Danganronpa: Kibou no Gakuen to Zetsubou no Koukousei The Animation

Here is a very basic rule of thumb that all animation studios should have learned by 2015: "Just because something worked as a video game, doesn't necessarily mean it will work as a show!"

Danganronpa was a successful video game because it had goofy characters, decent comedy, and allowed the player to think and solve mysteries. The story and characters weren't very deep or well developed, but it didn't matter because the entire point was for the player to actively solve the puzzle. A TV show is largely a passive form of entertainment in which the viewer is not controlling the events and using skills to ... solve a puzzle. That is why the quality of characters and writing needs to be higher in order to make a good show vs. a good game. Tetris is a great game without having any plot or characters to speak of, but it would SUCK as a TV show!

The basic premise is that a bunch of students are trapped in a highschool and manipulated into killing each other off. The students need to figure out who trapped them there and who is killing everyone. Basically they just lifted the plot and premise from an old Agatha Christie novel. Although this worked well for "And Then There Were None", it doesn't work out NEARLY as well here. One of the reasons is that the same "trick" used by Christie to throw off readers on who the true killer was actually was shocking and original in 1939, but really NOT in 2014. I don't want to completely spoil it, but if you have read the original novel you are not going to be surprised when the killer is revealed. The other reason Danganronpa fails is that the characters are all ANNOYING AS FUCK! I am dead serious when I say that MonoKuma is one of the single most annoying characters in anime history! In a videogame, a character can be REALLY annoying and players simply tolerate it. This goes all the way back to 1985 and that damned Duckhunt Dog! However, in a TV show it really isn't acceptable to have so many annoying characters with so much screen time!

It hardly helps matters that the animation in this show is dreadful and the CGI death sequences are so shitty looking you would rather die the death onscreen than have to watch it! I think Oregon Trail had better death cinematics than this piece of shit!

Overall:

Popular videogames being made into unbearably shitty anime is a trend that really should stop for the good of the anime industry. The ONLY positive thing I will say about Danganronpa is that it is better than another recent cell phone game adaptation: Vampire Holmes!

You may already know that Dangan Ronpa is the anime adaption of a video game by the same name.

You should also know it is the worse anime adaption of a game that was ever made.

Despite having a great story, it is impossible to realize how good it is or even enjoy it in the anime because the pacing is absolutely horrible. Everything happens too fast and nothing is explained, especially during investigations. A lot of important information is lost.
There is no character development, apart from things that are very important for the story. The lack of free times makes the characters bland.
The animation is a ... disaster, not even still images have good art. For something called "Dangan Ronpa: THE ANIMATION" there sure very few of it.
The only good thing about this adaption is the music. Why? Well the OST is the same one from the game (surprise!), and they actually did a good job with the ending. However I am not a fan of the changes they made to the opening song.
I am still watching this anime for the sole reason that I have already played the whole game beforehand, so I know the story. I'm using the anime as "extra footage" to watch some situations from the game "animated" (altough there's not much animation in this anyway).

Conclusion: Don't watch the anime, play the game. If you really want to watch it, do it after you've played the whole game. Please don't let the anime ruin a great story for you.

Danganronpa - KNGTZNK - The Animation (I KNOW!) is a weird anime. Not because he it pinkish blood, or it feels as if you're flying with Enterprise within the distance of a small country or anything alike - it's just weird.

To put it off my chest, I loved first 4-5 episodes. They really hit the point with me since I love the detective stories. They were well executed, they actually had SOLID pacing (I KNOW!) and weren't as ... well, as bad as the rest of them. As for the rest of them, they suck - flat out suck.

The story of Danganronpa is simple ... - you have sixteen (fifteen) students stuck in a school and only one of them will graduate. How? By killing others and not being found guilty, of course. The anime instantly opens the question of moral, self-indulgence and various other things concerning oneself in regards to others. We have a large range of characters, and a great setting. The rest is simple: some drama and dialogue, murder, investigation and trial - hence and repeat. No, seriously. The story skyrockets in speed in the last five episodes. You are constantly being fed enormous amount of information and you don't know whether you're supposed to remember or not. And the last two episodes (especially the last) ... oh gosh ... think of it as the entire Sauske/Itachi arc done in one and a half episode. Yep.
All in all, story is half-assed at best. It opens solidly and creates decent foundation, but then is skips through itself so quickly you forget what the hell is actually happening. It has no tools other than constant, constant, CONSTANT, boring dialogue and monologue to resolve all the questions, so yeah.

The saving graces of this anime are probably art and sound, and even they are not great. Art itself is nothing special; animations can sometimes (often) be so stiff you can barely look at them. Not to mention 5 minutes of talking where no one moves a limb. Eyes blinking and mouths opening and closing. Yeah. However, animation somewhat shines during the executions; they're quite well done, all unique in their own ways, flashy and disturbing of course. However, what killed the art for me was that bloody, pinkish blood. I detest the censorship, especially in anime where blood actually matters. Executions seemed as unicorns taking a crap rather than bodies being mutilated and dismembered in the most awful ways. Characters designs are also quite good, I might add. All characters look fresh, unique and distinguishable enough. It's their personalities that make you forget about them. As far as the sound goes, music is your standard tense stuff which is actually not half-bad. The voice actors vary; even in the last episode, I still couldn't stand the MC's voice, but it's just me.

