#Monokuma theater

[gemstone-gynoid]

"If fate does exist... Does that mean your future is decided the moment you're born? If all your yesterdays pile up to create your tomorrow... Is your future as final as your past? I just don't know. That's why I'm still alive-because I don't know. That's why I desperately cling to life!" - Monokuma theater in danganronpa 1, sometime chapter 2.

This does line up with Junko's personality. Junko's despair is due to her analytical ability to perfectly predict how events will play out. so this sense of unshaking fate affected her life. which is why she wanted to shake the world up. a new world of violence and cruelty would be less predictable than a normal world of, rules and society.

[luckcycler]

Done!!!

[aparticularbandit]

listening/half paying attention to lucah and protonjon's banjo-kazooie play-through, and this happens:

evil snowman throws a snowball.

lucah: that's the sound monokuma makes when he shows up. rrr-raow.

me: ...you're right, you're absolutely right, that IS the monokuma sound.

and now i'm like. junko did you play banjo-kazooie. did you rip off banjo-kazooie sound effects for monokuma. is this why he has so many of those jokes.

[funishment-time]

knowing that Junko is just directly controlling and speaking thru Monokuma in DR1 makes so many scenes 1000x funnier.

like that one scene where Makoto has to distract him while Kyoko fiddles with the Headmaster's Office. that whole "did you really fucking call me over to ask me about this" thing. you know Makoto woke up Junko from a nap or from prepping her next Inexplicable Monokuma Theater puppet show. you know they probably could have just annoyed Monokuma enough that Junko let them all go for keeping her awake all the time with dumbfuck questions

[theamityelf]

Despair Disease Makoto, minutes after evading a murder attempt from Mikan, is just crashing at the movie theater, physically exhausted, extremely sweaty, with labored breathing. Draped across two audience seats, watching The Wizard of Monomi loop infinitely and occasionally letting out a pained cry of "This movie sucks!"

(If Mikan found him here, he could do pretty much nothing about it. He'd try, but he really wore himself out getting here, and he wasn't doing great in the first place.)

Monokuma pops up, like, "Puhuhu! I knew you couldn't get enough of my cinematic brilliance, but isn't this taking it a little far?"

"Hey, Monokuma?" Makoto replies, between heavy breaths. "Do you think you'll ever be annoying enough to make up for how uninteresting you are?"

"I'd be heartbroken if I didn't know it was the Defeatist Disease talking. Say, out of curiosity, what if I told you that one of your friends on this very island is dying right now, and there's nothing you can do to save them?"

"I'd say killing games are stupid and you need to get a life."

"Get a life, huh? If you only knew how ironic it is for you to tell me that, of all things."

Makoto ignores him and just starts reciting the narration in time with the movie, since he's memorized it by now. Partially as a bit and partially because it is really hard to breathe and Defeatist Disease dictates he make it harder.

[afterlife-theater]

Welcome To The Theater!

As you stepped through the door to... wherever you were headed initially, you were shocked to find that the door didn't open to what you had expected. Instead, it opened to a theater filled with people, gazing at a screen. No one spoke or said anything, until one of them took notice of the light the open door brought to the theater, and turned her head swiftly to you.

"Eh? Who the fuck are you?"

Upon further inspection, all of these people looked... horribly mangled. Part of one boy's skull was caved in, while another girl had ligature marks around her throat, deathly pale skin, and white, soulless eyes. Another boy was dripping with water, while a girl had cuts all over her and her body was mangled horribly. Two girls had slit throats, while another boy had severe burns all over his body, even behind the mask he wore. A girl had the same white eyes as one of the former, but aside from that, nothing else could be seen, while one boy had a large hole through his abdomen and several burn wounds. One boy looked absolutely awful, like he had been dragged out of a morgue, and his body was mangled beyond recognition as even a human being, while another had blood dripping down his chin. One girl looked similar to the boy who was barely recognizable, while the last person, a robotic-looking boy, looked... singed, for lack of a better term. They all turned their heads to look at you curiously.

"Ehhh? I don't remember seeing this one in the Killing Game. Nishishishi~! Silly Kami-Sama! Sending the wrong person here!"

He nudged his elbow against another girl, who looked delighted at his words.

"Nyahahahaha~? Have you begun to take an interest in Kami-Sama?"

This girl tilts her head, and then spreads her arms open wide, standing with a wide smile as she approaches you.

