LogFAQs > #950776965

#35: Sato
Supporting Cast Ranking: 7/8
Ultimate Ability: No Clue
Actual Ultimate Ability: Ultimate Self Incriminater

The main reason this list is up to 40 characters is because of Sato actually. After checking the obvious supporting characters I needed to add, I was going through my head of if there was anyone else I wanted to talk about and Sato jumped out immediately. So to make things a bit more even (and since I didn't want to just do all the most important characters + Sato) I decided to go up to 40 and see who else I could find. So you have Sato to thank for the extra spots!

I wanted to talk about Sato is because Sato might be the single greatest moron in the history of these games. She isn't as annoying or off-putting or frustrating as some of the characters that placed in front of her, but there also isnt anything I particularly like about her, so she winds up all the way down here in 35th place, which is really impressive because some of the characters coming up that I don't like were around to annoy me much longer than Sato. She really makes the most out of her ten minutes of screen time though, doing just about everything wrong she can. Like, when I was doing my actual playthrough I had to cut like half the stuff I wanted to say about Sato being a moron because I realized I was just rambling and it probably wasnt going to be fun for anyone to read. Thats right around when the dread of oh no this game might not be as good as the first started to sink in for the first time, and I was mildly afraid of driving everyone away by complaining about something I knew they all liked. But now you suckers have already read all my important thoughts so I can give Sato the burial she rightly deserves.

I know what some of you are saying. "Who the hell is Sato?" Well for those of you who haven't played Danganronpa 2 recently or have photographic memories for random side characters that have like ten lines of dialogue, she is the moron who kills Fuyuhiko's sister because she is bullying Mahiru and winds up getting killed herself as part of the Twilight Syndrome Murder Case. At best, she is dull. You have to go around identifying who everyone is and everyone else has a distinctive personality from the game, so the one boring odd woman out has to be Sato. She doesnt have too many lines here, and the extent of her character is telling some really bad and obvious lies about how you cant go to the police because thats just what the killer (who is SUPER DEFINITELY not me guys) would want. I am annoyed how much time the chapter spent on this aside in the first place, and it doesnt help that Sato comes off about as bland as you can while youre stuck interacting with her.

I dont rank her as low as Natsumi because at least Sato doesnt seem like a completely terrible person. She is at least acting out of defense of Mahiru, which is a better character trait than being a sweaty pervert or an incel serial killer. But shes dumb. Mahiru makes it pretty clear she didnt ask for this and Sato is acting on her own accord her. Also, I know Natsumi is a terrible person, but the line from well Im going to bully you too now to choking someone out and murdering them by beating them with a swimsuit of gravel seems just a tad extreme. Like maybe get a teacher involved first before you jump right to murder. I want to protect my friend is noble. I will beat this girl to death seems slightly less so even if the victim was Natsumi (who, as you might have guessed from my rankings, also sucks). But even for as bad as Natsumi is, this sort of thing is horrifying and you cant just go around murdering people. Thats kinda the point of these games. Well, unless youre Toko I guess. Then you can murder people and no one really cares so long as you arent actively murdering someone at this very moment.

Her methodology also makes no sense, and I hold this jerk directly responsible for what is probably the worst piece of evidence in either game. Shes lucky there are other characters I truly despise in these games, because the individual responsible for the swimsuit full of gravel clue deserves the very bottom spot on this list for that alone. Even ignoring that though, I have no clue what she was doing here. Why did she have to break the vase in the next room over if she already broke the window? Why did her friends hear the vase break but not the window when it was literally one room over? Why even beat her to death when strangulation was working just fine and seems like a pervert-y kind of way to kill someone in the first place? Why even tip over the fishtank? WHY ANYTHING? WHAT IS GOING ON? SATO NONE OF THIS MAKES ANY SENSE. And then I have to spend half of the trial solving this? No, fuck you Sato. I dont want to solve your shitty crime. All I need to know is the motive here, the rest is utterly pointless. The second chapter here is not my favorite, and I place a large part of that blame on Natsumi and Sato being awful.

But really what gets Sato placed all the way down here is the way she winds up getting caught. Her whole plan is like eight different kinds of stupid, but not "placing incriminating evidence within five feet of the brother of the girl you murdered, who also happens to be the head of the yakuza" stupid. The scene is so tremendously stupid it is legitimately funny. She takes the photo from Mahiru, walks over to a completely empty trash pile, carefully places it on the ground, and walks away. Fuyuhiko (who had to be within eyesight of her) walks up and just grabs the picture. I get that she's still in high school, but you at least have to be not so dumb that you just put damning evidence where people who might want vengeance can see it. Maybe this will get elaborated on a bit more in Danganronpa 3 so Sato doesn't look like the absolute dumbest person in the whole wide world, but at least based on this game alone Sato comes off as a complete buffoon. And you can argue that Monokuma was simplifying things for the sake of his game or it left out details, but the general point of her essentially handing over evidence that she murdered a member of a yakuzas family seems pretty undeniable.

I would also argue that Sato is directly responsible for at least Mahiru, Fuyuhiko, and Peko all getting swept into Ultimate Despair. I don't know exactly how it will be detailed in the anime, but when I was trying to figure out why some of these characters got recruited, I saw a pretty direct line for those three from the events in the Twilight Syndrome game. It is actually interesting how much overall impact this completely minor character had on the overall plot of the series if that is the case, and a huge chunk of Ultimate Despair likely gets recruited thanks to Sato. All Sato had to do was not be driven to murder as a 15 year old girl and it wouldn't have ruined the lives of like five different people. Congrats, Sato! That's some extraordinary failure for someone your age. Maybe your ultimate ability was ultimate fuck up everything for everyone always.

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Moops?
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