Danganronpa: Kibou no Gakuen to Zetsubou no Koukousei The Animation

Danganronpa is a series based on a PSP game from Spike, a company best known for their work on various DBZ games. They also worked with Capcom on a very under-rated game called Crimson Tears. This game, I never heard of until the anime came out. So I'm going to be judging the series entirely on its own merits and I'm not going to notice if they screw up something from the game. The adaptation was handled by Lerche, a company that, according to ANN, has only been involved with seven anime productions. None of which I've seen. So let's take a look at the ... recently finished Danganronpa anime and see what it's about.

Our story begins with our protagonist, Naegi, walking to his new High School. No sooner does he cross the threshold when he finds himself waking up in a classroom that's been bolted shut. An announcement plays requesting all students assemble in the gymnasium. He finds himself with fourteen other students and a stuffed bear apparently belonging to Harvey Dent appears claiming to be the Principal. They're told that they won't be allowed to leave until they graduate. And the only way to graduate is to kill someone and get away with it. Now, Naegi has to solve the mystery of just what is going on at Hope's Peak Academy, figure out how to escape, avoid getting killed and solve any death that happens or he, and all of the other innocent students, will be killed. This anime is very silly, but in a good way. It's like a very macabre parody combining murder mystery with the whole “students being forced/ strongly encouraged to kill each other” genre that was popularised by Battle Royale (which happens to be on one of my book shelves between the Handmaid's Tale and Suzuki Koji's Dark Watch.) Now, I don't just refer to it as a parody because the antagonist you spend most of your time with is a teddy bear. The character designs are also goofy, the tone stays rather macabre but avoids getting too dark by showing execution scenes in very muted colours and leaving the gorey bits to your imagination. There are also some rather silly scenes. To give one example, Kirigiri finds a clue in the underwear of one of the corpses. When asked why she would check there she shrugs it off as no big deal. It's not like she checked their socks or something. Let's move on to the mystery elements. This is an area where the series excels. The investigations go by very quickly, but they manage to give you all the information you need to either solve the case or figure out where the discussion should begin in the classroom trial. The only exception is the trial before the last one, in which they disclose very little but I'll let that one go since there is a good story reason for it. One thing that I really liked is that they managed to make the discussions interesting, even when the solution was obvious. So you never feel like you're watching a bunch of idiots flounder around to figure out something that should be obvious. This isn't Hyouka. My biggest criticisms of the series are that they leave a lot of unanswered questions , which I unfortunately can't ask since most of them involve spoilers, and the ending is pretty cheesy. Now, a lot of the series is cheesy, in a good way. The ending, however, gravitates more towards the facepalm inducing end of the cheesiness spectrum.

Most of the characters in this are pretty typical. Naegi is a lot like many other shounen protagonists, he's young and naïve but he's got a lot of heart and great potential. Many of the other students are also representative of rather flat archetypes. Maizono, Ishimaru, Hagakure, Yamada and Oowada to name few. Now, in all fairness, most of these characters are passable even if they aren't particularly deep. There are some very problematic elements to the way a few of the characters are handled. Particularly Fujisaki and Sakura. There are some characters with really interesting concepts behind them, but they never get fully developed.

The art is interesting. I already mentioned the goofy character designs and the execution scenes, but there are other facets worth discussing. A second way they tone down the gore is by having blood be some bizarre colour like bright neon purple or green. The evidence is also presented in such a way that it feels like a game. It gets brought up in boxes or contradictions will be illustrated by the image of a bullet shattering into a person when Naegi raises an objection. Which does give it a unique aesthetic.

They got some really stellar voice actors for this. Including Ogata Megumi, Ishida Akira, Hikasa Yoko and Sawashiro Miyuki. All of whom give great performances. The biggest issues are with Kujira and Yamada Kappei. Kujira plays a female character but gives a heavily masculine performance, which is one of those problematic elements with Sakura's character. Yamada just gives a very flat and kind of annoying performance. The music is good. It's used to accentuate the action pretty nicely.

The Ho-yay factor is a 1/10. This has no Ho-yay. I kept expecting there to be some, just because it is starring Ogata Megumi and I'm used to seeing her play characters with either a same sex love interest or at least a one-sided crush on someone of the same sex like Haruka, Yukito, Kurama, and Ayato. But no, she doesn't this time.

So, how is Danganronpa? As a horror piece, it doesn't really work. But if you have a dark sense of humour and you enjoy a good mystery you will likely enjoy it quite a bit in spite of its problems. If macabre elements creep you out or mysteries make your head hurt, it's not going to be for you. For myself, I give it a 7/10. It's a good anime and I did enjoy watching it. Next week, horror anime month ends with a look at some cute little animals... from the Petshop of Horrors.

