Board 8 > MrSmartGuy ranks Danganronpa categories that you ask for

(+) Yeah! (+)

Bored in lockdown and ended up watching a ton of recommended Danganronpa videos on YouTube for a few hours, and now I have the urge to make my opinions known cuz why not. Music, cases, waifus, whatever you can think of, I'll try it (within reason).

Disclaimers: if there are too many things in a category to rank, I hold the right to limit it to a top 10. I have not played Ultra Despair Girls or read Danganronpa 0.

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Top Ten Hair

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Top Ten Character Gimmicks (Catchphrase, Pose, etc.)

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Oh. Spoilers for Danganronpa 1, 2, 3, and V3 by the way

Hair:
10. Junko - eh, it's iconic
9. Leon - glad he grew it back out
8. Chisa - mmm mmm
7. Gundham - he's slick
6. Maki - she got hair fo days
5. Teruteru - say what you want about his personality, that hair and voice is superb
4. Celeste - it's everywhere
3. Ibuki - fuck yeah, multi-color
2. Aoi - more specifically DR3's Aoi. Is cute.
1. Mondo - fuckin' easiest #1 ever

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Waifu

Most nonsensical murder methods

Executions

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Quirks:
HM. Nagito - not the hope thing oh god no. But every single time his voice line "YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW?!" comes up, it makes me chuckle and I have to repeat it out loud
10. Daisaku Bandai - I had to look up his name. lol funny voice
9. Junko - eh, she's iconic
8. Teruteru - is AVRIL LAVIGNE a catchphrase?
7. Keebo - his obsession with finding people robophobic tends to grate on others' nerves, but I love it.
6. Genocide Jack - way too much to unpack with her in a single line
5. Kaito Momota - Luminary of the Stars!
4. Ibuki - Hyper ADHD can be fun! Pointing!
3. Great Gozu - it's like Mr. Torgue in Danganronpa form and also he's a wrestler. Fantastic.
2. Miu - my favorite character to hate in the series, maybe in all of video games
1. Gundham - I fuckin' love everything about Gundham's quirks. If this list was just catchphrases, he'd make up like 7 of my top 10.


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By much longer you would have prefered them to live (for those that don't survive)

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Waifus:
10. Sakura - Muscle Waifu (just ask DRV3 fans)
9. Kyoko - Smart Waifu
8. Chiaki - Too Obvious Waifu
7. Chisa - Practical Waifu
6. Ibuki - Spastic Waifu
5. Maki - Tsundere Waifu
4. Sayaka - Psycho Waifu
3. Sonia - Royal Waifu
2. Kaede - Superb Waifu, unfortunately taken by Shuichi already
1. Aoi - One True Waifu

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I have a meeting I gotta attend, but I'll get back to this in like an hour and a half.

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MrSmartGuy posted...

8. Chiaki - Too Obvious Waifu

I'll tag you as a man of culture.

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Had time to blast this one out real quick, though.

Murder Nonsense
1. 3-3 - come on now everyone knows this is the sole case as to why this category exists

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Plot Twists

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wow sakura love, nice

Executions

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Rank the protagonists

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Murder Nonsense for real though
10. 1-2 - Wouldn't even make the list, but Byakuya messing with the body just sneaks it in
9. 2-3 - Not actually all that nonsensical, but man, the decision to use the conference room was a headscratcher
8. 1-5 - some real 3D chess Junko played for this one
7. 3-2 - Just fuckin' leave Ryoma's body in his room; who's gonna fuckin' figure that shit out
6. 2-5 - Nagito, you god damn maniac, you. Also, how the fuck is this only #6?!
5. 3-1 - Ignoring the events of 3-6, Kaede had to prep the shit outta this one.
4. 1-3 - Easily the worst plan in the entire series; the only one that literally eliminated every single other person as suspects
3. 3-5 - Kokichi baby what is you doin
2. 2-4 - Monokuma had to reeeeeeally will this one into existence, what with the funhouse and Nekomaru's functions and all
1. 3-3 - KIYO YOU DAFT MOTHERFUCKER YOU HAD THE PERFECT CRIME ALREADY

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Was actually really hoping to get this request. Watching a top executions video that I vehemently disagreed with is what prompted the topic.

