With the finale out now I think a central theme that I've recognized and really adore is "all of these characters are more complex than an audience would appreciate." They are all being squished into a child-friendly set of archetypes, be that by Caine, Jax, or metatextually, the fandom. Caine doesn't want them complaining, swearing or having sex, they just have to go on endless, mindless, youtube-monetizable adventures. He's the ringmaster, he puts them in a bright poppy's playtime ass stage and demands for funny to happen. Meanwhile, Jax doesn't want to address the dire reality of their situation and copes by playing along, treating himself and all the characters as flat archetypes with no internality, so that the elephants in the room can safely be ignored. The fandom, meanwhile, is quietly guilty of all the same things. "Why isn't my favorite character acting in accordance with my headcanon? Which characters are flatly evil so we can hate them? Will they achieve my perfect happy ending? Because if not I'll be mad about it."
It doesn't work. Because they're more complex than that. They're people, they need more, they have emotions and traumas and wants and needs. Ragatha isn't always cheerful, she's not just the mom friend, and she's not some manipulator either. She's a person, trying her best, and very often failing. Pomni isn't always anxious, she's a natural leader and she wants the best for everyone, but she's not perfect either. She's a person, trying her best, and very often failing. And Jax isn't just a villain, he's a very complicated ball of traumas whose consistent first instinct is to push everyone away, hurting others so that he won't get hurt himself. He's a person, trying his best, and very often failing. She might even be a girl. Zooble isn't just a grump, Gangle isn't just a wimp, Kinger isn't just crazy. They're humans. And humans aren't always good. They're messy, screwed up, complicated things. They're things that can't be flattened down to archetypes, no matter how much Caine, Jax, or the fandom wants it.
The fandom wanted a bunch of cookie cutter adventures with good guys and bad guys, but what we got is just a bunch of people, stuck together, their traumas rubbing up against eachother until something catches fire and explodes. And I think that's way more interesting. I'm glad the show is that. I understand not everyone feels that way, though. A lot of people wanted something less nuanced. But I don't think the show not matching your expectations is the show's fault. I think people just need to come at it with the right mindset. Meet the story where it's at.
People are always more complicated than an audience wants them to be.
I kinda like the idea of jax becoming a cautionary tale of what happens when you let dysphoria and self hatred eat you alive. I've met so many of him IRL in my own circles. I think people need to hear it. I need more characters who eat themselves alive and actually have to suffer the consequences of not choosing to be better. It's pretty refreshing to see a different and nuanced take on dysphoria and how it doesn't always manifest the way you would expect.
best case scenario Digital Circus gets remembered in a similar way as Steven Universe: a show that was Really Fucking Good and had nuanced characters and interesting things to say, but the audience wasn't quite ready for it and it imploded into a discourse ball. four years from now I expect to see lesbians drawing Jax like she's a renaissance muse the same way people still draw Pearl or Lapis
I can't believe home depot literally produced a wildly successful science fiction musical and we all just pretend it didn't happen. on one hand yes it had a boring white guy main character but like.... home depot just... Made it? And it had shit ton of box office sales? and no one even talks about this. this is like avatar (2009) all over again
OK so. After a lot of frantic googling I realized this was all a dream. home depot did not in fact produce a wildly successful science fiction musical. I was on allergy meds and took a nap and my brain simply prophesized this. slightly disappointed because I wanted to watch it.
I think one of the funniest abortion stances I've heard was from my parents neighbor. He's a like, hard-core libertarian viking larper guy who is very tall and very fat and very bald.
He believes a fetus is human with a soul, but also its "basically attacking the woman's body" so if she wants to get rid of it, that's "basically self-defense". He compared it to shooting a home invader. So he supports abortion not as healthcare, but as killing a baby in self-defense
Y'know I'm so glad someone reminded me of this. Because this was also discussed.
My stepmother did NOT like the way her Libertarian Viking Neighbor framed pregnancy as the fetus "attacking the woman". She incredulously told him this was extremely disrespectful to expectant mothers to portray pregnancy as so violent and negative.
Libertarian Viking Neighbor's response was that people consensually hurt each other all the time, and "there's like a whole community about that, with the acronym the one that starts with a B" And his reasoning was that if the mother was consenting to bring attacked by the baby, it in fact wasn't violent and negative because there was consent.
He brought up people consensually hurting each other, didn't go for one of the obvious answers like boxing or body mods or something, no he went STRAIGHT TO BDSM and he DIDN'T EVEN REMEMBER THE ACRONYM
What do you mean “chat” is now referring to ChatGPT and not twitch chat? What? What? What the fuck? No?
When I address chat I am speaking to a presumed Greek chorus of real human people shitposting on their lunch break, not a machine that devours lakes to covert electricity into slop.
The gang and I (danganronpa experts since 2013) finished Kumitantei ch 1 last night. First things first, and TLDR, so far I recommend highly if you're considering it, absolutely worth the time and money on production value alone. Great cast, great art, snappy writing that doesn't take itself too seriously, very refreshing in the space. Go play ch1.
Overall I think it's a solid project and I'm very interested but I do have some Gripes. Got long so under the cut, probably 99% spoiler free but nothing crazy.
It advertized itself as a "love letter" to DR/Umineko/Rumiko Takahashi/etc which evidently worked since that's what got us in. And it is clear how much they love and respect those works which is great (Especially since a different fangan recently had the original creator say how much they hate dr and anime and reading...but i digress not about that lol). But Kumitantei's greatest downfall is how MUCH it loves danganronpa.
Without spoiling, the overarching plot points that have been dropped, the world building, all of it is fucking FASCINATING. The spin they're doing on apathy as opposed to despair is really clever and we had a great time theorizing around it. The 80s/90s inspo isn't just for show and they're making it work amazingly so far.