Now, the character department. Considering there are sixteen (fifteen) students, and thirteen episodes, you know it's going to be a train-wreck. Only two characters receive mild development (Kirigiri & Naegi) but not in the true sense. From the very first episode, they all have established personalities and they stick to them (well, Nagei kind of receives a new one by the end). There are two or three interesting character, including the bear (which is probably the most interesting) and the psycho-killer-schizophrenia-amnesic-catastrophe. Kirigiri will be okay for some people, but I found her character ... just plain boring. The characters are not memorable. Let alone their names. Not that you even bother to remember, or need to remember. Just ... bad characters overall.

In the enjoyment department, for the first 5 episodes, I give this anime 10. For the last 6 episodes, I give it 0. And we find in the middle. First two-three cases are relatively fun, but the formula quickly runs out. And then they tip of a twist which just couldn't make any sense unless they pulled out some really weird crap (which they did) but hey, I lived through it. The anime has A LOT of twists. Are they good? Some of them. However, after the number of people clears up a bit, it's rather easy to predict who killed whom, and even that mystery aspect kind of disappears. And then the last two episodes. Complete and utter train wreck.

What I hated the most about Danganronpa are those last five episodes. Up until then, HOPE and DESPAIR were never found in the same sentence and were mentioned once or twice in an episode. But then writers took some acid and decided to go nuts. They invented a new drinking game. Whenever you hear the words HOPE and DESPAIR in the same sentence in the last 5-6 episodes, take a shot. You won't live through one. For some reason, the writers decided to go full-out-pretentious (never go full-out-pretentious) and not in a good way. They constantly kept throwing around the subjects such as despair and hope, and characters (especially MC) kept giving the old same speeches how "... as long as I can hope, I can change the world with my hope ..." (yea, I'm looking at you Naruto) and you just want to close your eyes and forget you're watching it because you're embarrassed.

Do I recommend Danganronpa? Well, unless you're sucker for extremely fast paced anime with so many plot twists that will make your head twist (and not in a good way), go for it. However, it is obvious that this anime needed far more than 13 episodes. Even someone who never played the game realizes that.

This is based solely on this awful adaption, not the game.

Now, I've said this before and I'll say it again, I love Battle Royale premises. What I don't like is when the concept is completely butchered with poor characters, art and predictableness.

The story gets a 7, mostly because I'm just generous towards anything that involves a bunch of people that have to kill each other in order to survive. It takes place in a school where the characters are told by a cute little bear that they have to kill each other and then hold trials to try to guess who the kill was. If ... they get it right, the killer dies. If they get it wrong, they all die except the killer.

I'll give the story props for being different in that regard, but honestly, it was done very poorly. The rules and the 'motivation' to kill the others were stupid, and I don't see why the characters were dumb enough to actually kill anyone. The trial scenes were the same with the main character always figuring out who it was. The way it was executed was laughable, as were the death scenes.

The pace was rushed. It became formulaic and boring, as I didn't care who died since the characters were just there to die anyway.

As for the art (4), well, it looked bad and out of place. Most of the character designs were horrifying and everything looked like it was copied and pasted from a game (OH WAIT, it was). And what I can't over look is the fact that the blood was pink. PINK. It looked ridiculous. The deaths of the killers after the trials also looked funny and out of place.

The music was alright. I liked the opening and ending songs, but they weren't anything special. Within the anime, there weren't any soundtracks that stuck out. Mediocre at best. 5.

The characters is where this show really suffers. They were introduced lamely and had one-dimensional, generic personalities. The main character, Naegi, was the worst, being your typical no personality character. The same goes for Kirigiri, who was supposed to be 'mysterious' but at the end of the day wasn't.

Monobear wasn't scary at all. I don't know why they decided to give him that voice, but it wasn't threatening, it was lame. So was his pathetic excuse of an explosion in the first episode.

The main villain and the ending was a surprise, I didn't see it coming. That being said, it would have been nice to see what it was like outside the school.

All in all, I didn't care who died or who did the killing because the characters were so one-dimensional. They all could have died, for all I care. 2, because of how awful they were handled.

Honestly, I feel bad for the game, because I've heard it was great. Unfortunately, the anime was atrocious.

Overall enjoyment was a 4, mostly because of the premise and the ending, which was the only thing that wasn't predictable. That's it.

Final Verdict: Just walk away. Run if you have to.

Have you ever hated a show so much that you need to keep watching it just so you can rant about it with more legit arguments? Have you ever hated something so much you need to research it so you can explain to anyone why it sucks? Because those are my feelings towards this series.

I'm not gonna talk about the premise. You already know it if you are reading this, MyAnimeList has a description. And actually, I thing the plot could be good, if well done. Which might have been the case on the game. I didn't play it, so I have no idea if ... it was. The thing is, in the series, it is not.

