#plus!! you get to see the DR1 and 2 character being (mostly) alive and well in the end!! A++

[toastybugguy]

dude why did ppl hate The End of Hope’s Peak High School sm

[creepercraftguy]

I decided I wanted to try one of those DR Ask meme’s, but I decided to do it a little differently and I’m just gonna answer all the questions.

This one is made by @muzumi-san but I didn’t repost theirs because I don’t want them to directly see my shitty opinions.

1. Favourite game?

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair. It just had the best characters, best plot twists and best trials in my opinion.

2. Favourite Protagonist?

It depends. If it’s in terms of writing, Shuichi. Otherwise, it’s either Hajime, or Kaede.

3. Favourite antagonistic character?

Kokichi is my favorite in general of the three, but as an antagonist, I like Nagito more.

4. Favourite character?

Kokichi Ouma. I know, he’s a fan favorite and you’re probably sick of hearing him get talked about, but dude, he’s just great.

5. Best girl?

Mahiru Koizumi.

6. Best boy?

Gonta Gokuhara or Gundham Tanaka.

7. Favourite class trial from all the games?

For Game 1, it’s Case 2. I love the twists and use of the Red Herring aspect in regards to the locker room. For Game 2, Case 4 is my favourite, but Case 5 is the better one in terms of mystery. For Game 3, Case 4. The fact you have to rely on video game logic to solve the case is really neat.

8. Least favourite character?

Without a doubt, Yasuhiro Hagakure, for several reasons that I’ve stated previously.

9. Least favourite class trial?

Game 3, Case 3. That whole case was just bullshit after Bullshit.

10. What would be your Ultimate Title?

Ultimate Animator, like Mitarai, but you know...Better.

11. Favourite cast?

As I’ve already mentioned, Danganronpa 2. My least favorite member of that cast is Akane, but even her, and the more disliked characters like Teruteru and Hiyoko, I love all of them. They’re all great.

12. Favourite Danganronpa 3 character?

Seiko Kimura. She’s such a fun character who I think deserved better.

13. What’s your opinion on the Danganronpa 3 anime?

I fucking hate it. The only episodes of it that I actually consider to be good, are the first two episodes of Despair Arc, and the final episode. The characters and cast genuinely piss me off half the time, especially Juzo, Munakata and Ruruka, and the writing was just generally shit throughout the entire thing.

14. What do you think about Danganonpa 1 anime?

I actually think it’s alright. Video Game anime’s tend to not be as good as the games (unless it’s Persona 4′s animation, which was actually awesome) and the same goes for Danganronpa. The game is generally more enjoyable than the anime, but the anime wasn’t bad all things considered.

15. Your absolute OTP?

SAI-MAT-SU! SAI-MAT-SU! SHIP-THAT-GETS-SHIT-ON-TOO-MUCH! SAI-MAT-SU! SAI-MAT-SU!

16. Your absolute BROTP?

I guess Sakuraoi? I get why people ship them, but Sakura is one of the characters who canonically has a boyfriend, and I just think they make really good friends other than girlfriends. No disrespect for anyone who likes them together though.

17. Do you have an OT3? Which one?

I’m not crazy about my OT3′s, since they’re mostly two characters who are romantically involved, with a third wheel/wingman on the side, but yes, I do have at least one for each game. For the first game, it’s Chishimondo (Taka, Mondo and Chihiro) for the second game it’s Sonsoudam (Sonia, Gundham and Kazuichi) and the third game, it’s Tenhimiangie (Tenko, Himiko and Angie)

18. Favourite rare ship?

There’s a ship I like called Nagiseiko or Komamura, which is Nagito Komaeda x Seiko Kimura.

19. Who do you think is an underrated character?

There are quite a few, like Nekomaru and Mahiru for instance, but I absolutely have to say Mondo. He has arguably some of the best characterization among the DR1 cast, and he’s my favorite killer in the first game purely because of his backstory and motive, and how he reflects upon the second case’s whole theme, and yet nobody seemed to focus on that importance. God Speed, you wonderful JoJo reference.

20. Who do you think is an overrated character?

Please don’t hurt me when I say this, but absolutely Chiaki. Many can chew me out for liking Kokichi, who in himself is overrated, but for a deuteragonist, Chiaki really doesn’t do an awful lot until Chapter 4-5

21. Favourite voice actor?

In terms of performance, either Derek Stephen Prince (Fuyuhiko and Kokichi) or Marieve Herington (Celeste)

22. Favourite talent?

Ultimate Detective. Shuichi and Kyoko are both really cool.

23. Favourite mascot?

Monokuma, duh! Compared to Monomi and the Monokubs, neither of them have shit on him.

24. Favourite Monokub?

1000% Monodam. All of them suck, except for him. (And Monotaro’s fine for the most part, but Monodam will always be the best)

25. Least favourite mascot?

Mono-fucking-phanie.

26. Favourite execution?

Leon Kuwata’s, the 1000 Blows. As they say, you never forget your first.

27. Least favourite execution?

Mikan Tsumiki’s, Bye Bye Ouchies. For reasons I don’t think I even need to state.

28. Favourite unused execution?

I really like Kazuichi’s unused execution that involves the drill.

29. Which character should survived in your opinion?

If we’re talking characters I wanted to survive, then I would’ve loved to see Chihiro make it to the end of DR1. As much as I love the importance of his passing, I really wanted him to get out alive and unscathed.

30. Which character would’ve deserved to survive?

In each game, there’s at least one character I think should’ve deserved to make it out alive. For the first game, it’s absolutely Taka, for the second, Hiyoko, even though I’m not strong on her, and for the third game, Ryoma, for the same reason everyone else thinks he should’ve lived.

31. Is there a character you think who shouldn’t have survived but did?

Yasuhiro did basically nothing to contribute to the class trials, or the overall progress in figuring out the mysteries of the academy. He never pulled his weight, and for some reason, he still managed to live through the killing game.

