Danganronpa 3: Despair Arc, Ep. 5 - "Beginning of the End"

Hope you're all staying healthy and smart out there. Now that we've taken our union-regulated break, it's time to return to... -sigh- *this show* again. On the worst streaming service ever, no less. Funimation, I don't care how fancy or how badass your simulcasts are, they're not enough to excuse how miserable your player is. If you thought that Danganronpa 3 introducing even *more* characters in Episodes 3 & 4 to focus on beyond the already-bloated cast wasn't enough, don't worry, Episode 5 completely shifts gears and turns the focus onto yet ANOTHER new character, a nervous shut-in animator by the name of Ryota Mitarai, who overworks himself to the point of fever and arguably becomes the main characters of both the Despair and Future Arc because... the showrunners wanted him to be. At this point, I'm starting to suspect that DR3 was actually supposed to be another story altogether, but they just decided to make it a Danganronpa project for money and marketing. It certainly explains why the 'canon' characters never get to do much of anything and all of the plot and screentime is thrown into the lap of the anime-original characters.

Remember in Episode 4, when Chisa was punished for her negligence and sent to teach the Reserve Course for half a year? Well, guess what, half a year passes instantly thanks to a handy time-skip. What the fuck? If they didn't even want to focus on the Reserve Course or focus on the details of Chisa's punishment... then why give her one at all? Fake drama? This is garbage-level writing and pacing. It's like if Shawshank Redemption's Andy Dufresne was sentenced to life in prison and then, in the next shot, he's already escaped. The issue with Chisa's punishment is that it's a double-edged sword no matter what. The Reserve Course has no interesting characters and actively hinders the plot from moving anywhere interesting, so we didn't need to see what Chisa was up to for an extended period of time... but just brushing over the semester she spent there completely nullifies the *point* of her punishment. Jesus Christ. "Time flies," muses Chisa. Yeah, six months in ten seconds is pretty damn fast! Chisa the fucking speedrunner.

Apparently, the tuition money is definitely being mishandled and secretly embezzled by the school's Board of Trustees (or something), who intend to funnel all of the money earned into the mysterious "Kamakura Project". At least that investigation subplot went somewhere, I guess, but we also never really saw any investigation going on. Chisa and the other adults just magically learn what they learn because the showrunners didn't want to show *how* they figured out these secrets and lies. DR3's handling of its adult characters is... about as bad as its handling of its teenage characters, but for entirely different reasons. They're supposed to be the reasonable authority figures, but most of the time they fail to make reasonable decisions. For example, I guess the principal's been trying to lift Komaeda's suspension. Why? Komaeda was the most likely suspect behind a bomb threat that could have murdered hundreds. Why?? Who cares if he's unnaturally lucky, the boy is, very likely, a terrorist. They never really follow up on why the principal would even consider this, and Chisa is okay with this development as well. Everyone is a fucking idiot.

The class celebrates Chisa's return, throwing a party spearheaded by Chiaki. I'm sure this would be a cause for celebration if it, y'know, LASTED LONGER. But Chisa was away from her class for a total of seven minutes. That's like throwing a party for your mom because she returned home from a trip to Walgreens. Y'all remember when two students were murdered in Episode 3 and the school was bombed in Episode 4? If you do, then good on you, because DR3 forgot.

The loli is... older now? But she still has a loli-sounding voice. I didn't know where else in the review to put this, but it bugs me. Her design and her voice just don't click now that she's older.

The party doesn't last long, though, because we need to yank the focus of the story back to Ryota, who will quickly become a very important character in the narrative for seemingly no reason at all. See, apparently, his brother is the Ultimate Impostor, and has been impersonating Ryota the entire time when, in actuality, the real Ryota is this shy, shut-in animator kid obsessed with finishing his anime and saving the world. I'm sure this would be a cool twist but, like, I had completely forgotten that the Ultimate Impostor was even relevant until they introduced his brother. He was a completely auxiliary character until the showrunners decided he wasn't. The show randomly shifting focus to Ryota and his Impostor brother for the second half of DR3 is... sloppy, to say the least. It feels like the show is doing everything in its power to keep the focus away from the characters we're supposedly meant to care about: Hajime and Class 1-B. In general, DR3 is a fucking baffling and underwhelming interpretation of DR2's cast and characters. Hajime never meets anyone beyond Chiaki, the randomly-introduced, anime-exclusive characters get way more focus and attention than the ones that are supposed to get all the development, and it's not even set in the same place as DR2. It really feels like the showrunners completely missed the point despite DR1 being a pretty faithful adaptation of the game.

Luckily, the episode decides to be good for a change. Junko fucking Enoshima herself waltzes onto the scene with her sister, Mukuro, and it's just a burst of fun, deranged creativity. This is *actually* the closest DR3 ever, ever gets to feeling like Danganronpa. Junko blows up a taxi, repeatedly attempts to stab Mukuro (who casually evades each and every lightning-quick strike while fawning over Junko) before tossing a grenade into her *wine glass* (a very cool move that reminds me of Gundam's 8th MS Team, where there was a shot almost identical to this), the aspect ratio randomly changes to a more threatrical 1.85:1 while Junko dramatically narrates her arrival... it's the best two-three minutes of the entire damn show. Junko and Mukuro have great chemistry together, deranged yet completely casual at the same time, bouncing from one conversation to the next like they're playing tennis with the narrative. This is what I wanted, that delusional yet accessible, fun energy that made Danganronpa so popular.

Instead, it decides to shift gears into rape jokes with Mikan and more backstory with Ryota and Impostor Man, the show's favorite characters. Like, I kinda-sorta dig the Ultimate Impostor's whole story (he attends class as 'Ryota' while the real Ryota stays home to make his anime, decent idea) and his more austere and mysterious personality is a welcome break from the 'nothing' he'd been defined by up until now, but it comes COMPLETELY out of left-field. It doesn't feel earned, it doesn't answer any burning questions... if anything, it creates more questions and more problems that the show isn't equipped to address.

Mikan is the first result you get if you type in "Rape" on Danganronpa Wikia's search engine. -sigh-

The episode ends on... a note. It's not a good or a bad note, it's just a note. Makoto Naegi is apparently back in the story now, with Junko and Mukuro not far behind, and we get a glimpse of the secret experiments being done on Hajime. He's being turned into a completely different personality... probably. He didn't really have one to begin with, so. None of these sudden reveals felt particularly exciting or interesting, they were just... sorta *there*.

If I had to describe this episode in a word, it'd be 'aimless'. A lot of stuff happens for seemingly no reason - the only thing it accomplishes is setting up the pieces for the rest of the story to come, but it does so in a very scatterbrained and disconnected manner. There's a very disappointing lack of Class 1-B in this "calm before the storm" episode - you could cut out the party entirely, and while the story with Ryota, Impostor Man, and Mikan is decently interesting, it comes out of nowhere and doesn't really involve the class as a larger whole. Episode 5 creates the feeling that Class 1-B isn't really going to be all that important in the events to come, which isn't a vibe you should ever want to strike for your supposed main characters. This episode is one amazing scene and then a bunch of noise preceding and succeeding it. Episode 5 is both strangely skippable and also completely necessary for your understanding of the events to come, given the amount of exposition and the fact that Junko is introduced halfway into the episode. It winds up being utterly mediocre - it has a lame opening, a good middle, and an ultimately-nothing third act. This is the point where DR3 crosses the Rubicon and proudly marches into 'really bad show' territory. This episode's title is incredibly apt. This is the beginning of the fucking end. It's ALL downhill from here.