Danganronpa 3: Mirai Hen – 03

Be careful who you call ugly in high school…?

It’s a bit of a late post, and I still don’t have a Pikachu on Pokemon Go despite them spawning in my neighbourhood at least once a day, so this week was kind of a loss. …But at least Asahina isn’t actually dead.

Yaaay! …Wait. Nooo!

Right away, it’s a pretty big relief that Asahina is alive! …But now Gozu is dead instead. Though now Kirigiri’s absence from the murder (as well as the whole investigation part where they figure how and why there was a murder) is really apparent. The characters kind of went “oh no!” and then just… left without asking questions. How did the murderer get into the room? What was the motivation behind killing Gozu? Also, the characters didn’t even really question what happened to Aoi. Though since she looked like she was murdered, maybe it was actually protection for her so the traitor wouldn’t target her. But on the bright side, as stated before, Asahina isn’t actually dead and nobody even really blamed Naegi for the murder that did happen. So at least there’s a win. Kind of.

Though the question still remains as to who killed Gozu. Naegi and Asahina are pretty trusting so they didn’t question anything, but Gekkougahara is pretty suspicious. Gozu looked kind of heavy and it would have been hard to suspend him like he was, but it might have been easier with say, a robot or something like a tricked out wheel chair. Though of course, Gekkougahara might have been the person to fake kill Asahina to prevent the murderer from targeting her too (maybe she programmed the chair to move and do stuff while she was asleep?), so her position isn’t too incriminating yet.

It’s interesting to learn about the other character’s NG Codes though. Not being able to turn right doesn’t seem like that big of a weakness (provided you remember all the time), unless Gekkougahara is trying to run away from something. However, Aoi came really close to activating her code during the time when Sakakura accidentally killed Bandai. I suppose all codes are a threat, but considering the characters that are present for this round, some seem more dangerous than others.

Naegi is the same as ever though, with his rousing hope speech. It’s interesting to see how he and Kirigiri are kind of the same as they were back in the first game they were in. Where Kirigiri is still a little untrusting, as shown from her interaction with the group she’s with and her unwillingness to share her NG Code, Naegi made an announcement about his own code and how much he trusts everyone. Though this probably comes from experience of what happens when the characters withhold secrets from one another, like when Fujisaki was murdered by Mondo in the first game. Plus maybe Kirigiri’s code being a secret has to do with her being unable to share it. Since she was a secretive character in the first game and conflict came out of her mysteriousness, maybe the Despair side thought it might be funny if her code was that she couldn’t share it, thus causing more conflict.

That’s it. That’s the series.

Unfortunately though, Munakata doesn’t seem to be as moved by Naegi’s speech as everyone else was and still wants to kill him for whatever reason. I guess Naegi saving the Remnants of Despair is still on his mind. Though at this point, he seems to be angry with Naegi for his naivety more than thinking that Naegi is going to kill them all because he’s the traitor. Munakata is probably going to need some kind of awakening at some point to realize he’s still taking things way too far, but from his words this episode, it seems that Yukizome is still on his mind. Sakakura kind of has less of an excuse to attack Kirigiri, but I guess she was part of trying to rehabilitate the Remnants of Despair and she’s on Naegi’s side, so I suppose that’s reason enough for him. Though more than hope or despair, it just seems like Munakata and Sakakura are way more concerned with killing Naegi and friends (or maybe just people that disagree with them) more than finding the real traitor and getting rid of them.

I guess Andou and Kimura have some kind of history as well, which is causing more chaos. I’m sure they’ll go into that eventually (maybe even in the Zetsubou arc since Kimura seemed to be with Tsumiki in the first episode of the Mirai arc), but right now, it just goes to show how divided the characters are even when they’re not thinking that Naegi is the traitor. The other characters don’t seem wary of Kimura though, so this is probably just Andou’s hate of people betraying her.

As a side note, Hagakure isn’t inside the building, so I guess there wasn’t any major time lapse between the characters being knocked out and this game happening. It’s pretty impressive how the Despair side managed to decorate the interior with Monokuma stuff in the amount of time they had though. Now if only Hagakure could do something useful for the characters who are stuck on the inside.

The whole despair and hope thing has always been a huge thing in the series, but with what’s happened in the past few episodes, it seems like they’re focusing too much on that when there are much more important things to think about. …Like trying to decide who’s trying to kill them or escaping the building. There are probably a ton of clues sitting around Gozu’s murder site, but everyone is too wrapped up in trying to find the right definition of hope that they’re just ignoring them all. Maybe Naegi kind of has some ideas in his head (he did pretty much solve all of the mysteries in the first game with Kirigiri while everyone else just made things harder), but at this point it seems like he’s too intent on trusting everyone to think about the actual murders. If only Kirigiri could take a look at the body or something. Though it seems like the next episode is still going to be a lot of running around as the characters all fight amongst each other.