32. Least favourite protagonist?

I love her, but Komaru. She just doesn’t reach the same level as the others.

33. Character with the best clothing?

Celeste absolutely nails the gothic lolita style and it fits really well with the type of character that she is.

34. Best character design?

Gundham and Celeste.

35. A character who should’ve got more character development?

Kirumi, without question. She’s arguably my least favorite in the V3 gang purely because of her lack of development. She deserved better writing than what she got.

36. Character who looks amazing but you don’t like?

I love Ruruka’s design, but I hate Ruruka’s character. The same goes for Sonosuke Izayoi, who looks badass but got no development.

37. Favourite minor character?

For the little screen time he got, I vibe with Taichi Fujisaki.

38. Favourite eyes?

What? Uh...no preference?

39. Smartest murder plan?

Gundham’s plan in the 4th case of the 2nd game. He used pretty much every aspect of the funhouse to pull his plan off, and I love it.

40. Favourite culprit?

Gundham Tanaka, for what I’ve just mentioned, plus his motivation, and overall character.

41. Person you’ve never expected to become a culprit but they became? (Doesn’t include Chiaki)

I guess Mondo, Peko and Kiyo from each of the games. They all exude the energy that they COULD kill someone, but the chances of them actually doing it don’t seem that high, and yet...

42. Honest opinion on Tsumugi Shirogane?

I thought she was boring character at first, even after she was revealed to be the mastermind, but I’ve come around since then and I respect her as a villain a lot more. Being the only villain in the game who’s not directly tied to Junko, that at least gives her a bit of uniqueness.

43. Describe Monaca Towa in 3 words!

Piss Baby UGH!

44. Describe Nagito Komaeda in 3 words!

Extremely Entertaining Character

45. Unpopular opinion?

I think Hifumi Yamada is a pretty decent character overall. His Free Time Events, while awkward, were quite enjoyable, and he conveys the strong message that appearances aren’t everything. He’s aware of how different he looks compared to everyone else, but to him, it’s what’s on the inside and what he can do that matters.

46. Unpopular headcanon?

I don’t really have many major headcanons, and I have none that I would consider unpopular. I guess I’ll say “The V3 cast have a group chat in a Non-Despair AU that they meme the shit out of.”

47. A headcanon you have about a character?

In the ask blog that I run, Mikan and Ibuki are an item, and after they become one, Mikan discards her bandages and dyes a highlight in her hair. I live for that, so I guess that’s my answer.

48. Favourite OST?

If we’re talking about a game soundtrack, then either Danganronpa 2′s, or Ultra Despair Girl. If we’re talking about my favourite song in the whole series though, then my favourite is the opening theme to Future Arc in DR3, Dead or Lie.

49. Favourite mini game?

I don’t really have one. I have minigames that I like, and Minigames that I hate (looking at you “Improved” Hangman’s Gambit) But I guess I like Scrum Debate in concept a lot.

50. Favourite game design?

V3 is the most aesthetically pleasing DR game.

51. Character you thought you were gonna dislike but loved in the end?

Maki was such a piece of shit in my opinion at the beginning of V3. Of course, the development she gets reprimands that amazingly. I WOULD say Tenko, but I hated Tenko when I finished V3, and it was only after a short time later that I really turned around on her.

52. Character you thought you would like but disliked in the end?

I guess Angie? She was pretty annoying even before I outright disliked her, but then the whole third chapter brainwashing thing happened and I’m like, “this bitch suck for real!”

53. Favourite game end?

Danganronpa 2′s, and I don’t wanna hear all the “Ugh, the anime bullshit, ugh!” From a writing perspective, the second game just had the most enjoyable ending.

54. Least favourite game end?

I guess Danganronpa 1′s but even that wasn’t too bad. I have incredibly mixed feelings about V3′s twist ending, but I’ve grown to accept that it happened and there’s not a lot I can do about it...

55. Favourite love hotel scene?

Kaede’s. J-Just Kaede’s...That scene gives me the right amount of serotonin that I can keep going with my day.

56. Best free time events?

Hard to say, but I really liked Taka’s. Most of the FTE’s in Danganronpa tend to be pretty nice (unless you’re Hiro), but for him, I loved learning about the circumstances behind his family, how it corrolates with why he acts the way he does, his spite against people who call themselves “geniuses” and why they suck, and everything about his character just hits right.

57. Character who should’ve lived longer?

Kirumi or Ryoma.

58. V3 Pregame! headcanon?

“They aren’t evil creatures with a pessimistic look on life!” Seriously, why the hell do people headcanon the pre-game V3 cast as evil and masochistic bastards. Sure, their look on life was very cynical and pessimistic, and some of them wanted to join V3 for the money or the fame, but that’s just basic human nature and desire. That doesn’t mean everyone in V3 was an inherently bad person before they joined Danganronpa. They aren’t the remnants of despair for fucks sake.

59. Favourite moment?

Shuichi’s final stand in V3 really showed his growth in character, and his refutation “WE’RE GONNA END DANGANRONPA!” gave me goosebumps.

60. Saddest moment?

Gundham’s Execution made me cry, and I almost shed tears in Peko’s final moments. My answer therefore, is those two.

61. Character who looks like the love child of ???

Shuichi has always looked like the love child of Makoto and Kyoko or Makoto and Mukuro. I don’t have any parental headcanons though, and prefer to think of Shuichi as his own character.

62. Describe Mikan Tsumiki in 3 words!

Needs Love Mending! She’s an emotionally broken girl who needs love to heal her fragile heart.

63. Describe Kyoko Kirigiri in 3 words!

The Best Deuteragonist. By that, I mean out of all the characters who are most relevant to the plot alongside the protagonist and antagonist (which includes Chiaki and I guess Kaito too) Kyoko is the best one in my opinion.

64. Which character seemed like they were gonna be a culprit but they wasn’t?

I honestly expected Sonia to kill someone several times in DR2, but she ended up making it to the end. I’m not disappointed though, and I’m glad she never ended up snapping.

