Mar 13, 2024
A light novel giving us the backstory of one of the most iconic Danganronpa characters? Expanding on his character just like Danganronpa Kirigiri did to one of the other most iconic characters a few years earlier? Perfect! Sign me up!
Except...maybe don't, actually. Because Danganronpa Togami is weird. Danganronpa Togami is REALLY weird.
Danganronpa Togami feels like a fanfic writer was given the power to make whatever they wanted canon. While Danganronpa has always been a dark franchise which is no stranger to shock value and crazy twists, DRTG amps it up to eleven. It's gorier and grosser than ever before, and quite frankly I wanted to
...
tear my skin off a few times. Dark themes and gore can be narratively relevant and valuable, but at times it really just felt like someone was trying to write the most messed-up story imaginable. And say, Danganronpa fan, do the words "seesaw effect" haunt you? Well you will not be PREPARED for the sheer amount of ass pulls this novel makes with its big twists. The twists are a load of absurd nonsense which, just as the shock content is there just to gross you out, are just there to bewilder you. And, to add insult to injury, there is absolutely no foreshadowing for most of them. The author of these books clearly think a twist is better the more surprising it is, regardless of what that actually adds to the narrative. And these twists are SO nonsensical because it's trying to be philosophical and deep, but clearly it doesn't actually know what it's trying to say. It's a mindfuck, but not in a good way.
Don't get me wrong, I love absurdity and dark content---one of my favorite anime ever is Revolutionary Girl Utena! But DRTG doesn't have anything to say with its shock content and bizarre twists. It feels like it was written by a twelve year old rebelling against the world for the first time by writing the most fucked up thing they could think of just for the sake of it. Togami is already a divisive character for his objectively inexcusable actions, but the author REALLY wanted to see how far they could push it.
Also, every other line is some obscure pop culture reference, usually to some niche piece of Japanese media or famous literature from around the world. Even my weeb, literature student ass only caught about half of them. Pop culture references are well and good, but WHY are there so many of them? This is an abnormal amount. The author really just wants to share random trivia with you. It's distracting, confusing, and bogs down the story. I doubt even the original Japanese audiences would understand all of them. The author also interrupts the climax of the first novel to talk about how most tie-in light novels are unmemorable but HE'S doing it right, which...okay lol. Whatever helps you sleep at night, dude.
I should also mention that these novels pull in a LOT of details from the author's own original novels, so maybe it would make sense if you read them, but quite frankly that is way too much effort to put in for a Danganronpa spin-off.
But hey, it's not like it's ALL bad. It's got a lot of Danganronpa-typical mysteries and death games with more screen time for everyone's favorite characters, so I imagine any Danganronpa fan can get something out of it. In fact, I rather enjoyed the flashback to the "competition" with the Togami siblings in the second book (that is, when it wasn't full of shock content), and seeing the remnants of despair being remnants was pretty rad, even if what they do is..somewhat nonsensical. I liked the speech about believing in your nakama near the end of book two; that one was very in-character for Danganronpa. And the bit about how AI can't actually create true art yet it's swallowing the artform and ending the world or whatever has aged like wine.
But...are the small morsels of Danganronpa goodness worth it, comparatively? Honestly, I don't really think so. But to each his own.
It's just...odd. It's very odd. And I'll leave it at that.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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