Part 64: Episode 4 - Despair Side, Episode 2: My Impurest Heart for You

So, to take our minds off how Aoi just got fucking murdered, let's have some simple school life in Despair Side. We begin with Chisa marking off another day in her calendar.



Koichi shows up to ask what that's about, and Chisa says it's all the days with full attendance and that her next step is picking a class rep.



She then gets a phone call from another teacher asking her to save her.



And Koichi is immediately nowhere to be found.



Chisa makes it to the classroom and is immediately met by Akane flying through the room.



Akane and Nekomaru seem to be having a slight bit of a punch-up. Slight in that we've only lost one wall so far.



The other teacher, meanwhile, seems to have just outright fainted.



We then get this exchange.

"That's enough! Listen up, Nidai, you can't destroy the classroom just because you feel like rough-housing!"
"What did you call it? I'll have you know we're training in real life combat conditions!"



"Oh, well, in that case, knock yourself out."

Well, I guess she tried.



Akane is having trouble dealing with Nekomaru, but Teruteru has something to help with that.



He's got something special from the Ultimate Pharmacist (read: Seiko).



Akane decides to straight chug the thing...



...and it has some pretty impressive results.



Hiyoko notices that the other of the two bottles that Teruteru had rolled out during the scuffle and landed near her.



Chiaki is just kinda ignoring everything and playing her game...



...but she gets a game over...



...so she gets up and leaves the room. I also got a good chuckle out of Nagito just sitting there entirely unflinchingly while several objects buzz right past his head.



Out there, she runs into the Imposter. She laments how crazy the class is. The Imposter brings up that simply by virtue of being an Ultimate, they're set for life the moment they graduate, so what's the point in making friends here? Everybody's just running out the clock.



Chiaki brings up that she can't make friends with anybody in the class, which immediately summons Chisa.



She admonishes Chiaki for saying that she could never make friends, and brings up that if she thinks she can't make any friends because she's a gamer, why not take those games she loves playing so much and play them with the others. Somehow, it seems like this thought never occurred to Chiaki. To note, I have my share of issues with the DR3 version of Chiaki, but we'll get into that at a later date.



We then get another scene with Kyosuke and Chisa having a chat over the phone. Chisa brings up that Hope's Peak seems changed somehow from when she was enrolled there. Kyosuke brings up the new funds coming from the Reserve Course, and Chisa says that whatever is being done with those funds, the board of trustees is being secretive about it, and she'll keep looking into it. Seems like Chisa is also doing a bit of spying on the side for Kyosuke.



Kyosuke says that if the overseas expansion works out, he should have enough clout to "do what has to be done", and Chisa says it's up to them to save Hope's Peak. I sense a subplot developing. Of course, we know what Hope's Peak is up to, and it's not going to be pretty. But oh well. That's the wonderful thing about Despair Side - we all know shit is going to go to hell super hard and are just counting down until this Armory of Damocles falls down on our head. Like the unspoken vibe that something really, really bad is probably going to happen to Chiaki, given her complete lack of presence as an actual person in DR2. Or that might just be because Chiaki ended up way more popular than anybody intended and when they made an anime about that class's school life, they had to figure out a way to get Chiaki in there regardless.



Anyway, Chisa runs into Mahiru in the halls, who tells her that the class is waiting for her. Chisa notices that Mahiru has a packed lunch, Mahiru says she's planning to eat it with a friend of hers, and Chisa then remembers that a Reserve Course student is a friend of Mahiru's from middle school. Hold this thought, we'll come back to it at the end.



We next cut to Hajime laying on a bench at that fountain he also was at when Chiaki ran into him.



He then gets the shit scared out of him by Chisa, who sneaks up on him.



Chisa admonishes him for wasting his time slumped on a bench when he should be out there making friendships, and then shifts to asking him about the Reserve Course. Hajime says that he's had his sights on Hope's Peak ever since he was a kid, but now that he's here, he's lost his resolve. He then wonders why Chisa would take interest in a scrub like him.



Chisa then gets angry at him for his lack of self-confidence and demands he never call himself that again. Hajime meekly agrees, and Chisa heads out to go back to his class.



Then, somebody else familiar shows up to have a talk with Hajime!



Kazuo asks Hajime if he has an answer regarding "the project" (read: the whole Izuru Kamukura business) yet, and Hajime says he doesn't. Kazuo says that he's not too convinced this project is the best idea.



He believes hope comes from people acting like people (read: not from literally engineering one), and tells Hajime that he's free to decline. Hajime however is worried about the fees - his family can't afford the Reserve Course fees, and now that he's here, he can't return to his old life. Kazuo rebuts that he could absolutely do that, and that there's no shame in normalcy.

So now Hajime has had two people, an Ultimate and a Hope's Peak bigwig, tell him that he doesn't have to pursue talent at all costs and being normal is OK.



Meanwhile, Chisa made her way back to the class...



...which has broken out into an impromptu fighting game tournament in a very Smash Bros-like game. Turns out Chiaki took Chisa's suggestion about gaming being a good way to make friends to heart.



We also get a competition in a sort of career simulator board game thing, which I recall being a thing in Japan that never really made it to the West, which is kind of a shame, it seemed fun. Kazuichi takes a snipe at Nagito, who hasn't been doing too well, but...





...that then quickly changes.



Next, we get Chiaki, Chisa, Ibuki and Hiyoko competing in a kart racer. Ibuki's in first, then proceeds to get passed by Chiaki, then by Chisa, and finally Hiyoko comes from behind with a star and drops Ibuki into the water.



