#this is something i always point to when comparing naegi and hinata as protags

[zeravmeta]

this artist is one of my all time pixiv faves not only because they draw DR characters with a whimsical death/violence loving nihlism inherent to the series' themes but also properly convey naegis vicious temperament that I feel like even now people seem to miss about his character. probably because hes such a macutie patootie

[midorimochi]

Post-canon Fashion & Hair Styling: hair, clothes and the biggest head-scratcher 🗣️❓

One of the major head-scratchers this game got me was the detail related to the characters' clothing.

While all of us spent time wondering how the cast appeared as SHSL Despair in those that could only be edgy™ clothes, - because brr brr Despair - it's not weird for the cast to actually appear in the game in what seem to be "normal" clothes anyone could wear in any day, (except for Mioda who has quite the unique style) because I think the only kind of despair none of them would love to feel even in canon is the despair of being dirty and to smell. So yup, these people do bath and do change their clothes from time to time.

That being said, at first I assumed they wore "chill" clothes because those were clothes they could have used to wear quite often before getting the HPA uniform - thus the avatars could have been built with memories of especially beloved and older clothes - but the game does show Ko in his "in-game" clothes before the game itself really started, doesn't it?

Chapter 0

Chapter(s) 1 (-5)

So it's not weird to see most of them wear the same clothes after the game.

But how does this work on Hinata's case?

Why does he - as Kamukura - wear the Reserve Course uniform and why does he still have his hair so long when he's seen on chapter 0...

...while the flashback pre-HPA does rightly show Hinata with the uniform of his previous high school,

but at the end of the game it's like nothing ever happened and he still looks like above?

Where does the old uniform come from if he wore the RC one?? What about his hair?

I know this post may be unnecessary but I was thinking about this because I did see people speculating on this matter, plus, I saw art and headcanons where once Hinata woke up, he cut or had someone cut his hair for him as a symbolic gesture of him "cutting" off with his past as Kamukura, but what if he didn't need to cut his hair at all?

I mean, I know this is only a "general picture" but

none of the girls wore trousers in the game so this "random shape" could possibly belong only to one of the boys, plus it's the clearest shadow you can see here, not to mention that out of all the boys the one who resembles it the most is Hinata, even if you go by exclusion. 

Keeping in mind the type and shape of clothes as well, it obviously can't be someone like the Impostor, Nidai or Hanamura who had different and peculiar body shapes, it can't be Kuzuryuu because his shadow would look shorter, it can't be Komaeda, Souda or Tanaka because their hairstyles are rather discernable (plus Souda wears a cap which this shadow doesn't seem to wear for what is possible to see) and we can't see the antenna because not the whole head is visible but out of all the male students, Hinata's hairstyle, body shape and clothing are the ones who could match with this picture the best.

The thing is, you can style your hair differently, you can dye it ("What about his color hair, tho?" I wondered, but I believe Kamukura's hair being black was established mostly for the sake of... antagonistic-ish aesthetic...), you can use colored lenses or you can grow in height, but your face is still your face. Not only this, but the name Kamukura Izuru has also been hidden according to canon (with the Despair Twins possibly being the only ones to be aware of it, HPA scientists aside) and the DR trio wasn't certain about his existence either, but why were they more surprised at Hinata being Kamukura that Hinata existing at all?

I guess that Kamukura never used his name outside of HPA. I doubt he ever introduced himself to anyone and he may have been only seen in his appearance and not known as a person.

During the investigation on chapter 6, on the subjects list hint the name used is Hinata Hajime, not Kamukura Izuru and while this was made on purpose because Monokuma lies sometimes/to not get Hinata immediately suspicious/to not spoil the plot twist on his identity, the DR trio seemed to have known Hinata as Hinata in the simulation.

That being said, I believe not only Kamukura didn't introduce himself as Kamukura Izuru, but he hadn't introduced himself at all.

If he's been seen wearing the RC uniform when the Naegi&Co found him, they may have simply thought he was a survivor of the RC students' mass suicide who had been either brainwashed or traumatized 'til the point of mutism, even, since he seemed to always stay silent (not to mention he really had nothing to say to the FF members, either), which could be why the DR trio thought to include him to the Hope Rehabilitation Program.

