Danganronpa is about some students that thought they were going to the perfect school called Hope’s Peak Academy. They are inside the school, but things are not what they hoped. Their program is being run by Monobear and will be trapped until they kill someone. The students fruitlessly try to find ways out and make plans to make others feel safe like not leaving their rooms at night. Without any reason to kill besides leaving the estate the students do not kill as quickly as Monobear hoped. So he gets them each an incentive that he has recorded for them.
Unfortunately way too much of the first episode of Danganronpa is spent introducing the large cast and showing the premise. It is understandable about the large cast because with a Battle Royale premise there needs to be a lot of people to kill off. This one seems to be different though unless the subtitles were wrong. It appears that they just need to kill one person and then they will be set free. Looking into it further I have read they have to commit the perfect murder, so that the other students can not figure out who did it. If they can do that then they are set free, otherwise they are murdered. I do not know if the anime is going in the same direction or not. If so then this should be a murder mystery show rather than just a free for all killing spree until you are the only one left like most of these shows.
The art style for Danganronpa is not as gritty and realistic looking like most shows with a darker nature. Looking at the exaggerated character designs it would look more child friendly, which is pretty interesting. I enjoy when the art style does not match the feeling the show. If done properly it gives a feeling that things are not how they should be.
The cast all appear to be stereotypes to a huge degree. Just looking at them it is pretty easy to tell what their personality is like. If it is still hard to figure out they give almost all the characters a classification like bookworm.
Status: Still Watching. Danganronpa has caught my attention for now.
