Danganronpa is a Japanese visual novel franchise created by Kazutaka Kodaka and published by Spike Chunsoft since 2010.
Talent: Detective
Status: Alive
Notable Roles in DRV3:
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Theorizes plan with Mastermind and the Library door to catch the mastermind
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Forms bonds with Kaito Momota and Maki Harukawa
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Chooses to end Danganronpa
Discuss anything pertaining the Ultimate Detective, Shuichi Saihara
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Generally, I enjoy characters who make me think and doubt myself and my ideologies. It's a challenge to take up and it's plain and simple fun. And among those, I find simple characters like Shuichi to be a healing presence. Danganronpa has a habit of escalation and absurdism that more talkative, confident and colourful cast members generally end up taking the center stage, leaving normal and simple ones to the side. It reminds me of the quiet, hardworking students who weren't the ones to excitedly raise their hands when the teacher asks a question, hence getting sidelined and forgotten.
Shuichi's core arc might be that of 'being more confident', but I feel that's an understatement. He tackles a better theme which is more synonymous with finding a balance and constantly seeking your own answer than sticking to a pre-determined one. Think towards who are the more trusting, emotional characters of the game? Gonta, Kaito, Tenko. Contrarily, who would be the intelligent, cunning types? Kokichi, Kirumi, Korekiyo. Roughly speaking, the characters of the trust group seemingly lack deductive and rational intelligence and the characters of the intelligence group lack cohesive empathy and an emotional drive. I know there is some generalising going on but the point is that there are few characters who seem to show a balance between both qualities without making it seem like an actual struggle, which it is. Chapter 4 is demonstrative of how torn he feels, with Kaito asking him to believe, the same way he instilled a drive in him, and Kokichi speaking logically, something he needs to do as a part of his job. Balance of two extremes is pretty hard to reach in any activity and I believe Shuichi demonstrating that as a realistic struggle was very well done.
He isn't exempt of having problems with how he's written, of course. As a detective character, one of the changes I'd make to him would be an increase in the amount of internal thoughts on remarking about his observations (coupled with the emotially unnerving doubts). I don't blame the people who seem to think he's similar to every other protagonist on a surface level because. him being a detective, would be a great way to constantly observe and infer deductions from the events around him, which we rarely see. Granted, his emotional conflict overrules the rational side but his intelligence could be demonstrated more actively in daily life segments rather than it being conveniently low or even absent at times. Other point would be the lack of reaction to certain events around him, which is a problem with the cast in general but Shuichi being slighly selective about his empathy towards some members of the cast was a bit of a peeve to me.
That aside, for the most part, Shuichi wasn't even relatable to me. While it bothered me in the beginning because I didn't want to go for those training sessions with Kaito or Maki back then, I slowly came to appreciate how independent he was being from the player. At one point I realised just how much fun I had started having seeing him grow from hating his profession to learning to balance his conflicting ideologies and owning up to his duties. His design even ties in well with being pretty basic because he rejects the image of a detective and doesn't even enter his lab more than once or twice.
Conclusively, I would say Shuichi's paradoxical yet compelling arc speaks for itself simply because of how real and alive he feels by the end of the game; someone whose growth I was pretty proud of witnessing. His arc had the same satisfaction to me the way it is to water a plant everyday and see it grow. In the end, the plant grows the way you expect it to but it's still beautiful to witness.
P.S: I wrote a lot more about him here, if you're interested in checking it out. Thank you for reading.
I suggest that people read sparkofgingersticks's beautiful essay at the end of his post. I think it might be my favorite take on a character from the series.
Takes the words right out of my mouth.
You flatter me honestly, thank you so much!
Unfortunately, I've been too busy to take part in these character discussions, but I wanted to at least pop in for Saihara since 1) as the protagonist a dissertation on him will inevitably touch on the overall themes & mechanics of V3 and 2) he's a V3 character I like overall so this will be a more balanced view than if I posted a screed on Momota, Harukawa, or Ouma.
Part 1 - Saihara as Assistant Deuteragonist, Saihara as Protagonist
I think I may have more eloquently and succinctly summarized this in that recent Saihara vs Akamatsu shitpost here, but hey I spent 10 minutes on this, so damn if I'm not posting it in its entirety.
I've been waiting to finally, finally, finally play the actual detective character and not the normie protagonist with no investigative talents whatsoever being fed clues by the detective because the detective isn't allowed to be the protagonist & the lead the trials. So while I was on-board the Akamatsu-is-a-decoy-whose-going-to-kick-the-bucket train from the very beginning, I was rooting for Saihara to be the true protagonist as opposed to Ki-bo or Harukawa (the other leading potential protags at the time).
With Saihara-as-assistant in the prologue & chapter 1, there was an unprecedented level of handholding going on during investigations. Kirigiri is wary, stand-off-ish and holds heaps of information back (like sending Naegi to get whacked while exploring the hidden room as a way to test the mastermind). Komaeda is... Komaeda. He may or may not be on your side and isn't going to let things go easy for the protagonist. This functions as a way for the protag/player to figure things out for themselves while having a handy hint giver present in game.
Saihara, however, is more upfront, open to co-operation & group investigations from the start, and will literally guide the player-in-the-guise-of-Akamatsu step by step through finding the hidden mastermind door, putting the door under surveillance, the entire murder investigation that follows, and pretty much gives his deductions tied up in a pretty bow to Akamatsu without all the hoop jumping required by Kirigiri or Komaeda. He even does this when he briefly loses the role of protagonist to Ki-bo in chapter 6 and then begins flinging an avalanche of hints & "You tell them, Naegi's" to Ki-bo instead. Basically unless V3 was going to be Danganronpa Easy Mode Why-Are-You-Bothering-to-Show-Up-at-Investigations-&-Trials-Just-Let-Saihara-Do-It as he carries the protagonist on a damn palanquin through the trials, Saihara needed to be neutralized or upgraded to a protagonist role.
(I said neutralized OR upgraded to protagonist, not both at the same time, goddammit Kodaka!!!)I've seen it suggested that V3 could have had dual protagonists with Akamatsu in charge of School Life & Free Times while Saihara leads Deadly Life Investigations & Trials. That would actually be a pretty cool dynamic to explore in a game, but is not really thematically relevant at all compared to what we actually got.
V3 is a game about truth & lies. Akamatsu the originally advertised protagonist was a lie. The true protagonist is a detective who seeks the truth, who lies to find the truth, who is afraid of revealing the truth. His entire character arc screams the entire theme of the game and concludes with him pretty much head butting the truth and cramming it down the throats of the V3 audience. There is no other character as thematically relevant as Saihara to the game except perhaps for Ouma, who would have required a whole heap of tweaking to work as protagonist. (And I am all for a tweaked rival/antagonist character being the actual protagonist in a potential future game)
Saihara is also the first protagonist that had a character arc that spanned the entire game. He has the character arc based on insecurity and low self worth that you would think "normies" like Naegi and Hinata would have had in their respective games, but didn't. Naegi is a character that helps instigate change in others without really changing much himself as his is the tale of how to gain respect & friendship by being yourself. Hinata has a ton of doubts & insecurity in his past... which he forgets for 5/6ths of the game. He pretty much builds a reputation of being the sensible, dependable backbone of the group that even gets complimented for his confidence multiple times until he gets the rug yanked out from under him towards the end of the game. This is more of a fall(and then rebirth) of the competent protagonist storyline that lots of people seemingly wanted to assign to Akamatsu rather than Saihara's slowly fighting his way through his ocean of interconnected issues from the beginning.
Saihara's development is also interesting in that it's not the normal "through the power of friendship & HOPE I gain the the confidence to stand with my friends" arc. Unlike previous protags, he's not the heart of the group that gives everyone hope and he's not the steadfast & sensible one giving everyone support. He's the one who desperately needs emotional support & friendship from the very beginning, someone that the previous protags would be supporting instead just like Akamatsu had been. While the message that he can & should depend upon his friends gets repeated ad finitum, his arc is actually moving beyond the desperate need of that support, finding the confidence in himself to stand against his friends, and blow off the so-called "hope" of V3. (And I really wish the missing Scrum Debate from chapter 6 was there. It should have been Saihara solo vs the rest of the group to drive the point further home)
Since he was first presented as a side character/potential friendship fragment route, Saihara is also given a more delineated background, personality, & behavior quirks usually reserved for the side characters rather than the protagonists. He is the neglected son of a movie star & script writer rather than the kid of something-or-other-Akamatsu/Naegi/Hinata-can't-have-hatched-from-eggs, right? Like the side characters, he has specific events in his back history that influence his current character (i.e. the alligator case being one of the few things he did as a detective that he enjoyed, the murder case sending his previous insecurities into full blown Imposter syndrome).
In comparison, we get Maizono giving the story about Naegi rescuing a crane at school which Naegi hardly remembers... and that is pretty much it for background specifics to the previous protagonists including Akamatsu. (At least Hinata's history of being so insecure that he allowed Hope's Peak to basically lobotomize him was touched upon in Danganronpa 3 as ham fistedly as it was portrayed)
Saihara's personality isn't some variation of "normal", he is incredibly emotionally fragile and starts the game in the full blown throes of Imposter syndrome. He was distinct and "weak" enough that the game creators were worried he'd end up being incredibly unpopular due to the player's inability to easily self insert into him. (Well, at least they were completely off with the former worry as he & Ouma have reached Komaeda levels in popularity). Despite that he comes with strong already set opinions & preferences that the player can't influence (detecting sucks, he sucks, and I really wish he didn't have such a hard-on for the whole stereotypical shonen optimism thing represented by Momota but it makes sense for his personality). Unlike the previous protags, the sane man in the group commenting on the craziness while standing to the side is actually Shirogane. While Saihara is generally logical as befitting a detective, he's also more apt to jump in and join the wackiness like pretending to be a decrepit old man so that Ki-bo can practice caregiving on him. (Saihara's idea BTW, not Ki-bo's)
Saihara is pretty much a study in subtle contrasts, contradictions, and ambivalence. He's the truth seeker afraid of the truth and the voice of logic & reason that really, really wants to believe full heartedly in blind faith, optimism, and power of friendship. But as much as he may want to fully buy in, he can't, because as much as he may want to deny it, he is a detective at heart. If Ouma & Momota represent the extremes of logic & belief and the dangers inherit in both of them, Saihara by continuously straddling that line represents the happy medium. (Or rather the anguished, tortured by self doubt, horribly conflicted medium)
Generally gentle, caring, and the most sensitive of all the protagonists, he also has the most ominous edge of all of them. Unlike Naegi he isn't sweetness & light all the way through, he's had something dark & sharp lurking within him all along. He also first comes across as pure & innocent, but oh boy is he not.
