#i think eden deserves to throw teruko

[cervidaecorpse]

Have some silly friends.

[teotalksaboutstuff]

Thoughts and Predictions for Danganronpa Despair Time

So I’ve been getting super into DR Despair Time of late, and I’ve decided to make a post outlining my thoughts thus far. Spoiler warning for all mainline Danganronpa games, both games of the Danganronpa Another series, and the Prologue and Chapter 1 of DRDT, as those were the only items completed at the time of posting this, with previews of Chapter 2 out. Bonus content for DRDT is also mentioned and spoiled in this brain-dump.

Thoughts So Far

I can’t say I actively dislike any of the characters, which is a good sign for things to come in my book. I will begin, thus, with my thoughts on them.

I am of course going to start with our protagonist, Teruko Tawaki, our Ultimate Lucky Student. I find her to be a nice subversion of the hopium protagonists we’ve had in the mainline games (especially Makoto), and even the Another series does have this to some degree (mostly with Utsuro though Sora does show these tendencies to a degree as well). I like how she is actively willing to distrust others and call them out on their hollow and hypocritical words after the trial. Considering they were willing to vote her dead without a second pause, she saved all their lives when none of them (except maybe Eden but we’ll get to her) deserved it, at least in her eyes. I am of the belief she is justified in how she acted, especially when Xander did try to kill her first. She is an innovative protagonist in my eyes, because she would have been the antagonist if Danganronpa Tradition (TM) had been stuck to. I am ever so glad that this one doesn’t with its protag, and I look forward to seeing her arc of what I believe will be re-learning to trust people.

Next up, speaking of the devil, is Xander himself. I find many similarities between him and Sayaka Maizono, mostly concerning their respective trials. They attach themselves to the protagonist relatively early on only to die first. Now, as most people who have seen DRDT have seen DR1, including myself, I can say I saw him dying first coming a mile away. What I did not see coming is that he would attempt to kill Teruko. While I did just say Teruko was justified in how she acted, I do not think it is completely fair to throw Xander under the bus here and call him a snake like some of the fandom do with Sayaka (and I don’t believe her to be a snake either, for anyone wondering. If anything, there are less logical arguments to call her one than Xander but we’re getting off topic). It is pretty much confirmed he was ordered to kill Teruko by an unrelated party, and I don’t think we’re going to find out who until the final trial or what they might have on him. I suspect it has something to do with the death of his parents as revealed in the bonus episode. That said, Xander’s actions are reasonable considering that important tidbit, and we’ve seen that he has a more emotional temperament. Thus, his emotions definitely pushed him to go ahead with the murder without the need for a MonoTV sanctioned motive. 

Now for his murderer, Ultimate Student Min Jeung. I didn’t really find much of note with her until just before the body discovery, and when the trial comes around, hooooly shit does her hypocrisy become fascinating. She’s clearly conflicted between wanting to live herself and wanting to save Teruko, though it’s implied they’ve got some Divine Luck-style force going on that compelled Min to do so. I don’t think she would have tried to help the victim, if Xander had been ordered to kill literally anyone else. Part of the appeal is how morally grey everything is, of course, and I would be remiss for saying she’s completely unsympathetic. She didn’t exactly want to murder Xander, she just happened upon the crime scene and realized she’d have to defend herself, and she did in a very inventive way that ultimately caused her downfall. 

I said I’d be getting to Ultimate Clockmaker Eden Tobisa in a minute, and that is because I believe she is going to fill the support role. I think her and Teruko especially bounce off of one another very well, and for her to be as much of a cinnamon roll as she looks makes for a fitting enough contrast. Teruko, through Eden, can learn that not everyone is a snake in the grass waiting to pounce on you when your guard is down, and she can likewise learn through Teruko that not everyone is a cinnamon roll like her and that she needs to doubt people sometimes in order to be able to solidify her trust in them. I think she’s going to either survive the whole thing or die near the end.

