This week I made two mistakes:

First, I made the mistake of starting to read the Let's Play of a little game called Dangan Ronpa a few days back, a Japan-only mystery/action game for the PSP.

Second, I made the mistake of getting to about the last third of the game - in other words, precisely when things get real - just before the weekend started.

I legit just spent the better part of five-six hours just reading this game. If my Japanese were a little better, I'd start looking for some way to play the sequel right this instant.

How to explain Dangan Ronpa? Maybe, "it's Ace Attorney meets Battle Royale meets 999." But that's kind of underselling it. Fifteen students are invited to the prestigious Hope's Peak Academy, a school that accepts only students who are "Super High-School Level" something. It could be Super High-School Level Author, Super High-School Level Business Heir, Super High-School Level Gang Leader... the list goes on.

Anyways, the real star of the show is this guy:

Monobear. Oh, Monobear. If you weren't a psychotic, homicidal robot who rules over the students with an iron fist, I'd make a set based off you, but that's kind of a bad image for a staffie to carry around, I think. This guy makes for a wonderful villain - "love to hate" is the best way to put it, I suppose. As a bonus, he's voiced by Nobuyo Ōyama, who did the voice of Doraemon in Japan for about 25 years. Imagine Bugs Bunny going on about corpses and you'll have a good cultural approximation.

As you probably guessed from my description of Monobear up there, Hope's Peak isn't a very happy school. In fact, on their first day, the fifteen get knocked out, and when they wake up they find themselves sealed inside. Our beary friend arrives and informs the students that they have two choices. One, they can live out the rest of their lives here in the academy, and they'll never want for food or water or anything that.

Or they can kill a fellow student and 'graduate'.

If someone kills someone else and avoids being caught in the act, they can 'graduate' and leave. The decisive part of this process is the "School Trial", where everyone gathers and discusses the case before voting on a culprit. If the culprit is found out, Monobear executes him or her. Otherwise, the culprit is allowed to leave, but everyone else takes his or her place in the execution. It's up to the player (as Super High-School Level Good Luck, Makoto Naegi) to solve the crimes and expose the mastermind behind the game.

So... not a very happy game, no. But it makes for a heck of an engrossing read. If you have the time, I highly recommend giving it a look. The translator's working his way through the second game now, too.