#the prologue gives so much room to theorize and it's fun

[oumakokichi]

not meta really, but do you have any headcanons for what the v3 kids were like personalitywise before the brainwashing?? we see a little of them in the prologue but it's very vague, and i haven't seen any headcanons aside from my own so i'm interested in seeing what you think

I have a few, yes! Coming up with headcanons for what theywere like beforehand is really fun in my opinion. I know a lot of people wereupset by the twist because they felt like either they “never really got to knowthe real characters,” or else that the characters we see in-game had theirpersonalities “completely made opposite” from how they were beforehand, but I don’treally feel like that was the case.

I’ve gone over it in a few posts, but I’m pretty sure thatwith most of the characters, their core personalities were definitely leftintact. Ouma was an exception to the rule, and Tsumugi attempted to twist himfurther than anyone else, specifically because she wanted him to be the bad guyin her game—a perfectly manipulated, amenable pawn of despair to her plans soshe could set herself and everyone else up to be “Hope” and Ouma would be “Despair.”But as for the others, who weren’t supposed to be cast into a villainous rolefrom the start, there really wasn’t any need for her to try to twist them thatfar, and I think a lot of their basic interests, hobbies, inclinations, etc.are all very similar to how we see them behave in-game.

The fact that their given likes and dislikes don’t alwaysmatch up perfectly with their given talents is proof of this. Despite thebrainwashing and the fake talents, their actual personalities, and the thingsthey either like or don’t like, are still theirs.Angie, for instance, really doesn’t like moisture—aninteresting thing to note, considering in-game she’s portrayed as being from amost likely tropical island, and is an artist who works with paints and ink, noless. And Tenko’s likes include nunchakus, which have absolutely nothing to dowith aikido but sound very fitting for someone who perhaps before entering thegames was just interested in martial arts in general.

What I think was changed about them for the game per se wasmostly what they wanted out of the game directly. Tsumugi is an otaku at heart;she’s very open about this, really. Even once she’s been outed as themastermind, it’s very clear that she views absolutely everything through a lensof fiction, and this includes wanting certain “tropes” or “genre twists”applied to various characters within the game. This means that she’s reallyjust going to find it boring if she gives them all what they want directly whenthey audition.

And so characters like Saihara, who ask to be a “cooldetective who can get away with closed room murder tricks,” are “subverted” byher instead, and given a backstory based on insecurity, tragedy, and the fearof ruining everyone’s lives with the very thing that a detective seeks most:the truth. But at heart, Saihara is clearly the same person. He wants to be adetective, he enjoys mysteries. He has a natural curiosity about the worldaround him and he likes doing armchair detective reasoning more than anything.He loves novels—and it’s easy to tell in hindsight that he really loved the DRnovels all along.

I’ve talked before about how even seeing that some of the characterssigned up for the audition willingly or knowingly while talking about killingpeople doesn’t necessarily mean that they were a horrible person or a bully. Itall depends on what society is actually like in the ndrv3 universe—and everythingwe know about the outside world and how society must have rebuilt itself afterthose catastrophes suggests that it’s awful. If the killing game reality showhas been going for 53 seasons and is a deeply engrained pastime andentertainment hobby, that’s not something that would ever occur in a normal society. It sounds much moreHunger Games-like to me, where the idea that this is “normal” and that thesekids (kids without talent) “deserve it” is so inherently beaten into societythat it goes unquestioned, even by the kids who sign up for it themselves.

Therefore even for characters like Momota, who was shownsaying on his tape that he wanted to kill people and win the game for money, it’simportant to remember that Tsumugi wanted to use those audition tapes for shockvalue. In my opinion, she wanted to use the tapes to create the impression thatthe survivors were all drastically different people than who they used to beback when they auditioned, because that would be the thing that would breaktheir spirits and convince them that they were little more than “fictionalexistences.”

In any case, a character like Momota, who was actually sickfrom before, would have more reason than most to enter a killing gamewillingly. He was already going to die anyway, and knew he had nothing to lose,and the idea of winning a game so clearly meant for entertainment and prestigeand “looking cool” was probably appealing under those circumstances.

My headcanons for most of the characters is that theyprobably acted very similarly, but with a few subversions. Tenko, for instance,I could easily see being the same very excitable, very easy-to-read emotionalsort of person. I think she must have really had a love for watching martialarts, but didn’t really know a lot about them, and that explains why she wasgiven a title like SHSL Aikido Specialist when she really just thinks nunchakuslook cool. But she was still a person who wants to “be strong” and wants to “protectothers”; she just didn’t always know how to go about it the best way, just asshe doesn’t always know how to do so with Himiko.

Kaede is fairly similar. The Kaede we see in her ownaudition tape describes herself as a cynic and someone who can’t really trustothers easily. Considering the bleakness of the outside world and society inndrv3, and what we see of Kaede’s flashbacks to being kidnapped in theprologue, this fits pretty well. But also she undeniably wanted to be a leaderfrom the start. She wanted to be someone who could trust others, and inspirethem, and serve as a hopeful, reliable sort of figure. This means that even ifshe felt actually putting it into practice might have been impossible for her,because of how cynical she was, she still had those feelings there all along.Kaede would never have made for the “perfect protagonist” figure that she wasif she hadn’t had that kind of potential in her all along.

Miu I definitely see as having been extremely similar to howshe is in-game. Most likely she went into her audition specifically asking tobe some “high and mighty inventor,” and she wanted to be able to invent supercool stuff all the time and have everyone think she was awesome and incredible.But since Miu is ultimately a character who’s almost all bark and no bite, andwho backs down quickly when given the same treatment she tries to force onto others,even in-game she retains this sort of quality, and her genius inventing abilitiesare still subverted by the fact that she really lacks basic common sense abouta lot of other things.

