Yesterday, I got the opportunity to discuss why I love blogging so much. Today, Megan from A Geeky Gal is having me write about my favorite anime. Since I have already written about Sword Art Online in a previous post and that would probably be my favorite, I thought I would discuss a franchise I love that includes both games and anime. While I love the games more than the shows in this series, both are entertaining in their own ways.
Danganronpa defined 2018 for me, as I binged straight through all three games and watched two animes. Each entry in the series follows the same basic premise: A group of high school students that are the best in their particular fields get locked in together and held hostage by an animatronic teddy bear named Monokuma. The only way to get out is to kill one of the other students without getting caught. If the murderer is caught through a class trial, he or she gets executed, but if the wrong person is declared guilty, everyone but the murderer dies and the killer walks free. It’s a twisted premise, but one that leads to some creepy and thrilling moments filled with crazy plot twists and betrayals.
While the games are definitely the best way to be introduced to Monokuma and his killing games, there is an anime adaptation of the first game. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend watching it. As a huge fan of the franchise, it was fun to watch because it allowed me to reminisce about how much I love all of the characters. For a newcomer, however, it would spoil the results of all of the trials without giving much of an indication about what makes the series great. The interactions between characters are shortened to the point that it’s hard to get a feel for anyone’s personality, and key details are left out of class trials to shorten them, which makes them lack the complexity included in the game. Worst of all, watching the anime instead of playing the game totally removes the horrific atmosphere that the series is so great at creating. I was completely on edge playing through the protagonist’s eyes, and that’s completely lost in this adaptation.
The other anime for this series, however, is a little different. It isn’t based upon any of the individual games and is actually a sequel to the second title in the franchise. It follows two arcs and each episode alternates between them. One story is a direct sequel that follows the killing game survivors as Monokuma finds them once again for a little more fun, and the other is a prequel that shows the events leading up to the first killing game. I didn’t really care much for the sequel arc, as I found that it didn’t add much to the overall lore of the Danganronpa universe, but the prequel arc is absolutely wonderful. I don’t want to spoil anything for people who haven’t played the series yet, so I can’t say much here, but there are a lot of questions answered in this half of the anime that longtime series fan would deeply appreciate. Overall, I would not recommend someone new to the franchise watch this anime, as it wouldn’t make much sense, but to a fan of the series, it’s a must-watch experience.
As always, I have to thank A Geeky Gal for putting all of these questions together! Go check out her response here! I had to change up the question a little and answer it a bit differently, but I had a lot of fun gushing about a series I love! What is your favorite anime? Let me know in the comments below!
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The Hannie Corner 
I agree so much about Danganronpa!! I love the first two games so much that I’m putting off the third as long as I can in fear that a fourth will take forever or might not come out. Looking forward to the two anime as well, the second arc sounds interesting in that its different. Great write up! Have you played 999 or Zero Escape? They’re pretty similar to Danganronpa.
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I played 999 and didn’t really like it that much. The problem for me was that I went in super excited to play more creepy games, and the plot twists in the true ending make it a lot less creepy, so it kind of lost me. I’m still intrigued enough that I plan to play the other Zero Escape games in the future, so we’ll see if I like those more!
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