#this is real guys im kodaka

[takaloverr]

yall won't believe who i found at pride AGAIN

[jesskasb]

Ok but which drv3 fic are you reading. And is it good so far

it's "amalgamate" by doctorhaifisch !! and it is good so far yeah! really elaborate answer under the cut, i went on about this for longer than i shouldve. sorry. ill take any opportunity to ramble about v3. :']

based on the hits and the amount of fanart ive seen of it, it seems everyone and their mother has read it... however ive been purposely living under a 2 bedroom rock for like 4 years so ive only gotten around to it now after seeing an artist i follow say it made them reconsider a few things about ouma and it made them like kaito and realize how intelligent he is and how fascinating his role in chapter 5 was— and i was like wow, that must be a based fucking fic! it took me years to see kaito more than just a loud guy with a savior complex, and now that im a huge fan of him, i wanted to see what kind of fic could open someone's eyes to his awesomeness.

i check it out *really* skeptically, mainly cause i dont trust most people's depiction of ouma. they either make him genuinely not give a shit about things and just be a terrible person for no reason, or they make him too emo in a way he simply isnt. the main reason i even gave it a shot despite never having read a v3 fic in the 6 yrs ive been a fan, is that it said that the tags say the whole fic could be interpreted platonically (#AROWIN) (god knows im not against oumota but i prefer them as friends by a really substantial amount) and the amount of research the author seemed to have poured into strike 9 poison and its real world pesticide counterpart. the art they attached to chapter 1 was really good, too, so that made me curious.

now im in chapter 10/20 and i can say with confidence ive been having a great time. its plenty obvious the author has a lot of love for all of the characters, and even though i thought i could gain no new opinions since i already love ouma and kaito's potential dynamic and everything to do with chapter 5, i ended up being very pleasantly suprised by himiko's depiction here! i cant say im too big of a fan of her, not due to any actual fault in her character but rather kodaka's failings to do anything actually interesting with her. in chapter 9, this author used her untapped potential in a really heartwarming way that i loved. similarly, i have enjoyed seeing their portrayal of kaito and ouma, and it seems there's going to be an arc for ouma to begin seeing his classmates not only as people whose lives are worth saving as much as any other, but to see them as friends and letting them become close with him. ive always been a firm believer that in a non-kg setting ouma could become super close friends with a small handful of people, but this fic is making me reconsider that— maybe its more! another thing im really enjoying are all the fascinating possibilities that the author is exploring for a world in which ouma lives to see chapter 6 and the consequences of his actions. him being there while people investigate his room? most amusing. its all stuff that happens in chapter 5 and 6 until a certain point— just enough to get these two chumps to live, and then... well, i guess ill see how chapter 6 turns out, but as of right now ive been super intrigued and entretained.

i do also have a couple of complaints, but theyre mostly pet peeves and no deal breakers so far: there have been a loooot of pop culture referenced but they all feel in line with stuff kodaka would write so whatever, the author uses italics way more than id like... in the chapters up until 9 there were constant descriptions of kaito seeing ouma as a Kid, and while that in an of itself is true (he is a 17 yr old) the context began feeling a little infantalizing and like kaito himself wasnt 17 as well. theres noticeably less of this in chapter 9 and what ive read of 10, or when theres references to them being kids it includes everyone and theres even a moment where kaito tells ouma theyre the same damn age lol. theres also been a bunch of moments that are clearly very indulgent of ship dynamics and inclinations im not too fond of (particularly between ouma and shuichi) but like i said, nothings been too much of a dealbreaker since the positives far outweigh the negatives!

im currently on a trip where i dont have signal most of the time so i got the epub of the fic to read on the downtime. im def gonna keep reading it, and im excited to see where its going despite some of the cheesy lines such as

(honestly i cant even complain. i dont care its a reference to the title of the game. he Would say that....)

i mean, really, it's such a good depiction of ouma. all his masks, his paranoia, his insecurities, his determination to stop the killing game, the way hes been helping the group while simultaneously remaining isolated, and the way his lies are an extension of his genius but also a constant tool to test his peers. i feel like i dont get to see all of these elements of him expanded upon so extensively like this fic does, and that alone makes me really respect what the author is doing! the word count may be scary but i think youd get something from the fic even if you only read like 5-6 chapters. so yeah in conclusion id recommend it if you give a shit about v3 and are interested in chapter 5 fix it fics LOL

[ultimateplaylistmaker]

I can't believe what im fucking seeing with these kodaka tweets. Theyre so funny but with some of them I am SO GLAD they aren't real. the canon dr universe is wacky enough to push the boundaries of my suspension of disbelief I think I would just throw in the towel if caterpillar guy was canon

