×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more
You are welcome to look at the talkback but please consider that this article is over 8 years old before posting.

Forum - View topic
NEWS: Danganronpa Writer Says 2's Characters' Stories Ended With Game


Goto page 1, 2  Next

Note: this is the discussion thread for this article

Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Engineering Nerd



Joined: 24 Apr 2008
Posts: 898
Location: Southern California
PostPosted: Fri Mar 25, 2016 5:34 pm Reply with quote
I am kinda confused, so dangaronpa 2's game is entirely independent from the first game besides the similar setting, and all characters have no relation to the first series' characters. Basically without playing the second game will not hinder my understanding of Danganronpa 3 the anime.

Did I understand it correctly?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
DontmesswithKarma



Joined: 07 May 2015
Posts: 491
PostPosted: Fri Mar 25, 2016 5:34 pm Reply with quote
HYPED HYPED HYPED for this weekend's trailer. I'm in absolute love with Lerche and Kishi at the moment and the anime japan poster and the anime's logo looks incredible!!! Can't wait!!!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
KH91



Joined: 17 May 2013
Posts: 6176
PostPosted: Fri Mar 25, 2016 5:46 pm Reply with quote
If people actually care about 2, they'll just play the game instead or watch a walkthrough if they haven't already.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Dellore



Joined: 22 Apr 2013
Posts: 30
PostPosted: Fri Mar 25, 2016 5:49 pm Reply with quote
Engineering Nerd wrote:
I am kinda confused, so dangaronpa 2's game is entirely independent from the first game besides the similar setting, and all characters have no relation to the first series' characters. Basically without playing the second game will not hinder my understanding of Danganronpa 3 the anime.

Did I understand it correctly?


Yes, you don't really need to play the second game to watch the new series. The story is not completely unrelated, but as for the characters from the first game are concerned, you can see it as a sort of spin-off.

Although, I wouldn't recommend to play the second without playing the first. It plays a lot with the player's expectation and does a great job coming off as an entirely different game with the same concept.


Last edited by Dellore on Fri Mar 25, 2016 5:50 pm; edited 1 time in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
JacobC
ANN Contributor


Joined: 15 Jan 2008
Posts: 3728
Location: SoCal
PostPosted: Fri Mar 25, 2016 5:50 pm Reply with quote
Engineering Nerd wrote:
I am kinda confused, so dangaronpa 2's game is entirely independent from the first game besides the similar setting, and all characters have no relation to the first series' characters. Basically without playing the second game will not hinder my understanding of Danganronpa 3 the anime.

Did I understand it correctly?


Yup! Two is (technically) a bottle story, it's just a really fantastic bottle story you should totally check out on its own merits. I think it's easily the best Danganronpa narrative (out of the three so far: 1, 2, and Despair Girls) but it is a closed circuit that you can very easily write around to make a coherent jump from #1 to #3.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website My Anime
DigitalScratch





PostPosted: Fri Mar 25, 2016 5:54 pm Reply with quote
That's disappointing honestly. I really loved SDR2 and found it better in terms of both story and characters compared to DR. I also loved the reveal of what was really going on and how the characters are connected to the antagonist of DR.

The fact that the ending had a lot of potential with the fact that spoiler[everyone who died are simply stuck in a comatose state] gave me the impression that there was still more that can be told.

But at the same time I do understand: don't write something for the sake of fan service. Write it if you feel like there's more to tell. If you don't then it's not going to feel right for you. So yeah, maybe someone else on the team may be able to do it.

Engineering Nerd wrote:
I am kinda confused, so dangaronpa 2's game is entirely independent from the first game besides the similar setting, and all characters have no relation to the first series' characters. Basically without playing the second game will not hinder my understanding of Danganronpa 3 the anime.

Did I understand it correctly?


I guess that is what they're trying to do, since they might make the transition between 1 and 3 rather smooth without any throwbacks to SDR2.

I really disagree with leaving 2 out though, because the most telling twists in its story really drive home how horrible Hope's Peak Academy is to their students and gives a deeper explanation into what went wrong.
Back to top
Aster Selene



Joined: 15 Jul 2009
Posts: 68
PostPosted: Fri Mar 25, 2016 5:55 pm Reply with quote
Engineering Nerd wrote:
I am kinda confused, so dangaronpa 2's game is entirely independent from the first game besides the similar setting, and all characters have no relation to the first series' characters. Basically without playing the second game will not hinder my understanding of Danganronpa 3 the anime.

Did I understand it correctly?


Although the "characters" and main scenario of the second game are not involved in the DR3 anime, without spoiling too much there is some stuff pertaining to the first game's cast (which will be reappearing in the 3 anime), so I would still recommend playing the second game, and ZZS as well, although I imagine 3 will probably still fill in info for the uninformed (since they can't expect 3's audience to be limited purely to only those who have played the game).