Before I start this review I want to make something very clear, I am NOT analyzing the adaption part of this anime, what I will try to do in the next lines is view this a anime as a something on its own, I will not compare it to the original work in any way, therefore this review is more guided towards people that have not played the original game.
That being said lets move on, shall we ?

Danganronpa: Kibou no Gakuen to Zetsubou no Koukousei - The Animation, or Danganronpa, or even DR for shorts, its a mystery/investigation anime, in which the main plot is ... as it follows : Several students with unique characteristcs are invited to join a private school, once they get there they discover they are locked in there and the only way to get out is to kill one of their classmates without being discovered by the remaining classmates as the killer, all this is orchestred by the main mind behind this sick "game", a fellow that goes by the name of "Monokuma" and only comunicates with the students by using mechanical teddy bears.

Sounds at least interesting right ? And in fact it is, the story itself is one of the major good points about DR, besides the "weekly" or so mystery of a student assasination, and therefore finding the culprit for such assasination, there is also the main mystery surrounding Monokuma and the reason the students are locked down in the school... I confess that I, personally, found the answer for both these question to be satifasctory (as well for most of the murder cases), but of course this can vary from person to person.

Now, lets talk about the major down point in DR, the Art. Here is where i thouhgt a bit more of care could have taken place. Dont get me wrong, I dont think the art is bad per say, but in this current generation is possible to make a much prettier anime with just a bit more care to details, color pallete, and that kind of stuff. Also, pink blood ? Seriously ?
Well at least at a good side i can point out, the execution sequences, that were really good, and "artistic", and also most of the character design... pretty original and good looking, specially Junko and Ishimaru

Moving on to the Sound... Here i I thought once again Dr did a pretty good job, the soundtrack during investigations and trials are really good and catchy, the kind that will stuck in your head for a whole day.
The OP's were ok, nothing flashy, but nothing terrible either, and I really enjoyed the main ED (episode 1-12), really great song, cheerful wich usually generated a nice contrast with the almost ever dark and tense episodes endings.

In the character segment DR did pretty good as well, with a few cliches of course (Naegi, Togami, etc), but nowadays i highly doubt anyone can find one anime (or movie/tv show for that matter) that does not have at least one cliche character. To be quite honest, with this many characters I was expecting a much larger number of cliche types, but then again i was happily surprised to see that most of them has actually a pretty cool background and personality (I am not going to cite names here becuase I dont want to give possible spoilers). If I have any complains at all here, is that some of the characters had too little screen time, I would love to see some more action of them, and some times the development felt a little rushed... nothing major thouhg. Could a larger number of episodes solved these problems ? Probably yes, but I will take what I can get.

Another great plus on DR resumé is definetly the enjoyment. The sense of immersion on this show is fantastic, and trying to figure out who is the culprit in each murder case is truly awesome. Of course the script does not make it easy for the viewer, if you really want to get to the correct answer before the next episode it will take a LOT of time and thinking, and most of all attention to the minimun details. Doesnt sound so fun right ? Thats why I believe the focus in this anime is another, the anime does not want you to find out who is the culprit, you dont have to. What it wants you to do is have crazy guesses and theories, do not try to have fun by analyzing every bit of evidence, its not your job to do that, the anime will give you the answer in the next episode no matter what. Have fun by taking the wildest guess you can think of until then ! Its like in a movie or tv show, you are not supposed to know who the culprit is before the script tells you, you just sit back and enjoy the ride. If you can do that, I assure you the anticipation to find out who is the culprit will be great. Oh and PLEASE DO NOT LOOK UP FOR SPOILERS ! I think this is pretty much mandatory in mystery animes, but still its always good to remember.

Overall Danganronpa is a good anime, and a pleasant surprise of last season. If you are looking for a nice mystery with interesting characters look no futher, you have found it. Its not a perfect anime (hell,its far from it) but its a great ride and it will probably hook you up until the end.

You know it's not a good sign when you see an apology in the beginning of a review but let me express my condolences for the anime-only newbies of the Danganronpa series as they are the victim of something I'm sure we've all experienced before: overhype.

When it was announced the popular PSP visual novel would be receiving an anime adaptation many of us were bouncing off the walls with excitement (and with good reason). If you've seen the anime and are still willing to give the game a shot, go for it. It's definitely worth it. If you're someone looking for ... an interesting anime to watch, I'd suggest playing the game first because if you only watch the anime you'll be bound for disappointment.

