The V3 version of Danganronpa relies on the prison-industrial complex for victims volunteers, specifically juvenile detention centers. Adolescents are offered lightened sentences for participation and full pardons for winning, thus ensuring the sign-up process is (technically) voluntary. DICE is an activist organization - the acronym is Danganronpa Is (a) Criminal Enterprise - that protests the profiteering off of the vulnerable and works to challenge the draconian laws concerning mild, petty crimes that exist primarily to feed the system.
I've been on a bit of a Danganronpa kick lately, and I wanted to share some thoughts I remembered (originally from 2022).
I am having a hard time believing that the whole world outside of Japan also suffered from the same total societal collapse (+ brainwashing?) that Japan fell to. Yes, I can imagine that countries with particularly close ties to Japan could suffer greatly, some perhaps even falling to civil conflict, but I'm not sure if I buy the totality of it, especially in the countries more isolated from the outside world (eg. Cuba), or ones with draconian censorship regimes (eg. China). The developing countries in particular I imagine would be spared most of the brainwashing, instead taking the brunt of the damage from the worldwide economic crisis, which yes it would also end in blood, but -- if I allow myself to be cynical for a moment -- nothing that particularly exceeds the scale of the wars and genocides we've seen there in the late 20th century. Really, the less culturally connected a country is to Japan, the less brainwashed its populace should probably be, given how Japanese Hope's Peak student body is. And, especially in the developed countries, this is probably where the effects of the Tragedy are the lightest, allowing them to gather themselves relatively quickly and act as starting points for rebuilding the world. Which honestly provides interesting story material on its own, as many of these governments could have visions of the post-Tragedy world that conflict with the Future Foundation's and each other's...
This is going to be a direct criticism of the Future Foundation now: of their 14 divisions, none of them are tasked with rebuilding of governments, local and national institutions of power. Almost as if they planned on ruling the world indefinitely after defeating Despair. And the fact that they don't seem to have a plan for handing over power makes me fear for how the world would actually look after their victory at the end of DR3. And when people start demanding a say in how they're governed, how will they respond? Will they respond to these protests like Hope's Peak did to the Parade, and set up another Tragedy as a result? Will they hastily restore status quo ante, with all its systemic failures that allowed Despair to fester and set up a Tragedy reprise, just further down the line than the first option? Because fixing these systemic problems is a work that should be started Day 1 of the Foundation's operations, to have a proper plan that adequately addresses them. And, like I said, they don't seem to have any kind of team dedicated to making such a plan.
I know this is a long ask, but I needed to get all of this off my chest. Thank you for your time, and have a nice day.
I agree with u. DR3 has so many issues
The "You're all secretly war criminals" thing is a pretty epic twist the first time playing. But like...it's an absolute mess when you really think about the sheer number of logistical issues Junko should have faced if we go with the fandom idea that "brainwashing was just a retcon" and that she successfully manipulated each of them with pure charisma. To begin with, people severely underestimate how much work it would actually take to turn a relatively normal (if a little eccentric in the case of Class 77) person into a monster on the level of the Remnants of Despair. Like this is WAY beyond anything Junko was doing in DR1's Killing Game. Manipulating someone to commit a murder is one thing. I'm not denying that it's entirely possible for Junko to have done that to them. Manipulating them into having a complete breakdown and killing their families? Trickier, but not entirely outside the realm of possibility. Manipulating them to keep on killing over and over again, become addicted to the sensation, carry out all sorts of other depraved acts, and wage a forever war on humanity, with the determination of a literal machine? That's gonna take a LOT of work. Like years of work. To put things into perspective, the Nazi gas chambers were implemented as a more efficient extermination method, because it was discovered that quite a few guards found it difficult to pull the trigger on Jewish prisoners themselves. That was with an entire decade's worth of anti-Semitic propaganda building up to the Holocaust. Junko meanwhile did not have a decade. She had a year. Less than a year actually. On top of getting things ready for the Class 78 Killing Game, manipulating Kamukura, Matsuda, and the Warriors of Hope, and keeping up appearances as a regular class member, we're expected to believe that she was able to corrupt all of Class 77-B to that degree as a FUCKING SIDE PROJECT within about 9-10 months? Not just doing it to one person, but to 14 people altogether. And all the while this was done without Kyoko or Makoto or Matsuda or Jin Kirigiri noticing ANY unusual shifts in those students' behavior. Which would require the Remnant versions of people like Teruteru, Ibuki, Akane, etc. to have insane acting skills up until the Reserve Course destroyed most of the school. I get that the Despair Video thing felt kind of lazy. I personally would have gone with a brainwashing methods that was less OP and slower acting. But like...literal mind control really is the most straightforward explanation. The "charismatic Junko" interpretation is completely inconsistent with the level of competence she displayed in DR1. Someone brilliant enough to create the Remnants of Despair with a silver tongue alone would not have their Killing Game derailed by something like Sakura's sacrifice. And it requires some ridiculous characterization for Class 77-B. We have real life examples of attempted spree shooters who gave up and turned themselves in after killing family members, because they realized they didn't actually have the guts to become a mass-murderer. There would have to be at least one such "failed Remnant" who crashed and burned like that among those 14 if they behaved like actual human beings and not goddamn robots. People try to chalk this up to the SDR2 cast coming from broken homes and shit. But I mean come on. So did a good chunk of the DR1 cast, and they spent an entire year in isolation with Junko. They would have gone insane just by being in proximity to her for so long if she was that charismatic.