Anyway, in regards to what Kodaka said, I agree in that there's not much to add onto the characters' stories at this stage. 2 ended on a very firm note of "we don't know what'll happen next, but we'll push forward despite having no idea what'll happen", so it kind of kills the concept in retrospect if we do find out what happens. 1 arguably ended on that note as well, but it was to a far lesser extent, and given that now the characters are involved in a greater plot given 2 and ZZS, there's no choice but to continue pursuing their plotline.

I love the characters in 2 with all my heart, but I really do think it would be better for the narrative if we don't know what happens to them afterwards, and so I completely understand why Kodaka wouldn't want to write more on them.

This doesn't entirely explain why they're not making a 2 anime when it would be an adaptation and not a sequel, but there's a number of reasons for them to not do it (wanting to do something new instead of another adaptation + the poor reception of the first anime), so it makes sense.

And in a joke addendum, Kodaka, you said that you don't want to write about the DR2 characters, but Monomi is there. She's a character too, isn't she? Are you stripping her of her right to call herself a character?!!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
cloud8100



Joined: 30 May 2010
Posts: 550
PostPosted: Fri Mar 25, 2016 6:10 pm Reply with quote
Aw, 2 is my favourite. Would've loved to see that animated. Crying or Very sad

Though I can understand the - "I can't write a "what happened after" for the characters of 2 so easily".

And as much as I love Danganronpa, a part of me feels like it should be done and over with for some reason.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
doubleO7



Joined: 17 Jul 2009
Posts: 1069
PostPosted: Fri Mar 25, 2016 6:39 pm Reply with quote
Having played every game, I can definitely understand where he's coming from, but this almost feels like an oversight to me. The characters of D1 are so important to, not only that game itself, but to the entire series as a whole spoiler[that they star in or have some small part to play in nearly EVERY piece of canonical media in the entire franchise.]

But the D2 characters are basically one-and-done? That just doesn't... feel right, to me. This makes it sound like no one from D2 is even going to appear in the D3 anime at all, which I would've thought was a sure-thing before, at least for the protagonist. I feel like there are still a few avenues that could be explored with it's cast. I liked the ending a lot, but it was spoiler[rather open-ended and left a few things up in the air that didn't necessarily need a resolution at the time, but now that he's actually making a sequel, should probably be addressed in some way rather than simply ignored.]

Engineering Nerd wrote:
I am kinda confused, so dangaronpa 2's game is entirely independent from the first game besides the similar setting, and all characters have no relation to the first series' characters. Basically without playing the second game will not hinder my understanding of Danganronpa 3 the anime.

Did I understand it correctly?


Honestly, you could probably get away with that without too much confusion, but I still wouldn't recommend skipping it. D2 was a really great game that is totally worth playing and is my personal favorite game of the series.

Story-wise, it is a more self-contained game than D1, but it is not "completely independent." It does still have ties to the first game, of course, and answered some of it's lingering questions. Surely some elements from D2 will be relevant to D3 to some degree, even if, as he says, the individual character arcs featured in that game were all pretty much wrapped-up by the ending in one way or another.

EDIT: Looks like I'm late to the party. That's what happens when I take a break while writing a forum response, lol.


Last edited by doubleO7 on Fri Mar 25, 2016 6:49 pm; edited 2 times in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
FantiSci



Joined: 13 Sep 2011
Posts: 4
PostPosted: Fri Mar 25, 2016 6:44 pm Reply with quote
A creator shouldn't be strictly beholden to their fans...if they're working on something they really don't want to do, the quality suffers. Not that I kid myself that they're doing it purely for the art, but it sounds like the writer (or perhaps the Powers That Be) doesn't want to do DR2, and would only be doing it out of obligation.

That said, however, I thought DR2 was by far the most open-ended of the games. If anything, I would have thought DR1 was in more danger of getting into "dead horse" territory, given Makoto and Co's involvement in both DR2 and Ultra Despar Girls. The mysteries in the first game were largely cleared up, and Makoto is now the Big Good. Anything after that is probably going to be "Hero Makoto Saves World" or, more likely, "Hero Makoto is backstabbed/let down and now has to do the whole thing over again." Which is by no means a bad thing, but is certainly predictable.

By contrast, DR2 left a lot of unanswered questions. There was no real backstory for the "fallen" characters, and how they became that way, the creation of spoiler[Izuru] is left extremely vague (for example, how much did spoiler[Hajime] know about what the project actually involved for him?) and there's no definite outcome for the students at the end - are they going to be okay? And if they are, what's going to happen to the more dangerous students, like spoiler[Mikan and Nagito]?

I could be completely wrong, and the writers might have come up with something totally original...but I don't think it's accurate to say "Danganronpa 2 was utterly self contained and there's nothing more to say about it."
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Faeris



Joined: 22 Mar 2016
Posts: 50
PostPosted: Fri Mar 25, 2016 7:22 pm Reply with quote
DigitalScratch wrote:
That's disappointing honestly. I really loved SDR2 and found it better in terms of both story and characters compared to DR. I also loved the reveal of what was really going on and how the characters are connected to the antagonist of DR.

The fact that the ending had a lot of potential with the fact that spoiler[everyone who died are simply stuck in a comatose state] gave me the impression that there was still more that can be told.

