#the madarai bros

[shockersalvage]

Salvage Showcase: Isshiki Madarai

An attempt by yours truly in trying to be active once again here! And what better way than by talking about the characters in Danganronpa that don’t get as much love from the fandom, mostly due to appearing in media that weren’t officially translated or just aren’t that well known. I’ll be giving my analysis on their role in their respective material and my thoughts on them!

So whose up first?

Oh.

Summary

Well, let’s start with a brief explanation. Isshiki Madarai is from Danganronpa Zero and is the Ultimate Bodyguard and is a member of the Hope’s Peak Student Council. On-paper at least. In actuality, despite officially being on the council, no one considers him a true member, instead regulating him to just being a bodyguard. Something they’re painfully aware of.

‘They’re’? Yeah, Madarai is actually one of eight octuplets with the collective talent of ‘Multiple Birth Siblings’ (henceforth will be known as MBS because that full title can take a hike). They all act under the ‘Isshiki Madarai’ name and are reoccurring antagonists for the events of Zero. Their main goal is to gain vengeance for the Student Council’s demise, with their intuition leading them to believe Ryoko had something to do with the incident and relentlessly hunting her. In the end, all eight end up being murdered by either Mukuro or Junko, with their deaths being covered up by the school as them being expelled.

Personality wise, the Madarai are all fairly similar to each other: merciless, stubborn, prideful, and ego’s easily wounded. They’re also detrimentally violent, which leads to their downfall on multiple occasions. Overall, they’re a clan that feels insulted over the Tragedy of Hope’s Peak and will stop at nothing to find the perpetrator of the incident. They also hold keen intuition and can be cautious, but they're opt to use brute force like torture or murder in order to get their way.

The Rundown

Now, the good I will say about the Madarai is how they fit in with Danganronpa Zero’s theme of identity. Or rather, lack of identity. Not to mention a theme of irrelevance (I’m not making of fun of them, being serious). As well as being contrasts to both Yuto Kamishiro and the Despair Sisters. The first thing that comes to mind is Madarai’s sibling gimmick, where eight individuals are acting as one person, effectively suppressing their own individuality for the sake of a lie for intimidation purposes.

However, in doing so they had also effectively stunted themselves. In exchange for uniformity, they had become utterly predictable to the point that Ryoko herself, a scared amnesiac, was able to knock one out after being exposed to their fighting style for long enough and Mukuro even chided that being the reason she can kick their asses so easily. In a series where Ultimates praised over their own unique individual talents, their choice to be the same effectively doomed them. This uniformity also goes against the Despair Sisters. While they may be twins, both are extremely different in terms of personality and skills - you can’t approach one like you do the other and trying for anything conventional against them is bound to get you hurt.  They’re existence pretty much slaps the Madarai’s methods in the face and given their major feat of ENDING THE WORLD you have to admit their way worked best.

As for Yuto? In general, both of their desire was to figure out the truth to the Tragedy of Hope’s Peak, albeit for different motivations. For the Madarai it was for the sake of their own wounded pride and vengeance. For Yuto? A way to increase his own fame. While the Madarai’s methods are flashy and brutal, with the culprit in their sights given their intuition- its largely ineffective and doesn’t gain much in the way of practical information and only results in them being taken out knowing nothing useful. In Yuto’s case, befitting his nature as a spy (though not his personality), he gains credible evidence and extremely useful knowledge into stuff regarding details like Izuru Kamukura. However, he is physically weak, so when he gets in way too deep, he ends up killed for his efforts. It’s one of the case where, if both had known about the other’s intentions and opted to work together, they probably could have covered way more ground and be able to make up for the others weaknesses.

What’s interesting about both is how they relate to the identity theme of Zero - or the lack of it. Yuto is the Madarai’s polar opposite. Yuto design and purpose is to be fairly simple and forgettable, much to his chagrin. But its in this lack of identity where he finds strength to get things done and showcase his information gathering skills  and become fairly close to the truth. In contrast, the Madarai’s design is supposed to stand out (for better or for worse) with his  elaborate snake-like monster design and serves as a plot roadblock. Yet, his effects on the plot when you look back is rather paper thin. At best, their attempts are good for highlighting Ryoko’s competence and Mukuro’s power. At worst, which to me they hit that way often, they are aforementioned roadblocks. Any interaction one would want to see further or plot details you want to see developed end up getting derailed with their whole invincible shtick and their own story of revenge concerning the Council’s demise. They’re purposefully made to be intrusive in the story, yet its also on purpose that their storyline never successfully goes anywhere. It ties back into their secondary theme of ‘irrelevance’.