"Welcome to the Afterlife Theater! Kami-Sama has sent you here to us, I am sure! Praise be to Kami-Sama!"

"Um, I'm not sure they're dead to begin with."

The boy waved to you, beckoning you to join them.

"Don't be shy, we don't mind another person joining. Akamatsu can get more popcorn and we can all watch together. Not like we can leave anytime soon, after all."

What do you say?

(( Feel free to ignore, interact if not tagged, or ask for your tag to be removed! Mods that play Kokichi or Kotoko on any blog in any capacity, please DNI!! ))

@p0m3gr4n1t3-s33ds @human-monokuma @i-spy-with-my-lethal-eye @thetiredanimator @photographic-misery @iroha-painter-missing and anyone else!! ^^

[princescar]

This is literally the Monokuma Theaters

[catgirl-catboy]

Mastermind Whit Essay

Okay, I'm really unsure of how to begin this post. I know most people in the DRDT fandom suspect Teruko as the mastermind due to her secret, but are we perhaps playing right into the masterminds hands?

I feel like if Teruko was genuinely the mastermind, she wouldn't give David of all people a note confirming she is. Due to how misleading the secrets have been with other people, it makes far more sense to read this as a frame by the true mastermind.

Maybe Teruko would deliberately make herself suspicious if it were chapter 5 or 6, but in chapter 2??? I'm not buying it.

I feel like this red herring of Teruko is hiding another, far more suspicious character.

Before we get into our theory, the mastermind should match up with the killing game's mascot.

Monokuma and Junko are the obvious pair, since Junko herself chooses to look like Monokuma. There are also hints in Monokuma theater about her true identity.

Monomi and Izuru also have some parallels, especially since Usami's transformation into Monomi could be considered a nod to Hajime's transformation into Izuru.

Monokubs are cheap ripoffs of Monokuma. Tsumugi is a cheap ripoff of Junko.

This trend also tends to apply to fangans, but I'd rather not spoil any for you.

So what does Monotv say about our mysterious mastermind? Monotv's personality tends to focus on one thing: ratings. He will also fake ineptitude on occasion to make things more interesting.

What if I told you that there was a DRDT character whose every action happens to increase ratings?

That's right, ladies and gentlemen (and Nico!), I'm talking about Whit.

Whit is one of the few characters we see before we get an introduction for him. And what do we see him doing? Turning Hu against the group.

Hu is one of the few characters that isn't willing to trust the group with her secret in chapter 2, and this could very well be because of the bad first impression Whit helped make. This has a side effect of having her emotionally dependent on David by trial 2, which I'm positive will have bad results when the hiatus ends.

When we get to his introduction proper, he spends most of it trying to force Teruko and Xander closer together. This isn't his only notable interaction with Teruko either, since he's the only one that prods her to talk about her past pre-trial 1.

It's hard to say for certain about Whit's intentions, but most of his actions appear to have negative concequences later on in the game.

When it comes to Whit, he claims most of his actions are guided by his intuition, like Sayaka before him.

But when you look at things from an objective point of view, his intuition might not hold up. This is the person that hid David's secret from the class for as long as practical.

Why?

In-universe, Whit claims its to help David's career.

But if you look at it closely, does this claim make any sense? This killing game is televised, so it'd be reasonable to suspect that the in-universe DRDT audience knows all the secrets before the characters do.

Besides, how good can Whit's intuition be if he believed in the good of someone as suspicious as David.

So, if Whit's stated motive for keeping that secret doesn't hold up (to me.), what would? Why, MonoTV's motive! Everything Whit does intentionally or unintentionally ups ratings.

Teruko distrusting and being isolated from the group? Is good for ratings.

(Whit didn't bring her back into the group like he did with Charles, which reads as OOC behavior to me. But do you know who canonically doesn't want Teruko talking with the group? MonoTV.)

Hu and David getting close and having a falling out? Is good for ratings.

You could even argue his relationship with Charles is good for ratings.

Speaking of David, I find it interesting that Whit used the same tactic as David to avoid sharing his secret, but did it better.

Unlike David, Whit dropped multiple possible secrets, and admitted the possibility that it could be none of them upfront. This makes him dodge the suspicion David got when his stated secret wasn't on the list.

Whit's secret wasn't even given much attention in the trial itself.

I also feel like Whit's secret was worded a lot more plainly than most of the other secrets. Compare "your mother is dead, you always omit that truth" to "Your older brother died, but you don't remember him at all." or "Your younger sister killed herself because of you. You should have never left."