Executions:
17. Mikan - really fucking bad. And no, the lewdness of the syringe pumping did not make it better.
16. Makoto/Kyoko - Kyoko doesn't even get her own execution? Lame. And so was the execution.
15. Mondo - He died from this? What? I recall there being some tale in Japan about circles and butter or something, but I don't care.
14. Alter Ego - The shock of him popping up on screen when the execution starts is good, but the execution itself is really tame.
13. Gonta - At least the music is good.
12. Kiyo - Not very good or entertaining until he gets salted by Monokuma and his sister. Then it's hilarious.
11. Junko - I mean, it's just all of DR1's. So it goes in the middle of those.
10. Tsumugi/Keebo - She just kinda stands there and takes it. But Keebo fucking explodes, which is metal.
9. Kaito - I thought at first it was just gonna send him to the earth's core, but no, he goes through it to space anyway. I don't really get it.
8. Kirumi - End of DRv3 block, man that was a lot in almost a row. I like the subversion of having her trying to get away from Monokuma, just to fall for a trap.
7. Peko - The cinematography on this one makes it a tad confusing to follow, but once you understand that she's just a puppet, it's pretty good.
6. Celeste - Getting to the good stuff now. She's about to get her wish at a glorious death when.... cue the fire truck.
5. Gundham - Execution itself actually kinda sucks, but man, him going to heaven at the end while his hamsters watch..... "Fall, my tears...."
4. Chiaki - While I'm not gonna fall for obv waifu material, I am still gonna squee at easy, but fun classic gaming references.
3. Teruteru - The beginning is kinda goofy, but deep-frying him both is horrific and matches his talent perfectly, which are the two best traits for an execution.
2. Kaede - The aforementioned video I watched thought this was "lame". It is very much not. This ranking will totally show them.
1. Leon - The very first and the very best. Simple, yet brutal, and phenomenal cinematography. Wow, every game starts with the best execution, huh.

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The first ~20 seconds of music in Chiaki's execution are some legitimate god tier tunes.

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How much longer I would've preferred them to live:
This is a really strange topic to rank for me, because it can be interpreted in two drastically different ways. One way would be to say how much did you like the character and enjoy their presence and think their story could've been fleshed out, had they stayed around a bit longer by changing the overarching story. And the other one would be asking if a character stayed around for longer, would they have made the overall story better? So I'm gonna do 2 separate lists.

How much longer I would've enjoyed their presence because they were fun characters:
10. Leon - He was a pretty easygoing guy, and I liked hearing about his aspirations to be in a band.
9. Ibuki - Just a fun girl who really didn't deserve to go out like that.
8. Daisaku Bandai - I know fucking nothing about this guy, but his voice alone makes me wish there was more of him in DR3.
7. Sayaka - Man, she really just suuuuuuper broke down in Chapter 1, huh.
6. Ultimate Impostor - He's legitimately very interesting, and we get to know almost nothing about him in DR2.
5. Mondo - He was very earnest and his voice clips are outstanding.
4. Mukuro - insert Impostor write-up here, but more.
3. Great Gozu - He is so easily the best DR3 character and he's wiped out in like 3 episodes. Ugh.
2. Sakura - If I had one choice for a character to revive in the entire series, it's her.
1. Kaede - fucking duh

Characters I wish had lived longer to make a better overall story:
I truly think that pretty much all of the deaths in all of Danganronpa are written in such a way that the overall story would have to DRASTICALLY change in order to make them living longer worth it. That said, there is exactly one exception to this rule....

1. Kiyo - God 3-3 is such a fucking waste. I wanted him to have killed Tenko but not Angie so god damn bad. It would've been amazing to have him stuck with everyone else afterward, having been outed as a bona fide killer.

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I just thought of something. I want to amend my waifu rankings and put real life Kaede at #1. The one that casually walks up to her interview and says "I don't have any faith in humanity." I can vibe super hard with that.

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Songs
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Just for fun, where would IRLChiaki's execution fall on the list?

