Here is another one of my storyexplanations. I've been having trouble with internet connections atmy place, since my wifi is the hotspot on my phone. Without phoneservice, I got no internet and the phone service has been actingwonky. For now, I will talk about chapter 1, which is the start ofthe killing game technically. Just like last time, I will try not toget into any spoiler territory or go far from what is in chapter 1.

Instead of creating a pattern of whichcharacter's story will go first to last, I had decided to let thisdepend on whom I think would flow better before going to the othertwo teams. In the Prologue, it was pretty simple, since everyone wasin the same room and I just had to go in the order of which characterwould start before finishing off with Kumuchi. It made more sense inthe context of the story, since Keebo would start, to set up thestory, Kaede would lay out the situation of what is to happen thenon, and then Kumuchi would finish with putting in detail that non ofthe other characters would know like Shuichi being alive and herhaving pretended to be a boy during the entire game. This time, Iwould start with Kumuchi, since her and Shuichi have to split andfind Kaito, Maki and Gonta. This would follow by Kaede, who wouldfollow up on what happened after she and Rantaro were the first tosplit, then Keebo would fill in the blank. Each part of Chapter 1lays out the groundwork that they will sometimes crossover with eachother. It's expected that each part takes place in the same time.This is why it's important that I post three parts on the same day Iupdate.

What's interesting about Kumuchi's teamis that even though she's forced to team up with people she seriouslydoesn't want to team up with, not including Gonta, it somehow worksin her favor. Each team kinda follows the band of five. For thosethat don't know what the Band of Five trope is, basically eachcharacter in the band of five has a certain role they play: theleader, lancer, heart, brains and muscle. Sometimes they cross, butthe setting is still there. You may even notice in some teams, thehostages make up some of the band of five role. For instance, inKaede's Team, Norio Saihara plays the brains. Even each leader playsan overall role in the band of five. Shuichi is the lancer andbrains, Kaede is the heart, Keebo is the muscle and Kumuchi is theleader. What's interesting about this version of the band of five ishow much I play with it and go beyond what normal shows or animes dowith this trope.

I'm sure you've noticed, but there aretwo leaders in the band of five that are girls. Usually, when womenplay the leader, they have a very tough and masculine vibe to them inorder to stand out as a leader type. In this case, we have twofeminine leaders that never need to lose their femininity in order tostand out as a leader. It's because even though both these girls arefeminine, it is their skills as leaders that stand out. Kumuchi isable to think up off-the-wall plans, lead and protect the group.Considering neither Gonta, Kaito or Maki stand out as leader types,it makes perfect sense why they'd instantly turn to Kumuchi. WhileMaki does question Kaito's choice in trusting Kumuchi, whom shedoesn't know is Kokichi, it doesn't take long for her to realize whyKaito trusts Kumuchi. Her skills as a leader show more than herfeminine features or size. Kaede stands out as a leader with theability to look after her group and work with everyone. That alsostands out more than her femininity.

Something you may not notice, however,is the other roles like heart, which is often played by the mostfeminine, but seem to be played by unexpected characters in thisstory like Gonta, while Angie and Rantaro seem to go back and forth.Kaito unexpectedly becomes Kumuchi's lancer. Each character has aspecific role and works like a workplace. If one is gone, someone hasto take their spot. You will see this a lot. As one character dies,someone else has to fill in the role they each play as a character.It makes each team different from the normal band of five where ifone was gone, the team realizes that the team cannot function wellwithout the missing link. This version of the band of five challengesthat by proving that each team is able to strive without theirmissing link as each member dies. It's not to say each death isbrushed off, but it doesn't automatically mean that the entire teamor teams are doomed without the other. They can survive with whatthey have and must survive with what they have on hand.

Now, I want to talk about the newcharacters introduced here. We start with the first three members ofDICE and Shuichi's Uncle Norio Saihara. In the next chapter, it doesgo more into detail, but I wanted each member of DICE to have somesort of flaw that makes them stick out as someone intolerable. Manais a flirt, Kimiko is a hothead and Noboru is shy to the point ofawkwardness. They use this particular flaw in the same mannerKumuchi did as Kokichi. I will go more into detail when I start withchapter 2.