In the prologue, we see her saying things like “Why’re youtalking like someone who’s got talent?!”, implying that talent clearly existsin ndrv3 society and that those without it are regarded pretty lowly, or likethey shouldn’t be giving their opinions about things. And this is definitelyhow the Miu we see in-game acts a lot, so it follows her thought process.

You probably get the idea—most of the characters I thinkfollow this sort of pattern where how they would behave or talk to others isreally similar, except that perhaps they were slightly more or less excitableor confident or jaded. And that’s pretty normal, actually, in my opinion.Rather than thinking of them as entirely separate from their in-game selves,with most of them it feels a lot more like comparing the same person but withfive or ten years of experience in-between, because experience can also changea person and how they think without changing who they are at their core.

With Ouma…the question is a little more complicated, becauseOuma’s situation was more complicated. He was given the most messed up talentout of the bunch, because Tsumugi wanted him to be her pawn more than anything.We don’t see much of him in the prologue to compare to, either—he has exactlyone speaking line, and all we can really glean is that he looks really, reallynervous, and that he has never heard of himself (or the others) having any “sealedtalents” which the Monokumerz keep talking about.

Tsumugi confirms that his DICE group actually existed, andthat they did “laughably small crimes,” meaning that they most likely wentaround pulling pranks and maybe petty theft at most. I’d say this confirms thatOuma has definitely always been mischievous at least, but certainlywell-intentioned.

If my own theory that ndrv3’s society in general is basedaround those with SHSL Talents in the real world perpetuating fiction like DRand running the killing game show in order to take things out on those withouttalent is true, then I would bet Ouma and his DICE group were probably a realpain in the ass. A group of kids running around and pulling pranks andgenerally making these very talented people at the top of society in thissituation where talent is everything and it’s all up to “survival of thefittest” must have seemed like a real slap in the face, moreso if the wholepoint of DICE was that “no one ever got hurt or killed.”

My own headcanon (meaning no one has to agree with it) isthat Ouma looks so shocked and nervous in the prologue precisely because he’dbeen getting away with all these kinds of pranks and jokes before, andeverything seemed like a game and everything was going fine—up until he thoughthe “got caught.” Then suddenly he realized that he was in really hot water and that something definitely wasn’t right aboutthe situation he was in.

His personality being “imbued with despair” even feels alittle more intentionally like a punishment than anything that’s given to theother characters. If he and his DICE group had been making a point of playingthese pranks, getting away with these harmless crimes in order to point andlaugh at a talent-based society that was based around slaughtering off thosewithout talent because really, these super-talented people are not as smart asthey think they are, well…that’s a subversive message.

And it would make sense that Tsumugi and the producers wouldwant to make sure that he was the villain, and that he was given thispersonality and role based around the idea of “hurting others” and “getting offto human suffering,” because that’s what she wanted him to be. That’s whatJunko was, after all. But it speaks a lot to Ouma’s core values as a person,that even when that’s something he was twisted into and to some degree,something he did believe he’d become, he still maintained his hatred forkilling and suffering. He knew thingswere off about the killing game, and about his own memories and talent becauseof how much dissonance there was between what he could remember and the disgusthe actually felt when he saw human suffering.

Anyway, these arejust my headcanons! This got a bit long but it was really fun to talk about. Iknow a lot of people are still tripped up by the misinformation that thecharacters’ personalities are all “completely opposite” from how they werebefore, but knowing that that’s not really the case gives a lot more room forspeculation and ideas based on what we do see of them in-game, and I find itreally fun.

[edgarbright]

Kyle’s Route part 9

Initial ramblings! I’m 1/3 the way through now!

Spoilers from Edgar's route, Ray's route, Fenrir's route

Catching up from Sunday's reading! This one also includes a bit more theorizing.

They started the part right where part 8 ended -- Kyle saying he'll feel lonely without Alice! MY HEART! And OK, yeah, he brings up the alcohol and losing his drinking buddy but!! It still feels like he was sad for Alice. This is supported by the fact he insists that he's just her guard a moment later, because Edgar already revealed all in the last part. We know Kyle's more considerate than he wants to let on.

Sharing one drink = official Kyle's drinking buddy status. God I love this alcoholic. I love him so much. Please someone, somewhere, save him from his addiction. Alice is having a change of heart for him. She lies awake in her room next to Lancelot’s, unable to fall asleep, and reflects on all the people she’s met. The image of Kyle pops up and "(There's someone here who truly wants to protect me. When I first met him, I thought he was just an overbearing drunk. But now that I've gotten to know Kyle more, when I'm with him I--)"

And the best choice option is "Like him" and awww!! "(I like him, I think. People as kind as him are rare in this world.)"

"Whenever he looked at me with that soft smile on his face, I felt kind of restless. But also happy."

AWWW!! I respect the fact she thinks she can't stay with the Red Army, but it's irking that she's so instant on going back to the Black Army. I'd rather she just want to go back home to the Land of Reason if anything. Or go to Blanc, even.

We jump over to the Black Army and here we get a bizarre game error where the wrong name pops up. All of a sudden Fenrir is talking about some girl named Andromeda being taken by the Red Army and I'm just ???? How many girls fell through that hole LOL

Also the Black Army is so wild. The report is Alice is safe and Luka is all, "I'll never forgive [the Red Army] for treating her like this." Like OK there, buddy, did you want them to throw some torture in there or something?? And... the Black Army literally stormed the gates of the Red Army HQ in the prologue. They always forget that was a thing that happened. Like the Black Army is just as antagonistic to the Red Army as the RA is to the BA. I wish the BA showed some self-awareness that their lack of caution is what got Alice kidnapped in the first place. And it would be moronic of the Red Army to just hand her back over.

