Danganronpa - Episode 8 Discussion / Poll

[Klashikari]

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[Klashikari]

It is quite unfortunate they couldn't pull the character interactions before so it becomes a bit awkward here considering how close Sakura/Aoi and Kyouko/Makoto are by the time we reach this arc. It was going more on the development tangeant despite it was a succession of investigations and trials thus far.

They missed quite a few things, especially regarding Kyouko and Alter Ego there, which are quite relevant later on...:

Spoiler for missing parts:

-Kyouko didn't magically find out that Makoto was hiding something. She actually saw Makoto's weird behaviour towards Sakura, hence she was wondering what's up.

-We finally learn more about Yasuhiro's skills. He actually use it and claim there won't be any murder, but after being asked by Aoi, it seems his ability is only right about... 30% of the time max.

-Pretty much like the first picture, Makoto is supposed to be the only one who found it. He actually found it in the faculty room. He is once again puzzled how a picture like this could exist. However, Monokuma once again barges in, and amused, confirms once again this picture is real before leaving with it.

-Makoto tries to talk with Sakura, but since she is always with Aoi, he gives up on that.

-Back to the canteen, everyone explains what they found. That said, Kyouko is giving the cold shoulder to Makoto in a very obvious way, making Aoi wonder what he did to make her angry.
Makoto then explains he found yet another picture. Yasuhiro is certain Monokuma forged them, but still Makoto can help but think they might be real, which would mean they had a secret connection before. Kyouko sharply asks him if he believes in Monokuma more than in his "friends", thus an hypocrite. Sakura tries to calm things down, saying it is just Monokuma's ruse to confuse them.
Conveniently, Byakuya shows up and sneers at everyone's "friendship farce crumbling down". He actually came saying he learned something interesting from "you know what", prompting people to go check what Alter Ego found out.

-They found Touko who was just waiting there by Byakuya's orders, much to people surprise. Even though they think she is treated like a dog, she is honored to be ordered by Byakuya. Unfortunately for them, she sneezes turning into Genocider Sho. Makoto has to kneel before her so that she would let them use the laptop.
Kyouko just pushes away Makoto and uses the Laptop.

-When they learn the principal is in the school, Kyouko is downright shocked. It is quite major because it is the only moment of the game she makes such facial expression, pose and statement. While everyone think the principal is probably the mastermind, Kyouko makes quite an anguished expression, vowing to find the principal no matter the cost it is. While everyone is taken aback by her reaction, Kyouko says she "has a feeling that she must find him".

-They skipped the part that Alter Ego noticed that Celes, Hifumi and Kyotaka are nowhere to be seen from its camera. Kyouko still tells AE that its job is done so it is fine. Aoi feels a bit bad for it after all the hard work it performed despite being a program. Makoto agrees, saying there isn't really that much difference between Human and programs, so it isn't far fetched to say it was one of them. Even that, Yasuhiro has to admit it. However, Kyouko reminds them that Alter Ego can't do anything else, so she wants Makoto to stop spouting the words friend like that.
In the end, they plan finding the principal. As they leave out the bath room, Monokuma appears before them saying he is downright pissed off, assuing them he will respond like "an eye for an eye" much to people surprise.

-Next day, they are in the canteen. Touko is there because Byakuya says he prefers girls a bit more chunky (obviously trying to get her away from him) so she is there to eat. Meanwhile, Kyouko isn't present, and told Yasuhiro she will come later, precisely after Makoto left (quite merciless here...).
Aoi is still wondering what he has done and thinks Makoto went too far in hitting her. That said, Touko intervenes and implies Aoi is actually the lewd one. While exposing some delusions to which Aoi is very weak to, Sakura is angered, which frightens Touko on the spot. Yasuhiro finishes this up by telling Makoto to make up with Kyouko.
However, he can't because it is because of what he saw, so he must talk to Sakura first.

-Makoto asks Sakura if she has free time, but the latter wants to postpone that the next day because her joints are aching so she needs some rest, spending time in her room (probably because of her fight against Monokuma). Of course, this worries Aoi because Sakura never needed to have such rest.
Little trivia: as they start eating, we learn that Touko lives with her parents but... she has 2 mothers, because some "complicated circumstances".

