Note: This review contains LOTS of spoilers. It may also be noteworthy that this is the only anime I've ever seen, and it was mostly ruined for me by spoilers anyway, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.
That said, this anime annoyed me enough to force me to create a MAL account for the sole purpose of letting me get off my chest why I found this thoroughly unenjoyable. I originally picked up watching this anime as a fan of the games. I greatly enjoyed the tense story and engaging mystery of the original games, and wanted to finally see the conclusion of
...
the story. So, I watched fair-use-loopholed episodes on YouTube. However, I found it completely unentertaining. The only reason I watched it to completion was to finally bring the series I once enjoyed to a close. I honestly entered into the series with hopeful attitude (excuse the joke), and I genuinely wanted it to be good, but it didn't have any of the same charm that the games did. To get to the heart of my issue with this anime, I'm going to break this down part by part.
Story
Narrative stakes are nonexistent. First of all, the show gives you no good reason to care about the new characters, and any reason it does give is ham-fisted and cliche. The Ruruka and Seiko spat felt meaningless because the show did it so heavy-handedly, yet it barely qualified as drama to me when most of the dispute centered around candy. Second of all, the story shatters any notion that the characters you DO care about from the original games will ever be in danger by episode 3. If it hadn't already been spoiled for me, I probably would have been intrigued by Aoi's "death" and been curious as to where they would go with it. But, I imagine that the creators suddenly thought "Wait, people might care about this character! Better retcon her back in!" So, Aoi's fake death ends up feeling like nothing more than a shock value cash-in. I almost laughed when they used the "ketchup as blood" excuse. Seriously, I would have preferred a handwave instead of a trite explanation like that. Kirigiri's is even worse, because her return is predictable at that point. If they don't even have the guts to kill off Aoi, of all people, why would we believe for a second that they would actually kill off the character that is ostensibly the most beloved character of the series? Of course, it gets even worse when they undermine all the consequences of DR2 by bringing everyone back that died in that game. All the tension of the original games was based on the idea that anyone could die, especially the characters you like. If they had actually killed the characters they pretended to kill, and didn't render the events of DR2 virtually meaningless, this would have easily made the series at least a 5/10 for me, because there would at least be some tension and reason to see if the characters would make it out alive.
Sound and Art
I can't say much on the sound and art departments since I have no basis for comparison. All I can really say in this regard is that it didn't make my eyes and ears bleed, so it is at least acceptable in my opinion.
Characters
One of the things that made me like the games was that the characters were interesting enough to be memorable. Trigger Happy Havoc's characters all had memorable quirks and designs, and, while the characters in Danganronpa 2 were a little less memorable, their character design was still unique. My problem could be best summarized by this statement: If you asked me to list the entire cast from both games in 3 minutes, I'd do it with plenty of time to spare. However, all the time in the world wouldn't be enough for me to list half of the names in the cast of DR3 without looking them up. I actually had to look up Seiko and Ruruka's names for this review, because I actually couldn't remember them despite remembering their conflict. I only remembered Yukizome and Munakata's names because the show hammers the characters into your skull as important characters. Yukizome was kind of fun to watch in the other arc, but that is the OTHER arc, so it's pretty much irrelevant here. As for any other characters, the best I would probably be able to come up with is 'bull guy', 'black stereotype farmer', 'wheelchair girl', 'boxer guy', and 'asshole blacksmith'. Kazuo Tengan was interesting at first, but lost all appeal when they essentially portrayed him as an absolute crazy with no concept of consequences. Seriously, the aged leader, who should have been the wise voice of reason in the story, ends up having less wisdom than the former-brainwashed, former-braindead cast of DR2.
Enjoyment
I enjoyed the games for them actually having interesting and understandable mysteries. The murders were engaging to put together, and the clues got you thinking about the mystery as you went along the investigation. It always made sense in the end, and, even when the mysteries had their occasional asspulls *cough*celestesrealname*cough*, it wasn't like it completely came out of nowhere. The anime has none of that. If you watched the arcs one at a time like me, there was nothing to suggest what might be happening. The Despair arc did set it up, but it wasn't enough to make it feel like a meaningful plot point. I won't spoil the ending (since I've already spoiled enough), but I could only respond to the reveal with a "lolwut". It comes completely out of nowhere, as if the buildup and investigation up to the point fulfilled no point but to drive the plot forward. It didn't give you a chance to piece things together on your own like the games, it just says "here's what's been happening, deal with it".
In conclusion, I guess most of my problem is that it has none of the aspects that made the games good. No tension, no engaging mystery, no memorable characters, nothing. It wasn't even darker than the games in any sense beyond aesthetic, because the horror actually stuck with you in the games. Characters the game had been building up for several acts were dying, and it was clear that anyone could die (with the exception of the main character, but at this point I'm numb to main character plot armor anyways). In the anime, it was clear nobody that anyone cared about was going to die, effectively ending anything resembling tension. The reveal was completely out of left field, with nothing to suggest what was going on. The characters were forgettable, the story was bland, the mystery was terrible, and the retconning of character deaths completely undermined the point of the series. For these reasons, I found DR3 to be a completely lackluster conclusion to an otherwise great story.
Jan 1, 2017
Note: This review contains LOTS of spoilers. It may also be noteworthy that this is the only anime I've ever seen, and it was mostly ruined for me by spoilers anyway, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.
That said, this anime annoyed me enough to force me to create a MAL account for the sole purpose of letting me get off my chest why I found this thoroughly unenjoyable. I originally picked up watching this anime as a fan of the games. I greatly enjoyed the tense story and engaging mystery of the original games, and wanted to finally see the conclusion of ... |