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Characters most likely to become B8 regulars

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This one deserves a bit more effort put into it, imo.
Plot Twists:

10. Chiaki was a real student
The lone DR3 moment on the list, because Future is really bad, and Despair is just kind of a slice of life anime and doesn't really bring any new plot developments to the table. Except this one. You see the class and that Chiaki is part of it, which doesn't make any sense at all, given that she's just an AI in DR2. As you watch more of the show and think more about it, you realize something awful is going to happen eventually, it's just a matter of when and how, and because of that sense of dread, I think it barely deserves a place in the list.

9. DR1 students lost multiple years of memories, oh by the way the world has ended over that time
The first time I played DR1, this plot point did not sit well with me at all. I like my motivations grounded in reality and Junko did not provide anything like that whatsoever. Everything was spiraling completely out of control and I just had to sit there and accept that this is where the story is going and I couldn't do anything about it. However, this single plot point is the basis of the entire series, and I've come to appreciate it for what it is.

8. Chiaki and SSJ Hajime Deus Ex Machina their way out of the Neo World Program
By all means, the ending of DR2 should not have happened. At least in the way it actually did. It's 100% anime bullshit and I don't care because I fucking love it. It makes no sense and I don't care, inject that anime nonsense directly into my veins baby!!

7. The DR2 cast are the Remnants of Despair
It's not a terribly grand reveal, but it sheds light on a looooooooot of questions that DR2 leaves in its wake as it treads along. Why was Mikan so fucked up when she caught the Remembering Disease? Why was the organization that trapped the kids on the island full of nice, caring people? Why did Nagito try to kill all of his classmates? And the answer to every one of those questions is one single plot point. We were actually the bad guys.

6. Hajime is just a no-name student
The entire time you are stuck on the island, one of the major mysteries you are trying to solve is who exactly you are. Over time, it gets less and less important, but as soon as the traitor's identity comes to the forefront of the plot, so too does Hajime's identity. And then all of a sudden, the one person who can rub it in better than anyone is the one to drop the bomb on you. It's not a glamorous answer, but it's one that makes a lot of sense, and just introduces new questions to the main story.

5. Never mind, actually, Hajime is the mastermind and also the Ultimate Hope
Just kidding, Hajime is the one behind bringing Monokuma and Junko into the Neo World Program and starting the killing game. Also he knows how to do everything, and is superhuman. Except he's not actually that way in the NWP because reasons. And his name is Izuru Kamakura, look don't question any of this too hard. As Junko herself says, "you should never make the last character who appears in a detective story turn out to be the mastermind", but in this case, it's actually you, just........ your alter ego that you don't know about yet? It's complicated, but the way the game handles the reveal is fantastic. "I'll explain it until you do understand! You're Izuru Kamakura you're Izuru Kamakura you're Izuru Kamakura you're Izuru Kamakura you're"

4. Sayaka was trying to frame Makoto
It's certainly not the most complicated case, and DEFINITELY NOT a hard case to guess the culprit, but I will always have a place in my heart for Case 1-1. It begins the trend of all Danganronpas that all case 1's have some truly massive shit to drop on you. Slowly realizing over the course of the trial that your assistant has been getting close to you just to use you and everyone else to escape this place is some goooooood shit.

3. Nagito didn't actually kill himself
I spent a good 60% of Case 2-5 expecting an end result of suicide. All the evidence pointed to it, and we had no one left in the cast that I felt was capable of murder. But nope! Turns out the victim is a truly twisted individual and forced the character who had been trying the hardest to stop every murder in the game to commit one of her own. Watching the remaining cast spiral into despair at the thought that one of them was guilty and they had no way to tell which one is my favorite 40-ish minutes of trial in the entire series.

2. DRV3 is all bullshit
Not gonna lie, my first time through this case, I hated it. I hated that everything I'd done over the course of the game was for less than nothing. It felt so bad to know that nothing mattered and everything was fake. But maaan, the more I went over it and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that is a fucking genius plot twist. I cannot think of any twist in any other game that has left me as thoroughly speechless as this one did. And this isn't even the top twist of the game!

