#that reminded me a lot of the gamemakers' interference in the hunger games whenever things got 'too boring'

[oumakokichi]

This probably sounds random, but is it possible to maybe draw some parallels between ndrv3's games and hunger games? I know they were most likely not part of the inspiration, but still. Also I'm asking in part because of the Gifted System which, like the prison setting, is only mentioned once in the prologue and that's it. Is it possible that it has some connection to shsl hunt, maybe?

I don’t think it’s random, anon! When thinking about “a killinggame reality show” or more like “a killing game put on for sick entertainment,”the Hunger Games naturally comes to mind. Its rise into pop fiction as an iconof social and political commentary has been pretty impressive in recent years,and it’s true that the Hunger Games is now one of those names that’s almostimpossible for people to not know about on this kind of subject, in addition toBattle Royale and a few others.

I’m not sure if Kodaka intentionally borrowed from the HungerGames or not, considering it is western media we’re talking about, butconsidering how huge the craze got and the relative popularity of the movies(even if the movies missed the point of the books significantly…), it’s atleast possible. And even if it’s not the case, it’s still possible to draw someparallels regardless, because drawing parallels or differences between similarpoints in fiction is what analysis is all about!

In the Hunger Games, we have a pretty explicitly createdfuture dystopian society. The Capitol reigns supreme, the people there live inluxury and splendor with so much abundant excess that it’s absolutelymind-boggling, and meanwhile the people in the districts toil and struggle toget what they need for basic living necessities while providing labor. TheHunger Games themselves are a punishment and constant reminder of the districts’attempt at rebellion, and they have been continuing for so long that they arejust kind of accepted as a horrible but ordinary fact of life. They go unquestioned by the time Katniss is enteredinto them, because questioning the Capitol is precisely what the districts feelgot them into this mess in the first place.

Compared to ndrv3, we know relatively little aboutworld-building. Where the Hunger Games is meant as straightforwardsociopolitical commentary meets a tale of drama, action, and rebellion, ndrv3is clearly meant to have sociopolitical commentary as well, but also is on amuch more meta scale. The Hunger Games isn’t a mystery, it’s a linear storywith linear plot progression; ndrv3 is a mystery with meta elements.

We don’t know much about ndrv3’s world beyond what we canglean from remember lights, from Ouma’s and Tsumugi’s speeches, and from whatlittle bits and pieces the characters actually get to see and check with theirown two eyes. What we do know is that the outside world is pretty undeniablymessed up. Everything about the surface world being a hellish wasteland withalmost no capacity for living creatures seems to be pretty true.

Both the scene in Chapter 5, where the characters check thiswith their own two eyes, and the secret mini-game route ending where all thecharacters can go to the outside world without ever participating in thekilling game (if you can get through Platforming Hell for 10 Hours) give usinsight into the fact that when the door is open and the characters check withtheir own two eyes, the world they see is undeniably horrible. It’s “hell,” asthey emphasize many times.

We don’t get to see much beyond a CG or two of the sky onfire and the atmosphere and general worldview looking even worse than whenJunko’s Remnants of Despair were just causing anarchy and chaos, but the factthat the ndrv3 characters literally passed out unconscious suggests that it waseither a huge shock or the atmosphere was so bad they were literally runningout of clean oxygen before Ouma closed the door. So there’s no way around thefact that the outside world, the view that the characters are getting even inthe mini-game ending, is god-awful,no matter how Tsumugi tries to kind of dodge the issue or pretend otherwiselater on.

Most of what else we know besides this fact is closer toguesswork, because there’s an undeniable web of truth vs. lies in ndrv3, andtrying to distinguish facts from misleads is extremely tricky. But given whatTsumugi tells us in Chapter 6, we can at least try to guess at what might betrue.

The fact that the killing game is supposedly in its 53rdseason and that it’s undeniably a staple of “fiction” and “entertainment” is, Ithink, probably true. Given that ndrv3 deals with fiction vs. reality as itsoverarching theme, and given the ways in which fiction is shown to impactreality, I think the likelihood of the DR franchise existing in the ndrv3universe for propaganda and implementing a society in which this kind of sick,twisted entertainment is possible I very high.

Many people have questioned the ndrv3 ending by saying “howcould such a show be put in place,” “why would people like it or sign up forit,” etc., but I think the exact point of the show having gone on for so manyseasons is precisely to emphasize the fact that it’s become normalized. It’s not supposed to be anactual, legitimately “fun” show. There’s nothing fun at all about the horriblenature of the game they’re all in, as Ouma points out plenty of times. Thereason the show exists is precisely because ndrv3 society is likely very, very not normal, given the state of theoutside world. It’s a fair guess to make that, like with the Hunger Games,ndrv3 society is probably in some sort of post-apocalyptic state.

Things like killing games, torture, and brutality aren’ttaken as normal at first glance. No one looks at these things and enjoys them usually.The point of ndrv3 is that media itself can be used to normalize and influencesociety itself, and that anything,literally anything, can seem normal or a fact of everyday life when everydaylife is pretty much garbage all around.

