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BEYOND THIS POINT LIES DANGANRONPA V3 SPOILERS

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

So in my endless quest to consume all things DRV3, as that has been my entertainment for the past few weeks (and I just CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF IT) one opinion I've seen spouting about lately is say, which game's cast is the strongest or if the guys or the girls are better or otherwise some sort of ranking of the characters. Did I say sort? I'll throw my sort results on the side too just for funsies. And like, since I do sorts of pretty much anything.

BUT THIS IS NOT ABOUT THE SORT.

You see, I've been seeing an opinion popping up here and there. I've been seeing it quite often. An opinion that is wrong. SUCH WRONGNESS is this opinion that my post shall be devoted entirely to debunking such a blatantly wrong opinion. You are free to have a similar opinion. Just know that is it wrong.

People have the audacity to claim that the DRV3 boys are infinitely superior to the girls. And not just that! For some strange, utmost inconceivable reason, they claim that of the three casts of the three games so far, the girls or DRV3 are the weakest of them all, and the boys are the strongest! WHAT MADNESS. WHAT LIES. I will readily admit that due to the protagonist being male in every cast, and the wildcard character ALSO being male of every cast that the guys do have a STRONG ADVANTAGE over the girls when it comes to influence on the plot, screentime, and even ships. I mean, if the protag is male that means whenever there are FTEs that can occasionally enter romantic territory (and you get everyone's underwear to boot) or even OUTRIGHT RIDDING THE PURITY OF THE CHARACTERS THEMSELVES that is the love hotel in DRV3, guy ships, otherwise known as yaoi, shall too will always be more prevalent. This is a fact I cannot erase nor dispute.

Regardless that does not necessarily mean the men will always be far more developed or are more interesting or intriguing or whatever else reason people have for preferring characters than the women! Far from it! You see DRV3 is the strongest cast so far, and to me a large reason has to do with the female characters. You can even look at the sort see how many girls from DRV3 comprise of my top ten or top twenty characters. I love them THAT much. In fact I think they're far improved over past female characters in the franchise, which I largely chalk up to the creator not being as good as writing them as the male cast. After all, we've had characters who were nigh-impossibly perfect like Nanami who while did have a few flaws were not flaws that ever negatively affected her character or plot. Or Kirigiri whose character is as a cold, calculating detective character. She kinda warms up to Naegi? But she ultimately stays a cold, calculated detective character. There's not a great amount of depth to them beyond what they are on the surface. I say this especially when Nanami is one of my absolute favourites because a character does not have to be super deep with ridiculous backstories and character development that drastically changes them from one thing to another. Hell, my favourite Ibuki is not the most developed nor the most enthralling character from a backstory standpoint. That's one of her biggest criticisms. I still love her nonetheless, as does many others but I can understand why anyone wouldn't care for her as well.

But DRV3 is a major improvement over all of that. And yes while I do like a lot of the guys from DRV3 too, I still think a shining example of DRV3 is its female cast. SO WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, to illustrate my point I shall go through EACH CHARACTER in DRV3 by DEATH ORDER (thus the major, major, MAJOR spoilers) and elaborate on why I think this is so. 

Starting off with Rantaro Amami! A character who seems very popular with the ladies... but for what reason? I suppose he is intriguing. He has great mystery due to his unknown backstory and talent, and his sketchy mannerisms from the get-go. His sprites also mimic a lot of Komaeda's sprites who was no doubt the favourite from SDR2. Still when it comes to his influence on the plot and what we actually learn from his character he's minimal at best. He contributes to the mysteries as much as Twogami did from SDR2, which isn't much beyond some posthumous stuff that in the end, at least for Rantaro, was more relevant to the reveal near the end of the game than about Rantaro himself. A shame really, but not much you can expect from the first victim. I admit to judging people pretty harshly who have Amami as their favourite character. My first instinct is just that they like how he looks. He is eyecandy, but there are plenty of valid reasons to like him beyond that. I however do not hold back on anyone who abandons the game just because Rantaro died. I read a post of someone complaining about this once that was infuriating. The dude did very little, had very little chance to, and somehow your entire worth of the game is solely on this one character? Someone with that kind of reaction definitely only liked him for what he was on the surface and had no interest in the game or story itself. It's even less understandable than people who dump the game after...

..Kaede Akamatsu being a false protagonist.

I fucking love Kaede! I was so, so, SO pumped that finally, FINALLY we had a female protag for a main title in the series! Yay! That means for once, all the gay subtext between protag and any of the same-gendered characters in the game whether that be from FTEs or even just through plot progression was now potentially all with TWO GIRLS instead of TWO GUYS! Imagine if the wildcard character was a girl this time! I was pining it being on Maki considering the promotional material being pretty suggestive between Kaede and Maki. I WAS SO PREPARED TO ROMANCE GIRLS WITH MY GIRL PROTAGONIST OH MY GOD. Then the game began and Kaede's wonderful personality was addictive as crack! She was the leader! She was optimistic! EVERYONE WILL BE FRIENDS AND WE WILL ALL ESCAPE TOGETHER! Shuichi, you must be more confident in yourself! Peppy Kaede! CHEERY KAEDE! YAAAAHHHHH!!