But at the same time I do understand: don't write something for the sake of fan service. Write it if you feel like there's more to tell. If you don't then it's not going to feel right for you. So yeah, maybe someone else on the team may be able to do it.


doubleO7 wrote:
Having played every game, I can definitely understand where he's coming from, but this almost feels like an oversight to me. The characters of D1 are so important to, not only that game itself, but to the entire series as a whole spoiler[that they star in or have some small part to play in nearly EVERY piece of canonical media in the entire franchise.]

But the D2 characters are basically one-and-done? That just doesn't... feel right, to me. This makes it sound like no one from D2 is even going to appear in the D3 anime at all, which I would've thought was a sure-thing before, at least for the protagonist. I feel like there are still a few avenues that could be explored with it's cast. I liked the ending a lot, but it was spoiler[rather open-ended and left a few things up in the air that didn't necessarily need a resolution at the time, but now that he's actually making a sequel, should probably be addressed in some way rather than simply ignored.]


Feel you.

I'm also a bit disappointed that there will be no further development for the SDR2 characters. I mean, the 2 was my favorite and I was really hoping spoiler[to see out of the coma against all medical expectations and trying to be alive together Anime cry

but it's quite right, I think. in the end they remained there alone while the Future Foundation went back to the real fight. So I guess now we know that there isn't any more to be told about them... they probably never woke up *cries a little*]


BUT IM ALSO PROUD OF THIS as a fan, it is right that the characters that started this story will be the ones to end it. No fan service. just what we need to be told for this story to be finished like it deserves.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
wolf10



Joined: 23 Jan 2016
Posts: 906
PostPosted: Fri Mar 25, 2016 7:40 pm Reply with quote
Faeris wrote:
I'm also a bit disappointed that there will be no further development for the SDR2 characters. I mean, the 2 was my favorite and I was really hoping spoiler[to see out of the coma against all medical expectations and trying to be alive together Anime cry

but it's quite right, I think. in the end they remained there alone while the Future Foundation went back to the real fight. So I guess now we know that there isn't any more to be told about them... they probably never woke up *cries a little*]

I don't see it that way at all. Kodaka won't write anything more for them precisely becausespoiler[ he wants you to be able to imagine whatever you like for them]. Possibilities for sequels for them would involve, by necessity, establishing a canon for events that hope dictates be left spoiler[completely open]. If, after all that, he spoiler[brought some of them back in only for them to die, or established that only some woke up but not others, or even that nobody woke up], it would detract from spoiler[the open and hopeful nature of] SDR2's ending.

So he's leaving them alone because he cares too much to drag them back into Monokuma's bulls*it. At least that's how I choose to see it.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Faeris



Joined: 22 Mar 2016
Posts: 50
PostPosted: Fri Mar 25, 2016 7:50 pm Reply with quote
wolf10 wrote:
Faeris wrote:
I'm also a bit disappointed that there will be no further development for the SDR2 characters. I mean, the 2 was my favorite and I was really hoping spoiler[to see out of the coma against all medical expectations and trying to be alive together Anime cry

but it's quite right, I think. in the end they remained there alone while the Future Foundation went back to the real fight. So I guess now we know that there isn't any more to be told about them... they probably never woke up *cries a little*]

I don't see it that way at all. Kodaka won't write anything more for them precisely becausespoiler[ he wants you to be able to imagine whatever you like for them]. Possibilities for sequels for them would involve, by necessity, establishing a canon for events that hope dictates left be completely open. If, after all that, he spoiler[brought some of them back in only for them to die, or established that only some woke up but not others, or even that nobody woke up], it would detract from spoiler[the open and hopeful nature of] SDR2's ending.

So he's leaving them alone because he cares too much to drag them back into Monokuma's bulls*it. At least that's how I choose to see it.


Yep. I know what you mean. I also so want to believe that, and that's the feeling I got with the ending. I guess it was just my little sadness for the not-seeing-them-again news speaking (?) haha
We'll never really know the facts unless someone takes the story, though it might take a little bit of the magic away in my opinion.
Besides (I'm not so sure of what I really want but ) I think I'd rather have it spoiler[as an open ending that actually seeing them with brutal consequences of their acts as despairs.]
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
GeneStriker



Joined: 03 Feb 2016
Posts: 156
PostPosted: Fri Mar 25, 2016 8:01 pm Reply with quote
This mostly lines up with what I was thinking. DR2, while having important details for the story, is actually a very small, self-contained event that has no real effect on the story at large, and all important details can easily be explained elsewhere.

spoiler[The characters who survived will stay on the island forever. That's the ending they chose, no more, no less. Having them reappear in this series would lessen that decision, and would be a disservice to their story.

Plus, if they ever stepped foot off the island, they would probably be hunted down anyway.]
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
WatchforMoons7



Joined: 19 Mar 2009
Posts: 529
PostPosted: Fri Mar 25, 2016 8:24 pm Reply with quote
One word: Hacking. That's all I'll say Anime smallmouth: Laughing
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page 1, 2  Next
Page 1 of 2

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group