If the BA ask for Alice back, I pray they have something to offer in exchange. But considering past routes, I won’t keep my hopes up...

The translator changed the name of the "Day That Went Dark' to the "Day Lost to Darkness." I’ll be sticking with the former name that’s been around for months.

BUT WHAT'S SUPER ALARMING IS

Ray: "That sea of blood from years ago-- I've dreamt of it countless times since."

I'M SORRY BUT WHAT!? A sea of blood!? I do NOT recall that being described in Ray OR Fenrir's routes. One thing that I struggled with regarding this event is how VAGUE it is. Neither Ray nor Fenrir describe it properly. Some dudes attacked, Ray used magic, there were bodies on the floor. THE END! But wait , did people die? Did kids die?? One of Ray's endings has him visiting a cemetery on the cliff side of Black Territory and it SEEMED like those were people he killed but even then it was very, very vague.

Even in Edgar's route, Edgar comes out in saying he's killed people. He's had to murder people. He even admits Alice found him the morning after he killed someone. So why can’t they tell us clearly about what happened to Ray at school? Will explicitly saying Ray KILLED people not make him a good guy anymore? Why are we hearing about this sea of blood months later in KYLE'S route?

Although this sudden explicitness is a huge red flag that this event should have a connection to Kyle. Kyle's a year younger than Ray and Fenrir. Maybe he was one of the students involved? Or he saw the event and was hushed up about it? Maybe the horror of it drove him to drink?? It might explain why he rushed through his education after seeing so many kids hurt and killed. But a few parts ago it was hinted that maybe him becoming the 7 of Hearts wasn't a guarantee. I see two paths where this leading and it's going to be incredibly sad backstory if one of them is true...

I LOVED KYLE BUTTING INTO LANCELOT'S ROOM. Lancelot's got 0 patience for it but he still let's Kyle do whatever. Kyle giving him the four-day-old note to remind and threaten him (lmao) to come to his check-up. KYLE STICKING A FLYER FOR THE CHECK-UP ON THE WALL BY LANCELOT'S BED LMFAO. Kyle's 48202x "And one more thing" and Lancelot's 48202x "What now???"

Kyle understands Lancelot so well it feels SO GOOD. Kyle's casual caring feels SO GOOD. When he tells Lancelot to eat breakfast tomorrow because others are worrying feels SO GOOD.

Lancelot after Kyle has left: "That man just loves meddling where he's not needed. His concern can be-- overwhelming at times."

YES, PLEASE OVERWHELM LANCELOT WITH TLC! Kyle and Lancelot's relationship is SO GODDAMN GOOD!! This route is giving me exactly what I wanted! While Kyle doesn't know what's going on with Lancelot, he cares in a way he's able, and he's looking out for others even while he horrendously and publicly neglects himself. I said this before but Jonah has Lancelot on such a high pedestal that he can't understand him properly. Edgar's currently being abused on the side by his uncle so he's not really in a position to go above and beyond to help anyone. Zero is a very good boy who wouldn't normally get into altercations with Lancelot anyway. But Kyle is different. Why is Kyle different? Why does Lancelot let Kyle get away with everything?

I'm predicting it has to do with Kyle's past. They joined the army together--Kyle was just 16, just a kid, while Lancelot was 22.

Not so fun fact: Kyle joined the army at the same age as when Harr was exiled from Cradle. 16. Both too young. In regards to Kyle, the Day That Went Dark would have happened when he was 14 (the same age as when Harr joined the Magic Tower!) So two years between the event and his graduation. I can’t recall if it’s stated he graduated at 16 as a doctor (that would be incredible? and improbable even for a studious workhouse but whatever, you go, Kyle!!) but he's clearly a good doctor now. And Lancelot would have seen all that. The trials. The struggles. And Kyle’s turn to alcoholism.

[sanctferum]

Dangan Ronpa V3, I just spent several hours at the casino edition

I got like a ridiculous amount of monocoins from the slot machine, bought a weird key and some skills, and fucked off

Hotel time!

Kumasutra...and 2 guests can stay there at a time...this is a love hotel.

Shuichi decides not to investigate. Good job.

Keebo and Tenko are in front of the plant-covered door. Tenko’s opening up a little to Shuichi.

Using the ocarina caused the plants to whither away, revealing a pool. The Monokubs explain that schools and pools go together like...ok that was an odd metaphor. No idea what that means.

Well that’s a pool alright...it’s only filled up halfway, though.

Tenko’s excited but then she remembers she has no idea how to swim...Keebo would love to swim as well, but he’s worried he’d sink to the bottom. Hmmm...it’s never been said that he’s waterproof, so swimming might be a really bad idea for him...

Tenko is worried that if Keebo was on a boat and he fell off, he’d be stuck at the bottom of the ocean. He’d have to live under a rock! Or under a pineapple. Good thing he’s not a cartoon character, huh?

Oh, yeah, the water pressure would break him as he sunk.

The swimsuits that go along with this pool are likely in the warehouse. Tenko is worried that the guys will steal any girls swimsuits hanging in there. Keebo is thinking about using inner tubes to float, but Shuichi warns that he’ll just end up looking like the Michelin Man.

There’s also a set of rules. Swimming is prohibited at night-time...according to the Monokubs, even touching the water in the pool at night is forbidden. Totally will be involved in the next case...

The pool look half-filled up because it’s really deep. Really?

Monophanie and Monotaro don’t mind Monokid’s destruction, because he was an asshole. Monosuke is still sore about the whole thing, and also is most likely gonna be the next one to go.

The pool is 82 feet in length and 39 feet wide, and the poolside is 13 feet on each end, and the right and left sides are 8 feet each. Gee, could they be giving us this information in preparation for case 2? Hmmmm. I wonder.