The Madarai, technically, would have been ‘16th student’ of the Student Council killing game, but weren’t there because Junko never considered them one. She wasn’t the only one to consider this. The Headmaster, Steering Committee, Soshun Murasame, hell not even themselves if Mishiki bitterly remembering it is to go by. No one considers them a true councilman beyond just being a guardian and they had no use in-story beyond that. Mukuro even points this out that she actually doesn’t want  to fight the Madarai since it just creates more victims and it was better for the remaining Madarai to go away since the story had nothing to do with them (I’ll talk about DR0!Mukuro at a later date). To put it simply, they aren’t wanted in-story since they have no relevance to the bad guys’ plans and for, well Hope’s Peak aren’t really good guys, the administration side the Madarai’s worth as people aren’t considered beyond their talent. Once they failed no one even bats an eye at them. Even DR3 shows that, even in spite of that guardian role, no one in the Student Council bothered to alert the Madarai they received threatening messages or bring one along. It’s one of those things that retroactively gives the impression Madarai’s presence was quite the afterthought in-universe and adds a layer of a bitter tragedy to it. They stand out and have utility, but no one sees their potential and layers beyond that. Their gimmick would be interested in a more action oriented series, but in Danganronpa (a murder mystery fiction) brute strength takes a back seat for brainpower. And given DR’s nature, where Ultimates who excel in combat more than them exist (like the Ultimate Soldier) or excelling in intelligence, like the Despair Sisters the only thing awaiting a character like the Madarai is cruel defeat and to be swept under the rug just as fast.

Personal Thoughts

Now I’ll be blunt: I don’t like these guys. In fact I think they just might be my most hated Danganronpa characters of all time. Remember the whole ‘they’re intrustive’ bit I went into earlier? Yeah, them showing up again and again with the strategy of ‘we’ll beat you up until you fess up’ quickly wore thin. I know they’re supposed to be bitter hotheads and I know them acting the same is intentional, but God did it not make their antics bearable. “Yes, let’s threaten this guy’s life! Yes, let’s attack the principal’s daughter! Surely this won’t backfire on us, assuming we don’t die ourselves”. Ugh.

Side note: Also hate their designs. You want to make a snake like student? Sure designers go ahead! But you need to make sure they look decent.

Making them ridiculously buff isn’t making them decent!! It clashes with the motif and just makes them look jarring to look at it! You can have a character be strong, but this goes way overboard.

His concept art is a major improvement that I wish the other illustrations stick to.

This ends the first showcase, next time I post I’ll be going on about a character from the Danganronpa Kirigiri side of things!

[aparticularbandit]

Finished the book.

I have. Thoughts.

Particularly that Junko as a third person narrator....

Hm.

I have thoughts.

But do feel kind of good about both theories being relatively correct - that Mukuro was being Junko and also that sometimes Ryoko saw Junko separate from herself (this happens even in the end).

But the idea of Junko killing Ryoko - Ryoko being not necessarily the amnesiac her but the version of her who was attached to and in love with Matsuda - like obviously the book is showing the precursor to DR0 and how Junko ran a bunch of set up to pretest a bunch of what she planned to do prior to etc. But, for me, that's not what the story is about.

It's about Junko killing herself.

The part of herself that could have done something else. The part of herself that would have been happy (strong term for Junko, but it's still true) with Matsuda instead of. Doing everything else.

Killing the her who actually. cared about someone else. instead of just seeing everyone as pawns in a grand master plan.

(Also confirms my theory for death seeker Junko. Because she clearly would have enjoyed losing and brings up that she shouldn't plan in the future so that she's more likely to lose - which connects with my complaint with Ultimate Analyst Junko as we see her in the book not accurately predicting or knowing everything that would happen in DR1 - if she could do all of that with the events in DR0, including how Ryoko would act, then the events of DR1 should have been simple. She just actively DID NOT DO THAT so that SHE COULD LOSE. So that there would be the possibility that she might lose. Because she wanted the despair of losing! UGH JUNKO.)