Kimiko is probably the only one thatwas willing to let her guard down in order to find and protect herlittle sister Kumuchi. The reason I had a DICE member be a sibling isbecause I thought it would be interesting and would go deep intoKumuchi's character and backstory. Mana and Noboru, on the otherhand, have not yet let their guard down. Other members of DICE arevery much like this where they let their one flaw make them seem onedimensional when there is more dimension to them than what they show.It's not to say non of them allowed their guard to be down. In thenext chapter, we will be introduced to another DICE character thatlets his guard down around one other particular character out of love(let's give him a little more credit and say that it's mostly mutuallove and not just his romantic crush on her).

Norio Saihara is the one that seems tostick out the most out of all the hostages introduced in chapter 1.Through him, we find out more on Shuichi's backstory, including hisparents. In most stories, they often show Shuichi's parents as beingneglectful parents or just being awful. Others will even show hisuncle being physically abusive. I thought I'd do something creativeand have Shuichi's parental drama be something that can't be a closedcase. It basically asks the question what would you do if youloved someone, who didn't love your child you created with said lovedone? In most cases, especially mothers, they would leave thelover and take the child with them. For Shuichi's father, however, hedoesn't just want to leave one person, he wants to have both and mostof us can relate to that, especially if you come from divorcedparents. Children instinctively want both parents, but are put in asituation where they are forced to choose one or the other. They maychoose one they think is the best, but sometimes it isn't. Shuichi'sfather made the choice to leave his son with his brother, while hetried to reconcile with his wife to bring his family back together.This is only to find out that leaving his son wasn't the best choice.It is a backstory that makes us think of what we would do in eithersituation.

The fight scenes, to me, wereinteresting. Chapter 1 is when we find out how each of the charactersfight the Monokumas and that there are loopholes. Many people havegrown confused, but even though each character has a forbiddenaction, they can find and use loopholes. For Kaede, even though shecan't use objects to fight or defend with, she is allowed to use bodyarmor, since she technically isn't using them, but wearingthem like clothes. This is also why Keebo isn't dead, despite hisforbidden action of using his robotic functions. Those do not includethe functions he uses to walk or function as a living robot. Shuichiis allowed to sync in with hostages and reveal he's alive as long asthey are not informed he ever died previously. Kirumi hadrevealed in the next chapter that she almost killed Shuichi, becauseof his forbidden action, but had found a loophole (I will go intothis when I talk about Chapter 2). At this point, I think all of youunderstand how loopholes work and that they are allowed to use them.Keep in mind that Monica wants to keep the game going or else it willbe boring.

Since Kumuchi is the Captain of theship, she gets a Captain Perk. I slightly based this idea off of theSurvivor Perk Rantaro had. Kumuchi has an advantage from beingcaptain. One of these is being able to gain weapons from certainareas of the ship. The first one was saw was from her room. She wasgiven a sling-shot with capsules that have certain elements. SinceMiu was one of the members of the Gofer Project that stayed thelongest, it made sense that she would build weapons for everyonebased on their specific talent. Kumuchi also has firecrackers andpieces of rocks from the rubble she finds on the ground. The idea ofKumuchi using a sling-shot and firecrackers came from Carrie Kelly'sRobin in The Dark Knight Returns Part 1 and 2 where those wereher main weapons.

As you have noticed from Chapter 1,Kaito starts out with already putting all of his trust on Kumuchiafter only knowing her for a few minutes. There is a reason for this,aside from his oh so wonderful belief in everyone. Even hisbelief in everyone has some basis to it. It's hinted in the flashbackat the end. You mostly have to read in between the lines, but thereis a meaning to that flashback and why Kaito said, "I wish youwere, though." He isn't being a jerk by saying that by the way andit will be explained later on in the story.