Saying the characters are "flat" is an understatement. They are pathetic. Monokuma in particular. I'll talk about him later. Their talents? The "special traits" that helped this characters get selected for the school? The reason they are considered "high class students"? Justified in two or three of them. The rest of their "special traits" are not worthy of the name. Like, seriously, since when can I get a scholarship on a super-advanced and prestigious school by being a "super duper magazine collector" or a "Super duper rebel"? (Not to mention the fact that they actually use the words "super duper", like an 8 year old would)

Seriously, I can not stress this enough: THIS CHARACTERS ARE PATHETICALLY DESIGN. Visually and psychologically. They are the poorest excuse of a character. Maybe with one or two exceptions.

Now, let's talk about the fucking bear. He is not the cinical mastermind that should be running the whole thing. Some of his actions make no sense. One minute he is bored and wants something interesting to happen, the next he is getting bored WHILE the "interesting" thing IS happening. He is obnoxious, annoying, predictble as hell. Also, because of his design, there's no way of telling what the fuck his blushes, o his sweat beads, or anything that happens with his face means. Seriously, LEARN HOW TO FUCKING DESIGN A CHARACTER.

The visuals are bad the whole time, but they become plainly HORRIBLE in the execution scenes. Sure, it's fun the first time, maybe the second one too. After that, you just realize they are the cheapest attempt at doing something interesting but without spending too much money on it. Actually, the amount of still drawings used in the series makes me wonder if the producers where part of a "who can make an anime spending the less posible money on it" bet.

As far as the mystery solving goes: While some of the murders are solved in an interesting way, there are some cases that have a, here I go again, PATHETIC resolution. And when I say pathetic, I mean that the clue to solving them is overly used... and in kids shows. Seriously, I don't want to be specific, but NO ONE with a television could make mistakes like those after murdering someone and trying to play innocent. All of the murderers go crazy and start rambling and shouting nonsense when they are discovered. It gets old really fast. And some of the cases have strings that are never tied up. Clues that make no sense once the mistery is solved.
Another thing to say about the mistery solving, is that it is not posible to tag along as a viewer. Why? Because when a characters says something that will give the killer away, it is shown as text on the screen. So, non of that fun for us.

Also, the "emoitional" moments lack emotion, and the comedy is bizarre and sick. I guess some like that tipe of comedy. What can I say, killing someone by turning them into a sauce and eating them is very, very far away from my definition of comedy. Also, the bear being annoying or the characters being overly ridiculous and overly stereotiped are the most used "comedy moments" in the series. Might I say, those are even more pathetic attempts at comedy.

And the last episode. Oh god, how it shows the true spirit of the whole thing: CRAP.
The bigest plot twist? Not only doesn't make sense, but also has a ton of mistakes. The last death? Well, there's actually like five of them. And it's only one person dying. Only, they don't die, even if they clearly should. They just keep being alive and getting killed in different ways.
The main character of the episode? Triple, if not tetra presonality. Seriously, it changes back and forth between Psyco, Basic-stupid-hamsterlike-anime girl, Fetish-boobs-teacher, Serious, Traumatized and Normal. ALL THE FUCKING TIME. For no reason whatsoever, not adding anything to the atmosphere of the scene, and making the whole thing just plainly annoying.

After the last episode, there was a little something that makes me think there will be a sequel to this anime. Needless to say, I will stay the hell away from it.

Disclaimer: I have not played the game nor did I know that the anime was based off of the game. I am judging this solely off the anime and do not have a bias towards the game or anime. With that being said, Danganronpa: Academy of Hope and High School Students of Despair seems interesting at first but quickly falls off as the series goes on. The characters are colorful with clothing and hair unrealistically overdone. But this soon gets boring as it follows what I like to call the 1-2 guide.

The 1-2 guide is when one episode it sets up the problem and/or introduces ... the conflict and the second episode immediately resolves it. This is incredibly boring and repetitive showing no creativity or uniqueness as the viewer just sometimes wants to skip past some of it because they all know what is going to happen. Without revealing too much the main character, Naegi, is as bland and boring as they come with little to no redeeming factors. Monobear looks pretty cool and puts off the cut yet dangerous look.

The first part of the 1-2 guide sets up who is going to be killed, i.e. if there are 4 people then person 1 kills person 4 and the remaining 3 must figure who did it by finding clues. After they find clues they move onto the second part which is a trial in which all the remaining people (person 1, person 2 and person 3) all come together as they try to get the "black". At first the way things were done was interesting and I was intrigued to see all the characters try to fight for survival while also killing off their fellow classmates.

Sadly this quickly gets boring as it is easy to find out who did it. There is no sense of wonder or even having to think hard as the clues are spoonfed to both the viewer and the people. The killer is always obvious and the way he/she tries to hide what they have done is pathetic. Once episode 5 hit I instantly got bored and wanted to turn off the anime and watch something else.

