Super Danganronpa 2.5: Komaeda Nagito to Sekai no Hakaisha

*SPOILERS FOR DANGANRONPA 2 THE GAME AND DANGANRONPA 3 THE ANIME*

A lot of Danganronpa fans will be pissed, I can tell you this much already.
This short OVA presents one of the events that took place after Super Danganronpa 2, most likely during the events of Danganronpa 3- Mirai-hen. More specifically it showcases exactly how did the rest of the 77th class got out of the Neo World Program. Without spoiling anything, it's a pretty reasonable explanation of both what happened with the people eliminated from the game and how did they get out, but it does have its own share of plot holes, which was ... unavoidable. I'm glad that they did this, rather than leave the fans creating theories forever, but, from what we've seen in Danganronpa 3, we already know they don't care all that much about believability.
The art style is the same as in the anime that it's a part of (Danganronpa 3), and the music consists of tracks from the second game, such as "DIVE DRIVE" and "CROSS SWORD", that weren't used in the previous anime installments. It's nice to hear them being brought here, even if they're just pretty short, fan service cameos.
With all that being said, any Danganronpa fan should watch this, just for the sake of it. If you want to know how did the author explain himself from the massive plothole, this is it. It's always good to have more Danganronpa, especially when Nagito is the main character. Be sure to give it a shot.

Danganronpa 2.5 is an OVA that features Nagito Komaeda as the main character while following him through his dream in the Neo World Program until he wakes up. That is pretty much the summary you need to know.
As a big Danganronpa fan, I was highly interested in the events that happened after Hinata Hajime and the others woke up from the Neo World Program and what happened to the others that were still asleep. I’ve read with all honestly, many fanfictions that had the ‘What happened when they were still sleeping and what did the others do to help them wake up’- topic. And I ... swear, all of them were overall better written and more logical than this OVA, that we even have to accept as cannon.
But with no further adue, I will get to the category ratings that MAL wants me to do.
Story 2/10
I wouldn’t even call this a story. It shouldn’t even be called a script. It is just a half-done script made into an anime. This shouldn’t even be called an anime. It is just moving art. With voices.
It is just a premise that was executed. Poorly to that.
Art 4/10
Danganronpa 3 didn’t have bad art. It actually had decent art, and animated it actually looked pretty cool. I am also used to better work from Lerche. The art doesn’t look bad on its own, but at some points, I was just baffled at how different a character suddenly looked from a time difference of mere seconds. The Danganronpa characters already looked very different from their ingame ego, but here they look especially different. In a bad way.
Sound 5/10
Danganronpa, especially Danganronpa 2 is very well liked for its OST. While listening to this OVA I identified many of the well-known and also well liked OST of the games. But it is distracting. At some point I even thought the background sound was too loud and overplayed the by the way terrible voice acting. If that was on purpose may or may be not the case.
For the voice acting they at least managed to get all the voice actors of the characters of the game. Too bad that the lip sync isn’t in sync with the voice acting most of the time. The voice acting felt also very soulless. It just felt the actors wanted to get done with it. Megumi Ogata can do better, I know this.
Direction 2/10
This is not a category MAL wants to be rated but I have to talk about it. Directing is the choice where to put the camera and how it moves. In this OVA we get the typical mediocre Directing. Characters faces are seen up close 90% of the time, while the camera just swipes to left and right. Sometimes there are still shots. This is all in favor of keeping the budget/work as low as possible. And it feels like it.
Too bad the art looks bad so when there is a still shot it all just looks ‘meh’.
Character 5/10
The characters featured in this OVA are Komaeda, Sonia, Souda, Kuzuryuu and a little bit of Pekoyama. We also get a little comedy act at the beginning of the OVA for OOC Naegi and Maizono. To this OVAs luck, Sonia and Kuzuryuu are my favourite characters from the game, and at least their Komaedas dream persona is not too OOC and actually acceptable. The only characters who act OOC are Komaeda – which is in favor of the ‘plot’ – and Naegi and Maizono. We get to see other characters from the Danganronpa game Another Episode and the Novel Danganronpa Zero too. But these are just very few seconds of screen time, without them doing anything significant. In a still shot.
Enjoyment and Overall Opinion
This OVA is as significant as Danganronpa 3 Despair Arcs Kamukura Izuru. He existed. He did something. But it was overall worthless, boring, terribly executed and nothing we couldn’t have written a better fanfiction of. It is just a little fanservice for the fans. Is this something bad? Not really, but it is baffling to the fans who actually wanted something out of the little bit of story left, that wasn’t ruined by the letdown that was Danganronpa 3 – The anime, yet.
Overall my Enjoyment was a 4/10.
But on a critical level this OVA is worthless and skip able - therefore a 2/10.

