Danganronpa – 05

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The most important meal of the day.

Ah, sorry for the late post. I was busy with Black Wolves Saga~ (5 minutes into the game and I had to lower the sound effects because I couldn’t hear the characters talk over them slaughtering villagers. Why didn’t I play this sooner?! xD) Anyways, Genocider Syo finally showed up and that’s all I really care about~

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Yes, Fujisaki was a trap! …Which you may or may have not had an easier time guessing at if you had bothered to look up his seiyuu, who is indeed male. If you remember Amnesia, Fujisaki’s seiyuu (Kouki Miyata) was Ukyo in there (or if you chose not to remember that anime, he was also Cubric in Phi Brain). Male characters are voiced by females all the time, but very rarely is that reversed (…unless it’s for comedic effect or something), so that should have been a tip off, provided that you were paying attention. I guess the other big revelations of this trial was that Fukawa has a side to her that’s a serial killer (if you haven’t heard me say this enough times, Miyuki Sawashiro is amazing), and Togami is a bastard.

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I don’t know how well the episode explained this, but Togami’s only motive for moving the crime scene around and framing Fukawa was just to see if the others (mostly Naegi) could see through it. So he would know who to look out for if he ever kills anyone. Yes, that plan could have backfired horribly on Togami and screwed them all over, but his personality is the kind where he can’t even imagine himself ever failing at anything (since he’s so superior at absolutely everything). …Plus I guess it all worked out for him. As for Fukawa/Genocider Syo, I guess all I can say is that I’ve been waiting for this~. Syo’s personality is just so… out there, even with all of the other weird characters that this show has. She said herself that she only has interest in killing for fun the way she always does and it would be stupid to kill someone in here since they would all know that it was her, but can they trust her with that…? She’s obviously killed before and isn’t afraid to kill again.

Ugh, this was the point in the game where I first cried. The combination of Fujisaki dying for looking up to Oowada and Ishimaru losing his first friend was just heartbreaking. Yes, from dialogue in the game, you learn that Ishimaru had trouble making friends in his other schools due to his uptight personality, so Oowada was pretty much his first friend ever. …And now he’s gone. The fact that Oowada totally accepted his fate after they figured out it was him made things worse, along with the fact that he desperately tried to hide Fujisaki’s secret from them by changing around the changing rooms. I vaguely remember this being the reason why he didn’t come out with the truth about the murder right away (since he wanted to protect Fujisaki’s secret as long as possible).

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…Though take that as you will. Oowada’s sense of loyalty and such is different since he’s the leader of a big yankee gang (meaning that he probably could have killed everyone else for the sake of Fujisaki’s secret and that would have (probably) sat okay with him as long as he accomplished it), but it might have just been him running away from his crime and using Fujisaki’s secret as an excuse. Like with Maizono writing Leon’s name on the wall in order to save Naegi, it’s hard to know exactly what the character’s motive were and if they really meant as well as they seemed to. At the very least, we can say that Oowada did feel a lot of regret for murdering Fujisaki.

So if you watched all the way to the very end, you would have seen that there’s a student working with Monokuma. The murdering would have started regardless if Maizono had freaked out or not, so don’t feel too much contempt towards her. Also, if the students ever stop murdering each other, the student working with Monokuma could easily throw them all into a panic again. The mastermind has things all worked out. …As for the 16th student, remember the comment in the courtroom about there being 16 spots open and Monokuma saying to forget about it? Er, actually, those two things aren’t really that related aside from the courtroom being an early hint that there was supposed to be another person in the school with them. But yeah, just another hint/mystery to add to the overarching mystery of the school and why the students are there. I have to say, Monokuma ‘drinking’ tea was hilarious.


Maybe it’s just because Syo showed up finally, but I certainly enjoyed this trial a lot more than the last one. The conversation felt less exposition-y, and it took a lot of different directions besides just straightforwardly solving the mystery and proving Naegi’s innocence. …Though that had a lot less to do with the script writing and more to do with the source material. Still, I was really fond of this trial in the game because of the loopholes in the rules that were pointed out. Anyways, it’s back to regular(ish) life after this. I hope there’s more character exposition, though they might take up more time for the murder since it’s a bit more complicated than anything else we’ve seen so far. Plus Fujisaki left behind a gift before he died.

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…And now you know how butter is made, you cannibal.

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University student and the one at Metanorn who's known for wearing glasses. Likes blood, insanity and plot twists, but also plays otome games and adores cute romance anime. It balances out... somehow.
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36 Responses to “Danganronpa – 05”

  1. Cybersteel says:

    Way too rushed though :/ should’ve put more time and emphasis on some of the evidence, like the broken ID Cards.

