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commentaryvorg · 5 years

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Danganronpa V3 Commentary: Part 4.17

Be aware that this is not a blind playthrough! This will contain spoilers for the entire game, regardless of the part of the game I’m commenting on. A major focus of this commentary is to talk about all of the hints and foreshadowing of events that are going to happen and facts that are going to be revealed in the future of the story. It is emphatically not intended for someone experiencing the game for their first time.

Last time, in the first half of trial 4’s conclusion, Alter Ego Gonta confessed about his motive (most of it) which Kokichi very much manipulated him into having and acting on even though nobody realises it, Kaito struggled to understand Gonta’s despair while still also trying to understand Kokichi, Gonta was the loveliest who had even managed to get through to Kokichi somewhat (but not nearly enough), Kokichi got closer than he’s ever been to showing how he really feels while still noping out of taking any responsibility for murdering anyone… and Gonta went to fluffy bug heaven. Shush, he did, that’s definitely what happened.

Tsumugi: *sob*… *sob*…

Himiko: “Waaaaaaaaaaah! Gooontaaa!”

Kaito: “Dammit! Why did it turn out like this!?”

Shuichi: “…”

Kaito is the only one out of these four who isn’t crying. Now, granted, Kaito is one of only a handful of characters who don’t have any sprites in which they’re crying that could show this, but given that there’s going to be some illustrations of him soon, if the writers wanted to show that he’s crying, they could put it in those, like they did in chapter 1 in the one where he punched Shuichi. They don’t, so he isn’t.

And so it’s pretty notable that Kaito doesn’t cry here even though he is definitely in more emotional pain right now than he’s ever been. He was… “willing” isn’t exactly the right word, but he didn’t manage to stop himself from crying on those previous occasions at the end of trial 1 and trial 3. He was probably reasonably accepting of those because everyone else was crying too. But this time, despite still being surrounded by other people crying, Kaito is more determined than ever before to stop himself from joining them. He cannot and must not show any kind of weakness right now.

Maki: “Hey, Kokichi… why don’t you tell us now? What is the secret of the outside world? If we don’t know it, then we won’t be able to understand or accept it.”

Even though Maki’s emotionally jaded enough that she’s not crying over this, she still is being affected by it and wants to understand so that she can accept it, just like everyone else!

Kokichi: “…”

Kaito: “Kokichi, if you really cared for Gonta, explain yourself to everyone and—”

Kaito is still willing to accept the interpretation that Kokichi is a somewhat decent person even after seeing Gonta die horribly because of him! I would absolutely not put it past Kaito’s intuition to have picked up on the fact that somewhere deep down Kokichi did truly care about Gonta on some level. Even now, even through all of his anger towards Kokichi and all of his own suffering, Kaito has not stopped trying to get through to Kokichi and get him to admit how he really feels about everything. God, Kaito is so good.

And remember that Kokichi has been targeting Kaito in particular throughout this, so Kaito would have every reason not to want to reach out to Kokichi simply out of personal spite. But of course Kaito wouldn’t ever be like that. This is the very opposite of Kokichi’s petty vindictiveness.

Kokichi: “I don’t… want to…”

This one line before he starts his big act could be somewhat genuine, in that it’s Kokichi not wanting to face up to any of the pain he’s in and admit that it’s all his fault. This moment right here is Kokichi’s big chance to finally turn things around, show remorse for everything and start to work on becoming a better person. But… he doesn’t want to. Because admitting to everything in the first place in order to be able to change would be incredibly painful, and he’s too much of a coward to ever face that.

Kokichi: “Ah-hahahaha! Oh man, did you fall for all that fake crying!? You’re so dumb! I would never cry for Gonta!”

Yup, it was definitely all just a lie, you keep telling yourself that. You tell yourself that even harder than you’ve ever told yourself anything like that before.

Kokichi: “If I said the actual truth back there, Gonta would’ve been reeeeal mad! That would’ve interfered with the game, so I simply lied to calm him down. …See? As long as you lie for a good purpose, right?”

I’m also willing to believe that actually the main reason Kokichi never told Gonta the truth (you know, about Kokichi having deliberately ruined the plan himself and got Gonta killed) was because he felt bad enough about the way Gonta was feeling that he couldn’t bear to make Gonta suffer any more than he already was at that point. This would be the one time Kokichi genuinely did something out of concern for another’s feelings… but it’s still primarily to protect his own feelings on the matter, and it still doesn’t change the fact that he caused all of Gonta’s suffering and his death in the first place.

And now, of course, he’s telling himself that this is the real reason he lied because obviously he didn’t care about Gonta one bit and isn’t in any pain at all and so it totally doesn’t matter that everything that happened to Gonta is his fault.

Kokichi: “C’mon, think about it. If I actually wanted to save everyone, like what Gonta did… I wouldn’t have betrayed Gonta. You should’ve realized that.”

Everyone should realise that. This is even explicitly pointed out here for anyone who’s forgotten that he did that back in the trial.

Kokichi: “Who cares about that idiot!?”

