#remember komaeda’s last free time event

[aco1yte]

was replaying drae and kotoko started acting familiar….

[elusive---ivory]

Midori Tsukkomi

The Ultimate High School Level Comedian

[Click For Quality]

Tsukkomi Midori

Age: 17 (Despair Arc) 21 (As a Remnant of Despair)

Birthday: April 1st

Likes: Jokes, Seeing her friends happy.

Dislikes: Being sad

Relatives: Daisuke Kabuki (Cousin), Shigeru Tsukkomi (Father), Mei Kabuki (Aunt), Hari Kabuki.

Friends: Kazuichi Souda (Possible Romantic Interest), Ibuki Mioda, Hajime Hinata, Nagito Komaeda, Sonia Nevermind.

Enemies: Junko Enoshima, Komaru Naegi (Temporarily), Genocider Syo, Warriors Of Hope (Though they only see her as an enemy)

(Backstory)

Midori grew up in a small town in Japan to a low income family. Despite how hard her family had it, she always found ways to keep things positive. Her father was an alcoholic as well as a gambling addict. He didn't treat Midori or her mother well. Midori's mother died when she was younger, but that didn't stop her father for being cruel.

Once her father died, Midori moved in with her aunt. Next to her house was an auto shop. There she met a particular boy named Kazuichi Souda. She liked him because he made her laugh. Kazuichi would go on and on about different cars and how they worked. She loved his company a lot, and stood up to him against bullies. She even tried standing up against his father, however, she was promptly forbidden to see Kazuichi for a week.

However, once Kazuichi started changing his appearance, he started growing more distant from Midori. She started getting bullied more and more. In order to get the bullies off her back, she started making fun of herself. Eventually the bullies laid off her, and she had developed her very clever sense of humor.

(Despair Arc)

Midori was absolutely stoked. However, her aunt not so much. When she was younger, Midori's aunt attended Hope's Peak as the ultimate actress, unfortunately she was kicked out for having Midori's cousin, Daisuke. If anything, Mei was jealous of Midori's chance. Upon finding out the news, Kazuichi also was super stoked when he found out too.

They reconnected their freshman year, becoming best friends again. However, when Sonia Nevermind comes into play. Midori got jealous of how she stole his attention. The truth is Midori considered herself a friend of Sonia, so just like that, Midori found herself drifting away from Souda again

She found herself hanging around a few other kids in her class. Namingly, Nagito Komaeda and Hajime Hinata. They were fine, other than Nagito's really strange behavior, but she still missed Kazuichi. She found herself longing for him more and more. Midori was frankly confused by this sudden feeling. She started avoiding Kazuichi all together. This, of course, hurt Kazuichi quite a lot. He simply wanted to understand what was wrong with her.

Once Midori realized she had feelings for Kazuichi, she tried figuring out a way to confess to him, but she just couldn't find a conversation where they weren't talking about Sonia. Soon enough she snapped at him. Midori started openly mocking him in front of a crowd that formed around their fight. The last thing Midori remembered about that fight is that Kazuichi ran away with tears in her eyes.

She had deeply regretted that day. It caused her so much heartache that she couldn't bare to leave her dorm. Nagito was the one to mostly checked up on her. He was the only one to see the unfortunate real side of the fun-loving bright comedian. Despite Nagito's wishes, Midori ended working with Junko in planning the worst most tragic event in human history.

Midori ended up changing her mind last minute, but Junko still mindcontrolled her and all her classmates of 77-A.

(Despair Girls)

As a Remnant of Despair, Midori's appearance is altered slightly, and her glasses are gone. She wears black and red clown makeup. She has a show streaming 24/7 of her torturing people while doing her stand up. Her jokes are dark with sadistic undertones, and the punchline usually ends with someone dying.

Her cousin, Daisuke, began looking for her after the collapse of everything. He ran into Komaru and Toko while on his search. He carries a decorative katana that Mei left him at all times, and after being in the 'new' dystopia for quite a while, he managed to defend himself against all the Monokumas. Once he finds Midori, he's devastated by her state of despair. She ever actually kills him herself, but she has a group of Monokumas drag him away. He gets surrounded by monokumas and in order for Komaru and Toko to escape, he sacrifices himself and dies in one of Midori's jokes.

(Midori's Despair Sprite)

(Danganronpa: 2 Goodbye Despair)

Midori is very willing to help Hajime in each trial. I like to think during her free time events, she would share more things about herself, opening up to Hajime. Her crush on Kazuichi follows through from the past, but he's still fixated on Sonia. Midori maintains her light hearted humor through the first trial, but by the 3rd trial, she practically snaps. She's more serious, and she tries patching her friendship up with Kazuichi. However, she ends up confessing her feelings towards him.

Kazuichi looks at her dumbfounded, but it takes him a while to confess back. When he does, the next body discovered turns out to be Midori's underneath a benched car.

Midori's death hurt him the most out of everyone. She died near the military base, and the culprit turned out to be Midori herself.

Once out of the simulation, Midori began to realize all that had happened and what she did to millions of people. Fortunately for her, Midori and Kazuichi where ready for a new start. A new hope.

(( All sprites were based off Kaeda Akamatsu's sprites. Also the pants are meant to be just a photo because,, I didn't feel like drawing pants..))

[bullshittierlists]

Spoiler Warning!!! - This review will contain spoilers for all of SDR2 and the first chapter of DRV3 as well as slight spoilers for DR1. You’ve been warned.

I see no god up here other than me

Gundham Tanaka- His name is GUNDHam TaNAKA

Sonia Nevermind- This is my third time typing this rant. I literally don’t know why people hate her so much?? There are two main arguments that I’ve come across. The first is that she is boring and shouldn’t have survived, but that’s the same as Asahina and everyone seems to love her. (Don’t get me wrong, I also love her, but all she had were donuts and her relationship with Sakura) She’s just a cute girl with some occult-ish quirks and I don’t see why that has to be such a bad thing. The other, more prevalent, argument is that since she’s at the center of the infamous love triangle, she must be the root of all its problems. It’s really frustrating when people blame her for Kazuichi’s faults. I’ll talk more about Kazuichi later, but his terrible qualities are a result of his own actions, and Sonia shouldn’t be blamed for being the object of his affections. It’s honestly blaming the victim and I’m sick of it. Obviously, she hasn’t treated him perfectly and I understand why people are frustrated with it. The only example of this, though, is in chapter four when she goes back-and-forth between treating him coldly and praising him when she should’ve just rejected him a long time ago. However, I think I can understand where she’s coming from in this chapter. I think it was kind of a Shuichi/Kaede situation. She had already figured out that Gundham was the killer, but didn’t want to admit it to herself, and definitely didn’t want to tell everyone else even though he was more than ready to admit it. Therefore, she treated Kazuichi coldly whenever he was getting close to the truth (or treating her poorly) and praised him whenever he was leading the group in the wrong direction. I don’t have any evidence that these were the times she treated him this way, but that’s how I remember it. Anyway, Kazuichi should stop being a creep, and apologists should stop rationalizing it. Her one slip-up in this case when she was panicked and worried for her closest friend does not make up for all of the other times Kazuichi treated her terribly.

You’re the best

Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu- Boss baby boss baby boss baby. Also, he’s a fantastically fleshed out character and his relationship with Peko makes me cry literally every time :)  I just wish his character development had been a bit more stretched out, instead of on-the-spot like it was. I also kinda wish his sudden development had been a result of the despair disease, but you can’t have everything.

Nagito Komaeda- Recently, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about how SimpleFlips calls softlocking in SM64 “gay baby jail” and Komaeda makes me think of that.

Chiaki Nanami- I’m not quite as attached to her as everyone else seems to be, but I totally see the appeal. Cute girl, cute backpack, and plot-relevant??? Incredible.

Ibuki Mioda- She’s just so fun. I don’t typically like characters who are loud for the sake of being loud, but I can’t help but love her. This was the first game I fully voice-acted for fun (the girls, at least) and Ibuki was definitely one of my favorites. It just feels good to yell sometimes, you know?

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

Peko Pekoyama- I’m a simple woman. I think of chapter two, I cry. At least, the epilogue of that case. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Twilight Syndrome Murder Case and I definitely didn’t like the, albeit fake, serial killer twist. It didn’t feel natural and just felt bad. Loved hearing Sonia say “Sparkling Justice!”, though.

Hiyoko Saionji- I totally understand why people hate her. I get it, I do. But I just can’t bring myself to hate her. She’s obviously not a good person, but I have shit taste. Byakuya and Kokichi aren’t good people, but everyone loves them anyway. I just think she’s so funny and terrible, I can’t help but get attached. I’m not usually the type to like little sister characters, or even bullies, but she’s just such a perfect combination of the two that I can’t help but love her. I also obviously am not the biggest fan of Mikan (I’ll explain, I swear) so the bullying didn’t really affect me too much.

Hajime Hinata- He’s the protagonist. I don’t really know what to tell you. I used to believe in Hajime supremacy, but I’m starting to understand the Shuichi supremacy now, so idk, Hajime might end up lower after I finish V3.

Byakuya Togami/Ultimate Imposter- He’s just such a good guy. I know that the real Byakuya is an ass, but the imposter is so nice and supportive. I can’t even take him seriously as Byakuya anymore because of how supportive he is. The real Byakuya could never. I just finished his last free-time event and he really feels like his own person now, which I can imagine is all he’s ever wanted. He isn’t Byakuya to me anymore, he’s himself. I just don’t have a unique name to call him by.

I remember you

Mahiru Koizumi- Her photography thing was cute, I liked it a lot. I don’t know the basic stance people take on her crush on Hajime, but I thought it was really cute and believable. I don’t know if I ship it, but I can see it in canon. It makes sense and works well.

Akane Owari- She’s a jock. I feel pretty neutral about jocks unless they have another prevalent thing that fits my interests.

Nekomaru Nidai- Again, a jock. I’m just not the biggest fan. I know that his backstory makes up for a lot of his inherent jock boringness, but I just can’t get into him as much as some other people can. I definitely see the appeal, though.

Usami/Monomi- She’s a mascot. Cool. Honestly preferred Monophanie.

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

Mikan Tsumiki- I told you I’d explain. First, I need to explain some personal reasons I didn’t like her, rather than objective characteristics. Like I mentioned with Ibuki, I voice-acted the whole game with each of the girls. Never before has a voice physically affected me as much as Mikan’s. In order to make her voice so high and quiet, I have to close my throat and tighten my jaw. It makes my throat, jaw, and head hurt all at the same time and it feels awful. The only time this wasn’t the case was during her breakdown and that’s because I couldn’t make her say those things with that voice, it didn’t make sense. Which brings me to my next point: her breakdown. I didn’t like it. At all. It wasn’t interesting and it didn’t make sense. I know that everyone else was sad because she was bullied a bunch and began to romanticize it, and yeah, I feel bad, but it wasn’t enough to make me like her. Her breakdown made a little more sense after watching the anime, believe it or not, but it was still not great. She could’ve been easily redeemed for me if she had a different motive for killing Hiyoko. I don’t really have an opinion on whether or not Ibuki should’ve lived longer, or even survived, but I definitely agree with Hiyoko dying during the third case, I just wish the motive had been different. It would’ve been so powerful if Mikan’s despair disease had made her remember her past with the bullying, and then she realized how much she hated it. She started to notice how Hiyoko was treating her and finally snaps. She kills Hiyoko in cold blood on purpose, instead of on accident, and covers it up in a more reasonable way instead the literal impossibility that we actually got. Then, in her breakdown, instead of pleading for forgiveness, she tries to rationalize her actions and convince everyone else that she was in the right by killing her. It would’ve been much more interesting and would’ve made much more sense. I also wish she had made use of Ibuki’s despair disease (which made her gullible) and commanded her to hang herself instead of staging the other thing, because it was a lot of extra work that was really unnecessary and it would’ve made more use of the despair disease other than a plot contrivance for Junko’s entrance. This kind of turned into my review for the third chapter, but still. Killers are always more fleshed out in their respective chapters, so their existence is often pretty much tied to the events of that chapter, since everything typically revolves around them. I might as well add here that her execution was really basic and underwhelming, but as far as I’ve seen, I’m not alone in that opinion.

Monokuma- It’s kind of an ironic hate with Monokuma. Sure, he makes me laugh, but he’s also fuel for the killing game, so... I don’t know. He pisses me off sometimes, but he’s also pretty funny at other times.

Kazuichi Souda- This is basically a continuation of the Sonia rant, so here we go. I would like to preface this by saying that in the context of Kazuichi’s free-time events, he’s one of my favorite characters. However, in the main story, I placed him here. I would normally average out my opinions of his different forms, but his optional events don’t make up for his actions that are required to be experienced. While some of his quips toward Sonia made me laugh, they still made me uncomfortable to some extent. It’s honestly frustrating to see him try so hard when she obviously isn’t interested in him. Some people choose to see this as an underdog story, but I think it’s just annoying and low-key creepy. He’s constantly fetishizing Sonia and keeps making moves on her even after she treats him coldly. He isn’t brave or cool for doing this, like the media would like you to believe, he’s creepy and persistent, and not in a good way. While I do agree that Sonia should’ve just turned him down from the very beginning, I still don’t put all of that blame on her. I’m sure she’s had her fair share of creepy guys making advances on her and she’s just had to take it, since she’s a princess and it would hurt her noble reputation. Kazuichi should also be able to think for himself and see that she’s not interested. It shouldn’t be completely up to her to get him to stop. He should be able to take a hint and back off, whether she tells him directly or otherwise. She definitely hints to him that she’s not interested in some of the later chapters, but he completely ignores it and keeps trying anyway. I wouldn’t have such a problem with him if he didn’t represent a very real issue that we are facing in the world today. Nice guys will, unfortunately, always be plaguing our society and it doesn’t look like they’re getting any better. It doesn’t help that the media continually raises them up and convinces them that they are in the right, even though they definitely aren’t. No man is entitled to any woman and people need to stop sympathizing with men who are rejected and keep pushing. In almost every post I’ve seen from Kazuichi apologists, they explain that Sonia should’ve given him a chance. Really? She did give him a chance. She gave him several chances, in fact, more than she was entitled to. The first time she acted coldly towards him was at the end of chapter 4. That’s four entire chapters, plus a prologue, of chances that she gave him. She was always polite and talked to him when he approached her. Maybe she saw this as her noble duty, but either way, she didn’t reject him outright the first time she saw him. She tried to be friends, he was creepy, and then she started to hint that she wasn’t interested. This is a natural progression for her character and is in no way wrong of her. He is not entitled to her attention and should learn to back off when he’s not wanted. The other big reason I see that people don’t like Sonia is because she basically ruined any chance of Kazuichi and Gundham having any sort of relationship other than rivals. Again, it’s not Sonia’s fault that they both liked her. It’s also not her fault for choosing Gundham over Kazuichi, since he treated her respectfully and they also shared interests. She also didn’t need a specific reason to choose Gundham over Kazuichi, because she is free to make her own choices based on anything she wants, including nothing. Even though I said all of this, I do actually wish that Gundham and Kazuichi could’ve had some kind of relationship. I think it could’ve been very interesting, but it didn’t need to be devoid of Sonia. I think it would’ve been just as interesting for Gundham and Kazuichi to talk with Sonia as it would’ve been for her to introduce them to each other more formally and get them to become friends. I think it could’ve been fun for Kazuichi to have a little playful resentment towards Gundham for getting the girl, but instead, he went completely off the deep end. If he had just backed off like I suggested earlier, maybe they could’ve had that relationship that everyone longed for. I am also obligated to say here that I think all of his free-time events were absolutely adorable and the fact that he gets motion sickness is the single best piece of comedy every written.

Teruteru Hanamura- I’ve been doing a lot of rants and I’m kind of tired of it. You know why I don’t like him, I don’t need to explain it. He’s shitty, blah blah blah. His tiny bit of plot with his mother didn’t really do anything to redeem him for me and I just plain don’t like him. Sorry, not sorry.

Wow, this took way too long. I forgot I had so many opinions on these characters. I would’ve said a lot more about Gundham, but it’s kind of my thing here to say more about my second favorite characters and characters that I don’t like than my favorite characters, and I knew there were going to be several rants, so I decided to keep his very short. My definitive favorites list is Gundham and then Sonia, with a pending Fuyuhiko in third. The four dark devas are the best characters and I’m so upset they weren’t on here. I would apologize for my Kazuichi rant, since it had two parts, both of which were very long, but it all needed to be said because I’m sick and tired of Kazuichi apologists. They keep coming across my dash and I would like to be rid of them. If you like Kazuichi, that’s fine, I actually quite like him, too, you just need to acknowledge his faults instead of just rationalizing them in a bad way. If someone wants to send me reasons why Sonia is terrible, I’ll listen, because I’m sure I’m probably being a bit of a Sonia apologist, although I feel like her actions were a lot less impactful. Sondam supremacy, thank you, goodnight.

[new-tella-us]

Another Komahina Oneshot! (Fem Version)

Okay, I know, I should do other ships and I will but, as I'm trying to get used to doing oneshots, I wanna start with something easy to write. I promise I'll do other ships later. Anyways! Warnings! • I forgot to write a "this is gay" warning last time for the people that don't like that but, it really needs to be stressed here. This is really gay. It's not sex gay, but it's gay. • This used genderbent Hajime and Nagito. I know most people aren't disturbed unless only one is genderbent but, if you are disturbed, you should probably move on • This is slightly nsfw. Again not sex but... Anyways, onto the Oneshot.

We finally found out what 'It' is.

How did I find myself in this situation? Oh right! It's because my curious ass had to try and hang out with Nagiko. While formalities are not my thing. I might as well introduce myself and my current state of affairs. My name is Haruka Hinata. I'm an average girl that just so happens to be caught up in an odd school field trip. Like, stuffed bunny beats up a stuffed bear and makes us work and craft things kind of odd. Of all the people here the oddest, by far, is this one girl named Nagiko Komaeda. She seems just a bit shy but, I feel like there's something odd about her. Something a little darker? I got curious and started to hangout with her. She isn't mean or rude, just weirdly disturbing. She talks endlessly about hope and despair, barely making any sense. But, she's passionate on her topic. Once she started, she rarely ever gave you a chance to speak. She's also quite a pessimist, looking down on herself a lot. Even when she talks about hope, if she realizes how long she's been talking, she'll go on an apology fest. I honestly feel bad for her. To have such low self esteem must make your life kinda dull. As time went on, I learned a lot about Nagiko. From her likes(Beauty) and dislikes(Noise) to the way her luck works and how it's often like a swinging pendulum. "Always swinging from one end to the other. Good then Bad then back to Good" as she said. She even trusted me enough to tell me about her parents death via meteor and plane crash. I'm still unsure about the sickness part but, I felt like there was some truth to her words. Why else would I get this weird feeling around her? I truly knew everything about her and I got all of her Hope fragments...and yet...I still wanted more. Would you like to access the Love Event? >Yes No That day, which just so happens to be today, I went to Nagito's cottage to see if she was in there. She didn't come for breakfast and I was a little worried. I knocked on the door and Nagiko opened. "Hey Komaeda," Yes, we did still call each other by our last names. "Are you okay in there? You didn't come to breakfast." Nagiko frowned "I know, I just wasn't hungry and I didn't want to disturb you Ultimates. I already feel bad about taking up so much of your free time."

