Completely normal Makoto sprite sheets.
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Completely normal Makoto sprite sheets.
It's that time of year to once again think about that one part in a DR interview that talked about how Makoto had coordinated with the rest of his class to throw a surprise birthday party for Junko and Mukuro, and that was the moment Junko decided to plan the killing game.
Through the series, Junko has shown more open and visceral disgust for her own birthday than anything else, but her classmates throwing a party for her and her sister was just so genuinely kind and thoughtful and nice that it made her break and made her realize how meaningful her bond with her class was, and so that was the moment that she started concocting the idea for the killing game that she later put the people she cared about so much through.
And it's partially Makoto's fault. For caring enough to plan a party for a birthday that probably normally gets overshadowed by Christmas. Think about how Mukuro became attached to him because he was the only person who would smile at her genuinely. Even though by the end of the game he was so angry about their betrayal and all the awful things they had done, he still had once cared about them so much. Imagine when he got his memories of his school life back and truly realized the full extent how much he cared about them. How do you reconcile the conflicting emotions between those two different sets of memories.
Comparison of Makoto's inner dialogue towards various objects between chapters 5 and 6, because he just get so angry and weird and neurotic in chapter 6. He just really goes off the walls after his botched execution
or maybe it's the untreated concussion from falling down a garbage pit...
This is the rawest line in the game, it goes so hard.
A part that I like from dr3 is that is that it exhibited Makoto's willingness to kill when absolutely necessary.
He premeditates a trap to kill Munakata. Not to just stop him or block his path. He watches and waits until he's drenched by the sprinklers and makes sure that the pool of water reaches his feet before throwing the live wires into it in order to electrocute him. A surprisingly brutal murder method that Makoto of all people has the distinction of being one of the only non-monokuma characters in the series I can think of who attempts it (considering most of the other murders in the series just come down to essentially a bonk or stab).
And when that fails, in desperation he tries to ambush him to bludgeon him with a fire extinguisher. Now, whether or not he is even physically capable of killing him even if he did land a hit... but he still gave it a good couple of tries.
Not to mention, it's not even something reserved for his enemies.
He expresses that he'd even have the willingness to kill a person who's precious to him if he had to.
He's not an extreme pacifist who would refuse to hurt anyone no matter what. He's just a guy that does what he must in order to survive; a sentiment I've felt aligns with his character even ever since dr1 and has developed even more since then.
How much did Yakou know?
Very long and detailed analysis of Yakou's involvement in the plot beneath the cut.
Yakou is an interesting character to me. He gets his own mildly insightful short story about his detective origins. However, I crave to think that there's gotta be more to him than just the kind of pathetic (affectionate) stressed out dad-like figure that mostly kind of nags and bosses Yuma around for the majority of the game.
Ok, it sounds like I'm ragging on him, but he does have an occasional side of him in dire situations where he shows a selfless loyalty and trust in his team that proves he takes his leadership position seriously, even if he does really rock the irresponsible mess look. And he gets to be cool in his own chapter for a minute.
But there is a moment that sticks out to me, especially in hindsight after finishing the game, and that's the prologue where you get your first and probably most substantial talk with him.
He says that he does not want Kanai Ward to change practically within the same breath where he explains how terribly he's treated as a detective in this horrendously corrupt murder infested police state.
Although he makes it clear that he has a deep personal affection and nostalgic attachment to this city that shows a bias for why he would say this, we hear from multiple people throughout the game that Kanai Ward has not been the same in recent years as it has been in the past that Yakou has rooted his love in.
So why does he feel as if any change to the current state of Kanai Ward would disrupt the "peace and quiet" it deserves?
Unless he knows something about the city that's just so fundamentally irreparable that this is the closest to peace and quiet that it'll ever get again, and trying to fix it would only somehow destroy it.
Kodaka saying things like Makoto Naegi is more confident, level-headed, optimistic, and a better communicator than Yuma
And seeing that he also apparently calls Shuichi the most fragile out of all the protagonists...
I want to power-scale all of the protagonists. Who's the strongest? I'm going to put them all into an arena.
The voice actors of the first trial's victim/culprit of the series coming back to voice the protagonist and mastermind who face off in the final trial of the series is such an English dub win in V3. I have to wonder if it's a coincidence or if it's a fun easter egg they decided to do.
(But Shuichi having the voice of one of my all time faves, Ai Haibara from Detective Conan, is a huge Japanese version win. Especially right after Conan himself was a previous protag.)