goddd you get it. you literally understand it all. it was cool when it was first revealed but it's just so. Weird. when you think about it. like this is just some teenager. some random teenager created a cult and basically ended the world in the span of less than a year .i get what they were going for but it feels like a lot of the time the characters bend to fit whatever's going on in the plot... it aint consistent 💀
BNHA x One Piece Crossover in that one scene during Enies Lobby Arc where I cried and crieddddd 😠😠ðŸ˜
Is... Is it just me or is Deku getting more baby-faced as the seasons progress?
S1:
S2:
S4:
Like seriously, cut that shit out, if you get any cuter I'll die 😤
---fuckin patty-cake how are u gonna fight afo lookin like that???? U aint scary ur like a bunny trying to be intimidating, stop
Is it weird that I actually prefer DR3’s explanation for how Chiaki was created over DR2 implying that Chihiro created Chiaki? It more sense to have the memories Class 77-B have for Chiaki, be used as basis for which an Observer can be built from.
And while Chihiro creating an Alter Ego ai for the NWP makes sense (a completely separate Alter Ego from the one he eventually makes in DR1) I don’t really buy Chihiro is able to create three separate ai’s with distinct personalities and roles for the NWP. Especially since Chiaki and Usami are therapy ai and Chihiro definitely doesn’t have any therapeutic knowledge.
Plus, making three ai’s a lot of work for just one person and this isn’t a project he owns, he’s only collaborating with the development along with many other people so I imagine Chihiro would only be here to develop the Alter Ego ai and the development of an Observer system would be handled by other people.
I personally believe "Alter Ego" is just multiple copies of a single A.I. program — once that we happen to see put to work in a variety of different situations/ways.
But other than that, I think I can generally agree with you. Maybe not for the exact same reasons, but I still agree with your concluesions.
I understand that we're supposed to believe Fujisaki, Gekkogahara, and Matsuda all worked together to develop the Neo World Program. That's why we see Gekkogahara's personal avatar, Usami, working as a therapeutic A.I. program within the NWP. But once you have Fujisaki developing Alter Ego (based on themselves) and then co-developing Usami (based on Gekkogahara), the thing about the Chiaki is: Why would Chihiro develop two separate therapy A.I.s for the same program? And then, despite basing their previous A.I.s on specific people, how and/or why would Chihiro create a third A.I. that somehow has its own completely unique, distinct personality that ISN'T based on anybody else?
For those reasons, I think the justification for Chiaki's uniqueness and distinct function given in DR3 is actually better than going without those explanations.
Akane: The box says "four servings" but my heart says one.
Source: Tumblr
LET HIM COOK
Idk how to draw sax…
Seeing that post you made just now actually reminded me of something. This post-SDR2 RP blog storyline. Which claimed to be about the whole cast healing, and would be even-handed to everyone. Yet the writer's biases against Nagito constantly crept in, as there were noticeable double standards in the way he was treated compared to the rest of the cast.
Like I realized something upon looking at it again. It's Nagito, and Nagito alone who has to actually face his victims from when he was an Ultimate Despair. He's the one who gets ragged in person on by cast members from UDG. The others meanwhile? They never actually have to meet someone they personally wronged. There are no survivors of Novoselic (which got completely genocided in their version of events) ever confronts Sonia for example.
