Alright back again for another episode of Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope’s Peak High School. First of all, this is just your friendly neighborhood watch committee reminding you that there are spoilers ahead so if you are wanting everything to be a surprise you might want to go looking else where. Second of all, my notes on this episode are particularly obscured, so if you happen to notice anything that blatantly wrong with the story thus far…please correct me and I will do my best to fix it. Anyways, let’s hop right into Episode 2 of Danganronpa 3.
Episode 2: My Impurest Heart for You
The first thing I must say about episode 2 is the title. I have to be honest, reading the title of the episode I should have known I was in for more fan service from the start, however, that thought never even crossed my mind. I will give it to the writers, they certainly know how to title their episodes.
Episode 2 of Danganronpa 3’s Despair Arc starts off in the 77th’s classroom. It has been two weeks with perfect class attendance when Ms. Yukizome decides it is time to pick a class representative. With still very little interest in the classroom, this quickly becomes futile. Soon a fight breaks out in the classroom between Nekomaru and Akane. This fight quickly gets out of hand and the classroom is destroyed. I mean the entire wall gets blown up essentially. After she starts losing, Akane gets a little help from Teruteru. With a bottle of Doping Corn Soup and what I assume some steroids, Akane goes Super Saiyan and becomes even stronger. Honestly, this part cracks me up every time. I think it is more of the fact that all I can think is Akane is the female version of Goku.
In another scene, Yukizome has a talk with Nanami. In this conversation, we find out Nanami believes that the Ultimate students are set for life so there is no point in making friends as that is what these kids have been told their entire life. They still don’t understand the importance of having friends. Nanami goes on to tell Ms. Yukizome that she isn’t good at making friends, the only thing she is good at is playing video games. The teacher then flips the script on Nanami and informs her that she can make friends by playing video games. It is emphasized in this exchange that friendship is very important and that friendship is a driving point of a student’s life in high school.
After the talk with Ms. Yukizome, Nanami finds herself making friends with the help of her video games. She begins to play games with Hijime and her classmates. Later, back in the classroom, Ms. Yukizome enters after having a talk with Hinata only to find the class has been sitting in the classroom playing video games. It isn’t long until everyone is really competing to be the best. Nanami also asks Teruteru to make a lunch, as they have made an entire day out of this gaming party. He brings in a delicious looking stew of course. This is where things take a turn for the weird.
Come to find out, Siaonji has added a concoction of Teruteru’s to the stew. A bottle full of aphrodisiacs. Everyone soon begins to feel very….hot. The struggle of controlling themselves takes up probably every bit of the next 5 minutes of the episode. This is where all the fan service comes in. Honestly, I couldn’t care less about this particular part of the episode. I am not really the type that cares for the extremely over the top perverted content. So, in my personal preference this scene was just an extreme waste of time and an annoyance. However, I do understand why creators add things like this and I am also aware a lot of people do enjoy it.
After seeing how easily and quickly Nanami brought the class together, Ms. Yukizome nominates Nanami to become the class representative. When she refuses, everyone speaks up and agrees that she would be the best person for the job. Thus the bonding of the students begins as they become very close classmates and more importantly, friends.
While all this is going on with the 77th class, Hijime Hinata is fighting a battle all of his own. In this episode we find out the reserve course students are funding Hope’s Peak, yet they are not entirely sure where all the money is going. The numbers just aren’t adding up. Which is why Ms. Yukizome was sent to the school. She is posing as a teacher while trying to learn the dark side of Hope’s Peak.
We learn that Hijime has been asked to partake in an experiment within the school. This experiment will cause a talentless, normal person to become the embodiment of talent. He will essentially be able to do and be everything. They believe this is the essence of hope, thus creating an artificial Super High School Level Hope. Before Hijime makes a decision on whether or not to partake in the experiment, he has very significant conversations with Nanami, Ms. Yukizome, and Tengan, one of the schools advisers.
In his conversation with Ms. Yukizome, she asks what it was about the reserve course appealed to Hijime. He says that like everyone else, he has wanted to attend Hope’s Peak ever since he was a child. He then goes on to say that he doesn’t understand why Ms. Yukizome is wasting time on someone like him. Here is where the lesson is learned. She tells Hijime that she never wants to hear him put himself down like that again, and that self-confidence is the key to success. She then realizes she had better run off to her class and they leave the conversation there. This is a lesson to apply to your life. The writers jam a few of those inside of this episode. The take away message of self-confidence being the key to success. I feel for the most part that is true.
As soon as Ms. Yukizome leaves, Tengan walks over to also have a conversation with Hijime. He asked whether or not Hijime has made a decision as to what he was going to do yet. Hijime admits that he hasn’t made a decision. Tengan tells him, “Hope comes from people acting like people. That is all there is to it. Changing the fabric of a person is not something to do on a whim. There is no shame in normalcy.” It is here that it is made completely obvious that Tengan is not supportive of the experiments that Hope’s Peak are involved in. I personally feel this is one of the most important things in the entire despair arc, at least where Hijime is concerned. Also, I feel like this is a lesson that even people out here in the real world should listen to. While we may not be able to be “injected” with talent, there is no shame in normalcy. To me, those words resonate with me.
Finally, he is walking back to the reserve course building and he finds Nanami waiting for him. She asks if Hijime would like to go to the arcade with her. He quickly refuses and says that he isn’t any good at video games. The episode closes with Nanami saying “That’s okay, it doesn’t matter if your good when you play with friends.”
All of these encounters quickly become important since it doesn’t take long and Nanami becomes Hijime’s driving force and they become very close. Tengan’s words show everything that is wrong with trying to create an artificial hope and Ms. Yukizome emphasizes that self-confidence is the most important things when it comes to success. These are all very important things that make Hijime who he is and will become.
Overall, Episode 2: My Impurest Heart for You is mediocre. By that I mean, the standards of Danganronpa is so high that this episode just falls into the background for me. There is nothing memorable about it, except the perverted stew sharing, but as we already established that just isn’t my cup of tea. Then really the only other important pieces of information in this episode comes from the conversations with Hijime. This is definately a building episode. It is giving us set ups for major plot points and more character development, which for only being the second episode is expected. It has left room to build, but also has finally established a newly united classroom. Where will the next episode take us?
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