There’s a window up above the pool. The gym is probably on the other side of it. There’s also a window on the other side of the pool, which noticeably has no barbed wire on it. What’s on the other side, then?

Keebo is pondering “his” gender, if “he” has one at all...interesting.

Leaving the gym, we run into Angie. Has she gotten the flashlight working?

Despite what she says, she probably has no idea what it does...we gotta go to the gym now.

Talking to Tenko on the way there triggers an event! Later on we’ll set up a parasol for her.

Angie has called everyone to the gym to pray to Atua...ok, Miu has no patience for that. Let’s get straight to the flashlight.

Angie asked someone for help with the flashlight. And right on queue, Monokuma appears.

Gonta has some bad experience with a clingy lady in his past?

Yeah, thought as much! The flashlight’s the Flashback Light from the prologue.

Monokuma is finally bringing up the concept of lost memories...how did the Ultimates end up in the school? That might be connected.

Kirumi asks how exactly Monokuma took the memories in question, and Monokuma does not explain. Instead, Monokuma starts to explain just how the flashlight works, but then he gets bored and leaves.

Miu thinks it’s fake, but concedes that their whole situation is bizarre enough that it could be possible. Tsumugi thinks the flashlight must work like the machines from Men in Black, but Maki isn’t buying it. Comparing a movie to real life is stupid. Too bad you guys aren’t in real life, you’re in a video game!

Everyone but Kaito is nervous, but Kaito starts talking about how doing nothing won’t help them, so they decide to give it a try.

Angie turns on the light and the world turns white...we see the same sequence as in the prologue, but with Shuichi instead of Kaede, and then...

Shuichi had been running away. From what? The Ultimate Hunt?

Yeah. But what IS the Ultimate Hunt?

People with Ultimate talents were hunted down. With capture almost inevitable, Shuichi threw away his talent and became a normal guy. He accomplished this by erasing his own memories...because being captured would be a fate worse than death.

That device...it’s the same one from Kaede’s flashback...

There was a facility, somewhere...a facility that had developed a new technology, that could suppress memories. And the memories Shuichi suppressed were those of him being the Ultimate Detective.

But no one can remember what the Ultimate Hunt was, or anything other than it existing...

As the Ultimates struggle to remember, another memory comes into Shuichi’s mind. In that memory, Shuich says...that he doesn’t want to live. He’d rather die, with everyone else...

What could the context behind those words be?

Ryoma theorizes that the reason everyone here is here is because they were caught by the Ultimate Hunt after all. Which means whoever organized the Ultimate Hunt might be whoever organized the killing game...

Kirumi was in the dining hall with Shuichi and Kaede when Rantaro mentioned the Ultimate Hunt, right? Which is why she’s realizing that his death is worse than just a person dying...Rantaro knew something, and now they’ll never know what it is.

Monokuma appears! He has some connection to the Ultimate Hunt, in all likelihood. But he refuses to say what that connection could be. But he does say that he has a specific goal...to make the Ultimates participate in the killing game.

Though everyone is startled by remembering the killing game, Kaito also reminds them that Kaede wouldn’t want them to kill each other. Kokichi finds that rather boring, though. And if there is a way out...he suggests that the mastermind could tell them. And then he claims the mastermind is among the 14 living Ultimates. Any attempts to work together will end painfully. Then he runs off before Kaito can punch him.

Ryoma thinks Kokichi might not plan to survive until the end, and neither does he. Then he leaves as well.

Kirumi attempts to defuse the tension by making a meal for everyone. Then we return to our room.

Hidden Monokuma tutorial? It’s a bit late for that, it’s already chapter 2.

Before we can get to free time, it’s time to set up a parasol for Tenko! Kirumi’s already set up a beach chair and table for her.

The girls are back in town, and they’re thanking Kirumi for her hard work. I guess she did do a lot more work than Shuichi.

Tenko doesn’t want Shuichi to join in on the fun, but Keebo is ok apparently, cause robots don’t have inherent genders.

Kirumi keeps offering to make whatever Keebo wants to eat or drink. There is a slight logical flaw in this plan.

CG art of Kirumi giving Tenko an oil massage, Angie and Himiko relaxing on beach suits and Shuichi and Keebo standing the background.

Free time!

Let’s check out Miu’s lab!

The only thing examinable is the bed. But I spy a hidden Monokuma!

Found another one near Maki’s lab! She’s still guarding the entrance to said lab...

Well, can’t find any others, so...next time! Free time, Shuichi version!

[oumakokichi]

I feel like Saihara won't be well-received in English fandom. For obvious reasons, but because he's, as you say, a character who's weak and needs to rely on others constantly. Needing help sometimes is okay, but a character who always needs other more competent people to help them and who never gives back can be frustrating. Thoughts?

I think Saihara will be slightly more popular with thewestern fanbase once the localization is out, but mainly due to the fact thatthere will be less misinformation going around. A lot of the reasons I’ve seenpeople have for hating Saihara stem from wrongful assumptions that he’s a “Naegi/Hinataclone” even when he’s… fairly dissimilar from both of them, really.

I do agree that Saihara will probably never be as popular inthe west as he is in Japan, though. Personally, I like Saihara quite a lot as aprotag. Out of all the protagonists, he’s my second-favorite, with only Hinataranking higher. But I think his popularity will always be somewhat stinted bythe bait-and-switch with Kaede, which left a lot of people with a negativeimpression from the start (even though the bait-and-switch was more the faultof Kodaka as a writer, rather than Saihara’s fault).

