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.