It could just be because the secret isn't plot-relevant this chapter, or it could be because Whit's secret isn't what it seems.

Another thing, Whit is pretty strange around corpses. He made a dark joke about Min's execution, and under reacts to every corpse in the game so far. Many people think this has something to do with his mom, but I have one question for those people. Would that really explain why he's worse than Veronika, who canonically enjoys the game?

This concludes the main part of my analysis, but here are some details that could be questionable with Mastermind!Whit in mind. (Or maybe I just think everything he does is suspicious, who knows!)

In chapter 1, he deliberately threw the arm wrestling contest to Teruko. Could be hiding his true strength?

He chooses NOT to break up fights that were going nowhere. This seems contrary to what an ideal matchmaker should do in this context.

His name. Whit is one letter away from Wit, meaning intelligence. That could be an example of some very clever foreshadowing. But... its a reach.

He was one of the 3 to get redesigns, along with the protagonist. However, he got specific attention done to his eyes. Every Mastermind in canon does something cool to their eyes upon the reveal.

Out of all of the canon Danganronpa characters, Whits talent is the closest to Toko's. Charwit could be an inversion of Togafuwa, with feelings being one-sided on Toko's (Whit's) end this time.

[friendlylifecherry]

Kiyotaka Week Day 3: AU. Mastermind Ishimaru AU. Unedited, mostly

@mini-mecha-cowboy

It's rather late in the night and Taka is doing the old, familiar dance of speaking to Izuru inside of his dorm room. It's just that this time, it's through one of the Monokumas instead of with the communicator.

"I really have to say, Kamukura-kun, this was an excellent first day as Monokuma. I'm quite proud of your performance! I was actually pretty worried when you didn't want me to know what you were going to do for Monokuma, but your performance was actually very well-actuated! I’m very proud of you, Kamukura-kun!” Taka says as he changes into his sleep clothes.

Izuru rolls his eyes behind the monitors, mostly focused on putting together the assets for the first Monokuma theater. He knows that Taka is proud of him, it’s nothing at all new for anything that Izuru does. It’s not like Izuru has to bother putting on the act here.

“It’s nothing. So, what do you expect will happen next?” Izuru says as Taka brushes his hair and teeth.

Taka spits out the toothpaste after he’s done thoroughly scrubbing his mouth. “Considering that I know the others quite well, I doubt they will start any sort of murder anytime soon. But this first murder does have to happen within the week.” After all, the news cycle already has a million other things to focus on outside of updates about these children trapped inside of a school with a murderous robot bear, even with a 24-hour live feed. If he wants to keep the attention of the media, he better have it clear that this is not some sick joke by a cultist but the real deal.

Izuru nods as he integrates the background music in the Monokuma Theater. “Motive or do we force the issue?”

Taka weighs his options. Just forcing the issue through some form of blackmail would be easy, but it wouldn’t send the message that he wants to send. No need to make a point about inherent human desperation when the first deaths happened because it was literally forced onto them. On the other hand, someone does have to be dead by the end of the week, and if they wait around, they may genuinely be waiting forever. And Izuru sure is not going to wait forever for his promised entertainment.

“How about this? If a murder doesn’t happen within the next 3 days, you can use one of the motives. If someone doesn’t get murdered after that, then we can start forcing the issue! Would that be acceptable?” Taka asks as he makes his nightly final rounds before he heads to bed.

“Can do!” Monokuma cheerily salutes Taka. Izuru’s working with the audio equipment. You have to make sure that the voice sounds the same in the Theater as it does in the live feed, or at least similar enough. “So, who do you want to bring in for plan B? Maybe your favorite thug?”

Taka turns bright red and chastizes Monokuma. “Mondo is not a thug!”

“So you’re *not* denying that he’s your favorite? I thought that you were supposed to be “impartial and fair”, Ishimaru-kun?” Ugh, Taka can already feel his face get redder and the headache start growing. Why does he even bother with these arguments? He never wins them anyway. Monokuma continues as if Taka didn’t interrupt him. “How about Oogami? She’s big and strong, and pretty much would have to listen to whatever we say if it has something to with our hostages.”

“Oogami-kun is a good choice, but I doubt that the dojo would be good enough collateral.” A centuries-old family dojo is all well and good, incredibly important, and almost a holy ground for Sakura. But the fact that it was burned down in an arsonist’s blaze (unrelated to the Ultimate Despair) about 6 months ago and all the members have been scattered to the winds in the refugee crisis is a bit of a snag on the effectiveness.

