Super High School Level Thread (Danganronpa)

Danganronpa thread!

Today I finally finished playing DR2, and decided to finally make this thread to commemorate the occasion. (Next I'll need to watch DR3.)

So! For those that aren't familiar, Danganronpa is a series of murder mystery visual novel games (+anime). Features a cast of colorful teenage characters and a variety of different translations, for that special "confusion" touch.

Perhaps the best summary is orenronen's: "I guess the best way to describe it is Phoenix Wright meets Battle Royale starring a masochistic teddy bear."

The first game, Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, is available on Steam for $20. The corresponding anime, Danganronpa: The Animation, is available wherever you watch anime, and it's a fairly good adaptation of the first game. There's also a good fan-translated let's play, which is notable for being made before the game was officially translated into English.

So! Talk here about how you discovered the series, favorite characters, favorite ships, favorite translations, fanfic/fanart recommendations, and everything else Danganronpa!

 

i think orenronen's lp was linked somewhere on tumblr and i followed along while the paywall was down, same with the second though i lost track of it and read it on the archive once it was finished and up.

"colourful" is a good word to describe it. shamelessly quirky, too.

 

I will die on the hill of Super Duper because I played the fantranslation first. DIE.

 

i found it the way i find everything else: tumblr wouldn't shut up about it and eventually i caved :P followed the orenronen lp while the paywall was down, took a long break after the first game, read the second game up to where the lp stopped, which was coincidentally just as the games went up on steam.

so me and @increasinglyCoherent just switched to playing it ourselves :D it's such a bizarre game but i love it, and as someone who was suffering serious phoenix wright withdrawal it provided all the weird murder mystery solving desired.

sakura/aoi is my favourite and possibly my only non-canon ship from DR1? (sakura breaks my heart to this day. i pretty much pestered iC into reading DR because i wanted her to understand and share in my heartbreak) favourite characters are 'all of them, but not you, hifumi...and especially you, sakura'. favourite douchebag award goes to byakuya togami for being a delightfully insufferable prick.

komaeda is quite easily my favourite DR2 character. he grew on me so fast. i didn't find myself quite as invested in the second game's cast as the first, but komaeda really stood out to me.

Spoiler: spoiler

i wasn't prepared for him to die. had seen literally no spoilers for this in all the years running up to playing DR2 and it completely blindsided me?? he was awful but i liked him being around to make an absolute nuisance of himself and laughing his horrible little laugh. i say it's horrible but i actually adore his laugh/voice?? i hate it. i'm a generic komaeda fan.

 

i'm curious about people's favourite class trials! :D

(i'm....gonna have to think about what my favourite is though....)

 

@Socket Same hat - Tumblr was going bananas over DR in 2013, so I went and read the first LP. I followed the second LP as well, but a paywall went up sometime during Chapter 2 and after it went down I just didn't catch back up again - so when I did finally play DR2 for myself, I basically only remembered the first chapter.

As a result of this I tend to prefer Super High School Level over the alternatives (thus the thread title), though I've grown used to Ultimate while playing the second game.

(Also I played the first game for about two hours (mostly because I'd been playing the second game with my brother and could not continue because he'd gone to bed) and. Some of those translations weird me out. Mostly the nicknames. I mean, Taka?? First of all he is Ishimaru to me, but when he is not, he is Kiyotaka. Taka does not sit right with me at all. Seeing Ogami instead of Oogami also weirds me out. Of course, the first game's translation also provides this gem:

Hifumi Yamada: Ultimate Fanfic Creator

#relatable)

I am fond of basically the entire DR1 cast (minus Yamada) (and yes, oh god, Sakura, Sakura ;-;). I didn't get quite as attached to as much of the DR2 cast (fuck you, Teruteru) but I ended up liking several of them quite a bit. Mostly Nanami, Gundam, Kuzuryu, Hinata, and Komaeda.

Spoiler: response to socket's spoiler

I agree - in particular I had sort of pegged Komaeda and Nanami as part of the main 3 (along with Hinata) that I was expecting to live. Having them both die was startling, and saddening - I liked both of them a lot. Komaeda noooo :c

I'd been spoiled for a few other twists (mostly Nanami being the "traitor," as well as one of the Chapter 6 twists) but somehow I hadn't been spoiled for Komaeda's death at all, so. Then again I guess I actually wasn't spoiled for any of the murders... but I should probably attribute that to my judicious use of Tumblr Savior.

