Danganronpa: The Animation Induces Despair

With so many releases happening this year for the franchise, I’ve been on a sort of Danganronpa high. There have been a lot of negative reviews of the show, but I decided to judge Danganronpa: The Animation on my own. After finishing it, I have a sort of love-hate relationship with the anime.

This is the kind of weird the show starts with.

Danganronpa: The Animation is a 13 episode anime adaptation of the first Danganronpa video game. The first thing I noticed right from the start is how it managed to grab the unique animation styles of sequences in the game and adapted it quite effectively for TV, which was very charming to watch.

The gym is a focal point.

The show, like the game, is about a group of 15 students who wake up in a school made for the world’s most skilled students, where each student represents a specific skill. They’re called ‘Ultimates’ in the video game translation, which feels like the best word to capture the intent behind the Japanese name of ‘super high school level’ students. I found it odd that they decided to do a direct translation in the show rather than the official English translation the game creators went with. That’s neither here nor there though, since it doesn’t affect the content in any way. It’s just a little difficult to get used to if you played the game in English. These kids end up being trapped in this school, being forced by a mysteriously savage yet cute character, to kill each other in order to get out. The story progresses with murders happening, and then the students hunting down clues in order to figure out which one of them committed the murder. If they get away with the murder then that person leaves and the rest die. If they get found out, that person is executed.

A 'Class Trial' where they deduce who the killer was.

This whole concept leads into some tense moments where the deepest and darkest demons within each character get realized with flair. The overall idea of the story sounds amazing, but there is one problem: pacing. That is the unfortunate side-effect of trying to fit an approximately 20 hour game in less than 6.5 hours of animation. The main plot is there, the problem is that most of the character development is thrown to the side in favor of moving along the plot. As a result of this, we have practically no time to get attached to the characters and care about them as they keep dying off, thus making the events have very little lasting impact on the viewer. What we end up getting is a very silly yet gruesome anime that has an interesting story that never quite feels fleshed out. This is especially disappointing because each character gets just enough development to get us interested, without ever giving any real satisfaction. More than anything, it feels like a cliff notes for the game.

A shocking revelation.

Having watched the show with English dubs, I can say the voice acting was actually pretty good. For people who played the game, a couple of the characters’ terminology and enunciation is different and takes some getting used to, but they’re still good. People who played the games will likely enjoy seeing the game as an anime, but the show lacks the kind of character development necessary in order to keep people invested. Before you know it, the show is over.

One of the brief moments when a character gets development.

If you’re interested in the concept of the story, I’d highly recommend you just play the game, which is available on the PS Vita and the PS4 and will give a far more fulfilling and satisfying experience. If you absolutely have no way of getting a hold of the games and playing them, and you don’t want to watch a play through of the game, I suppose the show will have to suffice as a last resort of getting the story. If you’ve played the game, expect a rushed and short adaptation of your beloved game that is somewhat enjoyable to watch, but is ultimately flawed and nothing special. Anime fans would probably be better off looking elsewhere to get their fix of murder mystery.

- Teepu

Photos ©Funimation ©Spike Chunsoft Co., Ltd.