“Not that run-down old dojo, dummy! I meant her little boyfriend. Well, little compared to her right now, anyhow.” That actually draws Taka’s attention from organizing his papers.

“I thought that Kenshiro-kun was terminally ill with a severe cancer diagnosis?” Frankly, with the collapse of medical services, he should’ve died a while ago.

“Nope! He’s still kicking somehow! Ain’t the world’s strongest man for nothing, the weirdo! Gwahahahahaha!” Monokuma laughs at his hilarious “joke”. “He’s actually the one we got in custody right now!”

Well, that certainly makes things much easier for everyone. Provable collateral and if there’s anything about Sakura that he knows, she would do literally anything to protect her loved ones. Even kill or die for them.

“Well, that’s perfect! You can contact her as soon as possible, correct? Maybe make some implications that we can keep him alive as well, to really sell it.” Taka wants this to be locked down by the time that he wakes up, after all. "And after that, please get some sleep! A healthy mind and body start with proper rest!"

"Fine, fine. I gotta go now, since she's just done meditating. Buh-bye!" And with that, Monokuma disappears again.

The light on the camera in his dorm room comes back on, Izuru must be focused somewhere else and done with the conversation for the night. Well now, it’s off to dreamland for Taka! He would be a hypocrite if he didn't get his rest now! And with that, he shuts off the lights and drifts off to sleep.

[xgradiant]

so I've currently been working on a very big ishimondo fic, which happens to be a rewrite of one that got a fair amount of attention on ao3 (you can find it here). I'm extremely proud of it, and although I've been tracking my progress (including published excerpts!) on an author's note on the linked work, I wanted to try and generate a small prospective audience here as well!

I'm also more than willing to unofficially share my work with y'all on a Google Doc, so if you decide that this might be up your alley, go ahead and check it out! it's completely canon compliant, though the last two "acts" happen parallel to canon and are where the most creative liberties are taken. but I've always favored pieces that could've actually happened--especially when canon is just a big slap in the face.

at the time of this post, I've completed two chapters and am currently working simultaneously on another two. three chapters have excerpts, which will be included in this post; as I complete more, additional excerpts will be posted as reblogs. and if this post gets enough attention (which tbh I strongly doubt but it's okay), I'll also reblog whenever I hit a milestone and wanna notify y'all about it. each reblog will also have the current word count, just for kicks.

so, without further ado, here's my sneak peek!

title: at the edge of hell

current word count: 36.5k

summary:

"There at the edge of hell...a promise between men was waiting for me. Never saw it comin'."

A story in nine acts: six you've seen, two behind the scenes, and one you've always been waiting for.

The tragedy, the romance, and the cautionary tale of two men, told and untold, in which the wall dividing the black and white sides of morality is irrevocably breached.

This is what happened after the biker broke the computer.

chapters:

ACT I: the blackened.

ACT II: the investigation.

Interlude I: Monokuma Theater

ACT III: the trial.

ACT IV: the execution.

Interlude II: Exclusive Interview w/ Enoshima

ACT V: the reunion.

ACT VI: the spotless.

Epilogue: A Glooming Peace

EXCERPTS BELOW THE CUT

ACT I.

Taka stares at him through the darkness. He’s confused. “Mondo?” he whispers. “What’s wrong?”

...

But now a different voice cuts in. One he doesn’t recognize, one that doesn’t sound like any of the voices that have whispered to him tonight. Almost gleefully, it says, But one of you will die, Owada. You’ll never have this chance again.

His muscles tense. He didn’t need to remember that. Oh, God, how desperately he wanted to forget that. He blinks the tears away from his eyes, willing them to not fall, and between blinks, it’s like Taka switches from himself to a ghoulish form. Like he’s dying before Mondo’s eyes. And the growing concern on his face, the anxiety, seals Mondo’s fate, for better or for worse.

“Nothing,” he says, his tone raspy and distant and wrong in a way that only he could recognize. “You really want this?”

Taka’s entire body seems to activate at the invitation. The concern disappears in a flash as his face morphs into something else entirely, something that only Mondo has ever seen. Taka moves towards him, balancing on his hands and knees, and backs the biker against the headboard. “Yes,” he breathes.