I also think the western fanbase by and large simply prefersthe shounen protagonist archetype more. Characters like Saihara, who are weak,anxious, and dependent, are often harshly seen as “annoying” or “pathetic.”Saihara is by no means a self-insert protagonist, and he’s not supposed to be—butmore often than not, people playing a visual novel (and Danganronpa is prettymuch a visual novel with extra gameplay elements, as Kodaka has said severaltimes himself) mistake anyprotagonist for a self-insert protagonist.

Playing as a weak, cowardly, or hesitant protagonist causesmany people to reflect on the weaker, worse characteristics of themselves, andusually means they have a harder time warming up to the character than if theyexhibited traits that are seen as universally positive, like bravery, charisma,extroversion, etc.

However, it’s precisely because of Saihara’s flaws as acharacter that I’ve come to love him. For me, personally, Saihara is arguablythe most relatable out of all the protagonists—because I too know what it’slike to struggle with issues of dependency and questioning my own judgment. Assalty as I still am about the bait-and-switch, and as much as I resent a femalecharacter being fridged off for a male character’s development so early intothe game, I simply can’t deny the fact that from a thematic standpoint, Saiharais the most fitting protagonist for agame like ndrv3.

Ndrv3 is a game that challenges not only the characterswithin it but even the player themselves to constantly reevaluate theirassumptions and worldview. Because of its inherent focus on truth vs. lies,where to draw the line between those two things, and which one of the two ismore “correct,” there’s a constant sense of uncertainty throughout the entiregame. The prologue is uncertain. The epilogue is uncertain. The validity ofeverything that was said in the final trial, of the characters’ memories andtalents and backstories, of our judgment as the player in past cases, is allcalled into question.

We, as players, are tasked with solving the mystery forourselves, going back over the game and picking up on the clues andforeshadowing that Kodaka left, and trying to come up with our own theories. Ndrv3is all about the mystery genre, not only from the perspective of individualmurder cases in each trial but with the entire state of the outside world, thekilling game show, and even the characters themselves.

Therefore, the protagonist being a detective makes perfectsense. Saihara is a detective whose job by definition is to find and expose thetruth, but whose past experiences have left him traumatized by that. More thananyone, Saihara understands that the truth is painful and can be used as aweapon; he feels that he singlehandedly ruined a man’s life all because hesolved a case by accident. And yet, as a detective, he still has a naturalcuriosity that causes him to subconsciously seek these things out. He’s afraidof repeating past mistakes, and yet he can’t quite let the truth go.

This is an intentional allusion to the role of a detectivein any mystery novel: more than once, it’s been lampshaded that “the detective issomeone who brings disaster with them wherever they go.” No matter where adetective goes, a case (usually a murder, specifically) is sure to follow. Thisrole is something we’ve seen Kirigiri embrace as an inherent part of who she isin dr1 after struggling to find her memories and her purpose, but with Saihara,it’s much, much harder for him to come to terms with it. A detective who isafraid of the truth already fails to meet the criteria of a “real detective”from the start, in his opinion—and it is fascinatingto see him struggle to trust in his own intuition and abilities despite hatinghimself so much.

Saihara is certainly weak and dependent—but I’m not really surewhere you got the “never gives back” part from. Even though Saihara doubtshimself often and feels as though he’s a subpar detective and hardly qualifiedfor the job, the rest of the characters constantlyrely on him. If anything, they become over-reliant on him as a detective, somuch so to the point where it’s actually lampshaded in-game and they’re calledout on not wanting to think for themselves.

Starting with Chapter 2 and culminating perhaps with Chapters4 and 5, the characters, hell, even Monokuma, all assume that because Saiharais there “they don’t really have to solve the mystery for themselves.” This isa criticism I often see from mystery authors to their readers: the assumptionfrom people that all the answers are going to be handed out on a silver platterwithout any need to think or theorize or even try to solve the mysterythemselves first is often frustrating and discouraging to writers. And I suspectit was no accident that this sort of mindset gets deliberately addressed assomething negative throughout the course of ndrv3.

Momota and all the rest of the cast rely on Saihara to solvethe mysteries for them for most of the game, rather than attempting to dothings themselves. Rather than trusting Saihara himself, per se, it’s becausethey trust his talent, as a detective. They rely on his intuition and abilitiesso much that he actually begins becoming a little uncomfortable with ithimself.

And in Chapter 5, when at a loss for what to do because evenhe doesn’t know the answers to the case, Monokuma decides to rely exclusivelyon Saihara’s reasoning as a “SHSL Detective,” and even announces so point-blankduring the trial. When Momota attempts to keep carrying on Ouma’s bluff despitethe fact that Saihara did theorize the answer correctly, Monokuma says he’s notworried, because he’s sure that a SHSL Detective’s reasoning won’t lead himastray.

Saihara is, as Momota himself points out in the Chapter 5post-trial, “the one who was saving everyone’s asses.” More often than not, hewas one of the main figures in the group keeping everyone alive, working tosolve things when absolutely no one else was really putting much thought intothings—because they all assumed that Saihara would do it for them. To say thathe “never gives anything back” makes no sense, because in fact, it’s the factthat so much is expected from him and that he’s been thrust into such anunwanted leadership role that makes Saihara so uncomfortable and such ananxious wreck.

Certainly, having a protagonist who is weak, timid, anxious,and dependent on others can be frustrating—moreso if those things are neveraddressed within the narrative or characters constantly come to the protagonist’srescue without ever addressing the fact that they aren’t doing things forthemselves. But this isn’t the case with Saihara. Most, if not all the characters address Saihara’sweaknesses in one way or another. Many of them, like Kaede, Momota, and Ouma,work to help push Saihara out of his shell of hesitation and uncertainty.

