Danganronpa is about a high school named Hope’s Peak Academy that has just started with 15 high school students. When the students get into the school they notice something is odd and the school is sealed. At their first meeting the students find out that they will be there forever unless they kill the other students and get away with it. Monobear appears to be running the operation and gives the students incentives to kill each other. After a student is killed there is an investigation and trial to figure out the culprit. When the culprit is found they are punished, if they get away with it they are set free.
Danganronpa has some problems with the adaptation that I have already written about. Unfortunately the problems only get worse at the end of the series. The end of the show sees the worst use of the bullets in the whole show. Giant “hope” bullets flying across the screen to break through the despair of the other students. These bullets might mean something to people that have played the game, but a lot of people will not have played the game. Those people are probably wondering why imaginary bullets are careening all over the place. It does not have the impact that it could have and ruins a serious moment in the show. It is the best proof that the show should have left out that element from the game along with others that added nothing to the show. All it needed was the story without the bells and whistles from the game.
The characters for the show are not explored deeply. Most of the characters are pretty generic until more is shown about them after they die or during their trial. It makes sense though since the show is very rushed. There is not much time to learn about characters between investigations, murders, and trials that make up most of the show. The real shame is that the personality and the background of the main character are not explored. He is just a generic man.
The use of CGI in this show is just terrible. It does not feel anything like the rest of the show. Hopefully the makers were wanting it to be jarring because it is quite jarring to see the difference between the normal animation and the CGI. Luckily they mostly use it just for punishments.
While Danganronpa does have a lot of problems something about it can keep the watcher wanting to see what happens next. How will things go with this school where the students have to kill each other? The story is a pretty good attention grabber and the ending is pretty interesting. The whole thing being a television show was not a big surprise, but the final reveal was cool. The last trial decision was a good culmination for the series. It showed the group’s true feelings and motivations. I was very interested at that point whether they would have hope for the future or give in to despair and keep living the way they had been.
Overall it would probably be better to go play the game if you want to get the full experience. From what I understand it would make more sense that way as well.
Score: 3/5
Couldn’t end this without having some pictures of the fabulous, totally chill Monobear.
