Here it is, a third killing game. Monokuma managed to pull it off for the third time now, this time with 12 new characters in the killing game along with Naegi, Kirigiri and Hina. I was a little skeptic about this part after episode 3 but I'm glad it delivered near the end, as Danganronpa always does. This entry will launch off with a brand new killing game and it will be the (near) conclusion to the entire Danganronpa franchise of the Hopes Peak Academy era. We await the conclusion with Side:Hope.
If you're interested in watching this, you have to go back to the start of this series as this is the third entry from this series and watching this without knowledge of prior entries will confuse you and you wont get the full enjoyment out of this entry, not to mention it will also spoil the events of SDR1 and 2. If you have knowledge then the watch order would be episode 1 of Side:Future, then episode 1 of Side:Despair and continue that pattern with the finale being Side:Hope. Remember, this review will contain minor and major spoilers of SDR1 and 2 and also very minor spoilers of SDR3, you have been warned.
The story starts off almost right after the events of SDR2, Naegi's "betrayal" by siding with the Remnants of Despair. Que all the leading members of the Future Foundation along with some of the cast of SDR1 and boom, you have your brand new killing game, quite exciting isn't it? Here there is a new concept called NG codes - With NG codes, every participant has an action they can't do and the bangles are stuck on their wrists, if they end up doing said action then they get infected with poison, a neat concept for Danganronpa and it spices up this killing game. Also, every 2 hours they get infected with sleeping gas, then the traitor/killer wakes up and kills someone, if the traitor/killer kills someone then the game goes on, if no one dies then everyone wins the game. There is no class trials in this one. It's a rather slow start, but it later picks up and it gets very interesting, overall I thought it was a well written story, with plot twists, cliffhangers leaving you wanting more and overall nice direction, unfortunately we were left not with a conclusion yet as there will be one more episode in Side:Hope, therefore the last episode doesn't feel as satisfactory as it could have been.
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Story - 9
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Ah, the characters, do they live up to the amazing casts of SDR1 and SDR2? No, unfortunately they don't, but wait, that doesn't mean they were bad at all. There were 12 brand new characters introduced to us, all of them were former Hopes Peak Academy students or staff. Two of the characters weren't really developed at all and felt very flat. Other two characters didn't feel interesting enough even though they were developed, they even got lots of screen time in the beginning so I was thoroughly disappointed in the begin. I'm glad they did get development though, otherwise it would've been bad. All the other 8 characters were fair game and I really enjoyed seeing the Vice-President in this anime, a great character to come out of this one. Thanks to Side:Despair we got to learn more about most of these characters too, which was nice.
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Characters: 8
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The art, just like Side:Despair, wasn't anything amazing. They did a few animation faults too, like covering what was supposed to be a hallway with a wall, constant changes in the characters positions after they wake up from the sleeping gas compared to how they were when they fell asleep. It wasn't necessarily bad, but I found it quite disappointing, but I guess it's understandable with how much work the animators are probably doing at the same time - Side:Future, Side:Despair and SDRV3 - still doesn't excuse it though.
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Art & Animation: 6
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Naturally, the sound is amazing. With new voice actors, they all did wonderful. Danganronpa never fails to amaze me when it comes to selecting the voice actors. The soundtrack is really good too. I have no issues with the sound at all.
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Sound: 10
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Except for the rather boring start, this was a blast to me, I really enjoyed seeing the returning characters again and I loved the direction of the story, A great sequel to SDR2 I might say, hopefully the conclusion to the series wont be bad, that would just be fairly disappointing after all the fun I've had with both sides.
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Enjoyment: 10
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While this show does have a few faults, I still think it was really good, a great anime that I recommend to any fan of the Danganronpa franchise, it's a must watch and I'll remember this one for a while just like the previous entries in this franchise.
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Overall: 9
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