65. Who did you never expected to die but they died?

Kaede, no doubt about it. C’mon, she was set up to be the protagonist and then she got executed falsely. Rantaro also surprised me honestly, as did Fake Togami in Game 2.

66. Describe the last trial from V3 in 3 words!

An Absolute Clusterfuck. Not the bad kind, mind you, but Jesus, that trial was long and confusing.

67. Which character would you never want to meet in real life?

There are several honestly, but I’m gonna narrow it down and say Junko. Anyone who meets her is doomed to have their life ruined.

68. Which character would you like to meet in real life?

I relate to most of the weeb and dorky characters, so I guess either Hifumi or Non-Evil Tsumugi.

69. Choose one character which you would take with you on a trip.

Mikan would be handy to have around in case I get injured while on a hike or something.

70. Character you would have a sleepover with?

I don’t feel any sort of attraction to her romantically, and I tend not to for fictional characters, but Kaede is someone I’d really want to hang out and be friends with.

71. Character you can relate to?

Makoto, and I know that’s the whole point of his character, but even though he’s kind of basic and lacking in any significant personality, I still like him a lot.

72. Character you can relate to but you dislike them?

I sympathize with Kiyo’s plight, and how he suffered a lot of emotional abuse from his sister, but with his final moments and how much bullshit came from it (particularly the implied incest subplot) I just couldn’t feel anything except eagerness when I watched him die.

73. Character who deserved better?

Than what they got, I guess Taka.

74. What do you think of Hiyoko Saionji?

If she had survived the game, she’d have been recognized as great a character as Fuyuhiko, since she would have had time to develop. Unfortunately, her lack of growth thanks to her death relegates her into just being “that bitch from Danganronpa” In general though, I don’t dislike her at all, I’m just not as strong on her as I am the rest of DR2′s cast, or DR’s cast in general.

75. Describe Gonta Gokuhara in 3 words!

The Best Boy.

76. Favourite research lab?

The research labs are a cool concept that I really wanted to see more of in things like Fangans. I think my favorite is either Shuichi’s or Kokichi’s.

77. What do you think of the fandom?

Honest to god, I feel more comfortable in the DR Fandom than I do any other Fandom I’m a part of. We have cringe, toxicity and the same old jokes, yes, but other Fandom’s I’m in, like Persona and My Hero Academia, have the same on a whole other level. I think the majority of the Danganronpa Fandom truly does genuinely care about the game series and I appreciate that.

78. Favourite random/unnecessary scene?

The Man’s Nut scene in Danganronpa 2 was god damn hilarious. I never ever really thought the Peeping Tom scenes in each game were wholly necessary and just existed as cheap fanservice, but the Man’s Nut scene is SO damn funny!

79. Which character has the cutest design?

Chihiro is the most adorable bean in the universe.

80. Hope or Despair?

I have no real preference, but I choose Hope because I like to think I’m not a bad person.

81. Could you be the Ultimate Lucky Student?

Probably not. I dunno.

82. Favourite chapter?

DR2 Chapter 4. The funhouse chapter hit differently.

83. Least favourite chapter?

DR2 Chapter 3 and DRV3 Chapter 3. The former primarily due to the Despair Disease and Nekomaru’s death at the hands of Akane’s stupidity, and the latter because of reasons I’ve already mentioned, particularly Angie’s Student Council.

84. Which character do you easily forget?

Pretty much half the Danganronpa 3 cast. Particularly Tengan, Izayoi, Gozu and Bandai.

85. Could you be a Dangan Protag? Why?

I’d love to be, but I’m not as quick-witted or inquisitive as the likes of Makoto, Hajime and Shuichi.

86. Favourite Anthology chapter?

I like a lot of them, but the one where they all make chocolate is really cute.

87. Describe Peko Pekoyama in 3 words!

She’s pretty cool. There’s not much to say about her. Even if she is the one who killed Mahiru, a character I love, she’s a lot more important to the plot than many realize, especially in regards to Fuyuhiko’s subplot.

88. Describe Mondo Oowada in 3 words!

Completely Underrated Marvel. Just refer to Question 19.

89. Least favourite Danganronpa 3 character?

Pretty much any of them that aren’t Seiko, Ryota, or Yukizome. I’m gonna say Juzo though, because of his whole bullshit that Junko used against him, and how the tragedy is primarily his fault.

90. Do you like Junko?

Not at first, but I like her a lot more as a villain now. She wasn’t that fun in the first game, but was better in the second.

91. What do you think of Monokuma?

As far as game mascots go, he’s alright, however, the more the series goes on, the less relevant he becomes. In V3, he serves no real importance, and the game may have been just as good without him, leaving us with just the Monokubs. I hate the Monokubs, but that’s primarily because their existence just takes Monokuma’s importance away. V3 would be so much better if we had one without the other, either way around.

92. Least favourite Monokub?

*Heavy breathing* Mono... *Heavy breathing* Fucking... *HEAVY BREATHING* PHANIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEE!

93. Did you like the Monokubs?

Not for the most part. Monophanie and Monokid suck, and I hate them both. Monosuke sucks for similar reasons, but he’s just kinda...boring...Up until the whole incest imagery in Chapter 4′s trial, Monotaro was actually ok, and had some really funny lines, and as I’ve mentioned, I love Monodam a whole lot, since he was the only one who had something close to a character arc.

94. Did you like the Warriors of Hope?

I guess? I do feel bad for most of them, but at the same time, they can be really annoying. They ARE just kids, so I get it, but still. Masaru, I really didn’t care for. He was arguably the most annoying, and Jataro, while I felt bad for him, wasn’t much better. Kotoko was pretty fun in the end, and Nagisa was a really well written character with a strong morality to him. Monaca is a pretty sinister villain too, but I don’t like her as much as Junko and Tsumugi.