Not this again... "Komaeda, you know I'm fine with that, right? I choose to hang out with you, if I didn't want to, I wouldn't bother."

"Hinata-Chan, you're so nice but-"

"No 'buts' are necessary. You just end it at that. Come on, you need to eat," I said. I hope I didn't sound too annoyed.

"...Alright." So we headed to the cafeteria but, by that point, no one was there. Teratera did leave some food for Nagiko though. How nice. So, for the next thirty minutes or so, I was just watching Nagiko eat. Needless to say, things got awkward fast. "So...uh...wanna go back to my cottage after this?" I asked, trying to break the unbearable silence.

"And do what exactly? Not that I have any problem with going with you! I'm just lucky you would want to hangout with me!"

"Uh..." and it's awkward again. "Maybe, play some board games? You probably will win since you're lucky but, it could be fun,"

"Hmm...that does sound like fun," she says as she shovels the last bit of food in her mouth. "and this would give you the opportunity to show me around your place,"

"Yeah..." Nagiko gets up and takes my hand. "So what are we waiting for? Let's go!" She seemed oddly excited. She so odd, I may never fully understand her. We walked to my cottage, which wasn't far, and I opened the door. "Welcome to my humble abode" All of our cottages are furnished based off our personalities, talents, and experiences. Thus, a seemingly average girl with slight memory loss would have a relatively empty space. There were board games and some basic miscellaneous things. Nothing too special. After walking around a bit, Nagiko's eyes were fixated on a specific thing I had. A pin from one of places I worked. "What is this?" She asked.

"Oh, that's nothing. Just a small award from one of my old summer job. I was a temporary masseuse."

"Huh, an award? That usually means you're good at it. So could this be your Ultimate talent?"

"I feel like if I remembered working there and remember the reward, I would surely remember being the Ultimate Masseuse."

"Fair enough, but, this award does mean you're good at this, right?"

"Uh, I guess?" I didn't like where this was going...

"Then, can you try that on me?"

...Was this chick serious? I felt my cheek warm up with that question.

"Hinata-Chan?? What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"Uh... You do realize that in order for me to do that properly, you would have to...take off the top half of your clothes, right? Like, bra and all."

Silence...

Then Nagiko's cheeks flushed a bright red.

"Uhhh! I didn't know that! How and why would your employer let an underaged kid do that??? Now thinking on it, couldn't that go really badly???"

I replied, "It wasn't the best of neighborhoods and besides, neither I nor any other female employees were paired with men so, that lessened the risk."

Nagiko seemed speechless so, stupid me butted in with a stupid question to change the subject.

"SO! Are you still gunna do the massage or what?" Stupid question...

"...Are you sure you're comfortable with that?" She asked, her blush becoming more visible.

I committed to my stupid question. "Y-yeah, it's no problem."

Nagiko said nothing and for a few awkward seconds did nothing but, after seemingly collecting her thoughts, she started taking off her hoodie. With that, it hit me hard that she was serious about this. I, instinctively, turned away and walked to the drawer where that pin was. Why was I so nervous? I've done this before. I've done this many times. But I couldn't keep this blush off my face; I couldn't help but briefly fantasize...

"Okay, when you're ready, just lay down on the bed. On your stomach," I had to get professional. She's a client now.

"Okay."

I trusted this drawer had something I needed. I opened it and it had almond oil. Perfect. After briefly washing my hands, I grabbed the oil and looked over to the bed. She was laying on it topless, as expected but, it still made me feel weird.

I walked over to the bed and got on top of her, making sure not to sit on her; unless they specify, you never sit on the client.

"Okay, I'm going to do a simple Swedish massage. Since this is your first time, it's best to start simple," Swedish massages are perfect for first timers. I grabbed the oil and put it on my hands.

"You ready?" I asked. I wasn't...

"Yeah..." She didn't sound too confident.

I didn't want to hurt her so I started off soft, barely any pressure. Kneading long strokes on her back in the direction of the heart, as I usually do. I do this repeatedly for about five minutes, then, I switch to circular motions. Slowly, I add more pressure. For about fifteen minutes, we continue this in silent. It didn't feel awkward though. It just felt...odd, warm. After those fifteen minutes I started trying to make conversation again.

"I'm not hurting you, right?"

"No, you aren't. I can tell you're trying your hardest to be soft. I'm glad you did that; that was one of my worries."

"That I would hurt you?"

"That you would leave a bruise more accurately."

That comment made me realize how smooth and silky and pale her skin is. I really didn't want to damage it. Ruin such a perfect canvas...

"I won't bruise you. I promise."

It's at this point that we fell back into the consuming silence. My mind started to wander, to fantasize. I didn't bother trying to stop it. As long as I keep up the motions, the kneading, the stroking, the vibrations and tapping, I didn't care to stop the less than appropriate thoughts that circled my head at the moment.

"Haruka?"

Did she...? Y'know what? It doesn't matter.

"Yes, Nagiko?"

"...You're really good at this," She seemed relaxed.

"Thank you, Nagiko."

"How long do these usually last?"

"About an hour to an hour and a half but... you're a special client. It can last however long you want it to." WHY DID I SAY THAT?!?! Goddamn it Haruka, you are an idiot!

"Oh my, I'm flattered. Well if that's true, then I might keep you a little longer than your regulars."

My face heated up a lot. I could tell that it was probably red.

Though, our appointment was cut short by a long BANG! The door was slammed open and in walked Akane and Nekamara.

"There you guys a-" Akane immediately fell silent after he realized what we were doing. "Wait, you guys do 'it' too?" he asked, apparently, completely oblivious to the face that he was looking at a topless girl. I quickly covered Nagiko in a sheet. A part of my mind acknowledged that 'it' was massaging but, that wasn't important.

"I think we should leave, Akane. 'It' is a very private process." Nekamara said. At least she had some braincells. They both left, leaving an awkward tension that completely killed the mood. I got up and looked at Nagiko. She was crying... She had an insane look on her face, as if despair was threatening to swallow her up.

"Oh, how shameful! I just wanted to have a bit of alone time with you but, instead, your door got busted down and others have seen me topless! What did I expect? That's my luck." She immediately put on her bra and shirt and was reaching for her hoodie when she continued,

"I'm so sorry Hinata-Chan. Because of me, Akane saw what we were doing and he'll probably tell everyone and even if we now know what 'It' is, the rest won't. They'll assume we had sex. That would a horrible image for you. I'm so sorry that my selfish greed will soon cause you so much pain."

...At that point, I didn't care anymore. I really only cared about her. I barely bothered with the thought of what Fuyuki would say or what people like Mari thought. I sighed and hugged her.

"I. Don't. Give. A shit. Let them assume whatever the hell they want. Now, you wanna play some board games like we agreed to?"

"..."

"...Sure."

This really has to show you how weak I am. This is the dirtiest thing I've ever written and it's probably more fluff than smut. Still! I hope you enjoyed it.

[violexides]

for the ship ask meme: what's your favorite komahina canon moment?

i preface this with: my understanding of canon, as i tend to mention often, is shaky, so there are a lot of canotical events that i don’t remember all too well. so, bear with me.

i think... the investigation they did together? if i am recalling it correctly. my memory is atrocious. if they ever did investigate together, than that, but i also just liked the prologue bit. the two of them hanging out and komaeda reassuring hinata makes me smile, even when knowing what comes after.

the other is only arguably canon, depending on what you view the free time events as. but the other moment is the last FTE. while it has the love confession which already makes me like it quite a lot, i more so appreciate the melancholy of this, if i remember correctly, possibly coming before his death? again i do not really, uh, recall anything of this. so this might all sound like complete bullshit.

... safe to say, i am more fond of them interacting after or prior to canon, when my memory actually holds up, mostly because half of pre- and post- is just headcanons.

anyway sorry for this clusterfuck of an answer, macaron

[prompt-master]

What are, in your opinion, the canon free time events each protag took? Like, chapter one, Naegi spent time with Maizono, Hinata with Komaeda and Kaede with Saihara. Or did they just sleep through everything in your eyes?

This is a really really interesting question! I absolutely agree with these first things being chapter one essentials if I were to map out a canon. Although I would say Komaeda's is a bit more spread out with his last FTE being before the ch 4 fiasco.

I've always said that Komaeda's FTE is essential because understanding his luck cycle and mental state is NECESSARY for understanding his character.

But on that note I would actually argue that in "canon" the protags hung out with everybody! With the only exception being the students who were first murdered such as Maizono, Hanamura (I think twogami is canon), and Amami. I think that Naegi personally had a thing for seeking everyone out to try and bond. Hinata would get dragged into it but would also sometimes get curious and/or feel a sense of leadership (like how he says he feels the need to keep an eye on Komaeda). And for Saihara he's just...trying his best. It's important for the detective to have a good scope of everyones character in case a murder happens. But he also knows...that Akamatsu would want him to make friends with them.

Now with all this in mind I don't think the question is so much "who's canon" but "how far is canon". Now I can't think of any examples off the top of my head. I reread a FEW FTEs (I dont have the time or energy to go through them all rn) but I remember occasionally feeling like a characters FTEs development didn't align with how they act in canon. So you would feel like good bros one second then like you've never talked before the next. Now this could possibly be fixed by spreading out the FTEs. But it could also be a result of the protags canon not getting all of the hope fragments!

I definitely think all the rivals and supports are canon. Especially Komaeda and Ouma. Saihara had an interest in Ouma even if you don't interpret that as romantic. Ouma is this confusing lie and Saihara can't help but want to take a closer look, even if it makes him more confused.

So yeah, I think almost everyone besides three characters was canon! The protags had more time to interact with them then what we got as players!

[preppyvampire]

Komaeda’s Death, an Analysis

Spoilers obvi and tw death and suicide 

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So while I’m planning this cosplay I’ve been looking at his death cg for a while, and I’m being reminded of how ridiculously misunderstood his death was in the fandom and even in the game. And since I’m an english major AND a komaeda kinnie (horrific combo) I’m going to analyze it for ya’ll so hopefully everyone can learn something new about his character

so Komaeda plotted and carried out his own suicide, but obviously, it was a little more complex than that. After chapter 4 when he realized what was going on, it was clear that he was struggling a lot and slipping farther and farther away from everyone. 

He mentions multiple times in the game that the only person he really cares about is hajime, and hajime is clearly a survivor past that point. After he’s a prick for a little bit and gets it outta his system, he admits that he does still love and care for hajime, and he has to figure out a way to save Hajime from this terrible fate he’s read about. 

The biggest issue I have with his death is that people boil it down to; he’s the antagonist of the game and he just wants to waste time and mess with people. He didn’t sit there and torture himself for god knows how long just to “mess with people”. Why would he do that? It’s TORTURE, literally. Looking at the cg, he stabbed himself about 40 times in the legs, cut open his arm and impaled his own hand with a knife. Ya’ll really think he did all that just to mess with the trial ? Nah. He did it so his despair would be unbelievably high. I mean, can you think of a more painful and horrible way to die? He did it on purpose, so that he would feel absolutely nothing but pain the entire time he was dying. And why did he make it LOOK like torture ? To make the trial harder to solve, and cause everyone to feel despair in that they couldn't solve it. So yeah, he was trying to “trick” them in a sense, but not to be deceitful or to get them all killed. He was doing it because he knew the more despair they felt at first, would make for even more hope in eventually SOLVING the trial. 

Going off of that, he wasn’t trying to get some random person killed. Hajime mentions that Nagito’s true plan was to “create a murder nobody could solve.” No, not at all. He wanted to create a murder that would leave the traitor as the blackened, which he did. He didn’t know what Chiaki was actually trying to do, or I’m sure he wouldn’t have gone through all that. He thought that exposing the traitor would SAVE everyone. That’s why he did it. 

And are we forgetting his last words so easily? The last thing his boy says is “Please, I want you to remember me as the Ultimate Hope.” He REALLY, from the bottom of his heart, thought his death would cause such immense hope for everyone left in the game that he didn’t even mind. He said it again and again in the game, he didn’t mind dying if it was for something meaningful. So he planned all that out, thinking everyone would remember his despair as the stepping stone for the most hope they had ever experienced. 

Also, not important but, if you’re finishing his free time events in chapter 5, he locks Hajime out of them and says that hes busy unfortunately, but he does love spending time with him and tells Hajime to relax and stay safe. 

while he’s plotting his s u i c i d e, he’s just making sure hajime is safe and happy

anyways, don’t sum his character up as the crazy guy who tried to screw everyone bc that is NOT who he is and I’ll defend that to my grave. He was not trying to screw everyone just for shits and giggles. He was really, REALLY trying to save everyone. And don’t go saying kokichi’s death was “dying trying to save everyone” and then say komaeda was just some crackhead antagonist bc that’s CLOWN shit 

[jw231992]

Danganronpa: Despair Time

(ダンガンロンパ:絶望のタイム)

=======================

First of, I just want to say that this is a fanganronpa that I recently found thanks to Moboxer, the head of what is known as Danganronpa: Kill/Cure. I want to do an analysis of that one soon, but this one I figured would be a good start. So, like the series we've come to know and love, Danganronpa: Despair Time is a series where a group of high school students are trapped in a building and must commit a murder to get out of their situation. With the prologue being released just now, we can get a feel for the characters, and maybe some of my predictions will be right? Who knows. Without further ado, let's get into it.

We will start with the main female lead, Teruko Tawaki, the Ultimate Lucky Student. She's seemingly plain, but not Tsumugi Shirogane plain. I really like the hair color she has going on, and I can't accurately tell what color it is, due to me being colorblind, but I believe it's brown going into gray ends. What also sets her apart from previous Danganronpas is that most of the leads are male. Ones like Danganronpa: the After and Danganronpa REbirth both have female leads which I find very refreshing and would like to see the killing game from a female perspective. The thing that also seemed to stick out to me was how she says she was cursed with bad luck, much like Makoto Naegi feels he was in the first game. It also gives me a sense of sadness, much like Qrow Branwen of the RWBY series and his semblance of always bring bad luck to those around him. As of right now, I can't say too much else about her, but as the main character, I feel she would be a survivor. She'll make it to the end and stop the televised killing game (more on this for another character.)

Alexander Matthews, or Xander, is the Ultimate Rebel. He definitely gives of a Kaito Momota vibe from how he confronts those that insult him, but he also has a very friendly demeanor. So because of this, I am giving him the title of Best Boy, because we all need a Best Boy and a Best Girl. According to the series, his talent isn't so much as being a troublemaker, but moreso taking a stand against what he doesn't like and wants to improve for the better. Honestly, maybe Revolutionist or Protestor would have been a better title? Maybe, but Rebel also has a nice flair to it, so we'll go with what the creator intended. His red hair also gives him a fiery feel, which is what I've come to expect from the Best Boys of the games and fangans. The sad part is, I see him dying in the fifth chapter as a culprit. Probably something he didn't even mean to do or something he didn't want to do, a heartbreaking chapter. But the series isn't fully out to the public yet, so we can't say for certain.

Eden Tobisa, the Ultimate Clockmaker. She's adorable, soft, and I just wanna protect this innocent cinnamon bun. That being said, I don't think she is the one that would get the Best Girl status. A lot of her sprites are pretty cutesy, much like a cat, which seems to be a running theme within this fangan. Or I may just dig a little too deep and find stuff that really isn't there. She gives me a big Chihiro Fujisaki vibe, and would love to see this character being explored more. However, it kind of breaks my heart to say she's probably not going to make it, and I believe she would be the Chapter 1 victim. Like I said, she's small and soft, and makes for an easy victim, but I would definitely love seeing an execution if she ends up being the culprit in a case. Probably something sad and gruesome like her being crushed between a few clockwork gears.

So I wanna say this right off the bat, and I'm sure anyone that saw this girl's talent was like, "What the actual hell is a Zither?!" Thank goodness they tell us what it is and I appreciate learning new things. That being said, this is Hu Jing, the Ultimate Zither Player. Her demeanor gives me a slight Kirumi Tojo vibe, especially given the sprite that I took of her. The way she speaks is amazing and I want to see more. I am probably being way too premature about this, but I have wholeheartedly given her the additional title of Best Girl. She may not have a lot to bring to the table as a Zither player but playing instruments takes dedication and I can speak from experience. Not all instruments are easy to play so learning exotic instruments is that much harder. I also say that she's going to be a survivor as well, making it to the end of the killing game but if not, she'll more than likely be a victim.

Here we have J Moreno, the Ultimate Effects Artist, a talent I can also really appreciate. According to the series, J is a nickname but she gets flustered and doesn't exactly say what that nickname is, which may actually come up later during a trial or some form of Free-Time Event. She also seems to prefer quiet people, as opposed to those who seem flashy or boisterous, like the actors she deals with behind the scenes. I use to be a theatre kid (bring on the TikToks) and whenever I could, I would also attempt to learn tech stuff, namely moving set pieces and the sort, so I have a slight personal connection with this talent. She may have a bit of a standoffish attitude but deep down, I feel she has a heart of gold and would definitely help her friends in a time of need. This sort of demeanor would probably give her more of a Kiyotaka Ishimaru vibe, but not in a "Running in the halls is not welcome in a school environment" kinda feel. More towards the personality. However that assistance may go too far and I feel she is more likely to be a culprit in Chapter 2 of the series. Makes me wonder how the execution of an effects artist will go. We'll see if I'm right.

Oh Jesus. This name is gonna be the death of me, but meet Veronika Grebenshchikova, the Ultimate Horror Fanatic. As you can probably tell from the screenshot, she loves everything horror, and I really like the hair ties she has on with the eyes. It makes her stand out, and I feel makes it tie her whole outfit together. The outfit also seems to be giving me Celestia Ludenberg vibes, but at least people aren't asking if she's Japanese. When I first saw her, I thought she would be some form of Optometrist or something but I'm glad she's a horror fanatic. I, too, also happen to like horror pop culture, and I thought it was kind of funny, and slightly suspicious, that she mentioned that they would be trapped in the building and be forced to kill each other. Because of that, it makes me think she knows more than she's letting on, so a possible traitor/mastermind thing going on with her? If not, she's still probably not going to make it and I've labeled her as one of the victims in Chapter 3. But a horror fanatic's execution would definitely be something I'd be interested in, like Emma Magorobi from Super Danganronpa Another 2.

