Danganronpa 3: The End of Kibougamine Gakuen - Zetsubou-hen

Hope's Peak Academy's unconventional class 77-B is about to have an even more eccentric addition: Chisa Yukizome, an alumna with the title of Super High School-Level Housekeeper—and their new homeroom teacher. Cheerful, passionate, and capable, Chisa immediately sets about correcting the students' problematic behavior and strengthening their relationships. It may not be easy dealing with diverse pupils ranging from princesses and nurses to yakuza and impossibly lucky students, but anything is possible with the power of hope.

Meanwhile, Hajime Hinata, an unremarkable boy from the school's Reserve Course, longs for a talent. One day, he has an unexpected meeting with class 77-B's Super High School-Level Gamer Chiaki Nanami, who presents to him a new, hope-filled outlook on life. However, unbeknownst to him, the school's upper echelon is about to execute a sinister project centered around Hajime that will bring Hope's Peak—and the rest of the world—to its knees.

Zetsubou-hen chronicles the daily lives carried out at the talent-cultivating academy, and the darkness that lurks beneath. As despair slowly infects hope, plans are put into motion to start the Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History, and the end begins.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Danganronpa 3: The End of Kibougamine Gakuen - Zetsubou-hen is an original story following the characters of the visual novel Super Danganronpa 2: Sayonara Zetsubou Gakuen before they arrived at the island. It is a prequel to SDR2.

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Related Anime

Prequel:	Danganronpa: Kibou no Gakuen to Zetsubou no Koukousei The Animation
Sequel:	Danganronpa 3: The End of Kibougamine Gakuen - Mirai-hen, Danganronpa 3: The End of Kibougamine Gakuen - Kibou-hen

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Komaeda, Nagito

Main

Ogata, Megumi
Japanese

Nanami, Chiaki

Main

Hanazawa, Kana
Japanese

Enoshima, Junko

Main

Toyoguchi, Megumi
Japanese

Hinata, Hajime

Main

Takayama, Minami
Japanese

Kamukura, Izuru

Main

Takayama, Minami
Japanese

Ikusaba, Mukuro

Main

Toyoguchi, Megumi
Japanese

Yukizome, Chisa

Main

Nakahara, Mai
Japanese

Kirigiri, Kyouko

Supporting

Monokuma

Supporting

Ludenberg, Celestia

Supporting

More staff

Staff

Cook, Justin

Producer

Ueda, Yasuyuki

Producer

Higa, Yuuji

Producer

Okamura, Takema

Producer

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Opening Theme

"Kami-iro Awase (カミイロアワセ)" by Binaria

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Ending Theme

"Zettai Kibou Birthday (絶対希望バースデー)" by Nagito Komaeda (Megumi Ogata)

Reviews

Sep 30, 2016

Dream95

Recommended

First things first. You need the play the two DR games (DR 1, SDR2) to fully understand and enjoy the two DR3 anime. If you were a fan of the first installment of the Danganronpa anime, you'll love the games, so please, if you haven't so already, turn around and play those two games (or watch a walkthrough) for the best viewing possible. DR: Another Episode is also mandatory especially for Future arc. Also be sure to watch both Future and Despair arc in broadcast order (i.e. watch future arc ep 1 then watch despair arc ep 1, and so on). There are parts where ... the story and characters might overlap, so be sure to watch it like that for better understanding.

DR3: Despair arc is essentially a prologue to the DR story. It centers around the 77th class of the Hope's Peak acadmey, who btw are the main cast of the 2nd game: SDR2. The setting, once so happy and carefree, turns into one of the darkest points in their history: a prologue to the Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic event in human history. As the title and premise says, don't expect a happy ending to this. Although it starts off like your typical slice of life school anime, there is a brooding tone that constantly evolves as the episodes contiunously progress, awaiting to become a monster that destroys the students daily lives with despair. This tone starts as lighthearted then transitions into a darker mood, eventually becoming something outright disturbing. Suddenly, the happy, slice of life school setting is no more, instead it becomes violent, bloody and despair-inducing.
One thing I liked is that they didn't linger or focus too much into the events the game already touched to an extent, like the Twilight Syndrome case. Just showing things in Hajime's point of view, and that was the better thing to do for the series.
One thing I would've liked was to see the 78th class just a bit more than a cameo, like their original interactions with Junko, but with the anime being just 1 cour, it's understandable that they had to leave that out.
A disappointing isssue was that he pacing is a noticeably off. I feel like 11 episodes for the 77th class wasn't enough in the end. If it could have gotten a little bit more time, and cut a little bit more of the fanservice, I think the whole tragedy and the aftermaths could have been done better.
(SPOILERS: For example, the scene of "her" death and the 77 class turning into despair could have used an in-between scene. Maybe one that goes more in-depth of how the class fully submitted to Junko. The skip between the death scene and the finale was too sudden, considering the two were a couple months apart.)

The animation of the characters are really fun to watch as a fan. Just seeing all those characters I loved so much from the 2nd game animated is just so exciting. I felt that one good touch was that as episodes progress and tends to get darker, the art itself progresses to a more darker mood along with the story. Even the opening changes during the middle, to a much more darker color. It was a very nice touch to have, considering what was coming.

The OP/ED is pretty good, and the soundtracks were decent, although it could've been better. One thing I did like is how they used some game soundtracks for good nostalgia. The voice acting is fantastic as usual though, just like the games. The voices fit so well with the characters, which always helps the experience.