And then she turned out to be the first culprit. Fun times. Or not. The trial and subsequent execution of Kaede killed me. It killed me more than Nanami's two executions. It killed me more than when I discovered Ibuki's hanging corpse. I was absolutely gutted. Kaede is dead. Kaede is the murderer. JUST WHY!?!?

While there was a great loss of potential with the loss of the main protagonist in the end this move was absolutely ingenious when it came from a writing standpoint. I mean people do make a good point that if Shuichi was the initial protagonist but was swapped out for Kaede that would have been an even better twist, but alas we all can't have the most ideal things. Plus due to the personalities of the two characters it just had to be that Kaede would die and Shuichi not. If their personalities were different or heck, swapped, you could argue against this, but I don't know. Kaede's personality of being the go-getter, of being the one to encourage and to raise morale instead of starting off as a timid insecure boy like Shuichi gives her little room of development. I mean again, she doesn't NEED to develop but I was hoping for more character development for girls this time around as there appears to be so little so far in the franchise, at least in the main titles. The only thing I could think of for Kaede was that the contrast of her bubbly, idealistic personality compared to the grim and bloody reality that is the killing game would slowly knock her confidence and optimism down along the way, and maybe some other character like Kaito or whatever needs to pick her spirits back up whenever that happens, but unless the theme or the message of the game is that being naive and optimistic is bad and we have to pick our battles or face reality with certain expectations was what they were going for it's not really a good line of thought to carry. Despite the nature of Danganronpa, the message has always been to face death or grief with a head held high and to never give up, no matter what. Kaito's mere existence is example of that.

But what Kaede DOES subvert is the perfect female protagonist, or deuteragonist. While she succeeds at encouraging and opening up Shuichi, it doesn't mean that's her only purpose and that's all there is to her. She manipulated Shuichi's camera plan to catch the mastermind and turned it into a premeditated death trap... and it wasn't a guaranteed chance whoever they caught would be the mastermind. It could have been anyone milling about in the library and discovering that hidden door. Kaede's plan was reckless, maybe even stupid. She paid for it. And that's wonderful. Because that means Kaede isn't flawless. What she ended up doing wasn't all for naught either, however! Due to Monokuma's motive, where if nobody murders anyone within a set time limit then everyone will die, Kaede's recklessness also saved everybody else's life. Nobody else in this cast made a move to murder when everyone was about to die in like thirty minutes despite the fact that, as we continue on in this game the characters in this cast are much more varied on the morality scale than past casts. She didn't die for nothing.

I think the huge amount of unrest and controversy the protag switch caused would have more merit if Kaede was the victim instead, who would die with us learning little about her character. As is, we know a whole bunch about Kaede with what time we had with her, and we still got to play half the trial with her as well! It's not the female protagonist we wanted, but there certainly were worse ways of going about it. Because of all this, I love Kaede as a character and she deserves the placement in my top ten characters. I really like my flawed characters, and up to this point there weren't many of those as girls in the franchise especially one of Kaede's role.

Next we have chapter two, starting with the saddest most depressing victim in the Danganronpa franchise yet, Ryoma Hoshi, our resident nonstandard character design character who thank the heavens wasn't a pervert. We already got two of those, so it's good they went away with that trope. He's an inmate condemned for death for murdering a bunch of mafia members with his sick tennis moves after they killed his girlfriend and family (or something like that, my memory is not up to par) and thus has a pretty bleak outlook to life and little reason to continue living. Escaping isn't even that desirable of an option to him as he'd just go straight back to prison anyway. His backstory is sad. His existence is sad. ):  I thought he'd be a potential survivor as developing a reason to live would be an excellent character arc for him, but then when he was given some confidence by Shuichi and co. and tried to find a reason to live in the motive videos... he found nothing. No one outside cared about him and he had no one to care for. Of course he was just a sitting duck just asking to be the next victim, and so it went and so it shall be. He thought he had nowhere to go, but really for a character he had a ways to go. Unfortunate he gave up when he did.

I love Ryoma! But sadly being the second victim outside of his unfortunate circumstances he would not have as much time nor influence to the story as he could have. I chalk it up to bad luck and Monokuma being a bitch, but let's move on. His killer on the other hand...

When Kirumi first showed up, I had two initial impressions: Sakuya Izayoi from Touhou and Peko Pekoyama from SDR2. I do like both those characters, but I also didn't at the same time. I generally don't like characters whose entire existence relies on another character to describe. Like for Peko, if Fuyuhiko wasn't there, what would she be? She'd have to be an entirely different character because Fuyuhiko IS Peko's entire character, as her backstory relies entirely on him and his family. I hate that. I hate it in Touhou and I hate in Danganronpa. The second trial of SDR2 was extremely sad and I was very empathetic when it came to Peko's demise, but when it came time to think about how much I cared about her character... it wasn't as strong as it could have been. Maybe if I had shipped Fuyuhiko/Peko it'd have been different, but I don't like ships where one character is entirely devoted to another. I don't like characters who are dependent and can't stand on their own if the other wasn't there or did not exist. 