The art isn't that bad until it gets to the death scenes. The way they draw out each person is for some good, and for others bad, here it is bad. I found the animation horrible and it looked like something I could make if I got bored one day. The animation for the rest of the anime is good and some of the characters look over the top but still pretty cool. Sadly not much changes and with limited places not only where they can go, but also with limited people, the art doesn't change too much and is sad.

The characters all seem and look colorful. Most of them are the average stereotypes like the pretty girl, the strict hall moniter and the adolescent rebellious biker. They are all drawn in their own style though and I liked how some of them looked. Although they the characters are limited because they are isolated from the world and without spoiling much, they don't gain anything new as the anime goes on with the exception of a few twists here and there. I like how some of the characters looked, while others... not so much.

The music is forgettable, I do not remember a single song as it did not appeal to me. I enjoy music from as far back as the 1940's to the present day. Music can be creative and unique or boring, bland and repetitive. Danganronpa has no memorable music that stuck out to me. Even thought the opening is different then normal anime openings if I wanted to listen to a rap like anime opening I would listen to Samurai Champloo's opening Battle Cry by Nujabes (I do Recommend a listen).

Overall the anime doesn't offer much from the generic style that most animes follow today. It is uninteresting and has an ending which I found underwhelming and disappointing. In my opinion you should not watch this anime and instead save yourself (average anime length, with commercials, 30 minutes x number of episodes 13) 390 minutes or 6 1/2 hours of your life. It goes without saying that this anime has no replay credibility at all.

Separate Scores for those who are curious:
Story: 4
Art: 6
Sound: 2
Character: 5
enjoyment: 3
Average Overall: 4.0

To me, Danganronpa is the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde type of anime (see the avgn if you don't get what I mean). First off let's see the anime main selling points. The artwork is okay, the anime is kinda artistic without being particularly good. The OST really is the main strength of this show, the opening is nice to the hear and give you a decent minute and a half worth watching and might give you the impression that what you'll watch will be good. You can't be more wrong though, the fun definitely ends here!

First off, making an anime out of a ... game rarely does anything good and this show is no exception to this rule. The premise is interesting, you might be wondering if you should give it a try but let me tell you why you should not. I haven't played the game and I am pretty sure the game should be good, but this adaptation is up there on my list of the worst anime I've ever seen with the like of Eiken. The characters are very unlikable, you got almost no information on them until something very bad happen to one of them like dying for example. That makes everything very chaotic and unpredictable, and when I say everything, I mean everything. You won't be able to find anything that is actually happening, from what are the mysteries surrounding the area to who did it. The problem is the character don't share much information and you don't have access to what they are thinking. That's a very big problem because when they will try to find who did it, you won't have all the information because the character will keep it to themselves. I'm pretty sure that in the actual game you can act in order to get those information and sort them out before you actually get to deliberate who did it. Receiving information like 2 second before resolving a crime is not a very good thing to do in a show, it should be resolvable.

It's not that bad from this point, the anime can still be like a 4/10 or something, every episode are not fun at all to watch, but I've seen worst, like the second part of Guilty Crown for example. But so far, having done a very similar show to the game really was not a good idea; it does not goes well with the pacing of an anime, a 13 episode one in addition of that. Other minors things that bugs me is the censorship, why is it even there? The story is kinda dark, there's murder theme, blood, hatred... why would you censor this anime? Then again it's not that bad but why make the blood pink? Is that a kids show?

So what was getting me to continue watching this? The answer is the story. Till now, the story is really interesting because of it's randomness, but one thing can make this whole mess be worth watching. If the ending is good, and it has the potential to be, I would give this anime a fair amount of point. The ending of the show was on another level that I have yet unseen, something absolutely replaceable in my memory, something I can say that I am proud that I witness it, but for all the wrong reason. I had some idea of how bad an ending could be, Guilty Crown and Spiral where my best screwed up ending example till i saw this. Danganronpa pushes the very limit of bad ending to a whole new level. I won't spoil it, but it's bad, super bad. It's so cliche, unrealistic, random and mind blowing. I swear to god this anime was made for 5 or 6 years old kids, nobody can makes any kind of sense out of the ending. I mean with all the information we have, with means like not at all because once again, everything is trowed to our faces at the very end, right just before the conclusion, anything could have made sense I guess. To give you an example, imagine you favorite show, and add to the ending that an extraterrestrial put all the memories into the mind of the main character and then shot to another planet, to live a complete different story, how would that sounds like? Danganronpa's ending give the same feeling.

In conclusion, if you still want to give it a try, please don't. Play the game, I'm sure it should be good like other one of this genre. Watching the anime will refrain you of doing that, you'll know about too much of the story to enjoy the game I think. Danganronpa might be the worst commercial to a game to date and sure is, out of more than 200 animes, to the bottom of my entire list.

Initially I had no intention of writing a review for Danganronpa, because I didn't really think it deserved one. I thought it was a weird little show without much substance and even less creative story writing, but that it offered enough mild entertainment to balance it out. However, the more I thought about it the more I disliked it. And after thinking a good while, I disliked it so much that I decided to write a review and vent a little, as well as hopefully deter anyone who had considered watching this show. (As an aside, this review won't even touch on the multifarious plot ... issues this show had, because had the show been successful in other areas, they could have possibly been forgiven.)

