Danganronpa Gaiden: Killer Killer

in all honesty, the story here isn't that deep and the problems are resolved too quickly. though, i have to say that the main characters really make this manga for me. hijirihara is an absolute delight and made me laugh out loud more than he should have. his character is more comedic than threatening, mostly because he's ridiculously overpowered. he's one of my favorite characters just because of how hilarious his existence is. the other main and side characters are okay... not much notable, though. hijirihara is really the star of the show. the art in this manga was absolutely gorgeous, though. sasako mitomo's art contributesso much to the overall story. he has an incredibly distinct style that fits really well into the danganronpa universe; just look at his other danganronpa sketches (saihara, ouma, amami, otonashi and matsuda). the art is also considerably gorier than what we see in danganronpa games, and mostly dr3, but i think this manga needed something else good to separate it from the other danganronpa properties. this was an entertaining read if nothing else. honestly, it's danganronpa; you shouldn't be expecting the best writing ever.

[Spoiler ahead for Killer Killer and Danganronpa series in general] Oh, Killer Killer. How i want to like you so much for being another danganronpa with my hunger for the series. Killer Killer follows an episodics style of story (at least till the last arc) where we get introduced to bizzare murder before our MC solved it........well, "Solved". We would often gets introduced to mystery that gets solved instantly without any rhyme or reasons with the sole excuse being, "Takumi Hijirihara" aka Killer Killer knows who's the murderer just cause he likes murderer. 99% characters introduced served as nothing but quirky traits like they're power point presentationand in result, the pages would often built up basically filler of murder mysteries that you're not gonna get anyway with no evidence to who's the killer till Mr. Killer Killer points at the person at the last few pages. And now, let's talk about our MC. Killer Killer would often judges people by how passionate at murder they are, could erase any kind of a person's personal history, One-shots everything, and have no chance of falling into....despair? In a series where they would televised students killing each other to the world to make people fall into despair, Our main character who kills serial killer is apparently not even a despair. He's always on the right side with his opponents always be an even more fucked up killer with motives like killing so he could drink blood to make himself stayed young forever, and even got a lovely happy ending for himself. One might wonder if the series is a character study about him but, considering how there's no one who make a challenge to his ideals, i say that's likely not the case. Would i recommend it? Well.......if you like OP main character one-shotting everything i guess? And the art is decent too. I guess it shouldn't be too much of a hassle to read the series since there's only 14 chapters to it. Have a nice day.

What Danganronpa Gaiden: Killer Killer suffers most from is being a Danganronpa Gaiden. It's garnered a harsh reception in its time and if you ask me, that is largely because it is tied to the Danganronpa name and thus wasn't what people were expecting it to be. It's not Danganronpa enough for them. But set aside Danganronpa for a minute, and what do you have? You have a pretty standard mystery/detective series about an antisocial, eccentric detective who, in spite of his weirdness, is great at his job, and his easily excited amateur assistant who isn't as good as him but is just as excited to solvemysteries and is learning along with the audience. Also, because the leads are male and female, there's some fun romantic tension (although they don't have to be the opposite sex for that; look at the trope codifier). It's a very traditional setup for a detective story but it's traditional because it works. However, it works especially well here because at the end of chapter one, we learn more about our oddball detective and it takes a very dark turn. This dark turn is largely what the story focuses on and in works in tandem with the detective work. It makes for an engaging story as it is unexpected of this standard setup of the detective genre and gives you something to really be interested in. It's effective in getting you invested in these characters (which are easily the most interesting part; the relationship and parallels between our detective and another character introduced about halfway through are simply fascinating, although you also have to give credit to the relationship between our male and female leads. It's so fun to dig into the minds at motivations of these characters. It deserves that psychological tag.). The mysteries themselves aren't the most in-depth cases ever, which is definitely something that could be improved upon as a detective story, but they're fun for what they are. I am of the opinion that it's better for the detective to serve the mystery rather than the other way around, but hey, the other way around isn't so bad either if you know what you're doing and what the story you really aim to tell is. The detective aspect takes a back seat in the latter half of the story as it starts getting really intense and, in true Danganronpa fashion, the stakes shoot through the roof, but it feels very natural both as Danganronpa and in general. It always was a characters-first story, and that's fine, even if it isn't the best for a detective story. Because really, it's not a detective story, it's a story about a detective, and that's fine too, so long as you know how to balance it well and don't try to be what you're not (looking at you, BBC). That being said, I also think people are exaggerating about it being missed potential for the Danganronpa franchise. It's a gaiden series for a reason. It's supposed to be different from the main plot. Expecting it to be just more of the main plot is a fool's errand. While it could be doing more to utilize it's setting in the world of Danganronpa, it's still a pretty damn good expansion of the franchise's world and its building. In particular, it does a lot to explore what the rest of the world is like in the aftermath of the killing game, as it slowly heals. It's getting better, but it's not there yet. Society is once again functioning, but it's still a crapsack. It's an interesting part of the storyline that the main entries never had time to explore. It also weaves the Danganronpa worldbuilding in with the original characters and mysteries seamlessly. Characters from the main series show up, but only just as much as they need to. They don't feel intrusive, or take time away from the main characters. It is just enough to tell a Danganronpa side-story. It could have been a few chapters longer, because it resolves a few things just a bit too quickly and could have expanded some more on a few others, but that's a nitpick. I do wish they hadn't pushed the female lead aside for the men, but what else is new? It also has some BL undertones (or, overtones honestly) if you're into that but you're a Danganronpa fan, which should answer that question. Personally, I can appreciate it. Oh, also the way the main conflict is resolved is ah...uncharacteristically silly? Even for Danganronpa, which did knock off a few points, but is nowhere near enough to ruin how interesting the rest was. It isn't the world's best detective story nor is it a perfect expansion of Danganronpa, but when you set that aside and accept what you've been given, it's a fun and intriguing read for Danganronpa fans.

The biggest appeal of this manga is imagining what it would be like if it was good instead. All the good parts are also the parts that have nothing to do with Danganronpa. Like, I just can't express how unnecessary the pivot to Danganronpa was on the first volume of on-the-surface-a-very-interesting-story. I really like Takumi though, I just wish he was in something that was not shit. The art is great and he's going into my bishounen pile of fame. Every other character on the other hand is utterly unremarkable and forgettable, except the antagonist who only exists as a foil to Takumi anyway. At leasthis motivations are unique???