Danganronpa Case Files: Trigger Happy Havoc Chapter 1

In this installment of the Danganronpa Case Files, we will look at the first case of the first game, which sets the tone for the game and the franchise as a whole. Once again, there will be spoilers.

Introduction

Since this is not only the first chapter in the game, but also the first chapter in the series, Chapter 1 of the first game has to establish the premise for the series. Sixteen students are trapped in an area and told the only way to get out is to kill a classmate and get away with it. This is bad enough by itself, since some students are selfish and/or desperate enough to be willing to do such a thing, but the rumors of a traitor among the group only further amplify students' distrust and paranoia. Unlike other games, the class trial system is not immediately introduced, which I will mention again later.

The early hours of the game prominently feature Sayaka, and strongly imply that she will become Makoto's love interest. She's the student Makoto spends the most time with while she's alive, the two had gone to the same school, and they hit it off fairly well. In fact, the game requires Makoto to spend his first Free Time period with Sayaka.

Of course, Sayaka's life does not solely revolve around Makoto. Her dream has long been to perform as an idol singer, having become enamored with idols during a lonely childhood with a dead mother and an absent father. She ultimately achieved that dream, but knows painfully well that it could be snatched away from her, since the world of idols is ruthlessly competitive, and few idols' careers last very long. Another reason is that Sayaka values her fellow idol group members, seeing them as both friends and rivals.

As such, Monokuma's first "motive"- an extra incentive for students to murder, whether serving as a carrot or a stick- strikes close to home for Sayaka. He gives each student a DVD that implies that something horrible has happened to those closest to them- in Sayaka's case, her bandmates Deeply affected by what she saw, as well as by a supposed incident in which another student tried to get into her room at night, she asks to switch rooms with Makoto. He agrees, tells her not to let anyone in, then retires to her room.

When morning comes, Makoto notices that Sayaka didn't make it to breakfast, and after returning to his room, he understands why. He finds Sayaka dead with a knife thrust into her abdomen, and quickly becomes the prime suspect for her murder.

The Trial

As the very first class trial in the franchise, the trial introduces the students to the concept and serves as a tutorial for players..

• In the Nonstop Debates, you use evidence to contradict "weak points." For example, when Chihiro says Sayaka couldn't fight back, you fire a Truth Bullet, or piece of evidence, revealing signs of a struggle in the room. It's a bit like the cross-examinations of Ace Attorney, but there's no option to press statements, and there are generally fewer statements to choose from.
• Multiple-choice questions or questions in which you must choose a Truth Bullet that answers the evidence.
• Hangman's Gambit. Select the letters that form the word you need. There are three versions of this game, all of which involve varying amounts of guesswork and intuition.
• Closing Argument. Choose the manga panels that show how the crime was carried out, with the culprit being represented by a gray silhouette and referred to with "they" until the end.
• Machine Talk Battle. Hit the buttons in rhythm with the beat and choose the correct piece of evidence to finish off the culprit. Unlike most subsequent cases, this often takes place after the Closing Argument, except for Chapter 3 and 4 (in the former, it takes place early on in the case)

Most of the questions are fairly easy, and not just because it's a tutorial. Part of the reason is that Danganronpa's trials are faster-paced than those of Ace Attorney, with each minigame having a time limit, and the students' statements in Nonstop Debates disappearing after a while. By comparison, you can take as long as you want to get through each cross-examination in Ace Attorney, and will often have to think carefully about your answers.

Despite the easiness of most evidence prompts, the deck is stacked against Makoto. Since the murder took place in his room, almost everyone immediately assumes that he's guilty, disregarding the various oddities in the evidence. Makoto's room was completely cleaned of any hairs (an odd touch, considering that hair never becomes relevant evidence in later cases), even though it wouldn't be strange to find Makoto's hairs in his own room. Furthermore, it is shown that Sayaka never used the replica katana that she had Makoto bring to his own room, since none of the gold leaf got onto her hands. Instead, however, it was used to block an attack from the knife that was found in Sayaka's abdomen. Even stranger, how did someone get into the room where Sayaka was staying despite Makoto's insistence that she not let anyone in?

The answer is that Sayaka wasn't merely a helpless victim, but she was plotting a murder herself. Her plan was to lure her victim into Makoto's room, stab them to death, then make it look as though Makoto had done the deed. It's a bitter pill for Makoto to swallow, since despite bringing some of the evidence to everyone's attention, he fiercely denies the idea that Sayaka had betrayed him and tried to kill someone. Unfortunately, the trial isn't over yet, and while Makoto has mostly succeeded in clearing his name, he knows that he'll die with the other spotless if he doesn't find the culprit.

Finding The Culprit

So what clue shows the identity of the culprit? There are several that prove the person's identity, but the one the group starts with is the bloody writing on the wall behind Sayaka. It looks like the number 11037, but turns out to actually be "LEON" upside down.. To some, the fact that none of the students noticed this is the most ridiculous part of the trial, at least to an English-speaking audience, but there are some factors that make it more understandable to a Japanese audience.

• In the Japanese version, most of the students call each other by their surnames, as expected for everyone besides family or close friends in Japan. The only exceptions are Aoi towards her best friend Sakura and Toko toward her crush Byakuya, but neither case is reciprocated. Leon even has to ask who Sakura is when Aoi refers to Sakura by her first name.
• While Japanese students tend to study English in school, Kyoko, who finds the clue, is the only one who is at all proficient in it.
• The way Leon's name was written upside down, and without a diagonal slash on the N, makes it easy to confuse for numbers. Of course, what's equally strange is that Leon, despite being Japanese, is the only student with a name that could be mistaken for those numbers. Perhaps that's why he's the only character with a Western name in this game, just like Sonia in the second game and Angie in the third game.

