Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak Academy - Anime General Discussion

[Klashikari]

In term of narrative, there is no way the real Junko isn't dead, simply because of the context of DR1. It was actually what she hoped for after her plans were foiled, and there isn't even any merit to even fool her own goons.

In fact, the whole AI makes even less sense if she is actually alive.
That situation is also heavily implied in Another Episode where Monaca is actually trying to succeed Junko. Same goes for Shirokuma and Kurokuma identities.

[MeoTwister5]

One thing to also note was that Junko, at the end of DR1, WANTED to die because she WANTED to feel what her own despair as opposed to always imposing it on others.

At the same time the entire Junko AI thing in SDR2 was never implied to have been made under Junko's orders. The AI was implied to have been made by the Remnants without her instructions.

[AC-Phoenix]

Originally Posted by Klashikari

In term of narrative, there is no way the real Junko isn't dead, simply because of the context of DR1. It was actually what she hoped for after her plans were foiled, and there isn't even any merit to even fool her own goons.

In fact, the whole AI makes even less sense if she is actually alive.
That situation is also heavily implied in Another Episode where Monaca is actually trying to succeed Junko. Same goes for Shirokuma and Kurokuma identities.

there are actually several reasons for faking her death, for example the shock and despair when everyone realises that she is still alive.
When fooling her own goons she also makes sure its more believable - Fooling your ally to make sure your enemy is certainly fooled too is nothing new in writing.

Originally Posted by MeoTwister5

One thing to also note was that Junko, at the end of DR1, WANTED to die because she WANTED to feel what her own despair as opposed to always imposing it on others.

As referred to earlier, Junko is the villian. She isn't the detective who isn't allowed to intentionally give you false information. She can lie to the detective all she likes about her motivation. - In fact its hard to even determine whether Naegi has the detective perspective here or Kirigiri. This perspective trick was actually even employed by Agatha Christie on several occassion, where the story was told from a different character's PoV while Ms Marple still remained the detective. (thus allowing faulty observations being done by the character you believed to have the detective PoV)

Here we got the same - Junko is dead and neither of the potential detective characters ever saw her corpse. In addition to that we have a character, bearing some resemblence to Junko, die in the very first episode (notably also due to a different cause then the OP shows, might mean nothing but still) .

Moreover, said character also died before the rules of the game where even announced to the cast, and thus the first culprit would already have to be the traitor as they knew the rules and that the game started in advance.
Moreover they would have taken measures against the sleeping gas.

That is if she wasn't dead long ago and replaced by Junko.

The next hint towards Junko being alive in one form or another is actually Naegi's reaction - that is if that is even actually Naegi and not the DR 2 MC posing as him.

Which is however a lot less likely than someone posing as one of the other characters due to observant Kirigiri having been around him all the time.
Edit: (Who is notably Naegi's girlfriend, and should thus in theory be harder to trick)

[Klashikari]

Again, this doesn't make any sense with Another Episode and SDR2. Her death was part of her plan to create "junkoland", and her behaviour in SDR2 clearly indicate she is fully aware of her predicament.

It has nothing to do with "detective" stuff and whatnot, considering it is all about Junko here.
Hell, the whole stuff about "detective not allowed to give false information" (and any Knox/Van Dine) doesn't work for DR. Hell, Kyouko lied in DR1 already.

[AC-Phoenix]

Originally Posted by Klashikari

Again, this doesn't make any sense with Another Episode and SDR2. Her death was part of her plan to create "junkoland", and her behaviour in SDR2 clearly indicate she is fully aware of her predicament.

It has nothing to do with "detective" stuff and whatnot, considering it is all about Junko here.
Hell, the whole stuff about "detective not allowed to give false information" (and any Knox/Van Dine) doesn't work for DR. Hell, Kyouko lied in DR1 already.

Most of Knox and Van Dine rules worked pretty well.
As for Kyouko - Figurring out who the detective actually is was really the hardest mystery of the entire game as there were several parts of the game that made me want to re-evaluate it for certain cases.

