Art Club member was non other than Tsumugi Shirogane the SHSL Cosplayer.

Kaede: But why, why would you do that?

Tsumugi: You people wouldn’t understand.

Shuichi: Well can you at least try to explain?

Monokuma: If you won’t I will.

Tsumugi: Fine, I’ll explain.  I don’t need any of your embelishments. It was last night and I decide to talk to her.

 Tsumugi: So it’s going to be our turn next, huh?

Angie: Yup, yup, Angie is going to enjoy it.  Angie is going to make a wax museum, by using every one as a base.

Tsumugi: That sound fun.  I’m going to have a cosplay café, were every one can become a different character.

Angie: So, were are going to become fake character?

Tsumugi: Huh?

Angie: We become fake people when we do that right?  Angie don’t know much about cosplay, but that's what it sound like.

Tsumugi: Fake? Cosplay is Fake!?

Angie: Why is Tsumugi angry all of a sudden?

Tsumugi: Cosplay is NOT FAKE!

Angie: Eh?  But isn’t becoming fake people?

Tsumugi: Fake and Fiction are not the same thing! I you say that then your art is fake!

Angie:…Angie will not forgive you for that remark. That would be like insulting Angie’s God, and that is unacceptable.

Tsumugi: Well your doing the same thing to me!

Angie: Angie will forgive you for insulting her, but not her God.  You will be punished.  Watch out for his divine retribution.  You won’t escape it.

Tsumugi: Wait, wait, you aren't going to plan anything are you?

Angie; Nyhahaha, who knows, but God will strike you.

 Tsumugi: After that I decide a counter if she tried anything and that is when Monokuma showed up.

 Monokuma: Upupupu, looks like Angie is plotting something against you.

Tsumugi: W-what?  Where did you come from?

Monokuma: That doesn’t matter, but I have cameras all over the place, so I can see every action, and It seems like Angie is planning something against you.

Tsumugi: So that wasn’t just an empty threat…

Monokuma: Nope, you should make a move first before she get to you.  And if she were to kill you what would happen to the future of cosplay?

Tsumugi: Future of Cosplay?

Monokuma: there will me no future because she will get rid of you, and no one would be there to teach the masses between what true cosplay is. You can’t let that die, so you have make the first move.

Tsumugi: I-I see.  I can’t let that happen.  I’ll have to strike first.

Monokuma: Don’t take too long.

 Tsumugi: After that I put my plan into action.  I decided to visit her after my event, just to make sure, and that I might not have to use my plan.  Then she provoked me and be for I knew it I had on of her hammers in my hand.  After that I couldn’t go back, and followed trough with my plan.

Korekiyo: So that is why you were acting antsy the whole day today.

Kirumi: Why didn’t you tell us?  We could have resolved it.

Tsumugi: And what would you have done? Laugh at me? She would have killed me!

Kokichi: You didn’t know that and yet you acted on your own.

Tsumugi: Gugh.

Monokuma: Are we done here?  I have a punishment waiting?

Monotarou: Punishment! Punishment!

Monokid: It, Finale time!

Monofunny: Oh, I’m quite excited.

Monodam:…

Monosuke: Heh, were finally here.

Monokuma: It’s time for a very special punishiment!

Tsumugi: Wait, Wait! No!

Monokuma: For Tsumugi Shirogane the SHSL Cosplayer!

Tsumugi: Nooooo!

 As she yelled out she was dragged by the neck into her own special punishment.  We couldn’t look away from her final moments.  It was gruesome and painful to look at. She had multiple cosplays put on and off of her, as she slowly died of air loss.  Her face turning from red to blue to purple.  Her final moment had her hung up on a boxed window display until a curtain closed on her, and ten large needles pierced that box.  During that execution how ever Monodam pushed Monofunny and Monotarou in the way of the execution so they to got caught in the box, and got executed along with Tsumugi.

 Himiko: Bregh.

Kokichi: Ew don’t barf here.

Kaito: I can’t believe it.

Kaede: Angie and Tsumugi are both dead now.

Miu: That was disgusting.

Kiibo: But at least we still all get to live.

Monokuma: Upupupu, Poor Tsumugi didn’t even know I was lying about Angie.  Angie would have only acted if knew what Tsumugi was planning. Upupupu.

Kaede:…

Rantarou: Though, with that, that action changed the dynamics of our group.  We won’t be so trusting of others now.

Tenko:…

Gonta:…

Ryoma: it seems like it would be best if we didn’t have connections after all.

Shuichi: We should all head back.

Kirumi: That seems like a good idea.  Every one seems to be mentally exhausted.

Korekiyo: It would be wise, after all we all went though a strenuous ordeal.

Kaede: Okay, lets head back.

 After that big ordeal, we went back to our rooms, and some of us went out to eat dinner.  Even though we didn’t feel like it, our bodies still needed nourishment.  The Cafeteria was quiet and no one really spoke to each other.  Our dynamic would never be the same.  The cheerful talking and openness. Gone.  There were still some friendly interactions, but there also was suspicion now.  I headed back to my room with a heavy heart.  I fell on my bed and just laid there.  Then I could feel something wet.  There were tears, hot tears were streaming down my face. I couldn’t prevent a killing.  I couldn’t save either of them.  Some leader I was.  I kept on crying until I passed out.  I hoped that today was all a bad dream, and that tomorrow would be back to normal.