Speaking of perks, let me explain a biton the tablet each student has. It has a borderline gaming feel to itwhere there's always a main menu to go to in order to save, keeptrack of your supplies, etc. The tablet does the same thing. Inchapter 1, we find out the tablet keeps track of the survivingstudents and any forbidden action they have, if they're revealed tothe owner of the tablet. Shuichi's info isn't shown to the students,because they all think he's dead. His disguised character's profilewill show in chapter 2 once he's introduced. The tablet also showsthe map as much as where the character has been and the hostage tabto keep track of each character's hostages they're synced to. By theway, each student is allowed to be synced to multiple hostages. Sincethe hostages will die if the student does, it can backfire. If thehostage dies though, the student who is the loved one of the hostagedies. Another feature the tablet shows are the leaders of each teamand teach team leader gets a leader perk. I will go into detail ofthe leader perk when I talk about chapter 2.

One of the most touching parts of TeamKaede was when Ryoma tells Kirumi that he forgives her. To me, thisshows the middle ground of forgiveness, since it's alreadyestablished that Angie forgives Kiyo completely and Tenko doesn'tforgive Kiyo period. Ryoma shows a middle ground, where he forgives,but doesn't forget. At best, he learns something from Kirumimurdering him and that was that he did have loved ones, the 15students on Gofer. I figured that when Kirumi tried to drown Ryomathat perhaps he changed his mind about wanting to die. It's possibleit could've been his body instinctively reacting to survivalinstincts, but I think him changing his mind about wanting to die wassubtly hinted. At this point, Ryoma accepts the 15 students as hisnew family and will risk his life to protect them. At the same time,Ryoma teaches Kirumi that the famous saying the needs of the manyoutweigh the needs of the few can have its flaws. By sacrificingRyoma's and her classmates' lives for her country, Kirumi hadneglected how precious her classmates' lives were. The needs of anylife, regardless of the number, are equally as important as one life. So, if there's a train about to crush ten people and there's afat man on the train, if you truly believe the famous quote, thensacrifice your own damn life so the fat man and ten people can live.

One of the things I wanted to touch onin chapter 1 was Miu's relationship with Kumuchi during the time shewas Kokichi. I've always felt there was more to the story andKokichi's claim about tricking Gonta to kill Miu was perhaps a lie initself to make himself or herself look like a villain. Miu goes moreinto detail with explaining that Kumuchi never tricked Gonta. Her andMiu were planning to create an unsolvable murder in the VR, but itwent wrong when Gonta was trying to protect her. I will go more intodetail in a later chapter. Though, for now, what you can understandabout Miu and Kumuchi is that they trusted each other and were veryclose. The closer they became, the farther their relationship wasfrom everyone else, due to Tsumugi's manipulation. Neither one ofthem could trust anybody, due to the killing game. This is myheadcanon for their relationship, if Danganronpa V3 was in the sameuniverse and the first two games.

Lastly, I want to go into Rantaro'ssisters in general. I will go into each of their characters later. Iintroduced them as a group, because I felt that they would want tostick together as a family. The reason we see DICE split up isbecause they work based on what they were trained to do. They were anorganization that stole food to give to starving children. Theyfunction to work together, while split up. Rantaro's sisters don'tfunction that way. They function better when they are together, sosplitting up will become challenging for them.

With each member of DICE found, we willalways see that non of them are alone or with just DICE members.There's always someone with them. With the first three, we saw themwith Norio Saihara. The second we saw with Keiko in Chapter 2. Therewill be more detail on why those particular members chose to be withthose particular people. Again, let's give Tobe a little more creditand say he wasn't just with Keiko, because she's a pretty blond girlthat looks like a barbie doll and hopes to win her love or whatever.DICE functions almost like a police force and function as a team forthe sake of their mission. This is why in Chapter 2, Kirumi didn'tgive Shuichi a DICE member to protect him. Think of DICE working likeMission Impossible.

Anyways, that's about all I can sayabout chapter 1. I will go into farther details when talking aboutchapter 2, especially the new characters introduced. Anyways, thankyou for reading and I will see ya guys later.