In my opinion, having a character without any flaws at allwould be far more frustrating. A character with no flaws means there’s no roomfor development or improvement—which is, frankly… pretty boring. And there aremany, many stories in which the protagonist is often a reckless, headstrong,fun-loving person who relies on cooperation and the power of friendship tochange things (such as, most shounen stories). These archetypes can be well-written,but my point is that they’ve been done often.

It’s far rarer to see a protagonist like Saihara whose entirepoint is that he was deliberately made to be “weaker than anyone.” Tsumugi andTeam DR didn’t expect him to gradually come out of his shell, to make evensmall and timid attempts at being braver or more forthright; they expected hisfear of the truth to keep him immobilized forever, always weak, always unable tomove past his uncertainty.

But Saihara doesdevelop. He changes, he improves—and he, of course, messes up along the way. Hisimprovements don’t mean that his anxiety or depression or suicidal thoughts aremagically “cured”—and as someone who has struggled with anxiety and depressionmyself, I can appreciate that, because it’s realistic. Those things never justmagically go away or stop being a thing, but it’s important to know that it ispossible to keep going in life, to keep taking even one step forward even whenyou were already inclined to give up on life—and that’s a lesson Saihara andthe other survivors learn from Kiibo by the end of Chapter 6.

Expecting every protagonist to be extroverted, brave,self-sacrificing, or to have a positive, take-charge attitude is, in myopinion, fairly unrealistic. Stories remain diverse and interesting when theircharacters are equally diverse. And considering how many characters step into the literal protagonist role in ndrv3,including not only Kaede and Kiibo but also Himiko and Maki briefly during theChapter 6 trial, and arguably Momota too if you consider that he always callshimself “the protagonist,” I would say one of the underlying themes of ndrv3 isthat “everyone is the protagonist of their own story.”

There’s no reason at all why weaker characters can’t also bea protagonist. There’s no definition stating that a protagonist has to beself-reliant or strong. Having a protagonist who not only relies on others butneeds to do so because otherwise they would be inclined to give up is arefreshing change from the norm, in my opinion. Perhaps some people might thinkof it as frustrating, which I can understand—but to me it seems incrediblyhuman, and a reminder that characters don’t have to be the strongest or thebravest necessarily to still be interesting and compelling.

Saihara probably won’t be incredibly popular in the westernfanbase even after the English localization hits, as you said. But I do wishpeople would give him more of a fair chance in his own right. He’s flawed, butthose flaws are precisely the reason he’s able to reach a different sort ofanswer than the standard “hope vs. despair” dichotomy by the end of Chapter 6. Saihara isweak, it’s true, but he’s also thoughtful, generous, and deeply compassionate.The reason that he’s so afraid of exposing the truth is because he knows howmuch it can be used to hurt others—and that knowledge is an essential part ofwhy he comes to accept lies later on too.

The understanding that gentle lies are a kind of “magic” intheir own right, something used to cope with a harsh world in order to moveforward, is one of the most centralthemes in all of ndrv3. And Saihara is one of the few protagonists capable ofreaching that understanding because of how weak he is, not in spite of it.

This is my opinion on it, of course. I’ve written quite alot of meta on why I personally like Saihara as a character, so even if henever quite becomes popular in the western fanbase, I’m okay with that—I’llstill always love him quite a lot myself. I hope this answers your question,anon!

[oumakokichi]

Really though, it's deliberately unclear what the "truth" really is. Saihara admits that he can't believe anyone REALLY signing up for a killing game.

It is left unclear, yes—that’s the point of the “catbox”ending! Telling the truth with 100% accuracy for most things about the ending ispretty much impossible at this point in time. Until we see what lies beyond thedome of the school in either side material or a sequel of sorts, we won’t knowexactly for sure which things Tsumugi was or wasn’t lying about.

And yet, nonetheless clues were left in for us to find. Evenif there’s no certain answer yet it’s very clear that Kodaka wrote in clues forus to find. The fact that he encouraged players to go back through the game andrevisit the prologue in particular for hints and clues within a few days of thegame’s release says as much. Just because we can’t know the answer for sure doesn’t mean we can’t try to theorize.Aside from translating and clearing up misinformation, theorizing andspeculating is mostly what I do in my meta, after all.

I’d like to point out that this is hardly the first timeKodaka has done an open-ended or unclear ending before, either. While ndrv3certainly takes it to the limit and makes it into a deliberate catbox in whichnothing will be known for sure until the survivors exit the dome, the idea of a“catbox” ending was present in DR as early as dr1.

People tend to forget about that fact now, but there wasabsolutely nothing certain about thestate of the outside world when dr1 was the only game in the franchise. Thepossible solutions were as follows: either Junko was telling the truth abouteverything, or she wasn’t. Either they did lock themselves up willingly into aschool only to have their memories wiped and wind up seeing their friends killeach other, or the whole thing was an elaborate ruse meant to trick them intothinking that was the case and the world was actually fine but their trauma wasreal.

Naegi and his friends didn’t want to believe they would’velocked themselves up willingly in Hope’s Peak because of the “MostDespair-Inducing Incident in Mankind” any more than Saihara and his friends wantto believe that they would ever have willingly signed up for a killing game ofsome sort. And yet, as we know, the truth in DR is often the more painfuloption.

In sdr2 even, it was very much the same. The ending andepilogue were actually fairly open-ended at first. It wasn’t even until dr3released recently that the “catbox” was opened and we got to see for ourselvesthat the sdr2 characters did, in fact, wake up from their comas and were allalive and well. But until that point, it could have gone either way. Eitherthey could have remained in a coma on the verge of brain-death and never wokenup again, or they could have eventually woken up and regained their sense ofself.

Either way, Kodaka very much likes providing these veryopen-ended stories at first, only to go back and provide a clearer answer aftersome time has passed. I think the point is very much to encourage people to thinkand theorize while the game is relatively recent—and then with enough time,Kodaka eventually hands out an “answer sheet” of sorts and shows what happenedin his next side material or sequel, because he clearly wants other people to have the answer at some point.