Sakuya on the other hand was this maid in Touhou who could do no wrong. She was the definition of cool and could stop time and throw knives like a certain Jojo character. She would never break her cold and calculated surface, if there even is anything beneath that surface. I was always frustrated by Sakuya and her popularity because there never seemed to be anything more to her. She was there to be cool. There were no flaws. She was literally called the perfect and elegant maid. That kind of character is just so boring and uninteresting to me. Also memes do not count as flaws. >:

So seeing Kirumi these were the kind of fears I had with her character. And she was basically sort of just that for almost all of chapter two... until it was revealed she was the culprit. She killed Ryoma. Her perfect and elegant shield was starting to collapse, and Kirumi's calm exterior broke until she was doing all she could to deflect blame or to keep herself alive. All of this just because she was one of the unfortunate few (or may even only) to get her own motive video. Bad luck screwed her over. Kirumi became interesting when she died because she did not go out how so many others do, accepting of their deaths admirably with courage. She didn't even go out like the first two initial culprits in the first two games did because she still did everything in her power to escape no matter what (even if that attempt to escape was part of her execution). Like the dialogue of the game said, it was ugly, it was feral, it was raw, but Kirumi did everything in her power to live. Her death was powerful as fuck and basically threw everything out the door that she was perfect or elegant. It was amazing. Props to both her Japanese AND her English VAs for having VERY convincing screams of determination and fury just before she was executed. It was a powerful and memorable moment. Even when I was laughing at how over-the-top her motive video was, it wasn't close to the impact of how Kirumi went out. Fuck yes I love my flawed female characters. 

It is chilling she chose to drown Ryoma though. That does add to her cold and calculated factor. Ah well. 

NOW IT IS THE CHAPTER THREE! Or chapter always known as weakest chapter of every game. I do not know what is up with these chapter threes and their super obvious culprits, but at least this time around that was done on purpose? Anyway I am jumping the gun with the culprit because first we must discuss the holiest of the holiest, the most divine and devoted that is the ANGIE YONAGA, EVERYBODY'S FAVOURITE CHARACTER AND A MAJOR ENSEMBLE DARKHORSE OF THE SERIES!!1!!!

Well, yeah okay. 

I don't hate any character in DRV3. I love them all actually, but Angie is a character who seems to be a little bit of a hate sink. Not to the intensity that is say, Saionji or Ruruka but still, when most people discover Angie's body it's often not a huge fanfare. In fact, Angie dying was pretty obvious and something most people saw telegraphed the moment she took up the antagonistic role of CULT LEADER who splits up the cast causing conflict within! It's actually kind of difficult to comment on Angie's character. She doesn't change all that much, so there's little to no development, and what we learn from FTEs and.... Love Hotel scenes just elaborate on how bizarre her island's customs and her devotion to Atua is. She seems to have to shown up in this killing game already brainwashed, and we never really learn who she is beneath it all. I mean, there is something to suggest Angie is lonely beneath absolutely everything, but she's buried in so much of the cult, religious, devoted stuff that it's so difficult to unearth that aspect of Angie and so, we can't really say with much certainty how much we really got to know her before she died. A shame, really. She did serve her purpose as antagonist of chapter three quite well. I will give her that. All the more emotionally weaker characters fell for her cult to, STARTING with Himiko from way back in chapter two... I will continue that thought when we reach HImiko.

Speaking of Himiko though, there is Tenko. The Tenks. The Tenko of the last name that is too long for my taste. Chabashira? Oh yes. 

I did not like Tenko first time I went through this game. I WILL BE HONEST. I DID NOT LIKE TENKO. FUNNY HOW THAT WORKS. Hahaha. But a large degree of my distaste for Tenko was due to my one-track-mind after Kaede died. You see the despair of Kaede dying was so great, that my focus fell very narrowly onto Himiko, the other character I liked best still left who I was absolutely convinced was going to die anyway because after Kaede's unexpected demise I had no favourite that ever lived and the protagonist dying was the last straw. I paid very little attention to anything else, which was why even the obvious culprit of chapter three came as as surprise to me. I was too busy wondering if Himiko was the next victim, or how she could have murdered the victims. That was my mindset throughout the ENTIRE GAME after Kaede died. That is what despair does, my friends.

Anyway the reason I liked Himiko so much aside from being eccentric and adorable was how relatable she was. In fact, I don't think I've found a character I've related MORE to than Himiko! So just like Himiko, I too had a negative impression of Tenko. I even compared her to Jaune of all characters at one point due to her forwardness. I was like "GODDAMNIT TENKO LEAVE HIMIKO ALONE" EVEN IF YOU'RE A GIRL YOU ARE NOT EXEMPT TO THIS KIND OF CRITICISM, that being far too forward with your crush and not taking no for an answer. (Of course I didn't realize Himiko actually never said no to Tenko hanging out with her once, either because she was too lazy to or some other reason. She certainly said no to some of Tenko's comments and questions to her at times, but never did she actively try to avoid Tenko... more like asking others to do it for her. Ha)

