**DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NOT PLAYED THE GAMES!!*
tl;dr : DR is a very enjoyable and quite suspenseful series with a wacky sense of humor that is dark in some senses, interesting and fun character designs that take a spin on the stereotypes of your usual anime characters in a high-school anime, however, the anime falls short with some of the character's lack of personality and the fact some of the story is hard to keep up with.
**STORY**
The story in this anime is one of the key features to why it is so great. If you didn't know, the main premise is about a bunch of elite high-school kids who are forced to kill each other in order to leave the hellish school and graduate. Not only that, but you need to not be /caught/. If someone fails to identify you as the murder, you live, and the others die.
There is a lot more to the premise, as that is only scratching the surface to this somewhat original take on the popular One Man Left type of story telling used in most horror. However, if there was a few things about the story or how different parts of the premise was handled, it lies in the investigations.
In my opinion, I feel like the investigations are a bit short-lived and need to be stretched out with a bit more spice to make it quite interesting and kinda fun to figure out.
However, in this case, most investigations are just some of the characters walking around explaining some topics about the murder scene while the show gives us details about the things surrounded around the murder scene. I would of liked more mystery, which is saved by the classroom trials. (I'll get to those later, I promise). And, while I'm not thirsting for more in the investigations, I do agree they could of been done a lot better.
And, then there is some parts of this show that are very hard to follow, and I had to replay short moments of the episode or ask a friend about what the flying hell was going on because of how weirdly it was described to me, a viewer. This is mostly show in the two ending episodes where everything is unfolded like a blanket of sorts, if I can find a good comparison.
I found it quite frustrating and a bit unenjoyable for me to sit through because of how hard it was for me to understand all the things that was being thrown at me.
As for classroom trials, these were quite interesting, but got somewhat mundane after a few times. While the saving grace in this is the ability for the creators to build together good plot twists and interesting debates in these trials, in the two final episodes, the trials came off as...boring.
This is a bit of a nitpick, which is why it doesn't really affect the rating of the story, but I feel in some of the episodes, the characters overreact to some of the most weirdest things. For example, in the first episode, everyone freaked out over the video tape of their parents. I remember one of the characters taking it to the extreme by screaming and running away and crying.
It wasn't like the characters were dying, or the parents were dying, in fact, it was just a video of them standing in a well-lit room cheering the characters on before it shifted into a weird land. This is well explained later down in the show where it's revealed the world is in shambles, but the characters simply didn't know that before that was revealed to them. It just seemed unrealistic to me.
Another thing to note too is the fact that the execution scenes, while some do a good job of showing some brutal yet satisfying death scenes, some of them fall short. I feel like the writers and creators could of done a better job at making the execution scenes and how to make them satisfying and brutal.
I'm not sure if the execution scenes are from the game or not, because if so, then I can't really say much about it, but if not, then I think it's a problem that should be fixed.
Overall, the story is a 8
**Art**
The art in this anime is very good in my opinion, and it shows to have a distinct art-style in comparison to the moe and average schoolgirl anime you'd see these days. The character designs are very interesting and well done, as you can tell their personalities from how they look.
For example, Sakura. You can tell from her rough and tough look, yet her innocent image with the simple slip of schoolgirl clothing she is tough yet sweet on the inside with feelings. And, with Togami, that he is a smartypants that strives to be the smartest out of the group, and it goes on. The artists did their jobs in terms of character design, however, if I had to be honest, some of the character designs are not very original.
This is mostly shown in characters like Naegi, who is just your typical teenage boy. However, even then with very uninteresting character designs, I still found there to be personality in how they were handled. Naegi is small and cowardly, kinda like how his character designs show him off to be.
And, one of my favorites in terms of character designs, Monokuma, as he is perfectly illustrated. It fits his character very well, and makes him part of why he is one of the best characters to a lot of DR fans in the series.
In terms of animation, the animation hasn't really bothered me, as it's really just average in terms of how smoothly it moves and how it's drawn in most shots. The characters were very well-drawn, and the scenes where the animation shines brightly the most is in execution scenes.
You can clearly see that they put effort into making a twisted, whacky fun-fest of horror in these executions. All the way from the artstyle and how descriptive and spooky it is all concocted, to how the animation is shown. Stilted, yet it fits. It fits well.
Overall, the animation isn't anything special to be considered beautiful or outstanding, but is it great? In some cases, hell yeah. The executions, the classroom trials and how stylized some of the scenes are make it quite an interesting treat to snack on while watching.