Danganronpa's story is one of its main attractions: you're trapped in a high school with other students, the only way to get out is to kill someone without getting caught, if the students cannot manage to identify you as they killer they all die, and if you're found out you're executed. Of course this game of death between high school students isn't the most original idea but if you take the mutual killing aspect of Battle Royale and mix it with the mystery solving aspect of Phoenix Wright you're bound to get good results. The premise of this series is actually one of its high points and it's what keeps you clicking on the next episode. In a world where murder is usually frowned upon, one can't help but be interested in seeing how some teenagers (and one really air-headed fortune teller that was held back more times than Kanye West goes on a Twitter rampage) go about in a kill-or-be-killed scenario. I'm sure most of us have all heard of these murder game plots before (Btooom! and Mirai Nikki come to mind), but it's still an attractive idea and I commend Spike for taking a more crime-solving approach with it.

But sadly, a story can't execute itself well without any support which is the downfall of this adaptation. Another reason why this anime was overhyped at first was because of how fantastically the visual novel handled its characters. This is not the case for the anime, however. With only 13 episodes to cover the deaths of, ideally, all but one of the 15 students, you can expect a lot to be lost in the transition from the PSP screen to the TV screen. And without question, a lot is definitely lost. Literally every character in the cast loses the depth they once had in the game. Because moments in between the murders are scrapped to keep the plot moving along within the short span of 13 episodes, the viewer can't form any emotional attachments with any of the characters before they wind up dead. I distinctly remember watching an emotional scene with my friend and she said bluntly "I feel nothing." I don't blame her. A huge reason for Danganronpa's success is how likable and developed all of the characters are. Unfortunately, in the anime they receive little to no development and just kind of tag along for a ride on the plot train. So if a fan of the game comes up to you saying "I love ____! ____ is an awesome character" don't fall into the hype. Chances are they already threw their computer out the window when they watched that character get reduced to a one-dimensional plot device just because the anime couldn't cover the entire game that made them amazing. And don't think I'm just an angry veteran fan complaining about the differences from the game; the characters are definitely one-dimensional and it doesn't take having the game in the back of your mind to know that. If I had a say, the characters in the anime were probably more cardboard than the characters in the game whose sprites basically looked like a One Direction cutout. However, the characters do have their enjoyable moments and you may even start to like some of them. Just don't expect much beyond one iota of development or else you'll be very disappointed with how the characters turn out. They can be lovable and their designs can definitely pull you in. Just a warning, though: all the characters you might like at the beginning may very well end up dead.

Story and characters aside, there's not much left of Danganronpa that can be described as something other than "decent." The art is nothing special. It's not terrible and the characters all actually have great (and sometimes crazy) designs. The art in general wasn't bad at all, just very basic. Other than that, though, there's not much to comment on. You can tell the animation is cheap and there's no real fluid movement (really there's not a lot of movement in general). The only good parts of the animation you'll be looking forward to are the executions which are, you guessed it, pretty much taken directly from the game. The blood is pink which I'm assuming is the anime's way to be faithful to the game's censorship but I was honestly expecting good ol' fashioned red blood this time around to get a more realistic, gore-y feeling. I don't mind pink blood at this point but I'm very aware of how frustrating it can be for people new to the series as it makes the adaptation even more of a joke than some consider it to be.

Speaking of jokes, get prepared for stupid revelations out of nowhere. If you expected a mindfucking, dramatic buildup you've come to the wrong place. I can't stress it enough: if you're looking for stuff like that then go play the game. You'll be much more satisfied. The anime doesn't do a great job of letting the viewer attempt to solve the crime scenes which isn't great as it's the difference between "wow! I can't believe it was ____ all along" and "are you fucking kidding me" kind of reactions.

With that rant out of the way, now for the part I've been waiting to talk about - THE SOUND. I have so many things to say about the sound. The new tracks were mostly sad piano pieces that just contributed to the whole melodrama of the whole thing and the tracks from the game were frequently used out of place. I distinctly remember one of the calmer, peaceful tracks being put in a trial scene. Remember how trials are basically you decided whether you lived or died? Yeah, calm and peaceful isn't the kind of song you want to be going for in that situation. It just kind of ruins the whole intense and stressful analysis that the game executed so well for the sake of...basically nothing. I'm not sure why some tracks were placed in certain scenes but whatever they were aiming to accomplish definitely wasn't working. Don't get me wrong, the songs from the OST are phenomenal and definitely worth a listen. It's enjoyable to hear them when done right in the anime; they're just misplaced a lot of the time. Now, the voice acting is awesome. I'm not completely particular about voices but I do have my preferences and I'll just say that Danganronpa takes the cake. I can't go into too much depth on this part but I think watching the anime will make you realize why I'm saying this as it goes on.