The RC uniform is rather generic, though, so perhaps they guessed it was an ex-HPA student because 1) he may have looked his age; 2) he may have been seen either following or observing the other SHSL Despair members or even standing close to the ex-HPA building.

They may have only known he was A) an ex-HPA student; B) a former HPA student from the RC; who C) was still very likely to be an SHSL Despair himself.

So how did they know Hinata as Hinata? Simply because he introduced himself as such in the simulation.

Why did Naegi and Kirigiri not believe he could be Kamukura? Because they probably observed him in the NWP, they related to him as one of those who did most of the work to investigate and solve the mysteries of the murder cases and - especially on Naegi's side - sympathized with him to a certain degree (I mean, Komaeda used his skills to mess with the results, Nanami was an A.I...) learning to consider him someone absolutely incapable of doing something such as killing. This may also explain why Naegi seemed to rely on him (okay Hinata is the protag and Naegi trusts everyone but still, Hinata-kun).

Plus, if the SHSL Despairs decided to enter on the NWP on their own, it's also possible they took some sort of "distance pact" to fully fulfill the role and play the part by agreeing to wear old clothes or that Kamukura anonymously ordered all the others to do so, somehow. If this was the case this would also imply he'd try to recreate his old appearance but how would he find information about his previous self?

If any info on him has been hidden/deleted to prevent anyone knowing anything about him, wouldn’t it make sense to also hide/delete the information about the Kamukura Izuru Project subject as well? 

Not only that, but even if Kamukura has been described as a totally different person, he’s just an amnesiac Hinata with many talents but with no emotions, so he couldn’t know anything about Hinata by himself even if he tried because he couldn’t remember. 

That is, unless he did some research/investigation by himself or has found a random lead because of his SHSL Luck and if this is the case, he may have paid a lil’ visit to HinaMom and HinaDad just to pick his old uniform, following the DR trio, traveling to Jabberwock Island by boat with Ko, taking some private time (?) to cut his hair and to change his clothes (?) and then, he may have lied down on the NWP pod.

If that was the case, there was no need for the NWP to overwrite anything in his body - appearance-wise - in the first place, plus, it could also be likely due to his analytic skills for which he could foresee he’d have needed to change his appearance to revert to his old one since the beginning. Perhaps this could also explain why did his own avatar wear Hinata’s previous high school uniform, too?

This problem could also be applied to Saionji’s avatar, hairstyle and clothing.

Why is it that the kimono she wears and her hairstyle in the game are different compared to her kimono and her hair in the newspaper article photo after her growth spurt?

Did she wear an older kimono for the sake of having the NWP building her avatar according to her younger self with the kimono she used to wear most of the time? Maybe her favorite older kimono? The one she deemed more appropriate? Did she style her hair in two pigtails for the same reason?

If that's the case, was it even possible for her to still have such an old kimono?

The point is, how did she wake up, exactly? Did she wake up with a kimono that was too little for her body shape?

If she didn't, did she have a spare kimono in case she'd wake up Enoshima-fied or did anyone have to sew a newer kimono on purpose to prevent her from getting exposed at her awakening? Did she change her hairstyle and her accessories later?

[kimmysfandomblog]

Hm.. 2, 10 and 30 for the danganronpa challenge ask?

Thank you, Celrios!!! ( ◜ヮ◝ )

From here:  https://kimmysfandomblog.tumblr.com/post/170470327942/lafumiko-hi-people-i-was-searching-for-a-good

2. What’s your favorite part about DR? Choose between the story, the art, the characters, the gameplay, etc.

10. Best Protagonist

30. If you were a character in the game who would you be? The Mastermind, a Victim, a Survivor, or a Killer?

It got kinda long, especially question 10 XD, and I tried to be as vague as I could about V3 to not be too spoilery (but it probably kinda is anyways), so it’s under the cut!