    • JapanInspired says:

      I was thinking about that too. The first time you could have guessed who the culprit is by the evidence that was shown. This time they just skipped most of it. But I guess they didn’t really have time for that.

    • Karakuri says:

      I figured that this was a good length, but then again, I knew how everything would go down so maybe my views are different.

    • Namika says:

      Good point. If managed differently and given more time, the whole revelation about Fujisaki’s gender, the identity of her murderer and her death itself could have been more dramatic and might have had more impact.

  2. BlackBriar says:

    This was the best episode yet. I didn’t even think on half of the clues here and had my money on Togami or Fukawa but I didn’t expect Kuwabara Oowada to actually be the one that did it. Despite him being the killer, I wasn’t able to be mad at the guy, rather, I felt sorry for him because he didn’t mean to do it.

    Fukawa had me going WTF with her secondary personality. I can see why you like her so much now, Kara. She put Togami in his place and there’s her weapon of choice. What is this rising fetish for scissors lately? What shocked me most was Genocider Sho’s twisted resoning for her kills: She goes after guys she finds cute constituting some allusion she has for BL. A killer fujoshi… As if things weren’t freaky enough already with lesbian art muderess Rikako Ouryou.

    Fujisaki turning out to be a trap was just as surprising as Fukawa’s reveal. I simply thought Fujisaki had a deep voice because the appearance was convincing and I would n’t have thought otherwise. I mean, I had trouble accepting Sakura as a girl at first. Now that I think about it, Danganronpa has two things I’ve seen in anime based on games: The Trap character (Naoto from Persona 4) and a character that harbors a hostile secondary personality (Ukyo from Amnesia).

    The execution was ridiculous even for that narcissistic bear. How does being liquified into butter count as capital punishment?

    • Karakuri says:

      Yep! The trials get harder (sometimes) and it becomes less easy to tell the culprit. And yeah, the story did a good job with Mondo’s murder. You just can’t stay angry at him knowing all of that.

      Ahahaha see! Fukawa is awesome~ …if only for the fact that she’s a part time serial killer. I don’t know why exactly she uses scissors, but it’s part of her fetish I guess. And yeah! She only kills guys who turn her on xD

      Games have a lot of cliches like that. Actually, Danganronpa kind of has them on purpose in order to twist them around. Like Maizono being the ‘main heroine’ and then dying, or like you pointed out, Fujisaki’s trap and Fukawa’s second personality.

      Yeah, this execution was one of the more ridiculous ones. Kuwata’s looked pretty painful, but this was just silly (in a really depressing way). Danganronpa has a way with black humour.

      • BlackBriar says:

        Mondo’s situation made me remember something from Shiki. Where Seishin was contemplating the morals concerning killing a person. That if you kill someone because of an impulse, it’s classified as murder but if someone dies an accidental death due to your actions, it’s not murder. Here, it’s hard to determine which category this falls under.

        Fukawa is added to list of known characters that use scissors as a weapons. Here are the other candidates: Mikoto Urabe (Nazo no Kanojo X), Kiri Haimura (Dansai Bunri), Kirihime Natsuno (Inu to Hasami), Hijime Ichinose (Gatchaman Crowds). Even next season has a show where a girl uses a scissor-like sword. I don’t see this fetish ending anytime soon.

        Fukawa is definitely voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro. Most of the time as Genocider Syo, I’ve been hearing Suruga Kanbaru‘s voice out of her mouth. She did a good job here.

        • Karakuri says:

          I was actually thinking of Danganronpa when I decided to blog Dansai Bunri (since it had a murderer with scissors and an arrogant Akira Ishida character), but I obviously couldn’t talk about it then without ruining things from the show. xD

          Actually, Miyuki Sawashiro is the reason I got into Danganronpa in the first place. When I was doing research for that post I did in December about HanaKana and Sawashiro, I read a lot of praise for Sawashiro’s acting in this game, so I played it and got hooked~

    • Namika says:

      Yes, the moment she kind of lashed out on Togami was… so badass 😀
      Oryo was far more refined and downright creepy, though. Genocider’s “eccentric” personality shows, but Oryo was polite, calm… Just… brrr

      That execution was indeed a little ridiculous. The idea is obvious, but butter? That was a little random, wasn’t it? 😀

      • Karakuri says:

        Ahaha Oryo was someone you’d never expect based on appearance. …Meanwhile, you can tell Syo is someone you should definitely stay away from just from looking at her xD

        • BlackBriar says:

          Despite that proper, well mannered facade, Oryo was a true psychopath which proves true to the term “Don’t judge a book by its cover” while Genocider is an open book so you’d do well to stay away from her. By that comparison, Oryo is far more dangerous than Genocider. At least Genocider doesn’t turn her victims bodies into life sized dolls after she’s finished flirted with and killed them and set them up to display in public areas.