Chapter 1 End

Survivors 16

[murasaki-murasame]

Danganronpa V3 Liveblog Part 2 [Chapter 1 - Daily Life]

Yeah I may as well put the rest of this under a read-more right from the start since I wanna get right into spoilers.

Just to jump right to the end of what I played because it’s the elephant in the room, I called Rantarou being the first death before the game even came out in Japan. But I think everyone did. It was really obvious that either he was going to survive for most/all of the game, or be killed off immediately to troll everyone because he’s set up as being so mysterious and presumably plot-important. I’m not really angry about it, but it’s just kinda funny that I called this nearly a year in advance. Thankfully the rest of the game should be less predictable than this, since this was the only real thing I confidently predicted back then. Also for the record I had no actual, genuine idea about this in advance, it was just a guess of mine.

It’s weird that in the demo version they had him [and Keebo] sit out of the trial, when he ended up not surviving long enough to take part in a trial in the main game.

Either way, it’s at least kinda amusing that he died immediately when he felt so similar to Komaeda. Obviously it’s still lame to see him die so soon, but at least his character played out differently to Komaeda.

[Also for the record I’m hoping that Kokichi saying ‘my dearest Rantarou’ was just him making an inappropriate joke, because hoo boy it was bad enough when DR3 ended with the Bury Your Gays trope. I’d be genuinely angry if this game STARTED with it. I’m pretty sure it’s just a joke, but it does remind me that Kokichi/Rantarou was actually a relatively popular crack ship in the fandom, at least back before the game came out in Japan]

I stopped playing directly when the investigation officially started [so technically I played a few minutes of the Deadly Life segment but that was because the game didn’t let me save for a while], so I can’t exactly speculate much about the case, and I don’t want to. I’ll save that for after I play the investigation, since I’ll actually have proper clues to work with then. I know that the investigation part will probably be a lot shorter than this part, but I want to take a break between it and the trial so that I get a chance to sit down and post some speculation before I go through the trial and figure out what happened. So my next post might be a bit short. Maybe. Knowing me, it probably won’t be.

Since I was scared this would happen, I tried to talk to him as much as possible, but I only managed to have one actual scene with him. I also had one with Shuichi. Now that Rantarou’s out the way, I guess Shuichi will be the person I prioritize most in free time events. Not sure who else I’d go with. I’m kinda curious about Keebo since his backstory seems interesting, but I dunno. I kinda want to see what Kokichi’s deal is, but part of me also feels like he’s probably gonna stick around for a long time so I’m less inclined to prioritize him. Maybe I should talk to Maki more, since she seems like the type who I’ll need to really get to know before I see more sides to them.

Overall, I was sorta surprised by how much I really liked this part. I mean, I’m a big fan of the series in general, but I’ve been a bit worried about whether or not I’d actually enjoy this game and it’s cast. Thankfully those fears are getting dissipated. I was also afraid that it’d feel too similar to the first two games, but there’s enough different things happening that it’s enjoyable.

One of the things that surprised me most was the motive. Or, well, motives. I did not expect the stakes to get so high that quickly. The whole idea of ‘the first murder will happen consequence-free’ is actually really interesting, and an effective way of motivating a murder. But it definitely makes Monokuma seem way more desperate than he used to be. Especially when, like a day after the first motive, he was like ‘oh and if nobody dies soon, you all die’. At that point he’s literally forcing people’s hands, more or less. Which isn’t a criticism, really. It’s an interesting approach to take. Especially since nobody ended up actually using that motive to kill. The whole part where nobody outed themselves as being Rantarou’s killer, and Monokuma announced that they’d hold a class trial in that case, was really intriguing. It’s really making it hard to guess at the culprit’s motive.

On a similar sort of note, I was not expecting the part where Ryoma suggested that somebody murder him so they could escape and find help. I thought at first that he’d just generally suggest the idea of someone going through with murdering someone, but I probably should have expected him to be all self-sacrificial, given his attitude. I said it last time, but I REALLY like Ryoma as a character thus far.

I said I wouldn’t speculate much about the murder, but lol I can’t help myself now that I’ve seen the body. I can only make vague judgments about it, though. Like how it seems pretty obvious that Rantarou wasn’t directly murdered by someone, but instead somebody probably set a metal ball on the bookcase so that it’d roll off and hit his head when it opened. Maybe that’s just my first guess because Kaede already brought up the idea of Rube Goldberg machines earlier in the chapter. It’d also explain how the murder will remain mysterious even with photographic evidence. There probably wasn’t anyone else in the room. I assume that Monokuma would still consider the identity of the hypothetical ball-placer to be the culprit, so then the big mystery is figuring out who did that, when there’s presumably no evidence. But then again the ball could have only, in this scenario, been placed on the bookcase after the equipment was set up, otherwise Shuichi would have noticed it at the time, or the alarm would have gone off. Unless he’s the killer, which I’m really doubting.