1. Kaede is the culprit
No single moment in the series, and perhaps all of video games, has left me floored quite as hard as when I picked the right culprit in case 3-1. I was so confused at the time. "Oh, it really is Shuichi? That's weird how we've been going out of our way to say it's not him. Wait, no? Then it's Miu? OK game, I'm confused, there's literally no one else it can be. Shit, time's running out, let's pick ourselves and get the gag answer out of the wHAAAAAAAAAATTTT"

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hombad46 posted...

Just for fun, where would IRLChiaki's execution fall on the list?

Between Peko and Kirumi maybe? It's the only execution I get physically ill watching, so that's........ good? I honestly don't know. When I say that it's great that an execution is brutal, it's because it's in a cartoony way. Leon getting pelted by 80 baseballs a second is brutal, but it's not realistic. Teruteru burning in a volcano is brutal, but he's cooking into a golden brown which is just kinda funny. Watching Chiaki run through a maze, constantly getting stabbed and hit and reacting in very real ways is just hard to watch.

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Yeah number 1 was insane. I remember when the game released in Japan, my sister and I couldn't wait and just wanted some info. So we talked ourselves into just looking up the first execution.

And to be honest it just made our hype for the game go up even more. We didn't know why she did it or how, we didn't even know how much of the execution to believe. Definitely one of my favorite memories of hyping up a release.

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The 2-5 and 3-1 twists are legitimately some of the best twists I've ever seen in the mystery genre. So fucking smart. (And the stylized main character swap to Shuichi was just so damn cool that I still get chills just thinking about it!)

How about a mini-game ranking?

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Protagonists:
4. Makoto - God he's awful. I really enjoy him when he's not who you're controlling, but I really prefer my main characters to have a brain. He's so so bad.
3. Kaede - It pains me to place her at #3, but the other two protags are just so good. I had to place her this low by virtue of not having nearly as much screen time.
2. Shuichi - I actually didn't like Shuichi much when I first started controlling him. It takes until Case 4 or 5 that he finally gets some true character development.
1. Hajime - Probably a dark horse for most people, but Hajime is easily the protag I relate to the most. He's so cynical and I love him for the exact same reasons Apollo is my favorite AA character.


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Aw fuck I forgot I was gonna pull a fast one on plot twists and put my #1 as Kyoko isn't actually dead and just post the video of the blooper where her voice actress goes "Yeah, I don't get this either, pretty sure I died" as the write-up.

Oh well.

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Makoto, Shuichi and Hajime all feel like exactly the same person to me. I know they aren't. Hajime is sometimes snide, and Shuichi emotes more than the others simply because we get to see him during conversations. Plus, the cast leans on him as "ultimate detective" more. But when I finished DR2, I literally forgot Hajime's name and called him Makoto instead. Kaede is the easy pick for me there. Because she's inherently different, she'd either be first or last, but it's an easy first for me.

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MrSmartGuy posted...

Protagonists:
4. Makoto - God he's awful. I really enjoy him when he's not who you're controlling, but I really prefer my main characters to have a brain. He's so so bad.
3. Kaede - It pains me to place her at #3, but the other two protags are just so good. I had to place her this low by virtue of not having nearly as much screen time.
2. Shuichi - I actually didn't like Shuichi much when I first started controlling him. It takes until Case 4 or 5 that he finally gets some true character development.
1. Hajime - Probably a dark horse for most people, but Hajime is easily the protag I relate to the most. He's so cynical and I love him for the exact same reasons Apollo is my favorite AA character.

I agree with all of this

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I'll request a ranking for top murders -- meaning the act itself. How it was done, under what circumstances, what prep work was involved.

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Songs:
10. V3 Argument -BREAK-, V3
9. Box 16, 1
8. Closing Argument, 1&2
7. Miss Monomi's Practice Lesson, 2
6. Beautiful Days, 2
5. New World Order, all
4. Climactic Re-enactment V3
3. Closing Argument V3, V3
2. Debate Scrum, V3
1. Kill Command, 2

Decided not to write these up, because they basically all just boil down to "I LIKE LISTENING TO THIS"