Ok, so that was quite a surprise, this is one sequel/prequel that one should really not misjudge since it was a prequel of Danganronpa 3 : The End of Kibougamine Gakuen - Kibou-hen and a sequel of Mirai-hen, so imo this is how it fare:

Storywise, at first you might ask as to "WTF is this" until you watched it from start to end, one would find out how it turns out, really kudos to studio Lerche and creator Kodaka, Kazutaka, so for such plot, cu'z of it's deceptive nature, really has to be a "Very Good 8."

Artwise, it was a mediocre 5, given that ... there wasn't any changes at all with the character's illustration and don't expect any fanservices around here.

Sound, it's a 5 in my book , since it was still them same seiyuus who did the voices of the characters and I just have nothing good or bad to say about it, PERIOD.

Character, I'd say it was a good 7, to allocated the slot to Nagito, Hinata, Fuyuhiko and Souta, but I'm kinda a bit disgusted that Nagito's has been downgraded as this jinxed guy who is a bad luck magnet, but still his role wasn't that bad.

Enjoyment, it was a good 7 in my book, but not very good since at frist one might think that this special is a "WTF" and imo, it should have been added to the Mirai-hen, and not be made as its own special, then again..............................

Overall, it does deserve some very good credit, for Kodaka, Kazutaka's creativity for playing us audience were at first we might think it's a PTW, but in the end it was worth watching after all, so Overall it's an 8.


Fu,Fu,Fu,Fu,Fu,Fu

What is hope ? For most people it's the desire and the wish for something beneficial to happen , for others it's just an excuse to escape the awful reality that they're living in, but for Nagito Komaeda it's probably the second option ; or something far more complicated than that.

Hope is a concept that can't be defined in a few words, or articles, or even books, it's something than changes depending on the person who posess it. Nothing can match hope when it comes to the feelings that can influence someone's life and change ... the person's perspective on it , but did you ever imagine what hope would look like if it was a person ? Probably not, because neither did I , But if you ever felt like it , well watch Super Danganronpa 2.5: Komaeda Nagito to Sekai no Hakaimono, because Nagito is the person whom you're looking for.

-Story : 7/10

The plot set of Super Danganronpa 2.5: Komaeda Nagito to Sekai no Hakaimono doesn't matter that much, unless you played danganronpa 1 & 2 , or you love hope , you can't understand what's going on . But if that's the case , you should know that hope is more of a lifestyle than a state of mind because it contorls your actions , your likes and your dislikes . Altough I bet you didn't ever read the title of the anime because it's very long , oh wait ; you don't understand japanese ; neither do I .

-Art : 7/10

Pretty much like the story , the art is not the strongest thing in Super Danganronpa 2.5: Komaeda Nagito to Sekai no Hakaimono , so if you only watch anime because you consider it as work of art , you should rather go and watch ghibli movies or something .

-Sound : 10/10

The soundtrack of the danganronpa series , composed by Masafumi Takada is lit , and they used some of it here , so it's good obviously.

-Characters 10/10

Or should I say character , Nagito is objectively the best character in the danganronpa universe full of great characters , let alone an anime where he's the only character (I'm talking of course about Super Danganronpa 2.5: Komaeda Nagito to Sekai no Hakaimono)

-Enjoyement 9/10

Like I said earlier , If you like Hope and Nagito , you will like Super Danganronpa 2.5: Komaeda Nagito to Sekai no Hakaimono , Because hope is a purpose of life whether you like it or not , and there's hajime too .

