Danganronpa Re:Birth

**Danganronpa Re:Birth**Gallery

***Danganronpa Re:Birth*** (ダンガンロンパ -Re:Birth-) is a fake *Danganronpa* game concept created as an April Fool's joke by Miwashiba, later developed into a one chapter video series.

## Gallery

📷 For more images from the series, see Danganronpa Re:Birth/Image Gallery.

## Plot Summary

**＊The following is from the project's Tumblr, @Eipronpa**
**＊Much of the translation below was provided by @kaibutsushidousha**

Like *Danganronpa*, there are some people in the world who possess a "Super High School Level" grade skill. However, not everyone wants to go down the road of being burdened with their talent, which might limit what their future holds for them. Additionally, there is a fear that certain talents may be misused for evil purposes such as murder. As such, the "Talent Removal Project" (才能解放計画) emerges.

Kaihō Gakuen (戒峰学園 / ｶｲﾎｳｶﾞｸｴﾝ, a pun on *Danganronpa*s 希望ヶ峰学園 *Kibōgamine Gakuen*) is built, along with 30 other school buildings, in which a student can either volunteer to enter or be volunteered by a family member. Volunteered students are interviewed by school officials before admission, but people who are volunteered by a family member are forcibly admitted. A force similar to the Super High School Level Despair overthrows the school (later revealed to be Akira Tsuchiya), taking control of it, wiping the students memories of the Talent Removal Project, and forcing the students in each school building to perform a killing game. Because Akira tampered with the students' memories before their talent was fully removed, the students talents are still present, but they are not able to use their talents to their usual skill level.

The story begins with the protagonist, Ayumu Fujimori, waking up in the nurse's office of a place they are unfamiliar with. They discover they are inside Kaihō Gakuen, where after meeting all the other students, they find out all the students have been transferred there and sealed inside the building. The students meet the A.I. Monodora (モノドラ), a floating Monokuma-like head with cat ears, a tail, and a gold bell. Monodora introduces themself as the high school's president, and tells the students that they are now to be involved in a Mutual Killing Game. After a murder is committed, a Class Trial will be held, where the murderer, "Kuro" (クロ Black) will have to defend themselves against the "Shiro" (シロ White), and try to convince the other students that someone else was the murderer. If they are successful, they will be allowed to leave. If they fail, they will be executed.

## Creation and Development

*Danganronpa Re:Birth* was created and developed for an April Fool's Day prank over a period of 1 1/2 months by Miwashiba. Miwashiba had previously created indie games such as Alice mare, 1bitHeart, and the LiEat series. Miwashiba has stated that there were no plans to develop this game further than what has currently been released however, they later began serializing the prologue and first chapter in text format on their blog after receiving so much interest in their story.

The site was launched on April 1, 2017, with "in-game" videos featuring music, a fully voiced cast, and sprites for each character. The art style, graphics, and website design were such a close facsimile of the *Danganronpa* style that there was much speculation online - particularly from English-speaking fans who did not have the benefit of understanding the untranslated website - that the game was genuine, or was a prank being pulled by Spike Chunsoft itself.

The site was featured in gaming website Gematsu's round-up of April Fool's pranks, where they praised the website for being "remarkably well done".

### Later Series

Due to popularity and positive feedback, Miwasiba decided to create a series of videos following a *Danganronpa* chapter. On July 16, 2017 the video was released. It is part one of three for all of Chapter 1. A video teaser for part one of the two part trial (Part Two of Chapter 1 overall) was posted on July 16, 2017, and later on July 22, 2017 the full video was released.

### Music

The song which plays during "gameplay" in the videos is a track called Beatiful for Lie created by Tezuka (テヅカ) also known as @aboutlogic.