It's generally suppressed under layers of insecurity, but the steel comes out when he finally loses his temper. It's that part of him that that comes to the fore and takes charge during the finale of chapter 6 where this did not come out of no where. And those other brief instances where he allows it to shine through tend to startle the hell out of the other characters. (Iruma growing meek & commenting on his cold eyes, Angie thinks it's proposal worthy, Akamatsu going "wait, what was that?").
Hinata can be blunt & snarky, Akamatsu finally loses her temper & insults Iruma, Naegi has saintlike patience, so Saihara is pretty much the only protag that has player operated options to lash out at the other students during their FTEs (mostly with Iruma, Chabashira, Angie, Ouma, and Momota too although it seems from Momota's reaction that he was purposefully trying to trigger that in Saihara).
I finally read your entire post(s) and they're pretty much on point. I would be lying if I said that it wouldn't be cool seeing Shuichi being more proactive outside of deadly life after chapter 1 but I can understand why they didn't do that regarding both the in game reason and a meta reason.
From an in-game perspective: Shuichi certainly felt like a mess after Kaede's death due to that I think it's understandable that he'd subconsciously listen to Monokuma's warnings and stopped trying to meddle in as much as he tried to in chapter 1. He gets better as the game progresses but I don't think he gets over his fear of being proactive until chapter 5 ends and he fully strenghtens his resolve by promising Monokuma that he'd end the game.
From a meta perspective: Not only would a proactive Shuichi logically end the game quicker if he found out about the bathroom passage (and by that point we'd have no game) but also there is the question of pacing. FTE events are important to make the player feel more attached to characters since not all of them have the opportunity of fully shining in the main story itself, I feel like cutting some free-time events for some random investigative routine would drag down the pacing of the game. I can see that working in a novel though.
It's understandable that Saihara would be gun shy of gunning straight for the mastermind again after what happened in chapter 1, but none of the investigative options I mentioned (except for keeping an eye on the mastermind door which is just basic common sense & which wouldn't actually accomplish anything since Shirogane wouldn't be using that door to access the mastermind room in the first place) would be doing that. I specifically chose options that would not lead to Saihara discovering the bathroom door or blowing wide open the case so that the game ends early. Even the mapping the campus by hand option would miss the secret entrance in the girl's bathroom if Saihara continued to let a girl be in charge of investigating that bathroom (especially if that girl was Shirogane, which could be another clue in chapter 6).
Considering that Monokuma actually encourages the student's exploration of the campus and there isn't even a "no breaking into locked doors" or "no destroying campus property" rule like in DR or SDR2, the "investigate ways to escape" options in particular would be something completely safe to do. The longer the students are stuck there, the more terrible things Saihara has to investigate & the more people he has to implicate as murderers, so you'd think he'd be investigating ways to escape the situation like crazy. That would even be a form of escapism in its own-- instead of confronting the reality of the mastermind being one of them, he just keeps trying to run away, but at least he'd be doing so in a method befitting a detective & in ways that could benefit the other students too.
His inner monologue during Daily Life even sounds like this is exactly what he's doing ("keep my promise to Akamatsu, "use my skills as a detective to save everyone") but that somehow the game just skips right over what he'd actually be doing. And at no point does Saihara ever call himself out and go "Wait, I've been saying I'd use my skills as a detective to save everyone, but I actually haven't been doing anything to help stop this situation at all!" like he would if he was just mentally lying to himself from chapters 2 - 5. Chapter 6 marks him finally going back to gunning for the mastermind again, but that doesn't mean he can't do literally nothing else until that happens. Ending the killing game is different than escaping the killing game.
These potential investigative segments with other characters wouldn't be taking the place of the FTEs any more than Saihara & Akamatsu's investigations took the place of Akamatsu's FTEs in chapter 1, or the forced Momota & Harukawa training scenes took the place of Saihara's FTEs, or Souda & Nidai ambushing Komaeda & tying him up took the place of Hinata's FTEs. The entire point to having these investigations with side characters would be to give them more focus & development than they got in the game (hence why I don't suggest Momota or Harukawa joining in any of these scenarios).
Fair enough, I still don't completely agree with you but I can see where you are coming from.
So is your idea to have Shuichi do something to cause similar events to for example the conversation Hinata and Komaeda have when he goes to feed him?
Part 2 - Saihara as Detective
His intelligence, deductive skills, and meticulousness makes him a perfect fit as a detective, his sensitivity, emotional fragility, openness, and kindness to the point where he has trouble leveling accusations & confronting the truth he has found make him entirely inappropriate. The manifestation of his skill is contrary to his own innate nature. His existence as a SHSL is paradoxical.
Saihara's opinion on detective work is dark, but pretty realistic compared to the flamboyant & flashy mental images people have of the job. It's hard, tiresome, repetitive, and dirty work that gets little praise and exposes the detective to the worse sides of people. A necessary evil.
Saihara's emotional break down with Momota in chapter 2 isn't just about him feeling like a failure as a detective whose deductions lead to Akamatsu & Amami's deaths, but that at its core is something he never wanted to do and doing it keeps showing him terrible things he never wanted to see. It's not an issue that can be solved by patting Saihara on the head and telling him he's a good detective.
Due to wanting to be helpful and not a burden (tying back to his neglected upbringing that started off the chain of insecurity), he starts assisting the uncle he's been pawned off unto, gets pigeonholed into the role of detective, goes full blown Imposter syndrome stuck-in-this-lie when the Ultimate Initiative declares him a SHSL, and then suddenly everyone's lives are depending on him being a detective in this killing game. Then the V3 cast (especially Harukawa who as his "friend" should really know better) keeps going on about how Saihara is only reliable when he is investigating which just winds up his complex even more.
He's only acceptable to the people around him when he's doing something that he hates.
And so even though Saihara gets the confidence in his individual skills as a detective, the courage to confront the harsh truth without flinching, and knows how to balance his emotions & weaknesses appropriately so they no longer impact his deductive reasoning, his core dilemma doesn't really get resolved by the end as I don't see any indication of him actually enjoying the role of detective a whit more now than when he started off. Had the necessity of it pounded into him even more, yes, but actually enjoying it, not so much. I guess it depends on the true reality of the real world out there if he has to continue in that role or not.
Ironic that he gets 11037's English VA, another SHSL whose a prodigy at a talent that he dislikes. Also ironic if the "normie" Saihara that Shirogane showed them was actually the truth and really loved the idea of being a detective.
Saihara as Apprentice / Saihara as SHSL
First of all, some overall things regarding Saihara as a detective that I notice keep getting brought up, a lot of which hinges on what Saihara says about himself. Yet Saihara is the absolute worst person to be an unbiased judge of his own talent. This gets brought up in the game itself (ie during Toujou's free time she outright states that he is too self deprecating and disparages his own talent which everyone else can plainly see). When it comes to Saihara and his detective skills, you have to go by what he does and not what he says.
Saihara repeatedly states that he is only an apprentice, that he solved his big murder case by chance, that the Ultimate Initiative chose him based on that one case alone. He also gets flat out called out as being wrong and that what he is saying as impossible by multiple characters.
Saihara says that he is only an apprentice that helps his uncle, the true detective. Yet he takes on his own solo cases. The alligator case that he mentions to Akamatsu was his first solo case. The murder case that he regrets solving (and which Akamatsu & other characters point out would have been impossible to solve "accidentally" as he keeps claiming) is another. Even if it was the murder case that brought him to the attention of the Ultimate Initiative, by that point he already had a body of detective work behind him, both cases where he assisted his uncle and cases that he solved solo.
Considering he is still a relative newbie, it wouldn't be a body of work comparable to Kirigiri (or whatever Kirigiri allowed Hope's Peak to know of her work since her family tends to hide their contributions from the public), but it did exist and as it was also pointed out, the other students were not chosen as SHSL based on one incident alone, so why would Saihara be the exception?
And of course there's the big blinking not-as-good-as-Kirigiri moment where he trusts Akamatsu to investigate the girl's bathroom instead of busting in and investigating it himself. Generally his being a more co-operative & group orientated detective is one element that makes him superior to Kirigiri during class trials, but that one really bit him (and Akamatsu) in the posterior.
Saihara During Deadly Life
I have problems with the writing in V3 as a whole which gets reflected unto Saihara as the protagonist of V3, but as the long awaited detective protag I have few complaints with the way he functions during investigations & trials in the Deadly Life portion. There are still the old complaints of -- why the hell is no one wearing gloves during the investigations & instead grabbing the evidence with their BARE HANDS, why is no one dusting for fingerprints, seriously all it takes is some powdery substance & tape *takes a deep breath* but these are quibbles with Danganronpa investigations as a whole, not with Saihara in particular.
So I find it particularly puzzling how often it gets expressed that Saihara is a poor detective, that Saihara does not come across as any better at investigations & trials than Naegi or Hinata, that Ouma of all people is supposedly a better detective and is actually the detective character feeding clues to Saihara in V3(wat).
I had that last one "spoiled" to me when I posted on the original Chapter 1 reactions thread about how excited I was to finally play as the detective leading the trial. So I took notes while playing on who was doing exactly what during trials & investigations. The contributions of Ouma in the main route where Saihara isn't lying like an idiot are...