2. What’s your favorite part about DR? Choose between the story, the art, the characters, the gameplay, etc.

While for DR1, the hook for that game was definitely the story (I think in terms of a mystery game, it was the most successful in telling that story), for every installment thereafter, it was the characters that made me love the series. Danganronpa characters are extremely wacky, yet a lot of the time you are amazed by their talent. However, Danganronpa is usually able to succeed in making characters realistic and relateable despite the over-the-top nature of having “Ultmate Talents,” and while maybe the average person would not make the same choices they had, at the same time you can feel what they must have felt when put in those situations. For example, Souda Kazuichi has pink hair, sharp teeth, and pink eyes, and he is pretty extroverted and seemingly a very open person, but through his FTEs you find out he felt like he had to be that way, changing everything that had been him to fit into a new crowd after one of his friends betrayed his trust. While I don’th think there is anyone that would go through such extremes to change themselves as protection and for attention, the act of changing yourself as a defense against getting close to other people is relateable. It was things like that that made me extremely fond of the characters of Danganronpa!

10. Best Protagonist

Hahaha, easiest question in this list XD Hajime Hinata! Hajime will never be beat as best protagonist in my heart! I did like Naegi in DR1, but he was just a bit too optimistic, and he didn’t really drive the trials quite as much (Kirigiri had them pretty much solved each trial, and if an answer was obvious, Togami would point out that it was). Komaru’s self-doubt lacked any kind of ambition. She only wanted to be a normal girl and left alone, so I couldn’t quite relate. The V3 protag had the talent, but they held themselves back through their own lack of self-confidence and would always need someone to guide them for emotional support.

To me, Hajime was the perfect balance. All the protags lacked confidence to various degrees, and actually of everyone he probably had the least (maybe) since he had no talent and was surrounded by people who did, yet in the game, not knowing his talent made him a little more assertive than Naegi. While he did need emotional support a few times, he's able to pick himself up quite often. Because of his past experience, he tries not to trust very easily, yet he can’t help but do his best to help others. He listens to his friends and can be brutally honest about what he feels (leading to many hilarious sassy responses and inner monologues that are less nice than the other protags). By the end of the game, unlike with Naegi or the V3 protag, it felt like he was able to create a much stronger bond with almost all the class. It helps that he is actually pretty capable of making his own assertions and the other two characters of the main trio either don’t talk much (Chiaki) or generally are untrusted (Nagito), meaning he gains the trust of the others easier. Him and the other survivors also seem much closer that the DR1 six, where it really seemed like Naegi was always under suspicion and they even almost get Naegi killed (can we really say that Asahina, Hiro, and Toko were that close to Naegi?), and in V3, it’s a little more ambiguous I think since the protag had not been the glue keeping the group together the whole game through.

Hajime, just in general, is a really great friend, who despite his own troubles and worries, and even despite his sassy remarks, will listen and do his best to care for others. And speaking of his worries, unlike ever other protag, Hajime clearly has ambition. He wanted to be more successful and had the drive to do whatever it takes to finally meet his, and probably his family’s, high expectations. He was really desperate to meet those expectations, the fear of failure heavy on his back and driving him to a desperate decision. That ambition and the fear of not reaching his goal is something that really resonates with me and many other people. Many people can relate to looking at other people’s success and comparing it to our own, and then feeling worse by thinking we will never get there. The other protagonists really just accepted the part of them telling them they were weak and nothing special, while Hajime told himself he had to be special, that he had to try. That’s why out of all of them, he is the one protagonist I will always love. He’s the protagonist that teaches people to keep looking to the future as something you can shape, not something that is predetermined, and that helping others will drive all of you to the goal you want to reach because you support each other. He’s really such an admirable character who has been though so much and grown a lot over the span of the game, and I can’t help but feel so very proud of him, because it truly feels like he earned his happy ending.

NOTE: Not to say I dislike the other protags. I like them all, but I honestly just love Hajime way more! He’s my favorite character, after all!

