Hello to all you wonderful people and Monokuma lovers! Allan here and I’m here to talk about Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, the game and the anime. I will not include any spoilers (if there are, they are very small) in this post so you don’t have to worry about me talking about who’s dead or whatnot.

I am a huge fan of the Danganronpa series and I’ve played through all the games and watched the anime as well. That doesn’t exactly make me the master critic or whatever but I’m just here to share my opinions on the different between the first game and the anime adaptation of it.

First of all, I would like to address the different pros and cons of the game before I get to the anime. So we begin with Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc.

Danganronpa is a visual-novel adventure where high school students with special talent come to improve. This includes improving baseball skills, swimming, or fortune-telling among other things. The player follows Makoto Naegi, the Ultimate Luckster, as a crazy bear called Monokuma takes control of the school and forces the students in a game of kill or be killed with a Phoenix Wright vibe as there are class trials.

 

The game does very well in its character development, investigation and trial game play, and the buildup throughout each chapter with surprises and cliches.

Each character has a unique personality and the game allows you to interact with them and give them gifts to learn more about them personally. Every student is recognizable and relatable in some way

The investigation and trial game play work very well together as you spend the majority of the chapter in the trial which requires critical thinking and a clear head to understand what is going on. The investigation helps to put the pieces of the story together and brings you into the core part of the game by transitioning from free time to the progressing part.

The buildup is also done wonderfully as each chapter starts off with a feel-good vibe like you’re student that’s actually in high school. There are some moments that stand out such as the brotherly bonding between the disciplinary student and the gang leader that cheer you up which is needed cause there is a LOT of heavy stuff in this game. The game quickly breaks that feel-good vibe when a murder has occurred unexpectedly and leaves you in suspense as one of Makoto’s classmates is a murderer and its up to you to figure it out.

The game also lacks in some parts as yes there may be a good deal of character development, but most of those characters perish before you are able to fully bond with them and you are only able to after the main story which sucks.

It’s also very slow paced and if you plan to replay it, its a chore to get through since the entire game is reading with just a bit of actual game play. They don’t call it a visual novel for nothing and after a certain point, you’ll just want to get on with the story already to find out who is behind everything as that is where most of the effort is put into.

That is basically the game’s pros and cons and now I will talk very briefly about the anime since (this is one of its cons), it is EXTREMELY short and cuts out almost half of all the content that was originally in the game.

The anime consists of 13 episodes with every 2 being one chapter with an extra being an addition to the final chapter. The character development is privileged to only a few students as the others are just in the background  or barely get any screen time.

Another lacking part of the anime is dumbing down of the information and the trials. While in the game some parts of the trial or investigation may stump you, the anime may as well skip the trial as it speeds by just to get to the execution. The first chapter went doubly as fast compared to the in-game chapter. The lack of content left me annoyed as this felt more like another anime than an anime adaptation if you catch my drift.

The voice acting is very well done in Japanese but in English, the characters are given generic personalities and they sound more like children than teenagers. The more fun parts are also cut out as the anime tries to get the trial which cuts out a good chunk of the chapters.

Despite these faults, the animation isn’t too bad and I enjoyed seeing my favorite characters brought to animation. Even though some did not make it, my favorite character got a very good amount of screen time as they should cause this character is integral to the story.

The ending is rather satisfying as well as it tries to introduce people who are new to the series to the next game which has not been animated, but is the best one in the series in my opinion.

So yeah, the game has more content and development but is slow and takes away most of those characters that are developing while the anime skips most of the development and build up but offers fans a pretty nice animation with some unique moments that the game failed to deliver correctly.

Personally, I would choose the anime when I need a refresher on the main story and the game when I feel like getting personal and actually wanting to be a part of the character’s lives. Both are pretty good and can be pretty bad but I love them all the same.

That’s my take on Danganronpa the game vs the anime. Let me know what you thought if you’ve seen either and with that I shall take my leave. Ultimate Despair out!