Before I saw the episode, I was wondering if it was "kill by aoi" or "suicide". Then when the trial started Monokuma said something along the lines of "The number of participants in this trial has declined a lot... I wonder if it will go down even further after this trial...". Unless you claim that it was just some sarcastic remark, this was all I needed to know that it would actually be suicide in the end, because if monokuma even CONSIDERS the possiblility that the number will NOT decline this time, then that means there must be a way for the trial to end, without any of the participants being executed, and that is only possible by having the murderer be the victim itself, i.e. suicide.

Sucks they had the knee jerk reaction to bash Sakura over the head when she just wanted to talk.

I'm a little bit disappointed that the anime toned down Byakuya's declaration that he won't participate in the game anymore. In the game, he explains why he does that. Also, the anime toned down that he totally suspected Aoi, as well as why he was inable to find the correct conclusion.

^ being an anime only watcher I dont think him suspecting Aoi was tone down, to me it was pretty obvious.

One thing Im confused about and maybe it was just a mistake on the anime but when Aoi tries convincing them she did so theyll vote and all die, Naegi says something like 'youd die and take us with you', dont the rules state if the person they find guilty isnt guilty that person lives? Or is it the person who was the true murderer? For some reason I cant remember.

^ True murderer lives, everyone else dies.

Good point. Although the method and outcome was out of the ordinary, there still was a "murderer" and a "villain" during the whole ordeal..

Time for the Byakuya/Aoi shipping to start

Nope everyone dies, including the wrongly accused person. This is a really unfair move by Aoi, which has been talk about in the spoiler thread, as Aoi also tried to kill Naegi and Kirigiri whom are on her side.

don't want to board the ship...

I'm afraid of certain dual-scissors wielder :heh:

no problems with that, but they didn't even show the investigation phase in the anime, apart from stills showing a scene with labels, like "upside down magazine" "monokuma bottles", they always went straight to the classroom trials.

as for the super duper HS despair, "despair" is slightly different from all the other titles the other students have, "detective" "luckster" "swimmer" "fighter" etc. but despair doesn't give a clue to what the 16th student's ability is.

I won't press the issue further for now since we might get to spoiler territory :D

his(?) face is all over the building, why wouldn't it be included in the slot machine?

Aoi basically tried to make everyone vote for the wrong person so, all of them will die due the the rules.

If you think about it, Aoi's motivation to try to kill everyone is the strongest one so far: The Revenge for her friend.

You gotta bewere not to make the nice girl angry.

Thankfully, she returns to be a nice girl again at the end.

Actually, he said "Will the number of people go down, or will everybody die tonight."

Of course, that's still just as much of a hint, seeing how it implies that the number of living participants can go down to zero rather than just one.

Re: Super Duper High School Despair

It hasn't been that obvious in the anime, but.

The one who kills a person must be found not guilty for them to survive. If Aoi had succeeded, all of them would have been wrong on who the killer was (Sakura was the killer even though she killed herself) thus every single person would have been executed.

OK I thought only the murderer lived but couldnt recall exactly as I watched. Thanks everyone. :)

About Togami's decision to retire from Monobear's game - I wonder if that's due to how Monobear intentionally tried to mislead everybody into a disastrously wrong verdict by giving a false Sakura will to Aoi (thus motivating Aoi to try to take everybody down).

Monobear is a troll, but this is the first time I can recall him going to such lengths to screw up a trial. While Monobear misleading Aoi might not go against the letter of the rules, Togami may feel that it goes against the spirit of them, so Togami isn't going to play ball with Monobear any more.

Nah, Togami quit because Oogami committed suicide, and Asahina attempted to bring down everyone including herself. He feels this goes against the spirit of the game. If his opponents aren't into it (or afraid of it) it's no fun to play.

What's more is that when Sakura challenges Monokuma to their duel, she should already been executed like Junko. Instead, Monokuma reveals her as the mole. Also allowing Sakura to commit suicide in despair; you could argue that Sakura died for everyone else, but she originally planned to talk it out with the rest to accept her and fight together against Monokuma. Monokuma then toyed with Asahina for more despair.

Thus, this is his form of executing Sakura for breaking the rule on committing violent behavior towards him. Otherwise, he would not have allowed anyone to commit suicide as that is no fun.

Actually Monokuma doged her strikes so she never really hit him.

I got the idea that Monkuma -tried- to kill Oogami, but failed.

Also, she planned on killing herself before calling everyone. For one, she already had the poison on her at that time. There's also another thing that confirms it but that's another one of those things that the anime managed to skip over.

I'm not gonna lie, I teared up a little when AE got crushed by Monobear.

I really liked AE ;(

Looks like you couldn't bear, the despair anymore. :heh:
Well Monokuma got the better of you then :D

Or should I say the bearer of you?! ;)

really despbearing

Well away from the bear jokes again...

Lets see if next weeks episode is closer to the game... i really hope it is...

Just glad Asahina is still alive. You go, swimmer girl.

I confess, I totally forgot about AE until she appears again in that scene.

There was a loud "WTF ARE YOU DOING TO HER!?" to be heard. The fact that they actually paused for a few seconds to let that sink in is just masterful.

AE's a he.

AE's an it.

I call all tech stuff as a she.

I think you and Yamada will get along with each other just fine.:eyespin:

I know a lot of guys who give their computers Japanese girl names.

So...what's yours

It's named computer.

Could we get back on topic please?

The "new" student may be actually the mastermind and at the same time the one who attacked Naegi. I'd rather the mastermind be present at least over the last part of the story instead of appearing as the "final boss" at the last episode. Of course it is also possible that one of the characters that are present is actually the real Monokuma.

I'm not going to repeat anybody else's opinions about likes or dislikes at how the contents for each episode are developing.

Rather I'm using my own words to state that Danganronpa never ceases to put me on an emotional crisis. Here I am watching 15 teens attempting to survive a School of Despair game. A crime is committed, and hell becomes the epitome embodiment of everyone's fear about kill or dying.

The emotional context is placed whether is safe and prudent to trust and make friends with other members of that group of 15 teens, given that rules enforced are encouraging everyone to go after each other's throats if they want to get out, as a means from graduating the school game.

The emotional toll became too much for Asahina, and from the subjective perspective she wanted those whom trample upon Sakura's trust and feelings to deserved to be executed. However, Asahina my girl that's temporal relief, and also you do not have guarantee at all that MonoBear will force its hand and spoil your moment.
What's more practical is for the remaining six teens to come to terms with each other and start collaborating, but not to get out but to finding ways how to catch the mastermind, and then force their way out to freedom.

Sakura like everyone else got the short end of the sick, knowing from MonoBear's letter that her family became hostage and was forced to dance to MonoBear's wishes.
If she committed suicide the reason due that despair was overwhelming her but knowing that sooner or later she would be forced to kill someone else among the group, that was too much despair for her to continue handle the toll.
Of course, things don't go for the better when you add Hagakure and Genocider Sho smashing bottles on her head due to some misunderstanding.

We're pretty approaching the climax to the mystery:
1. We have the dissappeared Principal.
2. The emergency plan enacted from two years ago.
3. The mastermind behind MonoBear and managing the school.
4. The elusive 16th student inside the group making sure that the game proceeds smoothly.
5. The masked character who beat the lights out cold of Naegi and took all evidence from the secret room behind the boy's bathroom on the 2nd floor.

All the clues are connected.

You want some wild, crazy speculation:

Except Oogami's actions came from courage, not despair.