First off, who the heck drew this thing?! When the show started out, I thought the characters' bizarre appearances were somewhat interesting, and had the show been at least mildly good, they would have been appealing. But as the show advanced and became more and more twisted, the characters’ brightly colored, ridiculously idiosyncratic appearance took on a sickening quality that made every disturbing turn seem worse.

Moving on, "We're Really Really Trying To Be Disturbing And Creepy" should have been the tagline for this show, as its only goal seemed to be showing how cruel acts carried out by and on teenagers are good fodder for horror shows. But to be honest, they even failed at showing that. It was almost painful how hard they were trying to actually be scary. What was even more painful was that besides that goal, there really was no point to Danganronpa. At all. And as horrible as this sounds, the show was really boring until someone was brutally murdered. The lack of plot and character development almost left you WANTING someone to die, just so something would actually be happening. This fact was re-emphasized repeatedly throughout the show, with every pathetic "moment of peace" that came directly before a murder. It was as if the creators of this show came up with the whole high school ruled by an immortal, murderous robot bear wherein the students kill each other idea, but didn't know the first thing about actual human interaction (let alone the basic tenants of fluid story-writing), so they threw in little "funnies" in the form of conversations between characters that I assume they thought real people would actually have. But juxtaposed with the horrific character of the show, these moments of “humanity" seemed like a joke, and not the kind that actually delivers a message and makes you stop to think. No, it was the kind of joke that your annoying Uncle Bob tells at every family get-together and gets cheesier and cheesier with ever re-telling. In short, what little character development the show tried to have was actually a show-killer.

In closing, I would like to talk about redemption. Redemption is the source of all hope in the world. It is the reason we fight poverty, seek to protect those abused, and long for peace instead of war. Redemption is a second chance. Redemption speaks to the whole of humanity on an integral level, because we all seek it, in one way or another. Redemption is the one thing which could have saved Danganronpa. So many people had died and so much had been lost that even redemption for a few would have seemed poor compensation for all the hurt done, but it would have given us a reason to hope. It would have made us stand with the characters and hope for a brighter future which could turn the darkness of our respective pasts into something beautiful and better for everyone. Sadly, Danganronpa did not seek redemption for the victims of its lousy story telling and absurd animation. Instead, its ending slapped you in the face with its lack of redemption. It gave you a little sputtering flame of hope and then promptly snuffed it out. I could almost feel the creators sneering as the final episode came to a close. Something being disturbing isn't always bad. Heck, one of my favorite anime/manga is Gunslinger Girl, a series with a plotline that practically revolves around the disturbing. The difference is, again, redemption. When hope is removed from the equation, everything crumbles into crapiness. Danganronpa was certainly no exception.

To start this off with, this is my first review and don't be too offended i'm just stating my opinion, NOW let's start with the review.

Story:
The concept is great, being trapped in closed building having to kill somebody and get away with murder so you can get out , it could have been so good but it was just a lost opportunity , and the directing was really mediocre the characters were so unrealistic and stupid so i didn't feel anything for them, and when it comes to the murders there were sometimes where you knew who killed who or who will die next so ... it was a bit predictable at times.

Animation/Sound:
The designs of some of the characters were so out of place and when it come to the animation itself it was "okay" it wasn't all that fluid at times and the torture scenes were also out of place cause they change it to this semi 3D animation that is never used in the rest of the anime which makes them less frighting than they even were, the background music succeeds in making the anime more dramatic and the opening and ending songs are actually pretty good.


Enjoyment:
I don't really know what it is but even with story and animation being that bad it is still enjoyable to watch, after finishing every episode i just wanted more for some reason.

The verdict:
With the bad story and poor animation i really wouldn't recommend it to anybody although i won't deny that it is entertaining although i still get bothered by all it's faults while watching.

4/10

I very much wanted to give this a better score than I did because of my love for the original game, But god. The fact this show was a 13-episode adaption of a 25-30 hour long visual novel, it was doomed to fail.

The pacing is what absolutely ruins this show. Many of the twists and reveals are ruined by the fact that the show flies by every single event in the game. The charm of the Danganronpa franchise is the slow burn and reveal of the mysteries that surround the story. Here you get none of that. They fly through the investigation in which ... in the game it allows you time to think about the mystery of the murder. I know this is a show so it's not exactly the same, but mystery shows allow time for the viewer to think about the case and let your mind come up with results in your head. This show does not allow you time to think. What this show needed was time to breathe. Time for the mystery to build, time for the characters to actually relax, even if it was a little. In this adaption, you hardly know anything of the character's interests or personalities because the show simply does not have enough time. This adaption feels like them just checking every box to complete the story. Here characters just know exactly what to say because this show doesn't have time to waste. They have to check the boxes so it can get to the next chapter (which is 2 episodes each). This also serves as a problem, with there being six chapters in the game, it makes the very nature of the show feel way too predictable. Granted the original game suffers from this to a degree, but the show sets you into knowing that first episode of a chapter sets up the motive, then the murder and investigation, then the next episode is the trial and aftermath, rinse and repeat.