95. What do you think of Gundham Tanaka?

HE IS EXCELLENT AND I LOVE HIM SO MUCH! Also, as I’m writing this, it’s his Bday, so happy Bday to Gundham Tanaka.

96. Who’s an overrated character you dislike?

I said Chiaki was overrated, but I don’t dislike her. I guess people like Kirumi too much considering how little development she gets overall.

97. Overrated ship which is your NOTP?

Komahina, do not test me on this. Everywhere I go, I see that ship that I know, from analyzing Nagito and Hajime’s relationship throughout the series, is incredibly toxic and would never realistically happen simply due to Nagito’s nature, and the way his FTE’s end means nothing to me.

98. Outfit you dislike?

Everyone’s always saying that Akane’s design sucks, and while I’m not too concerned on it overall, I do completely agree.

99. Your absolute NOTP?

Komahina again, and I guess JunkoMikan.

100. Opinion on all the Protagonists!

Makoto is relatable as hell, and I sympethise with him a lot. It’s quite fun to play as him in the first game, because he reacts more regularly to the characters in a way that most people probably would. I love Hajime’s reactions, and his backstory. I’m not too fond on most of the memes around him, like Organe Juice and the 91cm Titties, but in general, his reactions to things and the way he tends to call out his classmates is pretty entertaining. As I mentioned, Komaru, and I guess Toko, are my least favorite protagonist(s) but I still care about them both greatly. Komaru is as relatable as her brother, and UDG gives Toko the character development she so greatly needed in Game 1. Kaede is amazing, and is a character who gets too cussed out by people both in the game, and outside of it, and her death was super relevant, and an amazing twist I didn’t see coming. She’s just awesome in general. Shuichi, while Kaede’s death did upset me, he was an equally great protagonist, and I loved watching his growth throughout V3.

[commentaryvorg]

So, okay, I am planning to get around to doing both a bonus ramble for chapter 6, and also finally doing that bonus ramble for chapter 5 that I mentioned back then. Buuut instead of working on those things yet, I found myself doing something a little different.

See, this whole commentary was all written in the same ridiculously long document. And there’s a search function that can tell me exactly how many instances of a given character’s name are in this document, which I can also break down to see how many times they’re mentioned within a single post’s worth of it. Which means that, other than a commentary for DRV3, what I’ve also unintentionally generated is a huge source of data on how I see this story, in terms of how relevant and interesting each character is being at each point in the narrative.

So, well, I don’t know if anyone else will be into this, but I found it fascinating to look into, so here’s me nerding out over some data. You want a visual representation of how I see the story of Danganronpa V3, with GRAPHS? Then look no further.

(Disclaimer: whenever I talk about a character’s “relevance” during this, obviously I am talking about their relevance according to me as measured by my commentary. Though it should have at least some relation to their objective relevance to the story, this is not necessarily a measure of that.)

The number of times a character is mentioned will include both the times I mentioned them in my own commentary and times they’re mentioned in quotes from the game, either as the tag for who’s speaking or being talked about by another character.

I should also note that for all of these upcoming graphs, Kaito and Kokichi’s counts have been adjusted to account for the fact that Exisal Kokichi is actually Kaito. I counted the number of mentions of specifically “Exisal Kokichi”, then subtracted that amount from Kokichi’s count and added it to Kaito’s. Similarly, Tsumugi’s count was adjusted to include all of her cosplays of DR1/2 characters in trial 6, since those were all just her speaking.

First, here’s the totals of how many times each character was mentioned throughout the entire commentary. (This is only main commentary posts; bonus chapter-end rambles and replies to asks are not included.) The characters are ordered along the X-axis by how long they were alive for, so that you can compare how relevant they should in theory have been based on that to how relevant they actually are to the story in my eyes.

Surprising absolutely no-one, Kaito is the character I talked about the most. He even managed to beat out Shuichi, the actual protagonist of the game who is alive for a whole chapter more than him, by a significant margin. In fact, I imagine that all of my talking about Kaito’s issues with regards to Shuichi contributed quite significantly to Shuichi’s count.

I’m personally a little sad that Kokichi managed to significantly beat out Maki for third place. But while I don’t know if my talking about his actual issues alone would outstrip Maki’s, he was also very relevant to the plot of both chapters 4 and 5, plus I spent a lot of time in general explaining why he was obviously wrong every time he kept insisting he was obviously right, so that does track. He’s still only mentioned slightly less than half as much as Kaito, though. That seems fair.

(I know a lot of people associate Kokichi with the colour purple, but I really feel like black-and-white represents him more. Besides, if I’d given him a somewhat darker, more bluer purple than Kaito’s, he’d be really difficult to distinguish from both Kaito and Shuichi in the upcoming line graphs.)

Gonta comes in fifth place! Partly this is that I did his FTEs out of personal preference even though they’re not obviously meant to be a canon part of the story like Kaito’s and Maki’s definitely are. It’s also probably because Gonta speaking about himself in third-person amplified his own count to a significant fraction more than it would have otherwise been if he didn’t talk that way. But even so, Gonta is important and good (and rather relevant to both Kaito and Kokichi in different ways) so he definitely deserves to be considered a relatively significant part of this story.

Then nobody else gets mentioned over a thousand times; the next highest are the basically-tied Kaede and Himiko. Kaede was relevant enough from the single chapter she was around to even beat out even the other two who made it to chapter 6, who have a higher count than the rest mostly due to gradually accumulating it throughout the whole game.

Everyone else is hovering at around 300 mentions or so. The least mentioned of all is Angie, which makes sense, because of the characters I don’t personally care for at all, she had the least relevance to the plot.

Next, let’s look at a general overview of how each character’s relevance shifts from chapter to chapter. To do this, I calculated the average number of times each character was mentioned per post in any given chapter. (This doesn’t include the prologue, since that’s only two posts, one of which has most of the characters not existing yet and one of which is me mostly talking about their overall predicted relevance to this commentary rather than their relevance at that particular point in the story, so that data wouldn’t mean much.)

