Part 72: Episode 12 - Despair Side, Episode 6: A Despairfully Fateful Encounter

We begin our next episode with Hajime undergoing the Kamukura procedure with some voiceovers of Hajime talking about how shit talentless people are and some guy from the trustees wondering if Hajime was the right guy, with a scientist responding that his old personality got wiped out, so it's not an issue anymore.



And Izuru then comes out, already looking like the Izuru we know. This therefore means that being infused with talent literally makes your hair grow to massive lengths. I never would have guessed.



After the opening, we cut to Chiaki hanging out at the Reserve Course, moping because Hajime isn't showing up at all.



We get a flashback of Chiaki talking to Chisa about Hajime, with Chisa giving a fairly dodging answer that Hajime is doing fine and not saying anything specific.





Chiaki then repeats this waiting at the Reserve Course for fucking months, eventually giving up.



We then cut to our main class packing together their stuff. Peko picks up something for Fuyuhiko and the two don't have their usual distance between each other for a bit, even bickering like a married couple for a bit over who carries what.



Ibuki notices this.



Like, really notices it.



Like, REALLY notices it.



And when Ibuki notices something, she's going to let you know it, by God, so she makes it clear to everyone she thinks those two acting chummy all of a sudden is extremely weird. People start talking about how Fuyuhiko and Peko might be falling for each other, with the two of course being dismissive of it.



And of course, Teruteru has to be Teruteru about it, leading to him finding himself flying through the air courtesy of Ibuki.



Hiyoko then asks if a rabbit in a cage is trash she can throw away, which Gundham doesn't think too well of.



The rabbit then shits in Hiyoko's face. Chisa's absence from the class is brought up, and it's mentioned she's over in the faculty moving her stuff.



However, we instead find her getting a trustee's ID card from Juzo for her investigation. Juzo also brings up that security is on edge because one of the trustees has gone MIA.



Chisa then has a moment swooning over Kyosuke, saying that she'd die for him. Juzo replies to that by saying that he'd die for her as well, and Chisa heads off.



Juzo has a bit of a moment then, realizing once again that in their power trio, he's just the third wheel.



We then have a scene with the class and Chisa in a new Hope's Peak building they just moved into. Nagito's absence is brought up, and Chisa says that he'll be joining the class again soon. The class's reaction to this is apathy at best and Chisa chides them for that.



Our next scene is Chisa sneaking through the building at night. It seems like there's only a skeleton security crew around, despite the whole thing with the missing trustee. Mysterious.





She lets herself into a keycard locked room and starts searching.



The office she's in belongs to this guy, who is also the trustee who vanished. And where is he now?



He, uh, is a bit indisposed right now. Also, the familiar execution music is kicking in, which really, REALLY doesn't bode well for him.



Somebody else seems to be preparing some sort of food.



Iiiiiiit's Junko!



She talks about how using familiar things in torture makes them so much more despairful, and how much worse the trauma is when you use one of the many everyday objects that seem harmless but could indeed be used as a weapon.





And we are then left with the implication that this poor bastard is going to get his eye scooped out with a spoon. Fucking hell, Junko.



Meanwhile, Chisa finds herself stymied by a password.



However, turns out the trustee wasn't so great with password security.



This lets Chisa into the system, and she finds some documents on the Kamukura project. We then get a description of the project, which we ultimately already know. She also learns that the project has been put into action and they're now testing as to how successful the creation was. Chisa is not too happy about learning Hope's Peak is into human experimentation on the side.



Meanwhile, Mukuro is busy slaughtering her way through Hope's Peak guards at some other location, and Junko is busy shittalking Mukuro for doing so and shunting all the cleanup work on her.



The two end up at a retinal scanner that Mukuro can't get through with the card she has.



But Junko was prepared, having been "allowed" to "borrow" something from a trustee.



So, what are the two looking for?



It's Izuru!



And Junko could not be more excited, practically fangirling out over him.