The Ultimate Inspirational Speaker, David Chiem. I'm unsure of how to pronounce his last name, either Hhheee-em or Chai-em. Either way, I feel kind of let down that a speaker that Xander looks up to really hates his talent, or moreso the people that actually listen to him, revealing he's kinda two-faced, being able to talk shit about those that come to his speeches and then nice to their face. It might have been something that developed while doing it, like he was amazing and loved it at first but then later down the road, he started hating it and wanting it to stop. I don't think the two-faced bit will be as extreme as Kokichi Oma or Nagito Komaeda (his facade at the beginning of Super Danganronpa 2 to the end of Chapter 1) but it may come into play during the trials, maybe during his own? Or if he's being framed for a murder? Despite that, I've marked him as a survivor who let's this killing game change him back to OG David where he loved giving speeches and uses the killing game for a new lease on life.

Arturo Giles, the Ultimate Plastic Surgeon. I don't like him. He's a bit of a snob, and to those that he seems ugly aren't worth his time apparently. Which seems odd, given his talent. I mean, he's a plastic surgeon, so of course there will be people looking to fix a few things they don't like about themselves (I'm talking like Nip/Tuck here, people.) He has this utter fetish for celebrities and their beauty however I was watching a thing way back when, I dunno what it was, but it says the ones that have the most plain faces and such tend to be more beautiful to humans. Or something along those lines, but I'm thinking his mask is hiding something he doesn't like about himself. It makes me kinda sad because precious girl, Seiko Kimura, wore a mask and she was so upfront about everything, so maybe there is a hidden redemption arc just waiting to come out. Watch it be something like ugly teeth or some scar he doesn't want people seeing. Enough about this guy though, as I have labeled him a victim, specifically Chapter 5. Remember how I mentioned that Xander would probably end up being a culprit? Well, I think it'll end up being something that he didn't mean to or want to do, despite not really getting along with Arturo. But if he isn't a victim, he might be a survivor.

Daddy. Haha, I'm kidding, this is Levi Fontana, the Ultimate Personal Stylist. He gives off the "intimidating but innocent cinnamon bun" vibe that Gonta Gokuhara gives off, and even mentions his past during the introduction. Something I wish to see come into play during a trial. Now, a theme I seem to run across is the big person, who is amazing usually dies in Chapter 4, and I hate to say this might also be the case. His past may not have something to do with the trial, but if it does, he would be a culprit. I hope not though because I would love to see the intimidating guy live to the end.

Okay, this guy is also an asshole, and I wanna say it's probably because he's short. Kinda like Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu. Ace Markey, the Ultimate Jockey. Despite how he's short like Fuyuhiko, he isn't as willing to go to that point, as he's kind of a wimp. This kind of demeanor makes him less likely to have friends, but I'm interested to see how he got to this point. Probably some form of bullying while he's on his horse, to be honest. Like maybe having issues getting on and the other jockeys laughing at him, but maybe his coach, or mentor giving him this disapproving face when he tries to start something. That's how I see it anyway, but he is probably the Chapter 1 culprit. His execution might be something along the lines of being tied to a fence where horses have to jump over him and he gets hit in the head with horse feet and horseshoes. Then as the fence falls over, he gets trampled on, leaving a bloody mess. I wouldn't be too sad about this character but we'll see as time goes on.

===============================

I would love to continue on but apparently there's a 10 photo per post limit. I will be posting the second part shortly.

[sinfulwonders]

I think prompt #82 would be cool! Anyway you’d want to take it. Maybe pregame where they both are at a party? Honestly I love your writing and I think you could do something cool with it! Fluff/Angst/NSFW whatever you’d like! Preferably a happy ending of some sort of possible! Thanks for the consideration!

Wow. I am so so SO sorry this took so ridiculously long to write. I hope you enjoy it anon. I had most of it written a while ago, but doing the WIP challenge I found it and decided to finish it! Again, so sorry it took forever. It’s ingame, not pregame, so I hope that’s okay!

The Party

Words: 4613

Prompt: 82.  “You’re really drunk right now. I don’t think you’re gonna remember any of this.”  “I’m not drunk at all. You’re just blurry.”

Summary: Shuichi goes to a party! Drunk shenanigans ensue!

“So, Saihara-kun, did you decide whether you are coming to my party tonight?” Shuichi jumped at the sudden presence of a young girl standing in front of his desk.

“A-akamastu-san,” Stuttered the startled detective, as Kaede leaned in inquisitively. “Umm, yes, I’ll be there.”

The ultimate pianist pumped a fist in the air in triumph. She turned around towards the other side of the classroom and shouted to a group of students talking and laughing amongst themselves.

“Saihara-kun said he’ll come tonight!”

“That’s what I like to hear from my sidekick!” responded Kaito, who proceeded to flash a smile and his signature thumbs up. Maki gave a curt nod of approval from next to him.

The rest of the students congregated near Kaito and Maki gave similar nods and words of praise followed by a few cheers of approval.

Shuichi blushed, “Me being there w-won’t make much of a difference on the party. I-it’s really not a big deal.” He felt himself hiding his face in the cap that rested loosely on his head.

Kaede could tell he was growing anxious from being the center of attention. She took his hand in her own and pulled him out of his chair.

She gave him a warm smile as he rose, and he slowly responded with a small, nervous grin.

“We’re all just thrilled that you’ve decided to hang out with us outside of school! There are no expectations of you at this party, we just want to hang out with you, Saihara-kun!”

Shuichi breathed a small sigh of relief as he felt his body relax just a bit. While attending Hope’s Peak High school for the past few months, he had managed to grow close with several of the students. He considered that an incredibly impressive feat, as he was terribly intimidated by his fellow Ultimates. After all, he never thought he deserved to be at the school, as his first case was a mistake that haunted Shuichi constantly. This inferiority complex accompanied with his social anxiety (especially in group settings), made hanging out with his classmates outside of school a fear-inducing scenario.

After a few words of encouragement from Kaito, the group began to go back to their previous conversation. Kaede nudged Shuichi and spoke quietly where only he could hear, “I’m so proud of you for going to this, and hopefully you’ll have a wonderful time! I know you’re nervous, but thank you for facing that fear for our sakes!”

Shuichi cringed at her sweet smile.

I wish my intentions were that pure.

Shuichi was not going to this party for Kaede. He was not going to this party for Kaito or Maki or any of his supportive friends. He was going strictly to investigate. There was a thorn at his side, an unexplainable enigma of a person that perplexed him. It was equally bothersome and intriguing, and when Shuichi caught wind that he would be attending Kaede’s party he had made up his mind to overcome his anxiety for a night and go to learn more.

This party isn’t a social event for me Kaede, I’m sorry. I just need to figure him out. I need to know his motives and what he’s thinking…Ko-

“Saihara-chan  ̴!”

Speak of the devil.

Kokichi Oma, the Ultimate Supreme Leader, also known as a consistent source of Shuichi’s distress, skipped into the classroom, a childlike smile adorning his pale face as he made his way to the detective. The green haired Rantaro Amami followed behind, sighing like an unenthusiastic babysitter.

“Oma-kun…I t-told you, that name’s too girly for me…” Shuichi sighed, knowing that insisting that Kokichi use proper honorifics for the umpteenth was useless.

“Well kun is way too harsh to describe a pretty boy like you!” Kokichi spoke in a sing-song tone, but his face held a mischievous smirk.

Shuichi blushed involuntarily and Kokichi’s eyes lit up.

“Is my beloved Saihara-chan falling for me?” After the words left his mouth he suddenly got closer and his eyes face darkened as he whispered, “What happens if the detective falls for the supreme leader of evil?”

“O-oma-”

“Nyeheehee!” His face was back to his regular devious smile, and he leaned back from the detective, hands resting behind his head, “As much fun as it is to torture you, I actually came because Rantaro told me that you were coming to the piano nerd’s party tonight!”

Rantaro shrugged as Shuichi looked at him. The green haired boy had an unnatural talent for being the first to know anything. He always had the most popular music, clothes, and anything else that was trendy months before it became mainstream.

Maybe Rantaro should have been known as the Ultimate Hipster instead of the Ultimate Adventurer… But wait, he wasn’t even here for that conversation! How did he-

Rantaro, seeing Shuichi’s confused expression, lazily nodded in the direction of a tall boy sitting in the back of the classroom, “Shinguji texted me.”

“Oh okay…” Shuichi responded, not knowing that the two were even friends. He turned back to Kokichi, “Yeah, I’m going to the party.”

Kokichi’s face lit up, “That’s great! I’m so happy I won’t even poison your drink like I was planning! I’ll still poison Miu’s though, since I heard that doing random acts of kindness helps build a stronger community! I mean freeing everyone from a long-term headache is pretty kind, don’t you think?”

“Shut up, Cock-kichi!” screamed the abrasive inventor, running over to the boy at the sound of her name.

The two started flinging vulgar insults at each other and Shuichi decided that that was a good enough distraction to sneak away from the situation. As the detective took step out the classroom door, he glanced back at the two fighting. He locked eyes with Kokichi. The boy grinned that conniving grin as he mouthed:

“See you tonight.”

Shuichi rushed out of the room, irritated with Kokichi’s deliberate flirting just to take him off guard. He had a purely professional interest in Kokichi Oma. As a detective it was his duty to find out if any of his claims about running a massive evil organization and committing crimes were true. He didn’t think so, but he needed to figure out how to tell if Kokichi was lying. He wasn’t obsessing over a classmate.

I have a moral obligation.

He told himself that as he had watched the supreme leader during class the entirety of last week. Shuichi sat behind him, so it was natural for him to look that direction. He had watched how he interacted with different people, physical reactions, and facial features, but hadn’t come to any clear conclusion on the boy having a ‘tell’. He wished he had more opportunities to stare into Kokichi’s large violet eyes, not because he thought they were mesmerizing, but to get a read on the boy of course. It also didn’t help that Shuichi had no baseline. Since Kokichi lied about everything, there were no clear truths or lies to base a pattern from. Kokichi was truly a mystery for Shuichi to solve. A mystery Shuichi needed to solve.

A mystery wrapped in white cotton and soft purple hair, smelling slightly of lavender.

And so it was in his unquestionably professional interest that he attended the party that night.

--------------

He arrived at the venue an hour after the party began, as he had read somewhere that that’s the cool thing to do. Rantaro opened the door, holding a red solo cup in hand and smiling wider than Shuichi had ever seen him before.

“Welcome to my humble abode!” he swayed, definitely tipsy.

Although Kaede was throwing the party, Rantaro had offered his off campus flat (special permission was given to him by the school to stay there instead of the dorms) as a venue for the party. It seems that one of the benefits was that the students could drink freely without worry of getting caught drinking on campus.

“Come on in, make yourself at home! Drinks are over in the kitchen!” Rantaro sauntered off, zigzagging through the many people contained in the modestly sized flat.

So. Many. People.

There were more people than just Shuichi’s classmates. It seemed as the entirety of Hope’s Peak was crammed into the two bedroom apartment. The music blared and a blur of unrecognizable faces practically swallowed the detective. He inhaled sharply.

You can do this.

He nervously stepped into the mass of people, following the flow of steps and desperately looking for any friendly faces. His panicked anxiety causing him to forget his true motive for being here almost immediately. He ended up in the kitchen, the sound of Kaito’s loud voice drew him like a magnet.

“Damn it, how’d you win again?” Kaito yelled, an exasperated Maki lightly holding him back from flipping over the beer pong table.

The fluffy haired blonde at the other end of the table smiled kindly at the shouting astronaut, “I’m sure you’ll beat me next game! I’m worthless, nothing compared to an actual ultimate such as yourself!” the boy’s eyes got wider and more wild and Shuichi took a step back instinctively, “My luck is bound to run out soon, so when it does please use me as a stepping stone to bring hope to every beer pong enthusiast in the universe!!!!!” He cackled.

“Komaeda, you need to chill with giving that hope speech to everyone we meet… you’re really hurting our friend retention rate,” a brunette male mused next to the still manically laughing blonde. He took the boy’s hand and said quieter, “Also… you’re not worthless.”

Little did the brunette know, that Kaito was too competitive to back down from a challenge, even one from a self-deprecating hope-enthusiast.

“Oh it’s on! Maki Roll, you ready to play one more round and beat this punk?” Maki sighed in anguish and glanced up, locking eyes with Shuichi.

“Saihara!” she said uncharacteristically enthusiastically, “You just got here right?”

“Hey guys, yeah I just got here,” Shuichi walked up to the pair.

“Perfect. Kaito, meet your new partner.”

“Eh? But-” Shuichi was instantly silenced by the intense glare Maki shot him. She quickly pushed the two closer and dashed off, avoiding various people and obstacles with reflexes faster than what should be capable of the ultimate child caregiver.

“Haha! I guess Maki Roll got sick of me!” Kaito chuckled, “I guess we have been playing for a while now... but this kid is just so annoyingly lucky… That’ll change soon if I keep playing!”

I need to remind myself to never take Kaito gambling.

It turns out that Kaito and Maki had been playing beer pong since the party began.

No wonder she got out of there. I guess I’m stuck now, but this is way better than standing around not knowing what to do with my body.

Nagito threw the first ball, and it plopped softly into a cup.

“Newbies take the first drink!” Kaito cheered, patting his sidekick on the back. Shuichi sighed and took a drink of the amber liquid. The cheap beer went down his throat with only a mildly repulsive aftertaste.

And, as an added bonus: For the first time since he arrived, Shuichi was able to loosen up a bit.

And he continued to loosen as the boys began their devastating losing streak to Nagito Komaeda and Hajime Hinata.

“Prretty ssure we almosst had em that time,” Kaito slurred as he swayed at the end of the table, obviously drunk from spending two hours losing badly at beer pong and, as a consequence, drinking a lot of beer. Shuichi, having started much later, was not wasted but was still very tipsy.

“Kaito- Kaito I think we gotta be done. You’re too…you’re too drunk.” The detective stumbled over his words, struggling to sound as sober and authoritative as possible. The wasted Kaito agreed eventually, stumbling over to the couch when he saw that Maki was over there. Shuichi smiled and rolled his eyes at his friend’s predictable nature.

He watched him sit and talk with Maki and sighed in relief at being released from mom mode. He wandered around in the flat, no longer anxiety ridden. Shuichi felt confident, and also fuzzy, like everything was a little out of focus.

But mostly confident.

Shuichi suddenly noticed a black and white checkered scarf in the distance, a flash of purple entering what seemed to be Rantaro’s bedroom. Shuichi followed the boy in as much of a straight line as he could, to discover what he was doing. He peeked in to see Kokichi in the dimly lit room sprawled on the bed, scrolling through his phone, and very much alone. Kokichi quickly looked up and caught the not-so-sneaky-especially-while-drunk Shuichi staring at him in the doorway.

“I-I umm, hi Oma-kun.” Shuichi said, disappointed that he’d been discovered so easily.

“Saihara-chan, hi. Come to escape the noise, too?” His demeanor seemed different than at school as he sat up on the bed. Calm and quiet. But as his Shuichi entered the bedroom, his mask quickly reappeared, “Or did you come to be alone with me?” He crooned.

Shuichi rolled his eyes at the boy’s usual aggressive flirting to make him uncomfortable trick and plopped down on the mattress next to the supreme leader. Kokichi raised an eyebrow in interest.

“You’re a weird guy, Oma.” Shuichi stated, no malice in his voice, “I can’t figure you out.”

Kokichi laughed, “You just figured out that I’m unsolvable? Man, maybe you’re not the ultimate detective after all!”

“I wouldn’t say unsolvable. It’s certainly a pain though,” Shuichi sighed and fell backwards, letting his head hit the sheets.

“Then why do you keep trying?” Kokichi asked, head tilted like a puppy.

Shuichi stared at Kokichi for a second and laughed out loud. Kokichi looked taken off guard for once.

“You know, that’s a really great question,” Shuichi smiled up at the boy looking over him, “I keep avoiding that question myself, so I don’t think I could give you a good answer.”

Kokichi laid back on his back beside the detective, meeting his gaze.

“Ya know, most people are boring. They’re predictable and easy to figure out. I’m glad I don’t bore you, Saihara-chan.”

This time, hearing Kokichi call him Saihara-chan didn’t seem to bother Shuichi. Kokichi said it like it was an endearing nickname.

Kokichi continued, speaking quieter, “And you know… you’re not boring either. To me I mean.”

As weird as it was, it seemed that Kokichi had given the detective an honest compliment. It didn’t seem backhanded or sarcastic, unless Kokichi was a much better liar than Shuichi had previously suspected.

The detective couldn’t help but blush a little.

The two boys laid there in a comfortable silence for a few minutes, but soon enough Kokichi jumped to his feet, his mischievous smile once again plastered on his face.

“We better hurry back, or we’ll look pretty suspicious! Alone in a bedroom like this! What will your dear Kaito say?”

Shuichi rolled his eyes and stood to his feet, instantly remembering that he had a lot to drink as the room shook slightly, “Yeah let’s go.”

The two boys exited the room to find the flat much emptier than a few minutes prior.

“How long were we in there?” Shuichi wondered out loud.

Shuichi and Kokichi made their way to the kitchen, and after being forced into taking shots with a drunk Kaede and Rantaro, the two told them that after learning that Rantaro’s apartment complex had a volleyball court, a large chunk of drunk students had gone to play a game.

“Well, I say game, but Akane Owari, from the other class, is ready for war,” Rantaro sighed, “She challenged Nidai to a volleyball showdown and things may have gotten a little out of hand when someone suggested it be boys vs girls. Needless to say, Chabashira is out for blood…”

Shuichi winced when he heard that. Tenko was ready for any chance to bring the population of degenerate males down a peg or two.

“Well what’s the plan now Amami-kun?” Kaede asked, a little disappointed that so many people had left her party at once.

“Well there’s still a bunch of people around,” Rantaro noted as he looked at the no longer packed apartment, “So we could always play a group game.”

“Like truth or dare or something?” Kaede asked, eyes lighting up.

“Ugh, truth or dare sucks,” Kokichi groaned, “half the game is so boringgggg. Why don’t we play dare or drink?”

“Dare or drink?” Shuichi lifted an eyebrow.

