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So, I’m making a written fanganronpa that is my own conceptually (obviously not entirely my own, it’s called a fangan for a reason) with characters inspired by those from Tetro, and I cannot for the life of me settle on a writing style (This fangan will be published on Ao3 eventually because I know I do not have the skills or the means to make this into a visual novel or an audio drama).
So I figured this would be a good place to gauge the popularity of each writing style using an excerpt from my Day 1 Part 1. I know people in community posts like using emojis to respond so I’ll give each writing style a corresponding emoji to make things easy.
Audio Drama / Script Style : 💿
Visual Novel Style: 🔪
Traditional Novel Style: 📓
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Early Birds: Audio Drama / Script Style / 💿
Clover (over the PA System): Attention students, this is your wake up call, please report to the dining hall for a brief morning meeting. This message will repeat until all students have gathered. Attention students, this is your wake up call, please report…
Fujisawa: Ugh… What the hell?
(Muffled shouting can be heard outside Fujisawa’s room, drawing Fujisawa out of his bed and out of his room)
Fujisawa: What’s with all the noise?
Aikawa: What’s with all the noise? WHAT’S WITH ALL THE NOISE? Do you have any clue where we are right now?
(Fujisawa pauses as he looks around)
Fujisawa: Some kinda fancy hotel?
Aikawa: So basically no idea?
Fujisawa: I mean I guess…
Aikawa: Then why are you not making noise?! We have no clue where we are, why are you being so calm about it?!
Fujisawa: I don’t know man, maybe because I just woke up and it feels like a pile driver has been driven through my skull.
Clover (over the PA system, but louder this time): Attention students, this is your wake up call, please report to the dining hall for a brief morning meeting. This message will repeat until all students have gathered.
Ueda: Can you two stop yelling and move your asses? You’re giving me a headache
Aikawa: Excuse me?!
(Aikawa follows Ueda snapping after her as they follow some of the other students who have made their way into the hallway down to the dining hall, Fujisawa follows slowly)
Clover: Please take a seat at the main table. Once all your fellow students have gathered I will begin the morning meeting.
Aikawa: Are you going to tell us where we are?
Clover: … You could say that.
(Fujisawa walks to the far end of the table, away from the commotion, and sits as far as possible, next to Itou, who had taken up the furthest possible seat)
Itou: Hello!
Fujisawa: Hey.
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Early Birds: Visual Novel Style / 🔪
At some unforsaken hour of the morning, an announcement plays over the PA system of the school. The voice that speaks is monotone, and cold.
“Attention students, this is your wake up call, please report to the dining hall for a brief morning meeting. This message will repeat until all students have gathered. Attention students, this is your wake up call, please report….”
Fujisawa Nori, waking up in an unfamiliar room with a blinding headache, presses a pillow to his ears and tries to block out the sound. It works well enough, until a commotion bubbles up in the hallway just outside his door, forcing him out of bed.
“What’s with all the noise?”
A brown haired boy who had been shouting moments ago, turned to Fujisawa with a look of pure exasperation.
“What’s with all the noise, WHAT’S WITH ALL THE NOISE? Do you have any idea where we are right now?”
Fuji scans the hallway around them briefly, eye glazing over red walls accented with white and gold, and long tables topped with plants that were most definitely fake.
“Some kind of fancy hotel?”
This answer does not seem to appease the brown haired boy.
“So basically no idea?”
“I mean I guess…”
“Then why are you not making noise?! We have no clue where we are, how can you be so calm about it?”
As if on cue, a pain throbs from behind Fujisawa’s eyes.
“I don’t know man, maybe because I just woke up and it feels like a pile driver has been driven through my skull.”
Preventing the brown haired boy from spiralling further, the message from before repeats over the PA system. Of course it had been repeating constantly in the background while the boy was screaming, but this time it was noticeably louder.
“Attention students, this is your wake up call, please report to the dining hall for a brief morning meeting. This message will repeat until all students have gathered.”
Further preventing the brown haired boy from speaking, is a blonde haired girl emerging from a room on the opposite side of the hall, looking just as miserable as Fujisawa feels.
“Can you two stop yelling and move your asses? You’re giving me a headache.”
This, of course, displeases the boy.
“Excuse me?!”
He follows the blonde girl, snapping at her as they follow some of the other students towards the clearly indicated dining hall. Fujisawa follows of course, but a bit slower, glad to have some distance between him and the boy.
Inside the dining hall, a small brown bunny sat perched on the floor, directing students with a startlingly human voice.
“Please take a seat at the main table. Once all your fellow students have gathered I will begin the morning meeting.”
This draws the brown haired boy’s attention.
“Are you going to tell us where we are?”
If it was possible for a bunny to look unsure, Fujisawa was fairly certain that’s exactly how the bunny looked.
“…You could say that.”