Ignoring the option of Shuichi being the killer, he and Kaede at least have alibis. I don’t know if anyone else would have. I’ve kinda forgotten if the equipment got placed early in the morning, or right before those two hid in the classroom, so I’m not sure what time frame to work with for this one, in terms of figuring out alibis.

I feel like the seven people who went to the game room are probably being set up as people who all have mutually-verified alibis, at least. Which leaves like seven other people.

Oh well, I won’t think about it too hard until I finish the investigation.

On the topic of Shuichi, I also really like him as a character. I liked him after the prologue, but learning a bit more of his story made me like him even more. He’s a really interesting take on a detective character. I’m glad he’s not just another Kirigiri. I can really get why he feels so uncomfortable about the idea of pursuing the truth, when he ended up exposing someone who did a revenge-killing for sympathetic reasons.

I also just really like his dynamic with Kaede. They’re just adorable and mutually supportive and I love it. I’m not gonna lie, I kinda low-key ship them already. I have low standards for this sorta thing, lol.

Kaede’s also pretty interesting as a protagonist, especially in terms of how people react to her. It was kinda sad seeing everyone [well, nearly everyone] hate her for being optimistic and leader-y and wanting everyone to keep trying to escape. Considering how it’s already giving her confidence issues, I wonder if that’ll be an ongoing thing, with most of the cast not wanting to be bossed around by her. I couldn’t really blame them after how the Death Road of Despair part went, but they still took it too far.

Also on that note, fuck the Death Road of Despair. That was so awful to experience. Considering how the story played out, I imagine that the game was genuinely rigged against you, and it sure as hell felt like it. I hope that if this game ever shows up again in a less evil context, the controls aren’t so weirdly floaty and hard to control. I kinda wish I could have recorded the way my reaction to it went from ‘oh this sounds simple, just run and rump’ to ‘wait the fuck why is everyone dead’ in ten seconds.

Anyway, I’m really enjoying seeing more of the characters, and seeing them start to form their own dynamics and stuff. It’s only just starting, but it’s already interesting to watch unfold. I’m especially surprised by how Tenko pretty much immediately got a crush on Himiko and is now just following her around and acting so excited about the idea of magic. It’s really endearing me to her.

This part also continued to reaffirm my love for Gonta. He’s an incredibly sweet boy who doesn’t deserve the death that he’s presumably going to experience. He tries his best.

I’m happy that Kaito is at least trying to be on Kaede’s side. He’s a good dude thus far.

Conversely, I probably should have expected that Maki would be rude and unsociable. I’ll probably still try and spend free time with her and get to know her, though. It makes me feel like there’s something really interesting under her cold exterior that I’d never get to see if I just avoided her.

Angie’s kinda starting to creep me out, which I wasn’t expecting. Like, the blood sacrifice joke was one thing, but now she’s talking about happily accepting imminent death because Atua will welcome her into his kingdom, or Atua punishing liars, and stuff. But then again she also unironically says bye-onara and that makes me really like her.

I guess I may as well comment on Rantarou’s character in general, since this might be my last time to. I wish I could have gotten to know him better, but the one event I had with him didn’t tell me much. I’m still not sure what to make of him. He’s also kinda creepy, but I still like him. I’m not gonna deny that most of my bias toward him is still because I love [most of] his design, though. I wonder if we’ll ever learn what his talent was, since that’s still a mystery. Maybe it’ll be a plot point during the trial. I’m also curious about the fact that he seemed to have some memories related to the Ultimate Hunt, which is still suspicious to me in general as a concept. I really can’t help but feel like this game is set in some future post-DR3 where the rest of society decided to criminalize talent or something. Or they had a grudge against the whole Ultimate Initiative, and Hope’s Peak Academy, and thus they decided to hunt down everyone related to it, or something. Who knows.

I’m really surprised by the fact that none of the characters have said anything about the implication of them being criminals, with how they’re in an academy for Gifted Juveniles. You’d think that’d raise some questions from them.

Also, I wonder if everyone’s labs are going to be actual places we can at least see on the map. I think thus far we can only see Kaede’s and Miu’s rooms. Maybe the rest will open up as time goes on. On the note of their labs, I should check and see if I can go to Kaede’s one now. I kinda forgot to check it out. I think I tried to check once but the plot was railroading me elsewhere and I forgot about it after that.

Oh, and before I forget, I didn’t miss that one line from one of the Monokubs where they were obviously teasing at what’s going on in the big picture, but basically blotting out the important info. I can’t quite remember exactly what he said, though, but I remember it seeming immediately important.

And also, on the note of Monokuma, that one Monokuma Theater joking about the idea of getting confused about what happened and in what part of a long-running franchise really felt like a self-deprecating joke about how long this series has gotten. [Also the Yokai Watch reference was pretty hilarious]

I guess that’s all I have to say for now. I’ll probably just play the investigation part tomorrow, even if it might be kinda short, and then I’ll do the trial the day after. I don’t really have any predictions about who the killer is, other than that Shuichi seems really damn suspicious right about now.