30. If you were a character in the game who would you be? The Mastermind, a Victim, a Survivor, or a Killer?

Quite honestly, I don’t see myself surviving a killing game, hahaha. I also have a very strong stance against killing of any kind, so there is no way I’d be the Mastermind or a Willing Murderer. Most likely I’d be a Victim ^^; I’m a pretty easy target and in that short span of days, knowing myself I wouldn’t trust anyone. I’d make small-talk, maybe, and be polite, but I wouldn’t get close to anyone, or do my best not to. However, if for, whatever reason, me dying was something that could help the whole group, I might just let myself die for the team to spare anyone the pain. Even if I never made friends, I try to value life, and if it was between me being dead, or everyone else, I’d rather die rather than end up alone anyways. If I were to make friends, because in tough situations relationships accelerate faster, I’d do everything in my power to defend them, and try to live for them if they perished in the game.

[zezeryous]

i just finished drv3

i just finished the game like 15 minutes ago and i’m torn. very torn. short initial thoughts under the cut (huge spoilers obviously)

okay i’m gonna start off by saying i was spoiled on the identity of the mastermind by my own stupidity and also that Kaede wasn’t actually the main character via tumblr. so i went into this game not entirely blind and i think it affected my experience with it in a minor way.

i think it’ll be easier for me to start with what i liked about the game so i’ll do that. the thing i liked the most about it was how it differentiated itself from the previous games and broke a lot of the tropes from the previous games. i went into the game expecting it to be another normal dr game with the usual tropes and around the third chapter i realized that what i thought was gonna happen based on my knowledge of the previous games wasn’t actually happening. and i fucking love this. drv3 feels fresh it feels different. it’s still a dr game but at the same time it isn’t and that’s what i like the most about it.

Kaede. sighs. out first female protag was gone too soon. however, i thought having the protag be a culprit was a fucking brilliant move and while i wasn’t sure about it at first because i was worried about how they were gonna do it, i think it was a great move and kept things fresh. it kinda expanded on how Hinata was sort of the mastermind of sdr2 and i really really liked it and think they pulled it off really well. i do wish they hadn’t pulled this during the very first chapter though because i would’ve liked to have had Kaede around a little more. though to be honest i think Saihara is my favorite from this game so i’m not complaining that much.

i also really kinda liked how they handled the aftermath of the twist (more on that in a bit because O H  B O Y do i have Feelings about it) i thought it was brilliant to have everyone break dr tradition and reject both hope and despair. this point goes back to what i was saying above with how this game just subverts a lot of the tropes from the previous games (not all though - i’m looking at you general themes of the cases)

another thing is how the cast as a whole was a lot more friendly and trusting of each other compared to the other two games, especially the first. had there not been any motives, no murders would’ve taken place. again this is yet another thing under the “drv3 did this differently than other games” category but it was really interesting to see this dynamic still hold after all the shit various people did.

i also wanna talk a little bit about Ouma. i’ve heard a lot of people saying he’s a lot like Komaeda, so i was kinda expecting that going in, but in the end i don’t quite get it. i don’t understand his character as well as i would like and i don’t feel like the game (or at least the localization anyway) didn’t do him justice. so if anyone who really loves Ouma is reading this i would absolutely love it if you could please explain him to me because i don’t understand his character like i should be and i want to as a big Komaeda fan (and one that thinks that the fandom really fucked with his character a lot)

okay. the twist. the motherfucking bullshit twist. i legit wanted to scream at my computer because i thought it was a flaming pile of bullshit. i hate the twist with a burning passion and it almost ruined the entire series for me. the ending of drv3 is very vague and really leaves it up to the player what is a lie and what is truth. is their world actually fiction or is it part of the dr world? we don’t really know. it’s kinda like the ending to the first game where we don’t really know if Junko was lying about how the outside world was fucked up or if she was actually telling the truth. it turned out to be the latter once sdr2 was released, but the idea is similar. so it’s up to our interpretation. but there’s also a third option. it’s the option where drv3 is its own beast in its own universe completely unrelated to the main dr games. this is the option i think i am going to go with because i can continue to love and adore the previous games like i always have while still respecting what happened in drv3 and what it was trying to do as a dr game.

