#dr3discourse

Episode 1: GREAT! Awesome. One of my favorite eps tbh, mostly because I was riding the hype train. Liked that they introduced each of the characters one-by-one.

Episode 2: The sexy soup episode. Some people hated this one, but I loved it, partially because I didn’t know what was about to follow. It seemed a little random and out-of-place but was necessary to show Nanami’s introduction as class rep. This episode would have hit harder if we had an episode before this showing how the class didn’t get along at first, or if it would have been placed after the Twilight incident, in my opinion.

Episode 3: Twilight Syndrome. Would have benefitted from Satou/Natsumi being introduced in an earlier ep for a stronger impact, or this incident being placed later on in the series. Kuzuryuu should have been seen interacting with Natsumi at least once. Also, the tonal shift between episode 2 and 3 was really jarring. And why was this whole sequence never brought up again?

Episode 4: The Komaeda episode. The entire Komaeda disappearance arc could have been dropped without a second thought and was a huge waste of time in my opinion. His disappearance had no effect on anything except for the characters going “hey, where’s Komaeda?”, and his return had no effect on the endgame. This was especially weird because the students are shown acting very concerned about Tsumiki’s disappearance later on in the series.

Episode 5: Chisa returns from the reserve course, the appearance of Junko, and the reveal of the imposter working with the actual Mitarai. This episode was p good, except the whole scene with Chisa coming back kinda ties into the Komaeda disappearance as an unnecessary scene that doesn’t mean anything later on. Nanami is said to have helped everyone stick together, but this was already pretty much established in episode 2.

Episode 6: The episode where class 77-B moves to the new school building, Junko gets into some shenanigans, talks to Izuru, and Chisa digs around through some files. Junko meets Mitarai. I had to go open up this episode again because I couldn’t remember what happened. I remember this episode getting pretty mixed reviews, and was about the point where I think a lot of people started to feel kind of sketchy about despair arc.

Episode 7: Mitarai makes his anime, and the first killing game. The killing game scene was a lot more than I think everyone was expecting, but it’s another scene that I think would have had a much stronger impact if the characters had at least appeared earlier. Instead, the scene kind of comes out of nowhere... It was still pretty awesome tho.

Episode 8: The junkomikans, the school starts to riot, and the class realizes that Mikan has mysteriously disappeared and goes to find her. This episode was a banger, tbh. We actually get to see the sdr2 students taking some action and some unexpected events finally happen, such as the shooting scene with Komaeda and Peko’s fight with Mukuro. This is what every episode should have been like.

Episode 9: The graphic torture/brainwashing scene with Chisa, and the class going down into Junko’s Mystery Dungeon, except it’s not a mystery, because the anime just spent the last few episode telling us exactly what she’s doing down there. I wonder what’s going to happen?

Episode 10: Nanami’s execution and the brainwashing of the class. We all knew the brainwashing was coming at this point, but I felt like it wasn’t as bad as it could have been because the torture chamber part was raw as hell and super fucked up. It was much better than just having the class watch the generic killing game video, though.

Episode 11: We despair now… maybe?? Yeah. The reserve course commits mass suicide. The class graduates. But they’re not shown pledging their allegiance to Junko, they’re not shown getting off on despair, and there’s no blood orgy, so what’s the point. I wanted to see Komaeda sawing his arm off, dammit. What the fuck.

Things I think the despair arc would have benefitted from:

Tighter focus on the sdr2 cast. Straight-up, this would have fixed the despair arc. Instead, it bumbles around without a clear focus, switches perspectives and plotlines left and right, and nothing is left a surprise to viewers. The story of despair arc should have been the tragedy of the 77th class, but instead, they’re treated almost as side characters after the second episode.

The story should have taken more chances. Almost everything happened exactly how we expected it to, in the most predictable way possible. The one thing that stands out to me is the scene where Komaeda gets literally fucking shot in Junko’s dungeon, which was amazing. But nothing was left a mystery to viewers, because halfway through it switches perspective to Junko and shows us exactly what she’s doing and what her plans are. The story should have kept a focus on the sdr2 students and them uncovering the mystery of who this mysterious new student is, and dropped subtle clues about the appearance of supernatural despair within Hope’s Peak. Maybe having one of them run into someone fully consumed by despair and going “what the fuck?” And the BIG one was that the 77-B students should have had a run-in with Junko outside of Mitarai & Tsumiki.

On the topic of Mitarai: Because his involvement with Junko was shown so early on, it wasn’t really a secret by the time Future Arc decided to reveal he was up to no good. We already knew it weeks ago. They should have kept it a mystery.

DR3 could have taken the opportunity to show us new interactions between characters who didn’t speak much in the game. I’ll give them credit for Souda and Kuzuryuu’s new friendship, which was great, and the various kuzupeko moments because wtf, who doesn’t like kuzupekos, you damn heathens. But for the most part, characterization was flat and predictable, and scenes with the sdr2 students were mostly relegated to random comic relief.

Would have liked one episode each focusing at least in part on the relationships between the established characters and how they got along outside of class, such as kuzu/peko, mahiru/saionji, souda/sonia/gundam, etc. We got a few random scenes sprinkled throughout, but nothing new. The full-class scenes were fun, but I would have liked a few more of the students interacting individually. In SDR2, each of the characters plays an important role in the story, but in despair arc they’re just kinda... there.

Pacing. What the fuck. There’s a full-year timeskip in one episode, followed by the next few episodes taking place over a couple of hours. It wouldn’t have been so bad, but even some of the scenes where time passed quickly seemed to drag. Episode 6 is super guilty of this. What happened in that episode again?

I loved the first episode, but I feel like the anime would have had a much stronger impact if the class had been shown not getting along at all or being straight-up delinquents on the verge of being kicked out of the academy before Chisa/Nanami step in. Sure, they’re skipping class, but they’re not technically breaking any rules, and they all seem to get along just fine. So when Nanami shows up, she helps them… be even better friends? Alright.

The twilight syndrome incident should have been a MAJOR turning point. The murders happen and are never brought up again, and they’re not even shown on-screen. These events should have tied into the plot to show that the sdr2 students can succumb to despair, but they’re forgotten by the next episode. Nanami bringing the class together should have happened after this episode, where Junko would realize she is the one standing in the way of her despair.

Oh boy, the brainwashing. I didn’t super hate it, but it felt somewhat anticlimactic after almost nothing leading up to it. I would have been fine with the class falling into despair after Nanami’s torture scene if that had been the final nail in the coffin; instead, they just kinda wander into Junko’s despair dungeon and fall on a whim. Working with what they had, the ending could have been stronger if they had shown cracks forming in the relationships between the students before the climax, showing close friends arguing and despair partially taking root, only for the class to join up one last time and reconcile under Nanami’s guidance before she is tortured and killed before their eyes.

I feel like the despair arc fell into a lot of the same problems I tend to have with a lot of long fanfics that are almost good, but not quite: they start really strong, lose focus along the way, have a bunch of random scenes in the middle that don’t really mean anything, and an incredibly weak conclusion. Despair arc didn’t take any risks or show us any characterization that was new or different. I know we have SDR2 for that, but damn… where’s m’backstory.