Trial 1 : Zilch
Trial 2 : Ropeway (And he gets called out by Saihara for making Saihara say it instead of saying it himself)
Trial 3 : Magic Circle leading to the seesaw, Angie going for Candles (+ investigated the adjacent rooms thus helping free Yumeno of suspicion, making this by far the most helpful Ouma is during a trial)
Trial 4: He's the freaking mastermind who knows everything & yet couldn't convince anyone except Saihara
Saihara literally carries everything else. Meanwhile Ouma sends the trials down a bunch of time wasting dead ends such as Harukawa being the 2nd trial's culprit and that entire "suspect ranger" thing where only people who had access to Angie's lab could speak up in the 3rd trial.
And here it is, the clutch, Saihara as SHSL Detective during the actual class investigations & trials. The thing is even though Saihara is the current protag whose POV the player is seeing through, the game is not going to allow Saihara to explicitly state his correct deductions, suspicions, or exactly how he has solved an aspect of the case during the investigation phase because that would spoil that plot point to players who have not yet caught on themselves.
The main tell that gets repeated over and over can be pretty subtle. In comparison, when Naegi & Hinata find a damning clue versus Saihara.
Naegi & Hinata: What could this mean?
Saihara: Then that means this...
When Saihara has figured something out that will later become a plot point during the trial his thoughts will cut off/trail off. That line of thought will then never come up again until the moment in the trial when the player is supposed to win the mini-game that reveals the deduction to the rest of the class.
Since the player is often not privy to Saihara's deductions during the investigations due to SPOILERS, another way to tell when Saihara has actually figured something out is the same way a player can tell that a side character has figured something out... by their outer reactions alone.
Compare assistant Saihara at the beginning of the chapter 1 trial who strikes his thinking pose, ". . ."s, has the camera zoom in on his face, and then he clams up for the first half of the trial upon realizing that Akamatsu has to be the culprit vs protagonist Saihara from chapter 6 who ". . ."s and strikes his I'm-dying-inside pose when Shirogane (amongst all the other characters cheering) says that trial 6 will be different because everyone can work together since there is no culprit among them during this trial.
Unlike characters like Ouma or Iruma who try to solve things by flinging shit about and seeing what sticks, Saihara will methodically go through every option and systematically prove or disprove it, knock down every objection, and go through every potential avenue & possible theory, even when he already has a particular suspect or deduction in mind from the beginning.
This is why it takes 5 billion years for him to get around to accusing Shirogane even though he suspected she was the real killer of Amami and thus the most likely mastermind ever since seeing the secret tunnel to the mastermind's room (and thus started acting weird around her from that point forward)
Part of it is simply because Saihara is a good detective who doesn't jump to conclusions & shows the level of attention to detail that properly investigating a murder would require and part of it is because V3 trials are bloated as hell and often repetitiously force the player to repeat an answer in a mini-game that Saihara has already outright stated (I'm looking at you, Psyche Taxi!) And while we're talking about fail trial mechanics...
Part 3 - Overflow Topics
The Lie Mechanic
Man, this had so much potential. As Ouma points out in trial 2, it's a tactic for detectives and their ilk to try and lead a suspect into incriminating themselves by being less than truthful about the current known facts of a case.
Unfortunately in V3 pretty much all the potential back route lies and -- horrifying enough some of the mandatory ones -- are not required to progress the trial in the least. In all the skippable lie segments, Saihara already has access to enough clues to move forward with the trial using the truth & actual clues (and by his actions and thoughts already knows this!), yet the player can force him to lie anyway and... well, basically the back routes come across like extended wrong choice sequences from Non-stop Debates. Fun to look at, gives some nice interaction with side characters, but basically makes the protagonist look like an idiot.
Since these are "back routes", I'm assuming the main route using the actual evidence is canon, and thus Saihara is not randomly acting like a dingus -- DID YOU FORGET YOU CAN'T SEE WHILE USING YOUR EYE LIGHTS, KI-BO?! I'M SURE IRUMA FORGOT TOO! -- during the trials.
Deadly Life Improvements
Anyway, while I think Saihara's detective skills came across fine enough during Deadly Life, that is obviously not a universal opinion. While making the point where Saihara's thoughts cut off so as not to spoil the player more explicit could work (hell, make the "Got it!" image flash behind him), it might be more interesting if some of the game play elements are brought out of the bloated trial segments and done during the investigations when Saihara actually first came to the realization. That might cut down on the trial mini-games repeating exactly what had literally just been stated 2 seconds ago during the trial.
Or better yet, make it impossible to investigate all portions of the crime scene before the trial is called. This would be similar to trial 3 where Saihara & Harukawa investigated underneath the floor of the crime scene while Ouma investigated the rooms to either side with no time for the groups to switch position and see what the other had investigated. Only this time Ouma doesn't even tell them what he found so that info doesn't become available until the trial itself. That way even if Saihara explicitly spells out his suspicions and deductions during the investigation, he is running on only half info, and thus wouldn't be overly spoiling any plot points.
This would have the added bonus of letting other characters contribute more to the trials, which is especially necessary once all the characters who were actually good at this investigating & trial thing (Amami, Akamatsu, Hoshi, Toujou, Shinguuji) systemically killed each other off at the beginning of the game leaving the deadweight behind.
Character Design
This should have been discussed at the end of Part 1 instead, but didn't fit due to character limits.
Since this idea of subtle contrasts is carried over into his character design, the version with the hat is pretty much my favorite design out of all Danganronpa characters. Teal hair so dark it looks black. Subtle striping across his suit (both the dark portions & the light trim) that it also looks solid black from the distance. Eyes too warm to be plain gray (apparently it's something akin to gambogeish gray)
How his design elements keep straddling the line of in-between and how it looks plain from the distance but so much more intricate up close really suits Saihara. Even how his design was originally meant to be androgynous and walking the line between female & male fits with the theme of ambivalence.
Even though Saihara doesn't like the beret as a gift because it looks like a detective's hat (the boy has issues), his own cap gives him a distinctive detective vibe. I know removing the hat is a symbolic character growth thing, but as he didn't magically grow confident after removing it at Akamatsu's death, I think it would have made sense that he continued to wear it whenever he was feeling particularly insecure (so that the moments when he takes it off have more poignancy behind them). Then he could ditch it completely at Momota's death to mirror his first taking it off in honor of Akamatsu.
Part 4 - Saihara During School Life
Oh boy, here we go. Chapter 1 of V3 is one of my most favorite chapters in all of Danganronpa and it is pretty much entirely because of Saihara.
Instead of spinning their wheels and just flailing around investigating the open areas of the school and networking with the other trapped students during Chapter 1's Daily Life, we found the damn door to the mastermind's lair because of Saihara. We co-opt another student's talent (thanks Iruma) and set up the first student run secret surveillance because of Saihara. We go set up a (non-deadly) booby trap & go gunning straight for the mastermind in chapter flipping 1 because of Saihara. Even Akamatsu admits that everything they accomplished in chapter 1 was because of Saihara.
Then he gets promoted to protagonist at the end of chapter 1 and all his pro-activity dies a terrible death inside the protagonist box because the protagonist is only allowed to investigate newly opened sections of the school, free time with other students, and then investigate murders & class trials. Nothing else until chapter 6. No investigating ways to escape (which would be a far safer topic to investigate than murders for a detective afraid of what he might find), no investigating the greater mysteries of the school until chapter freaking 6.
So even though his characterization in chapter 1 says otherwise, even though he promised Akamatsu otherwise, even though his own damned inner monologue goes on and on during Daily Life about how he's going to use his detective skills to try and save everyone... Saihara can't do jack shit except get automatically booted into Free Time.
This may have been expected for Naegi & Akamatsu who had detective partners running around investigating in the background and whose own strengths lie in their interactions with others, this may be acceptable for Hinata who has no investigative background himself, but this (amongst a crap ton of repeatedly repeated tropes) shows how painfully in a rut the writing of Danganronpa has become. It's completely squandering the chance to show how a detective protagonist like Saihara would play differently from a morale-boosting & charismatic protagonist like Naegi & Akamatsu.
At least the class shoving all the keys to the potential newly opened areas on him makes sense considering Saihara is the detective. That the students are just hanging around the spots that are going to be opened like they knew about them all along and were just waiting for Saihara to catch up is just plain weird though. Better if they walked through the halls with Saihara (like how Saihara & Akamatsu originally investigated together) and had actual interactions with each other. But that would be different from the students waiting around the newly opened sections in DR & SDR2 and we can't have that.
When I complained about this is the initial chapter reaction posts I was told that there was literally nothing else for Saihara to investigate or do during these segments. The V3 Daily Life segments are sparse compared to their SDR2 counterparts. Off the top of my head, this is what Saihara could be doing during them (like his own inner monologue says he's going to do)...
While investigating, make a hand-drawn map of the campus with people good at drawing or taking notes (Angie, Toujou etc). There's no reason to trust the electronic map provided by Monokuma and comparing the actual inner & outer dimensions of the buildings should indicate where hidden rooms & sections will later appear.
Go with Ouma and lock pick your way into Amami's room to see if there's anything there that might shed light on the Ultimate Hunt or whatever the hell Amami might have remembered
Try and dig a tunnel underneath the surrounding fence with people good at digging (Gonta, Chabashira??) to see if an underground escape is possible
The Monokumarz mentioned that the fence can actually be scaled during the prologue but there's never any follow-up to this. Have Gonta give Saihara (& Yumeno?) a piggy-back ride up as far as the fence can be climbed to see what's viewable from up there. Hoshi would also be a good candidate for being athletic enough to climb up, but he's not giving anyone any piggyback rides.
After Gonta mentions the stars looking different, search the library with Shinguuji & Shirogane for star maps that may indicate where on Earth the students may have been taken.