The most important part of the despair arc (and the rest of the danganronpa series in general) are without a doubt the characters. If I didn't care for the characters, I would never have felt anything for them and thus I probably wouldn't have cared what happened to them. Now, since the most of the cast were fleshed out pretty well in SDR2, it wasn't that hard to make me like them from the get go. However, one thing I would've liked to see is just making the cast even stronger. I know that Chiaki, Hinata, and Nagito are indeed the important characters, but I also would've liked those without too much game time from SDR2 to get a bit more exposure and development, like Teruteru and Mahiru to an extent. What I'm glad though, is the screen time the Ultimate Imposter got. Anyways, even if some characters are not getting the desirable screen time, they are still enjoyable to watch. This is also an important reason to play the games before watching this. You just get to know the characters better and smile as they are finally interacting cheerfully without being forced to kill each other. And of course, feel a lot more sadness when they are forced to go through "that process". However, one thing that I am really glad Despair arc managed was Mukuro and Junko getting a bit more depth, as well as Mitarai.
One thing I didn't really like though, was how it put focus on the future arc characters for a couple of episodes, halting potential DR0 scenes and even halting the depth of the characters and their downfall. It's a shame that the despair process did not go as I imagined thanks to this, as I would've preferred the "despairification" process to be on a more personal level. Having more than 11 episodes would have helped.

As a huge fan of the danganronpa series, I feel both love and disappointment with the DR 3. On one hand, I loved seeing the characters I loved so much animated, interacting with each other. Even the first two episodes which were basically fan service was enjoyable to watch. Although honestly, they could have made the slice-of-life moments shorter just so we could've had more plot development earlier on. And on the other hand there were pacing issues, like I've mentioned. Also, the despair arc is also a big 'what could have been'. What if they would have personalized the despairification process? I think that would have been a better way to showcase and further the depth of both the characters and how they became "despair". Nonetheless, I had this huge smile while watching the first couple of episodes, only for it to turn to sadness and eventually into complete anxiousness as I knew what would eventually happen to the cast. It could have been much better, in fact, after rewatchign the series a couple of times, I just feel disappointed in how the revelation of how the 77th class turned into despair. It's still a fine watch.
Give the entire series (games + anime) a try! It's definitely worth your time.

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Sep 27, 2016

AoiHonoo

Mixed Feelings

Danganronpa 3 Despair has become divisive among the fanbase. From expectations not being fulfilled to false advertising, a good portion of fans we're not satisfied with how the anime was handled. On the other side of the spectrum, others believe it to be a great work that holds the franchise well. Lastly, there are those in the middle that still enjoyed it but recognize it's flaws. I'm also in the middle. While I did enjoy this series, I also had many issues with it.

First off, knowledge of both DR: Trigger Happy Havoc and Super DR2: Goodbye Island of Despair ...

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Sep 22, 2016

Keirik

Not Recommended

(Spoilers for the Danganronpa games) As half of the Danganronpa 3 anime experience, Side Despair's purpose is to provide backstory for Side Future as well as fill in Super Danganronpa 2's blanks. Neither should should be watched without playing the first two games in the series, but with Despair's final episode over with I can in good conscience say that they shouldn't be watched at all.

Side Despair's problem is that it's boring, safe, predictable, and pointless. As a companion piece to Side Future it does its job fairly well, but in every other regard it's an absolute failure. Danganronpa and Super Danganronpa 2 left several ... questions unanswered, mysteries left up to one's interpretation. DR3 Side Despair aims to solve these riddles and provide answers to what exactly happened to Class 77 before SDR2's events.

This was a terrible idea.

Class 77's backstory is largely shoved to the background in favour of crossovers with Side Future and an insider's view of series antagonist Junko Enoshima's infernal machinations. When the time finally comes for their big defining moment, none of them have had the development to warrant it. Instead, aside from outliers Nagito Komaeda, Chiaki Nanami, Ryota Mitarai and the Ultimate Impostor, all of them are mushed into one entity. Class 77 is no longer a cast of different characters, but one singular plot device the series has been chained to. Most of the Class 77 segments is spent building up to the demise of the one student missing in SDR2, and when it finally hits it's neither impactful nor entertaining.

Junko Enoshima herself has also lost all of her charm. In the games, she appeared only at the very end of DR1 and SDR2. Now she's a main character in Side Despair, and it really hammers home the point that she's best used sparingly. In short, she's just not a very interesting character when you get down to it. She's evil because she's evil, and every single one of her evil plans always goes off without a hitch. What she ends up doing to plunge the world into despair is also incredibly stupid and hokey. The charismatic supervillain who capped off both games on their victory laps is now an omnipresent, transparently evil mwahahaer with little to do or say except ensure that all of SDR2's major backstory beats are hit. The one shining beacon of hope is one of the new anime-original guys, Juzo Sakakura, an excellently written character with a compelling and tragic arc. However, most of his big moments happen in Side Future, though vital setup occurs in Side Despair. Juzo is one of the best additions to the series yet, and his presence alone saves the show from being scored even lower.

In the end, I liked SDR2 better when I didn't actually know what happened before it. Every answer we get in Side Despair is far lamer than what I'd envisioned, and just about every character is cheapened by the Persona 4-esque herd treatment. Just about the only character who escaped mostly unscathed was Komaeda, and even he, who was THE defining driving force of SDR2, ended up underutilised and mostly there to provide context for Side Future's events. This show not only fails on its own, but it serves to also make SDR2 a much weaker story once you know just how uninteresting its backstory is.

Side Despair is woefully written and dreadfully directed. The animation is also clearly low budget, with the excellent music and voice work, as usual for the franchise, being its only saving graces. You probably already watched this if you're a hardcore fan of the series, but I recommend everyone else give this a skip. Side Future is undoubtedly the stronger show of the two, though even then it'd hard to recommend that one either.

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