Then, after Ibuki gets pulled out of the water, Hiyoko reverses just to slam into Ibuki again. Because Hiyoko is a massive prick.



Finally, we get a Bomberman-like game with Mikan getting increasingly agitated and fidgety while running around dropping bombs absolutely everywhere and shouting about how sorry she is. You know, normal Mikan.





Next, Teruteru brings in some food, which we then learn was also Chiaki's idea.



We get a loud rumbling. Gundham wonders if the demon king has finally made his way into this realm...



...but it's just Akane's stomach. So, it's time to eat.



Chiaki looks like she's found enlightenment...



...then promptly declares that she's had better, much to Teruteru's chagrin.



Nagito, meanwhile, declares it a fragment of hope and is in tears over how great it is. Mixed reviews, it seems.



Teruteru takes a look through his suitcase and notices that one of the soups he had has gone missing. Hiyoko shows that she had it and used it, which very much bewilders Teruteru.



Akane, who at this point has had like four plates of the stuff, collapses. When Nekomaru picks her up to check on her...



Things get, uh, risqué. To the point where the two close in on each other for a kiss and literally each say "swoon", which is pretty amazing.



Mahiru decides to get a bit artsy with it.



Turns out Hiyoko poured that soup into the food, and as you might have imagined from it being pink and being in Teruteru's arsenal, it's aphrodisiac. Also, Teruteru seems to have an erection so hard it hurts. I suppose that only makes sense if you mix an aphrodisiac with someone who's already horned up 24/7.





Kazuichi decides to take the opportunity to offer his help to Sonia, and meanwhile, Fuyuhiko is having none of it.



Peko wants to help Fuyuhiko, but Mikan then gets really excited about her sword. She only wants the tip, though.



Nagito, meanwhile, is just sitting there muttering to himself about how awesome hope feels. So yeah, Nagito seems to literally have a hope boner, as opposed to his natural state, a figurative hope boner.



Hiyoko thinks this is all funny as shit. You know who doesn't think this is funny?



Teruteru, who seems to have hit some sort of next level of horniness and plans to let Hiyoko deal with it.



But then Chiaki just straight up gives him a Dragon Punch.



She says that if he wants to touch her classmate, he'll have to get through her first, to which Teruteru retorts that he's her classmate too. Chiaki can only respond with an "Oh, yeah..." before collapsing.



Our next scene has Chiaki laying in a hospital bed with everybody talking about how awesome she was.



She recounts the story of how she's used that punch before, fighting a biker gang boss named Willy.



Of course, the resolution here is that she's talking about a beat-'em-up game.



Next, we find ourselves back in the classroom. Kazuichi asks how Chisa can be so perky after what happened, and Chisa replies that that wasn't her first rodeo. Sonia then says that that must be why she's also not that tired.



Chisa then announces that the class needs an official class rep, and she suggests Chiaki take over the role. Chiaki doesn't want to, but the entire class says that she'd be great at it, so she accepts.



Then Nagito has to be Nagito again, talking about how great the bond between all these Ultimates is, and that at long as Chiaki represents them, the light of this homeroom will remain triumphant forever. At least he recognizes he overdid it afterwards. Also, not ominous at all.



After school, Chiaki runs into Hajime again - albeit not literally this time. She tells him a new fighting game came out in the arcades and wants Hajime to come along. Hajime doesn't want to, since he's not good at those games, but Chiaki says it doesn't matter as long as you're playing with friends. End of the episode.



But not quite! Our post-credits stinger shows Hajime in class - it seems a new transfer student is getting introduced!



Meet Natsumi Kuzuryuu. She introduces herself by insulting the rest of her class, so we're clearly dealing with a very pleasant individual here. Well, here's the thing.



She's a dead girl walking. The "beginning of the twilight" here is referring "back" (back in release order, forwards in timeline) to Twilight Syndrome, the mystery game Monokuma had the characters in DR2 play. This mystery game was actually based on real life events to act as a murder motive, and the basic gist is as follows:

Natsumi here is Fuyuhiko's sister and one of the characters involved. Another one we don't know from here is "Sato" - she's the aforementioned friend that Mahiru has. To make a fairly complicated story short: Natsumi bullies and threatens Mahiru. Sato has enough of Natsumi attacking her friend and murders Natsumi. Fuyuhiko finds out Sato killed Natsumi and kills Sato.

If you want the longer version, you can check out this update and this update from FPZero's DR2 LP. You can also check out the Class Trial from that chapter for more details, but the general idea should be fairly clear from the Twilight Syndrome parts alone - you don't need to know how exactly the murder was committed (and you can thank God for that - fucking gravel swimsuit bullshit). For reference:

Girl A is Mikan.
Girl B is Hiyoko.
Girl C is Ibuki.
Girl D is Mahiru.
Girl E is Sato.
Guy F is Fuyuhiko.
The "other girl", I guess, is Natsumi.

Anyway, that's it for this episode. Next time, it's back to Future Foundation and their shenanigans again.

What the fuck just happened?: Akane and Nekomaru have a fight in the classroom, which bums Chiaki out because the entire class is so crazy, there's no real way to make friends for her. Chisa tells her to use her video games to make friends. Chisa and Kyosuke seem to have some sort of ulterior motive at Hope's Peak. Chisa and Kazuo talk to Makoto in an attempt to boost his confidence regarding his lack of talent. Chiaki ends up making friends with the rest of the class with her video games and gets elected to be class rep. Natsumi, Fuyuhiko's sister, is introduced in the Reserve Course.