~{Story}~
Do note that this is called Danganronpa 3 for a reason. It’s meant to be watched after playing the first and second game (though you can watch the anime adaptation of the first game instead of playing it). But not doing so will make you not be aware of many plot points that are important in Danganronpa 3. Anyways, Mirai-hen continues off right from where the second game ended. Our protagonist from the first game who is now a member of the Future Foundation, Naegi Makoto, is held under suspicion for treason due to him saving the Remnants of Despair instead of killing them. Just when his punishment was being decided, Monokuma appear… again, and he announced a killing game… again. Now the members of the Future Foundation are trapped in their own headquarters, forced to play what is supposed to be the final killing game. The premise is basically similar to the previous games, but the main goal of the series is to find the traitor within the group. Overall, the story is handled well and there’s some really big twist and turns along the way. Characters that you thought had plot armor may not. But most of the series is just basically watching the “Number of People Alive” counter decreasing one by one. There isn’t a proper conclusion in this series, since that is left for Kibou-hen. And some of the revelations near the end can seem a little messy. So all we can do now is hope that the final episode is just as good as the rest of the franchise.
Story: 9/10
~{Presentation}~
There’s one thing you’ll notice from Mirai-hen, and that is how different it is from the first two games. First of all, gone is all the class trials from this killing game. This is more like “Battle Royale” where people have to be killed off one-by-one and the culprit won’t be judged. That also means that you won’t be hearing “sore wa chigau yo” a lot in the series. Instead of six different cases to handle, now the characters have one large case: Who is the mastermind? If anything, Mirai-hen feels a lot like Zero Escape, which isn’t a bad thing. Secondly, characters now have bracelets with NG codes on them. Each player has an NG code that gives them a restriction. If the restriction is crossed, the bracelet will inject them with lethal chemicals that will kill them. This gives the viewers a sense of mystery as you won’t be able to know what are the characters’ NG codes. But it’s fun to guess and see if you’re right! Thirdly, there are characters outside the game that get focus and you get to know what’s going on outside the game, something which you weren’t aware of in the previous games. Fourthly, humor is very rare in Mirai-hen as things are more darker here. This new tone for the series works well, especially since this is supposed to be the conclusion of this universe. Lastly, and most importantly, red blood is used instead of Danganronpa’s trademark pink blood. Unlike Zetsubou-hen, which sticks with the pink blood, Mirai-hen decided to take a darker and more mature approach to the series, and it works really well. Overall, this is a quite different take on Danganronpa, but it’s still really fun and feels like a proper sequel for the series.
Presentation: 9.5/10
~{Character}~
Mirai-hen mainly focuses on the Future Foundation characters, which consists of most of the survivng characters from the first Danganronpa game, and new characters we get introduced in this series. The protagonist from Mirai-hen is the same as the first game, Naegi Makoto, a survivor of the first killing game, a member of the Future Foundation, and commonly known as the Ultimate Hope. The series focuses on Naegi and how he has to find out who the mastermind of the killing game is, while making sure that him and his friends survive. Accompanied by him is Asahina and Kirigiri from the first game, and many other new characters like Miratai and Munakata. A lot of the new characters are developed using Zetsubou-hen, and it works pretty well. And that’s why both Mirai-hen and Zetsubou-hen should be watched together. Not all the new characters are likable, but that was the point. But many of the new characters do end up being really well done. Yukizome does play a big enough role in Mirai-hen, but her development from Zetsubou-hen carries on here. Munakata might seem a little irritating at first, but he ended up being one of my favorite characters from Danganronpa. Same goes for Sakakura too. Overall, the new characters end up living up to the Danganronpa name and the recurring characters are just as likable as they were in the first game… except Hagakure, ‘cause no one likes Hagakure! What? Monokuma said so!
Character: 9.5/10
~{Art}~,
As mentioned in my review for Zetsubou-hen, the art style in that series had a more vivid look to it than the games. Mirai-hen is the complete opposite as it has a darker art style that the first two games. This might have been done because Mirai-hen itself has a darker tone compared to the rest of the franchise. Or the art style is like that to represent Mirai-hen being a story that begins with despair, contrary to how Zetsubou-hen begins with hope. But this art style works well with this series. Most of the series takes place inside the headquarters, so most of the backgrounds will be the inside of buildings. But the backgrounds are pretty well detailed and well done. And the character design for the new characters are really good and well done. The characters from the first game also look more mature due to their age growth and their new designs look great as well.
