Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School: Despair Arc

Episode 6

Just as the Future Arc starts looking more hopeful, the Despair Arc finally begins living up to its name. A dark cloud named Izuru Kamukura has rolled in over the academy, as the success of the Hope Cultivation Plan finally spells the end of harmonious days not only for Hope's Peak, but the entire world.

Oh, and to make matters worse, the episode lets you know right up front that Hajime suffered in the process, struggling desperately against his fate in the last round of tests before being excised from Izuru's brain completely. Poor guy. Even if another version of Hajime will someday return as a virtual reality avatar, the original human being named Hajime Hinata is dead and gone forever, as Chiaki waits for him outside the Reserve Course every day, futilely tapping away at her GameGirl in the hopes that he'll show up and play along with her. We don't yet know what will happen to this human version of Chiaki, but I guess it's only fitting that these two young lovebirds will only be reunited as AI shades of their former selves in a story beyond this present Despair.

This heartbreaking montage works wonders in tinting the initially rosy tone of the Despair Arc down to a more foreboding shade, and the opening theme follows suit by totally washing out its cheery pastels against once-bright whites that have turned a grainier gray. I guess this means we've reached the point of no return. Enjoy those jokes about Gundham's bunny pooping on Hiyoko while you can!

The brief window of happiness that Chisa, Munakata, and Sakakura enjoyed seems to be coming to a close as well, just in time for the Future Arc to (probably?) reveal that Sakakura is the killer in Monokuma's final game. Sakakura goes out of his way to do the impossible for Chisa, securing a keycard from a trustee on the school board so she can sneak around their top secret facility. She thanks him heartily, but then coos about being able to impress Munakata with the intel from this mission in the same breath. Sakakura's clenched fist says it all; he's got the hots for Chisa, but he feels completely useless and unappreciated in their friendship compared to Munakata. This Ultimate Graduates triad was never on equal footing, and even putting his boxing career on hold to help his friends uncover corruption at their alma mater hasn't been able to fill the gap Sakakura perceives between them. Once again, the talentless suffer from neglect while the talented suffer from isolation under the misguided dogma of Hope's Peak Academy.

Chisa sneaks into the facility and uncovers the full details of the Hope Cultivation Plan, too late to stop its completion, but perhaps in time for Munakata to arrive and exterminate this "deus ex machina" the school board has created. (Or so he thinks.) Unfortunately, Chisa isn't the only one snooping into Izuru Kamukura's business. The only reason Sakakura was able to snatch up a trustee's keycard is because one of those schmucks mysteriously vanished, and it looks like Junko Enoshima is to blame! Since security is much tighter around Izuru's quarters than his personnel file, she needs a little more than a piece of plastic to meet up with her living trump card. So after teasing and torturing her captive, Junko scoops out his eyeball with a spoonful of curry and delivers it straight to the retinal scanner on the end of a toothpick, disguised as a takoyaki ball. If nothing else, you can't accuse Ms. Ultimate Despair of being uncreative.

Actually, Junko's jokes are mile-a-minute in this episode, and even the English subs can barely keep up. If you know just a little Japanese, you can hear her drop a "Senpai notice me!" joke upon meeting Izuru face-to-face, along with a reprise of her "stufatly" insult from Danganronpa 2, this time aimed at her masochistic sister rather than Usami. Love her, hate her, or some combination of both, I think Junko Enoshima is one of the most memorable anime villains out there (even if the best way to experience her madness is in the video games instead). Of course, she's not all monkeycheese and meta-humor. This episode gives us a rare insight into why Junko became the Ultimate Despair, by revealing her original Ultimate talent. (And no, it's not the Ultimate Fashionista, which was just another cover.) As god-man Izuru is able to tell at a glance, Junko's true talent could best be described as the Ultimate Mastermind. She could analyze any situation and break it down into all possible outcomes. She had an uncanny ability to see all sides of any issue, dilemma, or situation and plan for ten steps, twelve steps, twenty steps ahead.

In this reveal, Junko's identity as a pseudo-avatar for the author's dark side becomes much more obvious. In the world Kodaka creates, he knows the hearts and minds of all his characters, and he knows all the different paths their lives can take, often having to weigh the pros and cons of each choice with a kind of dispassionate judgment when deciding who will live and who will die. But being the author of a fictional world and a character trapped within that world are two very different things. Sadly, knowing all the outcomes of every variable in life can get pretty damn boring, and the dispassion that accompanied Junko's talent began to drag her down into nihilism. So Junko became obsessed with that nihilism, that unpredictable variable known as despair. After all, a typical human attempting to mastermind the world around them will do so in the pursuit of harmony, success, and logical progress. Even Izuru tries to tear Junko down by applying his sense of logic to her actions, but Junko fights back by saying that logic is too boring to be worth anyone's time. Despair, on the other hand, is completely unknown. If everyone pursues harmony, wants harmony, and assumes harmony to be the natural state of human existence, why not turn your worldview inside-out and embrace the unknowable chaos of despair? Even a wacky harajuku genie like Junko felt trapped by the contraints of her own talent, electing to go insane and set the whole world on fire just so she wouldn't be bored as a mastermind anymore.

The episode ends with Junko having a fateful encounter with Mitarai, who's still struggling to pin down a final direction for the Ultimate Anime he wants to create. Something tells me Junko will be more than willing to help with his secret project, and I wouldn't be surprised if Mitarai's masterpiece is released with some very sinister subliminal messages baked into the animation. Even with Danganronpa 3's lackluster direction and animation, the sense of foreboding and thematic complexity in this show has become overpowering. There's always a lot to think about, whether you're unraveling the mystery, feeling for the characters, or just trying to catalogue all the references and jokes. It's a real treat to get a story this meaty in such a crazy package that never takes itself too seriously.

Rating: A-

Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School: Despair Arc is currently streaming on Funimation.

Jake has been an anime fan since childhood, and likes to chat about cartoons, pop culture, and visual novel dev on Twitter.