I have NO CLUE what's up with that guy absolutely none of that screams chemist to me, I'm choosing to believe by caterpillar they meant like, treads, like a tank

pov that one fucking weirdo wants to know if you have games on your phone

[kindlyre]

i'm planning to (re)replay both games again, this time taking notes because holy SHIT there is really just, so many of these little comparisons that i NEED to make a video essay about it

also kodaka can fight me in real life wdym hated him as a person hes just a silly lie guy!! AT ABSOLUTE WORST, at the beginning of the game, he is annoying and kind of mean

AND ANOTHER THING (!!!) WHY DOES EVERYONE TAKE HIM AT FACE VALUE ONLY WHEN HE'S SAYING SOMETHING BAD??? "ohhhh kokichis a liar you cant trust anything he says" THEN WHY DO YOU TRUST HIM WHEN HE GOES OFF THE DEEP END AND STARTS SAYING HE'D NEVER CRY FOR GONTA? OR WHEN HE SAYS HE'S THE MASTERMIND?

WHY DONT THEY EVER TRUST HIM WHEN HE SAYS THINGS LIKE "half my lies are told with good intentions" or ANY OF THE MULTIPLE TIMES HE ALL BUT SPELLS OUT THAT EVERYTHING HE DOES, HE'S DOING FOR THE GOOD OF THE WHOLE GROUP, BUT THAT HE CANT BE OUTRIGHT ABOUT IT BECAUSE MONOKUMA WILL CRAZY MURDER HIS ASS THE WAY HE CRAZY MURDERED KAEDE (THE HEART AND LEADER) AND CRAZY MURDERED RANTARO (THE STRATEGIST)

WHY DO THEY!! ONLY!! TRUST!!! THE BAD!!!!! it just feels like it was a really REALLY botched clash of ideology but all it comes across is that kokichi tries to explain where hes coming from and shuichi the dense motherfucker just Is Not Getting It At ALL

also just. kokichi and komaeda both having what are wildly considered the two most gruesome deaths in the whole franchise (with strand of agony sometimes outranking one or both) and how genuinely, nobody gives a FUCK that kokichi died in one of the most brutal, horrifying ways a person can die. also there's a couple lines in v3 that imply that whole the blood is pink for us, THEY see it red- which means they actually saw like, real blood around that press. and not to get too gory but like..... since a hydraulic press is very slow, all the uh, inside parts, are gonna jettison out before the whole thing is squished. especially anything in the skull. point being, the scene the v3 kids saw is exponentially more gruesome than what we as the audience saw

And None Of Them Gave A Fuck Kokichi Died Like That. he died with two different slow painful ways of death battling for dominance and then it was actually a third, different slow painful way of death that did him in. even kaito still says he hates kokichi and that he was a lying sack of shit. i mean, i personally interpret it as like- holding onto hate is easier than realizing you needlessly antagonized and misinterpreted a seriously hurting boy and now theres nothing you can do about it because he's dead and you killed him, but honestly? i am not sure the writing team for drv3 put that much thought into it

im just so mad about what happened to kokichi. hes my favorite character in anything ever and the game he's from fucking hates him so much

i replayed sdr2 and v3 at the same time, and honest to god the way komaeda's classmates treat him vs how ouma's treat him is... fucking insane. with komaeda, he's exponentially more unstable and dangerous and yet most of them at least TRY to understand him, and when he died, everyone was horrified that someone could do that to him, even if at that point he was an active threat and nobody liked him

but with ouma he was ostracized from the START, and when he died, nobody actually... gave a single shit. sure, it could be because nobody knew he was dead until the very end of the trial, and that was kaito's time in the sadness spotlight, but... idk. it rubs me the wrong way. and the sdr2 kids were horrified at the idea of komaeda being tortured, but when maki confesses to ACTUALLY torturing kokichi, literally nobody gives a fuck

like. i like maki, shes an interesting character!! but the shit she gets away with narratively that's way worse than the stuff kokichi does, and yet kokichi is treated way worse.... I Don't Like That! its giving big "bullying the weird kid" vibes and idk it just makes v3 seem more hostile as a game

sorry this turned into a whole rant in your askbox but like. i am so mad i am So Mad. v3 did kokichi so dirty

No anon continue you're so right tbh

There was a rumor of Kodaka saying he liked Kokichi as a character, but hated him as a person. It kind of shows.

[nctsukashii-archive-blog]

Most disliked arc (chapter)? Why?

The saltiest cracker you know is me, Bepsi!10. Most disliked arc (in this case, chapter)? Why? 

I bet you saw this shit comin a mile away huh?

Chapter 2.

Now, it might surprise you, but Hoshi dying isn’t even the worst part of the chapter for me. That’s more emotionally gut punching me and my hopes and dreams that joke characters can live past chapter 3. Actually, Hoshi is without a doubt the BEST part of Chapter 2 even with his death, just because of how amazingly he’s written. 