-At night, Monokuma calls them to come to the gymnasium. It is pretty much the same.

-Next day, Kyouko is still giving the cold shoulder, but she is present in the canteen while Sakura isn't. Meanwhile, Byakuya and Touko are there, to be "safe". Of course, this allusion angers Aoi quite a lot. Byakuya adds his frustration that the presence of a mole is "unfair" to the game. After that it is a bit the same than the second half of the gymnasium talk in the anime: Yasuhiro would trust Sakura only if she takes down the mastermind, while Byakuya would be fine if she dies by doing so, leading to the slap scene. But before that, Kyouko tells them that Monokuma sold off Sakura as another incentive due to the internal strife and so on, so arguing like that is exactly what Monokuma was hoping for.

-Next day, it is the scene with Genocider Sho hurting Aoi. Moving on with the infirmary scene, then Kyouko and Makoto are with Alter Ego in the bathroom.
After Alter Ego told them it wants to help them, Kyouko recalls what Makoto said before and agrees that the fine line between human and AI becomes even less clear there. At this point, Kyouko also calls AE a friend and she really doesn't want to expose it again to danger. That said, she wants to consider AE's feelings, so she tells Makoto they will connect the laptop to the network, so that it can fight alongside them. Makoto isn't up for that, but Kyouko asks him to imagine a bit if he could really let things slide if he was in AE's shoes, just doing nothing while people are fighting with their life at stake. By the way, Kyouko found the network cable the first time she visited the room, so they aren't going there with blind luck, but they still hope the cable wasn't ransacked like the documents.

-When they arrive in front of the restroom, Kyouko put up an act, and yells at Makoto that she doesn't believe all the documents are missing so she orders him to check once again the hidden room, while she stands there so he can't run away.

-Back at his room, Makoto rests a bit, but still in the afternoon, Kyouko tells him something happened with Aoi. The rest is the same than in the anime, although Makoto could open the door thanks to a broom Aoi has found.
One major problem: they did a major mistake with the door for the anime adaptation! In the game, Aoi didn't know what to do, and it was Kyouko who says they should burst the door open. However, Makoto reminds her there is THAT rule N°12. However, Kyouko tells him that the recreation room DOES NOT have a lock to begin with. Hence, something is simply hindering the knob, but the door is actually not locked, so there is no problem with Monokuma's rule.
Also... why did they used the usual murder SFX/BGM for Sakura? Urgh...

Frankly, minimizing AE's implication and Kyouko's anger was really not a good idea in my books but well...
At the very least they could pulled it, but I have a very very bad feeling because they didn't even start the investigation. And this case probably need even more time than case 3 for the investigation and the trial. But considering how they fared thus far, they will most likely wrap everything next week OTZ.

Still, I find it funny the anime shows a rule, to immediately break it by the end of it... good job lerche staff.

[MisaoFan]

Spoiler for Episode 8:

I'm enjoying the episode so far, it explored on Sakura's current problems and while we still see some slice of life scenes in the middle, it managed to grab me towards the end: the death scenes manages to be more shocking as times go on, and I was sad to see how Aoi is blaming herself all over. Let's see how they will resolve the case, and I'm really liking the conversations between Makoto with Kyouko or Chihiro (in computer alter ego form) so far.

[AC-Phoenix]

WoW they totally played down how mad Kirigiri actually was lol

[Solitaired]

There is a lot of content in this episode. I'll list them out according to episode order for easy reference.

Spoiler for Current Episode:

1) Sakura vs Monokuma spotted by Naegi. Sakura said she had enough, Monokuma remind her of the hostages.

2) New rooms : Faculty room, Chemistry room (including conversation over bottles), Music room, Data room, Headmaster's office. The latter 2 are locked.

3) New school rule : It is forbidden to destroy any locked doors

4) Findings by Alter Ego : Project created by the academy for students to live together in it forever. Reason is due to "Mankind's Most Despairingly Maleficent and Monstrous Malefaction". This resulted in the school's closure as well. Headmaster is a man in the late thirties and is very likely to be in the school right now. Kirigiri got emotional at this and is determined to find him.

