Danganronpa Ship Opinions

Munasaka (Kyosuke Munakata x Juzo Sakakura)

*deep breath*

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

This ship. This is the ship that keeps me up at night. This is the ship that repeatedly sends me into depression spirals and sobbing fits. This ship hurts. This ship stabbed me in the chest with a glowing katana.

(This is going to be a very long chapter, so bear with me, and prepare for some semi-incoherent ramblings.)

If you're not familiar with this ship, that's probably because it's made up of two characters exclusive to the DR3 anime, which is a bit of a disaster and one of the lesser known aspects of the franchise. However, what it lacks in well written dialogue and a strong overall cast, it makes up for in memes and our first 100% canon gay character, Juzo Sakakura.

That's right, ladies and gentleMonokumas. Danganronpa officially did a gay. And fuck do I love him.

I can't fully explain why I love him so much other than he's one of the most realistic characters in the entire franchise. He's a dick, sure, but he only acts so violent and rude because he's insecure and believes that his talent is the only thing he's good for, not to mention constantly feeling like a third wheel around his only two friends, Kyosuke Munakata and Chisa Yukizome. Yes, he beat the shit out of Hajime for basically no reason, but the only reason he was so hard on him was so that Hajime wouldn't look deeper into the murder of Sato and Natsumi. I really doubt he believed any of the stuff he said about talentless people being worthless; he was just trying to keep a kid away from a murder investigation, which is kind of his job. The scene where he gets blackmailed by Junko is straight-up heartbreaking and makes me want to commit felonies every time I watch it.

And yes, he technically caused the end of the world, but there's no way he could've known how bad things were going to get at the time. All he knew was that if he let one random high school girl get away with murder, she would let him stay in the closet. He had no way of knowing how far things would escalate, and while it is technically his fault, I don't think he can exactly be blamed for it either.

Then there's his hatred of Makoto, which is a bit harder to forgive since Makoto is one of my favorite characters in the series. Even that is understandable, though. From Juzo's point of view, Makoto is this annoying little shit who effortlessly took down the woman who humiliated him and forced him to lie to the man he loved. For someone as cynical as Juzo, Makoto's nonstop optimism must've been seriously grating as well. If I were in his position I'd be feeling pretty murderous towards the kid too.

And his redemption... fuck I'm crying.

He cuts off his FUCKING ARM to find the killer and save Kyosuke, then drags himself to the power grid and manages to shut it off, saving everyone in the building, before dying. Plus, he saves Makoto, if only because he wants to kill him himself. Like him or not, at the end of the day, he's a hero.

Juzo Sakakura isn't perfect, far from it. In fact, he's probably the most flawed character in the series. But that's what makes him so great. He's aggressive in public but a total softie around his friends; he loathes Makoto for defeating Junko but doesn't hold Chisa's love for Kyosuke against her, still wanting to be her friend instead of letting jealousy overtake him. Chisa, Juzo, and Kyosuke's relationship dynamic was probably the most interesting and well-executed part of the whole anime, and the surprise twist that Juzo actually liked Kyosuke and not Chisa was surprising but not so out of nowhere that it seemed like the writers just threw it in for the drama.

Kyosuke Munakata, on the other hand, is, in a word, a little bitch.

I honestly don't get why Chisa and Juzo like him so much. He's not that handsome or pretty, he has no personality until the Future Arc starts, at which point he turns into a semi-deranged monster, and he doesn't give two shits about Juzo or Chisa until they're already dead despite everything they do for him. Juzo cuts off his fucking arm for the guy, and Kyosuke can't be bothered to move fast enough to get to him before he bleeds out. Yes, it was blood loss that eventually killed Juzo, most of it due to him cutting off his fucking arm, but I'm sure he could've lived enough to at least get some closure had Kyosuke not STABBED HIM THROUGH THE CHEST SECONDS BEFORE HE WAS ABOUT TO CONFESS HIS LOVE TO HIM. Chisa is clearly in love with him and yet he barely acknowledges her, not even bothering to reject her, instead leading her along to the point where she runs into Junko's lair and is tortured to the point of becoming despair just to protect him and her students. Fuck you, Kyosuke. Juzo deserved to live more than you.

That's why I have so many feelings about this ship. I love Juzo with all my heart and desperately want him to be happy, but I just don't feel like it would be a very healthy relationship. I can't see it working out even in a non-despair AU just because of how little Kyosuke cares about his friends. This is why the Danganronpa 3 anime is the only part of the series that can consistently fuck with my brain. This ship... this ship is complicated and confusing and I don't even know what to think about it.

Munasaka gets a ???/10.