A group of 15 elite high school students are gathered at a very special, high class high school. The school is presided over by a bear called Monokuma, and he explains to them that their graduation hinges around committing a murder. The only way to graduate is to kill one of your classmates and get away with it. If the other classmates discover the identity of the killer, the killer is the only one executed. However, if they fail to catch the killer, only the killer graduates and the others are annihilated. Which of the 15 will survive the bloodbath to come?
Source: Danganronpa: The Animation Kissanime
About
Danganronpa was originally a video game franchise created and developed by Spike Chunsoft (formerly Spike) for Playstation Portable. The game's scenario was written by Kazutaka Kodaka, with character designs by Rui Komatsuzaki. It was later adapted into an anime series on July 2013.
Thoughts
Before anything else, I just wanna say that I haven't played ALL the games in the video game franchise. I however played the first game "Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc" which initially was the first season of the anime Danganronpa. The reason I am mentioning this, is because most people who have played Danganronpa the video game were left disappointed after watching its anime adaptation. So I will be focusing more on the anime and not the video game.
So, What is Danganronpa : The Animation all about?
The show is all about the "Ultimate" students of Hope's Peak Academy. Every year, the school selects students who are on top of their field. This varies greatly ranging from an artist/animator to a gang leader to a boxer, even to a trained assassin in the underworld. Every one who have a talent worthy of being called "Ultimate" are invited to join the prestigious school along with one average "Ultimate Lucky Student" who is chosen by lottery.
As our protagonist(Ultimate Lucky Student) arrives on the school, he lost consciousness and later find himself trapped inside along with 14 other ultimate students. Afterwards, a "remote-controlled bear" introduces himself and offers a way out of the school, that is to "murder another student and get away with it"
When a murder occurs, a "class trial" is held. Class Trials are more like court sessions in which the students determine who among them is the killer. If their guess is correct, the killer alone will be executed otherwise they all get executed and the killer will be able to leave the school.
Kind of dark right? The show kind of reminds me of Hunger Games. People trapped in a finite space and is forced to kill one another. Survival of the fittest. With the obvious difference that you only need to kill one person in here and hopefully get away with it.
Danganronpa's greatest strength is how it shows how humans would probably react when faced in such situations. Would one keep their morality? Or would one do everything in their power just to escape such a situation? It's a psychological story showing how fragile and weak we all are and how easy it is to manipulate others to do your bidding when their life or their loved ones life is in danger.
The art, animation, sound and music are all okay. The way the characters are executed at the end of the trial are kind of brutal. What I don't understand though is why they chose to use "flourescent pink blood" instead of "dark red blood" in the murders. That honestly throws off the whole dark mystery/thriller concept.
The shows biggest disappointment is its pacing. It's way too fast. It kind of felt too rushed. Being only 13 episodes in a season, there's just no way to fit all the scenes from the video game into the anime. This is the main reason why many who played the game felt disappointed in the anime adaptation.
Overall, I really liked this anime despite it's rushed pacing. It has a very intriguing and interesting concept. It tackles human behaviour and psychology. There's some murder mystery and some brutality in it that will just draw everyone in.
If you plan to watch this series. The order is usually:
- Danganronpa : The Animation
- Danganronpa 3 : Future Arc (Sequel)
- Danganronpa 3 : Despair Arc (Prequel)
- Danganronpa 3: Hope Arc (Conclusion)
With Future Arc and Despair Arc to be watched simultaneously, which means Future Arc Ep1 then Despair Arc Ep1, then Future Arc E2 then Despair Arc E2 and so on and so forth.