5) New incentive by Monokuma by revealing Sakura as the mole. Sakura's mission as the mole is to murder someone if no one is willing to kill. But Maizono Sayaka started the ball rolling, giving her no reason to act.

6) Genocider attacked Aoi which is found out by Sakura. She got enraged and leave saying that she will do nothing except to right what has been wronged.

7) Alter Ego offered to connect to the school network to search for clues to aid the students. He left after thanking Naegi for accepting him as a real life friend.

8) Aoi called for help after noticing something wrong with Sakura in the recreation room.

9) A closed room with a chair blocking it from inside. No locks on the door so it is not against the rule to break it.

10) Corpse Discovery. Aoi become stunned and went off to gather the missing 3. She then accused them as the culprit saying that Sakura had called out to meet them before her death.

It is very likely that the next episode will continue with the rest of the investigation and the trial thereafter without a time break for deduction.

This case requires those clues so I think all clues relevant to this case should be listed here. No point of avoiding spoiling the evidences if you can't even use them yourself. What's the verdict on this?

[AC-Phoenix]

Originally Posted by Solitaired

investigation and the trial thereafter without a time break for deduction.

This case requires those clues so I think all clues relevant to this case should be listed here. No point of avoiding spoiling the evidences if you can't even use them yourself. What's the verdict on this?

Actually investigation is not fully done yet, and will continue next episode .
Thus far all the clues necessary to solve the case have been presented. - the missing ones will be in the next episode.

[Solitaired]

What I'm trying to say is that next episode will be the continuation of the investigation AND the trial. What is the use of showing the necessary evidence and going into the trial 5 minutes later for the anime viewers point of view

[Klashikari]

It doesn't matter that the investigation will continue next week, because they will very likely combine the investigation AND the trial.
I guess it will require a pseudo spoiler listing of the clues.

[Solitaired]

It is really stupid to show the magazine and Monokuma bottles without explaining anything. They might as well cut out all that and let Aoi continue her speech

[Quol]

does anyone else find the monokuma dancing in the opening really funny

but aside from that i found this episode really good considering they condensed a 1+ hour long series of events into around 20-30 minutes although i wouldve liked to see more of kirigiri's anger and the investigation clues to not have been showing up so fast without an explanation it was still within what i can accept

Spoiler for Case:

i find this case the saddest among the cases in the game <\3

[GreyZone]

The door actually WAS locked. If you look closely, you can see how Naegi opens the lock after breaking the glass. I guess the glass simply didn't count as "part of the door", or he was allowed to break it just this once so they can reach the corpse.

About the murder:
It is possible that Sakura let herself be killed by Aoi, to make sure that she doesn't have to suffer in her place, and to get her out of the school. I think poison may have been the "murder weapon" used by aoi to kill her in the end. The wounds on the head are probably just self inflicted and therefore "fake".

[Klashikari]

Originally Posted by GreyZone

The door actually WAS locked. If you look closely, you can see how Naegi opens the lock after breaking the glass. I guess the glass simply didn't count as "part of the door", or he was allowed to break it just this once so they can reach the corpse.

That's a mistake from the anime. The door is not supposed to have a lock at all. The glass is considered as part of the door, and as such, if it was really like that in the game, Makoto would have been punished on the spot.
Normally, the recreation room door is supposed to be stuck by a chair alone.

[GreyZone]

Originally Posted by Klashikari

That's a mistake from the anime. The door is not supposed to have a lock at all. The glass is considered as part of the door, and as such, if it was really like that in the game, Makoto would have been punished on the spot.
Normally, the recreation room door is supposed to be stuck by a chair alone.

But the bedrooms all have locks... that was said at the beginning of the series... Also without locks on the bedrooms you could simply invade a room and attack someone while they sleep...

Of course, it is possible that the lock simply was not in the "closed" state in the game. Well I don't know because I didn't play the game.

[Klashikari]

Originally Posted by GreyZone

But the bedrooms all have locks... that was said at the beginning of the series... Also without locks on the bedrooms you could simply invade a room and attack someone while they sleep...