Sadly, even Hoshi cannot save this chapter from showing just how RUSHED and UNPOLISHED it is. Because holy jeEZ THERE’S A LOT WRONG (albeit it’s personal opinion for the most part). So while you may know them, or may learn something new from my opinion, that’s all cool! Under the cut as Chapter 2 is dissected and torn into to learn why it is sadly, my least fav of V3.

- RUSHED.

Now, this is really easy to see, and I’m sure many others have noticed it as well, but it bears a lot of repeating because it’s a problem. Chapter 2 was rushed to high heavens, in the sense that it mainly serves to push the plot along and nothing more. Things happen too quickly in the story at that point, and while the rest of the game is better off for it, this is the ONLY chapter that REALLY does it so blatantly, and it feels very choking as a result of it.- Tenko’s attachment to Himiko needed to happen, absolutely, but I feel like more should have been done in Chapter 1 to show Tenko trying to talk to her more? Maybe, “OOO maybe himiko wants to be my friend??” and more interactions that show that Tenko isn’t just attaching herself to Himiko b/c she’s “the creepy gay” character. - Toujou becoming the fucking supermaid. This one is the most obvious, but mmm. Everyone relying on her suddenly feels super forced, as characters like Shinguuji and Hoshi and even Maki herself, all ask Toujou to do something for them. It feels out of character for them, and the fact that THAT interaction is the MOST she gets in Chapter 2 before the trial is fucking trash and I’ll explain why in a later point, but you can just TELL that they needed SOMETHING to give her ANY story relevance, and it hurts her character a LOT. - Kaito suddenly wanting to help Maki’s super fucking weird. Maybe if it showed Kaito like “sorry Shuichi maybe later, I wanna try talking to Maki” more in this Chapter to really see that he wants to help her, or even just him going more like “hey Shuichi wanna include Maki in our training? I feel like she could use it.” or ANYTHING that mentions Kaito reaching out to Maki more. Because as it is now, it feels like he’s suddenly placing an all or nothing bet and it makes him, p unlikable at that point b/c Shuichi just goes with it for seemingly no reason because “yeah I guess i gotta progress the plot”. - Those are the main points. Maki is done surprisingly well, actually, she’s really good here. Being sus like that and actually not letting you do FTE’s was cool, and i liked it a lot. Angie’s slow buildup was also pretty good as well, but I think they coulda put Tsumugi in w/ Himiko at some point so it’s not ‘suddenly everyone’s brainwashed!’ in chapter 3, as a slower buildup would do it good! Or at least, more buildup, I should say.

- CLUNKY.

This one is a bit harder to explain, and it goes in hand with the pacing issue, but lemme try. Some of the events and dialogue in Chapter 2 just feel, really clunky? Like, Shuichi’s an emotional guy and I totally understand that, but I don’t think he’d just spill his feelings to the guy that punched him for showing weakness not even 2 days ago? I dunno, maybe it’s just me. It feels like a lot of Chapter 2 was glued into the story as requirements rather than actually to tell a story. It comes in a lot of ways, as previously mentioned a lot of relationships are just ‘suddenly there’ rather than actually built up, IE Kaito and Maki, Tenko and Himiko, etc... and it makes the entire Chapter feel like it’s meshed together with ideas that Kodaka REALLY wanted to be in the game or knew would happen later on, but just couldn’t fit them in, so he shoved them in an early chapter and hoped for the best.

- TOUJOU’S ABILITY TO DO JACK DIDDLY SHIT IN TERMS OF STORY.

Somehow, they managed to make one of the stars of this chapter barely active in it. Can you fucking believe that? Like, no really, if you work off of fan translations I want you to open the translation you have, hit CONTROL+F and search for Toujou and see like, the 30 lines she has before the trial. It’s so MINIMAL, it’s so BASIC, and in those 30 sentences she’s treated like a PLOT DEVICE rather than a CHARACTER. I’m sure a bit of the reason as to why Toujou isn’t as popular as most of the other girls is just how hard the Chapter hits her in terms of not giving her any character development (even in the bonus interaction she’s just “i do this for my job” for fucc sake). Like, even if it was played for a laugh that she’s just so constantly work-focused, or the writing took it as a bit of a punchline for some dry humor (”hey toujou what’re ya doin?” “working.” and just have awkward eye contact and the ‘WOW this is awkward’ thought in Shuichi’s head after a few “...” between the both of them as it happens. easy comedy. see???) it at least would make her seem somewhat important compared to the cast. Honestly, it’s like the Tsumugi Effect but in 2 chapters instead of 6. By doing nothing in terms of plot, she basically puts on this huge fucking sign that says “HEY GUYS IM NOT STORY RELEVANT BECAUSE NOTHING IS HAPPENING TO ME SO I WILL PROBABLY DIE AS A KILLER OR VICTIM” Her trial behavior is really hit or miss as well, because some might find her ruthlessness to be really cool and makes her actually fucking interesting at any point in the story, while others might find it unlikable, excessively cruel, or just out of character for Toujou no matter how desperate she may be. Let alone that her US demographic prolly tanked quite a lot w/ her story focusing on POLITICS of all things (one of the three no-no’s in any conversation), making her very very hard to like, besides on an aesthetic level. Let alone her FTE’s are the worst in the game, as you still barely learn anything about her outside of “im a maid and im good at my job” or other points that the main story already tells you (besides that she once coddled a man so hard he became dependent and that her only weakness is not cutting konjac right ever). It just makes her feel like a barren and incomplete character.

