Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School: Despair Arc

Episode 1

Reviewer's Note: These writeups will contain spoilers for the first two Danganronpa visual novel games as well as the first season of the Danganronpa anime, because Danganronpa 3 assumes familiarity with these first two games. While I think it's technically possible to understand what's going on in Danganronpa 3 if you've only seen the first anime, I wouldn't recommend it myself based on the fanservice-and-continuity-heavy events thus far. I also wouldn't recommend trying to only watch "Future Arc" or "Despair Arc" on their own, as the first episodes of both have made it clear that this unique "prequel/finale" will be interlocking the two in interesting ways, meant to be watched together. However, I would absolutely recommend playing through Danganronpa 2 on PS Vita or Steam for yourself! It's not only a sequel that tops the original, it's one of my favorite visual novels of all time, so give it a shot!

The creator of Danganronpa, Kazutaka Kodaka, has made several statements asserting that he doesn't intend for people to know what happens to the Remnants of Despair after the curtain falls on Danganronpa 2. Whether Hajime Hinata and friends fully regain their memories, retain their sanity, or return to the world outside Jabberwock Island may be best left a mystery, fulfilling the kind of ambiguous hope and faith in the future that Danganronpa 2 was all about. (To be perfectly honest, I don't expect Kodaka to keep that promise completely, and I'd be shocked if we don't at least get a peekaboo of the Danganronpa 2 cast at the end of the "Future Arc" series.)

But I'm not writing about the Future Arc right now, I'm writing about the complete opposite, in a time before the first game's cast had ever even taken one step into Hope's Peak Academy. This "Despair Arc" is bound to make all Danganronpa lovers incredibly grateful that Kodaka never said anything about leaving the past lives of the Remnants of Despair ambiguous, as this premiere episode overflows with affectionate fanservice, wildly irreverent humor, and ten times more foreshadowing than its happy-go-lucky tone suggests.

The episode kicks off with a scene that immediately drives home just how interconnected these two "sides" of Danganronpa 3 will be right from the start. In the future world, Chisa Yukizome has just become the first victim of Monokuma's Final Killing Game. But here in the past, Chisa sits in an afterlife theater (is this where Monokuma Theater takes place in the games?) and laments her death as a truly unfortunate end to the start of a once-hopeful career. After graduating Hope's Peak as the Ultimate Housekeeper, she took up an assistant teaching job with Hope's Peak's notorious problem class: 77-B. Their usual teacher has long given up on this pack of eccentric delinquents and spends every night drinking himself into a stupor, so Chisa decides to take up the inspirational teacher role and rope all these misfit Ultimates back into the joy of learning by force! Surprise to no one: Class 77-B are the soon-to-be Remnants of Despair, back in the days when, as Makoto put it in the future, "there were times when even they talked to their friends about hope."

And if I didn't know any better, I would say there was nothing but hope ahead for these wacky kids. The irony of making the "Future Arc" so bleak and violent and dour while the "Despair Arc" is nothing but bubbles and sunshine and laughter is definitely intentional. (The openings for both shows are fantastic, but I'd have to give the edge to Despair Arc's for lacing its happy summer pastels with just a hint of the gruesome fates to come.) But even if the titles of these two shows matched their natures, I think Despair Arc would still steal Future Arc's thunder, because the Remnants of Despair have always been more lovable than the Future Foundation.

Kodaka seems to know exactly what fans of his characters want to see them do without betraying their natures or having to force any gags. Of course Mahiru and Sonia would show up for class on time no matter what, and of course Mikan would try and fail to make it to class without embarrassing herself, just in time for Hiyoko to treat her like dogcrap. (Don't worry, she secretly enjoys it.) The real surprise punctual student is Fuyuhiko, but he does have a heart of gold, after all. The adventure these five must embark upon to find their tardy classmates gets so much zanier than I think anyone was expecting, as we see Nekomaru literally decimate the mens' room with the force of his bowels, or Kazuichi emerge from a jaw-dropping robot with the worst BO you can imagine, or Gundham Tanaka emerge from an onyx pyramid guarded by gargantuan hamster-dragon statues. The new identity of the Ultimate Imposter also becomes funnier and funnier the more you think about it, comparing it to the identity he adopted in the original game. Every hysterical new setpiece comes and goes quickly enough not to wear out its welcome, interspersed with 8-bit eyecatches that work as great little jokes all by themselves. (I also can't imagine this montage being anything but annoying and confusing if you aren't already familiar with these characters. Just take my word for it that if you do know these guys already, it feels like coming home to a roof-shaking party.)

But in between all this madness, there are somber hints at the thoughtful themes that made Danganronpa 2 so emotionally rewarding for players. Chiaki, who was apparently a real student in the days before Despair took over, has an impromptu Meet Cute with a pre-brainwashed Hajime and tells him that he should count his blessings not having any enormous talent like all the other kids. "For us, our talent becomes our entire future. For you, the future is open to any number of possibilities." If Danganronpa 1 was about talented kids fighting to use their powers for good in the world rather than evil, and Danganronpa 2 was about reassuring the importance of the untalented in a world that too often treats them as disposable, I wonder what twist Danganronpa 3 will take on the optimistic-but-ultimately-harmful dogma of Hope's Peak Academy. We get a hint in Chisa's determination to bring Class 77-B together, when they complain that because they made it into this prestigious school, they don't have to come to the gen ed homeroom if they don't want to. "There's more to life than just your individual talents," she says, "It shines brighter than any talent when you come together: your hope."

I get the feeling Hope's Peak will be shown as more to blame than ever before in this cross-cutting adventure between past and future. Not only have its teachers given up on Class 77-B (except for Chisa, bless her heart), but there seems to be some plan to spread Hope's Peak's influence overseas, concocted by the former Ultimate Student Council President, Kyosuke Munakata. However his plans may have gone awry in the past, Munakata still became a prominent member of the Future Foundation in the end, which leads me to think he's at fault for Monokuma's Final Killing Game. The Future Arc may have gotten off to a rockier start, but this Despair Arc gives it a much-needed shot in the arm with plenty of juicy foreshadowing that doesn't ever overshadow the fun.

Rating: A-

Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School: Despair Arc is currently streaming on Funimation.

Jake has been an anime fan since childhood, and likes to chat about cartoons, pop culture, and visual novel dev on Twitter.