Yeah, definitely not you, right? Gonta definitely wasn’t the one person you actually kinda sorta slightly cared about (completely irrelevant probable crush on Shuichi notwithstanding because it’s completely irrelevant), of course not!

Kokichi: “I wanna enjoy this game filled with suspicion and betrayal from the bottom of my heart!”

Aside from the bottom of his heart part, this is technically not a lie. He may not truly enjoy it, but he really desperately wants to enjoy it so that he doesn’t have to suffer like he is doing. And in the process of him trying as hard as he can to enjoy it despite how fucked up he knows that is, he deliberately caused this whole tragic mess here.

Kokichi: “The more you suffer, the more I enjoy it. There are people in this world who spread grief and misery for no reason than the thrill of it! And I’m one of those people. Nothing pleases me more than inflicting pain on others!”

So. Just as Kokichi’s stance prior to the execution (that he wanted the mercy kill) was mostly a huge lie but had a certain grain of truth to it (that he was genuinely upset about Gonta on some level), this one is the same. It is mostly a huge lie for the sake of his plan, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t still true, on a much less extreme level than he’s claiming, that he does enjoy most people’s suffering. His organisation exists to do basically a lesser version of this; it’s not nearly “grief and misery”, but pranking people who aren’t on board with the possibility of being pranked causes them inconvenience and frustration and general mishmash of largely harmless but still mostly negative emotions that Kokichi and his goons get a kick out of. Him constantly being an unnecessary dick to everyone and literally bullying Keebo among other things, while not quite the same thing as pranking them, is still also that. And then there’s him having spent basically this entire case trying to jab at Kaito where he’s vulnerable and hurt him for no reason other than him being a “fun” target and probably some petty vindictiveness over their clash of values, because, as I mentioned, he went about it far too subtly for it to be for the purpose of backing up this lie here. This killing game may have twisted Kokichi to make him a lot worse than otherwise, but he was always this kind of person on some minor level.

Kaito: “S-Seriously… Who the hell do you think you are?”

I wonder if Kaito can tell that this is mostly a lie and is only angry because he hates that Kokichi would even tell a lie like that in the first place. I wonder.

Maki: “So… for your own entertainment, you sacrificed Miu and Gonta?”

Kokichi: “What’s so bad about that? You kill people for money… right, Maki Roll?”

Maki tries to make it clear that he killed Miu and Gonta, and nope, even now that he’s putting on this act where he’s the kind of evil person who would happily do something like that, Kokichi deflects the fuck out of it and dodges actually acknowledging his responsibility in their deaths at all.

Maki: “Someone like you has no right to call me Maki Roll…”

Implying someone not like Kokichi does have the right to call her that! Implying that she’s started to like that nickname and is happy that Kaito gave it to her! Aww.

Kokichi: “Nee-heehee… you look so much better with a scowl on your face, Maki Roll.”

Why? Because then it’s easier for you to tell yourself that she’s just a horrible murderous assassin and not an actual person whom Kaito was right about all along?

Kokichi: “But hey, you guys are just waaay too trusting. If only you had suspected me more, then… Miu and Gonta wouldn’t have died such meaningless deaths!”

Nobody ever trusted you! They already suspected you plenty! Kaito spent the entirety of the trip to the Virtual World on super high alert about you and only didn’t manage to stop you because he trusted Gonta!

Kokichi is s t i l l trying to shove his idea that trusting people is idiotic down everyone’s throats, even though actually everybody had a perfectly reasonable amount of trust for the appropriate people – namely, plenty of trust for everyone who wasn’t Kokichi or Miu, and barely any trust at all for those two. He would do a better job of making his point here if he also argued that everyone should have suspected Gonta more and kept more of an eye on him in the Virtual World – I guess he’s not trying to do that at this point because he’s too busy with his lie that he’s super evil and so he needs to focus everything on himself? (Or because he actually feels sort of bad about betrayal-related things when Gonta is involved, both on his end and hypothetically on Gonta’s end, and doesn’t want to think about that.)

And of course he’s trying to make it seem like the two deaths are everyone else’s fault for being too trusting, not at all his own fault for deliberately choosing to be the kind of untrustworthy murderous asshole who is exactly the reason it is sometimes wise to be suspicious of others in the first place.

Kaito: “M-Meaningless deaths!?”

(Kaito screamed and sprinted up to Kokichi like a bullet…)

It is absolutely delightful that this is the line that sets Kaito off into an uncontrollable rage of lashing out at Kokichi with violence. Because Kaito has spent this entire chapter terrified of dying a meaningless death himself.

It’s especially bad given that Gonta had been desperately trying to help everyone despite how weak and useless he was feeling, which is exactly how Kaito also felt, and he definitely picked up on that similarity. Yet Gonta’s attempts to be a hero ultimately ended up in nothing but tragic failure and meaningless death – as if all of his efforts meant nothing in the first place, as if losing pointlessly like this is the only possible fate waiting for any pathetic wannabe hero who has no idea what he’s doing – and Kaito cannot bear that thought at all.

