Danganronpa: The Animation is based upon the PSP, Vita and iOS game of the same name. It follows the exact same story in which we see the main character, Makoto, as he is invited into Hope's Peak Academy, the most prestigious school that there can be. Once there, he gets knocked out and wakes up to find fourteen other students in the same situation. All the windows are sealed with steel plates and the exits barred. Their headmaster appears to be a robot controlled bear called Monokuma who informs them that the only way to get out of here (i.e. "graduate") was to murder a fellow student... and get away with it.
The animation follows the plot of its source material closely and being only 13 episodes long, there isn't any filler at all. However, it actually does the opposite and breezes through the murder cases way too fast. Usually, only one episode is dedicated to setting up the murder; then the next will be the investigation and class trial to unveil the murderer. This means that there is nowhere near enough time for the viewers to grow attached to the characters before they are killed off. It also skips over many of the small talk between characters that happen in the game, this means that we don't get to see much of each characters' unique habits, personalities and what drives them.
Next, the investigations are very rushed; we're often presented with numerous evidence in quick succession int he space of something like 30 seconds. We don't get to hear the character's thought process on what each piece of evidence means, therefore we don't get the chance to try and piece together the murder ourselves. It also has the disadvantage of when the class trial comes, being confused when Makoto uses a piece of evidence to counter someone's statement when you aren't familiar with the evidence in the first place. All this means that the animation lacks the suspense and intensity of the game's atmosphere. The way the animators managed to incorporate some of the game elements into the class trials were interesting but the trial themselves are all over the place, sometimes seemingly jumping to conclusions (in the interest of time).
These trials also omit a lot of evidence and character dialogue which provide greater backstory, this is more noticeable in the final trials. No matter what though, the ending was still amazing and was worthwhile even though a lot of the guesswork and build-up was skipped. Annoyingly and true to its source material, it does not reveal one of the biggest mysteries it had presented, instead leaving us with a cliffhanger. Overall, Danganronpa: The Animation is an average anime and a good adaptation of the game; however, it would have done itself more justice if only it spent the time on building up the mystery and suspense before giving us the revelations.
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