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Mini-games:
13. Improved Hangman's Gambit - lol improved ok game if you say so
12. Psyche Taxi - They took one of the best mini-games from the previous game, slowed it down, and made it take 400% longer. No thanks.
11. Hangman's Gambit - Let's not pretend that DR1's hangman's gambit was that much better
10. Bullet Time Battle/Panic Talk Action - I like rhythm minigames. This is not a good rhythm minigame.
9. Argument Armament - This is also not a good rhythm minigame, but it's slightly better.
8. Hangman's Gambit Ver. 3.0 - At least this Hangman's Gambit kinda resembles a mini-game.
7. Mind Mine - It's probably the most fun game to play in the V3 casino, but for some reason I enjoy it a lot less during trials.
6. Rebuttal Showdown - Confusing as fuck when you first play it, but I enjoy the idea of one person butting in and countering the main guy for a change.
5. Mass Panic Debate - Basically just nonstop debate but you have three dialogues. It's fine.
4. Debate Scrum - Great game, best music.
3. Logic Dive - I don't understand how they made Logic Dive so much worse in V3. I just don't.
2. Nonstop Debate - It's the core game. V3's version is the best because of its presentation, but they're all about as good.
1. Closing Argument - I don't know why filling in a comic book is so much fun, but it is.

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azuarc posted...

I'll request a ranking for top murders -- meaning the act itself. How it was done, under what circumstances, what prep work was involved.

Do you mean like how likely they were to have gotten away with it? I'm not sure how to interpret this one.

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at first, i was really just...annoyed at v3's twist. 'oh the director is mocking us'. i thought it was amazing, but man i was like...fuck

but as i've kinda pondered on the ending (mostly a month after i originally finished it), the entire twist in drv3 is probably, bar none, the most clever and innovative technique to mind fuck the audience i have seen since some of the far older titles. if there's another entry into the series (i think there will be), they have a real high bar to clear.

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MrSmartGuy posted...

7. Miss Monomi's Practice Lesson, 2

Ah, I see you're a man of culture as well.

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MrSmartGuy posted...

2. Nonstop Debate - It's the core game. V3's version is the best because of its presentation,

Man I love how creative the words' animation get.

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MrSmartGuy posted...

Do you mean like how likely they were to have gotten away with it? I'm not sure how to interpret this one.

Like, how interesting the circumstances were, how creatively they chose their murder weapon. If it doesn't make for a good list, ignore it. I was just trying to think of something that wasn't "rank the characters" or "rank the cases".

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I don't think your Hajime at #1 is as dark horse as you think. Pretty sure that's wildly accepted as the majority opinion.

Interesting Murder Plots
10. Kokichi's of Miu - I can't really say it's Gonta's plot, since it was entirely thought up by Kokichi, but I would be remiss if I didn't include the murder by toilet paper.
9. Kirumi's - Not the most ingenious murder weapon, but ropewaying the body over a pool into a piranha tank to frame the magician is pretty out there.
8. Mikan's - Again, not a great murder itself but it's the time spent crafting the alibi that puts hers on the list
7. Teruteru's - In vain of Miu's Murder being called Kokichi's, it almost feels better to call this kill Nagito's, because of the extreme manipulation, but eh.
6. Junko's - DR1's cast really didn't know how to kill very well, as this is their lone representative. Baiting your sister to break a rule, then using her body to frame two other students in a non-murder is an easy #1 for DR1.
5. Kiyo's - In the words of the now-late Miu, "What the hell's a seesaw homicide? That's fucking crazy!"
4. Gundham's - One of only two cases in the series that I consider a perfect crime, only snuffed out because of Fuyuhiko being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
3. Kokichi's of himself - If you're crazy enough to plot your own murder, you know it's gonna be good.
2. Kaede's - I had a lot of trouble placing this one, anywhere from #2 to #5, but I ultimately decided that it was worthy of this high a spot after thinking about all the prep work that went into it.
1. Nagito's of himself - Is it even possible to put anything else at #1? This is the other perfect crime, btw, only thwarted because an AI rebelled against its programming.

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Favorite character design

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MrSmartGuy posted...

2. Kaede's - I had a lot of trouble placing this one, anywhere from #2 to #5, but I ultimately decided that it was worthy of this high a spot after thinking about all the prep work that went into it.