“Yeah! My organization created it to get rid of the worst part of truth or dare: the truth! Of course we used play a slightly different version… ‘Dare or Die’…but we had to switch it up because we were losing too many people!”

The three others sighed at Kokichi’s outrageous lies. At least Shuichi was pretty sure it was a lie. But the group agreed and Kaede gathered a group of people together. Shuichi happily accepted Rantaro’s offer of another shot. He let out a hiccup and a small giggle as he poured a drink for the game, which caused Kokichi to scan his narrowed eyes over the boy.

“Are you good, Saihara-chan?”

Shuichi saw what he surmised to be genuine concern on the boy’s face.

This is my chance to get back at him!

“Aww, are you worried about me…Oma-chan?” Shuichi mimicked Kokichi’s usual sing-song tone, and even copied his use of chan. He stuck his tongue out at the boy when he didn’t receive a reply, and he sauntered off towards the gathering group of teens. He smiled to himself that he had been the one to catch Kokichi off guard for once. He didn’t know that the supreme leader had stayed back to hide his red face from him and the others.

 -----------

Soon, the students that hadn’t gone to play or watch the volleyball war taking place outside were gathered in a circle to play ‘Dare or Drink’.

“I am so thrilled to experience a classic game from your culture! I am ready to absorb as much information as I can about this ‘Dare or Drink’ for the people of Novoselic!” shouted a very excited Sonia Nevermind.

“Umm…Miss Sonia…it’s not actually a classic game, Oma-kun made it u-” Kazuichi Soda attempted to correct the princess but was interrupted by a still very drunk Kaito.

“Soda! I dare you to write out an embarrassingly sexy text and send it to a random contact in your phone.”

And so the group began their game of dare or drink.

 --------------

Shuichi could barely remember why he had ever been nervous to hang out with his classmates outside of school.

With alcohol involved this is easy!

“Saihara,” Rantaro purred, “I dare you to kiss a guy in this room.”

Never mind. This is awful.

“H-huh? W-who?” Shuichi stuttered as he glanced around the room.

Rantaro hummed at the question, then a sly smile overtook his face, “Pick the guy you think is the cutest…”

Shuichi focused his mind a bit, and thought.

Do I find any of my classmates cute? I mean Momota is an attractive guy, but I just think that in a best friend kinda way, plus he’s really not my type. Amami is attractive, but I don’t think he’s anything compared to Oma, I mean his cute face and those eyes… Wait a second…

Do I like Oma?

He looked over at the boy, who was now giving him a sultry stare and licking his lips.

“I choose drink!” Shuichi blurted out, his face now beet red.

“Aww even drunk Saihara-chan is a prude! How predictable!” Kokichi laughed as Shuichi chugged the rest of his mixed drink.

He couldn’t help but be more than a little hurt by the words of his newly realized crush. Even if said crush didn’t realize his new status.

I mean I came to this party for him, after all. Even if he doesn’t know it. That’s pretty rude.

Because it was true. Although Shuichi’s intentions had been ‘purely professional’, he had indeed come to this party to get to know the supreme leader. And now here he was being accosted by the one and only. That pissed drunk Shuichi off.

“Oh yeah? Well let’s see how you do with the same dare,” Shuichi tried to glare as menacingly as possible at the boy sitting across from him, which only was effective at making Kokichi laugh harder, “I dare you to kiss the cutest boy in the room.”

“Is repeating dares even allowed?” muttered a monotone Maki, but Rantaro shushed her quickly.

“My house, my rules. And I say yes,” He smirked.

“Aww but I can’t kiss myself Saihara-chan! So I guess I can’t do your dare! So sad!” Kokichi gave the detective a dramatic sigh and a pout.

Shuichi didn’t back down, “You can’t count yourself, Oma-kun.”

“Psh. As long as you agree that I’m the cutest one,” Kokichi sang as he stood up and sauntered around the room, lingering on each and every guy sitting around the circle. While inspecting them he announced, “And don’t worry, I’m not gonna wimp out like Saihara-chan! I take this dare very seriously!”

Shuichi rolled his eyes as he popped open a beer that was sitting nearby.

“Eenie meenie miney-” Kokichi lilted nonchalantly as he made his way around the circle. He stopped in front of Shuichi and grinned, “Mo.”

“Eh?”

“We gotta get rid of this emo hat!” Kokichi plopped in front of the detective and quickly removed the hat placed on his head, much to the other’s dismay, “Yep I was right! Saihara-chan really is the prettiest boy here!”

“Wh-what?!” Shuichi stammered. He saw Rantaro chuckling in the background while Maki and Kaito watched the two with abject horror.

“Wwwwhat, you didn’t know you were cute? Were you born in that hat or something? Have you never seen your eyes?” As he bombarded the detective with questions he leaned in closer to the detective’s ears and whispered, “If you really don’t want me to kiss you, just say so. I won’t.”

Shuichi thought about it for a moment and then quickly shook his head, “N-no. It’s fine. Go ahead.”

Kokichi smirked at the answer, “That’s what I wanted to hear.”

He dove onto Shuichi, effectively knocking him onto his back and slammed his lips onto the detective’s. It was a powerful kiss, and at the impact of the ground behind him and Kokichi’s lips on his own, Shuichi let out a gasp. This proved to be the perfect moment for Kokichi to quickly push his tongue into the other’s mouth. Their tongues danced around one another in a strange tangled tango; it was saliva heavy and warm, but decidedly not unpleasant in the slightest.

Shuichi wasn’t sure when he had wrapped his arms around Kokichi, but he had, pulling the smaller closer to him, needing to feel his body heat near his. The smaller had his arms around his neck, his fingers instinctually kneading and caressing the nape. This, along with the feeling of tongues twisting and swirling against one another in his mouth, caused Shuichi to let out an embarrassing moan.

With that Kokichi immediately pulled off of him, untangling his arms and quickly throwing them behind his head. He smirked, “And that, ladies and gentleman: is how it’s done.”

Rantaro, Soda, Sonia, and several others whooped and clapped for the boy. Oma proceeded to bow dramatically as a red-faced and still panting Shuichi finally managed to sit up.

Well that really didn’t go how I intended it to go… but…damn.

Shuichi stared at the supreme leader, now laughing and daring Kaede to do something embarrassing. He wasn’t listening, his eyes just focusing on Kokichi’s lips.

Those lips just…kissed me…

Shuichi quickly inhaled the rest of his beer as a distraction.

 --------------

Rantaro let out a yawn and quietly said, “I think the game is over.”

It really was. The game of Dare and Drink had quickly devolved into a sort of spin the bottle type game, where all the dares now had to do with kissing someone. Shuichi was thankful that he had not been forced to kiss anyone else besides the one time with Kokichi. He didn’t want the flavor of grape chapstick to fade.

As the group dispersed, Shuichi stood and instantly regretted it. The room spun around him and he had trouble balancing. A hangover was inevitable in his near future.

“Ah, Rantaro. Can I crash here?” Shuichi asked wearily, and the green-haired boy smiled cooly in return and said of course.

At least now I don’t have to worry about getting home.

Shuichi thought that while finishing off his umpteenth beer. That’s when he noticed Kokichi alone on the couch. He wandered over, in as straight of a line as he could, and plopped down next to the boy. Kokichi glanced up and grinned, “Just couldn’t get enough of me Saihara-chan?”

“Hmm. Maybe I just felt bad for you,” Shuichi hummed, “You’re sitting all by yourself.”

Kokichi stuck out his tongue and Shuichi couldn’t help but eye it a bit hungrily, “Or maybe you were just desperate for another kiss! Well that’s just too bad, Saihara-chan. You shouldn’t have wimped out on your dare! You could have gotten a second kiss with moi!”

Shuichi frowned, “You seem awfully convinced that I would have chosen you for my dare.”

Kokichi feigned shock, placing his hand over his heart like an overdramatic actor, “Are you saying you wouldn’t pick me?! I’m hurt! Wounded even!” His expression instantly changed to boredom, “But that’s a lie, of course.”

“Which part?”

“Who knows?” Kokichi giggled, “Does it even matter?”

Shuichi decided that this was his chance to catch Oma off guard. He smirked and leaned in, whispering in Kokichi’s ear much like he had done right before he kissed him, “It does matter. And for the record, I would have chosen you, Oma-chan.”

The usually unflappable Kokichi Oma paled and then quickly turned several shades of red. Shuichi took this as his chance and placed a quick peck on Kokichi’s lips, “There. That’s for my dare.”

Kokichi, still red faced but desperately trying to reassemble his mask, chuckled, “You’re really drunk right now. I don’t think you’re gonna remember any of this.”

Shuichi chuckled back, and dragged his finger lightly along Kokichi’s jawline, “I’m not drunk at all. You’re just blurry.”

“You really let loose tonight, Saihara-chan,” Kokichi mused as the two got closer and closer, as if being pulled together by some magnetic force.

As they neared Shuichi pulled Kokichi into another passionate kiss, not really caring if anyone else saw. Kokichi quickly broke it and looked at Shuichi, eyes wide.

“How are you planning on getting home tonight?” There was no ill-intent in the words, but rather just genuine concern, an emotion very rarely seen from Kokichi.

“Amami-kun is letting me stay the night.”

Kokichi laughed out loud at that, then muttered, “That meddling bastard.” Shuichi cocked an eyebrow and Kokichi sighed and continued, “Rantaro. There’s only two beds. One for him and one for me. Or at least that’s what he told me yesterday. How convenient that he’s suddenly ‘selflessly’ offered for you to stay!”

Shuichi shook his head, “I don’t know about that, I mean I asked… Also I can always sleep on the couch-”

Kokichi scoffed at the very idea, “No way. No way is Saihara-chan lowering himself to sleep on some dirty old couch. Eww. Nope, it’s decided!” Kokichi looped his arm through Shuichi’s own and dragged the wobbly boy to the guest bedroom, “You’re staying with me tonight!”

“I suppose I can live with that.”

[pyropsychiccollector]

Yep. I threw up another tier, this time for Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair. Once again, I'll go through each character and explain my rationale. This one was a little tougher for some characters; like, overall, Dangan 2 did a better job of fleshing out characters. As a result, it was harder for me to rank some characters higher than others, but I somehow managed to do so after some thought.

.... But for some characters, it was seriously a no-brainer where they went. XD

F rank - Komaeda..... Now, I know what some of you are thinking, last time I put Hagakure in this dead-last rank because he was useless, so that's probably true for Komaeda, right? ..... No. Fuck no. XD This little shit is F rank for much bigger problems than uselessness. Let's start with the obvious: He's the "Togami" of the group. He fucks up the trials, but not just for amusement like Togami did - this guy did it for the sake of pitting "Hope against Hope", and you just knew he was always up to something.... If it wasn't for him, Hanamura wouldn't have been pressured into murdering, at least not so soon. They tied him up in the second chapter, which was good, but then he still managed to throw a wrench into things by encouraging Koizumi to go and play the video game that was the motive for the chapter... This didn't directly lead into the incident necessarily, but Koizumi had already received that ominous letter from Peko and Kuzuryu, telling her to play the game and how to get the true ending; Komaeda spurring her further on DIDN'T help. He redeemed himself a little by figuring out Mikan was lying in trial 3, but then he took 5000 steps backward in chapter 4 by first throwing suspicion onto Hajime in regards to the identity of the traitor, and THEN he cleared the Final Dead Room and treated everyone - EVERYONE - like shit..... But especially Hajime, who had only thought he'd lost his memory of his talent. Hajime, who had been helping solve all the trials and prove that he could stand alongside Ultimates.... It's fine and all that Komaeda was the first one to discover they were all Ultimate Despair, and therefore hated they'd turned out like that, but he had absolutely no high ground to stand on when talking shit to everyone; he himself was Ultimate Despair as well. And the cherry on top.... was how he got Chiaki to murder him in chapter 5. Through sheer luck, and the intention of killing off Ultimate Despair when they had no clue as to the extent of their loss of memories. Some sympathize with the fact he may have some life-threatening illness, and he really had the best of intentions, and was just "misunderstood".... But no, not me. Fuck that.

F is for "Fuck You, Komaeda". lol

Anyway, moving onto E rank....  Akane is kind of like the "Hagakure" of the group, only her physical talent as a gymnast puts her leagues ahead of Hagakure in usefulness. Akane's simply E rank because she's one of the reasons the trials drag on so much, makes few worthwhile contributions, and just isn't all that deep of a character.... I'll never get over how "random" her free time events seemed.... Like, she's a fun girl, I suppose; perverted in her own naïve way. There's just not much substance for me to dig into, for her character.

Saionji's kinda similar in that regard.... Though I'll admit she does have a backstory. She's mostly in E rank because she's, as Nicob would put it, "such a bitch to everybody". Her bond with Mahiru is probably her one saving grace, and the only reason she's not F rank like Komaeda, in my books. Well, that, and she kind of warms up to Hajime in her free time events.... kinda.

... If you squint.

.... But she's still a bitch to everybody that isn't Mahiru. XD

D rank.... Teruteru was honestly placed here because I like him better than Komaeda, Akane, and Saionji, but I don't like him as much as Ibuki. I mean, he's perverted as hell, and he kinda spreads himself thin when it comes to "covering his bases" with his libido, but he's still useful as a cook. Plus, his backstory with his mother who's ill is pretty sad, not to mention how it's implied he killed her when he became Ultimate Despair. Teruteru's just one of those unfortunate characters who's somewhat fleshed out, but I'm not crazy about him; he's just somewhere in the middle. ..... which may be how he likes it....

C rank.... I like Ibuki - she's fun, kooky, crazy.... Her skill in music and her sharp ears are neat, plus she just wants to get along with everyone. .... Except call Teruteru out on his antics, and maybe back away from Komaeda and his craziness. lol Still, despite all the good qualities, Ibuki's just not fleshed out enough as a character for my tastes.... She's fun, and it's sad she got murdered. But there wasn't much of a backstory to tell, and she didn't go through a huge development arc.

.... She did not want to leave her honeymoon with Hajime in island mode, though. And that was just cute. XD

B rank.... Nidai's pretty similar to Ibuki in being a fun character, but I kinda like his attitude of trying to be the class's manager - 'cause it shows he cares for everyone. He doesn't go through a huge development arc either, but it was pretty interesting seeing him adjust to being a robot and then his presumed confrontation with Tanaka in chapter 4.... I would've liked to have known more about that possible confrontation; one of my theories is that a bit of his "Ultimate Despair" self was leaking out in that clash, but probably not enough to turn out like how Mikan was, when she got the Remembering Disease. The desperation/hunger just got to him. That's my theory, anyway.

You might find it surprising Souda is this high up, considering how, like Akane, he holds up the class trials with ridiculous theories and suspicions on certain culprits. But, Souda is the Ultimate Mechanic, and it's just fun seeing his love for his craft. His obsession with Sonia is a bit grating like how Fukawa's obsession with Togami was, but, in some cases I couldn't help feeling bad with how cold/dismissive Sonia was towards him. Like, she didn't have to return his affections by any means.... And he is kind of a suck-up to her. But still, he is nothing but nice to her, and continues to believe in her (if not somewhat blindly) throughout the trials. It'd just be nice to see her reciprocate his friendship, at least. I kinda liked how it gave them a small cameo scene or two of that in Dangan 3 Hope Arc.... Again, that's me.

A rank... Hajime's a pretty good protagonist, and I think he had some nice development arcs throughout the series. He's a bit of a pessimist, in contrast to Naegi's optimism, but he's still one of the nicest guys you could meet. Probably the major thing that drags him down to A rank is simply how overly "average" he is.... like, it's to be expected - he was a Reserve Course student, and therefore had no Ultimate Talent or quirk to fall back on. But still, I'll admit the repetitive ordinariness was a bit grating.... The only real "backstory" he has is his downfall into the Kamakura Project, and even then, he kinda became a different person because of everything but talent being excised from him.

I'll admit - I like Kamakura more than Hajime himself, but I'm not really sure where I'd put Kamakura, either in S or SS rank..... A lot don't seem to care for how OP he is, but I kinda liked how Dangan 3 anime showed off his reflexes. Not to mention it showed he was a neutral party in the war of Despair vs Hope. Again, that's me.

Peko's a neat character with a badass talent. Her backstory is a little tragic and it doesn't grate too much.... She could be cute with furry animals, too (or at least hinted as such). I liked her bond with Kuzuryu, even if she mostly saw herself as just a tool. On the flip side, that mindset of being a tool is why she was dropped to A rank.... I know the Kuzuryu clan drilled that into her head, but she did try and screw everyone over in the second trial because of it. It also made her character suffer a little because she didn't have anything really outside of her loyalty to Kuzuryu and the clan (which makes sense; just makes her character suffer a little bit in having little to no quirks, hobbies, or whatever).

S rank.... I liked the Imposter. I really did. He can impersonate anyone, and make you think the person just put on a few pounds. I liked how fast they made him in the anime, and I just liked his friendship/loyalty to Mitarai and everybody. I felt like the Imposter was a pretty great character, and they introduced him in a way that made you wonder what was going on with "Togami". I liked how you knew next to nothing about the man under the masks (only saw his face/hair in the anime) - though similar to Peko, it was a bit of a double-edged sword in having no huge backstory to fall back on. But unlike Peko, he kinda made the lack of backstory work, because it was part of his charm and talent. And that's why he's above Peko, in my books; he takes a weakness and works with it. I think that's great writing.

Tanaka is so over-the-top.... XD He's a fun character, like Ibuki and Nidai, but unlike those two he has this depth to him that makes me wanna observe him more. He's a smart and shrewd man, and though he tried to screw everyone over in chapter 4, you can argue that part of his reasons for doing it was because he was trying to save them from starvation by sacrificing himself - and doing it in a way that didn't betray his own values, never giving up on life. Again, I think that's just great character writing; Tanaka's just awesome. His hamsters are cute, too. XD

And then you have Sonia.... I guess you could argue Sonia's like a Barbie doll princess, but it's kinda nice to see her gung-ho about a lot of things - even using slang in a cute way. She's curious about a lot of things, too, and she cries and gets mad over things when they happen. I dunno, Sonia's kinda hard to put into words in terms of why I like her so much as a character, though I suppose her kinda-innocent-perverted nature also plays a role in why I like her character... XD "What do you call that activity when two people snuggle naked under bedcovers in a lodge that's snowed in?" Similar to Celes, you don't see too many girls asking questions like that..... And Sonia literally has no real perverted intentions, she just "knows" things. XD

.... And she might also not be a virgin. *wink wink nudge nudge* (I read a fan's explanation on that line, so don't correct me, I know) XD

SS rank.... Kuzuryu reached this rank the moment Derek Stephen Prince voiced him, really. I mean, there's lots of other reasons I like Kuzuryu, but his voice actor is definitely one of the reasons I like him so much. I mean, he's a yakuza, so you know he's gonna be a tough guy of the group, but Kuzuryu really does have this part of a character that wants to rebel against his yakuza upbringing. Like, for example, his insistence on following the law with driver's licenses, or how he drops the "I'm gonna kill everyone so I can escape" routine as of chapter 3. Kuzuryu just really comes of age, he really honors Peko's sacrifice, and he's just so friggin' loyal to everybody, I love it.... Fantastic character~

Mahiru is a bit of a dark horse because from the moment you meet her in-game, and throughout much of your interactions with her, you think that you won't really feel sympathetic towards her. But under that bossy, somewhat sexist exterior, you find what's basically the "mom" of Class 77. Mahiru wants to watch out for everybody, wants to help them be the best they can be. And her free time events with Hajime are adorabu. Really. XD She kinda clicks with Hajime because of how ordinary they both are, but she'd also just help keep him in line. And in return, he'd encourage her when she gets disheartened; just seems like a healthy relationship right there, to me.