I’ve made a few theories on what I think the truth of thendrv3 epilogue is, and I still think that a “mixture” of both Tsumugi’smastermind confession and the things we actually see in the remember lights andabout the SHSL Hunt are probably the best bet. If a catastrophe on the scale ofthe meteor shower really did happen, society was bound to be completely turnedupside down by it.

Given Miu’s lines in the prologue, talent likely does exist in the ndrv3 universe, evenif dr1 and sdr2 are either fictional or so far back in the past that they’resold and marketed as fictional stories for the sake of propaganda. Talentitself seems to be key here: either those with SHSL talents became so otheredand scapegoated by the rest of society that they were literally hunted down andforced into forgetting their talents, only to remember them again for the sakeof the show, or…well, my own theory is a little bit trickier.

But given how much emphasis there is on those without talentbeing “good for nothing” and literally people who “wouldn’t be missed” even ifthey were killed on screen, I feel like that sense of worthlessness and lack ofmotivation and will to live on is itself a very pivotal part of ndrv3. Thescenes with “Makoto” in Chapter 6 clearly illustrate that feeling isolated,feeling “lesser than” those around you, feeling completely, 100% disposable isa very central part of understanding what talent-based society does to people.

This has always been a thing in DR, teased at more subtly byNaegi’s hesitation that no one will like him or listen to him at Hope’s Peakbecause he got in based on a ticket raffle instead of any “real talent,” andthen brought far more into focus with Hinata in sdr2. There has always been asort of social commentary in the DR franchise about the societal pressure toconform to ridiculous and extreme ideas of success and talent in Japan, andgiven that that’s been a core thing Kodaka likes to keep coming back to, I feellike it’s more natural to guess that ndrv3 is about a bunch of “normies” forcedinto these situations by people withSHSL talents, rather than that they all had real SHSL talents the entire timebut were persecuted and hunted down by…well, normal people.

If ndrv3’s killing game show is truly something that hasbecome as normalized and constant a part of society and “entertainment” as theHunger Games, then it follows that it would also be intentionally normalizedand that propaganda for it would exist specifically as some kind of “punishment.”

In a post-apocalyptic society where talent is everything andonly the best and the brightest can reach the top, those who “refuse” to adhereto these ridiculous extremes or objective are either caught up in the killinggame willingly, because they themselves have bought into the whole “talentlesspeople have worthless lives, it’d be better if I could have even a chance atbeing talented” propaganda, or forcibly, because really, whether they knowabout the participation date or all the details of what they’re getting into isa small fact.

Most of this is, of course, just guesswork and theorizing,because the ending of ndrv3 is so intentionally open-ended where the HungerGames’ had to come to a definite conclusion in order to reach the end ofKatniss’ story, and the end of the rebellion per se. But I feel like there’sstill plenty of room to view the two series as having a considerable amount ofsimilarities.

Both of them are undeniably about the harsh reality of aworld in which children are put on the spot to suffer, for instance. Ndrv3talks bluntly and honestly about the brutality of killing games and those whowatch them for entertainment. Ouma in particular loves to call out the audiencewatching the broadcast for this, saying frequently how he’s sure they’re “havingso much fun,” talking about how they “probably can’t help themselves.” TheHunger Games has this very similar vibe when it comes to the Capitol: media andentertainment is such a constant, everyday part of normalizing and propagatingviolence that many of the citizens in the Capitol don’t even have badintentions, they’re just complacent.

While the Hunger Games undeniably criticizes citizens withinthe Capitol for being complicit in the system of violence by sitting by andwatching the games and doing absolutely nothing to change the status quo, ndrv3takes it a little further, and makes the audience of the broadcast and theplayer themselves feel distinctly uncomfortable, forcing them to ask themselveswhy a killing game is a necessary form of entertainment at all.

The intended target audience is different, and by virtue ofbeing less meta, the Hunger Games’ message is taken as less controversialbecause it’s not really aimed at the reader per se—but the basic intent isthere. Enjoyment and consumption of violent media is questioned, and there’s adistinct feeling in both series that sitting back and partaking in these thingswithout thinking critically is a mistake.

To the people watching the games, whether it’s the HungerGames or the killing game broadcast, everything is just a story on the screen.The audience is encouraged to get invested in who they want to survive,potential relationship dynamics between characters, and the drama and suspenseof wondering just what’s going to happen next. They can sit back, think of itas a fun ride, and ultimately, it doesn’t really affect them at the end of theday.

But to the participants themselves, the ride is very, veryreal, and the impact and meaning changes drastically, because they themselvesare living it all out. What the audience might think of as a casual orinteresting show with no real lasting impression on them is actually theirlives at stake. Something “fictional” can actually be very real to the peoplein question going through it, and to say that fiction has no effect on media isto ignore that media can be used to provoke very real, lasting consequences insociety.

This was really fun to write about, and I hope I got mypoints across! Whether or not Kodaka actually intended to reference the HungerGames with ndrv3, it’s entirely possible to still draw conclusions between thetwo of them. Considering they both deal with very similar themes of violence inmedia, of a complacent society which consumes that entertainment, and with apotentially post-apocalyptic society which itself caused this upheaval andsocial change, it’s only natural that people would notice these similarities andwant to discuss them.

And well, given how frequently DR references or borrows fromother series, I’d say the possibility of it being intentional isn’t zero, atthe very least.