Danganronpa: The Animation #1 (Manga) Review: Entertaining

Finding yourself caught in a catch 22 can be one of the most grueling things anyone can imagine, especially if murder’s involved. The manga version of “Danganronpa: The Animation,” based on the video game series of the same name and written by Takashi Tsukimi, is an entertaining example of one.

Makoto Naegi has just been accepted into “Hope’s Peak Academy,” a school for people with extraordinary talents. Only he’s an average person, but the school does do a random drawing for normal students and Naegi’s name happened to be drawn. When he gets there, he finds that he and 14 other people, people who are “the ultimate” one field, are now trapped inside the school. A bear named Monokuma who claims to be the headmaster says that they will remain here forever and the only way to escape is to commit murder and not get caught.

This plot is similar to a lot of visual novel games that were inspired by the “Saw” franchise. The only difference is these visual novels are leaps and bounds better written, have better characters and are not super idiotic like “Saw.” Of course, some of these visual novels do fail to be entertaining. “Danganronpa” is one of the more entertaining ones.

The main reason for this is Monokuma. He is one evil bastard with a sick sense of humor, but his personality is no out there that you can’t but to love him. He also appears to be having fun while making these teenagers’ lives a living hell.

The rest of the cast does have some high and lows. Naegi is a likable character and the decisions he makes do make him out to be smart than he thinks he is. Of course, some of the characters are pretty flat and forgettable. One of these characters dies in this volume and nobody will miss the character.

Tsukimi does a great job of putting the art of the anime into manga form. Some of the character designs are a bit out there even for manga standards (giant, gravity-defying hair anyone?) That just adds to the craziness that is this world. It’s that exaggerated appeal that makes this manga unique.

The manga adaptation of “Danganronpa: The Animation” has a great story and art despite some characters being dull. Anime/manga/video game fans are a lot that collects everything associated with their favorite series and this adaptation is worth spending money on.