This one warrants high placement simply because she does the prep work under the nose of the player while the player is in control of her.

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MrSmartGuy posted...

3. Nagito didn't actually kill himself
I spent a good 60% of Case 2-5 expecting an end result of suicide. All the evidence pointed to it, and we had no one left in the cast that I felt was capable of murder. But nope! Turns out the victim is a truly twisted individual and forced the character who had been trying the hardest to stop every murder in the game to commit one of her own. Watching the remaining cast spiral into despair at the thought that one of them was guilty and they had no way to tell which one is my favorite 40-ish minutes of trial in the entire series.

I'm confused here, do you realize that the reason Nagito did that was to save Chiaki and kill everyone else? He wasn't forcing Chiaki to become a murderer, he actually legit thought nobody could solve the crime and she would successfully win the game as a result, and it almost worked. He fell into despair after realizing that everyone but Chiaki was a remnant of despair, the very thing he hated most, and that Chiaki was the lone good guy.

Paratroopa1 posted...

I'm confused here, do you realize that the reason Nagito did that was to save Chiaki and kill everyone else? He wasn't forcing Chiaki to become a murderer, he actually legit thought nobody could solve the crime and she would successfully win the game as a result, and it almost worked. He fell into despair after realizing that everyone but Chiaki was a remnant of despair, the very thing he hated most, and that Chiaki was the lone good guy.

Also, this is why this would be my #1 favorite twist in the series - the whole time I thought Nagito just did a crazy thing because he was crazy, but he actually had a really sensible motive, and a REALLY good reason for plotting the crime EXACTLY as he did. I legit didn't expect that.

Character Design
10. Great Gozu - It's a bull's head in a suit. What's not to like?
9. Gundham - For Gundham, it's not so much his design that I like, but all of his various extravagant poses. They're wonderful.
8. Seiko - She was really ahead of the game on the whole coronavirus thing, huh?
7. Keebo - Once you get above his neck, he's very bland, but I love what they did with his body.
6. Celeste - She is opposite-Keebo. I'm not a big fan of the whole lolita thing, but my god that hair.
5. Monokuma - Gotta give credit where it's due. I don't think Danganronpa would've taken off quite as hard if they didn't nail the main antagonist's design like they did. Simple, but very foreboding.
4. Miu - She's got kind of a Final Fantasy vibe going on with all the crazy chokers and belts she has on, and the goggles are super steampunk. I really dig it.
3. Korekiyo - Dude takes a few hours to get ready every morning and it's super worth it.
2. Kaede - Kaede's design is made by all the subtle details; the note hairpins and the musical staff skirt are just perfect.
1. Ibuki - God that blue and pink color motif are just BLAM. She's so fucking cute I can't stand it!

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Ships

2-5 is 100% my favorite case in the series and I would even rank it higher than every Ace Attorney case. It's my favorite piece of detective nonfiction I've ever read. But I don't really give it the plot twist nod because the revelations are spread out too much. Even in-case, first there's the revelation that Nagito isn't the culprit, then there's a 20 minute interlude where you have to do the closing argument, AND THEN Chiaki outs herself as the traitor and killer. Then after the case, it's revealed that Chiaki was an AI, the entire cast of actual people are all Remnants of Despair, and the fact that Nagito's plan was to kill them all off to save the world is just kinda thrown in as an afterthought.

It's still a brilliant piece of writing, but I can't put it above the top two spots, because it doesn't have quite the stopping power that they did. I can point to the exact moment when the lights turn off and Kaede begins to monologue how sorry she is to everyone she's hurt that completely left me speechless.

I can refer to the moment Tsumigi transforms into Byakuya and starts name-dropping things that are completely fake: "Hope's Peak Academy and the Future Foundation don't actually exist. The biggest, most awful, most tragic event in human history never happened. All of these things just happened in a fictional world called Danganronpa." At this particular point in time, I was just stunned and couldn't do anything but read on to see how things play out.

Case 2-5 never really had that singular moment that made me go "whoa" and stop playing to reflect on what I just read quite like those other two moments.

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(also please note spoilers for character rankings if I'm ever asked for them, but Nagito would be my #1 so >__>)

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