Part 74: Episode 14 - Despair Side, Episode 7: The Biggest, Most Atrocious Incident in Hope's Peak High School's History

Well, things can only go downhill from here, but let's see what happens. We begin where we left off last episode, with Junko just having run into Ryota. She asks him what his talent is, and he tells her.



It is in this scene we get some absolutely immortal lines courtesy of Dub Junko. So here, her reaction to learning Ryota is the Ultimate Animator is "Really? They let you in for that? Wow, if I were a gigantic weeb, I'd probably be impressed by you."



The two then get into an argument over the merits of anime - not a sentence I thought I'd type - and Junko gives us another amazing line in "He's gonna burst a blood vessel 'cause I dissed his waifus!". However, when Ryota brings up that he has a "project", Junko suddenly is a lot more interested.



So Junko gets to see the work-in-progress version of whatever this "project" is...



...and boy, she seems impressed.



In fact, she declares any other anime to be worthless trash compared to what she's just seen and goes straight to work ridding the world of it.



However, Junko's not convinced this is just some regular anime and presses Ryota on what he did to get that kind of reaction. Turns out he basically used every trick in the book when it comes to mental manipulation, including some that are "technically" brainwashing.



We also get some choice shots when Ryota talks about guiding the viewer's eyes in certain directions to enrich their memories. Ryota talks about how he wants to use his anime to make the world a better place.



Then Junko got an idea. An awful idea. Junko had a wonderful, awful idea.



After the opening, we're back with the class, where Gundham is doing... some sort of performance art with a bear?



Hiyoko brought an orchid in memory of the now deceased Nagito. Well, at least she thinks he's probably dead. What is Nagito doing right now?



Well, he's been in a plane crash in the middle of the desert.



However, Nagito being Nagito, he finds an oasis right nearby. Also, we do get a full ass shot in what I guess is to be our shower scene for this anime. Hey, sure, why not.



Back with the class, Mikan isn't there. Turns out she left earlier with Ryota - or rather, "Ryota".



Teruteru makes his usual comments as to what they might be doing, using a banana and a donut for further illustration.



The bear then puts a stop to that.



What are they doing? Talking about the fact that Ryota seems to have disappeared for a week now, leaving only a note that he was leaving to focus more on work. However, because Mikan is involved, it looks significantly more inappropriate.



Mikan decides to check out Ryota's room for clues.



Instead, she spots Mukuro!



Thanks to the power of DR2's future sight, we do know that the most obvious outcome to being spotted by the Ultimate Soldier while she is up to some clearly shady shit - namely that Mikan disappears for ages until her corpse is found somewhere in an unrecognizable state - will not come to pass here, but whatever it is Mukuro has planned, it's probably not pleasant.



Just ask Juzo! He's pissed because twenty of his security guys just up and disappeared as if they never existed. I think I know a certain freckle-faced individual that might be responsible for that. Also, the trustees are pissing themselves and are demanding heightened security. Things are getting dangerous, and Chisa reiterates her readiness to die for Kyosuke if it came down to it. Juzo then makes some comments about that that sound like there's something about that that is really bugging him. Hrm.



Meanwhile, turns out Ryota was "kidnapped" by Junko, which in this case means he willingly moved to a new, better room with better equipment and a mini-fridge stocked with energy drinks.



And here comes Mukuro, having brought the rest of Ryota's stuff...



...and Mikan.



So, Mikan and Ryota have a kinda-sorta heartfelt reunion...



...and that gives Junko another one of her ideas.



That idea involves Mikan getting a screening of Ryota's project. She also seems very impressed.



And meanwhile, Junko is... uh... you OK there?





Apparently, as Mukuro explains, this is what it looks like when Junko uses her super analysis ability. Since she's already seen Ryota's project once before, she's now analyzing it. Her eyes just flit around independently in wild directions, making for excellent screenshots. With that done, she asks Mukuro for the time, and apparently she's got somewhere to be, so she bails. She also takes multiple swipes at Mukuro's odor, as is her wont.



Turns out her destination was Izuru's place. And what does she want to with him? Well, she wants to take him out on a date!



Junko's idea of a date seems to involve murder quite a bit.



They're out here at Hope's Peak because Junko wants to show Izuru the wonders of despair. What does that entail?



Well, it involves these people. Don't get too attached to them. They're the Hope's Peak student council, and they were apparently threatened by Junko through some sort of video to come to Hope's Peak in the dead of night. Mukuro comes into the room and announces that the student council will now murder each other. The student council has their expected objections to this course of events.





So Mukuro straight up shoots one of them.



And to really get the party going, Junko brings in some additional motivation - these tapes contain dirty secrets of every one of the student council, "weapons-grade blackmail material".