But just like Himiko... over time I realized how wonderful Tenko really was. I think her other major flaw, the degenerate male thing also makes Tenko easily unlikable for many as well. Her FTEs don't even reveal some tragic reasoning for this misandry. She's just a gullible idiot who listens to literally anything her master, a male mind you, says. It is hilarious though. There is that one line in that one trial where she mentions her alcoholic father, so maybe there's some tragic inkling there that we'll never explore because now Tenko is too dead to develop. Alas. Alas. Still! Underneath her many flaws, Tenko is one of the most sincere, earnest, honest, heartwarming characters out there. Unlike Jaune's crush on Weiss that was entirely to his selfish whims. Tenko actually goes about and tries to... IMPROVE HIMIKO AS A PERSON. She never put Himiko on some perfect flawless pedestal who could do no wrong. Tenko knew Himiko wasn't perfect, knew she was falling for Angie's cult and taking the easy way out and she wanted to keep Himiko out of it. She truly wanted to protect Himiko, learn more about Himiko, and her crush was more genuine than mere infatuation on Himiko's surface appearance or personality. Tenko's eagerness to help girls IS REAL AND IS GREAT! Even if her hatred of men is sort of silly and stupid, her desire to protect vulnerable girls is the greatest virtue of Tenko! Despite the disappointing reveal of Tenko's misandrist origins, a lot of her FTEs made me want to learn more about her. How she was even MORE of a spazz and emotive freak, maybe getting wildly angry or having manic attacks even before she began learning Aikido. That Aikido helped her become more stable of a person and how she always recommends it to others for self-improvement as well. Also she does slowly warm up to Shuichi so anything depicting Tenko still being an ass to Shuichi of all people annoys me greatly. She may not have had time to develop completely, but she definitely was changed compared to the Tenko of the beginning of the game!

Also she will never live it down how she died. How she was killed. Fucking Kork. Fucking Korey in the House. Fucking folklore cunt. Fucking tulpaman-- KOREKIYO SHINGUCCI, I MEAN SHINGUJI HAS TOO MANY NICKNAMES. 

Actually I don't hate Korekiyo. Far from it, ha. His motive though. His motive is so over-the-top I can't even take it seriously. Others do and despise his fucking guts, and while there may be actual people like Korekiyo out there, I just cannot get over how absolutely absurd his reason to kill was. For his dead sister who now possesses him in the form of a split personality after a seance that he has incestuous desires towards? And he's almost killed one hundred friends, females he deems worthy to be friends of his sister's in the afterlife already? The fuck man. That reveal was wild. He's also purposely depicted as creepy as possible with an unhealthy fascination of humanity which is justified by his anthropology background and is an absolute joke character in the anthologies. He's great. He's my second favourite male of DRV3 and I don't even know why. This man should be considered vile and unforgivable. 

BUT HE THREW AWAY HIS PERFECT MURDER FOR THE SEE-SAW TRICK, and will never live it down. The see-saw is too precious to abandon. RIP TENKO. RIP KOREKIYO. 

How have I not mentioned the gorgeous girl genius with a golden brain, MIU IRUMA yet!? Quite possibly the most flawed female character in the entire series, unless just being straight up a despair bitch is considered one entire flaw, Miu still manages to be fascinating and wonderful and I STILL like her despite the claim the creator purposely wrote her to be unlikable! She singlehandedly demonetizes Youtube playthroughs with no remorse whatsoever and ruins every single moment possible with her endless uncensored innuendos, but simultaneously along with her comedic side is one of the most useful characters in the game as well. Perhaps not so in the trials (she is wrong during every scrum debate hahaha) but her expertise with the tech allows her to invent so many items that serve so many purposes throughout the plot. I think Himiko (I think it was her anyway) said it best, Miu was very smart but also very dumb. Aside from that Miu seems to have a similar sort of complex Mikan does where most of her self-worth is shot and she has a belief she can really only be useful to someone with her body... if her FTEs or Love Hotel mean anything, anyway. Also Miu is a victim, but she DID attempt to murder someone and showed surprising hindsight when it came to executing her murder plan, but just like that quote she overlooked quite a many things that led to her downfall as well. That slip of hand leading to the bridge being washed away by the river was not the most subtle of things, Miu. She was also my favourite from first impressions. When I first saw the cast and looked at screenshots and such, Miu was the girl that stood out most to me. I didn't have a strong impression of this cast at first as well. I was very whelmed when I looked at the designs. Heck Tenko was my least favourite design. I was wondering why she had over nine thousand hair accessories that made her head super busy looking. The green pinwheel was the worst offender. 

How foolish you were, past Spotto of one year ago.

Anyway! SWEET PURE, PITIFUL GONTA.

I guess he does subvert the beefcake sacrifice of chapter four by being the beefcake culprit of chapter four. I mean he was trying to sacrifice everyone if that counts, starting with Miu, and Kokichi was quite the influence on top of the flashback light... still, he joins the ranks of Sakura and Nidai in dying in chapter four. Sad as it may be... and that's really all I have to say on Gonta. Aside from being a pure boy who wishes to be a gentleman there wasn't a lot compelling with Gonta. I AM SORRY FOR NOT BEING ABLE TO SAY MORE. Gonta was a pure boy who made the trial all the more tragic.

Kokichi Ouma cannot carry all the guys by himself, you know. The only way I can take a claim of a the guys being so much better than the girls seriously is if this guy carries all the weight. And he doesn't! I may like Kork. Gonta may have been a pure boy. Ryoma may have had a tragic existence, and Rantaro was eyecandy, but they were NOTHING compared to Kokichi. AND EVEN THEN, Kokichi cannot carry the entire male cast on his shoulders. OKAY!? Also his rampant popularity has rubbed me off the wrong way, even if I do love his character he is far too overexposed for me. His face is like on 80% of all things DRV3, whether it be fanfic, art, or stupid videos. He is everywhere. Kokichi does not need to be every amusing role that exists on the internet, guys. Seriously. Also Kokichi you are not being unique with your fascination over the male protagonist. Komaeda already got you beat several years ago. He got you beat on the whole KILL MYSELF DURING CHAPTER FIVE AND MINDFUCK THE REST OF THE CAST plan too, so don't you think you're special or anything, KOKICHI!!