**SOUND**
I don't really /care/ about sound when it comes to anime, as it really depends on how well I can hear the characters and if they are crystal clear or just plainly hard to see. In this anime, there isn't much to say about in terms of sound.
I can hear everything from the character's voices, and it's very crystal clear. Nothing else. However, you can tell that the staff put some effort into the sound. A good example is if they are in a large room, like the cafeteria, you can hear their voices echo throughout whenever they yell loudly. While I do admit that it goes away and it's short-lived, it's neat.
And surprisingly, the dub is good. It's decent. It's the version I watched, and it was fairly enjoyable, especially the English role of Monokuma, in which the voice actor portrays his character very, very well and it's one of the reasons that Monokuma hits powerful in this anime in terms of character.
So, 9.5 out of 10. Not much to say.
**CHARACTER**
This is the strongest point in the entire anime. Besides Story and the art, this is one of the reasons why DR is so special. The characters to be summarized, are basically stereotypes of your average anime based on a high-school. Except, the creators actually try to develop them somewhat.
You can actually care about the characters in this, despite being a spin on the stereotypes used in boring, uninteresting characters. Characters like Yamada or Sakura who are usually just underdeveloped personality types in some other animes are used in a way where you can kinda root for them.
However, there are some problems in the character department. For example, Naegi. Naegi, in my opinion, is the weakest character in this story. He has no personality, as he brings nothing new to the table. Unlike characters like Celestia who bring an interesting, new personality to take in as you watch the story unfold in front of you, Naegi is just there.
We don't know much about his past in this anime, as it's rarely dived into. And, that brings up one of the biggest problems in the character department. They are very uneven in terms of how much they work out the characters.
Some of them are developed and are given a past, while some remain blank and just stuck with that boring, stereotypical personality. The creators didn't give enough time to stretch out the characters at least a little bit equally so we could learn more about them, as if your characters are what the entire thing is about, it's important to set aside a good understanding of the characters.
Naegi and the love interest that is first shown at the beginning are the biggest offenders of the no-personality rule. But, despite some of the rough patches in character development, you get very, very enjoyable and entertaining characters that make watching DR a blast for me.
Monokuma is one of the best villains I have ever seen in a show in a long time in my opinion. He's snarky, he's rude, he's funny, yet he's strangely cute. And, this goes along with his character design and his voice-acting, and every inch of detail put into this character makes him pack a powerful punch, and he is one of my top five favorites.
Overall, despite some of the rough patches, the cast of characters are bright and interesting. 9 out of 10.
**ENJOYMENT**
I had an absolute blast watching this anime. Not only because am I a fan of the whole One Man Standing formula sometimes used in horror media, but because of the characters and how well they were laced together into the horrifying situations thrown at them throughout the story.
The suspense in this was great in my opinion, and a lot of the drama and plot twists that were thrown at me had me stuffing popcorn down my throat and my eyes widening in surprise. The aspects of intensity, mystery, truth, suspense of horror made this fun to watch for me and it's why it's one of my favorite animes.
My only issue with the enjoyment is, like I said, near the end of the series, 11-13. Through then, the plot takes a slight dip in terms of enjoyment, and as I mentioned in the story, it's very hard to follow some of the plot that is going on during the episode, making me having to restart parts of the episode to fully gather and process all the information that is thrown at me.
However, problems like these often track down to one thing. How much that is being thrown at me, how uneven the character development is. It all comes down to the thirteen episodes. The fact that they were just...thirteen episodes. While, I feel like the story wasn't really rushed and I enjoyed the pace it went by, some of the problems I listed would not be as major if there was more space and time to give more of the characters development and to slowly feed the information of a classroom trial or investigation to the viewer to fully chew. Due to the short times and episodes, of course, we are going to have rushed and fast-paced classroom trials to try and get through without wasting too much time for the next episodes.
Despite this, I found the anime quite enjoyable and a blast to watch. It was a great introduction back into the anime world, as this has proven to strike a path for more great anime shows to come my way.
**OVERALL: VERDICT*
With this show, I think I feel a light eight to a somewhat strong nine. Somewhere in the middle, a 8.5, to be exact. Overall, the show is very enjoyable and was great to watch. As a fan of horror, it certainly did not disappoint me, and I recommend you go and watch it to if you're looking for wacky humor, suspense, drama or you just love horror overall.
This is my first review, by the way, so I apologize if some of my reasoning is flawed or bias, or I'm being too generous in terms of how I rate the series. But, this is what I feel deep down inside when I take a look at this anime.
Anyways, it's 12:30, and it's time I end this review...here.