Have Iruma make more surveillance cameras. Set them up in likely spots that might help prevent murders (such as a hidden camera in the entrance way to the dorms to see who might sneak out at night as an alternate option to the Student Council locking everyone in at night). Added bonus points if Ouma commandeers one of Saihara's cameras for his entire
idiotplot in chapter 5. Unlike Kirigiri who was a homicide detective, Saihara was a private eye who specialized in surveillance & tracking. They need to double down & take advantage of these differences.Have Iruma, Gonta, Ki-bo, anyone good with machines or with good eyesight help disassemble one of the campus broadcast screens to see if it has any hidden cameras (the potential of hidden cameras in them gets mentioned every time Saihara freaking looks at them)
Take handwriting samples of everyone and compare them to the ever-changing graffiti in the courtyard (I'm sure Ouma can fake his handwriting to avoid immediate detection)
Saihara, you're a detective. You KNOW there is more than 1 kind of "bug". With Gonta & a bunch of others, go looking for "bugs" with microscopes & magnifying glasses. Have Iruma make Saihara an ultimate magnifying glass for this. Have Ouma one-up Saihara with the bugvac invention.
Keep investigating the hidden mastermind door with literally anyone. ANYONE AT ALL. This includes going with Ouma to try that keycard that he swiped because that is the screamingly obvious option.
Having these mandatory investigation segments with different characters would not only help spread the focus around (and thus help alleviate some of the feeling of having Momota & Harukawa shoved down the player's throats), would help develop some of the side characters further before they inevitably kick the bucket (& would have characters interact with each other that might normally not which is severely lacking in V3), plus would help with the complaint that Saihara didn't interact (and thus didn't seem to give a crap about) any characters besides Akamatsu/Momota/Harukawa. (And boy, Gonta sure comes in handy during a lot of these potential investigations, doesn't he?)
This is one aspect where Ouma surpasses Saihara. Since he is not the protagonist, Ouma is actually allowed to do crap during Daily Life. His hoarding of a random assortment of clues that Saihara originally gathered for the trials may not have accomplished much of anything (until the library photograph with Amami gets brought up again in the chapter 6 trial after Ouma's death) and he may have completely pissed away all his resources that he gathered (seriously electrobombs, electrohammers, and a freaking remote that can control the Exisals and he does THAT with them), but at least he was doing something outside of the trial investigations.
Some of the "revelations" during chapter 6 could even be moved a few chapters forward without having too much of an effect on the plot (such as the existence of bug-sized cameras which for the most part the students really can't do jack about or the existence of the pod room would be more of a red herring if it was discovered before the literal last minute in chapter 6).
You could even just tweak Saihara's Free Time events with others to give them more of an investigative bent. Like Iruma reveals she has a damn transporter in one of her FTEs. Yeah, it only teleports underwear, but have her reverse the polarity and teleport underwear with "Help! We're being kept captive in a murder game!" messages as far outside of the school fence as possible. Sure, it wouldn't really help anything since they're actually inside a huge dome and the outside world already knows they're there, but it would be freaking hilarious. (And hey, canon use for all that underwear Saihara has been collecting)
In conclusion: I really like the concept of Saihara. He has some really great moments particularly in chapters 1 & 6. Not only did he carry the investigations & trials, he ended up solely carrying my own interest through the game after literally every other single other character I liked killed each other off in the first chapters. After the clusterfuck that was Danganronpa 3, Saihara has my eternal love for being the protagonist who finally stands up and goes "screw you hope & despair!" but not as much love as he would have had if it was chapter 1 Saihara that appeared throughout the entire game.
The failures in his characterization are failures in the writing of the game overall. He had the potential to be my ultimate Danganronpa favorite, but not with the way V3 ended up being written. I would really have liked to have seen another writer's take on Saihara or maybe an editor with a stronger hand.
Shuichi is probably my favourite protagonist, mostly cause I can relate to him at the start of the game. I almost constantly wear my hood like how he wore his hat so it was more awesome to me when he managed to shed his hat. Gave me a great first impression so it became hard to dislike him no matter what he did after that.
I much preferred the way he interacted with the other characters, it is hard for me to exactly pin point what it was about the way he interacted with them but I guess it felt more personal, his relationship with Ryoma in his FTE's was probably my favourite with his Gonta interactions in chapter 4 being top notch.
I think Shuichi is a character after my heart, someone who I feel I can resonate with more than most can, I didn't mind the switch to Shuichi from Kaede cause it was very beneficial for me. I don't know how quality his character actually is cause I probably have a bias for him that most don't have.
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best post. you taught me everything about character development thank u. this is why my fav character from drv3 is monokid.
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A Diatribe on the Metaphysical Implications of Having a "Rock Hard Rager"
since im an internet pleb with no knowledge and understanding of anything in games, i will mindlessly rely on you to tell me what i should feel about a character! please do type a big long thing so i can delude myself to think i'm reading something smart.
I never thought i would hear one character be simultaneously compared to Hermione, Natsuki, and Walter White.
Thanks for that Breaking Bad spoiler. (I watched the series but just saying for other who didn't). You can spoiler tag by how it's indicated in the sidebar to avoid this in the future.
Also while we're at it : Breaking Bad spoiler
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Oh, then I won't go in further details if you don't have any idea what is the spoiler you just put there (I just reread and realized the shitpost lmao xD)
The title is actually an expression : to break bad
And there is a reason for why he starts doing that.
you do realize they're not serious, right
b-b-but that's the joke..........
Walt's arc is absolutely related to confidence. It's done very well, but it's part of it from the first episode to the last
Dunno really, I always assumed he got what it takes to do things from how I interpreted it (in the pilot I felt he had this kinda "dark side" to him already).
He did have a lot of it in him, but a big point of the show is that Walt has always felt like he's underachieved and has grown resentment for it
Even the first episode makes the point of showing that his marriage is pretty vanilla and he just gets a sad handjob from his wife on his birthday. But after he breaks bad he bangs her in such a way that's so surprising to her she doesn't even recognize him (not literally)
Okay so let’s get this out of the way first.
I do not understand people who define Shuichi by saying he has "confidence problems", or even implying that it would make him a carbon copy of previous protagonists.
A lack of confidence was never even a component of Makoto’s character. He felt a little out of place compared to some of the more extreme personalities on display, but never did he feel inadequate or felt like he didn’t measure up to them. If ever he did, those moments are few and far between. He’s a bit of a doormat, but can stand up for himself if pushed enough.
Hajime’s lack of confidence in himself was definitely more important to his personality, but it was never really pronounced in the game until Chapter 4. Up to that point, he had been acting under the assumption that he had a talent but just didn’t know what it was, and while that did certainly bother him, he didn’t let it affect his personality or how he did things. Heck, even after finding out he’s just a reserve course student, it does shake him pretty heavily, but it doesn’t significantly influence how he acts on the surface.
Shuichi, right when you first meet him, is already immediately different from them. He’s meek, soft-spoken, clearly fidgety and anxious. Already he’s carrying himself much more differently than the previous two. If anything he has a bit more in common with Komaru than he does either of the others. But okay, if you want, we can go with the assumption that he does have confidence problems, because you certainly can argue that he does, even if it’s little more than a byproduct of his actual core issues.
Throughout the majority of Chapter 1, while there are moments where he takes initiative, such as informing Kaede about the door hidden behind the bookcase and coming up with the entire plan of taking a photo of the mastermind, and he does bring it up his own opinions and conclusions from time to time, it’s ultimately Kaede who’s taking direct action. He puts himself down quite a bit and he’s always trying to correct people’s high expectations of him.
Kaede isn’t blind, so when she questions him about this, he explains that his anxiety is due to a murder case that he solved. At first justice seemed to have been delivered, but what came after shook him. Finding out that the killer acted in revenge for the death of a loved one was bad enough, but for said criminal to be so incredibly hostile and judgmental for someone essentially doing his job is more than a little affecting.
So, Shuichi’s problem isn’t something so simple as a lack of confidence. It’s more a lack of courage in pursuing the truth. He’s afraid that, should the truth turn out to be something disagreeable or unpleasant, or even just flat-out wrong, he’ll be responsible for the repercussions of it, and that he’ll be at fault for uncovering it. Most of all, he’s afraid of others blaming him as well. This is why he’s always trying to set everyone’s expectations of him low, merely referring himself as “just an apprentice.” If everyone doesn’t think much of him to begin with, no one will be disappointed in him should he set them toward a wrong or harsh conclusion. I think Shuichi is actually pretty sure of his investigative prowess and abilities, he’s just afraid of where those abilities will lead him and the others too. When the other characters are telling him to be more confident, they aren’t telling him that he’s a better detective than he thinks he is, Shuichi already knows he’s pretty good, they’re telling him that he shouldn’t feel responsible for what the truth is, and that he should just follow what his heart tells him and not stress out so much over any potential consequences.
Unfortunately, Kaede’s words don’t really help prepare him for having to expose her as the (supposed) first murderer, but he does try to take her words to heart and start acting with a little more resolve than before. And he starts by removing his hat, which he wore to limit eye contact with other people. Small steps!
His relationship with Kaito does help alleviate Shuichi’s troubles considerably more. Getting to open up to someone who’s so loud and charismatic, Kaito being someone Shuichi can lean on and depend on during times when he’s questioning himself, things start to heal a little bit. Kaito tells him to his face that Shuichi shares none of the blame in the actions Kaede decided on her own to take, nor should he feel responsible for her getting executed (I think this is probably a good response to those who say that Kaede was just Shuichi’s waifu who only existed to die for him, implying that Kaede’s entire motivation was Shuichi or that she didn’t have her own agency in this situation). This, coupled with some stress-venting exercise, does serve to make things easier for Shuichi going forward. During the 2nd trial, when Shuichi freezes up and is hesitant to act, Kaito gives him the encouragement he needs. After Kirumi is revealed as the Ryoma’s killer and her motive comes to light, Shuichi is wondering if what he did was right yet again, only for Kaito to quickly shut that line of thinking down. And there don’t seem to be any problems with unmasking Kiyo, for, er, obvious reasons.