Junko also supplies everybody with a copious amount of weapons and then leaves them to themselves.



She also has Mukuro supply the soundtrack to what is about to happen by making her sing Tsubasa o Kudasai, a popular Japanese folk song.



Things very quickly get out of hand, as somebody (to note: I know zero of these characters' names and do not care to find out, because, well, spoilers, they're going to die) grabs a shotgun, and declares his intention to kill Junko and Mukuro. Somebody else tries to take the gun away from him, there's a bit of a fight, the guy with the gun stumbles backwards...



...and right into a blade.



Turns out one of them took a look at her motive tape and found out that Junko had apparently abducted her mother. And with that, we are off to the races!



Now, I could give a play-by-play of what happens, but really, there's not a lot of important stuff in this sequence. It's a mood sequence with Mukuro giving us some serene music to overlay the horrendous murdering going on, and it basically loses 100% of what makes it special in this format. I would recommend checking this episode out in video form somehow, it's a pretty intense segment. In fact, here's a Polsy link to the scene, courtesy of mycelia in the thread.

But we'll just go through things fairly quickly.



While the murdering is going on, Izuru is just kind of standing there, taking things in.



Junko talks about how great despair is while Mukuro really gets into her singing.



There's a segment that really struck me for some reason - two people who are presumably in love decide to go out on their own terms, committing suicide together.



However, before they can pull the trigger, somebody else impales both of them, causing them to die in horrible agony. I'm not going to lie, this entire sequence is downright hard to watch again. While I think UDG wins out overall on the "fucked up shit" scale, DR3 has three parts in particular that take the "Jesus Christ this is fucked" factor up to eleven. This is the first one.



And all the while, Izuru just watches.



And in the end, only one survives.



Izuru then shows up. He says that while the guy might be armed, he won't survive this.



The guy panics and attacks Izuru with a chainsaw...





...with predictable results, given that he's basically going up against God.



And then the guy lands on his chainsaw, which had continued running while laying on the floor. That's not going to help. Izuru turns to leave...



...but he then notices something.





Turns out the guy somehow got a shot off with his pistol despite what I assume to be him being decapitated...



...and it actually hit Izuru. There's a little moment here where without a single word being said, it's very clear this has just shattered Izuru's worldview - all this time, there hasn't been anything he couldn't predict, but now, that's all fallen apart.



Junko promises Izuru that despair is going to rock his world and promises that their second date will make this seem like nothing.



We then cut to Chisa getting a call from Koichi about what we just saw. Koichi asks that she makes sure the students don't catch wind of this.



Meanwhile, Jin and Kazuo have just learned that Hope's Peak will be attempting to sweep the massacre under the rug. Jin is pissed off, but Kazuo, while he doesn't agree with the course of action, recognizes that sweeping this under the rug is the only way Hope's Peak continues to exist.



Kazuo leaves and Koichi comes in.



Jin asks Koichi that if something were to happen to him, that Koichi would look after Kyoko. So it seems like we now have an explanation as to why Koichi always seems to be hovering around Kyoko in Future Side.



And finally, Junko is hard at work writing an e-mail.



She sends it off to the entirety of the Reserve Course.





We then get a bit in the style of the Climax Reasoning parts of the games with the Reserve Course students receiving Junko's e-mail revealing that Hope's Peak has been doing secret human experimentation, and the Reserve Course has been paying for it with their tuition.







Junko also reveals the killings of the student council, but fudges things a bit by declaring Izuru, the subject of the human experimentation, to be the killer. She says that Hope's Peak is trying to cover it all up because ultimately, they don't care at all about the Reserve Course.



And now, all that is left for Junko to do is to wait and "watch the butthurt blossom". Actual words.





The next day, the Reserve Course has formed a mob outside the Main Course, and all our class can do is watch, worried.



The imposter got a note from Mikan.



And with all this happening, Chiaki just wonders where Hajime went. She's, uh, got a bit of a fixation.



Shit is going to get real. And that's the episode. Next time, on the Future Side, things will continue to heat up as we find ourselves hurtling towards the conclusion.

What the fuck just happened?: Junko abducts Ryota in order to make use of his project, which turns out to be an anime that uses brainwashing techniques to get an emotional response out of the viewer. Mikan also ends up getting abducted. Junko then busts Izuru out of his containment cell to take him out on a date. That date turns out to be the original killing game - Junko forces the student council of Hope's Peak to brutally slaughter each other. The last survivor attacks Izuru in the end, and in absolute despair manages to somehow wound Izuru, which shatters his worldview of everything being predictable. Hope's Peak attempts to cover the slaughter up, but Junko reveals it to the entirety of the Reserve Course, which is now on the verge of rioting.