(I should add that, were I being a Proper Scientist about this, I would have first normalised the character mentions to each post’s word count to account for the fact that posts have varying lengths. But since I tried to keep the post lengths fairly similar anyway, the raw number of character mentions should still be a reasonable universal measure of that character’s proportional relevance in any given post, and therefore in any given chapter once averaged. I’d rather not make things more confusing for any less-sciencey readers – if you have no idea what I just said here, don’t worry about it.)

As you’d imagine, everyone who dies peaks in relevance during the chapter they die in. The only exception to this is Kokichi, whom I found more interesting to talk about in chapter 4 than chapter 5. That is, after all, the chapter he commits murder in.

I’m a little surprised that Kaito’s chapter 5 average is so much higher than his chapter 4 average, since I consider both chapters 4 and 5 to be Extremely Good Kaito Chapters for different reasons. I suppose it’s because, while he’s got fun character stuff going on throughout both chapters, in chapter 5 Kaito is also significantly more relevant to the plot than he is in chapter 4. He does spend trial 5 being effectively both the victim and a major participant in the discussion of the case (in a way that culprits usually aren’t until they get accused because they’re trying to lay low), which is bound to have pushed up his average a lot.

Kaito manages to still be the third most relevant character in both chapters 1 and 6. In chapter 1 it’s partly helped by me doing his FTEs out of what was largely personal preference, but he also really is doing a lot more interesting things and having more of a character arc already in that chapter than basically anyone else except for the two protagonists. And in chapter 6, I went into it determined to find every possible opportunity to mention Kaito, but… I’m still impressed with myself that I managed to mention him more times in that chapter than even Maki, who is still having an actual character arc at that point.

Four of our five most relevant characters take a dip in relevance during chapter 3. That really does go to show that chapter 3 is kind of the black sheep of the story that doesn’t fit thematically with the rest of it nearly as much. Kaito gets nerfed in-universe for silly reasons, while the out-universe writers apparently just couldn’t think of anything interesting to do with Kokichi in this chapter. Even Shuichi is mentioned less despite being the protagonist, because this is in between him overcoming his own post-Kaede issues during chapter 2, and him becoming very very relevant to Kaito’s issues during chapters 4 and 5. Maki’s development really is the only big overarching story-related thing going on in this chapter.

…Nonetheless, I’m still impressed with how much I managed to mention Kaito during chapter 3, such that he’s still more relevant to me in it than anyone else. I went into that chapter thinking I wasn’t going to have much to say about him past the beginning part because he spends so much of it ill and offscreen, but I still ended up finding plenty to say about why he is ill and offscreen anyway.

It’s kind of interesting how, until Gonta dies, Gonta and Kokichi’s graphs look very similar to each other, with Kokichi’s just being a little bit higher. They are, tragically for Gonta, both relevant for similar reasons a lot of the time. In the same vein, but happier, Kaito and Shuichi’s graphs for chapters 2 to 4 also have a similar shape to each other, which makes sense since I’m often talking about them both together. In chapter 5, Kaito’s greater relevance to the plot and not just to his and Shuichi’s character arcs is bound to be why he has a much higher increase than Shuichi there.

While most characters barely get mentioned once they’ve been dead for more than a chapter (they tend to at least get mentioned a little in the chapter afterwards due to people reflecting on the previous case), Kaede’s baseline during chapters 3 to 5 is still slightly higher than most. She averages at nearly 2 mentions per post for those three chapters, which is very impressive for someone who’s been dead since chapter 1! She really does continue to have an influence throughout the whole game.

Now let’s break it down further into each individual post to see how everyone’s relevance changes within each chapter. I’m separating these into one graph per chapter so as not to overwhelm things with one ridiculously wide graph.

(Including lines dividing the different sections of a chapter to help people follow roughly where each post is at in the story. The posts which are only half Deadly Life are being fully counted as that for our purposes here – think of it as the lead-in to the body discovery as well as the investigation itself.)

Unsurprisingly, Kaede is almost always the most relevant character in any chapter 1 post – after all, she’s the protagonist, plus she’s being really interesting and relevant to the narrative the entire time in a way that Shuichi won’t always be once he becomes the protagonist. Kaito does somehow manage to be slightly more relevant than Kaede just for the first half of trial 1, probably because his strategy meeting was the topic of discussion a lot there, while Kaede’s character (aka the part where she murdered someone) was less in focus.

Kaito is still a clear third place here. While he doesn’t really come into explicit narrative focus until the end of chapter 1, he’s still having something of a character arc in the background and being way more interesting than any of the other non-Kaede-or-Shuichi characters, who are in this chapter mostly just background noise desperately trying to establish their basic character traits. Maki is one of the only ones who’s less background noise and more having a few moments of me talking about her issues in between her pointedly not drawing attention to herself at all. And while Kokichi is the fourth most relevant character in this chapter, we can see from this that it’s mainly due to his background noise being slightly noisier than everyone else’s (particularly in the trial, because trust issues), with the only thing of any real note he does in this chapter being discouraging everyone from the escape tunnel at the beginning.

(Featuring characters who are dead from the beginning of the chapter becoming dotted lines, to help unclutter things and also make it noticeable at a glance whenever a peak is a character managing to be relevant after they’re dead.)

And now, while Shuichi has become the protagonist and is having plenty of interesting character arc this chapter, Kaito has also fully come into narrative focus and so is going to be outstripping even Shuichi in relevance most of the time from now on. The one time this chapter that Shuichi does manage to be more relevant than Kaito is in the latter part of the trial as he faces the truth and accuses Kirumi, first with Kaito’s encouragement but then seemingly without needing Kaito at all towards the end, which feels… appropriate.