(I also like how the narration describes him as screaming. Normally Kaito’s loud outbursts would just be called “yelling”, but this time there is a lot more raw, desperate anguish to it than that.)

Kokichi: “Oops, sorry! I tried to dodge you… but I punched you instead.”

Yeah, that totally wasn’t 100% on purpose or anything.

Kaito: “Y-You…!”

Kokichi: “By the way, Kaito, is it just me…? Or are you waaay slower?”

Kaito: “Ah…”

Kokichi: “Maybe, just maybe… Kaito is hiding something from us, too.”

Not only did Kokichi’s punch probably hit Kaito exactly where he’s literally, physically vulnerable and exacerbate his illness, Kokichi now just made it clear that he knows. Kaito is panicking, because he absolutely cannot let anyone know about this, especially not Shuichi, especially not now.

Kokichi probably picked up on Kaito’s illness back in this chapter’s Daily Life during one of the times Kaito was chasing him around. If he wanted to reveal it to everyone because he wanted to help, he’d have done it sooner – but instead, he deliberately sat on the info and saved it for the moment when it would cause Kaito the most pain possible to have it revealed. At this point, now that Kokichi’s pointedly pretending to be the evilest most sadistic, there’s always the argument that he’s only causing Kaito pain here to help back up that lie, but come on – when he was already subtly trying to hurt Kaito so much throughout this case, this is just the final stage of that and not about his big lie at all.

Maki: “Kaito! Are you okay!?”

This is the first time in the game we hear Maki’s voice clip of desperately yelling Kaito’s name, which is A Good. I am very pleased that there are multiple moments of Maki being this frantically, openly worried about him, in this chapter and the next, that we get to hear this voice clip several times.

Maki: “You… really want to die, don’t you!?”

I also love that this is the first time we see Maki’s fiercest sprite! She’s always had a hell of a death glare, but this is the first time we’ve seen the full extent of how terrifying she can be, and it’s when it’s well and truly on our side and being used to defend those she cares about. It’s a great moment. Taking her catchphrase and using it 100% seriously is a pretty neat subversion, too.

Kokichi: “Maki wouldn’t lose her cool for a guy like Kaito. He’s waaaay too pathetic. He’s all bark and no bite.”

And yet, Maki just did lose her cool on his behalf, so no, Kokichi, your attempt to rub in Kaito’s feelings of being pathetic and worthless isn’t going to work so well this time because Maki clearly thinks otherwise.

(I don’t think Kaito’s really registering this, though, because he’s too busy panicking over the fact that oh god he’s going to cough up blood in front of everyone and they’re all going to see. He doesn’t say anything at all between getting punched and when Kokichi leaves.)

Kokichi: “Let’s face it. The Ultimate Astronaut is just a trainee anywa—”

And the Ultimate Supreme Leader is just a fucking clown, what’s your point.

(No one cared what he had to say anymore. They all rushed to Kaito’s side.)

Tsumugi: “Kaito, are you hurt!?”

Keebo: “Can you stand? Do you need to lean on my shoulder?”

Himiko: “S-Sorry! My MP’s at zero, so I can’t use any recovery magic!”

I love that this is here to show that it’s not just his sidekicks – everyone here except Kokichi cares about Kaito and is worried when he’s hurt. And while it’s lovely that they’re doing this, Kaito probably hates the fact that he’s being so obviously weak right now that everyone is rushing to support him. He’s not supposed to need support! He’s supposed to be the hero!

Kokichi: “Hey… why are you all so worried about this pathetic gu—”

Shuichi: “Pathetic? Look at yourself, Kokichi.”

Kokichi: “…What?”

Shuichi: “Kaito always has us by his side, see? But no one wants to be around you. You’re alone, Kokichi. And you always will be.”

With how many times Kokichi has been annoyingly self-righteous about something that he’s blatantly either wrong or being a hypocrite about, it’s quite refreshing to have someone actually call him out on that for once and shut him right down. Kokichi brought this upon himself. Everyone cares about Kaito because he’s always cared about everyone else. Nobody cares about Kokichi because he’s done everything to not deserve it, especially now that he’s killed two people for no good reason and is showing no remorse. Shuichi’s not calling him pathetic because he’s alone, but because he’s deliberately choosing to be a person who will always end up alone.

Kokichi: “Ah-haha! You’re talking about friends? Friends don’t make this game more entert— … Geez, boooring. I’m no longer interested. I don’t care anymore…”

(Friends clearly do make this game more entertaining for us in the audience, you know.)

I think this is another instance of the vaguely decent person inside Kokichi having a moment of control and making him pause, before the rest of him brushes it off and changes the subject (obviously if it’s something that makes him feel bad then it’s just boring, right, not actually painful). Apparently he does kind of regret not having friends on some level when faced with how much everyone cares about Kaito. But it’s still absolutely his own fault and is now basically too late to change.