Overall, I'd rate Danganronpa 6/10, give or take a number or two (although it's definitely not deserving of an 8 in my book). Yes, this adaptation has its negatives that still make it look bad without being put next to the game but it can still be an enjoyable series to watch. The plot really is its strong point and the fact that it can potentially keep you interested and watching regardless if you think everything else is bad or not should say something. The OST itself is pretty good (and definitely unique) and the voice acting is amazing. The art and animation is tolerable and the characters aren't particularly deep but still charming. If you're willing to look past all the negatives I'd say have at it, but if you want to see Danganronpa at its full potential I'd say go for the game. My best advice is to not go in expecting much as you'll have your expectations completely obliterated. I can understand why the anime initially got as hyped up as it did but I'm sure if fans knew it was gonna turn out like this we'd glorify it much less but still encourage you to watch it as it is worth watching.

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

Ok let me get this out of the way for all those complaining about the anime not living up to the video game. A game and a Anime are two different things and i wont be using the game in this review because its just not a very comparable subject. OK on to the review.

Story: The concept of the story isn't very original; but the way they took on the concept was. the hole concept of killing someone while at the same time you cant get caught by others hasn't really been done like this before. the whole trial system was good too but felt ... like it was a little rushed but for me rushing it wasn't as bad of a thing as other say; it kept me watching and because of the fast pace i wasn't bored at all; the down side to this is i wasn't as surprised either when a "twist" happened.

Character: This is where the series fell short because you don't really learn much about the characters in this anime. The information you do get on the background of the characters if you actually get some is very little and doesn't contribute much to the story. They do focus on the characters but not the same way (or should i say not in the way the should) compared to other anime. They focus more on the character at the present moment and how they act towards things then actually getting to know them and telling about there past which really brings the rating down.

Art: i don't know why people where so angry about the art it felt very fitting for this type of anime. Its was bright and colorful while at the same time eerie and sinister which kept me glued to the screen. Also it made each character very individual and very easy two spot what kind of person they where gonna be and made me more surprised when some characters had more to them than expected.

Sound: The soundtrack was enjoyable for me. not as much to say about it though. if you like the sound track to persona 2 your gonna like the soundtrack for this (weird and obscure i know)

I played the game after i watched the anime so i don't know if that's the reason why i like the anime more than others. either way i don't care the game and the anime are two different things with a similar story that take on the story in two completely different ways. This is why is why its a bad idea to compare these two and i hope future reviewers see this and think about how different they are before making a review.

Story: danganronpa is about 15 *cough* students, who wake up and get locked in they'er private high school. The students have kill each other until 1 is left, who of which is allow to leave. But its not that easy,if a dead body is found, then a class trial is held to find the murder. if the murder doesn't get caught, then everyone else gets killed, if he/she does get caught, they'll be killed.

Art: There are 2 problems, which you may or may not like. 1 is that the blood is pink, as you can tell, this is for censorship. the second is the educated ... cut scenes, when this happens, everything becomes "flatten" you could say.

Sound: meh, normal

character: most characters we have almost no backstory or development. because why well you talk about yourself to a bunch of random people *cough* who'll kill you

My experience finding Dangan Ronpa was a weird one. I was in the family car, and I kept seeing the subbed episode on my sister's iPad. I caught episodes 9,10, and 11. So naturally, I was already spoiled for who lived and who died. I didn't even know it was a game.

Let me get this straight: as an adaptation of the game, it's mediocre at best. Only the class trials had the same amount of quality. But that's because they took a different approach. Instead of having Naegi walk everybody through the trial as he did in the game, everybody was able to contribute, ... this streamlined it, and didn't run the risk of the other characters looking like idiots.

I'll get right onto the voice actors. With the exception of Bryce Papenbrook as Makoto Naegi, none of the game actors are returning. Papenbrook absolutely nails it as Naegi as he's had experience fine-tuning the role over multiple previous appearances. But with the exception of Togami (Spouting the same English VA as Sadao Maou, ironically), none of the voice actors quite know how to play their roles. I kept hearing other roles the actor played. I don't hear Maizono, I hear Kaede Kayano. I don't hear Asahina, I hear Emilia the Hero. I don't hear Junko, I hear Liz Thompson.