The animation I have mixed feelings about. Sometimes the animation is okay, but other times it's quite lackluster. Seeing Monokuma doing stuff in the background was kind of fun though. It does do the unique style for certain events like the games do but they are basically the same. Many of the actions from the games look worse in the show however, like the truth bullet sequence animations were quite lackluster compared to the game.

The soundtrack is good, just like the game, because it pretty much is the game's soundtrack. Danganronpa ost goes extremely hard.
The sound design was average as well, and the voice acting is good like in the original game. (original Japanese)

I'm just confused about the target audience of the show, is this for first-time fans? The story beats and mystery is ruined in this show. Many times even I who played the game was confused as to how fast it was going. Is this for fans of the franchise? All this show did was make me want to replay the original game to experience the story It was meant to be experienced. This show could have worked if it was a 25-episode adaption. With that many episodes, they could have spread out the chapters and allowed time for the character's personalities to come out and for the mystery to set it. With how the show is, it ruins a lot of the fun of experiencing this story for the first time. Please, If you are at all interested in this series, play the games first. Don't let this be your first exposure to the franchise. I promise you it is a 10x more rewarding experience

There are plenty of reviews on this already that describe the anime overall, and if you really need a number then I'd give it a 3.

I'm just writing this to say; the story in this anime fell through. Supposedly, the story in the game is more developed and I recommend checking that out if you read the blurb on this anime and thought that's exactly what you wanted.


Now the story itself; in a word, broken. The themes it tries to develop amount to nothing and are literally dumped in the last 10 minutes onto the viewer in an attempt to compress 25 hours ... worth of gameplay in less then 5 minutes of summary. The execution of said story, through the murder-mystery plot, is just as broken as the attempt to shoe-horn in a 'deep' message at the end. The characters suffer from 'not-being-characters-at-all' and are simply underdeveloped, apart from the MC, who has a consistent if not completely vapid arch. Nothing shows the complete absence of character more then the 'trial' segments, which as mentioned in other reviews feels rather like the ending to the series in that it feels compressed, rushed and bereft of either meaning or other value. It just a reveal of facts, do a group of characters you don't know or care about to solve a mystery which lacks mystery to in the end hear what could be mistaken for a 10 year olds view of the world.

So as you might have guessed; I really don't recommend this. Having watched this anime before playing the game, I have probably 'spoiled' it, and I advise anyone who reads this to play the game instead if you are at all interested in the story.

The person that recommended this to me really sold it too much. Here i started expecting real goriness but instead i received airbrushed gory.

STORY: I liked the concept however by the 5th episode i started forcing myself to just carry on and complete it. For some reason it got more and more boresome each episode. They concentrated more on Naige and by the end he was totally annoying with his cheesiness and childish quotes (however throughout they do try to portray them as sophisticated and grown)

GRAPHICS: All i can say is if you are going to do an anime about death and killings, DO ... NOT belittle the act by making the blood pink

OVERALL: Got to learn to force self to drop shows instead of torturing through

I really tried to like this anime.

Danganronpa has always been one of my favorite games of all times, each of them creating an exquisite, and eccentric experience that no other game could achieve (other than Ace Attorney). When a Danganronpa anime was announced that recreated the events of the first Danganronpa game, I had such high hopes for this anime to be a smash hit among its audiences, and create newcomers to the Danganronpa community. Unfortunately, my optimism soon turned to pessimism after watching this show.

Story: 3

Don't get me wrong, the original story Danganronpa has been phenomenal. Although the original story still had issues, these ... issues are uncomparable towards the issues presented in the Danganronpa anime. This anime shows these ideals in many different ways that infuriates me to no end. To begin with, they decided to fit a game that takes roughly 30-40 hours to complete into a 13 episode series, meaning that much of its content is completely erased in this series, resulting in an incredibly rushed story that barely provides the suspense and hopelessness presented in the original series.

Art: 6

Nothing much to rant about here. Nothing is really bad enough that hinders the enjoyment of this anime, but at the same time, it doesn't provide any groundbreaking visuals either. It's just average, and I honestly don't have much to say about it.

Sound: 7

Considering most of the tracks originated from the original game's killer soundtrack, there honestly fine with me, but the over reliance of using original music indicated a lack of creativity in the music department. Sound design was mostly on point, but overall average.

Characters: 4

The characters are literally cardboard cutouts. Looking back at the original game, every characters had their characteristics, likes and dislikes, and personal relationships completely flushed out due to being in the form of a game. However, here, the characters don't have the same time to express these characteristics, resulting in rather rushed character arcs, and game elements that decimates even the best of characters. As well, while Monokuma in the original game was incredibly menacing, messed up, and on point with its jokes that puts even the best of Cursed Comments to shame, the Monokuma in the show, in comparison, is bleak to a degree that these two individuals seems like completely different beings. Overall, utter trash characterization, and doesn't hit any of the reasons to what made these characters intriguing. When you somehow make Makoto seem more boring and uninspired than in the original game, you know you've screwed up.