…I mean, not completely too late. If he genuinely broke down and showed remorse, apologised for everything and asked for a second chance to try and do better, you know who’d be the first person to acknowledge that and give him that chance? Kaito. Despite everything Kokichi’s done, Kaito would not hesitate if he saw that Kokichi really wanted to change. But Kaito can only help people who want to help themselves, and Kokichi does not even remotely want to help himself.

Kokichi: “But, I will tell you this… The one who will win this game… is me.”

So instead Kokichi just clings to the thing he’s been fixated on this whole time because at least if he does that then it’ll make everything worth it, right? (It won’t, at all; hello, sunk cost fallacy. And that’s even if his plan did succeed, which it’s not going to.)

Kaito: “Grh… Uuugh…”

Shuichi: “Hey, Kaito…?”

Maki: “You don’t look well… It didn’t seem like he punched you that hard, but…”

Maki was being furiously worried about Kaito this whole time even though she knew Kokichi’s punch wasn’t that bad. So apparently she could already tell that Kaito was in a lot more pain from it than he should have been.

Kaito: “I-I’m okay… It’s fine…”

Oh, Kaito. You are not convincing anyone right now.

Himiko: “Don’t push yourself. You should lie down and—”

Kaito: “I s-said I’m… fine…”

Kaito is especially insistent about this when someone else is trying to tell him to take it easy and rest, because needing to do that would mean he’s weak and he can’t be weak (not in front of Shuichi, not after everything in the trial that already proved he is).

(Kaito tried to get up, but…)

Kaito: “Urgh!”

(Kaito doubled over, his knees gave out, and he collapsed hard…)

Kaito: *cough* *cough, cough*

And it seems like the reason his body finally betrayed him and started coughing blood, the thing he’d been most desperate to avoid, is because he pushed himself too hard and tried to stand up by himself when he didn’t have the strength for it. Kaito’s furious need to appear as if he’s perfectly strong on his own is delightfully self-destructive, both on an emotional level during the trial, and on a physical level right here.

Apart from the fact that Kaito should actually be on the floor and not standing up because the narration just described him collapsing, this illustration is delightful. Kaito looks so freaked out, not over the fact that he’s coughing up blood, but over the fact that everyone can see it. If it were the former, he’d be staring at the blood in his hand – but instead he’s staring at Maki, because to him the worst part of this is her reaction.

(And it’s Maki and not Shuichi he’s staring at, even though he’d be at least as freaked out about Shuichi’s reaction to this, because I doubt he’s wanted to look Shuichi in the eye since a while before the vote.)

Tsumugi: “Blood!? Why!? What’s the matter, Kaito!?”

I don’t know, Tsumugi, why don’t *you* tell us exactly what the fucking matter is.

Kaito: “C’mon… Don’t freak out over this… It’s nothing… My… cold just got worse is all…”

Stop freaking out about it, guys. Nobody is supposed to ever worry about Kaito. That’s not how this works.

Keebo: “I didn’t know that coughing up blood was a cold symptom!”

Kaito: “You’re a robot and you don’t know that? I’m saying it’s fine. Just… chill.”

Kaito’s line is probably a little awkwardly translated here since he makes it sound like Keebo ought to know about colds due to being a robot, when that doesn’t make much sense. What I imagine he’s supposed to be saying is “you’re a robot so of course you wouldn’t know that coughing up blood is totally a legitimate cold symptom (please don’t contradict me on this guys)”.

Kaito: “I just… coughed too much and cut my throat or something… I dunno…”

I love that last “I dunno” and the way Kaito’s voice wavers during it. He knows full well that everyone can tell this is an obvious, pathetic excuse he just made up on the spot. It is exactly as bad as it looks, and he’s feeling so trapped by his inability to convincingly hide it.

Kaito: “Y-Yeah, that’s it… I just need a drink of water…”

He’s saying “yeah, that’s it”, like he’s telling himself that yes, this obvious lie about cutting his throat is totally the real truth and everyone should buy it, right??? Or he’s telling himself that about the idea that just getting a drink of water will totally fix everything and then they can all stop worrying about him and everything will be fine. I’m sure he does need a drink of water, but he also needs a lot more than just that to ever be okay.

Kaito: “Sorry, but… I’m… gonna head back to my room…”

He’s apologising. Of course he is; he’s showing weakness and making everyone worry about him. Even if it’s not his fault, how could he not apologise for that?

And while needing a drink of water is a convenient excuse, the real reason he wants to go straight to his room is that he just wants to get out of here. Every moment he spends here is a moment he’s letting everybody see how weak and pathetic he really is, since he doesn’t have the strength to convince them otherwise right now. He can’t handle that and just wants it to stop before it gets any worse, to get himself behind closed doors where it won’t matter how weak he is because nobody will be able to see him.

Shuichi: “Okay, I’ll go with—”

Kaito: “Don’t follow me!!!”

Shuichi: “…What!?”

Kaito: “I can walk on my own. I don’t need your help… Shuichi.”