The back-end was horribly rushed. Not even an extra long episode 13 can alleviate some of its problems. 13 episodes was probably the right length, but 22-25 minutes per episode was not enough. There's enough material here for episodes twice that length. Just look at the game. All the free-time events, all the subtle visuals to incorporate. The script was writing itself, and with a franchise like Dangan Ronpa (2 critically-acclaimed games strong at that point with more on the way), as long as you made it halfway decent, fans were going to buy it. They'll get their friends hyped for it.

I call this the Scott Pilgrim of anime. (It doesn't help that Makoto looks like Scott.) Yeah, it's an adaptation that's good on its own, but the original medium is so much better.

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 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.

So, this is my first review for an anime that is adapted from a video game that I've never played. Also, my computers broken, so, currently typing this on my mobile, so, excuse any misspellings.

Danganronpa is a show about a group of 15 teenagers, each excelling at a specific skill, who are enrolled in an Academy, where their only way out is to successfully kill one of their fellow classmates and get away with it. If you are caught, you're executed, if you aren't caught, everyone who is innocent gets executed.

Story-9/10- The story of Danganronpa is unique, in that it plays out in ... a way that keeps you on your toes and guessing who's going to be the culprit. There were many times where iI had thought I had guessed the culprit through logic, only to have it be a completely different person using logic that was equally reasonable. If you're a fan of mysteries that will make you want to re watch it just to find all of the fine details that prove a characters guilt, this is the show for you.

Art-9/10- The ar is another great part about this show, although for the most part its just good, when they get to the execution scenes and mix together the 2d and 3d, it really looks amazing. The character designs are also noteworthy, as they each give them a distinct personality and helps add to the atmosphere of the show.

Sound-7/10- The ost does its job of keeping the tone and atmosphere of the show consistent, but, that's about it. No songs stand out in particular, but they do a good job of fitting the scenes, and that's all we should really expect.

Characters - 10/10- The characters are by far what makes this show for me. Each has a unique personality, and the voice actors really did an amazing job portraying the characters they were given. Although at first it may seem a bit overwhelming by how many characters there are, and how much they each lack development, you come to notice that even those who only get so much as two episodes of screen time play important roles in the story and has an impact on the group.


Overall -9/10- I've seen many people say that this show is an awful adaptation, and is very rushed, which at sone parts it is. But, having not played the game, and judging it solely on its own, I'd say Danganronpa is definitely worth watching, even if you aren't too fond of mysteries. It's characters are charming and unique, while it's story is gripping, suspenseful and will have you second guessing yourself over who did it. Danganronpa has easily joined my top ten anime of all time and I think everyone should at least try it.

Danganronpa is one of those animes that will keep the viewer guessing. I really like the story and the conflict in this anime.

The basic premise of Danganronpa is that 15 high school students are trapped in a school an the only way to get out is to solve murders or get away with murder. So this anime is basically find the killer and have him/her punished via execution or get the wrong person who committed the crime and die while the real criminal gets released.

The characters all have unique characteristics emphasized in this anime. The two best characters are Naegi and Kirigiri. They have the ... best chemistry in this show because of their platonic relationship.

The enjoyment I got from this anime was beyond my expectation. There were only little nit-picks that I don't like about this anime, but overall it is a great show. Every trial in this show was outstanding not only because it was life or death, but because it just throws the viewer curveball after curveball and the actual person who committed the crime is someone that you never expected.

Bear in mind when reading this that I haven't played the game, his review is solely about the anime.

I loved this anime, solid 8 out of 10 overall. DanganRonpa is an anime with a great art style and character design that captures the core themes of the anime perfectly. The pink blood is something that I personally love, it helps to show how messed up the situation these highschoolers are in actually is. The pink blood also plays well alongside other aspects of the show such as Monobear which take the seriousness of the brutal deaths away and make them somewhat comedic, ... again showing how twisted the school they are in is. My favourite thing about DanganRpnpa are the characters, each one is unique and there were none that I disliked, especially Monbear.

There are a few things that forced me to give this show an 8 rather than a 9 or a 10. Firstly, I felt that it was a little too short, 13 episodes was not enough to do each of the characters justice and many of them were not around long enough for me to get invested inn their story meaning that their deaths did not have as alrge an impact as they could have.

To conclude, DanganRonpa is a great anime which is well worth watching. The mysteries behind the plot and the results of the investigations will keep you on the edge of your seat.

8/10

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

Even though it was short I think they did an amazing job of setting a good plot and did a good job finishing up the story. The murder cases were fun to guess and had me very excited for the classroom trials.
[spoiler]Also, it was cool how MonoBear ended up being one of the earlier dead students. I never thought for a SECOND that Enoshima would be the mastermind. It wasn't predictable at all.[/spoiler] Overall I thought it was very well done and had everything I was looking for in this type of anime.

