Video Game adaptations have garnered a reputation recently for being... sub-par. Especially when compared to adaptations of other forms of media like books or comics. The Super Mario Bros film, for example, is widely regarded as a terrible adaptation of the games not only because it's a poorly made film, but because it misrepresents everything that the games are about. Not all adaptations of video games are like this, however. Particularly, Anime adaptations of video games have had a slightly more positive streak in recent memory. Even if the series still isn't very good, it's likely to represent the games more faithfully in terms of looks and themes than a big budget Hollywood film (mainly because the games they're adapting were most likely already made in Japan). On the other hand, a major problem with a lot of video game to anime adaptations, much like film adaptations of books, is that they try to squeeze hours upon hours of story content from the games into only 13 to 25 episodes, making the story of the anime feel rushed compared the games.
And I think that no series is better at representing this problem than Danganronpa: The Animation.
For those of you who have never heard of it before, Danganronpa is a fairly popular visual novel series developed by Spike Chunsoft. The first game in the series, which this anime is adapting, is Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc and was originally released for the PS Vita in 2010. The setup for the game is that a group of students, each with specific talents and quirks, are suddenly trapped in a mysterious high-school known as Hope's Peak Academy, which is ruled over by a maniacal robot teddy bear called Monokuma. And the only way for one of the students to escape is if they kill one of their fellow classmates and not get caught afterward, otherwise they're executed. Essentially, the game is a series of "whodunnit" murder mysteries where you investigate the murder scene of one of the students, slowly piece together evidence and theories about who did it, and finally bring them all together at the class trial where you ultimately uncover the identity of the murderer. On paper, a game like this seems like it should make the jump to anime pretty easily, as the game is already heavily story focused with many twists and turns throughout and the almost episodic/arc-like structure of all the murder mysteries seems like it would make mesh well with a traditional anime setup. Unfortunately, that's not how things play out.
The story of the anime pretty much follows the exact same story from the game; kids trapped in a school, they kill each other to escape etc. with all the same characters as well. The main character is Makoto Naegi (seen in the above image two desks right and one up), your average normal kid with no discerning attributes other than his incredible luck. Makoto does his job as a protagonist fine as his general dorkiness and admiration to discover the truth behind the school is very inspiring, but the main reason why you'd be interested in a series like Danganronpa is that of the other students. Danganronpa has a diverse cast of 15 students that include Kyoko Kirigiri, the tough as nails detective type, Sayaka Maizono, Makoto's childhood friend who also happens to be a pop star, Kiyotaka Ishimaru, the teacher's pet trying to keep everything in order, and so, so many more. But with a cast as large as this one, it's, of course, going to be very difficult to give all the students depth and make their characters interesting, especially when many of them are going to die without a substantial amount of screen-time. Sadly though, the anime doesn't quite get this right compared to the game. And this is where the problems with Danganronpa: The Animation start to show themselves, the main one being it's length.
The whole of Danganronpa: The Animation is only 13 episodes long, every episode being 20 minutes except for the final episode which is 30, totaling the running time of the whole series to just 4.5 hours. And since the original game takes around 30 hours to beat, having to cram all of that story content into such a short time span is going to make the show at best feel a little rushed in some places and at worst feel like it's just running through the plot as fast as it possibly can without any understanding of why the plot worked in the game. Adding to this is the fact that show has to leave out pretty much everything that isn't straightforward story content from the game if it wants to get through everything in time. In the original game, when the player isn't solving mysteries they're given the option to spend time with some of the students in order to learn more about them and their backstories. Because of this, the characters in the game gained more layers and likability leading to the player forming a connection with them. So when one of these characters is killed or is revealed to be the murderer themselves, the player feels genuinely heartbroken. The anime, on the other hand, isn't given the time to properly flesh out most of the characters, making a lot of their deaths have no impact as the viewer doesn't know enough about them to care.
Luckily though, not everything is bad. For one, sometimes the show can actually adapt the various cases of the game quite well. Not as powerfully as the game still, but some are pulled off quite decently. While the first episode of the show does feel like mostly exposition to set up all the school's rules, episodes 2 and 3 (The adaptations of the first case in the game) are done fairly well. This may be because it's the least complex case in the anime with less fine details, meaning the show has more time to devote to the characters and how they feel about their situation, or it could be because Makoto is the main focus and since he's the main character of the whole series, he's the one we follow and get to see grow the most. I really wish every case in the game could've been adapted this well, but unfortunately, a lot of the game's other cases are handled really friggin' poorly. Cases 2, 3 and the final case in particularly all feel so lacklustre compared to how they were handled in the games. Massive and incredibly shocking plot revelations in the game are just given out really quickly in the anime, and the characters get over them in a matter of minutes. Even the big ending twist of who the mastermind behind Monokuma really is and why all the students are trapped in the school has WAY less of an impact than it did in the games because the characters get over it so fast.
Crap, I was supposed to be talking about positive stuff, wasn't I? Well if it's worth anything I think the animation of the show is handled quite nicely. Not only do all the characters look pretty much identical to their designs in the games, but the show also does a great job of implementing mechanics from the game into the show's presentation. Things such as showing evidence being collected through the same prompt that's used in the game, showcasing the different minigames that take place during the class trial and a bunch more stuff that's a nice wink to the viewers that already played the game. Most of the show's soundtrack is also taken directly from the game, which is an AMAZING thing as the soundtrack to Danganronpa is absolutely glorious. The music does a great job at making the situation feel tense, humorous, foreboding or even triumphant. If you take anything away from this review, go and listen to the Danganronpa OST on YouTube, it's fantastic. The opening of the show is also up there with the game's soundtrack, even if the song was made exclusively for the anime. Some may find the rapping and vocals very cheesy, but I personally think that makes the opening incredibly catchy and memorable.