Shuichi, the hero that he is, reaches out to Kaito and offers to help and support him – and Kaito cannot let that happen. Even though Shuichi only said he’d walk with him, from the fact that Kaito insisted he can walk on his own and doesn’t need help, it seems he was picturing Shuichi physically supporting him as he walked back (which means he probably actually does need that, really). Kaito can’t bear such an obvious, literal representation of who’s really the one in need of support here, especially not when it’s from Shuichi, the person who was supposed to be his sidekick and need his support and yet now he’s completely outshining Kaito and leaving him in the dust. He can’t need Shuichi’s help.

It might seem at first glance like Kaito pushing Shuichi away here is about him still being angry over Gonta’s death, but like everything else in this trial, it’s got very little to do with that and everything to do with Shuichi being stronger than him.

Also, fun fact about the original Japanese! Remember how I mentioned when they became friends that Japanese-Kaito started calling Shuichi by his given name and not his surname as a sign of close friendship? He’s been consistently doing that this whole time – but in this line right here, he calls him “Saihara”, making this moment even more painful. It’s a shame that the localisation cannot get that same nuance across – Kaito only sometimes calls him “bro” in English because doing so all the time would sound ridiculous, so not using that word here doesn’t mean anything – but I do like that they kept the highlighted text on Shuichi’s name, hinting that there’s a lot more harshness in Kaito’s voice as he says it here than there ever usually is. It’s that that made me think “huh, I bet I know what this was in Japanese” and confirm it.

(Kaito staggered off.)

Maki: “… …I’ll go with him. It would be bad if he collapses on the way.”

Someone should, and since he’s refusing to accept any kind of help from Shuichi right now, Maki should definitely be the one to do so. Her face is in shadow as she says this, suggesting she’s a lot more worried than she’s letting on, not just about Kaito’s illness but also about the way he just acted towards Shuichi.

(Also look at how unconvinced she was by his insistence that he can walk on his own.)

Kaito would be somewhat more willing to accept help from Maki here, since she didn’t show herself to be so obviously stronger than him in the trial and he hasn’t done anything to so obviously fail her like he has for Shuichi, but I still can’t imagine he would let her physically support him right now. She probably just walked behind him, close enough to help if he does collapse, but otherwise far enough away to make it look like she just happens to be heading back at the same time as him, since he’s being such a goddamn stubborn idiot about this.

Himiko: “D-Don’t worry about it, Shuichi. Kaito was just… stressed out, is all.”

Shuichi: “…”

Aww, Himiko! It’s lovely that she can tell Shuichi was really hurt by being pushed away by Kaito and is trying to help. And she’s basically right, although “stressed out” is one hell of an oversimplification.

(I quite enjoy that it is specifically Himiko who is trying to be understanding about this, for reasons you will learn next chapter.)

Shuichi: (Why…? Why… did it end up like this?)

Because Kokichi’s a selfish asshole, of course. And because Kaito’s not as strong as you thought. None of this is your fault, Shuichi.

Shuichi: (I thought… I thought I could help… I wanted us all to survive…)

You did help! Everyone except Gonta survived because of you! Kaito is so upset because you did something amazing under the circumstances, not because you did anything wrong!

Shuichi: (By trying to survive, we’re just playing the stupid game… Just like Kokichi.)

Those who are simply trying to survive are only forced to play the game once a murder has already happened. Kokichi was playing the game by making a murder happen. So it is still entirely Kokichi’s fault.

Kokichi: “Yeah, it’s almost time. This should be enough…”

Yeah, I would hope that murdering two people and causing incredible suffering should be enough to convince everyone that he’s evil enough to be the mastermind. I’d hate to imagine what else he’d do if he thought it wasn’t. This was way too fucking much more than enough and he shouldn’t have even done it at all.

Kokichi: “Now is the time… I’ll end this killing game.”

This is a misleading way of wording it. His primary goal is to “win” the killing game, which happens to involve ending it, since most games are over once somebody has won. If his primary goal were to end the killing game, then he could have already achieved that earlier this chapter in one of two ways – using Miu’s weapons to mount an escape, or showing everyone the outside world so they’ll all fall into despair and stop trying to kill each other and make everything boring.

I mean, he does also want to end the game, since he hates it – that’s not just a meaningless byproduct of winning – but he wants to end it in a way which he considers to be winning it, and nothing else is acceptable.

More of note about this scene than the precise things Kokichi says is the fact that he’s completely alone here. He’s wandering through the courtyard with nobody else in sight – but his mask is still up. It’s not quite the same mask he wore just now while claiming he enjoyed everyone’s suffering, because that part was a conscious lie to fool the others into believing it. But everything else: the idea that he totally didn’t care about Gonta at all, that he definitely didn’t murder anyone, that everything that just happened was all according to plan and exactly what he wanted and he doesn’t regret it one bit – since he’s still telling them here, those lies are primarily for himself. Such lies would have to be mostly told on a subconscious level, so that on the surface he doesn’t properly realise he’s lying and doesn’t have to acknowledge anything at all.