Moving on, we have our Ultimate Zither Player, Hu Jing. She has done a lot to keep the class as a united front throughout Chapter 1, and it feels as if she is keeping up the facade of a perfect person. Due to this, I think she’s going to end up being a culprit, possibly even the next culprit if my theory about her being a spin on the Kirumi Toujo archetype is proven true. If she is, I think it would be nice if she wasn’t hung as part of her execution, that trope for musically inclined talents within DR and its fan projects is quite tired.

We move now to J Moreno, the Ultimate Effects Artist. I am really liking her character so far, and her Free Time Event with Arei is especially doing her favors (I’ll discuss this when we get to Arei herself). Immediately she puts on display that people are putting on an image with how they appear to us, and the events of the game prove this initial statement thematically salient to the themes I believe the game is going for, that being those of Trust vs. Doubt. I say this because it is true that everyone puts on a mask for the public, and no one can truly know how someone feels, unless they trust someone else enough to let them know this. 

Next up is Veronika Grebenshchikova the Ultimate Horror Fanatic, and oh boy do I have things to say about her. Her DR references in the prologue are so blatantly obvious that I believe she is either the Mastermind or a herring as red as blood in that department. She mentions herself to be interested in the psychology behind why horror movies make us feel how they do, and it is for this reason I find her actions at the trial so interesting. I think that her excitement at Min’s culprit breakdown is especially notable, and almost gives off the vibe of Junko Enoshima. In fact, a lot about her is similar to Junko in design as well: her hair is not dissimilar to Junko’s, not to mention the eye hairclips that could possibly represent the audience watching the killing game. This does form a recipe for a compelling mastermind; it would show just how deep her fascination with human fear, terror, and horror goes and be a fascinating dive into someone willing to do anything to study these and possibly other emotions (i.e. Kokoro Mitsume if she had been the mastermind in SDRA2).

Next in line is David Chiem, the Ultimate Motivational Speaker. Xander stanning him is pretty funny, but there is some thematic salience to it as well, considering the both of them are concealing hidden depths that are revealed either almost immediately or much later on in Chapter 1. David doesn’t seem to like his talent much, evident with his mask slipping almost right off the bat when Xander leaves briefly. It falls off completely at the end of Chapter 1, which shouldn’t be too much of a surprise if we consider this in conjunction with what J said in her intro, and I do wonder where they’re going to go with his character after this, as it would seem wrong for him to die just yet.

Arturo Giles, the Ultimate Plastic Surgeon, is regrettably the character I would have to rank the lowest in terms of how much I like the characters, but there is some significance to what we’ve seen of him so far (which isn’t much because he thinks the entire cast is fugly and is literally only helping in the infirmary bc he’s the only one with medical training). I do see his idolization of celebrities specifically for their external appearances to point to the significant sub-themes of how beauty is perceived, and if true beauty exists at all. We can frame this as External Beauty vs. Internal Beauty, or perhaps Appearance vs. Character. The talk of us putting on masks for the public seems appropriate here, as Arturo literally wears a mask, plus what I’ve already mentioned with J and David. He is obviously masking his own insecurities about his face, and it would make sense for there to be a reveal of what exactly is under this mask at some point during the game. It would be especially thematically salient if this were to be a complete accident on his part, to see it literally slip and fall off his face, like what we saw in a more proverbial sense with David. Such is to say, when we take off our proverbial mask that we all put on, some might see the embodiment of beauty itself, or at least sublimity, but others might be repulsed by a vision so ugly it burns itself into their mind for the rest of their life.

Levi Fontana seems like the perfect foil to Arturo, largely as he seems to believe external beauty to be subjective. He is the Ultimate Personal Stylist, and it makes sense as he states, not in exact words admittedly, that his goals with this talent are to help people express their truest selves. He seems like the most ‘mask-off’ person there from the start, and he wants people to be able to let off their figurative masks, to show their internal beauty, by styling their external beauty in a way that does so. I do think there is significance in him being the one to attack MonoTV, as well as his attitude towards Ace. It shows that he is unafraid to express the parts of himself that others would deem ugly, and does so shamelessly without much regard for the consequences until after he’s already done it. He’s probably going to die in the mid-to-late game considering he’s the buffest person here.