You can see the peaks of Kaito’s free time events and then him training Shuichi during the Daily Life. The patterns for a character in Daily Life will often oscillate like this, as Daily Lifes tend to alternate between character development stuff and plot stuff. Those Kokichi peaks in Daily Life, for example, are all him reacting to (or causing) plot stuff. The Gonta ones are partly his free time events incidentally happening to land in the same post as plot stuff, but also the Insect Meet-and-Greet.

Maki starts to become more relevant during the investigation and trial, featuring a big peak in the part where Kaito believes in her and is Good. You can also notice Himiko being brainwashed by Angie, doing her magic show, and being suspected during the trial, with vague smaller peaks of Angie and/or Tenko at the same time. A lot more characters are beginning to make themselves noticed above the background noise by now, even aside from this chapter’s victim and culprit.

Kaito is super relevant during his free time event and first training session with Maki, and then fluctuates wildly between being ill and trying very hard not to be ill for the rest of the non-trial posts. (Not that I don’t still find stuff to say about him even when he is, but it is harder when he spends most of the post offscreen.) That first Deadly Life post is far less about the murder and more just me talking about Kaito’s phobia for practically the whole post, which is why nobody else except for him and his sidekicks are all that relevant there. A bunch of the other characters shoot up for the second Deadly Life post compared to the first as there’s a lot more plot going on there.

Maki’s relevance steadily increases during Daily Life except for the post which is half plot and half Gonta’s FTEs. You can also notice the part where Tenko tries to stop Angie’s ritual and get through to Himiko.

Kokichi isn’t doing much of anything during the Daily Life and his only significant peaks are discussing his trust issues in the trial (in conjunction with Himiko wanting to believe in Tenko, featuring even more of Kaito being good) and then him accidentally being nice to Himiko in the trial conclusion.

Practically every interesting character (except Shuichi, who’s just doing his detective thing) drops in relevance between the first half of the trial and the second, because there really isn’t nearly as much interesting character stuff going on in the second half of the trial and it’s just Kiyo being terrible.

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(I split up the Daily Life and Deadly Life a little differently in this one, since while the whole Virtual World trip is nominally “Daily Life”, it’s basically the murder already in progress and has a very different tone from the rest of Daily Life up until the end of free time. Now also featuring splits for the trial because my coverage of trials from this point on is so damn long.)

Man, I love how starkly clear it is that there are really only four characters who are relevant to this case and trial. Even Maki isn’t – she gets her moment to shine during the Daily Life and some brief bits of being good during the investigation, but the trial is not about her at all. Similarly, Himiko has a bit during the Daily Life focusing on her post-Tenko development (featuring Gonta) and then basically nothing after that.

Any big peak of Shuichi in this chapter can be assumed to almost certainly be about Kaito’s issues regarding him; Kaito has peaks in similar places to Shuichi most of the time. The only times he doesn’t are Maki’s training, which is of course about Kaito helping her, and then the first post of the trial, which has a good bit of Kaito’s principles clashing with Kokichi. But for the entire rest of the trial, Kaito’s relevance does not remotely correlate with Kokichi’s, or even Gonta’s, because Kaito’s issues in this trial are really almost entirely about Shuichi.

You can very clearly see the point at which Gonta gets accused in the trial – that is, just after the post in which Kokichi made everything about himself for ages and then threw a tantrum when Shuichi wasn’t having any of it. Kokichi’s pattern for the rest of the trial until the execution then looks a lot more similar to Gonta’s pattern than it does to Kaito’s. Guess who’s the real source of Kokichi’s issues here.

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(Splitting up the Daily Life here as well between the end of free time and the beginning of Kaito’s brilliant heroic plan, since the first half is a lot more character development and the second half is a lot more plot.)

For the Daily Life, there’s kiiind of that same pattern of Kaito and Shuichi having similar peaks, since Kaito’s issues are still extremely about Shuichi at this point. That doesn’t show up so well during free time in which Kaito is not available, even though I kind of am still talking about Kaito’s issues a good bit, because I’m mostly doing so through the metaphor of Himiko’s FTEs without directly mentioning Kaito’s name as much. The one in which Kaito and Shuichi’s patterns match the least is the post with Kaito’s plan, which is about him realising he needs to actually be a hero instead of focusing on looking like one just to prove himself to Shuichi, so that seems appropriate. And after the last part of the Daily Life in which they make up and have their adorable window conversation, Kaito is more or less over his issues regarding Shuichi – or at least isn’t letting them affect him any more – so their patterns don’t match up as much as they used to once we get to the case and trial. The Shuichi peaks during the investigation and trial are then a lot more focused on Shuichi himself, in terms of how he’s dealing with Kaito being apparently dead.

It’s pretty abundantly clear that this chapter is basically just about the training trio, plus Kokichi who facilitates those character dynamics by driving the plot. Himiko’s free time events are noticeable, as is the bit in the trial where she’s a suspect, but she doesn’t do much the rest of the time. Meanwhile Tsumugi and Keebo are still contributing practically fuck all to the narrative, just like they’ve been doing for the past four chapters as well. You can tell which post is mostly me talking about the Hope’s Peak plot because none of the characters get talked about in it to a particularly great extent – and Kaito still manages to be the third most relevant character in that post even though he’s offscreen for the whole thing.

As he should be, Kaito is always the most relevant character for the entire trial, even more so than Kokichi! Remember that I adjusted the data to account for the fact that Exisal Kokichi is actually Kaito – without that, Kokichi does get more mentions than Kaito in a few trial posts, but that isn’t a fair representation of who is actually being talked about and having lines. Heck, I imagine that about half of Kokichi’s mentions in the trial are just me talking about how he would usually act in order to explain why Kaito’s really not quite acting like the real Kokichi at all.

The biggest Kokichi peak in the trial proper is the only one that has a lot of me talking about him for his own sake, as I discuss the logistics of his plan and explain how he ruined it all by posthumously gloating. You can also see his plan being discussed in the trial conclusion, and then him ceasing to be relevant as everything becomes about Kaito and his friends.

