Title: Danganronpa

Director: Seiji Kishi

Studio: Lerche

U. S. Distributor: Funimation Entertainment

U. S. Release Date: November 10th, 2015

Format: Blu-ray / DVD/ 13 Episodes / 335 Minutes

Genre: Horror, Drama, Dystopian Future

Age Rating: TV MA

Overall Personal Grade: C-

Synopsis:

Hope’s Peak High School only accepts the best of the best, and these superlative students will have to add slaughter to their schedules if they hope to leave the school in something other than a body bag.

Beat! Stab! Crush!

Just don’t get caught! To the victor goes freedom, but only if no one can figure out whodunnit. Get caught, and suffer a specially ordered punishment to fit the crime! From the oddly ordinary Makoto Naegi, to students that are the best and brightest hope for the future – all are plunged into the depths of ultimate despair! But what’s this? The biggest mystery of all may be the secrets of the school itself. When the sadistic Monokuma starts to leave a trail of mind-bending clues, will there be any hope left for survival for the remaining students trapped in this trigger-happy havoc?

Commentary:

I know that while this anime was first finding its way out into the american consciousness there was a great deal of interest in it and most teens were almost rabid over the series. Now that Danganronpa is released in its full absurdity I find it to be less than interesting and at time rather boring. I guess that by making the blood pink and having fun with the graphics could give people a reason to latch on for an episode or two, but in the end it manages to prove how weak the human condition is.

Danganronpa is less a series and more a spectacle. It is very clear why it is so short and in many ways it reminds me of Deadman Wonderland with less plot and pushing for someone to die each episode. There just isn’t much in this series that makes me want to have any reason to watch. Now the only potential aspect of the series that might give a person a resin to watch is the animation sequences after each trial. It takes on a much more western style of paper cutout images with the dark silliness to take the brutality away form what it stands for.

Overall Grade: C-

It has been some time that I have had such a response to a series and it makes me very sad to think that Danganronpa is popular. With everything that is going on in real life I am afraid that series like this gives me little hope for our species. I realize that they tried to prove that they aren’t just about the spectacle in the last few episodes, but I still found little redemption in it.

So, if you are looking for an anime that is a poor one note story and some rather grinding voice acting then the pink blood splatters of Danganronpa are just what the crappy doctor ordered.