- TOUJOU’S ABILITY TO DO EVERYTHING SO WELL SHE CAN EVEN FUCK HERSELF OVER AMAZINGLY.

Everyone has heard me go on and on about this, but if it doesn’t get said no one will know it so I keep repeating it until the end of time.By making her plan so complex, she basically fucks herself. By making a crime that only someone as competent as her could accomplish, it fucks her because only she can do it. XD. Literally, who do you think would have been able to do all that shit in one night? Saihara’s too weak to drown Hoshi. Don’t fight me on this, because if you seriously believe the detective in training with little self defense training (he worked on infidelity and missing pet/kid cases for fuck sake, his life isn’t really on the line all that often so he prolly wouldn’t know or have to train all that much to protect himself) can take the tennis player that killed over 200 people and has been playing tennis basically all his life (enough to go INTERNATIONAL in MIDDLE SCHOOL) in a fight, we’re gunna need to have a talk.Gonta’s too heavy to use the ropeway.Kiibo’s too heavy to use the ropeway and too weak to carry Hoshi’s body.Himiko’s too weak to drown someone and attempt to shove them in the staircase (which I will touch on real soon here on why even attempting to frame her the way Toujou tried to was dumb as shit).Angie’s... lbr here, prolly missing a few too many tools in her toolbox to really think of a ropeway to kill Hoshi with.Shinguuji’s too weak (and before I get arguments on this, if u think this underweight twig of a man can take out Hoshi when Hoshi’s prolly faster than him and could just run ur wrong)Maki who was the Child Caregiver at the time would be seen as too weak to do anything to Hoshi too (even if she lifts kids, again, Hoshi is fucking rIPPED and has killer legs)Ouma’s too weak (i mean he’s underweight and looks like a twig)Kaito’s a fucking moron when it comes to master plans and wouldn’t have been able to plain something like a ropeway murder (let alone his idol complex wouldn’t have let him kill Hoshi most likely... unless it was a Mondo situation but that’s a later talk)Tenko’s also a fucking moron when it comes to long term planning let alone she wouldn’t touch a man unless to flip him to death, which makes the ropeway seem almost pointlessTsumugi’s too weak to (i mean... rlly. u rlly think she could take him down? under the assumption she isn’t the mastermind ofc at this point in the story, but even then sneak murdering all the kills seems kinda.... eh? too hard for her to do.) Miu’s also a fucking moron that wouldn’t think of using a ropeway (actually, she prolly woulda done the smarter option and just pushed Hoshi’s body out his fucking window since a ropeway would be too much effort)By process of COMMON SENSE, only Toujou would make something so NEEDLESSLY COMPLICATED in an attempt to murder a guy. 

- THE DUMBEST PLAN ON EARTH AND HOW YOU COULD PLAN A SIMILAR MURDER AND GET AWAY WITH IT EASY. 