Kokichi is still better than Komaeda.

Oh right. Anyway Kokichi is the wildcard character who is basically the embodiment of lies and carries lots of homoerotic subtext. Yay! He's also very short and has the wonderful voice-acting talent of Derek Stephen Prince, who blew his Fuyuhiko out of the water with his delivery of all of Kokichi's wonderful lines. I choose to believe his final words are the truth though, that he lied to himself this entire time, took the role of the villain on purpose for this insane gambit that ended his life all to stop the killing game because ultimately, Kokichi hates killing. He likes pulling pranks and fooling with people, but murder is not a straw he will cross...even if he instigated Miu and Gonta's death, but whatever. His motive video says that much anyway.

Kaito is a poor man's Kamina. Moving on.

Tsumugi is a fascinating masterm--FINE I'LL TALK ABOUT KAITO.

I think the Kamina archetype works best when they die early and heavily affect the main character from the get-go... alas, Kaede who is technically the Nia of this game, took that role. So instead Kaito is around to serve as Maki's motivation, which is fine and all. Really, it's fine. I think. Maybe. Yes he does help out Shuichi too, and his positive influence is great and all, but Kaito is really SHOUNEN PROTAGONIST THE CHARACTER, and I've never really been fond of that kind of character...especially in a genre like Danganronpa where logic and intelligence is the most powerful ally of the main character, to decipher the clues and work out how and who dun diddly decked the dead. Also there's this moment in chapter four people point out a lot, where he's willing to die to believe in Gonta, which is all motivational and heartwarming and all, but it's not like Kaito would be the only one to die if they didn't vote for Gonta... EVERYBODY would, so he was being rather selfish at the time, throwing his beliefs over the welfare of the people (KIND OF LIKE ANGIE, lol) and then he gets super annoyed and pissed with Shuichi for siding with logic and reasoning and all... (I am well aware Tenko said something similar about Himiko in chapter two's trial. The difference here is that I think Tenko is speaking more from her undying love for Himiko whereas Kaito is basing more of his stance on his unyielding belief as opposed to being in love with Gonta or something... also Tenko was defending Himiko at the beginning of the trial when not all evidence was presented whereas Kaito defended Gonta to the very end against all the facts. I'm not sure how Tenko would react if Himiko were a culprit, probably similarly, but I think it all comes down to where their intent lies.. Maybe Kaito's stubbornness would be more understanding if he and Gonta were close friends or something? But Kaito and Gonta didn't have many interactions, and Kaito is just basing it on Gonta being pure and such, not even allowing people to even discuss the mere possibility that Gonta could be the culprit, which we did get to do without great interference from Tenko on Himiko in trial two. I DUNNO MAYBE I JUST WANNA JUSTIFY MY SEEMING HYPOCRISY HERE) yeah he's flawed and I do like flawed characters, but maybe the game doesn't point out these flaws often enough or make it apparent enough. We get a lot of praise for Kaito especially when characters like Maki and Shuichi with all the screentime in the world are so positively influenced by him, but what of his flaws? Why not point them out? Aside from people calling him an idiot which is a trope Japanese media does a lot where idiot is more like a term to describe a... shounen protagonist who throws all reasoning aside to believe in themselves and do their best, there isn't a lot of time where the narrative paints Kaito in a negative light.

Well, I don't have any strong feelings either way, that's just the opinions I've heard. My impression of Kaito is that he's just the run-of-the-mill motivational dude who somehow is the entire reason Maki becomes a better person... okay. LET US MOVE ON.

So! Tsumugi Shirogane is a fascinating mastermind. She doesn't do anything else in this game unfortunately, and her character is almost non-existent since it's almost entirely tied to the big reveal at the end of the game so uhm... okay? You can have this one, fans of guy characters who loudly proclaim they are better than the girls! She's also probably lying a lot during the reveal so we cannot possibly determine what is true and what isn't and what exactly the ending even entails. The ending itself is pretty polarizing and I don't have too much to say on it. I wanna keep this discussion on the characters even if MAYBE that Tsumugi claims about writing their lines and characters is true. Maybe. Perhaps. Possibly. THE CAN OF WORMS SHALL BE CLOSED, OKAY?

Also she was the true murderer of Rantaro and executed Kaede for no real reason, if only to continue the killing game. WELP. This doesn't change how I feel about either characters though. Rantaro still died first (even if it's for a plot-relevant reason) and Kaede though technically wasn't the killer, it's the intent that matters. In some regions, attempted murder is charged as seriously as murder, y'know.