This is actually the case in a lot of fan works. It is very easy to tell when the writer has a bias against Komaeda. Personally, a thing I noticed when reading is that it feels like they all tend to put the other remnants in a good light while he is just. Separated. Similarly to how the fandom treats him in general by acting like he is the worst of them all. There's always that subtle undertone that shows they only hold things against him, which, again, is often because of the rooted ableism in how the fandom portrays him.
Funny... Since his actions really are tame compared to the others, he never even directly hurt anyone, unlike them. It's weird how the fandom doesn't hold the characters accountable for actual murders in the first place, but can I just mention how Komaeda (including Hinata) was the only remnant who didn't do anything violent and messed up except cutting his arm off?
As for Komaeda being the only one to face the people that he wronged, I saw that people even tend to make the remnants forgive each other immediately (or easily) or don't write any tension between them, making them friends. It's very confusing since they don't have normal relationships even in sdr2 and because they always make them target Komaeda with all the negativity... And because they literally killed each other. They would all be aware of how messed up they are and have to learn to accept it... They don't even have a reason to call Komaeda fucked up anymore because they've done worse, or rather he's fucked up too. They don't have to like him (they would realistically only tolerate everyone except the ones closer to them in the first place anyway), but it'd be way different, and they wouldn't be hostile. The fact that Komaeda would be peaceful makes that even more believable.
(Also do you mind sharing the name?)
The "You're all secretly war criminals" thing is a pretty epic twist the first time playing. But like...it's an absolute mess when you really think about the sheer number of logistical issues Junko should have faced if we go with the fandom idea that "brainwashing was just a retcon" and that she successfully manipulated each of them with pure charisma. To begin with, people severely underestimate how much work it would actually take to turn a relatively normal (if a little eccentric in the case of Class 77) person into a monster on the level of the Remnants of Despair. Like this is WAY beyond anything Junko was doing in DR1's Killing Game. Manipulating someone to commit a murder is one thing. I'm not denying that it's entirely possible for Junko to have done that to them. Manipulating them into having a complete breakdown and killing their families? Trickier, but not entirely outside the realm of possibility. Manipulating them to keep on killing over and over again, become addicted to the sensation, carry out all sorts of other depraved acts, and wage a forever war on humanity, with the determination of a literal machine? That's gonna take a LOT of work. Like years of work. To put things into perspective, the Nazi gas chambers were implemented as a more efficient extermination method, because it was discovered that quite a few guards found it difficult to pull the trigger on Jewish prisoners themselves. That was with an entire decade's worth of anti-Semitic propaganda building up to the Holocaust. Junko meanwhile did not have a decade. She had a year. Less than a year actually. On top of getting things ready for the Class 78 Killing Game, manipulating Kamukura, Matsuda, and the Warriors of Hope, and keeping up appearances as a regular class member, we're expected to believe that she was able to corrupt all of Class 77-B to that degree as a FUCKING SIDE PROJECT within about 9-10 months? Not just doing it to one person, but to 14 people altogether. And all the while this was done without Kyoko or Makoto or Matsuda or Jin Kirigiri noticing ANY unusual shifts in those students' behavior. Which would require the Remnant versions of people like Teruteru, Ibuki, Akane, etc. to have insane acting skills up until the Reserve Course destroyed most of the school. I get that the Despair Video thing felt kind of lazy. I personally would have gone with a brainwashing methods that was less OP and slower acting. But like...literal mind control really is the most straightforward explanation. The "charismatic Junko" interpretation is completely inconsistent with the level of competence she displayed in DR1. Someone brilliant enough to create the Remnants of Despair with a silver tongue alone would not have their Killing Game derailed by something like Sakura's sacrifice. And it requires some ridiculous characterization for Class 77-B. We have real life examples of attempted spree shooters who gave up and turned themselves in after killing family members, because they realized they didn't actually have the guts to become a mass-murderer. There would have to be at least one such "failed Remnant" who crashed and burned like that among those 14 if they behaved like actual human beings and not goddamn robots. People try to chalk this up to the SDR2 cast coming from broken homes and shit. But I mean come on. So did a good chunk of the DR1 cast, and they spent an entire year in isolation with Junko. They would have gone insane just by being in proximity to her for so long if she was that charismatic.
goddd you get it. you literally understand it all. it was cool when it was first revealed but it's just so. Weird. when you think about it. like this is just some teenager. some random teenager created a cult and basically ended the world in the span of less than a year .i get what they were going for but it feels like a lot of the time the characters bend to fit whatever's going on in the plot... it aint consistent 💀