This trial does have less obvious trends than trial 4 – I split it up at the intermission again, but there’s not much of a meaningful narrative difference between the first half and the second. There’s so much discussion of the logistics of the case and everything Exisal Kokichi is saying that the actual character progression that Maki and Shuichi have here gets a little bit lost amongst that noise (and Kaito himself isn’t precisely having much of an actual arc during this trial even as he is being the best and most relevant). You can at least see the post which is almost entirely flashback, featuring a lot more Maki and much less Shuichi, then also the part where Maki is adorable as she realises Kaito’s still alive and then can’t bear to accept he’s the culprit. You can also kind of see Shuichi forcing himself to accept Kaito’s death in the Debate Scrum earlier on, and then believing in Kaito towards the end.

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(There wasn’t an official intermission to split the trial at, but I decided to split it at the point where the audience shows up, since there’s a very big shift in topic and tone from then on. The first half is a lot longer in-game than it might seem based on how comparatively long I spent on it, because most of it was straightforward deductions and exposition that I didn’t have much to say about.)

The overall counts for characters in general during this chapter are a lot lower, which reflects the fact that there’s less interesting character arc stuff going on here and I’m talking a lot more about the plot instead.

Kokichi has a big posthumous peak when we’re investigating his lab and his room, some decent relevance throughout the rest of the investigation for plot reasons (the Bugvac, etc), another small peak in the trial as we confirm he wasn’t a Remnant of Despair… and then he basically just stops being relevant once we move onto the fiction stuff and start thinking more about the influence the deceased characters had on those who are still here. Kaito has much steadier posthumous relevance throughout, partly out of how much he means to his sidekicks (that biggest peak is when Tsumugi uses that to make Shuichi and Maki despair over their fictionality), and partly because I just can’t stop finding reasons to mention him even though he’s gone.

Kaede and Rantaro are of course quite relevant during their retrial, and a little bit during some other plot parts – Rantaro’s lab, the stupid Kaede twin red herring during the investigation, Shuichi realising why Rantaro did the killing game again. Other than these plotty parts, Kaede’s pattern kiiiinda matches Kaito’s here and there, since they did both have such an influence on Shuichi. The parts where Kaito has more of a peak than Kaede are a lot more specific to him, such as the flashbacks in the investigation that were relevant to his issues, and the impossible being possible near the end of the trial.

You can see Tsumugi being found out as the mastermind… and then only being the most relevant character for a grand total of two posts. Keebo’s brief stint as protagonist is also pretty clear here, and he’s the most relevant for exactly one post. But this chapter is really the most about Shuichi. Tsumugi’s relevance as the mastermind drops right off in the same post that Shuichi’s shoots back up as he realises what’s going on with this hope nonsense and stands against it, which is very satisfying. Even Kaito becomes more relevant than Tsumugi towards the end of the trial!

Bonus fun facts about all the post-by-post graphs taken together:

While Kaito is alive, there are only two posts in which he is not among the top three most relevant characters. In both cases he’s a pretty close fourth, and in one of those cases he’s a lot more the topic of my commentary than you’d think from the number of times I mention his name, so he probably isn’t really only the fourth most relevant at all there.

There are only nine posts in which Kokichi is more relevant than Kaito, and three of those are only by a pretty small margin.

The character who has the single highest number of mentions in any one post is actually not Kaito – it’s Gonta. While Kaito is extremely relevant in many many posts, there seems to be a maximum to that. After all, there is a maximum post length that I tried to adhere to, and so even in a post with the highest possible concentration of talking about Kaito, there’s basically a hypothetical limit to the number of times he can be mentioned. But Gonta’s thing of amplifying his own count because he talks about himself in third-person means that, for the one post which is almost entirely about him (the first half of trial 4’s conclusion), he outstrips that hypothetical per-post limit in a way that other characters wouldn’t be able to do no matter how relevant they are.

This was really fun to look at! I always had an instinctive feeling for how I felt about each character’s relevance at each point in the story, but it’s cool to see a visual representation of it using actual data. It really does feel very accurate. Kaito’s frequent high counts may sometimes be an exaggeration of his objective relevance on the surface, but that genuinely is how I see those parts of the story. Even if it’s subtle, there’s so much going on in Kaito’s head beneath the surface, and that’s the biggest thing that draws me to any given part of the story.

And what I love so much about this story, as these graphs so wonderfully show, is how relevant Kaito always is. Even if Kaito hadn’t been one of the most important characters in this story, he’d still have been my favourite anyway just because he’s the kind of character I tend to enjoy in a lot of different ways. So it’s just so great to me that, no matter where I’m at in the story (unless it’s chapter 6), it’s never too far away from some part in which Kaito is being at least a little bit interesting and fun in some way – and usually a hell of a lot more than just a little.

(Have I ever mentioned how incredibly happy I am that the writers really did thoroughly care about Kaito’s story and didn’t gratuitously kill him off earlier than he deserved like they’d been making it seem like they would.)

[iicewitch]

All the questions for your danganronpa self insert?

uuunder the cut of course. due to length. ;w; thank you aaaa. i’ll just be using my/I since. well. yknow.

⭐️ What’s their Ultimate/SHSL?

my ultimate is shsl secretary! i know it’s kind of boring but .. as much as i’d want to be shsl artist/something more to my interests, i’m suited to the desk job of a secretary due to my organizational skills/memory/overall aptitude with computers.

👥 Which Protag would they get along best with?i feel like i’d get along best with shuichi. our talents match together well plus our personalities are similar. 

🗒 What are their introduction lines?“Ah, hello there! Er .. maybe that sounds a bit too cheery for our current situation. Erm .. should I try it again? I’d hate to ruin your first impression of me. Oh, I’m probably speaking too much anyways. I’m the Super High School Level Secretary, Gennie. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

🤔 What’s the first thing the protag(s) would point out about them (bonus points if you specify the protag)?As seen above, I can overthink and thus, word vomit a lot. It’s one of my character traits. Which, also ties in with my SHSL. My mind is constantly running, thinking, and storing information. So, I feel the protagonist would note that about me first. Instead of being a quiet, reserved introvert, I’m more .. of an extroverted introvert if that makes sense. I’m shy .. but I want to make friends but I don’t know what to say all the time so I just say everything.