Just as the state of the outside world in dr1 and the stateof the comatose characters in sdr2 were both eventually made clear uponreceiving additional information, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the sameapplied to ndrv3. Precisely because the ending left off with so many questions,and the epilogue very specifically talked about how “the story would continue,”“fiction would continue,” etc. I would not be surprised in the least if we wereeventually shown how much of Tsumugi’s speech in Chapter 6 was lies and how muchwas the truth.

But precisely because it’s a mystery story, that’s why we’vebeen presented with clues ahead of time. I don’t think it’s a waste of time totry guessing or speculating as to what happened—the entire point of the mysterygenre is to take clues ahead of time and try to figure things out for yourselfeven if you know that the story will usually tell you the answer once you get tothe last few pages.

That’s why my guess for now is that Tsumugi was certainlytelling the truth and lying about some things. “Signing up for the gamewillingly” does not immediately equal “signing up for her game willingly.” Considering Amami’s line in the prologue wherehe was very convinced this was “an imitation” of sorts, and Tsumugi’s line justbefore her death in Chapter 6 about how she was a “copycat criminal,” it seemsvery clear that in one way or another, she jumpstarted something of her own and was clearly trying to closely follow therules of the real deal.

There are plenty of reasons why the characters might have “signedup willingly” which don’t have anything to do with wanting to kill people orbeing a horrible person. Amami, for instance, willingly chose to take thepunishment that signed him up for entry into another killing game, and left amessage to himself saying “this is a game you yourself wished for.” He did soin order to try to end the killing game the next time around, but it was still “willing.”Even though he was certainly at a loss for choices in his previous killinggame, his entry still counted as “willing” and something he picked for himself.

There’s room to speculate that this was the case with atleast some of the other characters. What we know about Ouma doesn’t seem tosuggest that he was just an avid fan of Danganronpa or that he would havewillingly signed up for a game to kill people—unless his aim was something likeAmami’s and he wanted to end the whole thing. This would make pretty good senseas a theory, considering what we know about Ouma’s hatred for murders andkilling.

As for the other characters, I think there is some truth inTsumugi’s audition videos. Granted, these are probably not the whole truth. But it’s true that theaudition videos serve as pieces of evidence much harder to question thanremember lights, which use brainwashing technology, or just word-of-mouth, assometimes in the Chapter 6 trial she tries to convince them of “how theyreacted” or “how they auditioned” without showing any proof at all. Since shedoes show audition videos for Saihara, Kaede, and Momota, but not for the othercharacters, I think it’s safe to say this is meant to provide us a clue.

In Chapter 5, for example, Momota (posing as Ouma inside theExisal) provided the group with a video camcorder that was “undeniable proof”of the moment that “Momota” was crushed under the press. The footage was, forthe most part, completely unedited. It wasn’t filtered or uploaded to a laptopand then shopped—it was a fairly straightforward video. And yet, there was atrick to it. The video itself became the biggestpiece of evidence later on to the fact that it was Ouma, not Momota, who died,because it had tried to give them all a certain impression. So really, what thevideo wasn’t saying became more important than what it was saying.

I think Tsumugi’s audition videos are likely to be the same.The glimpses of Kaede and Momota’s videos that she shows are remarkably short.This leads me to think that while they do back up her claim that “they signedup willingly,” they would also contradict some of her other statements had shelet them play out for too much longer.

So for instance, it’s possible to guess something like this:all of the kids did sign up to participate in the real killing game show. Amamiwas familiar with the real show, notTsumugi’s, and that’s why he asked “who is imitating this” in the prologue. Saihara,Kaede, Momota, and likely some of the other students also auditioned for the realDanganronpa killing game show because of reasons related to just how messed upthe outside world is and how easy it is to convince talent-less people thattheir lives hold no meaning—and Tsumugi then treated these “willing auditions”as if they applied to her own game.

This theory of Tsumugi having some kind of imitation/copycatgame of her own would also explain the need for kidnapping at the very beginningof the prologue, and why everyone was so confused to find themselves there inthe lockers. Clearly if Tsumugi was running a game of her own, then it was very,very close to the real deal. After all, Amami would never have left himself a memoabout needing to stop or expose the ringleader and being very desperate overallif the original game had been harmless. But it was still different enough thatthe characters could tell, at least in the prologue, that something was off.

This is, of course, just speculation. Nothing is confirmedyet! That’s why I and many other fans have been going back over for clues whichseem to suggest one thing or another—just as Monokuma’s 2-day time limit andthe particular emphasis on the phrasing seems to suggest that there was, infact, a loophole. After all, there was no need to include that sort of phrasingand to repeat it at least three times after the fact if it wasn’t important tothe plot.

The fact that “only people forced into the killing game” would be killed after the time limitwas up definitely, in my opinion, serves as a clue to the fact that at leastsome of the characters had to have signed up willingly in one way or another,if not all of them. If this were a rule meant to apply only to the ringleaderand get Tsumugi out alive, then there wouldn’t have been much of a need for herto resort to breaking her own rules and framing Kaede, in my opinion.

She resorted to such desperate measures because there wasmore on the line—and because the killing game remaining “entertaining” and “fun”was clearly her top priority. For that to happen, there needed to be deaths. Ifeveryone had just been put to death and executed once the time-limit was up,that certainly would’ve been “despair-inducing,” but it still would’ve been ataste of brutality similar to Junko’s killing games. I personally believe thatthe more likely option is that there would not have been any deaths if Tsumugihadn’t resorted to jumpstarting the game herself after Kaede’s trap failed. Butagain, this is just my personal theory.