Which I think makes a noteworthy contrast from the kind of lies that Kaito’s been telling this chapter and were also nearly laid bare at the end of this trial. Kaito’s lies are almost entirely for the benefit of the people around him, so that they don’t worry about him and he can still inspire them. Which means that Kaito’s lies are on a much more conscious level than Kokichi’s. Beneath the mask he’s putting on for the sake of others, he’d be able to at least somewhat acknowledge how he’s really feeling, even if he’d still hate doing so. This turn of events would just have forced Kaito to face those feelings of fear and helplessness on a greater level than he’d ever done before – and he’d have a much harder time stopping himself from doing that when he’s alone and doesn’t have anyone he needs to lie to.

The end of this chapter features both Kaito and Kokichi being forced into a stark realisation of how they really feel about their place in this situation… and then both of them ultimately decide to ignore it and persist with the façade they’d had the whole time instead of properly admitting to things. But even though that part is the same, they still manage to also be complete opposites in more ways than just the level on which they’re telling their lies. There’s also the direct, obvious contrast in how much of a good idea it is to continue with their lies at all, since Kaito is trying to help everyone, while Kokichi is exploiting everyone for his own gain.

Kaito was stubbornly climbing a mountain and telling himself he could reach the top even though it might really be a bit too steep for him, and halfway up he fell all the way back down and was faced with the realisation that maybe he’s not strong enough to climb it after all. Then he chooses to ignore that and keep climbing anyway, because it’s still better than giving up and sitting at the bottom forever even if it might be impossible for him to ever reach the summit.

Kokichi, meanwhile, was stubbornly digging himself into a hole while telling himself it was a good idea even though it clearly wasn’t, and halfway down he was suddenly hit with the realisation that, oh god, this was in fact a terrible idea, he doesn’t want to be in this hole at all, why did he even do this. Then he chooses to ignore that and keep digging anyway, because that’s easier for him than climbing back out even though he doesn’t really want to be here.

Both are continuing to ignore the reality of their situation and keep lying, but they still couldn’t be more different. There’s so many direct contrasts between Kaito and Kokichi, tied together by a few pointed similarities, which is obviously deliberate on the writers’ part and really quite delightful.

---

[Chapter-end bonus ramble] [Next post]

#danganronpa #danganronpa v3 #drv3 #ndrv3 #chapter 4 #class trial #commentary

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team--mike · 5 years

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Analysis/Prediction for Danganronpa: Deadication

Hey guys! I know I barely post on tumblr at all but I just thought... I have something to talk about... That's incredibly long... And about Danganronpa...

So where else to go than tumblr?

I recently started following a fangan ( @dangandeadication ) called Danganronpa: Deadication. If I had to pick a reason why I liked it so much, it would have to be the character design and art. Their Discord community is pretty great and involved as well. I'm a busy boy so I can't be as active there as I'd like...

You can check out part one of the prologue here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5krOHv_ls4

Anyways - what is this post about?

It's about my predictions for this Killing Game. I'm not one to simply pick randomly who lives and who dies, there's a method to my madness. I have this fancy shmancy way of making predictions for Danganronpa, and it's called the Elevator Prediction! We simply take a look at the picture of the students in the elevator before the first trial, and we cross off people based on their position. Any sane artist wouldn't group all the survivors next to each other, now... Would they?...

Wait... Deadication doesn't have one of these yet...

Oh, well. I'll just use my detective instincts to place these characters based on their talent, personality, and official Danganronpa games.

A few disclaimers before we begin:

There will be spoilers for DR1, SDR2, and DRV3

I'm explaining my thought pattern here along with each character and why I predicted what I did. I apologize if I sound overly critical - that's not my intention. I had fun thinking of these predictions and I'm looking forward to seeing how they pan out!

There's one more thing that I'd like to explain as well, and it will help contextualize some of my choices.

One of my favorite writers, Brandon Sanderson, writes some great books involving magic. I bring this up because a few ultimates here (Lucky Student, Psychic, Illusionist, Alchemist) are explicitly "magical". The extent of their abilities is unknown for the most part. Being a writer, Brandon Sanderson created rules about writing magic stories, and being a writer myself, I really took this one to heart. (reference: https://brandonsanderson.com/sandersons-first-law/)

"An author’s ability to solve conflict with magic is DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL to how well the reader understands said magic."

What does this mean? Basically - if the magic isn't explained - it feels like magic can solve any problem at any point without warning. There's no mystery to it at all - it just happens. Explaining magic systems is a really great way to actually add to a mystery - it gives the reader rules to follow when the theories start forming in their head. Now go replace the word MAGIC with ULTIMATE... And this creates a framework for working with ultimates in mysteries. It’s so much harder for readers to solve mysteries if it isn’t what can and cannot be done in the universe.

An example of this is Tsumugi's Cospox in DRV3. Her ability was cosplay, and with it, she could basically disguise herself as any character. It was inevitable that a murder would happen with her disguised as someone else, and there was no telling when, or how... Except that they immediately explained the extent of her powers in Chapter 1 after the first killing. This took that possibility off the table - and made all the future cases that much easier by focusing our minds on what was actually relevant instead of some gotcha that wasn't explained.