Not wanting to deal with the brown haired boy again, Fujisawa makes his way to the end of the table. The last possible seat is occupied so he takes the one next to it, sitting next to a boy with lighter brown hair and green eyes.
“Hello!”
He’s a bit too cheery for Fujisawa’s liking, but he sounds nervous so the blue haired boy decided to ignore that.
“Hey”
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Early Birds: Traditional Novel Style / 📓
“Attention students, this is your wake up call, please report to the dining hall for a brief morning meeting. This message will repeat until all students have gathered. Attention students, this is your wake up call, please report….”
Fujisawa threw a pillow at the wall, vaguely aiming for where the sound was coming from, before the announcement could fully repeat itself, tugging the other pillow around his ears trying to block out the sound. He didn’t exactly remember what happened before he woke up, but he could feel the exhaustion in his bones, and a pounding behind his eyes that he deeply wished would go away.
It worked for a while, the pillow blocking out the sound just enough that Fujisawa felt himself drifting off again, only to be rendered null and void by someone screaming at the top of their lungs just outside the door, and as hard as he tried, Fujisawa couldn’t block out the sound. So, begrudgingly, he dragged himself out of bed and out into the hall, where a brunette wearing sunglasses indoors was seemingly shouting into the void, considering no one else seemed to pay him any mind.
“What’s with all the noise?” The question was out of Fujisawa’s mouth before he even really knew what he was saying, and he regretted it immediately. The guy’s eyes may have been covered by sunglasses, but Fujisawa could still feel the boy’s gaze lock onto him as he spun around.
“What’s with all the noise, WHAT’S WITH ALL THE NOISE? Do you have any idea where we are right now?” He snapped, face clearly getting flushed. Fuji looked past him for a moment, at the red walls with white and gold accents, and the tables topped with fake plants, before he shrugged.
“Some kind of fancy hotel?” The boy scoffed.
“So basically no idea?”
“I mean I guess…” Fujisawa was quickly cut off.
“Then why are you not making noise?! We have no clue where we are, how can you be so calm about it?” He grabbed Fujisawa’s shoulders to pull him closer, and as if on cue, a pain throbbed behind Fujisawa’s eyes.
“I don’t know man, maybe because I just woke up and it feels like a pile driver has been driven through my skull.” He sighed, pushing the other boy off of him. It wasn’t like Fujisawa was very strong so he was thankful this guy wasn’t holding on too tight.
Luckily, before the guy could speak again, the announcement echoed over the loud speakers again. This time much louder than it had been before.
“Attention students, this is your wake up call, please report to the dining hall for a brief morning meeting. This message will repeat until all students have gathered.”
The boy clearly didn’t care about this announcement, as he turned back to Fujisawa almost immediately, but he was cut off by a blonde girl, who had just made her way out of a room opposite of Fujisawa’s own.
“Can you two stop yelling and move your asses? You’re giving me a headache.” She may have sounded annoying, but Fujisawa didn’t disagree with her. He may have already had a headache, but this guy wasn’t making it any better.
“Excuse me?!” Thankfully the boy’s attention was pulled to the blonde girl, and Fujisawa got to watch as he attempted to bicker with her as they walked towards the clearly marked dining hall with some other people who had made their way out of their rooms.
Fujisawa wasn’t eager to follow, but if it stopped the announcements from playing he would do it.
Turning into the dining hall, Fujisawa was met by a small brown bunny perched patiently on the floor. He would have questioned why it was there, but the creature beat him to it, speaking in an all too human voice.
“Please take a seat at the main table. Once all your fellow students have gathered I will begin the morning meeting.”
The boy from before locked eyes with the bunny, sensing a new target.
“Are you going to tell us where we are?” He asked, clearly not perturbed by the bunny speaking Japanese.
“…You could say that.” Fujisawa didn’t know if bunnies were capable of making expressions, but he would have bet his last dollar on that bunny looking conflicted.
Wanting anything other than to deal with that boy again, Fujisawa made his way away from the door and to the far end of the table. The furthest seat was filled by a taller boy with pale brown hair and green eyes, so Fujisawa made himself as comfortable as possible next to him.
“Hello!” His tone was light but his voice shook as he spoke. Fujisawa didn’t exactly want to talk to anyone, but this was leagues better than the boy from before, so he conceded a short greeting.
“Hey”
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I personally think I like the Visual Novel Style the best, since it captures the feeling of an audio drama while allowing me to add in plenty of detail, but I don’t want to write something most people aren’t going to want to read (even if this is mostly for me, I like sharing my work). So let me know what you think.
This fangan is called Danganronpa Eyes by the way, with installment one (with a cast based on the cast from Tetro Pink) being Danganronpa Cotton Eyes (it’s planned to be three parts, we’ll see how that goes). I haven’t been posting about it much but I’d be more than happy to share if people are interested and want to know more.