And Mikan.... ughhhhh..... A cinnabun of the group, she really is. She does turn out to be crazy as an Ultimate Despair, but that's not really her fault, that's the brainwashing's fault. Mikan's just a sweet, loveable girl. A sweet, loveable girl that's been bullied much of her life, and thus knows how to take care of others.... Her lack of self-care when it comes to pleasing others is a bit off-putting, but Hajime helps her get over those unhealthy tendencies. I know Dangan main protagonists kind of have this tendency for potential harems, but Hajime, Mikan, Mahiru, and Chiaki..... C'mooon~ You wanna see it happen. (well, maybe not, depending on what characters you like). XD

Finally, SSS rank..... Chiaki's just best person ever, 'nough said. lol I know a lot of people may think of her as a Mary Sue, and not like her for being so nice and loved by everyone, but Chiaki's what we should all strive to be, alright? Not the "loved by everybody" part, but the "being nice to everyone" part. lol Some people you just can't be nice to, and that's fine; we all have our limits. Well. Except Chiaki. Chiaki will be your friend even if you treat everyone like shit. She'll try and stop you from doing so, and help you be a better person, but that's just all the more reason to like her - she doesn't hold ill will for anyone..... Well, almost anyone. I suppose that's why I liked Dangan 3 anime, too - because the human Chiaki does hold resentment towards Junko, who trapped her in a dungeon and threatened to brainwash her friends.... It just shows that she DOES have a limit to kindness, despite seeming to have no end of it as a computer program. I mean, you wouldn't be kind toward someone that threatens your own friends, right?

..... Chiaki's just best waifu in Dangan 2. It's why she's the only one at the top. XD

[strangefellows]

rereading lps of dr1 and dr2 because i’d forgotten a lot abt the little details of the game and wanted to refresh -- 

dr1 was really....boring. like even now i think i couldn’t say who my favorite was because everyone was so....meh. i liked naegi’s character arc, for what it was, and syo was fucking hilarious and i love her, but otherwise....eh??? eh. 

though it was fun because every time togami opened his mouth i a) wanted to punch him in it and b) thought of kokichi and how different they are for all that they’re saying this is a game and they want to win/beat the mastermind -- the only real sacrifice kokichi made was his own life (gonta was because he had no other choice, tbh, and gonta was the only one who would actually listen to him and watch the flashback light), and he never once tampered with evidence or fucked with a crime scene to make things more fun, only lied, and once the lie was outed he immediately was like “lol yeah i lied here’s the truth” -- byakuya on the other hand is a ginormous piece of shit who fucked with a crime scene to frame fukawa/syo just to out her and then didn’t give a shit about if it would have thrown off the results, and kept being a lone wolf bastard til the very end, and made it very clear he didn’t care about the others and would sacrifice anyone and everyone else to win.

i also didn’t like how in dr1 naegi was basically carrying all the trials, because kirigiri and togami spoonfed info and otherwise let naegi do all the work and everyone else was dumb as rocks. it’s jarring coming from v3 when everyone actively participated in the conversations, and even kokichi wasn’t that obstructive when it mattered.

dr2 is a lot better about trial difficulty and character writing, but hm. mm. it’s weird but in general v3 feels leaps and bounds better than both.

aside from that, i was right and kuzuryuu is still one of my babies and i love him holy shit, and i forgot how much i liked gundam, but uh. um. oh my god, why do i actually like komaeda so much???? wtf??? his free time events paint a whole different picture of him and the reveal that he actually has a) a shitload of trauma that makes his obsession with hope a believable and kind of tragic coping mechanism and b) a terminal brain disease that actually fucks with your behavior and personality, so uh....yeah, he’s a hot mess and very unsettling, but he has reasons to be and i really pity him. i didn’t know any of that, or didn’t remember, and it’s super tragic to me. i really like him, and it strikes me as sad/funny that he’s actively trying to help but because he’s so weird everyone’s constantly telling him to fuck off.

i like him a lot and pity him, and am glad for 2.5 and 3 to show us he’s going to be relatively okay (and tbh his aborted confession in his last FTE destroys me, wtf, ow). and though tbh 99% of why i feel weird about liking him so much is because of the fandom, i...screw it? i like him he’s a great character.

[trashy-fujoshi-blog]

ライアーダンス CHAPTER 3

V3 Spoilers as always. 

POST-NDRV3 Virtual Reality AU Fanfic.

CHAPTER ONE HERE

CHAPTER TWO HERE

Kaede Akamatsu could tell there was something between the two boys. She wasn’t sure what exactly yet, but there was something… And whatever that something was, Saihara seemed to gain more confidence everyday, and Kaede was grateful for whatever Ouma was doing for her friend.

She knew Amami was pretty grateful too, because the two spoke often, being on the same floor and what not. Kaede was pretty certain Amami had noticed something too, because sometimes she’d catch him talking to Saihara, and she was 100% sure Amami was teasing him, but in a way that would help him clear his thoughts and confusion.

Obviously she shouldn’t condemn such antics, but thankfully, whatever Amami said to the detective that meal time, it’d helped knock Saihara out of whatever thoughts he’d been stuck in for days. Kaede knew, knew that the detective was probably over thinking something, and Amami had probably helped out, because that’s the kind of person he was, he was like a big brother to the two boys… That’s how Kaede saw it anyway.

Amami… was still quite a mystery to her though. She knew a little more about him now, after their time spent together, but she still couldn’t understand him entirely. But he was nice, he was nice even to her, even when she’d tried to kill him, despite everything… and he was too pure for any of them.

Kaede Akamatsu felt 100% certain she didn’t deserve the kindness of Amami Rantaro.

///

Maki Harukawa was lost.

Not physically, of course, but mentally.

There’d been so much confusion when she had awoken, and she wasn’t sure what to believe anymore.

The feelings she had, feelings she thought she’d never feel, feelings she was told were fake… what were they really? Were they really fake, simply spurred on but the events in the simulation, or, despite everything, did Maki genuinely like the idiot Kaito Momota?

She had no idea.

It took a bit of coxing from her carer, the young photographer Mahiru, before Maki finally took the initiative to leave her room.

It only happened once though, and Maki found herself in the presence of Kaede Akamatsu that gentle April afternoon, early on when they’d awoken.

It was… okay, it was fairly nice, because Kaede could relate to her, to an extent, and her presence alone seemed quite calming, like it came naturally to the pianist, to soothe those she was around.

It was only a brief exchange, and after that Maki retreated to the confines of her room, with Mahiru and Mikan being her only visitors, the photographer bringing her food when needed, and trying to act as some form of support, but with little success.

It took quite a bit of time with her thoughts before Maki could firmly say she had a clear grasp on what thoughts and feelings were real and what wasn’t. She couldn’t be indecisive with her thoughts, based on her talent, there was no room for unsurities. She could conclude, yes, she did like that space idiot, and no, she didn’t entirely blame the shorter brat that had used him in the simulation, in his crazy scheme to end everything.

Maki Harukawa could firmly say, she was ready to face everyone, face Kaito, face Saihara, face Yumeno, face Ouma… and Tsumugi.

Her appearance in the dining hall that morning sparked shock, from the six occupants, two of which were maybe just possibly fighting over a slice of toast like petty children.

“Harukawa!” Saihara spoke in surprise, and Maki gave a curt nod in greeting to the detective.

“Eh… Little Miss Assassin makes her appearance, at last~!” Ouma taunted, returning to moving his hand in all sorts of crazy uncoordinated directions, clutching a slice of toast Kiibo tried desperately to grasp, but unable to due to Ouma’s constant uncoordinated movement.

“Ouma! Gimme it back!”

“Nahhh~ c’mon Kiibo surely you’re not completely useless even as a human?”

“That’s rude! I’ll have you know-”

“Ehhh excuses!” Ouma butted in.

“Hello Harukawa.” Amami waved a hand, having not know the girl entirely well during the sim, and not having clear memories of any of their exchanges from before said time.

The final two occupants in the room, besides Saihara, Amami, Ouma and Kiibo, were Iruma and Korekiyo. Korekiyo seemed content to sit at the side and observe everyone silently, and Iruma seemed too busy fiddling with some odd device to notice anything around her, including Kiibo and Ouma’s squabble or Maki’s entrance.

“Hello Amami.” Maki replied, taking a seat at the table, feeling slightly uncomfortable being opposite the supreme leader, who’d finally given up, tossing the toast back to Kiibo, instead taking to leaning on Saihara, sipping silently at a carton of juice, eyes baring deep into her soul. Finally he stopped, tore his gaze away, and up to Saihara.

“”Shuuichi-chan I’m boreddddd.” Ouma pouted, and Saihara just sighed. Maki raised an eyebrow, since when did Ouma refer to anyone by their first names?

“Is that your way of telling me you’d like to leave, Ouma?”

Oh so it was just Ouma, Saihara wasn’t in on it? Maki just shook it off, it was probably Ouma just being weird.

“Yup~ Ah Shuuichi-chan knows me so well~” Ouma beamed and Saihara just shook his head. He couldn’t figure the boy out, but it’d been four days now, since the boy's memory returned, and he realised his gay ass feelings for the boy. Ouma had also insisted on calling him Shuuichi now, which made Saihara’s heart flutter when he heard it, but he’d not let him know that obviously… Not to say Ouma hadn’t worked it out, but Saihara wasn’t sure.

“If you say so, Ouma.” Saihara mumbled, standing up, to help the shorter boy up. It turned out that Ouma’s trip down to the dining hall a few days ago, wasn’t actually a wise choice on Komaeda’s part, as his legs still weren’t 100%. It didn’t do any damage per say, but Ouma had felt a bit of pain the day after, and could barely stand because of it. So he still needed support to walk, and he was only allowed down to the dining hall twice a day, nothing else, the rest of the time, Hajime had told him he had to remain in his room to rest his legs. If by the weekend check up, he’d showed signs of improvements, then he’d have free reign.

Ouma used this time for breakfast, and mostly closer to night-time, because he liked that it was quieter at that time.

Ouma just gave a simple nishishi, grabbing the crutch he still had to use, other arm slung around Saihara’s neck (which was slightly awkward considering Saihara was taller than him.)

“Bye bye Little Miss Assassin~ try not to miss me too much?” Ouma gleefully spoke, missing Maki’s brief concerned look, as he departed with a small limp, Saihara holding him on his feet as he did.

Amami noticed this look though.

“He can’t walk properly, that’s why Saihara helps him out, apparently he underwent too much physical stress.”

Maki frowned. That was probably her fault wasn’t it?

“He didn’t even get his memory back till about four days ago.”

“Memory..back?”

“Oh you don’t know?” Amami asked in surprise, and Kiibo used this time to butt in.

“Ah Amami it might be best if you don-”

But Amami continued, unaware of the whole Kaito and Maki thing, including her talent to which he’d never actually been told.

“Some people don’t actually have any memories other than like… fake ones made in the Sim? Like.. Pre-Killing Game? I think that’s what Saihara called it. Anyway, Ouma didn’t know anything true except his own name till Saihara worked his magic.”

“Who.. Who else?”

“I believe Shirogane, on the 6th floor, and Tojo and Momota? They’re on the 12th floor. Ouma was the only one who didn’t react violently due to the memories. Apparently he was quite the opposite, he was really reserved and when me and Saihara tried to see him, he was really upset at being in the same place as us.”

“The other three are under constant supervision, and react violently when they can. Apparently Momota actually managed to injure one of the staff members recently, by faking an improvement in his condition, to be trusted enough with cutlery. Stabbed one of the female staff members in the leg with a fork.” Kiyo mumbled from the side, and Maki’s eyes widened. Kaito.. Had done that?

“Oh where’d you hear that?” Amami asked curiously.

“The girl who checks up on me. She’s quite detestable, and she lets infomation slip too easily.” Kiyo replied, and Kiibo let out a splutter.

“Th-That’s rude!”

“It’s true though.”

“Momota… doesn’t remember?”

“No, I’m sorry Harukawa. Myself and Iruma are helping out the best we can too!” Kiibo admitted, with a faint blush, because goddamnit that girl was distracting more than helpful, and she was also still completely engrossed in the device in her hands to listen to her being spoken about.

“Do.. do you think I could see him? I might be able to help like Saihara did? I.. can handle myself.”

Amami just gave a quizzical look which Kiyo cleared up.

“Ah. You don’t know because it was revealed after you died. Harukawa is the Ultimate Assassin.”

Amami just blinked once, twice.

“Oh.”

And then he gave a nervous chuckle, because what Ouma called her as he left made sense now.

“Well I’m sure you could handle yourself then.”

“You reacted quite well.” Maki commented and Amami just shrugged.

“What can I say, I hang around enough abnormal people to just not get surprised anymore.”

Iruma finally paused enough to notice Maki.

“Eh. I haven’t seen you around. Where have you been hiding Harukawa?”

“...”

“Suit yourself. If you’re wanting to see that idiot though, I know just the person to ask.” Iruma added, and Maki narrowed her eyes with interest.

“Ir-Iruma are you suggesting-?” Kiibo spluttered and Iruma smirked, giving a nod.

“Exactly.”

///

And that was how Maki Harukawa met Komaeda Nagito, a.k.a The Original Little Shit

Apparently Komaeda wasn’t actually staff of either Hope’s Peak or the Remnants of Future Foundation, he was just here because of Hinata Hajime, and just seemed to be breaking rules left right and center because he apparently didn’t give a shit for order? That’s the impression most of them had of him by now. Komaeda did hang around Hope’s Peak quite a bit, but he just got away with a lot of things and Maki had no idea what to think of the guy.

“Harukawa is it?” Komaeda asked, and Maki nodded.

“You’re wanting to see Momota… Even after I told poor Saihara no, twice.”

Maki blinked. Saihara had tried to see him too? It made her feel a bit better knowing the detective hadn’t lost that courage the astronaut had helped bloom.

“Yes.”

“Okay~”

Maki just blinked.

“That easy?”

“Yup. You see, I just have an inkling that these guys that don’t remember, just need someone to kickstart their memories. Worked for Kokichi, so…”

And apparently Komaeda was on first name basis with Little Shit 2.0

Made sense.

“So you’re thinking I’m that someone for Momota?”

Komaeda just nodded.

“I watched most of the game, since it broadcast back to the monitors. I even have an inkling for the other two.” Komaeda gave a sly smile and Maki had to stop herself from shuddering at the sight of it. This guy was.. Not normal, he made her feel on edge, and he seemed quite capable of pulling off some dangerous and insane shit.

How was there someone worse that Ouma in this world?

“Yet you’ve not said anything?”

“Of course not. Everyone’s hopeful enough without my ideas. It’s nicer to see you guys form your own hope, than have it forced upon you by me.”

Maki just frowned.

“But luckily, I happen to have been classmates with the two with Momota, and I’m sure I could convince them, so just give me a bit of time.. Say..2 hours?”

Maki just blinked. Did this guy have that much faith in himself? Or was his faith placed in something else?

///

As it turned out, Komaeda convinced Pekoyama Peko, and Nidai Nekomaru, that Maki could see Kaito, if she didn’t get to close, and the two of them, and Hajime Hinata had to be present. Mako wondered what Hinata could do, considering she’d seen him and he looked pretty weak to her?

She’d been informed, however, that he had a large array of talents, due to some messed up project from a few years ago, before everything fell to shit… which was partly his fault.

So, accompanied by a swordswoman, a huge ass guy who looked capable of killing someone with his pinkie, and the scrawny form of Hajime Hinata, Maki finally got in to see Kaito Momota.

////

“Shuuichi-chan~”

Saihara just looked at the boy in question, eyebrow raised, as they exited the dining room.

“Harukawa stayed in a room with me for more than 5 minutes without a threat on my life!” Ouma said, eyes sparkling in fake excitement that had Saihara roll his eyes at the boys antics. He suspected the boy had wanted to leave before Maki found out about Kaito’s condition, since Saihara was certain the girl would find some way to pin it on Ouma, and well... They didn’t need that in their lives at the moment, they already had enough burdens.

“I’m worried about her though.” Saihara admitted and Ouma sighed, as they reached the elevator, which had finally been fixed.

“Shuuuuichi-chan.” Ouma extended the ‘u’ vowel as he spoke, stopping for a moment before continuing to speak.

“You can’t help everybody y’know. Sometimes you have to look after yourself too!” Ouma commented and Saihara’s face went blank.

“Don’t try and hide it from me. You can’t hide that sort of thing from a Liar like me, y’know?” Ouma continued, as the number above the life slowly traveled downwards.

12, 11, 10, 9…

“I.. I-” Saihara didn’t have any excuses. It was just how he felt. He’d no issues with helping others, while staying silent about his own problems, because that’s the kind of person he was. Saihara Shuuichi was too considerate of everyone else and it was slowly killing him.

8...7...6...5

“Look after yourself more.”

4...3...2..

“I’ll try.”

..1

Saihara didn’t hear Ouma’s muffled thank you, as the doors dinged open for them, but that’s okay, because Ouma didn’t want him to hear anyway.

///

Despite everything, the Detective and the Supreme Leader still both slept in Ouma’s room, it was just one of those things they didn’t want to stop, mostly because it was comforting to have someone there, to tell them everything was okay, and that they weren’t in that horrible school, every time they awoke disoriented and scared.

