Posted by Episode 03
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「イキキル ／ 非日常編」 (Iki Kiru / Hinichijou Hen)
“Kill Free or Live Hard / Abnormal Days”
The fairly obvious conclusions aside, watching the class trial unfold was something of a mixed bag for me. This is Danganronpa’s highlight, so to speak: the class trials where we see the characters try to hash out the mystery of the murder and the identity of the killer. Whether or not you were familiar with the proceedings of the game, the anime’s been doing its own bit to hype these critical moments up. It’s fair to say that your enjoyment of Danganronpa will probably be made or broken by how the trials are executed. For something with so much riding on it, I don’t know if I should take it as a worrying sign that I’m coming off the first one with this much ambivalence.
That said, I liked the way the murder unfurled in the trial; the fairly obvious identity of the killer aside, it was enjoyable to see the characters piece together the bits and pieces of the story together and have the anime present this in a fairly sleek manga sequence- taken from the game no less, but it still looks good. As it usually is with murder mysteries, the proceedings do take a fair amount of buy-in from the viewers (there are a lot of questionable parts to Maizono’s plan to frame Naegi for the kill) but these more easily forgiven in Danganronpa’s case. Credit it to the silly, b-flick demeanor the show puts on and its parodic nature of stereotypes, that I could easily accept something like Leon’s “disposal” of the evidence with his ball-throwing skills. When laid out on the table, there’s nothing about Maizono’s murder that seemed particularly amiss. Neither was there anything flawed about the way the characters eventual arrived at the answer; par the course for a mystery, there was that typical back-and-forth bouncing of hypotheses, and if heavy dialogue was never your thing, you won’t change your mind here. What Danganronpa does, it does competently, if not proficiently. In spite of the rather vocal complains from game-players about the loss of detail, it never becomes an incoherent or tedious watch. Just don’t hold any ideas of anime grandeur, and you’ll find it enjoyable enough.
My beef lies elsewhere, and to some might not even register as a proper one, but this is a familiar peeve I have with Kishi Seiji and his game adaptations. I’ve always had something of a distaste for the way he incorporates or give references to the source material by jamming elements of the game into the narrative. I can only assume he believe it’s a sort of fanservice, but stylistic cue like the evidence bullet being loaded and shot (elements that were lifted directly from the game) doesn’t mesh well with the context of the anime, and often come off jarring.
And here my main concern, the reason I’m being this ambivalent; how long can the novelty last? Right now, as it’s typical of most survival thrillers, Danganronpa is riding pretty heavily on the novelty and sensationalism of its premise; I’m finding it enjoyable for now, but if the show doesn’t introduce anything new, this has a pretty high chance of the show weaning off on its viewers.
OP3 Sequence
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Episode 04
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「週刊少年ゼツボウマガジン ／ (非)日常編」 (Shukan Shounen Zetsubou Magajin / (hi) Nichijou Hen)
“Weekly Shounen Despair Magazine / (Not) Normal Arc”
We’re fresh off the first trial, but the show’s wasting no time to get the games moving on. I’m feeling a bit of what poor Naegi is feeling here; just as he doesn’t have the time nor opportunity to mourn Maizono’s death, I too feel the show isn’t letting the aftermath of the first trial sink in enough for me. There’s no denying at this point that the episodes all feel cramped; this episode had the new discoveries in the newly opened locations, the Genocider Sho case, and a whole new murder on top of those. Danganronpa chugs along regardless of what happens, and leaves little time to mull over what we’ve just seen or learned.