Again - this is only a guideline - it's not a hard-and-fast rule that everyone has to follow - so my predictions could be off because of this. It's all guesswork anyways, and I'm sure at least half my predictions, if not all of them, will be wrong. But that's the point, isn't it? XD

Without further ado, let's get started!

Yuuma - lucky student Ok... He's lucky so he can't die right? We don't know how lucky he is, but if we base it off the first two games, then yes, he'd basically be unkillable. There are a couple ultimates here that could get around that... But that would be weird because those ultimates are magical and it seems that Danganronpa Luck is too big a barrier... Keep in mind we've had a survivor Lucky Student and a victim Lucky Student, so what's left? Verdict - CH1 blackened

Shu - bounty hunter Here's another babyface that basically screams "Don't fuck with me!". Considering the case of Fuyuhiko I'm not pinning him as someone who has a change of heart, and considering his profession I think he's not going to be a blackened. I think that would be too obvious. So what does that leave us with? A victim. Also I'm offing him in chapter 1 because if he's not killed early then he will be a suspect in every subsequent case. Which might be a good thing, but I wouldn't want to deal with that :P But who could possibly kill someone trained to kill... Hmmm... Verdict - CH1 victim, failed attempt to kill Yuuma

Toru - filmmaker Everyone's always comparing him to the Actor and saying that there's some important story element here since their ultimates are so similar. I can't help but think the same. I don't think this dude is the Mastermind, since that would be too obvious in my eyes, however I feel he's involved in some way. If Deadication pulls the same thing that DRV3 did with Rantaro, then they can have some backstory for this guy while also having him dead, all while throwing the suspicion off him as being involved in this game due to him dying early. Verdict - CH2 Victim

Otoha - basketball Literally Akane and Tenko. One of them died and the other survived. Maybe she's a blackened? I don't have much else to say here honestly. I guess she's cute. Verdict - CH2 blackened

Kyusho - detective Alright this is such a clear reference to Kyoko that there might be something actually relevant here - maybe this is an AU where Aoi and Kyoko mashed their names together and adopted him? Maybe the real Danganronpa is going to be mentioned in this game? I doubt both these points but they're good to bring up. So we haven't seen an evil detective yet from the other games so I'm getting that vibe from him. Especially one that doesn't explicitly commit murder... Verdict - CH2 accomplice, CH3 victim

Ayuna - psychic Ok so Psychic means either two things (1) she's a complete airhead OR (2) she's a complete airhead but also Hagakure. Considering my stance on magic powers as explained earlier, I think her powers are going to be meaningless. Maybe she sees a vision that ends up getting her killed? Verdict - CH3 Victim

Sakumi - alchemist Alchemy means either two things (1) she's another complete airhead OR (2) there will be some poison case in this game. I'm honestly feeling the latter. Alchemy is another vague ultimate that has to be explained - and I can only see this being relevant to poisoning. There hasn't been a poison double murder yet and I'm assuming that Deadication will be keeping the same format of double murder since it's classic. But I could be 100% wrong since I'm a sucker for strict guidelines. PS: She's also cute. Verdict - CH3 blackened

Reika - ??? Hmmm I wonder what it could beeee... With this illusionist/alchemist/psychic/occultist quadrafecta I'm thinking she's along a similar vibe, maybe witch or something. We haven't had a ??? blackened yet... thinking-face-intensifies... I'm thinking their ability will be revealed as the cornerstone to this case. Verdict - CH4 blackened

Minoru - barista Ace Attorney - Godot's theme plays in the background Wait what slot didn't I assign... Oh yeah that's right Verdict - CH4 victim

Iori - gardener I have no idea. He has a Kokichi Ouma face sprite but he's also very knowledgeable about plants. He's probably gonna be a Gonta type - a Hope Boy. Verdict - Survivor

Megumi - attorney Franziska Von Karma was best girl in Ace Attorney, and now Megumi is giving me that same vibe. Now here's someone who can talk her way in a trial... As I'm pinning Kyusho as chaotic, maybe Megumi will be the voice of reason throughout the game... Although I really am suspicious of everyone. There's always a survivor with a head on their shoulders (Kirigiri, Shuichi, Hajime) Verdict - Survivor

Haru - occultist I totally feel that Haru is going to play a big part in this, and have some sort of change-of-heart that makes them a better overall person. They're also cute as well so I can't just kill them off. If at any point in the story Naohiko dies, I fully expect Haru to take his place. They're the most main-character-like out of everyone else. They'd probably take the Byakuya or Fuyuhiko slot in the survivor list. Verdict - Survivor

Keiji - surgeon Come on now you wouldn't make such a large meme NOT a survivor... I feel he's going to be very much like the survivors Kazuichi or Hagakure or Himiko - thinks he's tough shit but he really can't do a darn thing. Verdict - Survivor

Luna - arctic explorer Um I don't have much to say about her except I like her and she's super cute and I want her to survive. She's the waifu survivor like Aoi and Sonia and Maki. She's also smart as well so her surviving would actually make sense. Verdict - Survivor

Ok guys! That's it! We're done with all the predictions for Dead-

WAIT! WHAT IS IT? I'M FORGETTING ABOUT TWO CHARACTERS?