It was usually Ouma that struggled with the nights to be fair though, it wasn’t often he did wake up, but Saihara was there regardless, he was a light sleeper so 9 times out of 10 he awoke to Ouma’s distressed noises, ready to assist in anyway he could. Maybe it was Maki’s appearance that brought the weight of everything back to Saihara, that even if it wasn’t reality, he failed to protect anyone, everyone had died before him, after he’d promised to continue Kaede’s wish, and even now he felt pretty helpless. Kaito couldn’t remember a thing about him… or anything for that matter. Saihara was finally starting to feel the pressure, because he felt the need to help everyone out, to aid in anyway he could, because it was the least he could do.

What kind of detective was he, letting everyone die before him? Letting himself be deceived and lied to without realising? Why didn’t he have the answers he needed? Why had he given up so easily?

On top of that, how could he even call himself the Ultimate Detective if he had to wait for someone else to tell him what he’d been feeling for Ouma? How did he not even realise his own feelings?

Saihara didn’t sleep much that night.

Ouma fell asleep pretty quickly, loosely wrapping himself around Saihara, because for some reason the Supreme Leader was a clingy sleeper. Saihara did eventually drift off, sometime in the early hours of the morning, but the only thing that greeted him was horrific nightmares.

It had started out quite nice, the 16 of them in Hope’s Peak, quite cheerful and happy if anything. And then Tenko had turned to face in, neck dripping in blood, eyes drawn in accusation at him. Saihara whipped around in desperation, only to come face to face with Angie, her too dripping in blood, finger pointed at him, besides Amami, who held a hand to his head, blood trickling through his fingertips. Slowly but surely everyone around him began to point or glare at him accusingly, the friends he’d tried so hard to help all glared at him like it was his fault, bodies reflecting the injuries they’d sustained before their deaths.

There was too much blood, and Saihara couldn’t escape, no matter how far he ran, they were always right behind him. Somehow, in his endless running, Saihara began to recognize his surroundings as the dreaded Prison school, and he could tell from the dark colours and whirring of machinery where he had wound up, from the press that lurked in the corner, two of his friends stood beside it, feral expressions littering the faces he knew would never look like that. Even as Saihara struggled, there was no way to resist the 13 students who shoved him forward, and the two who lurked beside the press, one grabbing each arm, hoisting him forward towards the metal he never wanted to go near again. Resisting did nothing though, and sure enough, Ouma was hoisted onto the slab, still trying to break free from the arms that held him into place. It was in the briefest of moments, that Saihara wondered if Ouma had been just as terrified, laying here, knowing what was to come, before the fear and panic overtook him once more. He knew this wasn’t real so why couldn’t he wake up? Why couldn’t he alter it? Why? When the heavy metal of the press finally dropped down, towards his struggling form, it ended.

Saihara bolted up from the bed, muffled scream from his lips, breathing uneven, hand shakily reaching instantly to clasp at his chest, as he tried to take in the oxygen he so badly needed. He could hardly breath, and the darkness of the room had him hyperventilate further, he was okay but his brain couldn’t accept that, it was still driven by fear and panic, and Saihara couldn’t function, he couldn’t move, all he could do was sit there, tucking his knees up, willing away the tears that made him have to choke back sobs, still unable to calm his breathing.

Why couldn’t he escape?

Why would it always be there in his mind?

Why couldn’t he just forget?

Saihara shuddered, breath hitching as he felt a hand on his shoulder. He managed to pick out the blurry form of Ouma, himself slightly disorientated, awoken by the noise Saihara made. The shorter boy had placed a hand on his shoulder, as to not spook him, there was silence between the two, as the supreme leader finally moved forward more, wrapping both his arms around Saihara, tugging him forward and into the smaller boy’s chest.

“Shuuichi it’s okay. Breathe for me, yeah?”

Saihara could only shake his head. He couldn’t- He couldn’t do it. Ouma didn’t give up though, one hand moved to calmly run his fingers through Saihara’s hair, combing it softly, the other to the stark pale face of horror and fear that was pressed against his chest, small fingers moving to wipe away the tears on the detectives cheeks.

“Shuuichi please.” Ouma asked again, and Saihara tried to take a shuddery breath, his shoulder jittered, and all he could do was make a feeble noise as he tried to inhale before exhaling sharply.

“There we go. Keep that up, breathe in.” Ouma mumbled, and Saihara followed in suit, finding it a tiny bit easier to gulp down the air he needed so desperately.

“And breathe out.” Saihara exhaled, calmer this time, but still unable to stop himself from letting out a sob, one he’d tried to contain.

“Shh, it’s okay Shuuichi, I’m here, okay? You’re safe.”

Saihara nodded, letting the boy know he’d heard, opening his mouth to try and speak, but only managing to let out another choked noise, hands moving up to clamp over his mouth, shaking his head wildly against Ouma who simply sat holding him.

“Don’t worry. You don’t need to rush. I’m not going anywhere, take your time, Shuuichi.”

Eventually, Ouma’s words and actions helped Saihara calm down, relaxing slowly but surely, in Ouma’s hold, his breathing evening out to a normal rate. Then the silence came.

That was the first time Ouma had ever woken up because of Saihara. Usually the detective could keep himself quiet and under control, but it’s likely the constant stress the Detective was silently enduring had finally caught up, and it had become too much to contain. Saihara was more than willing to care for Ouma when he awoke in a state, but it was the first time Saihara had ever disturbed the Supreme Leader. He felt like shit for disturbing the boy who already didn’t get enough sleep, and now he had just disrupted him with his pathetic panic. Ouma said nothing, and didn’t let go of Saihara either, even after he’d calmed down enough to breathe properly.

“You think too loud, Shuuichi-chan, I can hear you from here.” Ouma mumbled, the typical chan returning down the boy had calmed down considerably. Saihara didn’t notice the lack of honorific in his panic. Saihara just looked up, and Ouma sighed at the obvious guilt the detective was reflecting in his eyes.

“It’s not your fault Shuuichi-chan. I promise.” Ouma mumbled, trying to get the Detective to stop looking so guilty.

“B-But I woke you up- and-”

“So? You never complain when I wake you up. You’re allowed to be selfish sometimes y’know? If you feel lost, remember everyone in this building is here for you, okay?”

Saihara could tell Ouma was acting quite different than normal, and his voice slightly reflected that of the boy he’d been before his memories returned… Was it possibly the two personalities had merged?

“Bu-But-”

“No but’s. You’re allowed to put yourself first.”

Saihara just gave a weak nod. He didn’t want to, not when people were relying on him, or when people had bigger issues than him, but Ouma’s demanding tone made him consider trying at least.

“Now, you’re going to lay back down, and sleep, and if you wake up again, I am going to be right here for you, okay?” Ouma asked, one hand moving down to clasp at Saihara’s, squeezing reassuringly. Saihara just nodded quietly, complying with Ouma’s orders. As the detective slowly fell back asleep, he said nothing, reassured by the silent yet ever present squeeze of Ouma’s hand.

The boy didn’t have anymore nightmares that night, and by the time morning rolled around, Saihara woke up, and actually felt pretty rested, hand still held loosely by Ouma’s. The boy was already awake, staring at him curiously.

“You okay Shuuichi-chan?”

Saihara nodded, faintly embarrassed at the events of last night. He’d been so close to Ouma, and he’d looked so weak, after he promised he’d be strong for everyone.

“Good. Now let’s get you some food, that’s the best cure for feeling uneasy, don’t you know?” Ouma asked and Saihara furrowed his brow. It was?

“What time is it?”

“Like.. 3pm.” Ouma mumbling and Saihara never bolted out of bed as fast as he did that day.

“Ho- What the hell, why didn’t you get me up sooner?”

“Silly Shuuichi-chan. You needed sleep. Who cares what time you wake up? It’s not like we actually have anything to get up for at the moment, we’re stuck here till they sort out the others guys memories.”

“Bu-But-”

“You can’t risk your own safety to help others. Kiiboy and Iruma are doing what they can already, and you helped a lot, don’t you remember? You helped me, and you helped Kayaday and Amami too. You help us all without even knowing.”

“I- I do?”

“You do.”

“If you say so.” Saihara wasn’t overly sure he’d done anything to help, he didn’t feel like he had anyway but Ouma didn’t appear to be lying.

“Now, shall we get some food or not?”

Saihara nodded. He felt pretty hungry even though he’d only just woke up, and it did sound like a nice idea to head down to the dining hall at this time, since it’d probably be empty.

///

It wasn’t actually empty, but it was near enough. The only person in the room other than the two of them was Angie, who greeted them cheerfully but paid little other attention to them, too busy sketching with one hand, and nibbling on a sandwich in the other.

“Now, let’s find something for you to eat?”

Saihara just gave a nod. Did the Supreme Leader even know how to cook?

Apparently he did, and Saihara couldn’t help but be a tiny bit impressed at the boy, a small smile making his way onto his face, at the sloppily presented but rather tasty omelette the shorter boy cooked up for him.

“It’s probably not as good as what Tojo could make..” Ouma trailed, he kind of missed the maid, since she was pretty convenient to have around, and she did kind of feel like the mother he should have had but never did.

“It’s perfect Kokichi.” Saihara muttered, quickly shoveling it down, not even noticing his slip up with Ouma’s name. Ouma noticed though, and even if he was a master at deceiving people, he couldn’t deceive himself, tips of his ears turning red in embarrassment, because goddamn it he wanted Saihara to call him that all the time if that’s how the word sounded from the detective's mouth.

“No problem Shuuichi-chan.” Ouma smiled, a genuine smile that had both of them feel just a tiny bit happier in their rather complicated lives.

[surprisebitch]

THOUGHTS ON DANGANRONPA V3 (NOT SPOILER-FREE)

This is not a spoiler-free review so only click Read More or read IF YOU HAVE FINISHED THE GAME. 

If not, don’t read this at all and if you’re on mobile, scroll down super quickly and I tagged this as ndrv3, drv3 so don’t complain or say I didn’t warn you.

Anyway, so my thoughts!!!

GAMEPLAY

DRV3 has the superior gameplay objectively out of all the franchise. It feels more polished, refined, and it looks like they really took criticisms from the previous games and improved the gameplay for this.

From the first shooting movement, it’s definitely more suited than the Danganronpa movement style when moving across the academy or map. And how easier it is to get Monocoins now just by shooting all the stuff in every room… It is definitely more reasonable than having to examine everything (EVEN MONITORS) from the previous games which was tedious and a hard way to earn coins just to earn precious gifts. Like now, it is actually possible to give THE BEST PRESENTS for every freetime even from the beginning of the game! I gave EVERYONE THE BEST PRESENT from the beginning. The Hidden Monokuma this time also are nice cause you see them in 3D and around the campus! So yeah, these were nice improvements when it comes to moving.

Now onto the class trials!

Let’s start with the minigames. Hangman’s Gambit is the best here and it’s still challenging. Psyche Taxi was pretty good even though Mind Surfing from DR2 was more challenging and can be frustrating. The classic Rebuttal Showdown was great. Argument Armament had a nice rhythm game mechanics and challenges. I especially love the unique sprite of the character involved in the middle and the transitions to the end.. really builds up nicely and when all their clothes get torn in the end, how dramatic.

But the crown definitely goes to SCRUM DEBATE. Now that was really lit. It was intense and really encapsulated the atmosphere of the debate grounds. It would have been really great if this was a minigame for the previous games but I guess it’s never too late!

Now another aspect of the trial, nonstop debate! I really loved Mass Panic Debate, it added more challenge and the Loud Voices too. I think objectively DRV3 has the most challenging Trials that I hit the Retry screen a number of times haha but I thankfully still got an A grade in all trials (playing in Mean Logic too so).

The LIE BULLET deserves to be singled out though. How lying becomes a necessary thing to do and gets you closer to the truth since every trial is designed where you have to lie once. If you lie more than once, you unlocked the backroute. (I apparently did that for one of the cases though since I found the most logical argument was to lie.) But yeah, it also gives the main story a replay value somehow cause you get to see alternate events unfold if you lie instead of tell the truth or vice versa. And yup, this game DOES involve the theme of lying so I think it was cleverly executed.

Tl;dr:

Gameplay-wise, DRV3 is objectively superiour and the best of the franchise.

CHARACTERS AND OTHER POSITIVE POINTS

Let’s start with the amazing Kaede. God, she would have really been the strongest protagonist and I was soo looking forward to play as her then felt betrayed after chapter 1. BTW, the strongest chapter 1 of the series.. really started this game off with a BANG and lots of tears. It was suspicious though how she already started strong when Makoto and Hajime weren’t as strong as Kaede so RED FLAGS there. But I didn’t like chapter 1 and I will get more into that later.

Shuichi had amazing development though and watching him evolve redeemed chapter 1 so it was justified. EVEN THOUGH we find out later Kaede was wrongfully executed ugh.

All the executions in V3 are absolutely brutal. I think V3 has the worst executions in the franchise. All of them were torturous while other games had fast death executions. V3 didn’t spare you from seeing the characters suffer an agonizing death so yeah it did have a lot of impact especially since many of the characters except Kiyo died unfairly and brutally. The Kaito plot twist was amazing though and I’m glad we got to see a character not suffer.

I think it really conveyed how twisted watching such a game can be. But then again, it would have been better if they didn’t remind us it was fiction even though we know it is.

Personally, I think V3 has the strongest cast because everybody had strong character development including the survivors.

Before everyone was sent off, we all got to see their talents and how their characters evolve. Also how unlikely the survivors are here.. I totally didn’t expect Himiko and Kibo to survive. I did get Maki and Shuichi though since Maki was like a deadly Kirigiri.

I ended up loving so many students. Kirumi is best girl though. Of course, there’s Miu too and Maki. AND GONTA AND KAITO ARE MY HUSBANDS. And you end up loving the rest in their own way.

tl;dr:

V3 definitely has the strongest cast but couldve gotten a strong protagonist and I can go on and on why but for the previous DR games, there were characters I didn’t like but for V3, I loved everybody even the twisted ones cause like they really were interesting fascinating characters haha

SOUNDTRACK

Amazing.. A+

Nothing else to be said. Phenomenal. So let’s go with the Ending

CHAPTER 1 AND ENDING AND STORY CRITIQUE

I honestly wish that they made Kaede stick around longer til chapter 5 at least then protag switch. Kaede had sooo much potential to be the most complex character. chapter 1 was messily executed imo (pun intended) and was just done for shock value on the get go imo. It would have been more impactful if we actually lost her towards the end of the game and been a different formula. In all DRs, the most advertised and significant character died on the 1st chapter and V3 isn’t an exception except for the fact it was a protagonist switch. I still think the switch could’ve been happened later.

I think the whole meta plot twist was brilliant. THAT BEING SAID, it could have been executed differently but still conveyed the intended message and the philosophy of Danganronpa. 

So, in the end we find out that this Killing Game was orchestrated by the real world and Tsumugi is the mastermind of this game. Okay, so let’s talk about Tsumugi first. I honestly think that Tsumugi as a mastermind was clever.. who would have expected the Plain Jane of the class will be the mastermind; it is a totally danganronpa plot twist but at the same time the iconic Junko makes an appearance thanks to her ultimate talent as a cosplayer.

I liked Tsumugi as a mastermind but I didn’t like how it was executed (no pun intended). If she actually had development, she would’ve not ended up being one of the least fave characters in the polls. I liked her motive though and it was really sinister but she was such a background character. i wish we actually saw her play a significant role throughout the game. She has a really cute character design so in my opinion, she’s a strong mastermind. Junko was flashy and sexy and out of the class whereas Tsumugi was still sexy but presented herself as ordinary and is a “survivor” since her talent makes her extraordinary so YES I think Tsumugi as the mastermind is perfect but it would’ve been better to see her play an active role throughout the game.

It was also clever that DR would mislead us with Kokichi who I think is one of the best characters in the franchise alongside Komaeda. I was fooled into thinking he really was the mastermind with his lies! BUT THEN I REMEMBERED, this is Danganronpa and there will ALWAYS BE PLOT TWISTS, it’s not that easy and I was right but I didn’t know how to explain it. Actually, I thought it was Kaito who I love btw cause he was suspicious and it turned out that it was neither of them and they worked together in the end. Chapter 5 of SDR2 and V3 are definitely iconic chapters in the franchise. So back to Kokichi.. I think it was brilliant writing with no continuity errors that he ended up being the dark knight of this game or the unlikely good guy when he always presented himself as a villain. I must admit I hated Kokichi especially after Chapter 4 when he sacrificed Gonta but then Kokichi really had no choice, who else could’ve killed Miu (RIP btw, I also really loved Miu). And while I was angry that Kokichi said he was fake crying for Gonta.. after the ending and his dying words, I can see that he was just using his lies to mask his thoughts and he really hated this killing game. So yes, Kokichi was manipulative and deceitful but this game proved that such a character can end up being the “good guy” here since his ultimate goal was to lure the mastermind out through the killing game and even confuse the mastermind.

So I kinda got off a tangent I know so lets go BACK to the ending. I think the weakest point of the ending is the fiction aspect. I feel like that was totally unnecessary and the message of Danganronpa could have been portrayed if they just went meta, we were the audience, and said that the universe of V3 isn’t fiction. It would have been more effective cause we would have felt more sympathy for the characters playing this twisted game and they could still end the game by not voting at all and having the canon no hope or despair ending. We would have gotten the message and the philosophy while making the rest of the Danganronpa including V3 matter. Sure WE KNOW they are fiction but we didn’t have to be reminded especially for 3+ hours since the trial lasted 6-8 hours gosh.. It was really tedious and LOOONG.

Presenting Danganronpa as fiction makes everything seem meaningless and I feel that’s why the ending was very polarizing. I feel that if they left Fiction out and just went Meta that everyone in the Killing Game is us then that would have better conveyed the message without leaving a sour taste about the significance of the previous games cause many felt that everything was a lie and meaningless even when Team DR didn’t intend it since they wanted to critique violence in media and how twisted enjoying playing games such as DR. Personally, i am rooting for Hope everytime but i see now how hope and despair will not end the cycle of this killing game so i love how neither hope nor despair ended it.

So yes, I love that the contestants were fans and wanted to be part of the Killing Game. It was a smart plot twist and could be satirical since who knows if there are really players out there who’d have the mentality of the students. So yeah, the whole Killing Game being orchestrated by an audience would have been brilliant. I just hope that they blurred the idea it’s fictional and made Danganronpa seem real cause yes we know it’s fiction but we play this game for escapism and the thrill. We didn’t have to be reminded of it and we WOULD STILL GRASP the message. 

After all is said, I really love the mastermind’s motive and plot twist of this game. It’s a satire to consumerism.. Supply and demand was such an important concept here. True, Tsumugi just saw life as a way to satisfy demand but i think it was so despairful cause WE ARE THE MASTERMINDS.. us playing Danganronpa, we play for the thrill even though our intentions are different. 