But for every amazing and unique story bit...it copied dangaronpa somewhere else. Sometimes as close to a 1:1 rip off as they could legally get. Fuck, one of the first frames of the execution is an "homage" to Leon being dragged away. But where is the line between homage and plagarizing? Kumitantei seems freaking determined to find out. The entire first trial was basically a rehash of dr1 ch1 with some drv3 ch1 elements sprinkled in. The Sayaka/Leon dynamic is revealed very early on in the trial and I was so sure they were going to heel turn it...nope. Just doing that again. The motive was a rip from V3 and kind of half-assed at that, but at least that read as a little intentional. Soldier boy is as close a knock off of Mondo as they can get if you remove the interesting parts about Mondo, and it 1:1 copies Mondo attacking Monokuma. Where is the line between fun reference and just straight up copying? I know it was a fangan first, but by the 50 billionth danganronpa thing I was getting bored. A few fun references here and there is one thing, it's another when you're hoping to play something original and it's just....not very.
But I cannot overstate how much I LOOOOVE the original plot beats going on. The replacements for Monokuma Theater were fucking amazing. The little drops of lore, the smallest details to notice, oh my goddddd. Every unique aspect it brought to the table was amazing. I caught myself saying "wait that's xyz, that's a really fucking smart idea" so many times. It hooks you in with what it could be, but it ultimately loses you with what it WANTS to be, if that makes sense. The card battler is the best part if the trial, yet it's sandwiched by literal minigames ripped right from danganronpa. We fucked heavily with donkey kong tho.
The mascot is just Monokuma. It sounds like bro was trying to do a Monokuma impression with his voice acting too. Nyanusofu though, being a play on the secondary mascots in 2 and v3, brings something really fresh and interesting to the table!! The reactions he had during the trial were so cool! I'm giving that time because it's early and they'll hopefully expand his role further later, but most of it was just not-Monokuma yapping not-Monokuma lines about not-Monokuma things. Yawn.
The characters are overall good, but the misses miss hard. The protag fucking sucks. Most of the plot beats in ch1 rely on either her having no backbone or her being a fucking idiot, which is disappointing. The brother is supposed to be mean to her but honestly half of the time I was agreeing with him. By the end of the chapter I was basically yelling at her for half of her lines because girl do SOMETHING other than stammer and cry. That needs to change quick, and if it does I'm happy to take this back, but I cannot tolerate the ehehes and the inability to get words out for very much longer.
And the track lady.......oh boy. I can't tell if she's a self-insert or a writer fetish because it was giving both. At first it was just obnoxious quirk chungus vibes and then...the splash art........with her tiddies out in the leopard print bikini top under the shirt.........for why???? She also makes a weird sexual comment in the trial and it's just uncomfortable and gross. No one else gets this much sexualization or even makes comments about sex and stuff, it's literally JUST her, and it's super out of place. This is in addition to her just being downright insufferable. You know it's bad when they make a misogynist douchebag that you're supposed to hate and he ends up being more tolerable than her. Dial up the obnoxious from Asahina and Akane combined and add someone who would say "doggo" in the year of our lord 2026 and that's the track lady. "I'm gonna kick you!!!!" Please shoot me instead.
The accents came and went as they pleased. Didn't know lumberjack and Erika even had one at all until the last 3 hours of the game. The game also couldn't decide how Mormon they wanted Mormon Man to be, because at first he was only sometimes Mormon and then suddenly every other line was about Jesus and God.
The hits though...legendary line up. Zombie girl, the conspiracy boy, and Mr. Knight were fucking AMAZING. One of my gripes with fangans sometimes is that they try to take away the ridiculousness and the silliness that is inherent to danganronpa, but Kumitantei fucking delivered. British Chrom was exactly what they needed. Hippie Komaeda being a mix of Komaeda and Rantaro (ogs know we called rantaro hippie komaeda back in the day and I See You) with the VA maybe unintentionally doing a Rantaro impression was great. He was great overall. I love the little Bee Boy he's a cutie patootie. Erika is my potential man right now I NEEDDD her to be more relevant. Kaguya 125, the GOAT? Already a sticker in our discord. While my friends may not agree, I very much enjoyed Moichi, and we can all agree his actor did an INCREDIBLE job.
Actually quick about that - the production value is amazing. The actors all did amazing. Shigure did sound exactly like Hiruko from hundo but it took us until the trial to figure that out lmao. The music was great too. I saw some whiny bitch on twitter yapping about how the price will increase later but like. It's a fucking well-produced game?? Absolutely it should be charging market rate when more chapters arrive?? He pmo bad ngl not over that. Also the art, I did clock the Rumiko Takahashi vibes without knowing about it being intentional, so that was fun to see. Very much enjoyed the art style.
But overall: Kumitantei has the chance to really branch out and be a genre-defining game. It's well-made all around and has an incredibly compelling world it's beginning to build -- but it also has the chance to fall very, very flat if it keeps trying to be just a love letter and not something more independent. I get it, I love danganronpa, and I love every single thing it's referencing just as much if not more. Umineko imo is the greatest thing ever freaking made. But this needs to be more than danganronpa to succeed and so far I'm not convinced it will be. PLEASE prove me wrong.
(Also. Umineko inspo? A pigtail lady named Erika? And she does fuck all in ch1?????? Do not disappoint me. Smh.)
Welp just saw the anti fangan comments about drdt, k/c, and pjeg........very fucking bold of the writer to say half of that shit about drdt when they wrote Mondo Oowada But It's Obvious We Hate Him and whatever is going on with that track lady. I can't speak on k/c idk it like that. But woof the pjeg comments.........KumitanTeam if you're looking for a new writer I'd love to apply :)
Disappointed this is already imploding and losing community support. I suppose we'll see what happens.
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