Enjoyment: 1

Considering how badly this show butchers the original characters, settings, plot points, and character developments, I completely hated this anime.

Overall: 4

Giving it a 4 was giving it too much glory. In my opinion, Danganronpa the anime feels like a "toy car." The toy car still presents the shape of the car and most of the features of an actual car, but it doesn't have any of the functions that made the car "work," not to mention its smaller package, and edged down nature to make the car more "friendly for all ages." Unless you don't have time to play the original, don't use this anime as a starting point of the Danganronpa series.

Before I begin my review, I want to say that I am not the most serious critic. I only state my opinions in my reviews, and I don't shove false facts down peoples throats saying the show is bad. With that out of the way, let me start the review.

Danganronpa: The Animation is uh... quite interesting, IF it was done right. This was done absolutely horribly. First of all, this anime is THIRTEEN episodes. And the game has over 20 hours of gameplay. Now, 3 ep - 60, 13 ep, around 4 hour 20 minutes. 20 hours = 4 hours, 16 hours difference. You see ... where I'm getting at? Neither do I. But anyway, this would of been decent if it was at least longer than 13 episodes. It's absolutely garbage because of that reason.

Story: 6/10

The story is actually okay, I don't mind it, yet I've seen a couple of other circumstances like this one. Okay, you've arrived at school. Now, if you can kill someone without getting caught, you graduate, and it's only for my lulz purposes. A bear that runs the school says that. THAT is basically the story. The bear of the school makes an announcement once two or more people find the dead body and then everyone investigates and sees what they can find out.

After they have done enough investigating, they eventually hold a Classroom Trial. If they can identify the killer, the killer is punished, also known as, killed. The killer will be killed if they are identified and if they cannot identify the killer, the killer graduates and everyone else dies instead, maybe, my memory is quite shit.

Art: 8/10

The art style is pretty good, I like how for every death scene they took it straight from the game.

Sound: 6/10

It's okay, but I wouldn't listen to the soundtrack if I was bored. I'd be better off watching Boku no Pico if I was THAT bored.

Character: 4/10

The characters are only absolute garbage because of their non-existent development. In the games, the characters had awesome developments and had great contact with Naegi, in the anime, Naegi talks to the killers about two times before they kill someone and then they die. Well, every character would of been better if they had made the series longer and made them have more contact with Naegi.

Overall: 3/10

Despite giving the story a decent rating, this anime wasn't... too great. No, in fact, it was absolutely horrible. I might rewatch it to remember some things that I forgot in this review, but not for fun. If I wanted to rewatch something for fun, I'd probably watch Lucky Star.

I loved the video game. The game had character, depth, and many exciting moments. This anime took all of the aspects of the game including the truth bullets, trial, and investigations, and condensed them into a quick episode for each trial that did no justice to any of the murder mysteries. I get that you just cannot put that much information into a short anime, but to butcher the plot and detective aspect of the story...it's just too disappointing. You cannot really get to know the characters at all like this, especially when it comes to the first death. It was too rushed; too many ... things left out. I don't mind the minor changes; that is expected, but there was more focus on the deaths and the trial than the actual characters. It's like taking Battle Royale the novel and turning it into the movie. It just becomes mindless killing.
Overall, this anime was not really enjoyable. It felt too rushed and there was no way to really get to know the characters at all. You just kind of jumped straight into what aspect was important to the trial and that was it. It was frustrating. Still, the animation holds true to the video games, which I enjoyed, and for the most part, everything was very much the same it's just stripped down too much to be anything but mindless killing.

Don't watch this unless you've played the 'Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc' game first. The show just basically recaps the events of the game, but with very rushed pacing. The story of the original game is excellent, but the anime adapts it very poorly. I'd recommend watching a Let's Play video on YouTube instead of this.

The Original Story 10/10. The story of the original game has a lot of unpredictable plot twists and it's one of the best I've seen in any media.
Characters: 9/10. Most of the characters have very likable and unique personalities. Sometimes, certain characters might be a bit annoying.
Animation: 7/10. Nothing special, ... but gets the job done.
The Adaptation: 3/10. Overall, a very poor adaptation. The anime rushes and spoils everything that is good in the original game.

I would like to stress one thing to the fans of this piece of shit anime. I absolutely adore the game. It is one of my all time favorites. Just keep that in mind.