Overall 8/10

Hope can also be considered a double edged sword , so if you obsess over it , you might become like Nagito , and I'm not talking about his homeless hair, but your beliefs and thoughts will all be related to hope , not only yours but also the hope of the people around you . Roses are red , violets are blue , hope is amazing , and this anime is too .

Dangan Ronpa 2.5. It's an interquel between Dangan Ronpa 2 and Dangan Ronpa 3: Kibou-hen.

*Premise: Nagito Komaeda's experiences in the Neo World Program after he dies.

*Strengths: It's satisfying. Some characters really get to shine. Souda, Kuzuryuu, Peko, Sonia.
It was also nice to see how Komaeda could interact with everybody else without his warped world view. Plausible way to exit the Neo World Program.

*Weakness: Oh boy. I'm being so hard on this OVA because I love this franchise. 25 minutes. It takes 25 minutes for this to be resolved. And only a third of the cast gets used. DR2 and overall. I was hoping this would ... be something that could strengthen the bonds of DR2 and DR3, considering it IS called 2.5. But alas, it is not. This falls into the same problem as DR3. I was hoping for it to be longer to allow everything to breathe, something along the lines of a full-length movie in this case. Maybe show a little about Komaeda's past. I saw the Budget constraints on the writing everywhere, especially in how the lines were distributed among the characters. And while the acknowledgements that Maizono and Kuwata do exist were nice. It felt empty.

Nothing out-of-the-ordinary happened. AND THAT'S THE POINT!

How would one usually imagine their perfect little fantasy world?

Maybe you'd imagine yourself living an extravagant life, you can do and buy whatever you want.. Maybe you wanna succeed in everything you try? Want to be surrounded by so many friends and family who love and adore you? How about having a pet tiger as a sidekick? Those are the kind of scenarios one would usually think of when prompted to think of such a world, right?
And yet, with Komaeda, we get this. Just....this.

Doesn't that kinda pull at your heartstrings?

It's not important to the series and this ... isn't a fan service episode, for sure. This actually just gives you a little bit more insight on what type of person the character of Komaeda Nagito is beneath all his lying and pretending and very vocal obsession with Hope. It's subtly sad and amazing in its own right. I'd discuss every little thing in detail but heh, spoilers~

I really liked this OVA. The art style was absolutely adorable, and I'd say it was a vast improvement over the art of Trigger Happy Havoc's adaptation. Given that it was so short, I don't have much to say, but I think it was as well-rounded as a one-episode OVA could possibly be. The plot threw me in with no warning, and it was a welcome addition to puzzle over with the plot of SDR2. Also, it was nice to see that cast reimagined in a domestic setting, even if that setting wasn't what we ended up with. Having more background on Komaeda was welcome, ... and has made me appreciate his character a little more.

Super Danganronpa 2.5: Komaeda Nagito to Sekai no Hakaimono is an OVA by Lerche. I guess it gives some more information about what happened after Danganronpa 2, but other than that this OVA fails to add much to the series. Minor spoilers for Danganronpa 2 ahead, but only for stuff that's painfully obvious.

So... the story. In true Danganronpa fashion, the story is the weakest part of this OVA. Mainly because it doesn't make a lick of sense until the very end. Now, I don't have an issue with stories waiting to explain things until the end, so long as it ... doesn't detract from the experience. The problem with information being witheld until the end in this OVA is that up until that point I don't know what's happening. This creates a sense of confusion and bewilderment while watching that prevents me from being engrossed in the story. So what's the story about? Well, just like in Danganronpa 2 the events of Danganronpa 2.5 take place in a simulation. This simulation is taking place in order for a character called Nagito to do... something. It isn't really explained well. I think his insanity is being cured, but don't quote me on that. Overall the story's pretty flimsy, but I'll talk about the characters in the story later.

