17/10/2014, 16:54

I enjoyed SDR2 more than DR1. Maybe it was because everything is so colourful and cheery and fun. To give the player hope at first so all that's left is to turn that hope into despair.

Before I started watching the gameplay of SDR2, the only things I knew were the order of deaths and who the culprits and victims were. I think Bandung told me Nanami was the daughter of Chihiro but I was so confused. First of all how is that possible??? Until mid-Chapter 6, then I realised what that meant. Please do not watch/play Chapter 6 late at night because the visual glitches are freaky, unless sleep is not your thing.

When Naegi first entered the stage, I thought it was Komaeda because of the voice. 'KOMAEDA??? oh no wait'

Also Enoshima Junko needs to stop. JUST STAY DEAD GDI

Speaking of Junko, I went to read DR0 spoilers because I'm not sure if there's a complete translation of the novel. I did read the first few chapters though. Ryouko is adorable but GDI JUNKO NO WHY (trample on my trust why don't you)

My character rankings are pretty much still the same except Kamukura Izuru/Hinata Hajime went up to third place, sitting on the same level as Togami. Everyone likes ~mysterious~ characters.

SDR2 was full of plot twists (mainly 'it was all a game' and 'you guys are SHSL Despair'). BUT YOU KNOW WHAT? THE GOOD THING IS THAT THE DEAD CHARAS HAVE A 0.000000000001% CHANCE OF WAKING UP. Because it's a game after all. With SHSL Hope's help, maybe they would all be revived~ However, at the end of Chapter 5 when the dead characters start popping up randomly, Komaeda's the only one who remained dead. A smart guess would be that he's dead for real.

Sooo I didn't know Komaeda was ill (he does look sickly i mean just look at his gradient marshmallow hair). And seriously ill too. According to his free time events, he was diagnosed with late stage lymphoma and progressed frontotemporal lobe dementia (simplified: degeneration of the frontal lobe of the brain) before attending Hope's Peak.

(Those diseases sound so interesting~ If chance permits, I'd like to do a project on those in school~ Finding the 'cause' might be difficult though-)

Alright, back to Komaeda. I think when he died in the simulated world, it aggravated his symptoms and caused his death in real life. It's already a miracle that he could live for more than a year to attend Hope's Peak and participate in the School Trip of Mutual Killing. Wow, if he's really dead, that means my top two favourite characters are both dead.

Hinata is essentially dead, in a way. The person living in the body that was once his is now Kamukura. He doesn't exist anymore but at the end of SDR2, that's Hinata you see. I'm not sure what happened but does that mean they keep their island memories?? So is Kamukura dead then?? Or maybe they are both alive because they accepted each other (like the Shadow Self in Persona) and they combined to form the Ultimate Hope!

Now I really need a sequel with the SDR2 cast in their despair mode. I thought DR:AE would show them creating havoc or something. Only Komaeda (his face was scribbled on by a bunch of kids omg) and Kamukura were shown in DR:AE though, and there's hardly any change in Komaeda's personality. I WANT TO SEE SHSL DESPAIR IN ACTION. Or at least more information about the first mutual killing involving Kamukura.

Of course, I want the SDR2 charas to be happy too. But that is kinda difficult, especially if they do end up keeping their memories of being SHSL Despair.

I haven't seen a lot of DR:AE because it's not fully translated yet, but the relatives of the DR1 cast are involved. And they are probably gonna die. Which is sad because that means none of the characters will have a family anymore. Oh, the SDR2 characters? They already killed everyone important to them. As if the game isn't depressing enough, if you return to Chapter 1, Hanamura was thinking about his mum and the family restaurant but those things were gone long before SDR2. Hey, since they killed their precious people/things to achieve despair, does that mean Gundam probably killed his hamsters? (looks at Ban)

While typing, I thought of something. Komaeda mentioned that he had no friends or family, which means he probably didn't do the despair killing. Is that why his personality didn't change much? From the FT events, it sounds like he was already in despair before Junko came along due to his talent, which messed with his life a lot. Chapter 5 was called 'Ye Who Smiles at Hope Named Despair', hinting that the thing Komaeda calls 'hope' is actually 'despair'. He is always trying to bring despair to the group, saying it's for the sake of hope. He delights in despair because he thinks it will help to cultivate greater hope. Well, he isn't wrong, if Hope ⇔ Despair.

The more I think about this, the more painful my head will be. Um, I'll leave it here for speculation.

tldr: I have a lot of feels (mostly concerning Komaeda) for this series.

To end it off, here's a quote from everyone's favourite bear!!

this bear gives beary good advice