To start my review I would like to start things off by saying, my rating on this anime will be based off of the anime alone. I am well aware that this started as a game and got turned into anime and like all things before they get animated, was most likely better. For all the sections I cover, I will break things down and at the end of the section there will be a tl;dr (too long, didn't read) for those who want to get straight to the point. I would like to give an apology in advance if there ... are any spoilers in my review.

The story: 7.5
The foundation of Danganronpa is set quite clearly and successfully. A group of highschool students are taken as hostage. They can only escape if they kill another student. If one is gutsy enough to kill one of their classmates, there is an investigation and trial session in which the group discuss who the killer is. The investigative process is timed so collecting clues will be limited. So characters are not just blurting out names of the ones they hate during the trail process, they have to come to a unanimous decision together on who the killer is. If the classes guesses right, the killer gets punished, if they are wrong, they get punished . There are indeed motives and intensives set. There is a dilemma on both sides whether or not you commit a murder. There is very, very, little romance in here (if you could call it that). It would've definitely been a plus if there was a more well developed romance. Reason being love triangles are always a good way to add further twists and motives. Given the 12 episode limit, you are just squeezing things together while at the same time not forgetting about key events.

tl;dr - Danganronpa has an adequate story . It meets all plot devices, an exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. Just the way it was executed could have been done a better. Also gets a definite minus 1 for almost no romance with that abundance of characters.

Art - 6.5
From the cover, the art looked great. The tone of the anime to me felt a bit retro, futuristic and colorful. The reason why I rated so low was when it came to the punishments and the plot twists of facts it was so... flat and basic. I mean this is where the person dies or pleads to the classmates that they were not the one who did it. I remember seeing the first death (not spoiling any names) but I was so excited to see how this character was going to be executed, but instead it was just a total let down. So to me it felt like there should've been more. There was definitely a balance, not just a typical chop off head, and blood spurts out everywhere type, but was still disappointing. I mean in an anime you animate! I do understand that there some people who are a fan of the simple and done, but for an anime with a futuristic type set tone, doing a plain and simple doesn't quite cut it. (Okay, maybe I lied, blood spurting out does sound good in this type of anime.)

tl;dr - It was not creative enough in the parts that mattered the most which is a total buzz kill. In an anime, you animate!

Sound/Music - 7
Aside from the art cover, I usually judge whether I want to watch an anime or not is based on the opening theme song. As we all know good theme songs = good anime, look at Shingeki no Kyojin for example! The intro was a below average intro to me. Like I stated in the art section, the song also gives this anime a futuristic tone. It was not something catchy and remember-able. If a song is about hope and beating despair, the voice needs to be that way as well. The woman did have a good voice, but her tone was a little off in my opinion. Another example I'll use to show my point is LiSA's Sword Art opening, Crossing Field. She had a very strong and encouraging voice that matched with what she was saying in the lyrics. There was none of that in here. That being said, the best part of the intro is when the woman transitions and starts singing, there's a little sexy and slow dance that Monobear does which I found hilarious and entertaining itself, it gets a plus one in sound and in art just for that. (hopefully you do too so i don't look crazy). Now for inside the anime, it does use pretty well quality sounds. To put it simply, when it needs to be creepy and suspicious, you got creepy and suspicious background noises.

tl;dr - Monobear can work it! But really, I cannot stress enough how important it is that if everything shows Danganronpa is a futuristic anime, the art needs to match the feel where it matters.

Character(s) - 7.5
Now with animes that introduce a group of potential main characters all at once, they all get a minus in character development because of the quantity and not enough quality, they cannot fully bring out the true character. So in return, you kind of don't give a shi* about some. This one is no exception, with that many characters, you kind of forget who your following or who that character is. Of course if they fully developed the characters there wouldn't be enough episodes so I am not bashing on Danganronpa completely on this. They did well in the time allotted. Because of the amount of characters there are of course "throw away characters" . Now I don't know if the producers we're trying for this but some characters were just annoying, such as Genocider. I understand that she's supposed to be some sort of deranged maniac murderer, but that voice just kills me. It sucks too because she was pretty cool(I personally like bipolar characters especially if the other half is psychotic), but that damn voice! If they we're going for an annoying voiced super villain, they succeeded! Still doesn't get a plus in this section though. One thing I was kind of half and half on was the title these characters received, which were Super Duper ______ insert personality here. I think it's corny, on the other hand whenever I heard the full title in the anime it was just so entertaining. In this section I'll give a plus to Monobear's "Ping, pong, pang" announcements (or is that supposed to be in sounds XD, whatever). In my opinion, the best characters were, Monobear, Naegi, Kirigiri and Enoshima (wish she had a longer part).

tl;dr - Not fully developed characters and because some aren't they kind of get on your nerves when they finally do get a bit a dialogue.