As for her behavior, that is something that is simply not 100% trustable. My point isn't even that this is Junko period but that the possibility of her being actually alive still remains - There are after all enough clues allowing her to still exist.

Heck even the AI Junko still has a reason for existance due to talking about uploading herself to someones brain.

[Klashikari]

So you don't believe Junko didn't kill herself out of urge of despair despite everything happened, Danganronpa Zero included?
She may be nuts, but she is extremely consistent when it comes to despair. If she really wanted to make a come back for more despair, she would have done it way early instead of relying on Izuru + her own AI.

Again, the whole thing about "it is impossible for a corpse to be in such state after being crushed by an industrial crusher" argument is moot in DR.
If you believe her corpse should be flat, then explain how she could survive EVERY steps of the final punishment.

The human known as Enoshima Junko is most likely dead. What's certain though is that there is most likely a backup of her AI that has to be somewhere and probably is behind the events of DR3 future arc.

[AC-Phoenix]

Originally Posted by Klashikari

corpse to be in such state after being crushed by an industrial crusher" argument is moot in DR.
If you believe her corpse should be flat, then explain how she could survive EVERY steps of the final punishment.

You have to think outside of the box here a bit and ask yourself: 'Why did she die to the last one when at least one of the others was just as leathal.'
Some of them are easier to explain than others too. The Baseball punishment for example was different for her than it was for the guy wo actually got killed by it.

Dozer Master is the hardest one to explain, while after class lesson (what she was actually killed by) is by far the easiest

Originally Posted by Klashikari

The human known as Enoshima Junko is most likely dead. What's certain though is that there is most likely a backup of her AI that has to be somewhere and probably is behind the events of DR3 future arc.

Which can apparently be uploaded into brains though.

[Klashikari]

You are overthinking about that, really.

The whole point of that punishment is to bring the biggest despair possible as a combination of every victims thus far, including Kirigiri Jin's.
To begin with, Junko is pretty much the embodiement of hax character with abnormal "stats" compared to others. This is consistent with every other media she appeared in.

[tuckersister]

I also have another theory about Future arc story. What if the cultprit is a victim of Hope Peak Academy. He/she blames anyone from Hope Peak or connected to it for the Tragedy. That would a interesting twist for the story. A culprit that is a survivor of the Tragedy and bears a huge grudge against Hope Peak Academy.

Another idea, culprit is a parent of a child that went to Hope Peak and became part of Junko's cult.

[MeoTwister5]

Originally Posted by tuckersister

I also have another theory about Future arc story. What if the cultprit is a victim of Hope Peak Academy. He/she blames anyone from Hope Peak or connected to it for the Tragedy. That would a interesting twist for the story. A culprit that is a survivor of the Tragedy and bears a huge grudge against Hope Peak Academy.

Another idea, culprit is a parent of a child that went to Hope Peak and became part of Junko's cult.

Actually given the nature of Ultra Despair Girls, if we're looking at a Junko successor, there's a high chance it's Monaca.

[tuckersister]

Oh yeah, I completely forgot about it. My bad.

There might be a chance that Hajime will show up in the last episode of the Future story.

[Jestersage]

Originally Posted by tuckersister

I also have another theory about Future arc story. What if the cultprit is a victim of Hope Peak Academy. He/she blames anyone from Hope Peak or connected to it for the Tragedy. That would a interesting twist for the story. A culprit that is a survivor of the Tragedy and bears a huge grudge against Hope Peak Academy.

Another idea, culprit is a parent of a child that went to Hope Peak and became part of Junko's cult.

Actually it is possible. Quoted from Danganronpa Zero, chapter 2, on why Jin decided to cover the First Mutual killing:

“Nevertheless, I refuse to believe Hope’s Peak Academy’s thesis, that talent itself is humanity’s first and foremost hope, is wrong. You must realize that if information about this incident leaves the walls of this school, we are likely to lose it all. As far as I’m concerned, that would be a gigantic loss for the human race. Every one of our successful graduates I’ve spoken to feels the same way.” (Emphasize mine)

In short, it is possible that some people do blame the Hope's Peak Graduate, which FF is mostly composed of.

