LogFAQs > #950824006

#34: Monomi
Supporting Cast Ranking: 6/8
Ultimate Ability: She doesnt have one
Actual Ultimate Ability: Ultimate Walmart Brand Knockoff

I dont know what the most disappointed I was by some revelation in the Dangaonronpa series, but I know a top ten moment for me was when I realized Monomi was an all game character and not a prologue only character. When Monokuma showed up my first thought was oh no killing are about to start followed immediately after by oh well at least I wont have to deal with Monomi anymore. But, oh how wrong I was. OH THE DESPAIR. Little did long ago Suprak know that Monomi was basically going to be around for the entire game, being every bit as annoying and cloying as she was in the opening. Junko truly is a master of despair since she knew keeping Monomi around would make things truly unbearable.

The easiest way to describe Monomi is intentionally annoying. The closest comparison I could think for Monomi was Claptrap from the Borderlands games. She is a character that you can tell almost instantly is meant to annoy you and boy does she succeed on that end. Literally my first thought after hearing her voice for the very first time was oh Im going to haaaaaaate this character. So the game definitely gets the intentionally annoying part right, if nothing else. But heres the thing about inetnionally annoying characters: theyre still annoying. The fact I am supposed to be annoyed by Monomi doesnt make the annoyance Im feeling any more bearable. If a restaurant intentionally gave me food poisoning, I wouldnt later be vomiting everywhere and thinking well they certainly did a good job giving me food poisoning, if nothing else!

For the early portions of the game, I think my general sentiment towards Monomi was I dont get what the hell this weird rabbit is doing here, and Im annoyed. But then when I finally go to the end of the game, and understood what Monomi was and what her role was in the school, that sentiment changed completed to I get what that weird rabbit was doing here, but Im still annoyed. It is like she was specifically created to be annoying, and I have no clue why Makoto and friends made the guidance role to be as obnoxious as possible. If you guys were trying to make the characters all form good happy memories, one thing you shouldnt include is an annoying animatronic rabbit that wants to talk about love love and spout these weird cloying catchphrases that look like they belong on the most boring 30-year-old moms Instagram account.

Her interaction with Monokuma is alsostrange. She plays this weird comic relief slapstick sort of character, which is bizarre in retrospect because you would think she should be absolutely mortified that all these students shes supposed to be protecting are getting murdered in front of her. The tone between her and Monokuma stands out to me as being especially weird in a game full of weird things. They kept doing these weird little comedy bits in between the murders, and the biggest issue is none of them were really funny. I love the fact that Danganronpa as a whole is weird as hell. Thats one of the primary draws. But a lot of times it just felt like they didnt quite know what to do with Monomi, so shes stuck trying to force some humor in situations that dont really work. Danganronpa does a great job balancing comedy with dark subject matter, but it almost always feels organic with the scene and fits into the bizarre and wonderful style of the game. With Monomi though, things always felt forced to me. Like the writers were like oh shoot we need to get Monomi to say something. She was integral because of the overarching story, but they couldnt work her into dialogue in a good way without tipping their hand too much, so instead were stuck with all the worst comedy bits crammed into one character.

There are a couple of things about Monomi I did like. First, I liked how everyone else hated her. That was cathartic to me. Shed show up on screen and Id be like oh fuck its Monomi and all of a sudden Akane or someone would be like oh fuck its Monomi and Id feel a bit closer to the main cast because of it. Also, her finally standing up to Monokuma at the very end was pretty cool. She does it like five chapters too late and spends most of the game pathetically whining about how she cant help and paying the Laurel to Monokumas Hardy. Shes just kind of there most of the game, so when she shows up and actually starts trying it is too little too late, but it is at least better than too little too never.There does seem to be some genuine concern for the students here, which is nice to see, but it wouldve been better if it was packaged into a character I didnt hate. Oh, and her finale against giant AI Junko was pretty cool and was one of the better animated sequences in either game. So there are little things here and there about Monomi I dont hate, but overall she is a character I wish I could forget.

I think what best sums up my thoughts on Monomi is that I was only really tangentially aware that she died. Like, I saw her in Chiakis execution and knew she was getting blown up and gobbled up and smushed, but the fact she wasnt going to be really around any longer wasnt something that fully processed to me. Chiakis untimely death was such a fucking gut punch that Monomis death was completely overshadowed to such a point that I didnt even really care that she was dead. It is basically like if you go to the best steakhouse in town and order a filet mignon and also a stick of slightly chewed celery. One of those things is so much better than the other that the other might as well not even exist. Ive experienced a lot of feelings to deaths in this series. Sadness and relief and joy and disgust and of course DESPAIR. Monomis was the only one where I felt absolutely nothing at all. It was barely even a blip on my radar, eclipsed by something so much greater. And in the end, that really is a fitting ending for Monomi. She dies like she lived: essentially ignored so you can focus on the much more interesting and important stuff going on around her.

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Moops?
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