the thing about the twist that really got on my nerves above all else though was how they portrayed the fans of the “series”. to me it was a kinda negative portrayal of the dr fanbase. because if Tsumugi is to be believed and it was all a work of fiction, real actual people in a supposedly peaceful world wished for 53 different real life killing games, which is really kinda fucked up. i got a “y’all are crazy for loving this series so much” vibe from it and it left me feeling vaguely insulted for being a huge fan of the series for so long. granted, i don’t know if that was the intent or if it was supposed to be a more positive “the fans keep this series alive” message, but i’m sure i’m not the only one who came out of the game feeling vaguely insulted for being a fan of the game. and if multiple people got that feeling when that was not the intent, then it was a poorly written message and one that should’ve needed to be reworked.

if the twist hadn’t been what it was i would’ve been okay with the backstory being what it was. my biggest issue with it though was naegi and hinata and the others fought so hard to fix the world only for it to be completely destroyed again by something they couldn’t control

i’ll probably try and find other peoples’ thoughts on the game because i’m not sure how i feel about it and maybe someone will have some insight on it that’ll make me decide one way or another

tl;dr i have mixed feelings about the game because of the bullshit twist but i love the characters and i like the game for what it was (a dr game, but not) and what it could have been

[oumakokichi]

Sort of inspired by the ask a while back comparing Himiko to Kuzuryuu and your Himiko meta in general - based on the survivors of the three DR games, what personal traits/qualities do you think lend themselves to characters surviving in the DR universe? What sorts of commonalities do these characters have? I think it's interesting that, as you've said, the strongest/smartest often /don't/ make it to the end, despite their advantages.

This is a really funask! Evaluating the survivors is always a fun task because there are alwaysgenuine traits or characteristics that helped them get where they are, butthere’s also always that element of pure luck. That being said, it’s very truethat some particular tendencies tend to show themselves a little more obviouslythan others, and some of the survivors definitely have a few things in common.

Himiko is perhaps the easiest one to start with again, sincethere was already the comparison to Kuzuryuu, but I do want to point out that Ithink there are quite a few similarities between her and Aoi as well. Just asKuzuryuu lives on and continues to keep Peko in his thoughts and memories, Aoidoes much the same with Sakura. Aoi and Sakura’s closeness, as well as the factthat Sakura died in order to help protect Aoi in particular, closely mimics alot of the general development between Himiko and Tenko as well.

In many ways, Aoi is a figure who Himiko eventually grows toresemble, rather than one she started out similar to. Aoi’s feisty spirit andlive-with-your-emotions-on-your-sleeve motto is very similar to Tenko’s, infact—and that’s exactly the same sort of motto Himiko herself tries to abide bythe more she develops. Neither she nor Aoi are particularly deep thinkers, andtheir opinions on other members of the group tend to change very quicklydepending on what’s going on in the present, but they’re always reliable asfriends, and they’re more than willing to get angry or offended on behalf ofothers.

It’s these traits in particular that I think made Himiko asure-in as a survivor. In addition to the layers of plot armor she inheritedafter Tenko’s death, ndrv3 has such a general feeling of coming back to thebeginning of things and tends to mimic dr1 a lot more closely than sdr2overall. So I feel like it’s no coincidence that she and Aoi share a lot incommon.

With Maki, it’s interesting because I would peg her verymuch for a Togami-like character at first, although it’s actually moredifficult to draw that comparison in later chapters. In the earlier parts ofndrv3 though, it’s very true that Maki was the character the most inclined topush everyone else in the group away. Like Togami, she was explicitly clearabout “mind your own business and I’ll mind mine,” and was similarly skepticaland wary of everyone else in the group.

Interestingly enough, though, I’d say she mimics Fukawa to aslight degree when it comes to her own self-perception. The Fukawa-Syo revealis treated rather comically, but like Fukawa and Syo, Maki is someone whoharbors a secret about being a killer—and like Fukawa and Syo, she poses a veryreal, very dangerous threat to the rest of the group as long as she tries tokeep it secret from them. Ouma’s exposure of her secret is extremelyreminiscent of Togami doing the same thing to Fukawa in dr1 Chapter 2.