Enjoyment 7.5
I did enjoy this anime, even if there are some shaky rushed parts. In some animes you have to get to the middle and sometimes even close to the end where you're like, "Dang this is getting pretty intense". To me because it was so rushed, you are getting hit with all these different things and if you do comprehend them it feels like your stuck in the same dilemma as the characters. That being said in later episodes it does lose it's steam as it has to wrap even more things up, so there are more unanswered situations that we just have to live with. It is personally better to me to end with a big bang, that start with one,(don't be a Vegeta and use your ultimate move and the have nothing to back it up in-case it fails). Nonetheless, personally I enjoyed the anime. It's one of those animes where, you will go to the next episode because you do want to know what happens next, not because you started it and now you have to finish it.

tl;dr - I believe the ending sentences said it best. In my opinion, this is a type of anime that you will click next episode on for the sake of wanting to know what happens next, not just wanting to finish it because you started already.

Overall - 7
(Since this is only four sentences, there will be no tl;dr.)
With everything to consider I do believe this anime is something people should watch. It was an adequate anime that did not fail too hard, but did not do too amazingly well. So it get's an adequate score from me. This is where simple and done works :P.

Closing Statements / Final Thoughts
I do understand that fans that have played the game will be a bit disappointed in this anime, but like I said in the first paragraph, to those who have never even heard of the game and are considering to watch it should. If your like me and have finished watching all the amazing animes for the Summer and are waiting for Fall animes, this surely will kill a little bit of time. Watching over 100 animes, this is my first review so I would like people who found this helpful to tell me and those who didn't what I would need to work on. If you took enough time to say it was bad,say why, not just say it was horrible. You won't hurt my feelings I promise...or maybe you will but it's okay! I would like to end this review by saying thank you for reading it even if it was just the tl;dr's and hopefully it helps answers your question to, "should I or should I not watch this anime."

The anime is okay, but what bothers me a lot is the fact that there are 13 episodes only and in the game there was a lot more going on. For instance in the game there was at list more character development. Meaning that there was a lot more going on with them and that we learn more about. In the anime however, I felt that it was rather rushed . I mean, it's not like that they didn't have much to work. If they do make an anime o Dangan Ronpa 2 I hope they put a little more effort into it.

I just want to clarify that I have not played danganronpa, although this series made me want to check it out since I'm a sucker for mystery. I also felt the need for a neutral review of someone who had never heard of the danganronpa franchise before (don't ask me how).

My expectations of danganronpa weren't the highest, I honestly expected it to turn into an ecchi harem, and we all know how high quality those are. So yeah, I went into it under the impression that I would drop it after the first three episodes. But surprisingly, I sat out the entire show in one ... day.

If you want to know if I recommend this show because you're deciding whether it's worth your time or not, I'd say skip it. UNLESS you're are a huge suckers for good mystery and episodic shows like me. In which case I say, go check it out. It's enjoyable but underdeveloped, which results into unfinished characters and stories. If you can overlook those things and are just looking for mystery, this might be something you'll enjoy.

STORY : 6
The story is, well, like what a 6 means: fair. It's most definitely not why I enjoyed the show so much even though I'm not forgiving when it comes to an unsolid plot. It's not neccessarily bad, it's just the ending. It felt kind of forced and not at all like a "Eureka" moment. What made the story enjoyable were its episodic aspects, the mystery of the week feel. Like I said; I'm a huge sucker for mystery.
But then, there were also some pretty big plot twists that were not at all explained and just occured for the sake of plot convenience. If you can't stand plot convenience you should probably skip this show since a lot of the overarching story relies on coincidences.
Then, one of my main issues with the story is that a lot of questions remain unanswered, which can be quite frustrating

ART : 8
The overall animation is good which would make me give it a 7. But what made me give it an 8 were the details. For example, instead of blocking out parts of the screen with annoying black spots or inverting the colors, they colored the bloody stuff magenta, which is something I can really appreciate. I know some people don't like it but I thought it was a great way to avoid censorship. (and it looked really cool in my opinion) I also particularly enjoyed the "punishment scenes" in which the art style turnst into this 3D paper doll style. The character design was pretty good as well for a lot of the side characters, the main characters were quite boring to my disapointment.