Things take a…sharp turn starting at Chapter 4, when for the second time, Shuichi is confronted with a very ugly truth in the form of Gonta being the culprit, and his blossoming determination takes a hard hit in the face of it, causing a strain with his friendship with Kaito. He's been touched by Kaito's unwavering faith in other people this whole time and has partly shared those sentiments, even if he hasn't forgotten how important it is to take a logical method to things, but seeing Kaito's beliefs get so coldly crushed, while he doesn't necessarily lose respect for Kaito, this does force him to reexamine what the proper approach is. He's been using Kaito as a crutch, and if it weren't for Kokichi's intervention, they likely would've all died because of it. Shuichi isn’t quite willing to say that he was wrong for uncovering the truth (more small steps!) because it was his only option, but he nonetheless wishes to mend things between him and Kaito. Thankfully, Kaito does so of his own accord and admits to what a baby he’s been in the last part of the trial. Shuichi is able to separate himself from Kaito's influence and really distinguish himself, but their relationship still ends on a very positive note. Besides, you know, the whole getting executed thing.
Things progress rather smoothly for him throughout the majority of Chapter 6. I quite like how Shuichi is now more than happy to call Monokuma out on shit when before he probably would’ve just sulked in the corner about it.
But uh, that changes dramatically when FICTION rears it’s ugly head. Needless to say, Shuichi doesn’t take it well and is about to lose his damn mind until Keebo intervenes. At first, things go how you would expect them to, until Shuichi utterly dismantles the entire thematic concept of Danganronpa by claiming that hope and despair are equally toxic, neither having done nothing but enable this twisted system to continue, claiming possibly hundreds of lives in the process for the detached amusement of an outside audience. As someone who mostly remained impartial to the clash of ideals that Kaito and Kokichi had (although that didn't stop either of those two from trying to continuously pull Shuichi to their side, with varying results), it makes sense that he’d be the one to remain impartial to the entire hope and despair conflict, outright wishing to see both destroyed to make sure that what happens can never truly be repeated. You can really feel the raw anger and hate that he feels. While Makoto and Hajime were obviously pissed at Junko for the deaths she caused and the chaos she created, Shuichi holds total contempt and disgust not just for the mastermind, but also for the people running this show, as well as the entire outside world for both not really giving a shit about their deaths and supporting this madness. While before he was afraid of the harsh truth, now he’s not only pursuing it, confronting it, but he refuses to let it break him down and demotivate him as it would before, even accepting it so that he can reach his own answer and not let himself be swayed by either side (sort of like how Danganronpa 2 did things, but let’s be real here, “Future” is just “Hope” with a bit more flavor).
Aside from his role in the story, I really like how his interactions with his classmates in their FTEs are sort of a mix between Makoto and Hajime’s. Makoto was very pleasant and affable with his friends, Hajime was also decent but wasn’t afraid to let any irritation show up on his face, but Shuichi tries to remain friendly but can be quite the smarmy smartass in his own internal monologue. He’ll keep a straight face but will happily comment to himself if someone is being strange, annoying, or getting on his nerves. The primary exception being Kokichi, where he’s more likely to say what’s on his mind, namely that Kokichi is a weird little shit.
I know the Shuichi vs. Kaede debate is something that still continues, but I’ll say briefly now before it’s Kaede’s week that Shuichi was a much more fitting viewpoint character for the game’s themes than Kaede was, given that Kaede probably would’ve been preaching the same kind of stuff Kaito was, let’s be honest.
I don’t think his relationship with Kokichi is given as much focus as it should be, at least in the main story. According to the whiteboard in Kokichi’s room, Shuichi is the one person he considers to possibly be trustworthy, which does explain why he was trying so hard to separate Shuichi from Kaito, removing him from that naïve optimism Kaito has already imprinted the group with in order to gain at least one potentially true ally, but presumably his role in Miu’s death kind of sunk that. His FTEs fare better, playing a whole bunch of mind games and inventing more and more lies about himself so that Shuichi would be “interested” in him, even making up excuses to hang out with him more. A shame this doesn’t carry over into the main story.
His relationships with other characters vary, but I do find his interactions with Himiko rather adorable, and he has his moments with Maki, even if their rapport could overall use some work.
I’m running out of things to say so I’ll just comment that Shuichi is cute as hecc.
And wow, I decided to tweak a detail or two and all of a sudden im forced to separate this into two posts. Cute detectives give me quite a bit to talk about apparently.
The cutest boy
The BESTEST boy
Oh boy, I've been waiting for this. That said, I'm going to keep this short and simple. Others have already said what I wanted to, in much greater detail. I'll just give my thoughts on his character arc, as well as what I like and don't like about him.
To start with, this screenshot from the game describes his character arc pretty well. It's certainly a bit more nuanced than just summing it up as "learning to believe in himself". I go into slightly more detail in this post.
As for why I like him, here's what I've said the last time this topic has come up:
Moving on, what I don't like about him is how he becomes passive after Chapter 1. I understand why he wouldn't want to try anything drastic after what happened last time, but it's pretty jarring when he's thinking of how to deal with a problem and then it's followed by FREE TIME. Granted, that's an issue with all the protagonists (except Kaede, and look how that turned out).
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Shuichi is one of my favorite characters overall in the franchise. I love Kaede too but I don't really mind him taking the main protagonist role since he had a great arc to learn to have more confidence and stand by his own in key moments, showing how much he grow. Before, when he was acting like a partner for Kaede, Shuichi showed a timid personality with lack of confidence since he thought he doesn't feel like a detective for not doing things that a detective would and for causing someone to suffer after solving a case, who he thought he was doing the right thing, but actually he was sending someone who lost their family to a prison, after the victim killed them, which he felt extremely bad and lost courage to even try something like this again. So, as he gets some support, he start to try pursue the truth once more, but not exactly because he likes but because he have to do it for save the remaining people, which conflicts him sometimes, given that he is still afraid but that's when Kaito enters in his life for give him a moral support. So, as the game keeps going, Shuichi start to even if the truth is harsh, he have to chase it down, for the sake of surviving and fighting against Monokuma. We see he growing and standing by his own (like in chapter 4 with no matter what Kaito said, he continued to chase down the truth about Gonta being the culprit) and the culmination of his character growth is what we see in chapter 6 and how he ended the killing game. It's one of the things that I really like about Shuichi: how his personality is quite realistic and you can identify as him, since there times we are not so confident and some help and support can help a lot in moments that we really need and his whole feelings in chapter 6 about how he wanted to end all that sadistic plan of Tsumugi so no one else could suffer the same issue, which, I believe, a lot of people would share the similar feelings too. Now, even though I said he is one of my favorite characters from v3 and the entire franchise, I still have some issues with him. First issue, is the trio. From chapter 3 to 5, because of Kaito and Maki constantly at him, Shuichi (just like how Kaito calls him) feel like a sidekick instead of a protagonist since Kaito was always there to give moral boost and playing important parts of the story while keeping things going on, instead of Shuichi, even though, the main protag is him. Another issue is how the game forces Shuichi to be treated as a villain for doing the right thing sometimes, like in chapter 4, for pointing Gonta as the culprit, even though he was right and if he didn't, he and the rest would get mass executed. He even started to feel bad and feel like HE should be the one who should have apologize to Kaito (for trying to get the rest executed by trying to convince them Gonta wasn't the culprit, out of emotions and blind trust). The same thing also happens with Maki in chapter 5, when, after solving the mystery, he said sorry to her for pointing Kaito as the culprit, even though he was just doing the right thing and Maki, who tried to get everyone executed just for kill one person, didn't even apologized for acting like that. A reason for that would be because he still feel bad for what happened to the first murder he solved, where he sent a man who lost his family because of the victim that he killed but honestly, given that Kaito and Maki didn't even tried to suffer some kind of punishiment for what they did, is hard to endure this.
Overall: Shuichi is a great character because he had a unique personality compared to the others we had so far. Makoto is quite hopeful and optimistic, Hajime is boastful and cynical and Shuichi is pretty much shy and not so confident, who learned through the course of the story, to change and improve himself. It's risky to say that Shuichi went through some development way more than the others because his ideals changed a lot, where he started to believe more in himself and in the others, while Naegi kept the same hopeful like personality and Hajime didn't had many conflicts or some kind of change except for the whole discovery in chapter 4 for being a talentless person and the fact that Hope vs Despair theme gets repeated again in the end of SDR2, just made him slightly similar to Naegi, principally in DR3 hope.
Wow, these well thought-out long form essays are pretty convincing. Meanwhile my dumb ass was just going to comment,"press f for my ni🅱️🅱️a succi, he never got to tap that sweet thicc ass"
A lot of people already dived in to explain why Shuichi is a great protag and well written character and another part already talked about why they didn't like him. I'm here to defend the first camp and explain why I think he is the best DR protag.
1) Well written character arc
I think that's something no one can deny. Shuichi develops as the games progresses, unlike Hajime and Komaru who have a sudden change after a certain part of the story (generally close to the last chapters) and Makoto, who generally remains static, Shuichi is constantly evolving and changing and that makes him a protagonist who is never stale from one chapter to another, you have him in chapter 1 being timid and full of self doubt but still being proactive for the sake of the others, then you have him during chapter two where he lost that proactive part of him due to the events of chapter 1 but is trying to get rid of his self doubt and self hatred for Kaede's sake (and failing) and so on.
2) Personal relationships
While the other protagonists generally only had notable and important story relevant relationships with their female friend and their rival, Shuichi has a whole net of complex relationships with the cast, that makes him feel more like a character written for the story rather than just a vehicle for the player self insert into. He has a special highlighted relationship not only with Kaede and Ouma but also with Kaito, Maki and even Keebo, Himiko and Tsumugi, his choice to group up with Maki and Kaito especifically shows off his individuality as a protagonist.
