Why do you think Makoto using the NWP was the wrong thing to do? The despair states class 77-b were in was objectively bad and self destructive and removing them so they back to normal should be a good thing. Also I wouldn’t say what Makoto is doing with the NWP isn’t more brainwashing, it’s deprogramming.
I've talked a bit about my hatred for NWP and how it is used in DR2 here, but it really comes down to this:
Forcibly removing people's memories to make them better people is not the correct answer.
Forcibly removing people's memories and reverting them back to a previous state and then rewriting over those memories with new ones is not the right answer.
Especially when you take DR3 into account and that Makoto etc. didn't know about the brainwashing video or when the Remnants fell to despair, they're just making best guess scenarios and wiping out all of their time at Hope's Peak, which effectively means they are wiping out their memories of real Chiaki and replacing them with DR2!therapybot!Chiaki, which is NOT the correct answer, no matter how you slice it.
The end of DR3 is very good about this - you don't make people better by removing the bad thing. You don't make things better by removing the memories of your past, even if they're memories you regret or hate or don't want to ever address again ever. Those memories are still there. They're still important.
Removing memories is not an effective or even good way of deprogramming people who are brainwashed.
Makoto's luck kicked into full gear with all the stuff that happened in DR2 and the shutdown and getting the Remnants as we see them in DR3, which is not a result of them having their memories removed. They still have their memories and are able to recover.
And yeah. Brainwashing is maybe a stretch (it's Junko's word for it, after all) - but they are reaching into a group of people's heads and mucking around with their brains and making choices for who they want them to be and how they want them to be that way (no, no, you can't be Remnants, so we will remove everything that led to that development and make you into someone we want by meddling with your brain)....
Sounds a bit like brainwashing.
Not the way Junko did it, for sure.
Still sounds a bit like brainwashing.
Girl's got a point.
okay but also.
i hate the neo world program. i hate the idea of it so much. i hate that their way to save people is to just cut out two-three years of memories, download them into a video game, and then save over those memories once they're better people.
and maybe this is because i come at this from having n2n as one of my favorite musicals where part of let's fix the mentally ill person is by electroshock therapy that WHOOPS caused them to lose their memories and then her husband's like you know what let's not tell her about the thing that we think caused the mental illness and then everything will be good! and great! and wonderful!
and i hate it.
because makoto + co. are making the same assumption nagito does, which is that now that they're remnants they are beyond saving in their current form so we're just going to regress them and cut all of that out of them and give them a reboot so they become the people we want them to be.
and, like, yes, we learn that the remnants agreed to this so they could try to bring junko back in them, which. you know. (is actually really funny when you think about nagito like if we bring junko back, maybe i get to kill her this time and then he's one of the dead people she would be coming back in, like, sorry, nagito, you'd literally become the person you hate the most.)
but makoto + co. didn't know that. they just forced them into these machines and wiped their memories without their consent and just. went from there. and the game suggests this is a good thing. because that's therapy! and dealing with trauma! to forcibly remove years of memory from your life!
it just makes me so uncomfortable. so uncomfortable.
and makoto's oh, i added a fail safe because i knew something would probably go wrong doesn't make it any better because that doesn't address the core issue. i just. i don't understand how people didn't tell them that this was wrong - or that they didn't realize that this was wrong - especially after having their own memories torn from them. (memories that! they had help! recovering! by the way!)
I’m definitely gonna make a stance on this, I’m on the side of Skullgirls fans who are angry about the censorship going on in the game.
If people were mad about the boobs and panty shots, maybe they shouldn’t be playing the boobs-and-panty-shots game. Just a thought.
junko exposing the existence of izuru kamukura is so fire like she really did that props to her for exposing human experimentation
all jokes aside people dont understand that junko didnt even do much to cause the tragedy other that move a few key pieces into place
and thats what makes her such a terrifying villain
the system within the danganronpa universe (and arguably our own) places talent above all else— above humanity. personhood itself lies in abilities you either have or you dont
in many ways all junko did was shine a light. it demonstrates how people gain power by profiting off of instability. its actually really easy to see how junko couldve become a hero to so many, to the cast of sdr2, to the warriors of hope, to mukuro
danganronpa isnt about “brainwashing video haahhahaha” its about… SOCIETY… and how institutions profit off of a population thats in the dark, how that lack of transparency can be exploited by someone
it sets a horrifying atmosphere and i think that was the actual intent behind her character when they were writing thh sdr2 and dr 0
The killing game was televised.
Can you imagine being a survivor involved with the Kamakura project.
Seeing Makoto.
Who is exactly what the project wanted to create.
The Ultimate Hope.
An "average" talentless boy possessing the ability to bring people up in a way no one has ever seen before.
Junko knew about the Kamakura project.
And I bet she was smiling to herself because those who worked on the project were killed.
If not killed barely surviving and in danger at every turn.
Lest their monster comes for them.
And seeing that they not only failed but their solution was right their in the year below.
Someone they never considered because he was talentless and pathetic, the irony.
Is everything they wanted to create and they can't control him.
Bakudeku vs togachako
One of my favorite things about Ultra Despair Girls is listening to the kid characters talk.
Like Jataro and Kotoko especially just ramble on and on about weird shit because their attention spans are still at this young age. Even Monaca just automatically gets bored with something if it fails to properly catch her attention. Nagisa doesn’t typically display this trait out of all of them because of his childhood and how he was pretty much raised by abusive parents to be an overachieving perfectionist to even get any scrap of worth or acceptance from them.
So many kid characters in anime are boring or there to be all cutesy. I really love that the Warriors of Hope are just… really gross and absent-minded. It’s not that they aren’t clever or anything, but their imaginations are at the age of just being on overdrive and so they go on tangents or lose interest and think of something better, cutting off their current thought processes…
Like Kotoko just has to tell everyone what her favorite food is and also what her least favorite food is and what she thinks about giraffes or eggs… and that’s just funny and cool of her. Hell, I love it even when the kiddy stuff covers up darker things like Masaru’s design of this standard shounen-esque kiddo with the little bandaids and scratches look is really hiding an outwardly and physically abused child.
It’s just really neat is all.
Oh my god, you know what I just realised?
Makoto putting the Remnants of Despair inside the Neo World Program—as idealistic as his intentions were—indirectly makes him a Mastermind.
Concept: After the kids were rescued from their abusive family. They temporarily stayed with the Naegi family. One night, Kotoko wanted to stay with big brother Makoto, because she was afraid of sleeping alone. Then Masaru joined in a tsundere way, then Monaca. Jataro and Nagisa stayed with big sis Komaru. The next morning as the kids play in the park, Komaru claimed she enjoys being a big sister.
shhhhhhh sleeping protags..........