Danganronpa: The Animation is the anime adaptation of the visual novel game, Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc. It's the first game in the franchise and it became so popular that it spawned more video games, manga adaptations, novels and of course an anime series. There might be a few spoilers scattered in this post regarding the plot so if you plan on watching the anime, you may want to skip and read something else. There won't be any big spoilers though so you might not need to worry much.
So what's the anime about? It's about a young boy named Makoto Naegi, along with 14 other students, who were trapped in the building of Hope's Peak Academy, an elite academy which only accepts talented students. All the doors and windows were closed and locked, the facilities were run with an enclosed self-sustainable system, security cameras were everywhere watching them, and they were monitored by a mysterious someone who controlled a stuffed teddy bear named Monokuma who also acted as their school's principal. All students who were trapped were to live in the facility forever and if they want to get out from there, all they have to do is to kill another student BUT they cannot be caught doing it. A trial will be held when someone is killed and if the killer is caught, then he/she will be punished, or should I say executed. If the killer got away with the murder and someone else was blamed for his/her action, then the killer will be released from the facility and the other students who will be executed instead. It's a weird (but definitely fascinating!) premise.
Personally, I really like the story of Danganronpa a lot. It's not entirely unique but it still feel fresh and inventive. There are some really great moments in the anime, with great suspense and character development, and also with some beautifully executed twists. Talking about character development, I was surprised to see that there are some really good character development even to some of the deceased students. It makes me care about the characters and rooting for them to survive, and I would feel bad for those unlucky ones who aren't. The character designs are excellent too. There was a lot of characters to remember and the unique design for each of the characters really help me to tell them apart, and they all look great as well.
The anime does like to take short-cut in telling the story though; like making some characters missing at the end of an episode, and then in the next episode the characters were shown already present with the rest of the characters and they just simply stated that they had met with the previously-missing-characters in a room or something, instead of actually showing when they actually meet them. It was just a minor detail and might not even do much to derail the flow of the story but it did annoyed me a bit.
The revealing of the real villain at the end of the second-to-last episode was truly great, I really like that a lot. It build suspense to the final episode and made me eager to find out more on the real motives and how it will all come to an end. Unfortunately, I was kind of disappointed in the final episode, especially regarding how the real villain was portrayed. I understand the anime does has its light moment despite having the characters being in this dire situation, but the villain was too comical and not what I expected him/her to be, so I was a little bit let down by that. However, I really like the twists at the end, and despite my complaints earlier, I still think the main villain is a good character; his/her reasons were clear and he/she was quite cunning too. Interesting villain indeed.
I really like this anime, I think it's awesome. The visuals were great, the story was good, and there are a lot of interesting characters. I was glad some of the characters I was rooting for survived by the end of this anime series. It's not a long anime, it only has 13 episodes, so it won't take much of your time. If you are looking for some show to watch to pass some time, you might want to consider Danganronpa: The Animation as it is truly a good watch.
Images are snapshots from the main official website.
No comments:
Post a Comment