3) Relevance to V3's main theme
As a detective who is afraid of uncovering the truth, Shuichi is a great example of making a main character who is relevant to the story's theme. That is also perhaps, the biggest and most important part of his character, the contradiction of a capable detective and logical person like Shuichi having such a huge degree of empathy and kindness that it's hard for him to actually expose the truth and damn someone to a possibility of having a destiny that could be uncalled for or even mistaken, that's what causes him to faulter and doubt himself constantly. As the story progresses, he evolves and learns to get over that fear, people like to highlight his confidence growth but that really isn't what is more relevant to his character arc, his complex relationship with the concepts of truth and lies is, instead.
4) A new form of addressing a repeated talent
I disagree with the people who say that Shuichi didn't offer anything new and that they wanted a corrupt detective or something along those lines. What Shuichi offers as a detective, is different from what Kyoko does, Kyoko shows off mainly the more glamorous side of detectives, the one you'd more likely see in detective fiction (lol) with her coming from a secret line of detectives and being part of a order of detectives while also being a prodigy in the field who has all the answers from the get go. However, the take on Shuichi's talent is much more realistic and gritty, it shows off the amount of footwork, methodology and hard work involved in being a detective, Shuichi goes off and usually considers every possibility while investigating to confirm his deductions and conclusions instead of just having them from seeing the evidence because he has a super brain, he is also a part of his uncle private detective agency and has taken cases that are common for Private Investigators to take like investigations of affairs, lost pets, missing people, etc.
5)The Rejection of Hope and Despair
I've already said this before but Shuichi is, as of right now, the only DR protag to outright reject the concepts in which DR was based on (which is also why I can't buy when people say that his character arc and type is a repeat) and he was only able to do that because he is NOT like your usual DR protag who never really gives up hope and even if or when they do, they have some friend who will make them believe in it again (Chiaki in Hajime's case and Toko in Komaru's case), Shuichi had Keebo as the one injecting hope into everyone but he was capable of seeing through that and see Tsumugi's trap hidden beneath the sweet embrace of hope and thus was able to reject that and fight against the very foundation of the killing game, his level of spite and anger during that scene is novel for a game like DR where protags at the end generally only have a healthy dose of determination added to them.
i don't think any danganronpa sincerely ends with a rejection of hope. both dr2 and v3 pretend to be about other things -- hajime's bullet says 'future' and i think shuichi's says 'fuck your nielsen ratings tsumugi' -- but they inevitably end on these incredibly optimistic notes of our protag and their buddies who haven't been reduced to piranha food staring off into the great unknown and deciding that it'll be hard out there, but gosh darn it, they'll do their best. the protags might reject Hope The Largely Meaningless Danganronpa Concept but their narratives all end in incredibly similar, hopeful ways, so it's hard for me to accept that as a real point of difference between shuichi and his cohort of protagonists.
I don't think Hajime outright rejects hope, after all his choice in the end, is still hope's choice. Hajime's FUTURE bullet is basically him rejecting the idea that his future was predetermined due to what both Makoto and Junko were saying regarding what would happen if he chose the shutdown (they would revert to their UD modes) Hajime rejected that idea and chose to believe in the miracle of them getting out okay (which turned out right because plot) but in the end he still chose to activate the shutdown, which was the choice of the hope's side.
Shuichi on the other hand, outright rejects the concept of the hope choice that was so deply ingrained in DR and creates his own choice by commiting to the sacrifice that would come with not voting. Any other hopeful character would do like Keebo did and chose to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the others and if not, they'd be invigorated by Keebo's HOPE bullets and chose to keep living to not let their friends' sacrifice be in vain. That's why what Shuichi did feels especially different than what the others did.
Regarding the fact that he and the others live in the end, I don't see it as a form of "hope utimately winning in the end", what happened was that the audience (or Keebo) chose to save them and now, free from the shackles of DR, they are free to hope again. That's why the game ends with them presumably dead and they're only revealed to be alive after the credits end and you get to the title screen again.
I still don't really get how the V3 ending rejects hope. I thought the whole point of Shuichi's choice was to create an ending that was unsatisfying to the viewers by convincing the others to give their lives, but in the end, they are presumably saved by the audience. Is it really surprising that the audience would choose to save their lives, given that it is the "hopeful" ending and the one that wouldn't be completely unsatisfying to them? I thought it was already established that them living would bring the audience "hope", which was the premise Shuichi was going off of when he was convincing the others to sacrifice themselves.
There are two possibilities:
1)What Shuichi did might have had the additional effect of making the audience feel guilty so they decided to not kill all of them after resolving to end the game, after all, it's unthinkable to think that absolutely all of the audience were all assholes part of one single hivemind who did not have an ounce of conscience.
or
2)Keebo might have taken direct control at the very end after everyone left and there was no else to directly control him
But one thing you can be sure of, V3 didn't end with hope, the game officially ended with no survivors. The three of them being alive is literally a post credits thing that happens when no one else is watching them, it's supposed to be a message that they're allowed to hope again now that they're free from their shackles. Simply put, V3's message was never that the feeling of hope is a bad thing, just that the hope offered by the corrupt system that DR became was a bad thing.
In this follow up post I'll be answering to the most common critics against him, explaining why I think that they don't fit and why his overwhelming popularity is deserved.
That's an extremely shallow way of seeing things and does not only a disservice to Shuichi but also to the other protags.
First off, yeah Shuichi was pretty clearly a shy weak willed male and that's exactly why he IS different, no protagonist before him was like or started out like that. Makoto was never shy (what he has though, is humility) and he most defiintely is not weak willed, Hajime was seen through most of DR2 as a reliable figure by the rest of the cast and behaved like that which is expected of someone who basically helped carry the DR2 trials alongside Nagito and Chiaki, it's only later in the story where his insecurity rears it's ugly head and it's even later where it begins actually affecting him (his character arc is kind of reminscent of a deconstruction arc even, which some people advocate as the would be ideal character arc for Kaede even though that'd be OOC too).
Komaru is the protagonist with more similarities to Shuichi but it's also fair to remember that she started the game weak willed and frail not because that is her natural personality but because of the situation she found herself in, which is a pretty important distinction to make.
The first one is incredibly subjective but even so, it's only natural since most DR protagonists are written in a way to not make them as eccentric as their peers, if anything among all of them Shuichi is the least bland one due to his relevant backstory and the way his personality is constantly evolving in the story.
And really, if people are complaining about his dynamic with the rest of the characters, perhaps they should actually try going through his FTEs, some are genuinely hilarious like Tenko's, Miu's, Keebo's, Angie's or Kaito's, some are heartwarming like Ryoma's, Kaito's, Kaede's and others are just genuinely well written and interesting like Korekiyo's, Rantaro's and Kirumi's.
To be honest, I never laughed as much as I did for a DR FTE due to the shenanigans that Miu and Keebo did with him.
That's perhaps one of the most naive complaints about him, it's like people forget or don't know how actual investigative method is like, y'know the process where you have to actually eliminate and address all possibilities in order to confirm deductions or discard them. I know Kirigiri made it look easy but then again, as I said up above, her showing off the glamorous side of being a detective pretty much highlights how her character isn't supposed to be as realistic as Shuichi was.
I've seen some people saying that chapter 5 was confusing and made a bad job of showing Shuichi's competency, I can't really agree with that in any shape or form. Chapter 5 is the chapter where he really comes onto his own and carries everyone in the trial, I don't understand the people complaining about Shuichi's lack of hesitancy on pursuing the truth when Monokuma had already said to ALL of them that he'd kill them all if they got it wrong regardless of the fact of him not knowing the actual answer! It's right there in the trial, you guys.
It's only after Shuichi is 100% sure that it's Kaito there in the Exisal that he decides to fuck logic and fully trust Kaito and commit to what he was trying to do even though he did not understand yet. It was a risky decision, especially after Monokuma said that he did not consider the cast to be extras at all and it was Shuichi trying to keep up with the lie that made Kaito give up on following the plan to the end (which could possibly get them all killed without fully stop the killing game).
First off wow. 138 comments and it hasn't even been 24 hours yet.
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Definitely agree with this. Shuichi is easily very perceptive when connecting the dots in the trials as he rarely needs help or supplementation and I can see that the developers were careful about this bit when incorporating him into the story. Yet there's the problem that, since the previous games and protagonists have set a foundation to work upon, Shuichi needs to be nerfed during these daily life segments so he can become a bystander to the events that unfold before him, rather than actively being a participant (otherwise the killings won't happen and that's not Danganronpa). This was a problem that could have easily been averted if Shuichi's investigative attempts were sound, only fruitless, exemplifying the unfair nature of the killing game where only after enough sacrifices are the rest able to move forward.
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Some people would still point out that he was a shitty detective for not finding things like the bathroom passage (like Kyoko was able to) if he was actively searching.
I do think that if Shuichi wasn't nerfed by his personality, that the game could've ended sooner but alas we needed to have a plot.
Yeah, a big part of why I dislike Shuichi is absolutely due to how the game in my opinion forces me to sympathize when he's not mechanic-wise doing any different from his predecessors aside from lying and more importantly that his pain of exposing the truth makes no sense when the characters aren't really his friends to start with.
In comparison, this question of whether to expose the truth or not is very relevant in Umineko because the game revolves around dark family secrets exposing some of the truths breaks some of the characters (And I should add too that among these characters is an abused child with a single mom), and Umineko end spoilers. Needless to say Shuichi's arc just isn't that well-done in context of the game because of the problems you mentioned and also the concern that not exposing the truth would cause everyone to die, so it's like 'Why so emo?'
He is afraid of making mistakes and dooming people he considers justified in the process (like for example, when he deducted that there was a mastemind around them and that led Kaede to kill) and condeming someone who he felt that didn't deserve to die, that was clear in chapter 1 and chapter 2. After these two chapters he stops having hesitation regarding exposing the truth so he wasn't "emo" for the sake of being so.
