Plot Summary
Makoto Naegi considers himself extremely lucky when he is accepted the highly renowned Hope's Peak Academy - only to discover, along with fourteen other students, that behind the walls of the Academy is something much more sinister. Now they are all trapped inside with only one way to get out - to kill another student without getting caught.
Story
The story is a little bit of a double-edged sword. The mystery of who did what and why happens every couple of episodes, and, while they are quite entertaining, they do get to become a little repetitive after a while.
About halfway they do start to focus on the mystery behind the academy itself, however, it isn't completely focused on until the final couple of episodes. The sad part is that, though, I find the final two episodes to be the weakest. The explanations are a little confusing and the execution was almost sloppy.
7.5
Characters
They do a good job of making a lot of characters relatable and likeable. I find that I really do like a good chunk of the characters.
However, there isn't a lot of backstory to the characters, and when there is, I feel like not a lot of emotion was put into it, making more developed characters seem hollow and less developed characters the more relatable ones.
6.7
Animation
The animation is beautiful. No doubt about it. The character designs stand out and make all the characters recognizable and add to their character.
But I must specifically mention a couple of things. First off, they really integrated the whole "based off a video game" thing. It almost felt I actually was playing the game, which, in this case, was a plus.
The second thing was the execution scenes. Every one of them was incredible - however, I found some of them to be more haunting than others. Still, each carries a certain type of frightening beauty that I haven't seen in any other anime.
The only thing to complain about was the pink-purple blood. Though it does add character to the anime - really? It was a little hard to invest yourself when every time you saw blood it pulled you back to reality.
8.3
Music
The background music, while not exactly taking away from the anime, didn't really add much, either. They did their job of adding to the atmosphere, but didn't stand out at all, except for one pretty decent track.
However, both the opening and endings songs are incredible, and ones I could listen to repeatedly and not get tired of them.
7.2
Overall
Dangan Ronpa has its good and bad points, but in the end, it's a pretty good watch. It has an entertaining plot, incredible animation, and an amazing opening and ending.
Half Moon
7.48
Other
Side note: All spoiler text in this section is now official spoilers (so no reading if you haven't seen it yet)
...Pink blood... really?
...am I the only one who's, like, obsessed with Monokuma? I freakin' love that bear. He's so sinister, and at the same time, he's a freakin' teddy. He's the type of character you'd hug, then back away slowly as you realize your life is very much in danger. Also, his final words are totally haunting... something along the lines of "I am not a toy" as he stands up... OH MY GOODNESS I'M GETTING SHIVERS
Leon's execution is my favorite. It's just so... horrifyingly and beautifully haunting... *shivers again*
My favorite characters are Sakura, Yasuhiro and Yamada. I like the weird ones, okay?
*ahem* Pon pon pon poooonnnn~ A body has been found.