The Story.
One word. RUSHED! The game will take you around 40 hours to complete.. DOES THAT SOUND LIKE IT WOULD FIT IN 13 EPISODES!? Well, it doesn't. This needed to be at least 26 episodes JUST PLAY THE FUCKING GAME IT'S A MASTERPIECE!
2/10

The Art
The only good things about this anime are the things taken from the games. That includes the art. But, even then I feel that the characters work better as ... still images.
7/10

The Sound
It is taken from the game so...
9/10

The Characters
Mondo Owada, Chihiro Fujisaki and Sakura Ogami are some of my all time favorite characters. THIS SHOW CRAPS OVER ALL OF THEM! I can not stress this enough, just play the game.
1/10

Enjoyment
WHAT DOES IT FUCKING SOUND LIKE!?
2/10

Overall just play the game. If you don't have a vita or psp just watch a Let's Play of this. Seriously NicoB has one of the funnest let's plays ever of this game.
3/10

First of all, I'd like to say that Danganronpa is one of my favourite universes and I'm very thankful to the person who recommended this anime (and one more, Akuna no Riddle, but I didn't finish it xd) years ago while playing CAH online. What followed was me watching the anime, then watching a playthrough of the game, then watching SDR2, NDRv2 and also UDG, from various people. Still, when I see someone new take up this game I can't help it, and I watch a fulll playthrough to see how they like it, or a little bit to see some reactions. I sincerely love ... it now. That's why I don't recommend this anime. Feel free to watch Danganronpa 3, the despair, future and hope arc. Feel free to watch the one World-Destroyer episode. That is new content, so why not, you won't find this in the games. But this is not worth watching, if you really wanna see what this is all about. And if you just wanna know the plot to "be informed" then idk, read a summary since it's faster.

When I watched this anime I genuinely didn't know what's going on half the time, since everything was going on fast like playing Sims in the triple speedup. It's just confusing and that's all. Do you know how many people have no idea what's going on during trials, after investigating the scene for 2 hours and having the chance to read truth bullets, but still fail repeatedly and don't use their brain? If they can't do it with all the help in the world, then how do you expect people to understand it clearly after skipping the investigation and rushing the trial? You just see characters come up with conclusions, but you won't be able to tell if it's right or wrong.

Does every video game turned into an anime go wrong? Apparently. I mean, I already wrote 2 reviews today saying that Satsuriku no Tenshi and Amnesia have a problem with that too. But this one is a little different you see. The plot is better suited for an adaptation, in my opinion. You can actually make out a story, even if this is not the best format for it. But Danganronpa games have 6 chapters + prologue and epilogue. Each chapter will take you a few hours to complete. Trying to squeeze it into 13 episodes, 20 minutes each is a mistake. Take the time to experience the game and maybe you'll love like so many other people do. If you like this concept after seeing the premise and reviews then it's probably worth it. In my humble opinion, every game just gets better when it comes to characters and you get used to how ridiculous it can be.

While Danganronpa has a dear place in my heart and I love the story, that's no reason to rate this highly. Still, it's not utterly worthless I guess? Once again, recommending the games. Even if you already watched this anime and don't want the game, completing the rest of the series will explain more about the circumstances and what happened. :)

Basically, don't watch this if you haven't played the game. It rushes over many things and in-general makes everything less impactful.

I would only say that this anime is for the people who have already played the game, which isn't a good thing. An anime should attract new audiences and not cater only to those who are already into the series.

The art is quite poor in some places. Monokuma looks very derpy in some situations as they draw his right eye too far away from his bear snout. They also forget that he is a robot, as sometimes you see his skin flab over. ... This is most noticeable during the gym meetings where he jumps up and plops down on the alter. In general, the art seems much cheaper than the game. Shading isn't as nice and is more generic to fit in with other animes. HOWEVER, I did appreciate how with the CGI segments, some characters have been given more movement. The paper style in the original game did limit with how much everyone could move, so it is nice to see it sort of improved here.

The anime uses a lot of the soundtrack from the game, which is already amazing but does include newly created music. They fit right in and definitely are nice to listen and hear while watching.

Enjoyment, again, will depend if you played the game or not. I got my sister to watch this and she was baffled. Everything happens too quickly. She did not feel any sort of _despair_ with any of the executions or murders. It's hard to get attatched.

ONE GOOD THING, is that the Japenese sub of the anime has the original game voice actors which do a wonderful job. Those who are dull enough to watch this dubbed, you will have a different set of cheaper voice actors. They sound horrible compared to the game, especially when the game had some pretty good dubbed actors such as Celeste and Mondo. Stick with subbed, please.

My final score is a 4. It's decent, not much to say.

Danganronpa would've been one of the best video games to make an anime of, great concept, good characters, but the anime made all of the characters feel like background characters. Although the soundscape and art were great, it couldn't hide that all of the characters, even Junko and Monokuma/Monobear were quite flat. Their title was their one defining trait if you could even call it that. The only trait Naegi had was that he was optimistic. Chihiro's only trait was that he was good with computers. The only thing Kyouko had going for her was that she was the " Super Duper High School Detective ... " And that she would be great help with finding out the secret of Hope's Peak Academy. One major problem with the anime is that they turned 20+ hours of gameplay into a 4 1/2 hour long anime, which may be the reason why the characters may be so flat. Overall, I think if you have played the Danganronpa games, you will be dissatisfied. Even if someone's first exposure to the Danganronpa franchise is the anime, they may still be disappointed.