And one final positive thing before I wrap up this review, I HAVE to talk about the English Dub. Not only because of the fact that most of the English voice acting in this show is great (even though almost all of the English actors are different from the game) but because of the English dialogue. Let's just say, if you've ever heard of the anime "Ghost Stories" or seen bloopers for English dubs of anime on the internet, you'll be right at home here. The English script of this show is packed to the brim with references, memes and tons of amazing quotes such as "This sauna is amaze-balls!", "Bro-e was seriously Moe." and "I've faced more heat than the devil's nutsack!". But while a lot of the dialogue is incredibly humourous and absurd, it's not overdone to the point of an anime like "Ghost Stories" and the original intent by the Japanese dialogue is still there, just now with an added layer of hilarity.
Overall, Danganronpa: The Animation, while it isn't the worst video game adaptation of all time or anything, it's still lacklustre when compared to the game that it's based on. Becuase of the show's limited run time, it can't go as into detail about the characters and story that the game can and while the show is great to look at and listen to, that doesn't necessarily excuse how shallow the story feels. But the ultimate question at the end of the day is this; if you've never played Danganronpa before and don't plan to in the future, can you enjoy this show as it's own separate thing? In my opinion, it really depends. If you're just looking for a fun show with decent animation that you can waste your time with, then I'd say this show is worth giving a try. But if you're looking for something with mystery, intrigue, compelling storylines and genuine heartbreaking moments... just play the game instead.
Like I said, it's not the worst video game adaptation ever, but it's still very far from being one of the best.
I give Danganronpa: The Animation a 5.5/10.
Thanks for reading!
None of the images in this article belong to me. Every property mentioned in this article belong to their respective owners.
IMAGE SOURCES:
https://www.funimation.com/shows/danganronpa-the-animation/
http://gamingtrend.com/feature/reviews/devoid-of-hope-danganronpa-the-animation-review/
https://www.pinterest.com/SmilingGod/danganronpa-monobear/
http://otakudome.com/danganronpa-the-animated-series-review/
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| All the various students who are trapped in Hope's Peak Academy. |
The whole of Danganronpa: The Animation is only 13 episodes long, every episode being 20 minutes except for the final episode which is 30, totaling the running time of the whole series to just 4.5 hours. And since the original game takes around 30 hours to beat, having to cram all of that story content into such a short time span is going to make the show at best feel a little rushed in some places and at worst feel like it's just running through the plot as fast as it possibly can without any understanding of why the plot worked in the game. Adding to this is the fact that show has to leave out pretty much everything that isn't straightforward story content from the game if it wants to get through everything in time. In the original game, when the player isn't solving mysteries they're given the option to spend time with some of the students in order to learn more about them and their backstories. Because of this, the characters in the game gained more layers and likability leading to the player forming a connection with them. So when one of these characters is killed or is revealed to be the murderer themselves, the player feels genuinely heartbroken. The anime, on the other hand, isn't given the time to properly flesh out most of the characters, making a lot of their deaths have no impact as the viewer doesn't know enough about them to care.
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| Monokuma: The demonic little teddy bear responsible for trapping all the show's characters. |
Crap, I was supposed to be talking about positive stuff, wasn't I? Well if it's worth anything I think the animation of the show is handled quite nicely. Not only do all the characters look pretty much identical to their designs in the games, but the show also does a great job of implementing mechanics from the game into the show's presentation. Things such as showing evidence being collected through the same prompt that's used in the game, showcasing the different minigames that take place during the class trial and a bunch more stuff that's a nice wink to the viewers that already played the game. Most of the show's soundtrack is also taken directly from the game, which is an AMAZING thing as the soundtrack to Danganronpa is absolutely glorious. The music does a great job at making the situation feel tense, humorous, foreboding or even triumphant. If you take anything away from this review, go and listen to the Danganronpa OST on YouTube, it's fantastic. The opening of the show is also up there with the game's soundtrack, even if the song was made exclusively for the anime. Some may find the rapping and vocals very cheesy, but I personally think that makes the opening incredibly catchy and memorable.
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| All the students meeting in the dining hall to discuss their plans. |
Overall, Danganronpa: The Animation, while it isn't the worst video game adaptation of all time or anything, it's still lacklustre when compared to the game that it's based on. Becuase of the show's limited run time, it can't go as into detail about the characters and story that the game can and while the show is great to look at and listen to, that doesn't necessarily excuse how shallow the story feels. But the ultimate question at the end of the day is this; if you've never played Danganronpa before and don't plan to in the future, can you enjoy this show as it's own separate thing? In my opinion, it really depends. If you're just looking for a fun show with decent animation that you can waste your time with, then I'd say this show is worth giving a try. But if you're looking for something with mystery, intrigue, compelling storylines and genuine heartbreaking moments... just play the game instead.
Like I said, it's not the worst video game adaptation ever, but it's still very far from being one of the best.
I give Danganronpa: The Animation a 5.5/10.
Thanks for reading!
None of the images in this article belong to me. Every property mentioned in this article belong to their respective owners.
IMAGE SOURCES:
https://www.funimation.com/shows/danganronpa-the-animation/
http://gamingtrend.com/feature/reviews/devoid-of-hope-danganronpa-the-animation-review/
https://www.pinterest.com/SmilingGod/danganronpa-monobear/
http://otakudome.com/danganronpa-the-animated-series-review/
