#06 – Chapter 03 – (Not) Normal Arc

So we’re back again for another episode of Dangan Ronpa!  This week, a ton of new rooms have been unlocked after the trial.  The gang briefly explores all of these rooms before MonoKuma summons everyone to the gym.  There, he announces that the person who “graduates” from the school will receive 10 billion yen.  Naegi and Sakura insist that such incentive is worthless to them, but a few members suggest otherwise.  Following this event, Asahina reveals to everyone that she saw Chihiro’s ghost in the bathhouse, but it turns out only to be an AI that Chihiro left behind to help everyone.  Ishimaru soon bursts into tears after seeing the appearance of “Alter Ego,” due to his feelings of guilt from the previous trial.  To comfort him, Alter Ego pretends to be Oowada and gives him some encouraging words, but this merely leads to him going through a strange transformation.

It appears Ishimaru has gone Super Saiyan.

We soon see that Ishimaru, or now “Ishida,” is not the only one interested in Alter Ego as Yamada is apprehended the next morning for sneaking out past curfew to speak with the AI.  Although he knows that Alter Ego is only interested in gaining knowledge, Yamada feels like he is actually speaking to a girl and is obsessed with it.  This soon leads to tension with Ishida, who claims to want to protect the AI that holds his bro, Oowada.  Things worsen the following day when someone steals the laptop containing Alter Ego.  As Kirigiri took counter-measures to prevent Ishida or Yamada from approaching the laptop, everyone begins to suspect a mole amongst the group being responsible.  Later, the group finds that Hagakure and Celes are missing and split up to find the two.  Naegi and the others find Celes collapsed on the floor and learn that a mysterious “Justice Robo” is responsible.  They run to the second floor library to find Yamada has also been attacked and is severely wounded.  After a long chain of events, the group finds that both Ishida and Yamada are “dead.”  While the gang is busy running back and forth between the crime scenes, both bodies mysteriously disappear, only to reappear in the storage room of the art gallery.  While Asahina cries over Yamada’s body, he momentarily wakes up to say some strange words before finally dying.

Quite a fruitful investigation.

This episode has included a lot of notable changes from the original events of the game.  The first being the way in which Ishimaru speaks to Alter Ego.  Although he does so secretly with Naegi in the game, he simply transforms in front of the entire group.  Another change is that the strange group picture of Chihiro, Leon, and Oowada is revealed by Alter Ego, as opposed to being found by Naegi in the art room.  These changes are clearly made to condense the events a bit more, but surprisingly don’t hinder the story much.  Aside from this, this episode did have a ton of events and I am glad that they didn’t cram the entire investigation into the end.  It appears that the next episode will include the rest of the investigation and probably the start of the trial.  As this coming trial is rather lengthy, I hope they do decide to split it amongst two episodes.  Well, I look forward to how they will adapt the next episode and I hope you all do as well!

Interesting…