  3. JapanInspired says:

    I don’t know about you guys, but if butter had such packaging’s, I think I’d buy it without thinking. Haha.

    I think this episode (trial) was more sad to me than even in the game. Really. I felt so bad for both of them.

    And I think I didn’t get enough of Genocider. I was rewinding the part with her I think…3-4 times. I love Sawashiro Miyuki so much. I just cant imagine Genocider/Fukawa being voiced by another seiyuu.

    • Karakuri says:

      I was kind of scared to eat butter after first seeing this in the game. What if it was made out of yankees? xD

      Ishimaru’s reactions in here were so much more moving here )as well as Oowada’s emotions. I guess there’s something to be said for watching moving animation as opposed to game sprites.

      YES. THIS 100 TIMES. Sawashiro’s voice is just perfect for Syo/Fukawa. I admit to rewinding the part where she pulls out her scissors a few times

      • BlackBriar says:

        I admit to rewinding the part where she pulls out her scissors a few times.

        You’re not alone on that. I’ve replayed that part more times than I can, especially to hear Yamada freak out and ask “She’s fully equipped?!”. It’s simply addictive.

  4. JapanInspired says:

    Karakuri-san, how’s Black Wolves Saga? Isn’t the art style amazing? And the character designs are so nice. (Sorry, for being off topic).

    • Karakuri says:

      BWS IS AMAZING. I don’t know if you’ve played, but I just got to the part where it’s the flashback of Auger and Mejojo accidentally assisting their mother in her suicide~. Damn this game is depressing. In an amazing way. All of the characters are just so wonderfully screwed up, the soundtrack is amazing, and the art is really nice. I don’t even care that there’s not really an ‘otome’ part to this game xD

      Don’t worry about being off topic!! I like talking about games anywhere~~

  5. Soliia says:

    Fukawa went from my least favorite character to my favorite in like, 2 seconds.

    Man, this trial was really sad. I actually cried. Poor Ishimaru. ;__; The show is so ridiculous sometimes that I can’t help but laugh though. Like with the butter. And the tea. I felt bad, but I laughed.

    I’m excited for the next episode now!

    *looks up Black Wolves Saga* Ooooh, pretty artwork and bishies~ Time to download a new game, I suppose.

    • Karakuri says:

      See? SEE?? Ahaha I’m so glad that people are seeing her appeal now xD

      …Yeah, I definitely cried too. Though the fact that Oowada was reduced to… butter made things better and worse. The tea was hilarious though and I don’t feel bad about laughing about that.

      BWS is amazing! Really, really depressing, but the plot is really good!

  6. Gecko says:

    While this trial was better than the last, and worked hard on making some feelings about the murderer actually having to die, ect., my main feelings are that I’m really pissed with how they talked about Fujisaki. Fukuwa was a surprise, ect, a serial murderer is actually there, wonderful for the cute guys (are there any?).

    I knew from the start Fujisaki was a guy, just based on the voice. So I had been more surprised to see Fujisaki going to the girl’s changing room. But the way Monokuma talked about Fujisaki as if his acting/passing as a girl was a weakness, uh, no. I can’t roll with that. If anything, it could have been phrased as a secret that he was passing as a girl and was more comfortable like that. Oowada did the right thing, trying to keep the secret, although killing Fujisaki was not a good thing.

    We’ll see next week if I’m still pissed. This is probably the last episode I’m watching. This show has been interesting but… Yeah I don’t know how to put it in words. It’s been interesting but it’s made me very angry now.

    • Karakuri says:

      …I don’t know if I’d classify any of the DR cast as ‘cute’, but Togami might be a little screwed since normal Fukawa has a thing for him.

      Anyways, I guess Monokuma considered Fujisaki’s secret a weakness. Fujisaki himself wanted to change and stop hiding behind a skirt, so I guess he considered it a weakness of sorts too. At the very least, he was moving towards not crossdressing anymore.

      • Gecko says:

        I guess maybe I’m seeing it differently for Fujisaki. I was thinking that he was more comfortable as a girl, and wanted to be a girl, even as society told him he had to be manly like Oowada. So he was going to force himself to be more “manly” even if it wasn’t who he wanted to be. So I was just angry that Monokuma was going to knock him down for dressing as what he identified with more than what his gender really was.