Toujou’s plan is fucking dumb when you can think of SO many other ways to get Hoshi killed with more leeway as to who coulda done it. So I bring up the window in his lab, because literally you could just push him out of it and the fall would prolly splatter that midget cunt on the ground no problem. Hell, even handcuff him. Nearly anyone could have pushed Hoshi out of the window, meaning there’s a possibility that Maki or Kaito could have done it w/o that stupid fucking ropeway let alone anyone at night (or hell even during the DAY since time of death was obscured), and it wouldn’t LEAVE THE FUCKING GLOVE.MMMM OKAY RANT HERE REAL QUICK I MEAN IT THAT FUCKING TRASH BAG GLOVE IRRITATES ME. Like, hhh I know Kodaka wanted to make a case where something like the glove gets the killer caught, but HOLY SHIT was it poor to use in a case like this. It not only feels like it’s out of place for her not to just get it in the morning, but why the fuck would she use her gloves anyways?? Why not use Hoshi’s hat? Anyone could use Hoshi’s hat as hand protection down the moronic ropeway and since it’s a beanie it’s prolly made of more strong material than I guess whatever her shit gloves are made of, since they tore like fuckin trash when she went down the ropeway. As someone that wears cut and heat protection gloves because of my job, the gloves she uses are HORRIBLY inefficient (let alone if she’s cleaning before touching food w/ them on... like please don’t that can cause so many health problems) to try and stop ropeburn. She could have also just poisoned everyone, or killed them all in their sleep, to make her job easier on herself. Can’t have a trial if no one’s there after all right? No one would suspect Toujou working on her fuckin job to come and snap their necks during the night or w/e, or poison their food before the show. But also framing Himiko is really fucking dumb. Like, she expects me to believe that Himiko, who is only 2 more pounds than Hoshi mind you, managed to drown him and stuff him in that staircase, and pull him out during the show in under a minute. LOL no. Hoshi looks like he can break her arms like fucking toothpicks without even trying?? Let alone her laziness makes it look REALLY hard for her to have planned a fucking murder. The fact that like, the first hour of the trial wants me to believe Himiko could be the killer is asinine, just because of how basically fucking illogical it is.What Toujou could have done instead, was leave his body drowned in the sink. Yeah, it’d be harder because not everyone can drown Hoshi (ie. Himiko and Ouma and prolly a few others that are considered sticks or weak), but there are a lot of people who could, and drowning someone is a lot easier than the stupid ropeway piranha bullshit. OR PUSH HIM OUT HIS WINDOW. JUST KILL EVERYONE THAT WAY COME ON.Actually, she coulda killed two people easy. Just have someone gullible like Saihara come to meet her at night in the lab after she’s already pushed Hoshi out the window (or even just come running to his room with a bullshit excuse that she saw a shadow ‘running away’ and saw that something happened in the tennis lab) and push him out the window too. Boom, makes it look like a murder gone wrong, and the only alibi that’d be able to testify about the events is hers. Easy win, everyone else gets executed.I get it, in the end, it needs to be a solvable mystery in a mystery game, but it ends up making Toujou look like a complete moron as a result of it, which is unfortunate.

- MOTIVE VIDEOS ARE RIGGED AS SHIT.

Upon learning what hers and Hoshi’s are, it seems almost rigged that they would have to be the killer and victim respectively. Hoshi’s telling him to ‘kys’ and Toujou’s saying ‘lol go kill someone’ makes it like... even if everyone else saw theirs that they’d be like.. the only two to really act on theirs besides MAYBE Miu or POSSIBLY Angie. And then we also see Ouma’s?? And his is just actively “lol u don’t kill bitch but u should do it anyways” making it seem almost counter productive. Like, bitch it just said Ouma made a rule that no killing was a thing and u genuinely expect his ass to break that? ha. The odds were stacked against the two of them, which makes it only seem more forced in the long run. Which is great from a meta standpoint, but a story can be meta while still being fun, enjoyable, and flowing functionally and logically. Which this chapter isn’t really.

- THE SADLY NOT REDEEMING BUT STILL SUPER GOOD HOSHI FACTOR.

Now, the one thing that I can praise this chapter for really well despite all its shortcomings is Hoshi’s characterization and his story. For one chapter he really makes a hard hit at the time, and it’s easy to become engrossed in his little background story about him wanting to find a reason to live. The real cherry on top is his writing and his interactions with the few people he interacts with. with Kaito, it really shows the disposition that Kaito has against him and just how Hoshi is so understanding of others and like... nice. Even when he wants a goal that goes against everyone, he still respects them. “I won’t do something reckless to endanger everyone.”, and acknowledging that it’s an entirely selfish reason why he wants to find the videos and will still not hurt anyone to do it. He may have threatened to show Maki’s video to everyone in exchange for his own from her, but he never hits her or directly harms / threatens her w/ violence or anything extremely dirty. It’s respectable. Ohhh, and Saihara’s dynamic with him is just so sPOT ON HERE. Between the great advice and compliments in general he has for Saihara such as “the world can be bright for someone that’s looked down for so long, be careful” and “you’re confident compared to before, like a weight is lifted off your back. it’s a good look for you” and other such flattery, to Hoshi being a bit more open to Saihara about his feelings (feeling jealous about everyone else having a reason to live, wanting to find one himself, openly admitting he feels he has no purpose in his life and wants to find a reason to be happy like everyone else, etc.). But this dynamic goes both ways, as Saihara also can read Hoshi super fucking well. Like, seeing the Tennis Lab is a great example of it. When Hoshi states the past is behind him, Saihara thinks to himself ‘but then why are you looking at the court with such sad eyes Hoshi-kun?’ and it’s like, just really nice that Saihara’s not dense? Like, Hoshi expresses himself pretty poetically, with the way he talks and whatnot, acting like a wise sage type w/ endless wisdom all the time, so Saihara being able to read past all the flowery language to just hear “god i miss tennis” or “im depressed” is really REALLY refreshing, and a nice balance to see. If you do Hoshi’s FTE’s it personally makes it even better, but that’s not a requirement so moving on. Even just Saihara asking him things like “are you doing well?” or “Is this what you want?” or “or just the small but surprisingly deep talks they just seem to have with one another are tiny details that really complete the dynamic that they can both read each other and can react to one another super well. It feels balanced between the both of them, even in Chapter 1, and it’s a shame Hoshi had to die because I would have LOVED to see how far it could go and how much it could have been expanded on in the later chapters. 