From the character's perspective it's obvious that Shuichi thought the first thing. It's pretty open by how he keeps blaming himself for supposedly having the wrong deduction and telling it to Kaede and then by being incapable of noticing her plan when she was adjusting it.
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I find that DR seems to think it's mock trial when it's not. In most civilized countries you'd need 'beyond reasonable doubt' for the death penalty, which is at least 99% certain. Therefore just because you're 90% sure soandso did it doesn't mean you can just execute that guy, so that's why the typical Japanese manga often resorts to lies and tricks to get the last 9% out of the culprit.
In DR the standard is way lower because if you don't kill the right guy everyone dies too. In fact if someone committed a perfect murder and Hiro pulled out his crystal ball and say he's 30% certain X did it, and assuming you believe his talent is genuine and that he's not the actual killer, you might as well go for it over 1/(number of guys still alive). There needs to be absolutely no proof because it's your own skin on the line so you're just interested in making the more likely choice even if it's just 30% certain from what the local psychic told you.
The whole 'making sure we get the right guy' is extremely hypocritical because this isn't a court of law, and as you mentioned the protagonist doesn't seem like an especially smart or even manipulative guy. It just looks like he picks on a random small thing and hammer someone into submission, even though these are all high school kids without a lawyer present and all of them, including the protagonist, are likely to say dumb/wrong things under pressure. Going back from DR1 case 1, there's a time where Leon accused Makoto for being the murderer because he's stuttering after being accused as the murderer. That's roughly as sound as most 'X is behaving strangely' accusation, and I'm sure in an environment like DR any normal people is going to act scared given the stakes. I think the problem is that even after pretending this is a court of law and using dubious methods, you still end up with things that are mostly hearsay so what's the point? It'd be one thing if you make some lie and the murderer said "No that's not what happened I stabbed him with a knife in the closet! Oops I just admitted I did it!" That'd at least be quite conclusive. Instead I feel a lot of trickery ends up closer to a lynch mob where the protagonist uses the fact that for some reason there's already a lot of people behind him to beat up a victim that he has no reason to be really suspect in the first place, and still didn't get anything that'd be considered conclusive.
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Junko originally said something along the lines of if the kids didn't cling onto the hope of escaping then none of the bad things would've happened. Unfortunately I don't think DR actually understands what this means. Any objective look at any DR game would suggest that there's actually no way out and you're likely to die 1 by 1, and if there's no hope of escaping there's no need to worry over trivial things like trust or morality. After about 3 cases you'd think people would even give up trying to deceive anyone, because empirical evidence suggests you're not getting away with it so why work so hard just to die? What is the value of building a team if you can't beat the Mastermind?
For the DR formula to work there has to be a tangible way to actually beat the Mastermind even if it's extremely difficult. Then it'd justify why you'd take the very risky step of even trusting or covering anyone at all as opposed to just lock yourself up in your own room. A court of law, after all, is very logic based and not based on trust or interpersonal skills.
DR seems to pretend that if a jerk puts together well convincing argument and puts all the pieces together everyone will just reject that because he's a jerk. That's not how people work. I'll definitely side with the guy who presents a sound argument no matter how nasty a person he is when my life is on the line. You have to remove the 'everyone dies' factor for the people part to matter. I think DR2 cast would've voted for an immediate lynch mob on Nagito if they didn't have to die, and that'd actually serve as a powerful reminder that it's important to not make everyone want to kill you. There should be significant penalty for screwing up so that it's not just a popularity contest, but there should be a balance between being correct and being liked. If you constantly lie and bully people to get the correct solution don't be surprised if some of the survivors decide to nail you the next time.
i've always been iffy on the idea of altering the 'if you're wrong, everyone dies' part of the dr formula, because i like it as a piece of high concept stakes-raising, but i must admit you have me salivating at the idea of casting a 'fuck you' vote to murder a kokichi or a nagito in their crib. 'oh, yeah, bitch? tell me how you feel about hope now.' just think of all the time i'd save not having to endure that bullshit until the villain's mandatory operatic fifth case death. i could take up macrame.
I'm not trying to discredit everything you said here but there are a few things here I couldn't simply keep quiet about.
There is no fully logical explanation for what Shuichi did to cover for Maki during chapter 2 except that he wanted to believe in Kaito and also had an inkling suspicion of the crime actually having taken place during nighttime. He made a gamble and turned out to be right, simple.
That's because Shuichi developed between case 2 and case 4. By case 3, he was much more detective like and depending less and less on Kaito's support. It's only natural that in case 4, he'd break away from Kaito's belief ideal after seeing the possibility that Gonta could've commited the murder.
Because Monokuma straight up said that he'd still kill them all regardless and Shuichi didn't really understood the point of the plan of trying to play by the rules when Monokuma does what he wants with them (he was right about this btw). In the end, after he is 100% sure that Kaito is in the Exisal, he decides not to logically trust in the plan but to simply believe in what Kaito is trying to do
Because all of the evidence they had atm showed that Kaito was the one who most likely died. They didn't even have Maki's testimony yet.
The case was legit confusing. Tons of clues and among them red herrings, people hiding important evidence and testimonies left and right and in the end, there was still no actual way to fully show who killed who because they lacked fatal evidence and Monokuma did not know. If anything, solving a case as complicated and that one just showed that he was pretty smart.
Byakuya's help is overhyped yeah, he was only competent in case 3 and 5, but Kyoko really, really helped Makoto in the investigation part, I will never forget the part where she literally told him "the student handbook will be important for this case" and it literally became a truth bullet, lol. Chiaki and Nagito were very important too, Nagito carried the entire group during case 3 and 4 by revealing things that broke through the culprit's traps, and 2-5 would be impossible to solve without Chiaki there since she was the one who got through Nagito's logic.
I disagree with the themes being broad and vague but I feel like this is pretty much part of an ending discussion thread :P
Disagree with them being the same base character. as if implying Makoto, Hajime, Komaru and Shuichi are the exact same thing. It'd be the same as me implying Kaede is the same as Makoto because they have similar views regarding friendship and hope, or saying she is the same as Komaru because they're females.
I thought you liked Kaede? Why are you reducing her to just a source of man pain for Shuichi and saying she was just a springboard? Are you implying that she had to die for Shuichi's development when that was never the case?
Yeah but I don't see how Makoto and Hajime were particularly meek. Shuichi's technically just the second DR protag to start off as weak as he does, first being Komaru.
i love kaede and think she's an excellent and interesting character, but her ultimate purposes in the larger narrative are 1) to serve as the vessel for the unreliable narrator twist and 2) to give purpose and development to shuichi after her death. i wish that weren't the case because it's a boring and reductive treatment of a character who, prior to her death, i found compelling, and obviously it speaks to a larger phenomenon about the way female characters are stuffed into coal furnaces to power the steam engines of male characters' stories, but alas, it's true.
I feel like the ones who are being reductive and boring with the character are the ones who believe that she was only that. Kaede's role in the larger narrative was to be the surprise blackened of chapter 1 and having her death affect the group as a whole is just a way to show off her importance as a character, it was not like she was just sacrificed to give Shuichi some angst and some development, in fact Shuichi didn't even instantly developed only with Kaede's death, he still needed a lot of help to get over his issues.
But I guess if we're looking at the story in the way you're looking at then Kaito just died to power up the steam engine of Maki's story. Same for Tenko and Himiko... I don't know, I'm not a fan of adopting such an outlook. It's like you are invalidating the characters and their nuances, believing them just stepping stones for others...Nagito would be proud I guess.
i don't think kaede died so shuichi could instantly become actualized, if that's what you're implying. i think she's meant to act as a piece of trauma/adversity, one of several, for him to overcome. her death puts his beliefs into question and then he grows and learns from there. it's a similar dynamic to the one around sayaka's death in the first game.
i don't believe kaito's sole purpose for existence was to fuel maki's arc because they're both in 80% of the game and during that time kaito has a lot of story action that has nothing to do with maki (to do with kokichi, to do with shuichi, etc.), and he also stands in for the concept of blind trust in the thematic narrative, and so on. kaede has interactions with non-shuichi characters, but the primary bulk of her living days is spent with shuichi and other than her status as a more general totem of misery, no one really places importance upon their individual bond with her as much as he does.
i totally believe tenko solely dies to progress himiko's narrative, although i like her well enough as a character. she doesn't have much going on at all from the larger narrative perspective besides her relationship with himiko.
whether i think it invalidates their nuances or not depends on the character. i used the words 'excellent,' 'interesting' and 'compelling' to describe kaede so obviously i think she has a lot going for her, which makes it even more of a shame that her nuts and bolts function in the larger story is so boring. tenko i like but i don't find her particularly nuanced at all.
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Thank you for mentioning this. I can't stand seeing the argument "Kaede would've chosen hope at the end!" or "There was nowhere for her character to go!" or "She would've been the same every chapter!" We only saw her in one chapter ffs
That being said I only think the writers were successful with Kaede because they killed her off, and if they didn't plan on doing the protag switch we'd just have Shuichi from the beginning. So maybe they are only good at using the same stupid arc
This. I could just cite a dozen of protagonists in media who aren't driven by confidence issues that need to believe more in themselves (and it's not about finding the truth or not as the game itself says in chapters 1 & 3 and more that the protagonist needs to BELIEVE MORE in themselves or that they have no confidence in themselves at all)
it's an anime thing. if i literally only consumed anime, manga, anime and manga-adjacent media (which i'm guessing is uuuuh not an unsizeable part of the dr fanbase; shouts to the hifumis in the crowd), then yeah, i would be like 'how the fuck do you expect your protagonist to grow without learning the power of friendship to believe in themselves WHAT IS THIS MARS????'
but i read and i write and i watch movies and plays and so on sooo yeah sorry shuichi, nice hat tho.
Yeah, it's the most easy thing to write hence their absolute overuse since Neon Genesis Evangelion came up with that and changed anime forever, for the better, or for the worst. Though I do knew a few media-oriented anime who deals with literally anything else than that and those I can find to be the most interesting at times.
