Danganronpa: The Animation – 11

Before the students can confirm the identity of the body they presume to be Ikusaba, the classroom trial abruptly begins. Narrowing the timeline, Togami accuses the long-absent Kirigiri as the culprit, but Kirigiri turns suspicion upon Naegi. Monokuma calls for a vote, and Naegi protests. He’s voted guilty and sent to be execution, but Alter Ego hacks the system and saves him. He still falls into the garbage-filled basement, where Kirigiri saves him. After climbing to the top, they confront Monobear, who introduces a new challenge: the remaining students will win if they can discover all of the school’s mysteries.

The mastermind is all about despair. The whole intent “high school life of mutual killing” project is to put the students in a state of abject despair from which there is no escape, before killing them off. But as of recently, the project has stalled. The last student to die wasn’t a murder, but a suicide, and of Monobear’s agent, no less. The remaining six students aren’t in any hurry to kill each other, another student’s digital alter ego continues to cause trouble, the super-duper detective is regaining her memories, and perhaps most damaging to his plans, Naegi absolutely won’t give up hope, and his optimism is proving contagious.

Apparently the mastermind thought to eliminate Naegi by having Ikusaba murder him, then frame it on Kirigiri. But Ikusaba ends up dead (by Kirigiri’s hand? Who knows…), and even when Naegi is convicted and sentenced, he manages to escape death, and with Kirigiri’s help, emerges more hopeful and fired up than ever. Unable to bend more rules to get his way for fear of angering the reality TV audiences, and fairly convinced more mutual student killings aren’t on the horizon, Monobear/the mastermind decides to put everything on the line hoping his myriad secrets are safe from the students. That’s right, it’s come to this: the despair junkie himself, relying on hope.

Rating:7 (Very Good)

Stray Observations:

• Nice use of the Droste Effect at the beginning of the episode. We love us som Droste.
• Naegi survives quite a fall! His execution scene is quite creepy (well, they all are).
• Kirigiri Kyouko: even with a noodle cup and naruto in her hair, she still looks dignified as hell.
• As Naegi says, it’s really no surprise Kirigiri’s title is detective, considering her actions throughout the ordeal.
• We still don’t know who killed Ikusaba, or even if that was Ikusaba. If she’s still alive, will we ever see her face?
• It’s interesting to note that of the remaining students, none seem likely to commit a murder, and thus haven’t: Fukuwa is too scared; Syo is too obvious; Togami is too pragmatic; Aoi is too nice; Hagakure is too dumb; Kirigiri is too righteous, and Naegi is too…Naegi.

Gatchaman Crowds – 10

After destroying Kasumigaseki, the Neo Hundred are mostly dormant until Katze gives them the location of Prime Minister Sugayama in Tachikawa, and offers a bounty of an improved “Crowds 2.0” to whoever captures him. The Gatchamen work with the local government to evacutate the city’s 180,000 people, while disabling the swarming Crowds with nonlethal blows. Jou snaps out of his funk, and Paiman protects the Kindergarten. When Umeda pleads with Katze to disable the Crowds to spare his city, Katze exposes Umeda and his family online.

Umeda didn’t think things through properly. After gaining the power of Crowds, he cast away his former leader, accusing him of lacking the “backbone” to do “what was necessary” to update the world. When Katze gave Umeda back his power, he quickly used it for his little coup, without so much as a query about the price. Well, now he knows the price: even if thousands of people have Crowds, trying to organize them is like herding cats. Worse still, his rash actions have gotten him, his wife, and his daughter into mortal peril as the Crowds, eager for a reward from Katze, ransack Tachikawa. Fortunately for him there are people who don’t only care about themselves willing to protect the city and even him, despite what he’s done.

With Hajime and Sugane leading the way, the Gatchamen act selflessly and work together effectively to keep the Crowds at bay. They secure the prime minister and convince him to put resources into battling the crisis. It’s an episode in which he’s not the only one who crawls out of his safe little cave of self-doubt and rises to the occasion. Like him, Paiman fears losing everything, but doing nothing could well lead to just that; seeing the little ones in danger is the last straw, and he springs into action. Sugane, who was saved by Jou years ago, returns the favor by inspiring him to rejoin the fray rather than continue wallowing in self-pity. Katze has made a huge mess, but for the moment, it’s under control.

Rating: 8 (Great)

Servant x Service – 11

Worried that things could get awkward between them, Yamagami searches for Hasebe with the Chief, who ends up getting accidentally sold at the bazaar outside the office. Yamagami gets him back by offering a plaid bunny the girl thinks is cuter. Miyoshi decides to head into the city to clear her head, but ends up encountering every single person from work, and getting depressed. Her date with Tanaka doesn’t go as badly as she feared, and even agrees to go on another one.

Hasebe may have caught on something quite profound: he’s been living a carefree life, being good at many things but hardly making an effort as he’s sailed through it. It’s cruel yet appropriate, then, that he finds himself now paying for all that…carefreeness by falling for a girl with absolutely no notion of or experience with romance, who may never, no matter what Hasebe does, fully grasp the concept of a guy liking her in that way, as opposed to any other girl on earth. Yamagami is exceedingly adorable, but she’s a tough nut to crack, and it doesn’t bode well that Hasebe still hasn’t impressed upon her just how special she is to him. Realizing that wooing her will take far more effort than he’s ever put into anything has Hasebe feeling more outwardly gloomy than ever before, and it’s sweet that Yamagami admits she doesn’t mind that side of him.

But enough about them, the balance of this episode was about Miyoshi, finally! Her aimless day off – and all the aimless days off her co-workers and acquaintances are having depiction of the average office workers’ average day off. Tired from the week, but also faced with a sudden period devoid of structure, no one engages in particularly thrilling activities, instead ending up in a bookstore, at an arcade, or simply sitting on a bench in the park. Still…it’s not work, right? And once you get past the fact that Tanaka talked about Hasebe for an inordinate amount of time, had nothing else interesting to say, and let Miyoshi pass out from a sip of wine, the date actually didn’t go that bad! We can only hope Hasebe’s date with Lucy goes so smoothly…

Rating: 6 (Good)