Back to Pokemblem's Profile Pokemblem's Profile

This entry (along with Mirai-hen) was made for those that have played the first two games of the series since this helps complete the series timeline. So keep in mind that since I can't spoil here but I'll do my best to make this a good review in my capabilities, if that makes any sense. So if you haven't played the 2nd game, go do so before watching this since just watching Danganronpa the Animation isn't going to help you here.

Story: The premise is on the anime's page so you can go there for that. Anyways, this is the prequel to everything that has happened ... to the series starting with class 77's road to hope up to the end of where they fall into despair. What I like about the story is that they may have it at an open ending but isn't that what a prequel is supposed to do? They nailed that aspect pretty well, I'm getting a little ahead of myself so I'll go back a little.

The series starts with like a typical high school anime then it slowly becomes darker the more that you watch. The execution itself was a bit rushed but also brilliant as the Danganronpa franchise perfectly handles despair as well as hope itself, the two being the main themes of this series.

Score: 9/10 for the story

The art uses its character designs from the series overall which is something that I never had a problem with in all honestly. Lerche does a good job with matching the atmosphere with the tone of the show, which is something that studio does very well with some of the shows they worked on the past (ie Ranpo Kitan: Game of Laplace). The animation isn't nothing too special but it works well for the series as it doesn't need that. The backgrounds look very nice, but nothing too special.

Score for the art: 8/10

The OST is a bit hard to tell since I was a bit distracted of what was going on but the tracks were very good and they sound nice on their own which is a plus in my book. The OP theme is very good with not only having different versions as the show progresses, which helps fit the tone of the story and the vocals are perfect for it too. The ED theme on the other hand....is nice with the visuals showing the various good times that class 77 have together although Nagito isn't the best singer (his seiyu sings the ED).
The voice acting was very well done as the seiyu gives out the best performances they have for the characters and not once have they failed at it, haven't seen the dub for this yet so I can't compare the two at the present time.

Score for the sound: 9/10

The characters are the same ones from Danganronpa 2, so it’s about them, somewhat. A few characters that took their debut in this entry as well as in the future arc (ie Chisa Yukizome according to the Danganronpa wiki) did well to serve their purposes although only one of them being Yukizome got more screentime compared to the other two characters, this will be the last time I mention the future arc in this review, so I highly apologize if you were annoyed by that. What I meant by somewhat well, only Hinata, Nagito and Chiaki Nanami mainly got the focus. I liked how the characters kept their original personalities and vice versa so that’s a plus, otherwise it would be very awkward for me to watch. Part of what the light hearted tone was due to how humorous the characters interacted with each other. The more you grew attached to the characters in Class 77, the harder it’ll be when it comes towards the end of the anime when a certain event happens that I obviously won’t spoil.

The three that get the most focus on do impact on the story in a large amount of ways without them realizing it for example of how Nanami gets her class to play some video games with her (that scene is one of my favorite scenes from the first half of this entry), which affects in how closer she gets with Hinata in their friendship as they talk more as they play video games. In a way this represents hope in the atmosphere in class 77 as the less time they interact with each other due to how things end up later, which ends up making the time of the despair even closer if that makes any sense. As for Nagito, well he is just Nagito doing his best to help his class which somewhat ends up backfiring, as he does hold an impact of how events go so I’ll give him credit for that. Am I allowed to mention that Junko is part of this, otherwise why else would the title be called the “Despair arc” anyways, and she is not only entertaining but she also did a good job at going even further as an antagonist, I’ll leave it at that before this gets ugly….

I liked the character cast, as I didn’t dislike anybody, although I do have a love-hate relationship with a certain character that doesn’t appear much in this arc but it’s good to mention that here.

Overall the characters get a score of a 9, as well...no cast can be perfect after all, when it comes to the Danganronpa franchise

Enjoyment:
This may be written a bit differently compared to the other sections as well, I’m not used to writing my enjoyment on something but rather than reading on my rambling I’ll just be honest here. I really loved it. Now to be a bit more specific so this won’t be as vague. For instance, I really liked the humor in the chances they got, I recall laughing a lot in the first two episodes due to the situations they got in. When the show became true to its name, I wasn’t prepared for it as it gave me tears, I had to take a short break while watching episode 9 to calm myself down a bit before I continued.
I did find a lot of enjoyment from this series, but I think it’s a bit hard to describe why I like this entry other than the fact that it’s something you’re going to have to try for yourself, it’s best I got to say, I guess….
Score for enjoyment: a perfect 10/10

Overall, I did like this entry into the Danganronpa franchise. Sure it isn’t perfect but that I think that’s what it was trying to be as it was supposed to help fill in the holes that people would have after finishing a playthrough of Danganronpa 2. Simply put, if you want some questions answered, give this a shot just remember to play Danganronpa 2 first before giving this a watch. At the time of this review, the dub for this arc isn’t finished.

Final score: a solid 9/10

This is my first review(in general) so I apologize if the review looks really weird.

STORY: 6

Here's a concept: Oda Nobunaga with mechs and Nobunaga himself is not a girl and it's not related to high school! It may not sound interesting considering the fact that there are other historical figures in the series like Leonardo da Vinci. The story overall isn't too terrible nor is it fantastic. The story in a way is original but it's just that the writers occasionally didn't know what they were doing so they placed some random plot elements and it fully doesn't make any sense whatsoever. The ending however ... isn't that amazing but it does close off the story pretty well (something that many anime don't seem to have).

Although the story doesn't fully take it itself seriously and the story doesn't follow what it's supposed to be.

The story overall isn't too terrible nor is it fantastic. The story in a way is original but it's just that the writers occasionally didn't know what they were doing so they placed some random plot elements and it fully doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

Art: 8

The animation isn't that special but I do like the character designs. They weren't too realistic nor were they moe-ish. The art isn't too memorable but it's decent enough for the story.

The animation isn't that impressive but good enough for the series. I'm not fully expecting much for the animation, considering that is done by Satelight, compared to something like
Aquarion EVOL (which has flashy animation) but the action scenes were brought out compared to something like Aquarion EVOL.

The backgrounds help fit the setting but that's all it does. Overall the animation is decent, but not the greatest out there.

Sound: 6

I am not sure how to judge the voice acting as I'm not fluent in Japanese but I'm trying to learn the language but I'll do my best! The performances were well enough for the characters they are voicing although (in my opinion) best performance goes to Mamoru Miyano voicing Nobunaga when it comes to the way the voice sounds, which is something the seiyuu normally does so no surprise there (right?)

My favorite opening of the series is the second opening (not just because it's done by JAM Project). Both ending themes I really like (both in animation-wise, which isn't much but well done in its own right)

The OST itself felt a little transparent although one track comes to mind in comes to be memorable but I forgot what the track is called nor what it's used for but it sounds the most memorable to me (I'll edit this review when I find it).

Characters: 7

It's kinda hard to explain everything in the section, since I'm not supposed to spoil anything. I'll give out a brief summary, the cast is average, personality and character development wise.

Enjoyment 8:

It doesn't get a 10 because there are times where it feels out of place kinda affects my enjoyment. Same with the characters (favorite character is Nobunaga, just saying).

Overall: 6

I like the anime despite the flaws (which are a bunch of them). It is all right for what it is. It was good enough to make it worth watching it to the end. If you aren't a fan of mecha anime, this anime isn't for you. If you are a fan of mecha, I would honestly give this anime a try.