Kiibo or Keebo or Keeboy or K1B0 or Hope or Robonaegi or whatever is a character there to spout PC jokes and be the buttmonkey until he shoots up a school in chapter six. I wish what I said was exaggeration. He's still great though, but little development who doesn't do much until the end, and even though I feel sad about his sacrifice he wasn't especially compelling either way, even if he was the audience surrogate, or the camera, or that we played as him, or that he's the literal Ultimate Hope Robot or any of that. His strongest interactions were with Miu but her death didn't change him as a person, and his complex of being treated as a real human doesn't get anywhere sadly. I wish the cast wasn't all almost entirely robophobic outside of like Shuichi and maybe a few others like Miu. Kokichi may have been the most blatant bully about it, but characters like say TENKO AND HIMIKO also had little good things to say about Keebo. GODDAMNIT YOU GUYS YOU'RE MY FAVOURITES. ESPECIALLY YOU HIMIKO, STOP CALLING KEEBO AN APPLIANCE OR THAT HE SHOULD BLOW HIMSELF UP TO BE USEFUL, GAAAAH. They're very flawed, you see. I have yet to see a post-game fanfic that acknowledges Keebo's sacrifice ever bring up anything like Himiko being remorseful for how she spoke of Keebo. Are we choosing to ignore this?

But I digress, it's SURVIVOR TIME. Because I am biased Himiko will be last, and we'll start with Maki 

Man I wish Maki had more interactions with characters beyond like Kaito...and Shuichi, but Shuichi is a given considering he is the protagonist and everybody interacts with him. Even Himiko got Angie as a friend too along with Tenko, Shuichi as well, being the given, and spent some time with Gonta even. But Maki's entire character is all thanks to Kaito. I think being the Ultimate Assassin trying to hide her talent and stubbornly guarding her lab door for as long as she did was good, but Kaito dragging her out to training and her giving in rather easily flies against all that stuff we established. She gave in TOO easily. From everything we know about her, I thought she'd be far more resistant against people trying to open her up. Yet it didn't take Kaito very long to drag her along with the training, and it didn't take Maki very long to grow attached to him. Again I hate to compare her to Himiko, but Himiko took EONS to get attached to Tenko, and only truly appreciated her after she died! Himiko doesn't get the sad tragic backstory that justifies being cold, detached, and antisocial, but Maki DOES. SO WHAT GIVES!?

I'll give her props for not being as flawless as Kirigiri and Nanami were, but eh... Maki isn't especially unique nor was she all that compelling. She was about as interesting as Kaito. IF ONLY SHE WAS THE WILDCARD CHARACTER WITH THE FASCINATION OVER OUR FEMALE PROTAGONIST, KAEDE. If only!

Speaking of protagonists, Shuichi! Yay Shuichi. My favourite Shuichi sprite is his happy sprite. Well he has more than one, but just the one where his eyes are open and his smile his wide. Well, his smile with his eyes closed is cute too. Happy Shuichi is adorable because his design screams a sad, negative, pessimistic, gloomy character, so seeing someone who looks like that so happy... is nice. I like it. I also like how his entire character arc led to him being so much more confident, that when it came time to go against the final evil dilemma the villain always throws on us his response to to kill ourselves. So intuitive, Shuichi. I know it's the proper response to end the killing games and to sacrifice ourselves so no one ever has to suffer what this cast has to again, but just that line of reasoning and how it turned out is kind of hilarious in hindsight. You have Kaede and Kaito being like YOU HAVE FRIENDS! YOU HAVE TO LIVE FOR THOSE THAT HAVE DIED! BELIEVE IN THE ME WHO BELIEVES IN YOU, and at the very end, at the climax, Shuichi is like, WE HAVE TO KILL OURSELVES!11! He would not have come to this conclusion not only if it weren't for his character development, but also if it weren't Shuichi's personality itself. Kaede I do not think would resort to convincing everyone to kill themselves to end the killing game. I don't see her ever resorting to that kind of tactic. I can see Shuichi doing it, though. Also if Love Hotel events are canon, Shuichi has more game than every other protagonist, and is the defacto bisexual protag of the bunch. And you thought Hinata had homerotic subtext! Ha! I do admit he seemed a little more dynamic when he wasn't the protag though, like how he DEDUCED the dust in the card reader on that hidden door in chapter one, and came up with this proactive plan with the cameras that he never did so ever again. I guess Kaede was there to encourage him and help him out, but after this chapter Shuichi just reacts to things as opposed to causing things because protagonists aren't allowed to move the plot, only react to it.

He does display many aspects of being very intelligent, and understanding things before even the audience does (he goes "wait, this isn't right..." and then doesn't reveal it to the player until the trial, but he figures it out himself loooong before the trial, making his ultimate talent very much earned indeed) so yeah. I found Shuichi one of the more interesting protagonists of the bunch... but still, I will always wonder what could have been with the lost potential that is Kaede... what could it have been? I'm sure Shuichi thinks so too.

HIMIKO YUMENO SURVIVED THE KILLING GAME. WHAT THE FLYING FUCK. 

I am still over the hill about this. This will never not shock me, no matter how much time passes. Never in a million years could I have possibly expected her survival. HOW does she survive? She is a smol weak girl just screaming to be a victim, with a fascinating talent that could have led to one of the more entertaining executions, and instead she fucking lives. People tried to frame her more than once instead of kill her! "Let's see, this is a small child who is somehow a teenager, who has no energy for anything and is a bit slow and is thus very vulnerable. I KNOW! I'LL FRAME HER OF MURDER WITH MY OVERLY CONVOLUTED MURDER PLAN!11!!"  She outright admits murder is too much effort and this is how people react to her. I swear! But one of the biggest reasons she did live was because of Tenko's sacrifice. The moment Himiko really could have died was to the ridiculous seesaw gambit Kork came up with, but Tenko took her place, not only giving her life, but taking Himiko's place as the victim of the endless meme. Godspeed Tenko. Godspeed.