Oh yeah you're right. Whoops.

Hitomi - illusionist Ah yes, the detective's sidekick, just like Kaito and Chiaki and Sayaka. She's overly optimistic, which makes me think she's evil, but there are two reasons why I don't think she is (1) I can't possibly envision any angry or distressed Hitomi sprites AND (2) With an ultimate like Illusionist, it would be too obvious that she's a killer. Based on the principles of magic as I explained earlier, her illusion abilities should come with some set of rules. And these rules weren't explained to us in the prologue - so I'm sort of throwing her ultimate to the curb for now and ignoring its effect on the story. Which is probably wrong, but ah, what the heck. I have a bigger prediction for Hitomi based on her relationship with Naohiko as opposed to her ultimate. Verdict - CH5 victim.

Naohiko - actor The man of the hour himself, the green haired protagonist. Before we begin - let's go over what happens to the protagonists in the first three games: Makoto - survives. Hajime - survives but his past self is the mastermind Kaede - is a blackened and dies in chapter 1 Considering Kaede's case - I'm doubting that there is a protagonist switch at all in this game. I'm pretty sure that they switched during Chapter 1 because of the Hope Fragments and the character development and attachment. As much as I loved Kaede, there wasn't a real reason to have her die in a later chapter. It just wasn't a good game design choice. Now Deadication isn't a game so this might be different but I'm tossing this aside for now. There's also the possibility of Naohiko dying, but I don't think he'd be the one to die in chapter 1. The main character actually has a relevant ultimate this time - actor. One that can be used as a blackened... and a mastermind... dun dun DUN... Technically this is different from SDR2 since Izuru is his own original character and not Hajime Hinata. What I'm going to propose is slightly similar to Hajime's case but it's different in the fact that Izuru had absolutely no effect on the Killing Game other than starting it. One more thing before I explain what I think will happen to Naohiko - let's take a look at the other masterminds' goals: Junko - Inflict Despair on everyone watching Izuru - Preserve Junko and the Remnants of Despair Tsumugi - Entertain everyone watching Now there's one thing that I think is clearly missing here... And that's a personal motive, one that isn't based on world domination or entertainment. Especially because this is a fangan that doesn't explicitly have to be tied to the main series - and it's getting increasingly difficult to do so anyways. So let's recap - A personal motive that isn't based on the Hope-Despair conflict, yet also requires Despair to work properly. This one really wracked my brain but here's my theory: Naohiko is a schizophrenic just like Toko is. However, he does not know that he has this other, "evil" side to him. There are a few reasons for this: (1) If he noticed it, he would clearly get it treated. Which spelled doom for this evil persona. (2) He's the ultimate actor. Actors retake scenes often enough and they have so many fans that it's typical if he forgets something. This evil side - let's call it Hikonao because I'm boring - has been waiting for its chance to overtake the real Naohiko - and this killing game is just that. Bring Naohiko to Despair, and then his real side and his evil side will be one and the same. So Hikonao sends a letter to Toru stating something about working with Naohiko - only if he brings 14 other ultimates to this secluded area. The letter is signed H - which implicitly brings suspicion on other characters like Haru and Hitomi. Hikonao can be doing things at nighttime or during the day that Naohiko wouldn't remember - and that could clue the reader in to what is happening... (and it also could get us to suspect Hitomi's illusions instead...) Hikonao's plan is to bring the largest possible Despair onto Naohiko - and that would climax in killing his own beloved, Hitomi. In the chapter 5 trial, Naohiko realizes that he is the one that killed Hitomi - and we have to explicitly argue that he didn't kill her, knowing this - something that hasn't been done before in a game, even with Kaede. And then, just like in game 1, Naohiko isn't actually executed due to some ambiguous reason. And then they find the letter from H, find some more stuff, and the mastermind trial. This also brings up an important point - just like the Gonta case in DRV3. If someone else's consciousness kills someone, are you guilty? I have a feeling that Naohiko will end up expelling Hikonao and everything will end happily ever after... Verdict - CH5 blackened and mastermind. Oh and he's also a survivor too

Now I know that you guys think this is a crazy crackpot theory but it's based on writing principles! Even if I'm entirely wrong, I have become a better mystery writer because of it! The more you think about these things, the more you dive deep into how these games are put together and the best way to order and position the story and killings so that things make sense together.

To those of you who have read the entire thing, thank you so so much! I appreciate it, especially since I rambled at times. I'm really looking forward to this project and I know everyone will do a great job with Deadication!

That's it for now. Team Mike, signing off!

#danganronpa #fangan #fanganronpa #deadication #naohiko #hitomi #theory #prediction #dr1 spoilers #sdr2 spoilers #drv3 spoilers

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