Of course, even if you take these factors into account, it's still a blatantly obvious clue as to the culprit's identity. Granted, the class still needs to prove how Leon carried out the murder, from utilizing his throwing skill to try to dispose of his bloody shirt to using his own toolkit to break into the bathroom- but this piece of evidence singlehandedly gets the group back on track when they run into a dead end. So why did the game's writers have Sayaka leave behind such a clue?

The answer is simple. When Leon stabbed Sayaka, Sayaka knew that she would likely be dead in seconds. Her plan had failed, and she could no longer hope to survive, much less escape, so what was left for her to do? Some would say that she wrote Leon's name to ensure that he wouldn't get away with his crime, while others believe that she wrote it to prevent Makoto from being falsely convicted. The game doesn't conclusively prove or disprove either interpretation, although a spinoff  manga goes with the former interpretation.

Having Sayaka turn out to be a would-be murderer helps set the tone for the rest of the series, particularly how very few of the characters are completely good or bad. On the one hand, Sayaka did betray Makoto, a truth that Kyoko forces Makoto to realize by himself.  Her actions were a severe breach of his trust that he finds difficult to forgive, to say nothing of trying to kill Leon. On the other hand, not only did Sayaka try to help exonerate Makoto during her last moments, but Kyoko argues that Sayaka failed because her conscience got the best of her. Her death was the result of her own actions, but it's difficult to argue that Sayaka deserved what happened to her, from ending up in the school to becoming the first casualty of the killing game.

It should also be noted that when Sayaka made her murder attempt, she had no way of knowing that her graduation would result in everyone else dying, not just the person she killed, so it's possible that she wouldn't have been nearly as willing to graduate if she knew what was at stake. She comes across as a cheerful and affable person in the first game's school mode and the third game's Talent Development Plan, two modes that lack the threat of death and other pressures, perhaps giving the impression that her behavior around Makoto was not merely a facade.

When it comes to Sayaka, there are no clear answers, which is for the best. Danganronpa involves the quest to solve murder mysteries, find the identity of the villain responsible for the killing game and discover what's going on, but some questions remain unanswered, particularly the secrets the dead take to their graves.

But what about Sayaka's killer? After being accused of the murder, Leon has a breakdown, repeatedly yelling "STUPID!" and forcing Makoto to disprove his final desperate argument in support of his innocence. Per Monokuma's rules, the rest of the class votes Leon guilty of the murder, causing him to spend his final minutes before his execution ranting and justifying his actions, before dying a brutal death by being struck by dozens of baseballs. Few students seem willing to accept his excuses, but Makoto feels pity for him, recognizing that Monokuma is to blame for the tragedy. As for Sayaka, while Makoto feels betrayed, he's willing to consider Kyoko's theory that Sayaka's last act was to protect him. The chapter ends with him repeating her previous joke about being "psychic," implying that he still remembers her fondly.

Shortcomings

The trial is far from perfect, since apart from the aforementioned obvious clue identifying the killer, there are some noticeable flaws.

One problem is that the vast majority of the students contribute little to solving the mystery. Perhaps only a few of the students besides the culprit- Hina, Sakura, Hifumi, Kyoko and Makoto himself- have useful information, but Makoto and Kyoko shouldn't be the only ones actively working to find the culprit. This is a recurring trend in Danganronpa trials, in which a handful of "point getters" do most of the work, but it's most glaring here.

It's rather easy to predict what pieces of evidence will become relevant in the trial, at least in hindsight. The fact that an entire scene is devoted to Makoto getting the sword for his room, as well as getting gold leaf on his hands, draws attention to the fact that it is important. The lint roller found in Makoto's room sticks out rather clearly, especially since it is first seen in plain sight, and it seems rather odd to include something like that in an average teenager's dorm room.

While the victim is an interesting character, the same can't be said for the culprit. Leon is one of the least interesting characters in the series, as a result of lacking screentime or development. As Leon points out, Sayaka could have chosen to go after anyone else (sans Makoto, whom she needed as a patsy), and any of those who convicted him might have found themselves in his position. The most interesting part about him is the question of how much he was motivated by self-defense, but Celeste seems to believe his breaking into the bathroom invalidates his argument. Leon is also mostly forgotten about after the end of the trial, apart from some students feeling guilt over executing someone to survive.

The lack of exploration into Leon's character may be why the Danganronpa spinoff game Ultra Despair Girls included a novel that was partly from the point of view of Kanon Nakajima, who, as Leon's cousin, was used as the subject of his motive video. Kanon's scenes helped give some insight into Leon's backstory, and while Kanon has her own issues as a character(her obsessive and unrequited love for her cousin), this was overall a step in the right direction.

One final point I'd like to bring up is more of an oddity than a flaw. The first execution- Leon being bound to a post and shot repeatedly with baseballs out of a pitching machine- is unusually brutal compared to many of the more cartoonish later executions. This may be because it was taken from a beta version of the game that was even darker and grittier than the finished product, which featured more realistic character designs and an even bleaker predicament for the students. The execution does a good job of establishing what's at stake, but also feels a bit out of place compared to the others.

Conclusion

Overall, while the first game's first case has some flaws, and is so-so compared to the other trials, it effectively sets the tone for the rest of the series. Subsequent trials introduce more complex murders and more cunning killers, but this chapter most effectively introduces the game's concept and shows that the killing game can drive otherwise decent people to do terrible things. Danganronpa is far from perfect, but it has a solid concept at its core, one that is effectively established in the inaugural class trial.