Art: 9/10
~{Animation}~
The animations are fairly good in the series, but it isn’t anything extraordinary. However, that is to say that the animation quality is fairly consistent throughout. Generally speaking, the animation is fluid enough and there aren’t any noticeable animation quality drops. Character animations are done fairly well. Lighting is very differently that Zetsubou-hen. Everything looks bleaker and the lighting add to that. However, the animation quality is better than Zetsubou-hen’s but that should be necessary since Mirai-hen is more action-heavy than Zetsubou-hen. As mentioned before Lerche did a good job in animating two seasons during the same time, which they aren’t used too.
Animation: 8/10
~{Voice Acting}~
The seiyuu cast is really good in Mirai-hen as most seiyuu return back to do their recurring character, and the seiyuu for the new characters are great too. One notable change is that Tarako is now the new voice of Monokuma instead of Ooyama Nobuyo. The reason so is because Ooyama is currently suffering from dementia, which is very sad to hear and hopefully she gets well soon (even if things don’t look good). Though Tarako isn’t as good as Ooyama, she does a decent job as Monokuma, though the character is barely here in Mirai-hen for an obvious reason. Ogata Megumi does a great job again as Naegi and makes him feel very similar to the first game. Hikasa Yoko does a great job with Kirigiri and Saito Chiwa does a good job with Asahina. We also get some pretty well-known people to voice act the new characters, like live-action actor Hongo Kanata as Mitarai, Morikawa Toshiyuki as Munakata, Suwabe Junichi as Sakakura, and many more. And they all do a great job in what they have to do.
Voice Acting: 9.5/10
~{Music}~
One of Danganronpa’s strong point is its music and Mirai-hen is no different. The OP, “DEAD OR LIE”, is really good and it grew on me really fast. The vocals are good, but the music for that song is awesome. The lyrics not only matches the series, but the franchise as a whole. It might very well be one of my favorite OP of the year. The ED, “Recall THE END”, creates more of a mystery vibe and it matches well with the series. The ED gets really good near the middle, once the second verse happens. Most of the background music consists of music used in the first two games, which is a good thing since the two games had some amazing music. The background music creates a sense of nostalgia due to its familiarity. Many of the OST that you’ve heard during trials or investigations are used in Mirai-hen, and it works really well.
Music: 9.5/10
~{Enjoyment}~
As a Danganronpa fan, I found Mirai-hen to be a very satisfying continuation of the series and I can’t wait to see how Kibou-hen wraps things up. Seeing the surviving characters of the first Danganronpa game was fun to see and the new characters in Mirai-hen are really interesting and unique. This new take on the killing game with its Zero Escape-ish style is great and it’s new, darker tone works. A lot of unpredictable things happen and it keeps me more and more invested in the series. Every time an episode ended, I would spend the rest of my time waiting for the next episode, while theorizing who can be the mastermind with the given clues I have. Despite it being an anime and not a game, I still feel like I’m using clues to solve this one big case, and that’s what I wanted as a Danganronpa fan.
Enjoyment: 9.5/10
In the end, Mirai-hen is a proper continuation from the ending of the second Danganronpa game. If you are a fan of the series, you should definitely check Mirai-hen out if you haven’t already. There’s a lot of things that are different in Mirai-hen when compared to the rest of the series and it has a style of its own. But it still feels part of the Danganronpa series, even with these changes. Seeing the Danganronpa 1 characters again was fun and the new characters are nice too. The plot-twists and revelations work well and keep me invested in the series. Mirai-hen doesn’t have a proper conclusion, but that is because Kibou-hen is supposed to be the conclusion for this Danganronpa universe. Hopefully the Mirai-hen arc will get rid of all the despair left in the series.
+ A proper continuation of the Danganronpa series.
+ Killing game is unique and its new style and tone works well for the series.
+ The first game characters are back and most of the new characters are really well handled.
+ Interesting cat-and-mouse story that has a good amount of plot-twist and revelations.
+ Soundtrack from the first two games are used and they are effective and OP/ED are great.
- Revelations near the end raises a lot of questions.
Overall: 8.9/10