Mondo grabs his face and looks him square in the eye. Pleading with him. Pleading with his soul. Hoping that in the words that will never be enough, Taka understands what he needs, what he’ll always need.

“Then touch me, Taka,” Mondo says shakily. “Touch me like our goddamn lives depend on it.”

ACT II.

“Do you know?” he asks with a gravelly tone.

Taka’s lips become a thin line on his face. He glances towards Mondo’s hand on his cheek; Mondo briefly wonders if Taka will try and remove it. The smaller man squirms, visibly upset, and avoids Mondo’s gaze as he says, “Know? Know what?”

Mondo’s eyes widen. So we’re both lying to each other. He suppresses the urge to swear at Taka, the way that the old Mondo would. “The killer, Taka,” he whispers. “That’s why you’re so scared. Ya figured it out, didn’t you?”

The electricity that crackles between them is so thick that Mondo can physically feel it coursing through their bodies in a dangerous circuit. There is no grounding it, no escaping its vicious cycle. But as much as it hurts him, he cannot tear his eyes away from Taka’s--they’re so big, and red, and scared. They glitter with tears, and when one droplet falls onto the back of Mondo’s hand, it burns like acid.

He doesn’t know which one of them will break first. They face each other, breathing harder and harder because the heat of their bodies is sucking all of the oxygen out of the hallway. Mondo yearns for the darkness that muffled their emotions last night. He prays that the energy between them will cause a sudden blackout so that he does not have to read the words scrawled behind Taka’s eyes. The gravity they generate draws them in like magnets, and between heartbeats, Mondo finds that their foreheads have pressed together. They are so close to a kiss, and yet Taka’s heart feels a million miles away from his.

“I don’t know,” Taka says tightly.

The corners of Mondo’s lips quirk into a dry smile. “I kinda don’t believe you.”

ACT III.

Out of the corner of his eye, Mondo can see some struggle fading over Taka’s face, and his twitching mouth suggests that he wants to say something. As the group nears the stairs, he finally asks, “Do you think Byakuya really didn’t do it? Or Genocide Jill?”

Mondo stiffens. He actually sees stars for a second as an indescribably terrible emotion threatens to overwhelm him. His mind fills with awful, awful thoughts, every single one of them aimed right at the heart of the man at his side. His vision flickers, and suddenly, he is not walking through the hallway. He is in the locker room, a dumbbell in hand, lost in a fog of red. His echoey voice is not his own.

“Are you...making fun of me?”

It’s a horrible experience. He has no control over his mind or his body. He turns towards the person beside him, whose face he cannot make out in the haze. Something is pulling at him, like a puppet master manipulating the barbed strings. Reality trembles as it suddenly cleaves in two, leaving Mondo with one foot in one moment and one in the other. In one reality, the strings around his right wrist tug upwards; in the other, a string around his jaw tugs his mouth open. And he can tell that in the second reality, he is about to say something completely unforgivable, something that not even Taka could overlook. He can taste the venom right at the tip of his tongue. He wants to spit it out.

Then something else closes around his right hand. Another hand, two hands, clasping around his fist and gingerly bringing it back to rest against his thigh. There’s a violent sensation of a vacuum all around him. The world spins and sharpens as it is redrawn by the slender fingers that brush over the callouses on Mondo’s hand, beckoning him back, anchoring him once again. And then, there he is, standing on the tile, staring wide-eyed at Taka, who will not die today. Taka, whom Mondo could never hurt. Taka, who could save a life with nothing more than a touch.

“Why on earth would I ever make fun of you?” he says softly.

[tobiasdrake]

*deep breath* And then it begins to fall apart. After all that intricate setup and dramatic tension and an intriguing murder, it all goes to shit with one... initially interesting suggestion that catastrophically ruins the intrigue of this case. And yet, is only the tip of the iceberg for how obnoxious this is going to get.

This is a fascinating idea. The Danganronpa universe is on so much high-octane bullshit that there's no reason we couldn't call back a ghost if we had the right Talent. Shit, Komaru can chat up ghosts and she's an unspecial nobody.

Actually bringing back the spirit of a murder victim to testify to what happened to them is such a cool idea. Especially if they don't know. Angie was killed by a stab to the back of the neck. She has no idea who her killer is. But what an amazing clue her testimony could be, right!?

Much like using the Necronomicon to resurrect a dead character (via recasting), this is so fucking cool.

Too bad we aren't fucking going to do either of those things. Instead, we get this.

