Super Danganronpa 2.5: Komaeda Nagito to Sekai no Hakaisha

*SPOILERS FOR DANGANRONPA 2 THE GAME AND DANGANRONPA 3 THE ANIME*

A lot of Danganronpa fans will be pissed, I can tell you this much already.
This short OVA presents one of the events that took place after Super Danganronpa 2, most likely during the events of Danganronpa 3- Mirai-hen. More specifically it showcases exactly how did the rest of the 77th class got out of the Neo World Program. Without spoiling anything, it's a pretty reasonable explanation of both what happened with the people eliminated from the game and how did they get out, but it does have its own share of plot holes, which was ... unavoidable. I'm glad that they did this, rather than leave the fans creating theories forever, but, from what we've seen in Danganronpa 3, we already know they don't care all that much about believability.
The art style is the same as in the anime that it's a part of (Danganronpa 3), and the music consists of tracks from the second game, such as "DIVE DRIVE" and "CROSS SWORD", that weren't used in the previous anime installments. It's nice to hear them being brought here, even if they're just pretty short, fan service cameos.
With all that being said, any Danganronpa fan should watch this, just for the sake of it. If you want to know how did the author explain himself from the massive plothole, this is it. It's always good to have more Danganronpa, especially when Nagito is the main character. Be sure to give it a shot.

[SPOILERS...whatever, y'know the drill already.]

Oh, good. The last of the Danganronpa 3 stuff. Let's end this once and for all so I can FINALLY get on with Danganronpa V3.

Story: 5/10

This...is just pointless all around. Like, there's so much going on in this 25 minute long mess that it's hard to describe. You got a Love Plot, a Revenge Plot, and then a 'it's all a dream' type of thing at the end. It's just...nonsensical. Nagito acts REALLY out of character at some points of this OVA, which is RIDICULOUS considering HOW Nagito is in the games and it's just jarring to see here. The other ... characters act all right (except for Makoto Naegi in the beginning with Sayaka, which just left me baffled and mad at the same time...can't really say WHY they did that other than for cheap, crappy comedic effect, but ok) but I don't really get why they made Hajime the way they did here, he could've...just told Nagito that he needs him to help people or something but no, 'let's just kill him basically', even if that's NOT how that works in the game. At least the ending ties in how the heck the DR2 cast was able to help with the DR1/Hope Arc characters in DR3 but still...not good at all.

Art: 7/10

Yeah, it's fine just like the rest of the Danganronpa stuff. All the characters have their looks from Danganronpa recycled and it's just...fine. Nothing else really to say here other than the fact it's just more Danganronpa 3 art.

Sound: 7/10

Uses songs from the soundtrack and the voices sounds fine though, even if Nagito ends up sounding EXACTLY like Makoto in some parts (can't help that the Japanese VA voices BOTH of them though.) The voices are okay though otherwise. Nothing really special here to report.

Overall: 6/10

This just...isn't all that interesting or needed. Could've removed the goofy parts of the OVA and if they maybe focused on EXPLAINING everything a little more with the world and Nagito's TRUE feelings about it, then it would maybe be a 7, but as it is...this is just meh. Danganronpa fans only obviously...god help me for when I play V3...

Danganronpa 2.5 is an OVA that features Nagito Komaeda as the main character while following him through his dream in the Neo World Program until he wakes up. That is pretty much the summary you need to know.
As a big Danganronpa fan, I was highly interested in the events that happened after Hinata Hajime and the others woke up from the Neo World Program and what happened to the others that were still asleep. I’ve read with all honestly, many fanfictions that had the ‘What happened when they were still sleeping and what did the others do to help them wake up’- topic. And I ... swear, all of them were overall better written and more logical than this OVA, that we even have to accept as cannon.
But with no further adue, I will get to the category ratings that MAL wants me to do.
Story 2/10
I wouldn’t even call this a story. It shouldn’t even be called a script. It is just a half-done script made into an anime. This shouldn’t even be called an anime. It is just moving art. With voices.
It is just a premise that was executed. Poorly to that.
Art 4/10
Danganronpa 3 didn’t have bad art. It actually had decent art, and animated it actually looked pretty cool. I am also used to better work from Lerche. The art doesn’t look bad on its own, but at some points, I was just baffled at how different a character suddenly looked from a time difference of mere seconds. The Danganronpa characters already looked very different from their ingame ego, but here they look especially different. In a bad way.
Sound 5/10
Danganronpa, especially Danganronpa 2 is very well liked for its OST. While listening to this OVA I identified many of the well-known and also well liked OST of the games. But it is distracting. At some point I even thought the background sound was too loud and overplayed the by the way terrible voice acting. If that was on purpose may or may be not the case.
For the voice acting they at least managed to get all the voice actors of the characters of the game. Too bad that the lip sync isn’t in sync with the voice acting most of the time. The voice acting felt also very soulless. It just felt the actors wanted to get done with it. Megumi Ogata can do better, I know this.
Direction 2/10
This is not a category MAL wants to be rated but I have to talk about it. Directing is the choice where to put the camera and how it moves. In this OVA we get the typical mediocre Directing. Characters faces are seen up close 90% of the time, while the camera just swipes to left and right. Sometimes there are still shots. This is all in favor of keeping the budget/work as low as possible. And it feels like it.
Too bad the art looks bad so when there is a still shot it all just looks ‘meh’.
Character 5/10
The characters featured in this OVA are Komaeda, Sonia, Souda, Kuzuryuu and a little bit of Pekoyama. We also get a little comedy act at the beginning of the OVA for OOC Naegi and Maizono. To this OVAs luck, Sonia and Kuzuryuu are my favourite characters from the game, and at least their Komaedas dream persona is not too OOC and actually acceptable. The only characters who act OOC are Komaeda – which is in favor of the ‘plot’ – and Naegi and Maizono. We get to see other characters from the Danganronpa game Another Episode and the Novel Danganronpa Zero too. But these are just very few seconds of screen time, without them doing anything significant. In a still shot.
Enjoyment and Overall Opinion
This OVA is as significant as Danganronpa 3 Despair Arcs Kamukura Izuru. He existed. He did something. But it was overall worthless, boring, terribly executed and nothing we couldn’t have written a better fanfiction of. It is just a little fanservice for the fans. Is this something bad? Not really, but it is baffling to the fans who actually wanted something out of the little bit of story left, that wasn’t ruined by the letdown that was Danganronpa 3 – The anime, yet.
Overall my Enjoyment was a 4/10.
But on a critical level this OVA is worthless and skip able - therefore a 2/10.