Sadly however, no matter how great Hoshi is, it can’t save Chappie 2 from it’s endless faults and gripes that I have with it, that ultimately make the story less entertaining as a result.

[gunham]

you know what i changed my mind im gonna stan hiyoko now. yes im still not big fan of her and yes the way she treats mikan is terrible but lets be real its mostly because kodaka is a shit writer whos especially shit at writing women and if hiyoko was a hot guy instead she would probably be one of the fandom favorites. what sucks the most is that in chapter 3 hajime actually realized shes trying to change herself and be better but of course she had to get killed for NO REASON before she could get any character development at all, which especially sucks since kuzuryu who was kind of simillar to her and also has suffered a lot during chapter 2 actually got to survive till the end and become a slighty better person and like.. ok i love him a lot but its still shitty how it took for a strong, interesting and cool girl to fucking die for him to realize "oh hey maybe i should stop being a dick all the time!". so yeah what im saying is hiyoko deserved better writing and just better in general

[kasssiopeia]

you know i might be TOTALLY wrong here but as of right now, i dont like what they are doing with oumas character (lol what are you talking about, its kodakas character he can do what he wants SHUT UP) at least up until the beginning of chapter 4.

as oumas already confirmed for creepiest sprite in whole dangan ronpa (UDG despair crazed komaeda was bad for me but that just made me wanna chuck my vita across the room and light it on fire)

also there have been some “ohh next komaeda” rumours going around for a long time, since i dont check any tags i wouldnt know if they still exist but im not gonna lie, he DOES have some komaeda vibes.

what id like for oumas character to become, is the guy who tricks the mastermind and successfully save his friends. ouma seriously being completely evil to the bone doesnt... sit right with me? yes hes an annoying brat who acts out of boredom but he... doesnt give off any feeling of threat? at least not him alone.

In chapter 1, hes the one who goes against akamatsu, who says they shouldnt work together cause its allegedly what monokuma wants them to do. he makes a lot of threats about killing someone but hes also seen goofing around, riling people up on purpose.

chapter 2 when he got gonta on his side, i was seriously worried that he might use gonta to kill someone or smh get gonta killed (kinda like use him as a weapon as peko tried). but with the uh.. Insect calming meeting? where he stole most of everyones videos that were supposed to be the next killing motive, he was actually doing them a favour? if hed really gone through with the whole, lets sit down and watch everyones videos together, maybe the killing wouldnt have happened (maybe a bit too far fetched but it mightve happened on other terms or even prevented future killing).

chapter 3 ouma was actually pretty helpful during the investigation AND trial, seriously i was surprised that his backhanded tricks actually helped (also even tho he first claimed to be the killer, it was preeetty sure that it wasnt him and he also explains it as “i wanted the real killer to step out and push me” altho we dont know if thats his real motive or if he was just doing that for fun)

so up until end of chapter 3 i got a pretty solid actually LIKABLE character (fuck you for that death scare during the investigation tho) who is like.. chaotic good or at least chaotic neutral. he has a lot of characters that dislike him but so far it hasnt kept him from actually doing anything to harm anyone. also in his ftes hes just,.. playing games goofing around and it just gave me the feeling that he probably has to spend a lot of time alone cause his lying and trolling makes people dislike him (of course).

when ouma steals the key card in chapter 4, i actually thought he was just gonna break it so that the motive wont be used, or at least snoop it out to find a way how to get rid of the threat it poses to possible killers.

instead!!! we get this super weird cutscene i dont even know why it was shown to the player without any context or conclusion OR consequences (yet) where ouma and monokuma talk and ouma asks him to make the killing game/motive more interesting while using the scariest sprite ever(tm)

so for the player, who by now understands that ouma can be dangerous in the right circumstances, yet never chose to be and actually managed to integrate himself into the group A LITTLE, thats just... weird?

why would he suddenly act in a suuuper evil way just to send his classmates to hell? it just barely makes sense and reminds me of komaeda in chapter 4 (oh) where he just broke out the bombs and killing threats and, im gonna become a symbol of hope!