SOUND: 6
Not bad, but no outstanding tracks to which I'd listen individually. The opening's nothing special and neither is the ending. It's kind of disappointing since mystery shows always have so much potential for eerie choir music and such. But yeah, it wasn't good, but not bad either, just standard.

CHARACTERS : 4
If it weren't for the secondary characters I would have probably dropped this show. The "protagonist" is your standard cut out good guy, which is why I originally thought this show would turn into a harem anime. He's so boring I kind of wished he'd turn out to be one of the bad guys. The same goes for Kirigiri, the incredibly smart tsundere girl and potential love interest. These two get the most screen time, which results into no emotional attachment to any of the characters. With no character development whatsoever and the main characters being good at everything for some reason (because remember kids: CHARACTER FLAWS ARE BAD). The only thing I liked about the characters were the secondary characters who had loads of potential. But those never got the screen time they deserved.

ENJOYMENT : 7
Like I said, I love to try and solve mysteries before the story reveals anything which is one of the main factors why I like this series. I don't love it, and I'm definitely not blind towards its flaws but I don't feel like something has to be a masterpiece to be enjoyable. The side characters are quite unique and loveable and the animation is lovely. Right after I watched this series I wanted to give it a solid 7, but that wouldn't be fair.

OVERALL : 6
This series was too short and needed more time to develop its plot and spend more time on neglected characters. The mystery aspect of this anime I found to be one of the highlights as well as the animation. Danganroupa started in my head as an ecchi harem series, developed into an episodic mystery series, and ended in "wait, that's it, it's over?". This is one of those rare anime that I want to give a higher rating because I actually anjoyed it, but it wouldn't be fair. If I gave it a 7 and I'd compare it to other series I've given a 7 the difference would be laughable.

Danganronpa: Academy of Hope and Students of Despair. Just from the title of this anime you are intrigued as to what it could be about and as to where it leads to. This anime is basically a mystery genre and I believe it to be very well done. My only complaint that would keep it from being a 10 is the rushed feeling you get. But let's get into this review!

Story: 9
This story has quite a unique setup for animes that I haven't really seen before. Essentially 14 of the best students in their particular areas (Super Duper High School Students) are gathered together along ... with one lucky person to attend this academy that guarantees success in life upon graduation. Everything sounds great until upon entering the school, everyone is knocked out and reawaken to a summoning by the principal who is a talking bear named Monokuma. He informs the students that they are trapped within the school and the only way to escape is to kill another student and not be voted guilty during a trial period in which the whole class participates to try and decide who the murderer was. As the story progresses, it focuses on the murders and mysteries within the school rather than the character interactions as a whole, and the classroom trials that take place, all determining who was the murderer. Quite a unique setup. The murders that take place a well thought out and it is quite difficult to figure out who the culprit is until soon before they announce them,

Characters: 8
Our main protagonist is Makoto Naegi who is the lucky student selected to attend this wonderful academy. His personality on the whole is quite bland, however he does get along well with the rest of the characters and does his job well. Most of the story is told from his perspective and on the whole he is a likeable character. Another notable character includes Kyouko Kirigiri who is extremely cool under pressure and helps Naegi the most in figuring out mysteries. There is a bond of trust between the two developed as their time together increases and they learn to rely on each other, even with the situation they are presented with. On the whole they are memorable characters each with their own specialty area that makes them unique.

Sound + Art: 8
I really enjoyed listening to the Opening and Ending songs for Danganronpa, and the music chosen throughout the anime itself is suspenseful and creates the right atmosphere. The art is quite good as well, particularly with the executions that are done in a cinematic style.

Overall Enjoyment: 9
I really enjoyed watching this anime and finally being able to finish it off. It had me on the edge of my seat, excited for what would come next and how things were going to be solved. If you are into the genre of mystery then I highly recommend watching this anime.

NO SPOILERS

I strongly recommend that you do not watch this anime if you haven't played the game. IMO, you should only watch this if you aren't planning to play the first game, or if you have already played it and need a refresher as to what happened.

As an adaptation of Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, this is just really poorly done. It feels so rushed, and I can't even imagine how they thought they could properly capture a 30hr-40hr game into 4 hours of anime. All the details and characters are correct and true to the game, but this will have you feeling confused if you ... don't have any prior info about DR.

The voice acting isn't that great either, whether it be in English, or in Japanese. Important (or what I deem important) character development is missing.The sentiment and the emotion is gone. Everything is very surface level. The last episode is probably one of the only redeemable qualities.

I love Danganronpa, but I can't help but feel disappointed about this adaptation.

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