It’s not to say that I’m worried for the pace, or the content, or the general execution of Danganronpa. However cramped it feels, there’s nothing particularly flawed about how Danganronpa doles out the exposition. There isn’t so much complexity thrown at you that it becomes impossible or exhausting to follow. The main problem I can see here is that the show doesn’t allow itself time for the audience to form much of an attachment to anything -hence the cramped feeling- which also seems to be the one of the major complaints I see of those coming from the game. It’s no doubt a valid complain; one can imagine how much more affecting these murders would be if we had more of an emotional attachment to these characters, but in a quasi-slasher where anyone could die at the drop of a hat (and we still got 11 tweens to work our way through) I wonder if the trite characterization is really a critical flaw at all. More importantly for the show, the murders still feel pretty fresh (pun not intended) and there’s still that appealing, self-aware silliness– what with that random festive opening, Fukawa stalking Togami, as well as Ishida and Oowada finding the time to bond over sauna battle in this situation. Just these alone might make Danganronpa a simple watch, but it’s nonetheless still an enjoyable one. Well, if you’d minus those lamentations from game-players about the loss of context. (Lamentations which no game adaptation seem to ever be able to escape from.)
Though I wonder how long this simplistic enjoyment can last; the minute cases are sufficiently fun for now, but can the novelty of the death of the bi-week last for another 8 more episodes? Beyond stopgaps like a more encompassing mystery or the show pulling out all the stops in the silliness quota, this looks to be heavily dependent on the creativity of these murders, tough as it is to show originality in the crime mystery genre. There’s also that overarching mystery in the cards: the main mystery behind Kibogame Academy, Monobear, and the purpose of the killing game. But as it is with these survival thrillers, it is just as likely the show would never directly address the questions up front.
As usual, I’d rather not speculate on the crime mystery; if it’s anything like the first case, there seems to be more fun to be had in just letting the show do its thing and hash out the mystery of Fujisaki’s murder during the class trial. If there’s anything to alleviate my worries, this one at least looks to be a more creative and smarter murder than the first one. The killer definitely planned things out to larger degree; there’s a mess of clues here, with cues that definitely point to some obvious suspects, but also others that suggest red herrings.
Author Notes
-At this point, I’m discussing with Cherrie on who might continue on with Danganronpa coverage. As to who, you’ll know once there’s an update to the schedule.
-If you saw the notice in my Uchouten Kazoku post, episode 03’s post was delayed due to my flying/packing/settling down in the past week, hence the double post here. Same deal with Gatchaman if you’re wondering, the double post for 02 and 03 will be out soonish within the next day or so.
Forget It Beam!
http://youtu.be/lCJuYTUaOtU
At this point I can safely declare that i will follow danganronpa all the way,
Was hoping to see new execution scenes, too bad the adaptation has less impact than the game. Maybe we can get some of the ones in the official fanbook animated instead!
I can only agree with the top comment…
“Anime makes execution similar to the game: “They’re so lazy! I hate it!”
Anime makes execution different to the game: “They changed it! I hate it!”
Be honest, people… Whichever way the anime did this execution, you’d have found a reason to bitch about it.”
“people” are not all the same. while it may seem “people” may find a way to bitch either way, it’s obviously due to the fact that “people” aren’t “people” in the sense that they are one group of people with like minds. the “people” you address are multiple groups of people with different preferences and tastes.
i would have personally loved to see them adapt the executions in a different way. but i don’t mind that they reused a lot of the game scenes.
I wasn’t complaining about them using the same execution scenes. I was talking about how the anime censors the scenes from the game (camera zooms in and you don’t see the balls IMPACTING the guy). Probably going to revert to original in the Blu-rays to boost sales.
My favourite (Celestia) moves on. Hurrah!
My favourite as well, which means she’ll probably die.
My favourites always do.
I’m stuck between Kyoko and Celestia.
Junko is my fav character
upupupu
I think Cheerie actually fits the description for tackling for this one.
This is… my opinion of course.
Thanks Croos! Unfortunately I’m already blogging Rozen Maiden on Thursdays so Asobi will continue blogging this one =) maybe we can do a joint post one day though.
Asobi should concentrate more on Gatchaman Crowds.
This mystery actually has me quite baffled.
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Not bad. Here is the solution for this case (Spoiler, obviously):
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I knew it! Though I’m still picking up on how the crime itself was made. Iliketoplaydetectivecough
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they should explain it. i never read the manga, but if you want an explanation, i suggest looking at some let’s plays. this is chapter 3, IIRC.