Sakura/Aoi is canon in my heart. Also Ishimaru/Mondo, or better yet Chihiro/Ishimaru/Mondo. Combinations of Naegi, Kirigiri, and Togami are also good.

Not sure if I have a favorite trial, but the fourth trial of the first game and the second trial of the second game are the ones that ended up tugging at my heartstrings the most. And making me cry.

 

Hello i only watched the anime but ishimaru is my fave followed closely by oogami

 

@Deresto The anime is good too! If only they'd made an anime for the second game ;-;

I'm 5 episodes into DR3, myself :U

 

Chihiro isbmy fav character. The mondo case was my fav. I didnt care for the game after the first so i habe no idea wuat is happenong now.

 

The worst part about trying to write DR fic is trying to figure out which naming conventions to use. First names? Last names? Last names with honorifics? hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh It doesn't help that my instinctual preferences are different for different characters, but I also desire consistency... fuck it, I guess I'll go with last names with honorifics (with the exception of Sonia).

(also i finished watching DR3 a week or so ago and oh my god, my heart ;-;)

 

drags this thread screaming back into the light because a new game came out

 

@Starcrossedsky yeah!! i'm super excited... to meticulously tumblr savior the hell out of my dash. good thing i already wasn't using tumblr mobile because of the su leaks :u

...now i wonder if i need to worry about youtube recommended videos spoiling me... i've heard that can be an issue (& in fact youtube did recommend a new su vid to me the other day, so.... hmm)

 

I'm doing a full series reread/watch in preparation, I haven't touched this canon in like two years... you can find it here if you're interested but spoilers everywhere.

 

It's been 87 years and I still unironically love danganronpa. Followed oren's original thread and attempt at sdr2, then read the tumblr translation, then bought and played through the official english releases, then watched a LP of Ultra Despair Girls, then watched DR3 (ugh*), and now I'm fucking ready. (I'm also following someone doing a LP of the official translations on SA, which I can link if anyone's interested)

Fave characters (one from each bc I'm greedy) are Ishimaru, Ibuki, Monaca, and Seiko. I am still thinking about Ishimondo, and to a lesser extent Munasaka.

Fave trial ... gotta be SDR2's fifth. I also really love DR1's last trial.

I try not to get too mad about translations, but you will pry SHSL Prefect from my cold dead hands (referring to fuukiin, a.k.a. Ultimate Moral Compass.) I also have a really bad habit of absently calling myself 'super high school level tired'. It's just more fun to say than Ultimate...

(*I liked it better than some people did, but I am still mad about the ending)

 

super high school level is extremely fun to say and also my preferred amount of ridiculous. I think I've used "super high school level done" before.

 

I read the first game liveblog under basically the same circumstances, but petered out in the second. I have just seen a video of frankly hilarious bits from the third anime dub, though, so I might end up watching the 2nd and 3rd series just to see what's going on.

 

I should also point out that both games' English versions are out on Steam, $29.99 each or there's a bundle. There's no DR2 anime, which is unfortunate. Do NOT watch DR3 without having played/watched a LP of DR2.

...Since I'm always available to enable people to get into DR, there's a full video LP by NicoB here, and the current screenshot LP is here (only up to the end of ch1, and obviously only when the paywall is down). Nico is...loud, but at least you'll get an idea.

I did seriously consider buying it for you, but it's juuuuuust a bit much for a random gift. >.>

 

The way I did dr2 was ore's lp up till he stopped (which is in the ch3 trial somewhere) and then a Tumblr lp for chapters 4-end. will give that video lp a shot when I get there this time.

 

...so it's just over a month and a half 'til the new game comes out for us english-speakers. (september 26th on PC, PS4, & PS vita!) i am wiggling excitedly.

i have managed to avoid pretty much all content for the new game - i think i saw a spoiler for one murderer, but other than that, nothing. so i'm excited to finally play it & discover stuff!

i've also been watching a dude's LP of sdr2, and somehow i'd forgotten how sad trial 2 makes me. i mean i knew it was sad but i didn't expect to end up fully in tears again

 

DRV3: Killing Harmony came out in english this week! currently costs $60 on steam, though that also includes the soundtrack, which is quite good!

i've just reached the investigation phase of chapter one. it's interesting so far!