SO what i now want to happen is for ouma to actually be able to deceive monokuma, by making himself seem evil to the mastermind, when in the end his actions will have a positive effect on the whole group, maybe even end up saving them. so the player kinda gets double crossed?

if it turns out that ouma is actually this super evil person his childish self sometimes claims to be, if he turns out to be the mastermind, or even if he dies next its gonna be... so, so boring?

the character who seems evil is... actually evil? then what about all the crap he already went through where he could send his classmates to hell?

but also ndrv3 has way too many double/false shsl titles. shsl tennis player is also shsl prisoner? shsl child care is actually shsl assassin? what

[kelperings]

it was all clearly fanservice which is already fucking bad because guess what guys..! those are kids..! like actual children..! for real minors..! and the concept of delving into someones private, internal thoughts/fantasies - let alone a fucking MINORS - is quite frankly disgusting to me.

im at least glad they didnt make some of them super fucking weird like you said, but even GONTAS is bad because its all relatively like “oh okay. sure.” until he drops the craziest fucking line of “gonta keep you up all night” out of NOWHERE with little to no warning. and the game doesn’t warn you about this either by the way. like at all. it does not warn you of any of the themes in these love hotels and i mean they never have warned anyone about the crazy sexualisation in these games but fucking come on. and dont even get me started on the horrible treatment of sa in danganronpa.

but anyways im gonna go play animal crossing so im not angry and upset anymore over kodakas insane game choices.

recently realised no one talks about the love hotel ever and am i the only one whos really scared of it or am i cray cray

[backhandbaby-blog]

i wrote an actual fucking essay abt hoshi bc i’m passionate. incroyable. im putting it under a cut so u can read it if u like w/o it clogging up the dash

Dangan Ronpa hasn’t had a particularly good track record with its “nonstandard” characters. You know the ones - they’re usually guys, and they tend to be characterized by having a strange face, body type, and/or mannerisms. In the past, these characters have been used simply to provide uncomfortably perverted comic relief (Yamada, Hanamura), or to simply exist and barely play a role in the plot (Bandai, Shikiba - hell, the latter never even shows up in main series DR). So it would have not been misguided for people in the fanbase to be very suspicious of Ryoma Hoshi when he was first introduced. Even after his name and talent were released, up until the Famitsu pages detailing his backstory came out, people were still wary. It would have been all too easy for Kodaka to make him a pervert like those who came before, or barely relevant, or a Prince of Tennis reference and a throwaway gag. There are many valid criticisms to be made about NDRV3, but it’s safe to say that Hoshi’s development was a high point of the game. I even dare to say that he’s one of the most complex and multifaceted characters in Dangan Ronpa.

Let’s talk design and physical aspects first. The crux of his physical appeal comes from the odd, clashing juxtaposition that his design provides. We’re going to be starting at the very beginning here - September 2016, when the designs for all 16 of the students had been introduced.

While with some characters it was fairly clear what their talent was (Toujou was obviously a maid and Yumeno a magician, while Gonta’s bug box and Angie’s sculpting tools tipped people off to their real talents). Hoshi fell squarely into the category of “We don’t know, and we can’t even guess”. Guesses for his talent ranged from SHSL Motorcyclist to SHSL Hustler to SHSL Bouncer, all talents typically associated with a bit of a darker underbelly to society. While this connotation would soon prove to be correct once his character information was revealed, imagine everyone’s surprise when he was revealed to be the SHSL Tennis Player. By all means, it didn’t make any sense - playing tennis in a leather jacket would restrict one’s movement, and it still didn’t explain the strange chain he had around his ankle. Not only that, but Hoshi’s body type and face made for a strange contrast that caused people to begin to question their original perceptions.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention his voice actor. Akio Otsuka is primarily known for playing the role of the hardened tough guy - Solid Snake, Whitebeard from One Piece, and several dubs of Nicolas Cage roles being among them. His gravelly brogues being connected to Hoshi’s rather comical and childish appearance furthered the dissonance of his character, creating someone whose motives and personality were shrouded in mystery until they were outright stated. And even when they were stated, they only added to the fact that none of the aspects of his character design and the limited information we got matched up with what we expected from any of it.

So, all in all, we had a character where we never really knew what to expect.

But enough of that. Let’s delve into the meat-and-potatoes of Hoshi’s characterization: his personality and his character arc during the game. He’s only around for two chapters + the prologue, but they really utilized him to the best of their ability during those two.

His surface personality seems to be another Otsuka “tough guy”. He’s hardened by his life in prison and his stint as a vigilante killer. Despite his past, he’s adept at keeping a cool head, though he refuses to function as the voice of reason. He offers valuable insight on the mind of a killer in the game’s demo and first chapter, though he’s a lone wolf by nature and warns others to stay away from him.