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By sheer willpower, I have refused to open the spoiler.
Checking the episode again, my guess-
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I like the “execution” scene style and the music that plays.
I watched episode 4 twice….each time seeing Chihiro’s body made me jump out of my chair.I had a soft spot for her …. 🙁
I’m really , really enjoying the series. I have no idea why , but I’m almost addicted to it.
My favorite part of this anime–as someone who played the visual novel–is reading the theories and discussion among those who haven’t. I don’t really have a problem with the adaptation and I don’t understand why one would even bother to complain about it; if you’ve already experienced the source material as its original creators intended, what were you expecting to gain from another interpretation? In my opinion, adaptations are meant to draw a new audience back to the source material, not the other way around. I think this show is good enough to do just that.
imo, the evidence scenes move so fast and some evidence are just blatantly skipped. it seems more like an accessory to people who completed the game. i noticed the shutters and the fact that the garbage room had an incinerator only because i played the game, but my friends who i showed this to needed an explanation from me before we could proceed. it’s an okay adaptation, but the story, suspense, and character interactions are enough to make it a good show, even for people who played the game, in my opinion. i especially liked how they adapted the sauna scenes.
even for people who *have not* played the game
Kirigiri: “How’d you know i was gonna ask about Maizono”
Naegi: “It’s because im an esper”
Naegi: “Nah just kiddin, it was intuition.”
Man the chapter ending with this scene really hits me hard be it in the game or anime ;_;. Maizono is.. I guess 2nd to Celes on my favorite character, though her murder case uh not so much. That brings me to this next case, all I can say is you’re right that its a lot more creative and thought out than the first one.
I’m rooting for the Gambler Celestia, Kirigiri, and Naegi. I liked the programmer girl and I’m hoping that Fuka did it so we can get rid of her, she is just so damned annoying!
That mention of an extra jury seat in episode 3 is really bothering me. In a mystery nothing is ever a coincidence. So the question is who is the extra student?
I’ve not played the game , but I have read a few things on the Dangan Ronpa wiki…not the most reliable source but from what I found from that the extra student might be:
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Something to add to that :
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Either way , I have no idea how you’d hide a 16th student if this is actually true.
“Retard retard retard retard!”
Yes, that is always a good defense to be used, Leon.
All I can say with this anime adaptation(already played it):
i missed never say never opening they should stay stick that op in every sequences
I’m personally enjoying watching the adaption (even as one who has played the game). It’s really cool to see the theories other people are coming up with. I mean sure, some things were lifted DIRECTLY from the game (climax logic anyone), but on the flip side, it’s nice to see them giving a nod back to it’s source material. My personal only big issue is that the investigations are a little bit rushed and don’t really give the audience enough time to soak in everything that’s happening. Regardless, at least this investigation (comparative to the first one) gives I think JUST enough information to solve it.
Of course…
Show Spoiler ▼
Every character is a stereotypical, one dimensional (Thus far) caricature, the bear is obnoxious and the premise itself so horribly uninspired. As for the mysteries themselves we’ve only completed the first but from what I’ve seen thus far they seem to be more or less what you’d expect from a murder game-show series, nothing terribly special. Reeks of mediocrity (Mediocre as in run-of-the-mill, average to slightly above average quality, NOT as in bad.) in every respect except for its vibrant art design- it’s actually got some of the most interesting aesthetics of the seasons. And at this point in time the eye candy is what’s keeping me watching- this show needs to shape up, chiefly it needs to actually bother to properly develop a character or two- but there’s nothing they can do about he obnoxious mastermind I’m afraid, I get what they’re trying to do with the whole cutesy/evil thing but the bear’s character design and voice failed to evoke this (presumably) intended response for me, making him come across as simply annoying rather than actually evil…
This 5th episode kinda went off the rails and jumped the shark. Time for me to drop this series.