Danganronpa: The Animation

By: Robert Murphy

OBJECTION! Oops sorry, that is an entirely different courtroom catch phrase that I love and thought about while watching the entirety of this latest anime. Danganronpa: The Animation, is an animated adaptation of the video game story where fifteen highly gifted teens have been trapped inside a prestigious school for kids the excel in some field or another. This ranges from normal accomplishments such as "Super High School Swimmer" or "Super High School Baseball Player" to the more outrageous accomplishments such as "Super High School Biker Gang Leader" and "Super High School Heir." Regardless of all this though they're now trapped in a school with no way out except for one: kill one of your new classmates and you will be allowed to leave. It is a tale of mystery solving and murder, while the situation they're in is semi-peaceful, the deck seems to be pretty loaded and all the cards are held by their strange new principal. 

You would think that after so many  years of watching anime that I would cease being surprised by the odd ball characters that come out of the anime world but while watching Danganronpa, I was once again amazed at what characters can sometimes look like. This isn't to say that these characters are bad in any way, far from it actually but I often wonder what goes through the mind of someone who makes a female body builder character named Sakura. Irregardless, I found almost all the characters unique and appealing in their own way, despite how short a time I get to know each one of them, you know because of the murdering and all. I was even surprised at how much I liked the main character, Naiegi, who at first glance looks like a rather dull and plain sort of guy but proved to be enjoyable as the story goes on. Perhaps my favorite character though has to be the principal of the school, Monokuma, a robotic stuffed bear whose half white and half black and a demented little fellow at that. He pulls the strings through most of the story and has a trash bag for a mouth, he relishes torturing the students at every turn and always has some sarcastic quip to egg you on. 

This though was where my fun ended for the show unfortunately, after such a great set up and a unique brand of characters to watch, the rest just falls flat on it's face. Each episode is part of an arc for the story and each arc only has three parts/episodes to it which boils down to a peaceful moment before a classmate murder, an investigation period to look for clues and then a class room trial to figure out who is responsible. This in turn makes the whole story go extremely fast paced and does not leave much time for you to get to know any of the characters. Almost immediately characters start to die off and the cast gets widdled away at so there really isn't much to be seen of them. Then there is the clue collecting period which can often be just glimpses of everyone moving about the school and finding various blood spatter and evidence to the crime that happened. There's barely any time for you to figure out for yourself what happened or to figure out what clues there are before it is time to rush to the trial room to vote on the murderer. It's just too much to accomplish in the time of one episode and perhaps would have been better with more time or more episodes for the show. 

As I mentioned earlier too, the character do not get the screen time they need to make you feel invested in their deaths once they start to be taken out. It is interesting to see what has turned these young kids into murderers and their reasons behind it but then they're gone in a blink of an eye. Perhaps the most interesting part of the whole affair is the way in which they get taken out by Monokuma as each execution is tailored to the individual. Monokuma does do quite a bit to get them to try and hurt one another such as saying he'll spill their most intimate secrets or offering then ten billion yen as a reward upon graduation. He's quite the evil little bundle of hate and that's probably why I love him so much but the rest just don't get the time they need for me to feel sorry for what becomes of them in the execution or the fact they got taken out by their new friends. 

Danganronpa: The Animation really is a poor substitute for the game that it portrays in my mind as the game did a far better job of letting you be involved in the murder solving and feeling bad for your classmates who are dying around you. Monokuma is probably the best part to the show with his foul mouth humor and trickery, he easily steals the show, what little there was to steal anyway. Things do start of interesting and the premise did look promising but in the end, nothing pans out the way it should and you'll only want to watch it if you're a fan of the game it is based around.

Good:

- The characters are unique and interesting when you first meet them

- Monokuma is ridiculous, love the demented little bear

Bad:

- The story is incredibly fast paced 

- There is no time for you to become invested in the characters or their deaths

- There is also no time for you to try and solve the mystery yourself, clues are found incredibly fast and then it's off to the trial 

Scully Rating: 3.0 out of 10