We then cut to Kyosuke chatting with Chisa on the phone about the Kamukura project, which has Kyosuke using the line "they're trying to Frankenstein a Deus Ex Machina", which sounds absolutely amazing. Chisa says that the information has not yet leaked, and Kyosuke brings up that a leak wouldn't even be the worst case - the worst case would be somebody turning Izuru hostile, which could cause hope itself to fall apart. Well, I think I know somebody that's planning on just that. Kyosuke tells Chisa to essentially go full paranoia - trust nobody except Juzo, and don't even consider saying the name "Kamukura".



And back with Junko, we are given one of the utterly immortal lines of this dub, with Junko shouting out her joy with a mighty "Kamukura, Kamukura, yas queen!". The valley girl voice just makes it all the better. It's truly magical.



Izuru is... not impressed.



Junko fangirls a bit more, but seems to have an ulterior motive...



...namely, killing him to send the world into despair.



It doesn't go well.



Mukuro also finds herself casually brushed aside when she attempts to attack. Izuru talks about how this is boring and nothing they do has any meaning. Looks like Hope's Peak accidentally put in the nihilist gene when they should've put in the hope gene. Junko talks about how despair isn't supposed to be monopolized, but shared, and Izuru says that logically speaking, there is no emotion less essential than despair. Junko then dares him to explain logically how she found herself in this position - namely, with Izuru's foot on her back. Izuru knows of Junko's super analysis abilities and can't understand why she'd be here trying this, knowing full well that there was no chance of her succeeding.



This is Junko's opportunity to bring in her idea of despair as the great unknown that throws cold logical analysis in the trash. She gives her whole spiel about how hope is basically just status quo and boringness, whereas despair throws everything into unpredictable chaos, yadda yadda, we've already heard this from her in earlier games. She makes a deal out of how the side of hope is essentially just going to supply Izuru with nothing but even more boredom.



The alarm goes off, meaning that security knows somebody's breaking in, and Junko gives one more wild-eyed pitch to Izuru for despair...



...to which Izuru responds by shoving his foot in her face. However, we know how this story ends.



In the next scene, we have... drawing stuff.



We're suddenly back with Ryota and the imposter. Ryota talks about how he's hit "the experimental phase" with his project, though he won't go into detail what that means. Meanwhile, the imposter insists that Ryota continue to go to a hospital until the doctor gives him a clean bill of health.



Next, Junko wakes up at the school infimary.



She is greeted by a disappointed "oh darn, you're not in a coma" from Mukuro. Mukuro ended up covering for Junko, saying that she fell down the stairs, which wasn't a hard sell given the heels Junko wears.



When Junko asks what happened with Izuru, we get a flashback. Izuru tells Mukuro to tell Junko that he'll be waiting for her here. It also seems like Izuru didn't tell anyone who broke in, since nobody seems to know that Junko and Mukuro were there.



Junko then immediately gets up and starts heading out over Mukuro's protests.



And on the way out, she passes by Ryota, but then suddenly stops...



...grabs him, and asks him for his name.



Upon being introduced, she joyfully embraces him and says that in her head, she keeps hearing the words "despairfully fateful encounter", and that closes out the episode.

So, the intrigue continues to develop as Junko starts putting the pieces to her plan together. What part will Ryota play in her system? Only time will tell! But first, we'll have to head back to the Future Side. Next time: The best episode. The BEST episode.

What the fuck just happened?: Hajime undergoes the Kamukura procedure and becomes Izuru. Chisa gets a trustee ID card and finds out about the Kamukura project, giving this information to Kyosuke as well. Meanwhile, Junko also finds out about Izuru and breaks into the Hope's Peak facility where he's being held with Mukuro, planning to kill him. Killing him goes south, but Junko sees an opportunity to convert Izuru to the side of despair. She doesn't outright succeed, but doesn't really fail either, with Izuru saying he'll be waiting for her. En route back to Izuru, Junko runs into Ryota and ominously declares their meeting a despairfully fateful encounter.