        • Karakuri says:

          Nah, he didn’t necessarily want to be a girl. He just just tired and had a complex of everyone going “wow you’re weak for a male” so he pretended to be female so people would stop expecting him to be strong. And this is why he wanted to keep the male thing a secret since he figured that people would start complaining about him again if they found out. However, he let Oowada know about his secret and wanted to train as a way to stand up to that instead of giving up and hiding behind another gender as an excuse for his weakness.

          I imagine what Monokuma was hoping for was for Chihiro to kill in order to protect his secret.

  7. AllenAndArth says:

    NOOOOOOOO FUJISAKI T-T
    i’m so sad now…
    and
    daammmm him he made poor fujisaki into butter T-T
    Don’t worry Fujisaki i’ll be crying tears of blood for you! REVENGEEEEEEEEEE o/

  8. Namika says:

    So I was right about Fujisaki, YES! 😀 But I didn’t look up his seiyuu ^^”

    This episode was the best one so far. I felt a little sorry for Oowada, actually. He had such a huge complex, it’s so sad. Though I would’ve never thought he would murder someone. Idk why, but I found his character rather nonthreatening.

    Genocider…. okay. WTF?! 😀 At first, I thought she was obnoxious. Then, annoying. Then, amazing. And then it went all over again. Among all characters, though, she’s the most interesting one. But… what’s with that tongue??? Why? Just WHY??? o-o

    16th student? Someone, who’s working with Monokuma….. It’s someone from the remaining 10 characters, right? I wouldn’t be surprised, if it was Naegi, tbh.

    • Karakuri says:

      Yes you were!! I wanted to tell you in some of your previous comments, but didn’t want to spoil anything. xD

      Well, Oowada was honourable in a way I guess. Provided he survived, he would have been on of those rough looking characters who was a good guy deep down inside.

      Yay for people seeing Fukawa’s appeal! Now I don’t look crazy anymore. …I have absolutely no idea about the tongue. It makes it easy to tell if Fukawa is Syo or not though I guess. …Aside from the personality.

      Well the character count started out as 15, so the 16th means that there’s someone else who’s supposed to be there besides the ones we’ve already seen. It’s interesting how you’re so suspicious of Naegi though

      • Namika says:

        Yeah. That type is so overused, but so effective. There’s no way you would dislike such a character. At least I wouldn’t.

        If you ask me, the tongue was just… a little overboard.

        Okay, now that that’s clear, I won’t try to put a finger on someone. And about Naegi. As I said before, that line the joke was managed too creepily to be ignored. Idk why, but… I don’t like him. He’s too innocent, too pure and too…. average o-o

        • Gecko says:

          I agree about the tongue, it’s overboard and kind of yucky. I figured her eyes were enough to tell which mode she was in.

          • BlackBriar says:

            I guess it’s a way of saying she’s sneaky as a snake. I got some serious Orochimaru vibes from that.

            • Namika says:

              Yeah, totally. Though he would sit in a corner and smoke nervously.

            • Karakuri says:

              I just kind of assumed that they were going overboard with her appearance so you can tell that she’s crazy right from that. Like with Celes’s goth loli, Mondo’s yankee appearance, or Junko’s flashy kogal.

      • BlackBriar says:

        Well the character count started out as 15, so the 16th means that there’s someone else who’s supposed to be there besides the ones we’ve already seen.

        That sounds a bit like Blood-C when you think about it. This is a sadistic game to the mastermind who set it up to bring in people just so he can watch them die but only a select few were chosen to live or die. Even Monokuma called Togami an extra. In Blood-C, the main cast were kept alive (at the moment) and the extras were wasted like they were nothing.

        • Karakuri says:

          I don’t think the mastermind particularly cares which of the characters live or die to be honest. The objective here is definitely different than the one in Blood-C~

  9. zztop says:

    I still don’t understand why Owada killed Chihiro for being a cross-dresser though. (?_?)
    Did the source game elaborate on the reasoning?

    • Karakuri says:

      Oowada killed Chihiro because he was facing his problem instead of running away from it. Oowada felt the need to be strong too like Chihiro did, (only Chihiro pretended to be a girl to get away from that and Oowada instead tried to be the MANRIEST biker around). However, Chihiro decided to face society’s expectations head on, where Oowada was still trying to hide. …Mostly, Fujisaki just unknowingly attacked Oowada’s complex at the wrong time (since Monokuma had recently brought up Oowada’s weakness) by saying the Oowada was strong. It must have felt like society was pressuring Oowada again and that’s why he snapped.

      …Or at least, that’s my understanding.

      …The game kind of elaborated a bit. Or more like, you saw more of the characters in their S links, so this was easier to figure out I guess.

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