...so we're all agreed it's Kiyo, right?

"Oh whoops, the elaborate mechanism that only I understand, that I insisted on doing, and that I've been weird about since the start of the game, somehow caused a murder!? Who could be responsible for such a thing?"

It's Kiyo. It's so obviously fucking Kiyo that the only reason it wouldn't be Kiyo is because it's too obvious. He's in the same boat as Himiko during her magic show piranha murder. Except he did do it so. That's it. Case closed. Tension dead. The next several hours will be a complete waste of everyone's fucking time because there is no mystery left to have.

This is 11037 dialed up to 11. They might as well have just showed us a splash image of Kiyo driving the knife into Angie's neck during Monokuma Theater.

You want the seance murder to land? Make Kiyo the victim. We do the seance and we talk to what we think is Angie. Then Kiyo's dead when the lights come back on. Someone killed Kiyo to stop the seance from succeeding and revealing their identity. That would be interesting.

But this? This just feels like Kodaka gave up midway through the plot and just started knifing characters so we can get this over with.

[aparticularbandit]

"Cited Works: Danganronpa/Zero."

GAME.

WHAT IS THIS.

[dangakkisland]

Dangaronpa Portuguese Translation Chapter 4

Firstly I wanted to show off my amazing spelling skills for a second, this gambit was never a struggle for me (I struggle with the comic part) I'll get the fun parts out of the way:

''Casca de bala'' Or candy wrapper is synonymous for best friend at the moment, the reason is: A song I believe that I don't know the name off..Mom is more aware of the internet than me

I literally took business/economics classes in high school (Forced). I can't believe I didn't know what day trading was. I mean, at least I know all the bank names, the best way to do insurance, and the best way to pay taxes. Where is the knowledge when I need it?

Who taught this bear how to fucking laugh (He said more curses in this trial compared to any other character in the game: he did it 7 times in only one chapter) Additionally: Makoto got his..''Little title'' little Makoto ''Makotinho'' by Shou..So tiny.. He got called tiny..I'm on ''Makotinho'''s team forever Portuguese class of today: If you want to know it is pronounced more like Makoti (Normal) Nho is like ''Nyo''

''This isn't a work of Machado de Assis, this makes so much more sense!'' I'm so glad I am not the only one that thinks his books (Machado de Assis) are so damn complicated and they put this at reading class (Forced) and it was like 200 pages or so long and it was for 3 weeks and you had to study all its conflicts and how it related to relationships, geography and sociology and then you had to do a theater about it and the book did not make any sort of sense...

(The last one is called the Fortune Teller...Makes sense for Yasuhiro)

Shou speaks spanish For the class trial, there wasn't much else I believe they were trying to take this more seriously because you know...Sakura died and they avoided every joke possible, the class trial was easy, and the mood was so tense you could cut with scissors, Monokuma or let's say Junko are a bitch really, I do have some sympathy for her to some extent (Puttind DR 0 into account and that I have to re-read it) this chapter is tough to forgive after all Monokuma and Junko aren't really separate entities I wanted to add that my friend really hates Junko because of this chapter, I was drawing when she was watching the chapter go on and I just heard her anger screams (True despair for sure)

TEAM ROCKET REFERENCE!!!

I really like James voice in portuguese I always believed that in English he sounded like cosmo from the Fairly oddparents

Obrigatory pause for Mukuro Ikusaba:

''Mukuro Ikusaba''

''huh?''

Kyouko whispered in my ear

''Mukuro Ikusaba''

''The sixteenth student hidden somewhere in this school''

''The girl refered as the Supreme level despair''

*Gandalf voice* ''Be watchful of Mukuro Ikusaba...''

''I mean... be wary of Mukuro Ikusaba''

this post is quite all over the place because what best way to describe my experience..

[nite-puff]

Anyway, on to more positive things/general observations. I love how the different renditions of "Punishment Time" have these different musical flairs based on who was getting executed (Leon's starts with the baseball charge and has an ragtime feel reminiscent of music from the same time as the golden age of the sport (tho really that's more Monokuma's classic theater influences than anything), Mondo's is very rock n' roll (plain rock at first but gets more vintage towards the end), Celestia's with the grand harpsichord, Alter Ego's having this beeping and booping that reminds me of a telegraph, and Junko's takes elements from all of them). Also, "Soundproof" should have been in the main body of the album along with "Flunkin' Thrice" and "Deep End" instead of being bonus tracks, they're all very good and I feel like they would help break up the breakneck pace a little bit. Also, can we talk about the bit in "You Don't Know" where Taka and Celeste harmonize when calling the people they end up closest to in the game stupid??? Like there's Some Kind of Parallel being drawn there but idk what, especially since they changed Hifumi to a girl in-text, so now both pairs also have homoerotic tension. Also, girl Hifumi! 👏👏👏👏

Yes!!! To all of this!!!

