Danganronpa 3: Future arc is a sequel and essentially a finale to the Danganronpa series. Whereas the counterpart Despair arc is a prequel to the entire story, Future arc details the story after the Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic event in human history. It reintroduces the killing game shown in the DR series prior, except this time, in the real world, without any school rules. There are completely fresh batch of characters, some whom we eventually see fall.
Future arc centers around the main survivors of the events in DR1, along with the division leaders of the Future Foundation. The leaders themeselves had thought that they already caught the traitor, but little did they know they had already fallen into the real traitor's trap. To make the matters worse, this time the killings don't end in a class trial as it did in previous games. Instead, they have to find the traitor and kill him to end it once and for all.
The story is basically kill or be killed. Unlike Despair arc which starts off with a more light hearted tone that constantly evolves into a more brooding tone, Future arc starts off with a darker tone straight of the bat. The first couple of seconds of ep 1 essentially shows how the world has become since the Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic event in human history. And throughout, the episodes are just constantly filled with tension as the characters try to somehow find a way to survive.
Future arc also manages to weave in characters from all three Danganronpa series. Whether it is a whole episode dedicated to them or if it's just a couple of moments, it is still fun to watch the rest of the other game's cast after their events.
A problem with this kind of a setting though is the pacing, which was noticeable in Future arc. One episode could be filled with new events while the next could be slightly disappointing and rushed. However, the still lingering mysteries about the traitor and the NG codes (the only "rules" in the killing game) kept me hooked throughout. One huge disappointment was the plot twists regarding the DR 1 characters. At first I thought, "this is really happening," but then after a couple of episodes and even in the Hope arc, the plot twist got ruined by playing it safe.
The animation is great and the action scenes are fun to watch. The art itself was also a good point from Future arc. Like the tone, the color schemes of Future arc constantly stays on the darker color, unlike Despair arc which slowly transitions from lighter to darker. Also to emphasize the impact of the killing game, the staff even decided to change the blood from pink to red. At first, I didn't know how to feel about this as the pink blood was a unique part of the danganronpa series, but it was understandable considering this was the finale and they had to really highlight the brutality of the final killing game.
One interesting aspect, like I mentioned, is that Despair arc events has great meaning in the Future arc. Knowing what happens in Despair arc comes in handy for the Future arc.
The opening song is great and the soundtracks are decent. However, being a guy who really pays attention to the OSTs, the ones in Future arc were slightly underwhelming. There is also an awesome cast of new voice actors who did great, alongside the voices we were already accustomed to.
Obviously, the most important part of Danganronpa series are its characters. When I was going through each DR series for the first time, I always wondered if I would get attached to the characters. The same was for the Future arc. Unfortunately, It's safe to say I like some of the characters, but not more than I wanted to. Maybe because the anime was just a 12 episode series and not an entire Visual novel, but it was harder for me to get attached to the characters. Some of them died too quickly, granted it was to showcase the brutality of the killing game but still. Some of them started out just plain annoying, although one certain character did get more fleshed out than the most. In the latter episodes, a lot more characters get fleshed out a bit more, which was nice to see. . We got backgrounds and more personalities: whether interesting or annoying. However, it was still minimal, so I honestly did not care for most of them. One of the characters got more depth than most of any other characters in other DR series even. Anyways, although the new characters do show interesting traits and personalities, it was rather hard to get attached to most of them quickly. It was only after a couple more episodes that I got somewhat attached to more characters.
After 11 episodes, I have to say that the developments of some characters are pretty awesome to see. For example (SPOILER: Juzo), was one character I thought I would never like, but in the end he became the most developed and also became my favorite from the new cast.
As for the original DR1 cast, they were pretty much the same. Kyouko being the smart detective trying to find out the traitor, Hagakure being Hagakure, and Naegi being that typical "not let anyone die" MC. One thing I liked from the original cast was Asahina, whom you could clearly see matured and developed after the killing game in DR1.
Although their are clear flaws in both pacing and early characterization wise, Future arc still is a pretty decent watch. As with the DR games, it is always so stressful for the new episode to come out because you don't know who might die. The mystery of the traitor is not obvious and make you think of all the possibilities. One of the biggest downsides, however, is the underwhelming ending. Character wise, although it startes out in a weak manner, gets better as episodes progress, though it is heavily limited. Although both Despair arc and Future arc are disappointing in many aspects, both are still a decent watch for dangaronpa fans.