Like Fukawa as well, Maki becomes extremely fixated onMomota to the point where she becomes willing to do reckless and even morallyquestionable things, although unlike Fukawa her love for Momota is never playedas a subject of comic relief (and while it’s not always the healthiestfixation, it’s not nearly as unhealthy as Fukawa’s fixation with Togami).

In a sense, Maki as a survivor reminds me quite a lot ofAkane. Like Akane, she’s dealt with heavy trauma and awful things in her past.And like Akane who carries on Nidai’s memory with her, Maki carries on Momota’s.Akane and Nidai were played in a much less romantic light than momoharu, butthe fact that they were always constantly fighting/bickering does remind mequite a lot of how much of the momoharu interaction progresses, especiallyearly on in the game.

Similar to Akane, Maki is not a thinker either. She’ssomeone who considers herself a weapon and does what she’s told, someone whotakes orders rather than reasoning things out. If there’s a problem to besolved, she’d rather solve it the only way she knows how, using violence andtechniques she’s picked up as an assassin. And this very much mimics Akane’s “punchfirst, ask questions later” style of doing things. Akane was intended for amuch more important role in sdr2, as her last name “Owari” shows, and that alsoreminds me a little of how Maki seemed initially like she might be the protagor have an even bigger and more important role in ndrv3 from originalpromotional art.

Finally, we have Saihara. Saihara arguably becomes asurvivor just because he’s the protagonist; you could argue that it’s very muchthe same for Naegi and Hinata. But considering that both Kaede and Kiibo stilldie despite also sharing the protagonist slot, and considering how muchemphasis ndrv3 puts on the “everyone is the protagonist of their own story”theme, I’m not so sure.

Certainly, Saihara shares some similarities with both of hisprevious successors, just as he also shares some noticeable differences. But Ithink a better case could be made for Saihara surviving due to his detectivetalent, rather than due to his role as a protagonist specifically. In coming toterms with what it means to search for the truth without necessarily shootingdown all lies, Saihara comes to fully understand and accept what being adetective means. And after an entire game spent fearing his talent and tryingto avoid it because exposing the truth felt too painful, he instead embracesthe role—but only on his own terms.

Saihara is really not much like Kirigiri in terms ofpersonality, or even in terms of his style as a detective. But he does come tolearn and understand things which Kirigiri understood intuitively right off thebat in dr1. Kodaka is very emphatic in the DR franchise about the fact thatrunning away from the truth out of fear of exposing it will only backfire inthe end. Jin Kirigiri, who in many ways had a similar distaste to being adetective as Saihara does, ultimately brings about so much ruin to Hope’s Peakand fails to see the worst in people because he’s always blindly believing thebest instead, without any basis at all.

As Kirigiri points out, Jin was someone who ran away fromthe detective business. His refusal to come to terms with the harsher, uglierpoints of the truth meant he never fully understood what being a detective entailed,and it’s something she can’t ever quite forgive him for. Saihara pulls throughto the end partially because where he starts out as someone very similar to Jin,he ultimately comes to understand and agree with Kirigiri’s way of thinkinginstead.

Granted, he wouldn’t have made it as a survivor at all if itweren’t for Kiibo’s sacrifice—none of them would have, actually, since theywere all actively trying to end their own lives in order to end the killinggame.

Rather than the strongest or the smartest, I feel like inmany cases, it really is the characters who are the most willing to adapt andchange their points of view who make it to the end. Celes had lots of fun linesabout adaptability being the most important point of survival in dr1, actually,though she was certainly lying when she herself pretended to be adaptable.Himiko, Maki, and Saihara’s noticeable changes throughout ndrv3 are likely aresult of the three of them having the most room to grow, in my opinion. Allthree of them are immature and require a lot of development in some way oranother.

But this is just my take on it, anyway! This was a reallyinteresting question, again I had a lot of fun answering it! Thank you so muchfor stopping by!