Himiko of course then became the defacto... "useless" survivor. I do not like that term; that's just the one thrown around the most. I think the best way to describe it is the least relevant survivor. Someone like Hagakure from the first game or Akane from the second. I think she gets even more heat as the least relevant survivor because there were only three, so she took up the only feasible spot any other character could have taken that someone may have liked better if we assume Maki and Shuichi HAD to live. BUT NAY! YOU WILL NOT TAKE THIS ULTRA RARE OPPORTUNITY FROM ME, KNAVES! YOU WILL TAKE THIS FROM MY COLD, DEAD HANDS I TELL YOU! Because no matter how unbelievable it may be, I FINALLY have a favourite character who LIVED, and against ALL ODDS it was in the game with the least amount of survivors, taking the SINGLE spot any other character could have taken, and as useless and irrelevant you want to claim her to be, SHE DEVELOPED AS A CHARACTER, and became stronger due to the plot, and thus has earned her right to live on and be a survivor! SO FUCK YOU ALL! FUCK ALL OF YOU!! HA! HAHAHAHA! I HAVE SOMETHING ALIVE! AND YOU CAN'T TAKE IT FROM ME! IT IS CANON! HA! NOW YOU HAVE TO RESORT TO AU STORIES WITH ALTERNATE SURVIVORS OR IT'S ALL A SIMULATION! YOU CAN'T TAKE THIS CANON FROM ME, BASTARDS!

Okay. So Himiko.

Ah yes, the character I super relate to. She started off being a chunnibyou who claims magic is real and she is a master mage at that, despite her official talent being a magician instead, the stage kind with the tricks. She's also lazy as shit, so how she is the master of something that requires so much work is a mystery. She is an introvert who cannot be bothered to initiate any conversation, and if you do want to be her friend you have to always go to her first. Even if she doesn't like you she won't push you away because she is too lazy. She literally tells Shuichi she was too lazy to say no to him. This is how Tenko gets close to her. I also think she's pretty emotionally vulnerable and that's also why she never gets close to people because one can easily be hurt. The killing game affects her mentally quite a bit, and the only reason she keeps herself calm and collected is by resorting to Angie and becoming her friend, thus converting to the ways of Atua and escaping reality to deal with it all. Oh and she doesn't have energy in the first place to do much, which may explain her laziness, always excusing doing things with her lack of MP. She has trouble emoting and sleeps a lot. There are some headcanons out there that Himiko might be autistic and clinically depressed. I sort of agree with both, but unless they're outright confirmed it's only a mere headcanon, and we can't really intertwine such thoughts with her character completely. I will say Himiko seems far more okay with dying than most characters, with only Ryoma beating her for that...lovely title. It's less being suicidal and more giving up far more easily when it comes to Himiko. Again, I think she's very emotionally vulnerable which leads to that kind of mindset. She's also one of the more gullible characters what with falling for the cult and being pretty easily tricked or spooked in trials. Himiko is also terrible at not being suspicious. She either doesn't bother defending herself or flails around in a panic when suspected. It's great and entertaining. She also can't tell the difference between termites and rice. It is as Shuichi said, even if she didn't survive the killing game, how did she even survive life itself? Egads.

LUCKILY TENKO IS HERE, the ultra-supportive aikido master who to my utter disbelief, immediately sees Himiko and SOMEHOW this girl is the GIRL OF HER DREAMS. I don't understand Tenko's tastes whatosever. But whatever, she chose wisely. I mean yes, I like Himiko too, but because I relate to her and she's cute and such, also entertaining. Unlike Tenko though, when I first saw the cast Himiko was amongst the others as characters I was whelmed by. No real response. Tenko sees this witchy smol girl and immediately falls in love at first sight. UHM, OKAY? But really, how I describe this is like a dog who adopts you. They follow you home and love you forever. This is like a dog that adopts a cat, Himiko, who is very much cat-like being lazy, sleeping a lot, rather independent because she'd prefer to be alone and such, also black cats are associated with witches, so y'know. That's why Himiko does not like Tenko from the get-go... and also because Tenko is making some lewd comments and being somewhat inappropriate at times. Chapters one and two aren't particularly positive depictions of either characters. They are BOTH flawed, but one likes the other, and little do we know this infatuation will cause both characters to become so much better as people over time. Unfortunately Tenko's was cut short, but still. 

See, due to the trauma of the killing game, Himiko needs comfort, but she isn't one to reach out. However, Angie is very open and wants more converts to her religion, for those to see the truth and believe in the almighty Atua. Angie's Atua and thus friendship is the comfort Himiko needs to emotionally survive people killing and dying all around her. It may not have been a healthy friendship, but it was a friendship, and I believe Angie despite what her intentions led to, had good intentions. She truly wanted to save Himiko and she truly wanted to be friends with her, and give her the comfort she needs. Angie just wants to do it her way, the only way she knows how. She does come up with the idea of the magical show meant to give smiles to the rest of students, so that's something that would have been very positive for Himiko if someone didn't throw Ryoma's body into the damn piranha tank. >_> 