💕Which character(s) would they spend more time with (Give at least three to choose from, other self inserts are always allowed)?DR1:  Sakura and Aoi ( Obviously, upon hearing the announcement about the killing game, I was thrown into shock like everyone else. I feel that Sakura and Aoi would accept me into their friendship. Both out of a need to protect me, and that we all have the ideology that as long as we believe and keep strong, we’ll make it out alive. )Ishimaru. ( Being the SHSL Secretary, Ishimaru’s enforced ( well .. attempt at enforced ) rules and system in the killing game are very welcome. As such, I feel we come to respect one another and hang out occasionally. However, in turn, I also come to be acquaintances with Mondo. )Fukawa ( Fukawa is my f/o for the first Dangan game. Initially, as Touko is with anyone but Togami, she’s cold and cruel to me. Maybe due to the fact she sees her inferiority complex reflected back. However, over time, I come to accept her flaws and deny the perceived ones, standing up for her if someone goes against her. We also share a love of literature and it turns out that a lot of the novels I read in between shifts as SHSL secretary were penned by her. )Runner ups: Celestia, NaegiDR2: Chiaki. ( Due to the fact that we bond over games after she shows me them. I’m also very good at memorization of lore/characters/details so she loves to chat during free time. She’s also another F/O of mine. ) Akane/Ibuki ( My self insert, in .. well, obvious similarity to me, is not very outgoing/physical most of the time. I feel Akane and Ibuki would be good foils to me. Catch me writing down Akane’s records in laps or helping Ibuki with lyrics. )Kuzuryuu ( Okay Kuzuryuu is my main DR f/o. I feel like this would pick up after Chapter 2. I’m a good listener and a calming presence to him .. and eventually a friend. I help him come to terms that the only way to keep Peko’s memory alive is to strive and live on .. and better oneself. Become someone worthy of not needing a tool or anything else. )Runner ups: Gundam, SoniaDRV3: Kirumi. ( Kirumi and I are similar in the aspect that we spend our talent by working for others and performing any task they request. However, her job as a maid is way more taxing and she worries me with how much she puts herself into her work. As such, I spend my free time with her trying to do relaxing activities such as swimming in the pool, yoga in the field, etc. I also stand up for her when people treat her less than she deserves. )Tsumugi. ( Both plain in appearance, I find myself drawn towards Tsumugi since she’s rather calm and collected compared to people like Tenko, Kaito, Miu. However, as the two of us speak, we find out that we’re actually very excitable .. especially when it comes to our interests. I also end up being a model half the time .. and as she puts it ‘I look very good in glasses and suits.’ )Ouma ( Ouma is my F/O for DRV3. At first, he’s the most annoying person out of all the prisoners. Though, despite that, I let myself get dragged into his schemes .. jokes .. pranks .. whatever because it takes my mind off the life within the school. Slowly, yet surely, we become friends and he helps me loosen up a bit. One might say he’s a bit of a bad influence at times. )Runner ups: Rantaro, Kaito,

🎁 Name an item (made up or canon) that they would like for a FTE.

Items I would probably like would be the recently released novels/video games, office supplies, spa tickets, or figurines

🥇FTE! What’s their first Free Time Event like?My first free time event I feel would be pretty plain. I’d be the one primarily speaking since I’d keep a list of details on every student .. so instead of learning about me, I’d be learning about the protagonist. 

🏵 FTE! What’s their last Free Time Event like?Overtime though, the protag would have to push to learn more about me and push past my barriers and shy personality. The final Free Time Event would probably feature me revealing a more .. true self in which I let myself nerd out and be more vocal about my interests .. rather than be the prim and proper lady people want me to be.

🎭 What’s listed as their likes/dislikes?Likes: Crime novels, making lists, fantasy roleplay games.Dislikes: Loud environments, running out of supplies, alarm clocks.

☠️ A body has been found! What’s their initial reaction?Silence. While others scream and shout, I’d probably repress my feelings super hard until I could make it back to my room, free to cry and sob into my bed. The first murder probably shakes me up super hard .. while unfortunately, as more bodies pile up, I’m one of the people to stay and help investigate, knowing that we need to find an end to this horrible plot.

☝️ Anything specific they’d point out in a class trial? Do they stay on topic?I’m probably known mostly for minute things. Time, autopsy report details, who hung out with the victim last. I am one of the ones to stay on topic, true to my SHSL.

😨 __________ has been found guilty! What’s their reaction (Specify character, it doesn’t have to be canon)?If anyone was found guilty .. who was a friend of mine in the game, I’d mostly just be upset at myself that I let my heart open up to someone in such a situation. It’d be hard for me afterwards to truly trust again without reassurance.

💔 What do they do after a trial/execution? Do they do anything at all?I probably take the time to write down what I learned from the trial back in my room. I’d also offer to sit down and offer companionship to someone who needed to speak.

💉 Despair AU! What are they like in Despair/ infected with the Despair disease?Much like my regular self, I’d word vomit all over the place. Though, with the despair fever, instead of gushing over interests, it’d just be despair-inducing facts. “ Did you know it’s 90% likely that someone will murder you in here? Did you know that even though you’re a failure of a human being, it won’t matter in the end? So .. just give into despair. “

💎 Would they join any clubs/gangs? Which one(s)?Mm .. probably the debate team for official school clubs. :3c @stubbornselfshipping

☀️ Non!Despair AU! What’s their daily life as an ultimate like?Very busy. Despite SHSL Secretary matching my skills, I yearn for a comfier, more social and interactive job. There’s a lot of running around, pleasing people, etc. etc.