-Speaking of Ace, we move on to Ace Markey, our Ultimate Jockey. He also seems very mask off, though it isn’t completely willing as he is simply scared of everything. And I do mean everything. Like, I wonder what the hell happened to him that made him like this. Perhaps we’ll get backstory on this later, perhaps not. I think he’ll make it to at least Chapter 5, if not survive the whole thing, as he hopefully learns to steel himself somewhat. It would make for a nice character arc.

Next in line is Whit Young, Ultimate I Love You, You Little Shit Matchmaker, and by far my favorite character so far. There’s admittedly more thematically significant characters than him, but I think he’s funny and I love him. Actually his relationship with Charles is probably going to be important later, considering that he knew significant information about him that did ultimately clear him of the crime, namely his traumatic experiences with gory death scenes like Xander’s. Also, he genuinely seems to have good intentions as a comic relief, meaning as much as he seems to be Kokichi Ouma with pastel colors at first, I find Whit infinitely better due to him immediately establishing compelling relationships with the rest of the cast. I’m deluding myself into thinking that he will survive.

Speaking of Charles, our Ultimate Chemist is next, and I have a feeling he’s going to die next, as unless the murder directly involves chemicals or a lack of bloody external injuries, he’s basically useless in trials. It also doesn’t help that he’s already had a ton of screentime with Teruko being his investigative partner in Chapter 1. Even if it fits, it would be a shame for him to die here as his relationship with Whit does have some significance in connection to the theme. It is Whit that must have helped him take the mask off at some point, or it was forced off him in little pieces when he found the body and Whit was the first to put the pieces together. 

We finally get to Ultimate Bowler Arei Nageishi, meaning I now get to talk about her bonus content. She is definitely a textbook Hiyoko Saionji kinnie, though I quite like the angle they took with her especially concerning her relationship with J. This could correlate to the subthemes of beauty through the lens of femininity, namely in how J and Arei choose to express theirs. Arei leans towards the more traditionally and stereotypically feminine down to being the Queen Bee stereotype during her high school years by her own admission, and J prefers to present herself decidedly less so expressly because she has had a bad experience with traditional femininity. This speaks to the subjectivity of femininity, as J is no less feminine than Arei for presenting how she does, and Arei is no more feminine than J for her own experiences with her gender. Both are happy with their self expression, and that is what matters to themselves. They see their own internal beauty differently, and choose to express it in a way that suits their identities.

Nico Hakobyan, Ultimate Pet Therapist also hasn’t done much of note. Which is fair enough, as he is quite the shrinking violet and prefers to keep to the back. I do like him though, as I have quite the soft spot for catboys, even if he isn’t actually a full-blown catboy.

Last but certainly not least, Ultimate Art Forger Rose Lacroix is interesting, and I really hope she survives. It makes sense, however, that someone with her kind of info would die. She clearly had knowledge that most times we only find out at the end and was willing to reveal it off the bat, such as the class being sealed away for years before the events of DRDT. This makes me wonder what she’s going to do to fight the mastermind, assuming she does choose to do this. Alternatively, she is a traitor or maybe even the Mastermind herself. This could also make sense as DRDT is a fanganronpa and she is making a copy of Danganronpa, a sort of art she loves.  

Predictions

Here is how I predict the death order to go, assuming a traditional Danganronpa structure is followed

Chapter 1 Victim: Xander Matthews

Chapter 1 Culprit: Min Jeung

Chapter 2 Victim: Charles Cuevas

Chapter 2 Culprit: Hu Jing

Chapter 3 Victims: Arei Nageishi

Chapter 3 Culprit: Arturo Giles

Chapter 4 Victim: Levi Fontana

Chapter 4 Culprit: Whit Young

Chapter 5 Victim: David Chiem

Chapter 5 Culprit: Eden Tobisa

Chapter 6 Victim: Rose Lacroix

Mastermind: Veronika Grebenshchikova

Survivors: Teruko Tawaki, Ace Markey, J Moreno, Niko Hakobyan