Personally i played to see Hope triumph over Despair. and Tsumugi and the whole ending made us see that even rooting for hope wont end the killing game. And it was so twisted cause Tsumugi was a representation of the irony behind Danganronpa. It was awful true but at the end of the day, she represents team Danganronpa and we love that game so yeah it was so meta. Hard fact but Tsumugi’s motive was strong and makes you ponder. (but AGAIN, i wish she had a more explicit active role throughout the story)

Tl;dr:

So did I love it or hate it? I loved that it had a self-aware message but it could have been executed better (no pun intended. damn im sorry). It is a strong installment in the franchise but it is not without flaws. Protagonist switch would’ve been better in chapter 4 or 5. That being said, I loved most aspects of it but I dislike how they tried to layer so many things onto each other that it ended up being convoluted. I feel that if they just said that the V3 universe was real and left fiction out of the picture, we still would have grasped the message. They should have just left DR1 and DR2 as fictional in the V3 universe while the Killing Games in V3 are reality. And I feel with that clarified, the ending would have been less confusing.

Nevertheless, I love how the ending didnt follow Hope winning over Despair and was a completely different ending. And yes, Tsumugi as a mastermind was amazing.. totally despairful and has a strong message. But yet again, the story could have been reworked and delivered more strongly.

However, the entire ending could have been a lie right? I mean the game's theme is Lie vs. Truth so who knows what really was the truth or not? I guess we’ll find out if we get another Danganronpa game… because at the end of the day, Supply and Demand!

How about you? What are your thoughts? Reply to this post if you wanna share!

[oumakokichi]

zekefreek replied to your post “Where is it mentioned that Hoshi is the shsl prisoner”

"As does Ouma". Look, I'm not saying there isn't room to theorize about Ouma being an SHSL Analyst, but I really think saying he had multiple talents as canon is stretching it. The possibility of Ouma having multiple talents is to my knowledge, never discussed anywhere in the game.

I’m not saying it’s definite that his talent is SHSL Analysis (it could be a number of things), but his motive video pretty much directly confirms he wasn’t the supreme leader of anything, certainly not in the way he claims. His video does call him a “Supreme Leader” in its introduction, but Hoshi’s motive video also calls him the SHSL Tennis Player, and doesn’t mention anything at all about his prisoner talent, despite the fact that we know that it’s canon.

The game absolutely does cast doubt on the credibility of Ouma’s talent pretty much from the moment he introduces himself, and continues to add to those doubts the more we learn about him. If the Ouma’s talent isn’t “Supreme Leader” (and the game hints quite often that it’s not)... then the only logical explanation is that it has to be something else.

A “Supreme Leader” typically refers to leaders on a huge scale, hence the ominous, larger-than-life feeling associated with Ouma as a character. It’s a term reserved for leaders of actual organizations or even entire nations. And yet, we know Ouma’s “secret, evil organization” was actually a band of 10 pranksters, not counting himself. That pretty much marks out any possibility of him being an actual “Supreme Leader” in the literal sense of the word (though it’s true that he certainly “leads” people from the shadows).

Regardless of what Ouma’s real talent is, the game makes it very clear actually that he’s almost definitely lying about being a Supreme Leader. Even in the demo, Naegi alludes to as much. He says the files he has access to are only the basic files and information any students could get their hands on, meaning there’s no guarantee they’re entirely accurate.

Saihara can’t find any information at all on Ouma’s supposed organization, despite being a detective (and clues are supposed to presented for the detective to find them, according to usual mystery rules). If I’m remembering right, even Ouma’s Famitsu profile brought this up, meaning we were given clues that his Supreme Leader talent wasn’t real before the game even launched.

For that matter, in the bonus mode even Komaeda can’t find out anything about Ouma’s talent or his organization, despite his incredible luck--and typically, if something exists, Komaeda can and will find it if he wants to, just by relying on luck (i.e. the secret passageway where Junko was hiding in dr3). Komaeda basically stops one step short of saying that he thinks Ouma is lying about his talent and his “secret organization” in their bonus mode interaction.

Kaede directly states that she doubts Ouma is a real Supreme Leader in her second Free Time Event with him. He actually gets pretty noticeably pissed off when she does, stating that her reasoning is only according to a societally preconceived notion of “common sense” and that "if you think about it according to the rules of [Kaede’s] ‘common sense,’” then he “has” to be a Supreme Leader because that’s the talent he was officially accepted for in the Gifted Program. But this FTE reads much more sarcastically in hindsight, considering we know for a fact that Ouma doubted all of his memories related to his talent and backstory throughout the entire game.

Not least of all, Ouma is directly compared and contrasted with Junko within the game, and those parallels are deliberately brought up by Tsumugi as part of the plot. We know Junko is, in fact, a character with several canonical talents: SHSL Fashionista/Gyaru, SHSL Despair, and SHSL Analysis, the last of which wasn’t even revealed until dr0. The parallels between Ouma and Junko are so intentional and plot-relevant that I don’t think it’s a stretch at all to assume that there was more to Ouma’s talent than meets the eye, just like there is with Junko’s.

After using the Hope’s Peak remember light, the characters themselves pretty much believe that Ouma was “someone very, very close to being SHSL Despair,” following in Junko’s footsteps by becoming the new leader of the Remnants of Despair. They do discuss the possibility of him having a second talent--it’s just that they’re wrong about what that talent is, because they’ve already fallen into the trap that Tsumugi set for them all.

There are plenty of possibilities as to what Ouma’s real talent might actually be, but I don’t think there’s really any denying that it’s not actually Supreme Leader--or rather, it’s fine to still call him a Supreme Leader, but there’s undenaibly something fishy going on with him. I’ve seen a bunch of other good theories too, including scriptwriter, actor, detective, phantom thief, and a whole bunch of others. There’s no way to tell exactly what it could be until Kodaka gives a little more information in the future, though.

Still, it’s absolutely untrue to say that the possibility of Ouma having multiple talents isn’t ever brought up in the game. Many of the characters constantly express doubts about his talent, be it in the story, the bonus mode, or even the demo, and the actual information we receive about DICE pretty much confirms that he was never a Supreme Leader in the literal sense of the word.

Ndrv3 is a game about duality, and the juxtaposition between “truth and lies.” Many of the characters have either more than one talent, or are simply associated with one talent while actually having another. Amami, for instance, is both the SHSL Adventurer and the SHSL Survivor. Kiibo is the SHSL Robot, but technically is called SHSL Hope Robot in Chapter 6, further paralleling Naegi. Himiko is the SHSL Magician, but emphatically calls herself the SHSL Mage and insists “magecraft is real” for the whole game. Even Tsumugi’s talent has a layer of duality added to it: just before her execution, she calls herself the SHSL Cosplayer, but the words “Copycat Criminal” are in parentheses right next to “Cosplayer.”

Adding it up, that means roughly half the characters (Kiibo, Amami, Himiko, Tsumugi, Maki, Hoshi, and Kirumi) either have more than one talent, pretend to have one talent when they have another, or are at least given a separate talent in name. Considering how prevalent the notion of “dual talents” is in ndrv3, I think the odds of Ouma being a similar case are extremely high.

[murasaki-murasame]

Danganronpa V3 Liveblog Part 17 [Chapter 5 - Trial]

Aaaaahhhhhhhh.

Thoughts under the cut.

I don’t even know where to start with this one. There were like . . . a thousand things that happened that I could talk about first. Wow. This goddamn trial sure took me for a spin and left me completely dazed and overwhelmed and depressed by the end.

I probably should have seen Kaito being the culprit coming. I just assumed that it would be ‘too easy’, since it was the second most obvious answer after Kokichi. But I can definitely say that even if the ‘who’ wasn’t too inherently difficult, the ‘how’ sure as fuck was.

It’s slightly lame that a good amount of the mystery of this trial revolved around stuff that only happens during the trial itself, but it’s fine. The shit that went down in this trial was oh so worth it.

Funnily enough, the thing I thought was a spoiler about Kaito being a culprit probably wasn’t actually intended as a spoiler for it, but it still lead me to the right conclusion. I saw a spoiler-free review that talked about how some of the motives in this game are lame, and I vaguely remember them mentioning the idea of someone killing because they had a terminal illness, which immediately made me think of Kaito once that whole plot point started up, but since his motive for murder had nothing to do with his illness, I think that person was just throwing out a generic example of a cliche motive, but it just so happened to still point at someone who ended up being a culprit anyway. They probably should have chosen a different example, lol.

Anyway, this trial was just sorta . . . insane. Wow. I wasn’t even able to definitively guess that the person in the Exisal was Kaito because his entire demeanor, especially when he switched over to ‘being Kaito’, felt too uncharacteristic of him to be true. But it was pretty obvious that it wasn’t actually Kokichi. Though even then, I still wasn’t sure if that meant Kaito was actually the killer.

Especially with the mid-trial swerve of Maki seeming to be the culprit, and genuinely believing herself to be the culprit. I was skeptical about the idea of the killer being spelled out before the intermission phase happened, but her whole story seemed too good not to be true.

I really, really liked this whole trial’s set-up of having both a mystery victim and a mystery killer. That was a really interesting idea. Especially with the additional layer of it being intended as ‘a mystery that even Monokuma can’t solve’. It made things feel incredibly baffling. In a good way.

The most negative thing I can say about the mystery itself was probably that, in the end, it ended up being almost exactly the same sort of scenario as case five in DR2, with a character setting up an insane murder mystery with themselves as the victim, set up in a way to expose and destroy the mastermind. They definitely played out in different ways, but the similarity was a bit too hard to ignore.

As a whole, though, it was great. It at least felt more satisfying than chapter four, even though I get in hindsight that chapter four’s trial was ‘unsatisfying’ for very intentional reasons.

It even made me warm up to Kokichi a lot as a character, which I wasn’t expecting. Now that his motives and feelings are more or less clear, it’s easier for me to understand him and appreciate his choices. I still can’t help but see him as a version of Komaeda that has a more off-putting personality, though. He’s definitely a fun character, but his personality just irritates me a lot of the time.

The first half or so of the trial wasn’t super hard in terms of the logic and the minigames, but it definitely picked up in the latter half once things got more and more weird and complicated. That was good. Sometimes the exact logic behind certain things still bugs me, though. I think I mentioned it before, but the ‘pick one of your truth bullets from the full list’ parts can sometimes feel a bit non-intuitive. Like when you have to point out that the crossbow was used, but you have to specifically pick the crossbow itself, because picking the arrows makes the other person be like ‘what, are you saying that they just stabbed someone with the arrows?’. That felt a bit dumb. It should have been immediately obvious what I meant by that. But it’s a minor point.

On a similar topic, a lot of the mini-games still feel kinda unnecessary, but that’s always been an issue with this franchise. There’s not really much to say about it at this point. Though I should say that it threw me off so fucking hard when I got a hidden Monokuma inside one of the Psyche Taxi segments. I had no idea that was possible. And on THAT note, I’ve had no real luck at getting those. This one was literally the second one I’ve found in the entire game. I know I missed one because I only noticed it in the background right before I started a free time event with someone, though. Maybe it would have been there if I went back for it later, but I didn’t bother.

I’m also getting better at the Argument Armament sections, somehow. They’re still stressful as heck, but I’m slowly improving. [And on the note of this chapter’s one, I guess I was right in assuming that if Kaito was this chapter’s killer, someone else would try and defend him]

I feel almost silly for suspecting Keebo so heavily, but both Kokichi and Kaito felt a bit too easy at the time. Oh well. I have . . . things to say about Keebo, but I’ll leave that for later, I guess.

Back on the topic of the murder itself, the whole set-up of it really was kinda ingenious, and really could have been an unsolvable mystery if things had gone differently. Especially with the whole element of there being no real proof as to whether the victim died via Maki’s poison arrow, or the hydraulic press. In the end, it basically came down to personal feelings and belief, rather than cold hard evidence.

Which reminds me, I also really liked the whole theme of Shuichi’s intuition as a device vs his feelings of belief as an individual. That was neat. Especially when it got to the point where, even after using evidence and deduction to figure out that Kaito was the culprit, he decided to lie in an attempt to stand for what Kaito believed in, and was risking his life for. Which, sadly, ended up being the final push that got Kaito to give up.

I actually tried like three times to vote for Kokichi even after that scene, since I still wanted to support Kaito, but the game didn’t let me. Oh well.

Before I forget, I may as well get back to my whole [apparently ongoing] rant for a little while.

As I’ve said before, I still personally interpret Shuichi as having a crush on Kaito that he’s trying to deny. I also said it before, but I’ve been aware from the start that this probably isn’t ‘canon’, especially after this whole trial happened and it didn’t get mentioned, but it’s still something I believe in. Especially with how heavily Shuichi and Maki were getting paralleled in this trial. Either way, at this point it feels safe to say that whatever Shuichi feels for Kaito is equal to or stronger than whatever he felt for Kaede [and had much longer to develop], and the game’s obviously already framing her as his love interest, so yeah.

I guess it goes without saying, but with how this whole game is about the nature of truth and lies, and about criticizing the idea that exposing and living with the truth is always necessary and good, it feels rather fitting that I’m choosing to treat this as my personal truth, even if it might just be a lie.

And for the record I still find Maki’s crush on Kaito to be really adorable and also heart-wrenching in this trial. If anything that’s just part of the reason why I’m seeing Shuichi’s feelings as basically being the same sort of thing.

Rant time over [for now], lol.

I guess there’s not much more to say about the mystery itself, so I should start talking more about the aftermath of the trial.

To start with, I figured in advance that Kokichi probably wasn’t the mastermind, since it felt too ‘obvious’ and happened way too early. I think I also commented on how it was a bit odd how the Exisals and stuff were treating Monokuma, but I didn’t quite guess what the full situation with that one was. 

I’ll talk about the concept of the ‘true mastermind’ in a minute. Before that, I wanna say that it was really fitting and amusing that Kaito’s execution was a spin on Jin’s from DR1. I really should have seen that coming. It was a nice little throwback. I also really, really liked the detail of Kaito dying from his injuries rather than the execution itself. It may not have been a complete victory, but it was a moral victory.

Though on the flip-side we have the whole reveal that Kaito probably had the plague that killed off most of humanity, which in itself wouldn’t change anything, but it carries the really uncomfortable implication that maybe everyone in the cast had the same plague, and he just had his symptoms show up first. Which would just make this entire scenario even MORE depressing than it was before.

This whole chapter’s just making me more and more unsure what the deal is meant to be with Rantarou and the Monokubs. I still feel like they have to be related to the overall story somehow, but I’m getting less and less sure about what their purpose could be. I’m still assuming that the Monokubs have AIs that are based on the personalities of other people in the last killing game Rantarou was a part of. Maybe the other survivors of said killing game. Which makes me wonder if we’d ever get any idea who they were as actual people. 

With the reveal that Kokichi ISN’T the mastermind, and might not have had anything to do with setting up the killing game, now I can’t help but wonder if it was Rantarou who set things up. Obviously SOMEONE had to, and I assume it’s one of the main cast members. It’d also explain why he knew about the killing game in advance, and why he seemed intent on winning it. It certainly hints at him being kinda . . . malicious, but that was already clear enough. This would also explain what he meant about how this is a killing game that he wanted to have happen.

Presumably he’s genuinely dead, though, so that pokes some holes in the idea of him being the mastermind, assuming that ‘the mastermind’ is a currently living person. If we limit it just to the main cast, then Keebo seems like the most suspicious person, since he’s a robot who could be running some sort of sub-program to control Monokuma, in a way that might not even be conscious on his part. But, again, I’ll talk more about him in a moment.

First, I should talk about the plot point that I’ve been holding off on mentioning for this entire post, and that’s Junko. I’m laughing so hard at the implication that she’s the goddamn mastermind for the third game in a row. It’s such a brilliantly polarizing writing choice. Part of me had been genuinely hoping it would happen. I have a soft spot for Junko as a villain, if only because I love seeing people get so angry over her. The ways that she causes despair and frustration in the fandom just by existing kinda validates her status as the main villain of the series.

I’ve mentioned before that it feels like they’re setting up some sort of a twist about the events of this game being fictional, even in the context of the DR universe, and this is making me even more certain of that. Especially with the focus on the topic of ‘the people who this killing game are being shown to’. The main thing that always bugged me about the apocalypse idea was that broadcasting the killing game had always been the top priority, and so it felt weird to imagine a killing game happening in this sort of scenario. I kinda assumed it was to do with there being a new mastermind with new priorities, but the idea of Monokuma still abiding by his own rules is definitely too strange, even if we make that kind of assumption. So it makes sense that he’s broadcasting this to SOMEONE. The question is who.

And honestly my best guess is that this is setting up some abstract meta-twist about us, as the players, being the people who the game is broadcast to. I’d been idly considering that for a while, but seeing Junko show up, and seeing the references to how the characters are all ‘easily replaceable’ and that ‘the killing game can happen again and again’ makes me think that, in-universe, V3 is literally some kind of story that Junko’s writing. Maybe not in a literal sense of her writing a book or something, but maybe the game takes place in a DR2-esque simulation, and she can just restart it again and again to create an unending killing game of unending despair. It seems like the sort of thing she’d do. And obviously it’d work pretty well on a meta level as commentary about the franchise itself. Which to me got pretty definitively confirmed when Junko mentioned ‘supply and demand’. V3, and it’s killing game, only exists because we, the fans, financially supported this series enough, and wanted to see more killing games happen enough, that this game got made. It seems like the natural end point of how this series likes to comment on the almost voyeuristic nature of murder. This game only exists because there was an active demand for it. Because we like seeing people kill each other in video games. Because experiencing intense emotions through media is a cathartic experience that people want to go through again and again. I’m not trying to be like ‘violent video games are bad!’ or whatever, I just mean that if this game is going to end with the big bad villain literally being the people playing the game, then it’s certainly justified.

Though on the same level it also makes it feel like this is the furthest the series could ever go, and that any more games being made would just feel uncomfortable and weird. But even if this game ends in that sort of way, there’s still going to be demand for more games. We’ll still want to get another killing game, and another, and another, even if we complain about how discomfiting it is to have a game turn around and criticize us for our enjoyment of it.

If we assume that this is where it’s going, I wonder how chapter six will go, and how the game will end. Will it be like DR2, where we get to argue against a digital version of Junko? That’d be a bit . . . odd, and probably kinda depressing, since if this is all just a story being written/programmed/etc by Junko, then no matter what the characters can to do her, it probably won’t kill her. She’ll still be alive in the real world.

