Back to MyStereoHeart's Profile MyStereoHeart's Profile

I'm probably biased. I watched the original Danganronpa animation before I even knew there were games, back in 2014. And I'll admit that the anime has flaws - somehow the English dub is subpar, even though most of the (amazingly talented) VAs reprise their role from the video game, the pacing is pretty rushed, the animation can be stilted and cheap at times - but at the end of the day, I think it actually fixes, or at least tones down, the issues present in the original game. Makoto works a lot better as a protagonist when we can actually see his expressions on-screen during ... his interactions with other characters, and even though I think the pacing is a little too fast, it's still a vast improvement from the flood of dialogue that can drown a player trying to wade their way through the first game. The story just works so much better when all the superfluous, repetitive dialogue is trimmed down to a manageable level.

There are some minor things that you'll miss by watching the anime instead of the game, but I don't think any of them are particularly big, aside from missing out on the free-time events (which you'd be catching up on post-game anyways to view the ones that you didn't get to see during your first playthrough). All in all, I think this is an easy, engaging introduction to the series, and it lets potentially curious players get a taste of what the Danganronpa universe is like without forcing them to slog through 25 hours of repetitive dialogue and awkward quicktime/third person shooter elements.

I think the series as a whole is more controversial and might not appeal to everyone, but the first Danganronpa story stands on its own and serves as a genuinely compelling addition to the battle royale genre.