Simple enough, right?

Let’s go further.

If you had asked the Dangan Ronpa fanbase how they would feel about having a character who was legitimately and wholly suicidal in a game, reactions likely would have been mixed. A character like that would probably commit suicide, making for an unsatisfying case. One thing that all the previous characters in the franchise had in common was that they all had a drive to survive (though some, like Komaeda, were willing to die as a means to an end), and all could stand to gain something from killing someone and escaping the killing game.

With Hoshi, there’s absolutely none of that. We see a portrait of a man torn apart by what he’s done, who’s convinced that he no longer has anything to live for in this world. Even if he did want to get out, he wouldn’t have anything to gain by doing so - he’s a death row prisoner, so he’s doomed to death no matter what happens to him.

He masks his suicidal tendencies by offering to “take one for the team” on multiple occasions, most prominently in chapter one where he volunteers to off himself to save everyone else from the motive. In addition, he’s one of the few people who is for giving the motive videos in chapter two back to their rightful owners. He claims it’s because he wants to get killed.

However, that is not really the case. As we find out later, Hoshi wanted the videos in order to see if there was anyone out there who still cared about him. Combined with other things like his FTEs and the fact that he and Saihara run from an angry Gonta in a chapter two scene, his outlook on life becomes shady. He claims that he wants nothing more than to die, but it seems as though he has a secret drive to live. Hoshi is stuck in a vicious cycle between the two, worsened by the fact that no matter what happens to him, he still has to live with the guilt of what he’s supposedly done.

There’s a lot of misconceptions surrounding Hoshi’s death, from “Hoshi blackmailed Toujou outside of the game, and she killed him as revenge” to “Hoshi killed someone Toujou was working for outside of the game”. The most popular of these misconceptions seems to be the idea that Hoshi agreed to die once Toujou told him about her video, which is further perpetuated by the fact that that’s what seems to have happened when the story is told from her point of view.

The scene itself is a little different: after Toujou tells him her story, he goes quiet and falls to his knees. Though he doesn’t say a word, we see a CG of him with a vague, anguished look on his face. Toujou takes this as a sign of acceptance, and takes the opportunity to go for the kill.

But Hoshi never outright agreed - it’s clear that he was well and truly having a breakdown. A quiet one, sure, but a breakdown nevertheless. And because of the level-headed facade that he kept up throughout the story, Toujou mistook that for him going along with her plan and went in for the kill. After all, if he straight-up agreed to die, why did she have to drown him?

Despite the fact that Hoshi’s design is not supposed to be one we care that much about, he ends up becoming one of the most complex, dare-I-say relatable characters in the game. To be stuck in a cycle of wanting to die but also not wanting to face death is something that many people are familiar with, as their own personal hell. The moment where his genuine pain and his facade breaking is misinterpreted by Toujou is deeply profound in a way I can’t quite articulate. Somehow, Hoshi proves himself to be deeply sympathetic through how raw and human his situation is.

[kasssiopeia]

haaaah...

so i? finished the first trial?

and :(

instead of being content or mad or whatelese im just a bit.. disappointed?

tbh having a (dr) game where the player themselves is forced/plans to kill someone was something i really wanted and thought about a lot (same vice versa the protag gets killed, that would be even better)

but after it was clear that akamatsu did it, it wasnt like OH MY GOD YES

it was more like... i was so disappointed and afraid theyd make her say something like, ohh saihara-kun i wanted to show you that you are a real detective and can solve crimes you are the best!!!

and actually they didnt and her motive felt kinda alright cause it kinda reminded me of tanaka killing someone/fighting with nekomaru to protect the others

but the way the game just switched to saihara (and i really started liking him) felt?? wrong?? so so wrong?

even momota getting angry at him and hitting him its like oh yes akamatsu died to fuel saiharas manpain, and even if it wasnt said out loud, the fact that he feels responsible for what happened and that hes supposed to “carry on her thoughts” just feels like a slap in the face cause now ANOTHER female character died for a guy just so he can have character development and fuck i really liked akamatsu cause she was quirky and strong in her beliefs and it was actually GOOD that her strong beliefs also caused others to dislike her because of that

and to have a  protagonist who has a practical talent (as in she can access it whenever she pleases) who throws in random lines like, its like composer x’s piece named y! that nobody but her can really relate to was so sweet? refreshing actually.

also yay a female lead!!! yeah well theres a great proverb in German that is apparently translated as “you win some, you lose some” except the German one means that the thing you thought you won is the thing you also lose shortly after. so thats how i feel? lol??

if theyd at least let her survive for a bit longer that wouldve been alright but now i feel like kodaka spit into every female player’s face (again) and my ambition to continue playing is ... really low right now.