On that note, if we’re meant to assume that Junko is alive ‘in the real world’, it makes me wonder what point in the timeline we’re working with, since her physical body got pretty definitively destroyed at one point, unless the person we saw in that one CG near the end was her in a robot body made to look like her. Who even knows.

Also, this whole Junko thing makes me even MORE unsure how the hell Rantarou and the Monokubs fit into the story. Is their backstory all part of a fictional setting she made up for this game? I have no idea.

I really can’t help but wonder if Kodaka will try and continue the series after this. I guess it wouldn’t be impossible for him to do so, but I just . . . don’t know how it’d work, really.

I still find it incredibly fascinating how utterly depressing and miserable and filled with despair this entire game is, especially as we understand how it connects to the entire franchise, compared to the far more hopeful ending that DR3 gave us. Though it’d be a lot less depressing if the entire apocalypse scenario was also made up by Junko and didn’t actually happen. But to be honest I kinda love the sheer audacity of Kodaka writing such a hopeful direction for the story and it’s universe, only to completely tear it apart by literally putting it through a fiery apocalypse, so either option works for me.

Anyway, I wonder if we’ll get any more deaths, or if it’ll be like the last games where nobody in the main cast dies in chapter six, ignoring the mastermind. The game is REALLY hammering in the concept of ‘the killing game will end when two people are left’. So it just makes me wonder if that might really happen. Though since only two people died in this chapter, we’d need to get a scenario of two victims and one culprit in the next chapter, to create a scenario where we’re then left with two people. Or maybe three people will just die normally. It just depends on whether or not we get another trial, really. I’m not really sure what I expect to happen, but the most important thing is probably that, if this really is all fictional, to some degree or another, then the concept of someone surviving becomes a bit meaningless, so on some level it kinda doesn’t matter. But it’s still interesting to speculate about.

I really would not be surprised at this point if the next chapter involves Himiko and Tsumugi dying, and us getting one last trial between Shuichi, Maki, and Keebo, who all definitely feel like the most major and plot-important characters right now. That might be interesting.

But it also makes me wonder if we’d then get ANOTHER chapter after that, or if we just might not get a trial where we face off against Junko specifically. Who knows.

Either way, Himiko and Tsumugi definitely feel a little expendable right about now, and I’m incredibly suspicious of Keebo and his plans right now.

I wasn’t really expecting his inner voice to just . . . malfunction and stop working after he gets hit with a rock. That kinda came out of nowhere. And now we have this bizarre scenario of him powering up and flying around while apparently bombarding the school with missiles. I wonder if his plan is just to burn everything to the ground so that the killing game will forcibly come to an end. It’s kinda hard to imagine Keebo doing something so violent, though.

I did really like seeing the remaining survivors, aside from Keebo, start training together. That was really sweet. I really love the sense of friendship and companionship between them. Well, mostly between Shuichi and Maki, but you get what I mean.

I have no goddamn clue where the next chapter is going to go, at this point. The end of this chapter raised so many questions and cliffhangers that I feel like things can just go in any direction they want now.

But as a bottom line, I can only imagine this game having a depressing, or at least bittersweet, ending. Especially if everything is some sort of fictional story. But even if it’s not, the characters have no real future left. No matter how much hope they have, they’re stuck in the academy. So I just can’t see this ending happily.

Also, as a final note, I tend to be pretty bad at expressing the exact extent of my emotional reactions to stuff in this game since I’m having to talk about so much in these posts and I try and keep them at least relatively concise and orderly and whatnot, even if this isn’t meant to be any kind of a professional review or anything, but this whole trial and it’s conclusion was depressing as fuck. It tore me apart. I knew something like this was gonna happen, since I was already bracing for this ending with Kaito dying in some way or another, but actually seeing it happen really hurt. I’m not kidding when I talk about how much I love the entire Kaito-Shuichi-Maki trio. I honestly think that they’ve become some of my all-time favourite DR characters. I get why a lot of people might think they’re a bit boring and plain [other than maybe Maki], but I absolutely adore them. Out of all of the ‘main trios’, they’re far and away my favourites at the moment, although there’s a lot of recency bias going on there, since I still have a huge soft spot for the main characters of DR2. Mostly Hinata and Komaeda, though. The fact that I like Maki a LOT more than Nanami is probably what weigh things out in V3��s favour. I don’t really wanna pit any of the characters against each other.

Anyway yeah, this chapter put me through an entire rollercoaster of emotions.

[kaedeakamatsu]

Komaeda Nagito Character Analysis

I was finally motivated enough to make this! Let me start off by saying that a lot of this includes theories of mine, but once you read it I believe you’ll understand. Warning for SDR2 and DR:AE spoilers under the cut!

First of all, there are a few things you need to know and remember in order to understand Komaeda. I’ll try to lay those out as thoroughly as I can.

Past

Komaeda has been dealing with his luck cycle since he was a small child, most likely for as long as he can remember. (x)

This affected his everyday life, but also presented itself in three of the most traumatic events of his life (before the events that took place at Kibougamine)

First of all, when he was in elementary school, the plane he boarded with his parents was hijacked, AND hit by meteors (which killed the hijackers). This resulted in his parents’ deaths, and in Komaeda inheriting their vast wealth.

So, except for the beginning of his life, Komaeda has not had anyone to look after him.

He also had a dog at some point that was run over, although the good luck that came from that particular incident was never made clear.

Next, sometime after his parents’ demise, when he was in middle school, Komaeda was kidnapped by a murderer. This would have been traumatic enough on its own, but it got worse: once the kidnapper learned there was no one to pay his ransom, he stuffed Komaeda in a trash bag, threw him in a dumpster and left him there. Komaeda was left there for a time, believing that he wasn’t wanted and that he belonged right where he was: in the garbage. Imagine the number this must have done on his self-esteem…

When he was finally rescued by the police, a lottery ticket that stuck to him in the garbage turned out to be a winner, and so he acquired more wealth.

Lastly, Komaeda was diagnosed with two fatal diseases - stage 3 malignant lymphoma (cancer) and frontotemporal dementia.

Judging by the length of time between his diagnosis and the events of danganronpa 3: the end of kibougamine gakuen, it is extremely likely that Komaeda’s cancer is in remission

However, dementia is incurable.

For those who are unfamiliar with the disease: Komaeda’s brain is atrophying. In other words, it’s losing cells. (x)

Komaeda affirms that his life expectancy is between half a year to a year. Although he ends up with much more time than that, and is not yet canonically dead (thank god), it is important to note that during the events of super danganronpa 2, Komaeda believes that he only has half a year to a year to live. (x)

Those who have dementia gradually lose their ability to see right from wrong; as the source says, it impairs reasoning and judgement (x)

I want to bring attention to this particular quote: “Some people with frontotemporal dementia undergo dramatic changes in their personality and become socially inappropriate, impulsive or emotionally indifferent, while others lose the ability to use language.” (x)

This partially explains some of his actions, but we’ll come back to that later

He is extremely mentally ill, and it is most likely because of the trauma he has experienced, plus his dementia.

By the way, the “good luck” he received after being diagnosed with dementia, was his invitation to attend Kibougamine as the “Super High-School Level Luckster”

Hope

To Komaeda, hope is “ultimate good” (x)

Most likely as a result of his dementia and the constant battering by his luck cycle, Komaeda completely idolizes hope

The process of how this came to be is unknown, however we can probably guess that it happened gradually throughout his life. The following is my theory:

Komaeda needed something to hold onto to get through the constant trauma he dealt with

It’s more than likely that he sees hope as a “salvation” of sorts, and that he sees his good luck as hope, or an extension of it at the very least

If he believes in hope, and sees the manifestation of “true hope” (or, “true goodness”), then perhaps everything he’s been through will have been worth it. So after the bad luck, there’s always good luck that follows, and thus, something to hope for

This is supported by when he says “I was born with a unique type of hope… This current situation… is foreshadowing the Ultimate Luck that will be arriving afterward.” as well as “That’s always been my experience. The bigger the bad luck I experienced at first… The good luck that comes afterward is so big that it wipes out all of that bad luck!” (x)

Side note: this is why Komaeda is almost always calm, upbeat, and positive in times of trouble. Hinata even makes this observation himself.

TLDR: Hope, which is “ultimate goodness” to Komaeda, is so important to him because without it, all of the horrible things he’s experienced would be unbearable.

Now, bringing dangan island into the picture…

We all know the events of super danganronpa 2, and how komaeda ends up setting up his own death in order to take down the others (who he knows are the remnants of despair)

In that timeline, his idea of hope remains as stated above

But when Hinata spends a lot of time with him in dangan island, and the murders don’t happen… Komaeda’s idea of hope changes quite a bit.

“The times I’ve spent with you on this island has taught me that hope was inside me from the very beginning.” (x)

He sees this realization as bad luck, since he now has a will to live, and… he’s going to die at the hand of his dementia (or so he believes).

But it proves that if Komaeda was just shown some understanding, and had a friend to guide him, he’d see things differently.

Now, we’re going to get into the events of the game and Komaeda’s actions/feelings during that time.

Relationships

As Komaeda says himself, “I have no parents, no siblings, no relatives… Not even friends or acquaintances… Because of my self-righteous thoughts, everyone distanced themselves from me. I was fine with that while I was still healthy, but it’s quite lonely to die alone… Now that I’m on the verge of death, I’ve finally realized what I’ve wanted all along: somebody’s love.” (x)

He tries to play it off as though that was just something he read in a book, but it’s clear that he’s telling the truth, and just panicked about everything he admitted (although Hinata doesn’t pick up on that).

Komaeda is either afraid to get close to people because of his luck, or because he hasn’t been close with another person before, or a combination of the two.

Regardless of this fact, Komaeda still develops some very special feelings for Hinata

This is because Hinata is the first person to really try and understand him. For Komaeda, that’s extremely significant, as he’s been alone this whole time.

He comments on how he feels that he and Hinata are “similar” in some way multiple times throughout the game

At the beginning of the game, he is the only person to stay behind and look after Hinata when he faints

In chapter three, when he has the lying disease, Komaeda says “I’m all alone with Hinata-kun… Spending time with you is just… sheer torture.” and “Yeah, go away. I don’t want to see your face anymore” ...which means he feels the opposite. (x)

In chapter four, when Komaeda is about to read the file from the final dead room, his first thought is “Right… if I look at these profiles, I can find Hinata-kun’s hidden talent. He’ll be so excited! Yahoo! Even something like me was able to help out!” (x)

In his last free time event, he says the famous line “Please, don’t forget… From the bottom of my heart… I am truly in love with the hope that sleeps inside you.” Although I do not remember the exact phrases, I do know that a translator pointed out how Komaeda used an intense version of ‘love’ here that made it seem as though he was confessing, and then backing out. (x)

He has a terrified “despair” sprite that is only used when he thinks about Hinata hating him in the “shot through the heart” event (x)

He talks about going back to his “love nest” with Hinata (x)

Not to mention the events at the end of Dangan Island, where Komaeda, after receiving the bad luck of “finding hope inside himself”, decides he can finally ask Hinata to be his friend.

Also, Komaeda’s character song talks about how he “wants to love and understand him more than anyone else”

Enoshima Junko

(WARNING: Emotional abuse mention below)

Komaeda talks about having mixed feelings for Junko; it’s even implied that he may hate and “love” her at the same time

My personal theory on this is that he feels this way because aside from dragging him into despair, Junko also showed him a certain amount of affection

Junko would have known that Komaeda is not close to anyone, and would have used that to her advantage

Since no one has really shown Komaeda affection, it would have frightened and confused him a great deal to have her treat him in such a fashion, especially since she’s everything he despises

She manipulated his vulnerability to her advantage, and thus his twisted “love” for her was born

I’d like to point out that the person who supports this theory is actually Monaca

Monaca imitates Junko a great deal during DR:AE and even reveals herself to be working toward becoming the “second Junko Enoshima”

It follows that this young child would have learned all of her “tactics” from Junko herself. Although her father and brother are by no means reputable people, Junko is undoubtedly the one who taught Monaca a great deal about spreading despair and manipulating others

And what does Monaca do when Nagisa begins to question her?

She reacts by kissing him, multiple times.

I believe this is something she learned to do by watching Junko do it to Komaeda

Of course, this is all just my theory, but it was a small thing I picked up on that seemed to flow with my idea of Junko’s relationship with Komaeda.

Chapter One Breakdown

Komaeda’s “pre-trial” personality is an accurate reflection of his personality, and was not “faked”

However, there is a clear difference between his “pre-trial” and “post-trial” selves. Why is that?

For one thing, he came into contact with Monokuma and was told of the situation he was in, which acted as a “trigger” of sorts

This is Komaeda’s chance to see “true hope”, and he believes he is a dying man, so this is probably his only chance. Even if he does not get to “see” true hope, he wants to be sure that it is born

However, I don’t think he went about his plan in the way most people think

Komaeda’s plan, from the beginning, was not to “get Togami killed” or even to “get Teruteru killed” or “kill one of his classmates”

From the beginning, it was “to kill himself and start the mutual killing”

I say this because Komaeda’s original plan involved hiding the knife under a table and using it to stab someone

We know how he planned on finding the knife, but how was he planning on finding anyone else in the utter darkness of that closed-off room?

Sure, he could follow their voices, but surely they’d scream and alert everyone as to what was happening

And besides, how would he have avoided getting blood on himself?

Komaeda is too smart to come up with a half-assed plan that has a bunch of holes like that, so I disregard “Komaeda aimed to kill one of his classmates” as an option.

Instead, “Komaeda was aiming to kill himself” works much better.

It is unlikely that the other students would have figured out that Komaeda was the culprit if he was the one who ended up dying, and Komaeda is all about pushing his classmates to find difficult truths in trials

Well then, what was that thing with Teruteru, you ask?

Komaeda’s initial plan was to kill himself. However, things worked out in his favor, so he included Teruteru in his plan.. Which became “to have Teruteru kill him”

If he killed himself and the others made it through the trial, that would have meant that they realized he was the culprit. And there’s no way to guarantee that his suicide would start the mutual killing

So he allowed Teruteru to see him setting up the knife, told him his plan, and even gave Teruteru a way to kill him (by telling him about the passageway under the floor)

This way, he could ensure that the mutual killing would start, and that he’d be the victim

Yes, this means, he realized either Teruteru or the other kids would be killed

But remember, Komaeda is aiming for “true hope” at this time, and because of his dementia, his morals/judgement have become confused

He believes that this sacrifice, whoever it ends up being, will be for the greater good

Of course, something happens that he doesn’t expect: Togami thwarts his plan, and is killed in the process

Komaeda is not unaffected by this. He still mourns their loss along with the others.

But because of his luck cycle and habit of staying upbeat and positive in hard times, he comes off as not caring (not his fault)

Those with dementia do tend to have problems with empathy, that much is true. So that probably also played into how Komaeda was willing to watch two friends die and still look forward (x)

The point I’m trying to make is that, although Komaeda was willing to sacrifice at least one of his classmates, it doesn’t mean he has no empathy at all or that he’s doing all of this without reason

He believes that the “good luck” that came out of Togami and Teruteru’s deaths turned out to be his ability to see the rest of the mutual killings, and therefore, his chance to see ultimate hope

The Change in Komaeda from Chapter 4 to 5

It is during the fourth chapter that Komaeda discovers the truth of his classmates’ nature

That is, he discovers that they are all “Super High-School Level Despair”

For Komaeda, this is probably the worst luck that he could have ever run into

He idolizes hope to an obsessive degree, and his classmates are the ultimate expression of hope (in his eyes)

So for them to be “Super High-School Level Despair”...

This explains the change in his attitude all by itself, I think

However, I’ll make a few things clear, to ensure we’re all on the same page

Komaeda decides to kill everyone in chapter five. Not because he has malicious intent, or because he’s acting without reason, but because he knows his classmates are “Super High-School Level Despair”.

He is willing to die to rid the world of “SHSL Despair”, not only because of his poor health, but because of how much he despises despair.

(I can’t find this part in the game right now, but) after he learns who his classmates are, he “takes back” what he said before about being willing to die in the mutual killing game (by one of his classmates’ hand).

He takes that back because, he doesn’t actually want to die without reason. He wants his death to mean something, at least

To him, dying at the hands of “Super High-School Level Despair” is repulsive and not what he wants

However, dying to save the world from “Super High-School Level Despair”...

He is more than willing to go through with that

He puts himself through one of the most painful deaths just so that he can accomplish this. You don’t have to agree with his methods or morals, but you do have to admit that this was not because of malicious intent for the world

Komaeda Becomes “SHSL Despair”

DR3 is poorly written and disregards a lot of worldbuilding in SDR2, so we’ll just ignore it completely for this section (SDR2 did not set up the students to have become despair by simply “being hypnotized/brainwashed”).

It is heavily implied that Komaeda joined up with “Super High-School Level Despair” in order to take them down from the inside. (I forget where this happens in-game, but if I find it, I’ll edit it in. For now, my best guess is that it was during the chapter six trial, or from another game/anime).

However, Junko knew this, and took advantage of that… and so, Komaeda fell into despair in the process

It probably didn’t take much, and honestly, it’s likely that he was already at that point before he joined SHSL Despair, or at least close, given his past and situation.

This is supported by Komaeda’s behavior during DR:AE. He’s virtually similar to how he was in SDR2, correct? Well, he was definitely in despair during DR:AE, so it follows that as his behavior was similar during SDR2, he was in despair/close to being in despair during that time.

I think this is important because it shows another layer of Komaeda’s character and sets him apart slightly

Misconceptions

Is Komaeda a stalker?

No. He leaves Hinata alone when Hinata does not want to be around him. I have no idea where this idea came from.

Is Komaeda a yandere?

No. I have no idea where this idea came from, either. But Komaeda has never exhibited “yandere” behavior. He respects Hinata’s space, and even when others try to get close to him he never does anything about it.

Did Komaeda do nothing wrong?

No, he did many things wrong. He made a ton of mistakes, and he knows it. That doesn’t mean he’s a horrible person, but it does mean he should be held accountable for his actions.

Does Komaeda get off on hope?

No. Please stop.

Is Komaeda ugly?

No. Source: me looking at Komaeda and seeing how cute he is.

Is Komaeda beyond redemption?

No. I hope that this is clear because of what I have already explained previously, but in case it’s not, I’d like to remind you that the other SDR2 students committed crimes/atrocities that were just as bad or even worse than what Komaeda did. The only difference is that Komaeda was closer to despair before coming to Kibougamine than they were, and that is because of the trauma he was put through. If you can forgive Hinata and Sonia and everyone else, you can forgive Komaeda.