Danganronpa 3: Hope Side Review

This review contains spoilers for all of Danganronpa 3. If you have not watched it yet, please do not click under the link.

Future? Despair? Hope? (A Review of Danganronpa 3: End of Hope's Peak Academy)

For the last three months, I witnessed death, destruction and despair. 

For the last three months, I watched characters die left and right. Characters I barely knew, characters I really enjoyed watching and such fabulous endings.

For the last three months, I have followed the end of a series that I hold dear to my heart. 

For the last three months, I have watching Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak Academy. 

For those not in the know, Danganronpa is a Japanese visual novel series that details a class of students stuck in an inescapable area, be it a school or an island, forced to kill each other. However, unlike the Hunger Games or Battle Royale, there are rules in place. For example, when a body is found dead, the survivors must investigate the area and then go on trial. If the killer wins, he is let free and the innocent die. However, if the killer loses, they are executed. 

So, what is up with the anime? 

Danganronpa 3 is meant to be the conclusion of the "Hope's Peak Academy Saga," that started up in 2011 with the release of Danganronpa: The Academy of Hope and the Students of Despair, or as it is known in America, Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc. It also has two parts to it showing every week:

"Future Side" which details the story of Makoto Naegi, the main character of the first game, who is suddenly thrust in another Killing Game, where they must find the killer before they are killed themselves. This Killing Game also has an interesting set of rules to it as on their wrists are these bracelets called "NG Codes" or "Forbidden Actions" and "Despair Side," which details the events before the first game and helps explain some parts of the "Future Side." We also see the cast of Danganronpa 2 in this part, characters who had their memories erased because they were once part of a group called "Ultimate Despair" led by the main antagonist of the series, Junko Enoshima.

"Future Side" has a great mystery with questions of "Who Is The Killer?" And when the reveal comes in the end, it surprised me and yet at the same time, due to all the theories I followed and the discussion online, there was a bit of a blow and a shrug. However, there were a few episodes where there wasn't a discussion of who was the killer, but rather a large fight, almost as if these people were confused and concussed. However, this makes sense. Everybody is paranoid, frightened, scared. 

"Despair Side" is interesting to me at least. I feel as if it is simply to help explain a lot of the events detailed in the first two games and the light novel "Danganronpa 0." It's nice fanservice however and makes the series shine through. Not only that, it helps make the world of Hope's Peak shine. 

"Future Side" does have its fair share of problems however as sometimes, there are characters who we don't know about. We see them die and yes, it's horrifying, but their deaths were just there, simply to add shock value. We are left to interpret the events. 

Meanwhile, "Despair Side" also has problems such as taking too long to get to the point of the series, which details how the cast of Danganronpa 2 fell into despair. To be honest, despite how horrifying and sad it is, and yes, while it does make sense as to why Junko would go about the route she took, it didn't feel satisfying. "Despair Side" felt like it could be slightly more expanded in my eyes. 

There is also a special episode called "Hope Side." However, this episode is completely full of spoilers, I will likely post a blog post about my thoughts on the episode at a later date.

In terms of animation, I found it to be very good, every character moved perfectly and I would like to give a shout-out to Episode 7 of "Future Side," which rendered the outside world in impeccable detail while also giving us an...interesting conclusion to the spin-off game "Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls." 

Sound was amazing, I particularly liked the opening and endings of both parts of the anime. Not only that, the use of previous soundtracks and new soundtracks allowed me to become more and more fascinated by what happened in the series. 

All-in-all, this anime is a satisfying conclusion to a series that I love so much, despite the flaws that came with "Despair Side," and be sure to keep an eye out for "New Dangaronpa V3" coming out January 2017 in Japan. 

Danganronpa 3 is being animated by Studio Lerche and being streamed by Funimaton and is currently undergoing a "simudub." 

Danganronpa is owned by Spike Chunsoft. 

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