What about the technical aspects? The art is decent, roughly on par with the rest of the Danganronpa anime series. The animation is decent as well. I watched this subbed but I think the voice actors did a good job portraying the characters.

Speaking of the characters, how are they? Well, pretty good actually. The story follows several of the characters from Danganronpa 2, namely Nagito. Several of Nagito's classmates also appear, alongside a mysterious entity know as the "World Destroyer". I wouldn't really be Danganronpa if they didn't come up with the dumbest names possible. Thankfully, these are the only characters with significant screen time.

Since there's not an enormouse cast let's do a run down of the characters. The main character is Nagito, a weirdo with incredible luck (or in this case, a lack there of). Nagito is enjoyable to see in some of his cooler moments, but his personality can get rather grating after a while. Nagito's classmates are Sonia, Peko, and Fuyohiko. They're definitely some of the more interesting characters from Danganronpa 2. They're not stupid or useless, and they actually feel the most like real people. I wish we could've seen more of them. And finally, the fearsome World Destroyer! He's actually an intimidating villain, his powers are supernatural which creates an interesting contrast with the other characters who have more grounded skills. You as the viewer actually feel like the characters are at a disadvantage, which creates suspense. However, he does come off as overly powerful.

Overall I enjoyed this OVA, but It feels rather off. It lacks a real purpose. I liked the characters, but they weren't around long enough for me to really feel invested in them. The only investment I did have was due to them appearing in something else I like, which isn't an excuse. The smaller cast was a good idea, but this needed to be more than a single episode OVA to really get the most use out of them. But the mere existance of this OVA has me questioning the motivations of the creators. They could sink money into making this OVA, which really doesn't add anything to the series as a whole. But they couldn't have used that money to make improvements to Danganronpa 3, which it desperately needed. Why? This OVA just feels like a waste. It isn't developed enough to justify the effort being put into this and not Danganronpa 3. 6.5/10

Would I reccomend this? If you're a Danganronpa fan, then sure. You don't even need to watch Danganronpa 3 to "understand" this OVA. But I can't say it will add much to your opinion of this series.

[SPOILERS...whatever, y'know the drill already.]

Oh, good. The last of the Danganronpa 3 stuff. Let's end this once and for all so I can FINALLY get on with Danganronpa V3.

Story: 5/10

This...is just pointless all around. Like, there's so much going on in this 25 minute long mess that it's hard to describe. You got a Love Plot, a Revenge Plot, and then a 'it's all a dream' type of thing at the end. It's just...nonsensical. Nagito acts REALLY out of character at some points of this OVA, which is RIDICULOUS considering HOW Nagito is in the games and it's just jarring to see here. The other ... characters act all right (except for Makoto Naegi in the beginning with Sayaka, which just left me baffled and mad at the same time...can't really say WHY they did that other than for cheap, crappy comedic effect, but ok) but I don't really get why they made Hajime the way they did here, he could've...just told Nagito that he needs him to help people or something but no, 'let's just kill him basically', even if that's NOT how that works in the game. At least the ending ties in how the heck the DR2 cast was able to help with the DR1/Hope Arc characters in DR3 but still...not good at all.

Art: 7/10

Yeah, it's fine just like the rest of the Danganronpa stuff. All the characters have their looks from Danganronpa recycled and it's just...fine. Nothing else really to say here other than the fact it's just more Danganronpa 3 art.

Sound: 7/10

Uses songs from the soundtrack and the voices sounds fine though, even if Nagito ends up sounding EXACTLY like Makoto in some parts (can't help that the Japanese VA voices BOTH of them though.) The voices are okay though otherwise. Nothing really special here to report.

Overall: 6/10

This just...isn't all that interesting or needed. Could've removed the goofy parts of the OVA and if they maybe focused on EXPLAINING everything a little more with the world and Nagito's TRUE feelings about it, then it would maybe be a 7, but as it is...this is just meh. Danganronpa fans only obviously...god help me for when I play V3...