But unfortunately, relying on Angie long-term would not be healthy. It would be throwing away all your own decision-making and independence for the sake of Atua, and Tenko saw this. Himiko of course did not go to Tenko for comfort when the killing game was going on because Tenko did not offer friendship to Himiko, but rather her unwanted advances for some sort of romantic or sexual relationship with Himiko, which was the last thing she needed, or at least that is what Himiko was seeing from Tenko. Still, Tenko kept up her unwavering support which eventually went beyond lust or the need to protect Himiko as a vulnerable young lady, but Tenko revealed her true motives and wanted Himiko to have her own agency, and become a better person as well, to express her emotions and be herself, not cooped up locking herself away and relying on Atua for guidance for the rest of her life. Especially if Atua truly isn't some almighty god responsible for bringing salvation to people, and is just a big fat lie. (This is all interpretation of course, but Angie dying doesn't help)

When Angie died, Himiko lost this place of comfort, this friendship, and desperately wanted to connect with Angie one more time. When Tenko gives Himiko this advice, to live life facing forward, to survive, since Himiko was making comments of not wanting to go on after her only pillar of support that she assumed she had was gone, Himiko finally realized Tenko was the kind of support she did need, one that did not need to manipulate your thoughts into false ideas. She not only protected her, but Tenko was pushing Himiko in the right direction. For her to stand up for herself, to be her own biggest supporter and stop relying on outside things, to stop escaping from reality and gain the strength needed to face grim reality itself! Himiko was finally beginning to realize this, and how much Tenko was a positive influence on her.

But then Tenko died. 

Just when Himiko believed she had a healthy pillar of support, it was ripped away from her. All the advice she was about to take meant nothing. It was only after the revelations of what a sick bastard Kork was, and after being accused once again, this time of murdering her own friends does she finally take Tenko's advice. For whatever reason people only credit Kokichi for Himiko unleashing her emotions, but even before his harsh words Shuichi was the one who reminded Himiko during the trial of what Tenko said. Tenko may be gone, but Shuichi, Kaito and even people like Kokichi are trying to push her forward, and so Himiko's character development began. She was to be optimistic, to live life as it should, to no longer be the lazy girl she once was. Even Gonta was there albeit for a brief single chapter to keep her spirits up. She had friends! If it weren't for Tenko's words and inadvertent sacrifice, she would never have realized this.

But even after vowing to take that advice Himiko stumbles out of the gate and has a difficult time trying to figure out what this "living life facing forward" meant. She still seems to be low-energy, so her attempts to be bombastic and optimistic drain the MP out of her, but at least this time Himiko is trying. Beyond chapter four Himiko takes up the mantle of comic relief after Miu and Gonta dies and Kokichi is out of commission until "Kokichi" shows up at the fifth trial. When we get to chapter six Himiko is the only character left beyond Keebo (who is too busy progressing the plot at this point) who provides any sort of comedic relief. I guess Tsumugi has her references but meh, never liked referential humour. Plus by the time Tsumugi reveals herself as the mastermind Himiko is the only one there to lighten the mood at all, which is A TALL ORDER to fill when this girl was fine with dying a few chapters ago! (She's fine with dying twice more after that, and the end of the game they literally are like "WE SHALL KILL OURSELVES, so I mean...")

But ultimately, the will of the outside world or Keebo himself, idk this ending man, spares Himiko's life along with the others, and she survives... and regardless of what parts of the killing game and her life were lies, can still continue Tenko's words and live life facing forward, whatever the future yields....nyeh.

FUCK YEAH, HIMIKO.

Now as for OTP, while yes Tenko has super ultra canon gay feelings for Himiko, I cannot say with any certainty if Himiko reciprocates romantically. I WANT to say yes of course, and there is the anecdotal evidence that could back this up, but there's also not enough to be conclusive either way.  Someone claimed in the Japanese translation Himiko uses the word ai, or romantic love in Japanese to refer to Tenko in the final trial but I went  back to the moment and she never says ai at all? The fact that the translation is just word for word the localization which never mentions love doesn't help, but maybe she brings it up sometime else. Tenko is regarded as just as important to Himiko as Kaede and Kaito were to Shuichi and Maki, so I CHOOSE TO BELIEVE, just like Shuichi chooses to believe Tsumugi's words were a lie off a mere hunch, THAT HIMIKO DOES LOVE HER BACK. I MAY NOT HAVE THE HARD EVIDENCE, BUT I CHOOSE TO BELIEVE!!

But yes, Danganronpa gave me an OTP. That hasn't happened. I always thought these characters were too flawed and messed up, especially the SDR2 characters to be shipped believably, at  least for me. And even though Tenko and Himiko were flawed, their dynamic is such an integral part of both characters that is pleases me greatly that they were the token lesbians of this game. (It's always token lesbians because the protagonist is always male.... like in DR1 when it was Sakura and Aoi, but that one was less subtext and more friendship, and in SDR2 with Mahiru and Saionji, which is given more subtext like Ibuki's THE WORLD OF GIRL LOVE, IT'S SLIPPERY WHEN WET comment, but only DRV3 has the token lesbians not ONLY be canon at least one-sided, but was a greatly affected and started the character development of one half of the pair. YES. GOOD. ALMOST EVERYTHING I WANTED!!)

Anyway Tenmiko is a pure good ship that is objectively the best ship in Danganronpa. Anyone who says otherwise is wrong.