I love all of the “Punishment Time” renditions, and the idea that Junko’s is a mashup of all of the past musical flairs is a really good way to reflect how her execution is a mashup of all the previous ones. Good musical storytelling! And I at first didn’t catch what the music in Mondo’s was referencing (because Leon, Celeste, and Alter Ego’s are a little more obvious), but when I noticed it’s supposed to be classic rock, I just got really happy for some reason. Like yeah, classic 50-60’s American bikers are what Mondo’s subculture is inspired by, so that kind of music would be super fitting. That’s such a neat detail that I really appreciate!

And yes, “Soundproof”, “Flunkin’ Thrice”, and “Deep End” should’ve been in the actual story (though I guess “Deep End” sort of is, since the beginning is part of “My Sacrifice” and henceforth sort of becomes Aoi’s motif for the rest of the show). Because Hiro, Sayaka, and Leon don’t get a lot of music moments outside of those tracks. I was trying to think that maybe all of the bonus tracks could be part of the show, but “Happen” could probably slow down the pacing a little too much, and “Powermore,” while not completely out-of-line with the rest of the songs, is very similar to some other tracks. It’d just be more of the same type of “we need to have hope” songs, so I kind of get why they didn’t include it. And “Hifumi for Christmas”… is just “Hifumi for Christmas” and really deserves its placement as a bonus track. But the other three could really serve as breathers between everything else. (And isn’t it kinda effed up that Sayaka, the Ultimate Pop Sensation, and Leon, a wannabe music performer, don’t get their own song(s) featured in the main line-up??)

Also, Hifumi actually got genderswapped?? Like that’s canon to the musical??? I didn’t know that! Girl Hifumi for the win!!!!! So yeah “You Don’t Know” has a ton of homoerotic tension. And nice girlfriend moments with Aoi and Sakura asking Chihiro to join them for their workout.

[asaka-lucy-dr-rc]

What do you know about "Naraku" (奈落), and do you think that's where Yukizome-sensei's afterlife cinema is placed?

Wow, I never thought I would receive such an interesting question 😄 Actually, I love the word Naraku and the concept of it very much. Or rather, I love hell in Buddhist cosmology. It sounds kind of weird to say that I love hell, but I guess I know a little about it since the video game I talk a lot about on my main blog, Touhou Project, has a lot of stories and characters about hell.

Anyway, as for the question of whether I think the movie with Yukizome-sensei is set in Naraku, I don't think so. One of the reasons is that Naraku is generally not that kind of place, but more than that, I have a different interpretation. In my interpretation, that cinema is a world imagined (or predicted) by Junko, Izuru, or both. The reason I think this is influenced a lot by a certain fanfic I love, but canonically Junko and Izuru have the ability to predict the future, and probably both of them should be able to guess what someone else would say in a certain situation. So I think Yukizome-sensei in the movie theater is a predicted virtual image. It is not clear at what point she or he predicted it, but from the way Ryoko Otonashi uses her ability in Danganronpa Zero, it seems like it takes some time rather than an instant to predict (though it is still tremendously faster than most people), so I think they might have predicted this kind of future eventually, rather than predicting everything from the beginning of their lives.

Well, I only say that I think so when I force myself to interpret it in a certain way, so I expect that the canon is probably just vague, like somewhere where the time and place are unknown. (The Monokuma Theater is also completely unknown in terms of place and time.)

I haven't seen many discussions about where this theater is, so if anyone has an opinion, I'd like to know.🙂 Thanks for bringing up an interesting topic! 💖

[asktheahogesandblondes]

(PD) follow up question what are your thoughts on ai Junko and tsumugis monokuma theaters?

Junko:It's just repeating the same nonsense I spew out in these, but either in stand up comedy or random movie reference that gets replaced by a spin-off child for a bit.

Makoto:I'm sure you could uncover something about these as well.

Junko:And much like my previous answer, they're just nonsense and I'm sticking to it.