Of course, it is possible that the lock simply was not in the "closed" state in the game. Well I don't know because I didn't play the game.

The bedrooms having a lock do not mean all of the rooms in the school have a lock to begin with. In fact, the vast majority of the facilities in the academy doesn't have a lock at all. Only personal facilities and important one such like the data management room and the headmaster office can be locked by an appropriate key.

And no, it isn't that it wasn't "closed". Kyouko outright tells Makoto the door is certainly not locked, exactly because the recreation room doesn't have a lock to begin with. That's the very point that allowed Makoto to burst the door open without being afraid of being punished.

[GreyZone]

Never mind... I thought the room Sakura was found in was actually her own bedroom. But I just realized that it is not.

[HandofFate]

hm, sounds like this could be a tragic end if Aoi is the killer.

When they showed Sakura's body, she was smiling. I think Sakura let Aoi kill her, and attempt to frame one of the others so she can get out.

Everyone's fuses are getting lit up now, and all the stronger personalities are clashing now.

Also,
Sakura x Aoi yuri pairing.
I'm all for it.

[Solitaired]

Her death pose is a famous parody, smiles included. Danganronpa is filled with parodies which none are shown in the anime.

[Triple_R]

I really enjoyed this episode. Partly since it shows some of the characters trying to fight back against Monobear, which we haven't really seen a lot of since Junko was taken out.

Fewer characters also means that each one gets more focus, and the interpersonal dynamics get a bit more well-developed. It was good to see Makoto and Kyouko's relationship come back to the fore again, and with a fair number of scenes involving just the two of them.

While I respect Klash's critique, I think the anime has made it clear that Sakura/Aoi and Makoto/Kyouko are two of the "pairs" of this show, and that Sakura/Aoi are good friends. Granted, the intensity of Sakura and Aoi's friendship was maybe a bit surprising, what with Sakura going totally super-saiyan over finding out that Aoi had been attacked. And apparently this is one show where going super-saiyan is a bad thing, given what happened to Ishimaru and now Sakura.


This case is interesting simply from a personality standpoint. It's a very safe bet that Makoto and Kyouko aren't the killer, of course. While the "Sakura asked Aoi to kill her so that Aoi could escape" theory is an interesting one, I really doubt that Sakura and/or Aoi would be willing to throw Makoto, Kyouko, or even Yasuhiro under the bus like that. So I don't think that Aoi is the killer.

So, then we come to Togami, Genocider, and Yasuhiro.

Let's face it, Yasuhiro is a wimp. I really have a hard time seeing him attempting to kill the huge and powerful Sakura.

I think that Togami is too smart to do this. I mean, everybody heard him talk negatively about Sakura. It would be very risky for him to kill Sakura after that, and hope to not get found guilty for it.

So then there is Genocider, who seems too obvious.


Hhmmm... interesting trial when you think of the possible suspects!

[Anh_Minh]

I'm calling it a suicide.

Also, Kirigiri: Super Duper High School Principal?

Originally Posted by Triple_R

I really enjoyed this episode. Partly since it shows some of the characters trying to fight back against Monobear, which we haven't really seen a lot of since Junko was taken out.

Fewer characters also means that each one gets more focus, and the interpersonal dynamics get a bit more well-developed. It was good to see Makoto and Kyouko's relationship come back to the fore again, and with a fair number of scenes involving just the two of them.

While I respect Klash's critique, I think the anime has made it clear that Sakura/Aoi and Makoto/Kyouko are two of the "pairs" of this show, and that Sakura/Aoi are good friends. Granted, the intensity of Sakura and Aoi's friendship was maybe a bit surprising, what with Sakura going totally super-saiyan over finding out that Aoi had been attacked.

If anything, I find Makoto and Kirigiri's relationship more out of the blue. Aoi and Sakura got along early on, and they look like the type to get attached easily.

But what has there been between Makoto and Kirigiri for them to expect much trust from each other?

[Xellos-_^]

Aoi really is the only suspect at this point.

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

I'm calling it a suicide.

as handsoffate suggest, it is probably a Suicide-Murder.