Great post. Imo shuichi as a concept is a very interesting character but not great execution.
I thought he did feel very accomplished as a detective, but stuff like the lying is pretty clunky. Outside of the first trial they either accomplish nothing or actively hurt the trial. It feels like it got slapped on near the end to emphasize the lies vs truth theme.
Speaking of the theme, it never really resonated for me. There's this weird thing where shuichi is working through his own issues while kaito and kokichi each represent a side of the spectrum, but it never feels like those things actually come together coherently. It's an interesting idea, especially with a detective mc, but the actual incorporation seemed clunky.
If you take dgr2, the big theme is hope for the future. But in the day-to-day gameplay, there's more focus on insecurity and social issues. Many characters have some kind of inferiority issues and difficult integrating, and I think it works better because it's more subtle but it's spread through more of the cast vs. The 5th time that we talk about kokichi being the ultimate liar. On an MC level, hajime felt way more relatable. He's more of an insert because he has no backstory, but his big thing from the very beginning is that he thinks he craves specialness. This was waaaaaay easier to relate to than truth and lies.
I also feel like shuichi is a lot more beta than hajime. Makoto is pretty big pushover, so I liked that hajime was more forward and had a wider range of reactions. With shuichi, it seems like we're the side character to kaito's strong personality, and many of his interactions with the cast feel pretty much the same. I think part of this is due to the cast being weirder than previous ones, so shuichi is forced into the straight man role more, but idk if anyone else believes that. Not much about shuichi's interaction with the cast made me feel more interested in them or made me see something that wasn't present in the group setting.
Overall, I actually think shuichi is a good concept of a character. Ever since dgr1, I strongly believed that another detective needed to be nerfed or needed to be the MC. Shuichi is nerfed in the sense that he doesn't want to use his abilities at first, but imo this isn't really meaningful because he solves everything anyway and all his mental issues do is add fluff dialogue and nonsensical decisions to the trials. I think it would make him a good partner character, as he could help with trials but he has an actual reason for letting you do the work. I also have issue with the fact that his relationship with kaito makes the player feel like the side character in the game we're playing, but that was already kinda discussed in the kaito thread.
I'm going to cut off my rambling here, but I see shuichi as a middle of the pack character. I think a lot of his flaws are a direct consequence of some of the larger issues of the game. He really feels like a slightly upgraded makoto, and I really wish they had tried to make something really new considering we're gifted the most OP talent in the game.
yeah, this is a problem with v3 generally, imo. i went into it a bit here, but i find the game is really wishy-washy with its themes, especially the idea of lies/fiction and whether they have any inherent value. i think at the most simplistic level, it presents these two extremes, and alternately claims that both are equally valid, neither is especially valid, and the best place to be is right in between, none of which is a particularly enlightening theme, and all of which, working simultaneously, become confusing as fuck.
and yeah, it hits a character like shuichi, who's meant to be a conduit for these themes, particularly hard. if the game can't get straight what it wants to say about its primary theme, which imo it never really does, and then beats that theme into your head so didactically that there's no room for any other interpretation, it makes a character like shuichi feel very grey.
I think the whole theme of truth and lies are fine in general, but Shuichi's execution is just horrible. Shuichi absolutely doesn't show anything about the dilemma of truth and lies, he tells the truth 99% of the time and in the 1% that he actually lies it just doesn't work because the lie mechanic was more or less made mostly for Chapter 1 and 5 so for the rest of the game we just lie for "lulz" and "friendship". We have Kokichi as the king of lies and Kaito as the guardian of the truth, one would expect the protagonist to be the balancing factor between these two right? Nope, he is just Kaito but smart and looks more edgy. Shuichi doesn't have any meaningful conversation with Kokichi in the subject of lies, instead he just yells "Kokichi you lying prick" for 90% of the game with his bro Kaito and when he actually agrees with Kokichi absolutely nothing changes because the game just doesn't want Kokichi to leave any positive impressions on anyone whatsoever.
That is more or less why I find Shuichi to be extremely bland, they didn't bother making him any different from your average hope/despair protagonist even though the game's theme isn't that anymore so he also brings the "friendship" theme that is dominant in the other games with him and I just don't think truth&lies mesh that well with friendship whatsoever.
BTW I am always looking forward to your posts when I see discussion threads, you basically take words out of my mouth 99% of the time. Hope you never stop writing.
Agree, I thought that the game had something going with the idea of painful truth vs. kind lies, Chapter 4 being the clear representation of that. But it never really commits to that, instead it tries to pull various things under the umbrella of truth and lies. I compare it to writing an English paper and you're really trying to twist a quote to fit your thesis, even though you know it doesn't really help.
When the fiction vs. reality thing happened, I thought it was disjointed from that truth vs. lies thing. There's the debate on whether their existence being a lie meant something, but I feel like that's only loosely connected to the main theme.
I would have preferred it Tsumugi revealed everything, and the debate became less about what's fiction and what's reality, and more about which outcome they would prefer. Is it better if the world is destroyed, or is it better if society likes watching people murder each other on television? Would they prefer to just live in the academy forever, or should they confront the truth about the outside world? I think it would work better if they actually discussed all the inconsistencies and hints on whether or not Tsumugi was lying, came to the conclusion that they can't tell if she's lying or not, and then ultimately chose if they want to live a lie or put everything on the line to find the truth. Instead of the focus being "we are fiction because Tsumugi told us", it would be better to shift it to "is Tsumugi even telling the truth? And if we don't know, which would we rather believe?"
Part 1 of 3
While I don’t enjoy Shuichi’s character all that much, I can say that he was a really well written protagonist whose arc was not only progressive from Chapter 1 to Chapter 6, but tied in well with the themes of the game.
Based on Shuichi’s family life, we find that his parents often travelled a lot which left Shuichi alone by himself. Due to his parents’ reoccurring absences, Shuichi’s mentality and self esteem were badly damaged due to being neglected. I believe that Shuichi probably thought of himself as worthless because of how little love he received as a kid, and because of that lack of love Shuichi probably became desperate for any possible attention or approval he could get. Because of his unhealthy mindset, it’s possible that Shuichi turned to doing detective work for his uncle just so that he could receive praise from someone. I say this because it didn’t seem like Shuichi enjoyed his work all that much, at least not to the same level as Kirigiri. Because Shuichi felt worthless about himself, he turned to the field of crime solving so that he can make himself useful to one of his peers.
Shuichi’s self esteem is hit even harder when he comes across a murder case and discovers the culprit before any of the authority could. While this feat is highly impressive, Shuichi felt ashamed of himself because of the sympathetic circumstances surrounding the killer’s crime. In Shuichi’s eyes, he convicted someone whose crimes were justified. Shuichi didn’t feel proud for his deductions, he felt horrible about himself. He honestly believed that he never should have exposed the killer, and because he did his self-hatred only amplified. Looking at his backstory, we can see that Shuichi finds both himself and his talent to be worthless to him.
We now enter Chapter 1 where Shuichi first meets Kaede Akamatsu, an optimistic, friendly, and cheerful girl who takes the role of the leader pretty quickly in the story. Kaede takes an immediate interest in Shuichi’s talent and encourages and supports him throughout the chapter. This feeling of approval and recognition that Shuichi craves for is given by Kaede, which makes Shuichi develop a strong emotional attachment.
However, tragedy strikes when Kaede helps Shuichi expose the truth: that she killed Rantaro Amami. Shuichi’s biggest fear of confronting the truth rears its ugly head yet again for him when he sends Kaede, someone who was always thankful and supportive of him, to her death.
I feel that the beginning of Chapter 2 was when Shuichi was at his lowest. Shuichi is no longer willing to pursue the mastermind because he’s likely worried that he will cause another death to occur. What makes Shuichi’s confidence even worse is that he believes that he was fully responsible for letting Kaede attempt a murder plan. If you interact with the shot put balls and the vent in Chapter 2, you will find that Shuichi is beating himself over the fact that he allowed Kaede to try and kill the mastermind. He says things like “If I wasn’t so careless, maybe things would have been different.” Shuichi is falling into the same path as he did with his first case in blaming himself for another person’s crimes. He is feeding into his self-hatred.
Thankfully, Kaito notices Shuichi’s weakness and goes out to help him through his depression. Kaito and Kaede both share similar qualities in how supporting and charismatic they can be to others and it’s the right kind of person that Shuichi needs in his time of crisis. So like Kaede, Shuichi becomes emotionally attached to Kaito’s advice, even following with Kaito’s philosophy in the second trial. And even when Kaito refers to him as something somewhat degrading as “sidekick”, Shuichi doesn’t really mind because he is just thankful that someone is there to support and compliment him. And this support is extremely vital to Shuichi’s development in this chapter.
During the Chapter 2 trial, Kaito plays a huge part in not only helping Shuichi recognize his abilities as the Ultimate Detective, but to also not have to carry the burdens of exposing the culprit. Firstly, Kaito constantly rewards Shuichi’s deductions throughout the trial which would have made Shuichi feel extremely happy about himself given that he want acknowledgement. Secondly, Kaito gives Shuichi the courage to not blame himself over Kirumi’s conviction. When Kirumi reveals her motive, any hope in the room is eradicated and is replaced by concern over the future of the country, with some even thinking that they should have been the ones to die.
Shuichi is falling into the same unhealthy habit as he did with his two previous cases. He doesn’t feel proud of his deductions, he feels terrible and is putting all the blame on himself when it was Kirumi’s fault. That is until Kaito steps in:
Kaito’s role in this chapter was vital to Shuichi moving forward. Not only did Kaito give Shuichi the reassurance he needed to help him recognize his talent as the Ultimate Detective, but he also helped Shuichi overcome his unhealthy tendency to blame himself for the actions of others. From this point on, Kaito’s and Kaede’s advice gave Shuichi the motivation to confront his biggest fear: exposing the truth.