[blitz1/2]

Having a vague theory that the wheelchair girl is actually Monaca in disguise. But, we'll see...

[Dengar]

There is no way I'm buying into the whole "Enoshima is alive" bs.

That would completely break the whole "Enoshima is still ruining everyone's lives from the grave" thing.

[com_gwp]

Originally Posted by blitz1/2

Having a vague theory that the wheelchair girl is actually Monaca in disguise. But, we'll see...

Nah, I think as some people already mentioned, it is unlikely to be her because of:

1) the relatively short time span between AE, DR2 and DR3; she is still a kid right now, and the future foundation has been around longer than before the events of AE

2) no connection to the NEO world program

[tuckersister]

Episode 2's ending was messed up. Yasuhiro will show up at some point. I'm starting to think the "sleeping drug" isn't what it seems to be.

[Gan_HOPE326]

Originally Posted by Dengar

There is no way I'm buying into the whole "Enoshima is alive" bs.

That would completely break the whole "Enoshima is still ruining everyone's lives from the grave" thing.

Yeah, well, I mean, they say you shouldn't consider 'em dead until you don't see a corpse, but in this case we literally saw her getting squashed into a bloody pulp. No idea how this could possibly be retconned .

Originally Posted by Klashikari

So you don't believe Junko didn't kill herself out of urge of despair despite everything happened, Danganronpa Zero included?
She may be nuts, but she is extremely consistent when it comes to despair. If she really wanted to make a come back for more despair, she would have done it way early instead of relying on Izuru + her own AI.

Again, the whole thing about "it is impossible for a corpse to be in such state after being crushed by an industrial crusher" argument is moot in DR.
If you believe her corpse should be flat, then explain how she could survive EVERY steps of the final punishment.

The human known as Enoshima Junko is most likely dead. What's certain though is that there is most likely a backup of her AI that has to be somewhere and probably is behind the events of DR3 future arc.

The darkest possibility is that Junko isn't behind this, one of the Despairs is. And since most of those are either dead, comatose, or recovering on Jabberwocky Island that leaves only one, very depressing possibility: Chiaki. We're assuming she's dead but for all we know the Despair Arc might be about her losing her shit entirely, while her AI was just a backup of her former personality. After all, well, she seems to enjoy *playing games with everyone*...

[MeoTwister5]

If the real Chiaki is somehow alive and causing all this I'm going to skin people alive. I prefer to think that AI Chiaki and Despair Arc Chiaki are her real selves that refuse to give in to despair, no matter what. She's Hajime's emotional and hope-filled crutch.

[Klashikari]

Originally Posted by Gan_HOPE326

The darkest possibility is that Junko isn't behind this, one of the Despairs is. And since most of those are either dead, comatose, or recovering on Jabberwocky Island that leaves only one, very depressing possibility: Chiaki. We're assuming she's dead but for all we know the Despair Arc might be about her losing her shit entirely, while her AI was just a backup of her former personality. After all, well, she seems to enjoy *playing games with everyone*...

Huh no. Junko confirmed she manipulated Izuru when Kyouko and Togami reviewed their information regarding Kamukura Izuru.
Hell, when Junko explains how Hajime was turned into Izuru with the brain surgery, she explicitely stated it was thanks to her he became despair.

Of course, it might be in an indirect fashion, but it is nearly impossible for Junko not being involved in there.

[MeoTwister5]

One of the reasons I found Junko to be one of the best villains of the past few years is how she maintains a larger than life force of nature, or should I say force of despair, even during and beyond death. Her philosophy continues to live on in her... uh... disciples, and basically anyone who follows the path of despair. She may be dead but her spectre looms over everything.

Kind of like a Negative Jesus or something.