In any case, we won’t know until Kodaka providesclarification and decides to open the lid on the catbox once enough time haspassed. But in the meantime I do believe that it’s still fun to guess forourselves! I think it’s pretty great actually that the mysteries in ndrv3 haven’tended just yet. Even after knowing who the ringleader is, who the culprit ofeach case is, etc., there’s still a lot of mysteries for us to try and solve ona reread, and that’s something I really, really enjoy as a mystery fan.

[oumakokichi]

Hello, I asked this a long while ago but idk if Tumblr ate my ask, I missed your reply and can't find it, or if you just haven't written a response yet, but I basically asked... If the kids went through with trying to revive the dead in chapter 3, would it have worked? If so, what do you think this implies about the world they're in? Thanks for all your replies, hope this isn't too much a bother!

I think Tumblr must have eaten the ask because I can’t findit anywhere in my inbox! Thank you for sending this in, though—this is a reallyinteresting question! And it’s absolutely not a bother!

A lot of this comes down to speculation since we have nocold, hard proof of what would have happened. On the one hand, “revival of thedead” sounds pretty impossible without there being very special circumstances.This has led some people to theorize that it’s very possible the entire eventsof ndrv3 could have been set in some kind of virtual reality simulation,similar to the Neo World Program from sdr2 but different, in order to “live outthe world of Danganronpa.”

It’s a plausible theory from what we know for now—there’snothing to either solidly confirm or deny it, but the headsets we can catchglimpses of Kaede and Saihara wearing in some of their flashbacks definitely dogive off a VR vibe. If this were the case, it could very well mean that theoutside world “on the other side of fiction” in the epilogue might well referto the real world itself, where Saihara and the others will emerge but still asthemselves, embodying all the “fictional” memories and experiences they livedout in the killing game.

If this were the case, then it’s definitely possible Monokumacould have quite literally “revived” the dead with the ritual, had it actuallysucceeded. Whenever any of the students insisted that he was lying or that theentire motive had no basis, Monokuma constantly claimed that “bears don’t lie”(which is untrue since we know Monokuma and Tsumugi lie quite a lot, though)and that the motive was genuine. This could have been a bluff, but consideringthat Monokuma still maintained this opinion even during the trial, I ratherdoubt it.

However, I do think it’s also possible that the “revival”ritual would have been somewhat different from a literal revival of the dead.There is, after all, a lot of emphasis among the survivors in ndrv3 about how “eventhough everything else is a lie, our bodiesare real.” The things they lived and experienced might have been part of a “fictional”scenario but they definitely impacted the characters in a very real way, andthe pain and suffering they lived through was certainly genuine.

There is some room to doubt whether those headsets we seeKaede and Saihara wearing are genuine, too. While they could imply theexistence of a VR set-up similar to the Neo World Program, it’s just aspossible that that was a mislead intentionally planted by the remember lights.There’s nothing about these headsets being remembered in the prologue, afterall—the first time Kaede remembers wearing one is after the first rememberlight is used, once she wakes up as her in-game persona. Whenever the rememberlights get involved, it’s very difficult to tell what’s real and what’s notamong what the characters are remembering, especially when they take it all atface value early on in the game.

So rather than a literal revival of the dead, I think it’smore probable that Monokuma was intending to go about his “revival” motive byother means. The main piece of evidence which makes me think this comes fromthe end of Chapter 5, where the Monokumerz themselves “revive.” Monokuma refersto it as “recycling” them, saying he’s found a way to constantly recycle andshift through “irreplaceable lives.”

He even refers to the Monokumerz as “all new Monokumerz”very deliberately when they make their reappearance, and  emphasizes the fact that these are clearlydifferent robots from before (since all the others exploded or “died” in oneway or another) but meant to fill the same roles as last time. Monokuma alsosays that since these “all new Monokumerz” lack their memories, it’s as if they’re“completely different from who they were before.” This line is particularlyilluminating in hindsight, considering all the foreshadowing it gives towardsChapter 6 and the characters themselves.

But what catches my interestthe most is this. Monokuma flat-out states:

“They’ve got plenty of back-ups, just like you guys.Even if all of you can’t be recycled the same way theMonokumerz can…If it’s just a matter of looking for someone to participatein this killing game, then it’s fine to just go ahead and pick someone else,you see.”

This seems to imply heavily that the characters themselvescannot be actually “recycled” or “revived” in the same way that the Monokumerzcan. At least not physically, anyway. If the ndrv3 killing game were actually avirtual reality world where this kind of stunt was possible similar to the NeoWorld Program, I can’t imagine this would be the case.

Therefore, I think it’s much more likely that Monokuma ishere implying that he could simply get anyone else who likes the killing gameshow to participate in it at any given time. And if he were to give that newparticipant a remember light with memories and a backstory identical to any ofthe other deceased students—well, it would be the same as “reviving” them, in away. Like picking a different actor to play the same character in a stageproduction, it would be a way of bringing back the “fictional character” of anyof the characters without actually bringing back their physical bodies.

This is, of course, just my theory though. I feel as thoughthat scene with Monokuma and the Monokumerz is definitely the best atforeshadowing future events in the game, but also shedding light on other fuzzyparts, such as the Chapter 3 motive. If we examine those lines from Chapter 5,this definitely seems to suggest that Monokuma would be “telling the truth”about being able to bring back one of the deceased students—but also wouldexplain how he’s very much fudging that truth. As with most things in ndrv3,there’s probably truth and lies mixed up in the real explanation.

I hope I was able to provide a good explanation! This was areally fun question to theorize about, and whichever answer winds up beingcorrect, I’m really interested to see if Kodaka will confirm it in any futureside materials or sequels. Thank you so much for asking, anon!

[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.