## Videos

P5 VITA『ダンガンロンパ-Re Birth-』プロモーションムービー*Danganronpa Re:Birth* Trailer
**(Released: April 1, 2017)**【DRRB】ダンガンロンパ-Re Birth- 裁判（前編）【非公式二次創作】Chapter 1 Class Trial
First Half
**(Released: September 12, 2017)**【DRRB】ダンガンロンパ-Re Birth- 裁判（後編）【非公式二次創作】Chapter 1 Class Trial
Last Half
**(Released: September 30, 2018)**

### Character Introductions

ダンガンロンパ-Re Birth- 自己紹介動画（藤森歩&淀川星志）Ayumu Fujimori & Seishi Yodogawaダンガンロンパ-Re Birth- 自己紹介動画（伊月弥琴）Mikoto Itsukiダンガンロンパ-Re Birth- 自己紹介動画（古賀光成）Mitsunari Kogaダンガンロンパ-Re Birth- 自己紹介動画（氷室ニコ）Nico Himuroダンガンロンパ-Re Birth- 自己紹介動画（六道斎司&出雲かすみ）Saiji Rokudō & Kasumi Izumoダンガンロンパ-Re Birth- 自己紹介動画（神楽舞子）Maiko Kaguraダンガンロンパ-Re Birth- 自己紹介動画（土屋晃）Akira Tsuchiyaダンガンロンパ-Re Birth- 自己紹介動画（逢坂美鈴）Misuzu Aisakaダンガンロンパ-Re Birth- 自己紹介動画（大曽根成海）Narumi Ōsoneダンガンロンパ-Re Birth- 自己紹介動画（佐久間ケーゴ）Kēgo Sakumaダンガンロンパ-Re Birth- 自己紹介動画（轟木或真）Aruma Todorokiダンガンロンパ-Re Birth- 自己紹介動画（瑞田マリン）Marin Mizutaダンガンロンパ-Re Birth- 自己紹介動画（鮫島一臣）Kazuomi Samejima
## Unofficial Adaptation

Following the popularity of *Danganronpa Re:Birth* in the Western *Danganronpa* fandom, a English language fandubbing group named *Danganronpa Re:Birth Voices* (DRRBV) formed and created a blog with the intent to record in-character audio responses to fan messages and record dubs of *Danganronpa Re:Birth* fan comics. The blog was created on April 7th, 2017, and posted a number of character introduction recordings in the days that followed. A month later on May 20th, 2017 the group announced that they had a fully voiced class trial in the works , which was later launched on July 14th, 2017.

The fan group's project features the original cast of *Danganronpa Re:Birth*, though it is only loosely based on the original and features a new, original storyline. As it was written and produced at the same time as Miwashiba's first class trial, it features a very different plot outcome, and is essentially an alternate universe. The first class trial, fully released on YouTube in three parts on July 14th, 2017, was an audio-only drama using Miwashiba's original sprites as well as new artwork and sprites the fan group made themselves. Since its release, the first chapter received over 125,000 views on YouTube. After releasing the trial, the group released a series of "Meet the Ultimates" character introduction videos, which resembled those originally created by Miwashiba.

Due to the popularity of the first chapter, the project pivotted to producing a full, official-style second chapter, which was launched on April 1st, 2018 . This second chapter, titled "Chapter 2 - Beneath the Surface lies a Deadly Sin", consists of a six parts: a three part Daily Life section, and a three part video class trial, totalling approximately four hours of video. As with the first chapter, the second chapter is fully voiced, but attempts to replicate the visual style of the original *Danganronpa* games rather than using static images. It features a *Danganronpa* style UI, an original soundtrack, original cutscene artwork, and many additional fanmade sprites of the cast, all created by the group. The assets for the class trial set itself were given to the DRRBV group by Miwashiba themself.

In the future, the group had planned to create additional chapters, with the third chapter estimated to be completed by mid-late 2019. They also planned to write and produce a remake of their original first chapter in the visual style of the second, with the addition of a Daily Life segment.

### Cancellation

On July 21st, 2019, the *Voices* team announced the project would be cancelled, as a result of Miwashiba asking to sever their partnership. At the beginning of their project, Miwashiba had agreed to allow the team to use their creations' name, characters and materials on the understanding that it would be entirely non-profit, in order to avoid potential legal action that Miwashiba may face if Spike Chunsoft found someone creating unofficial *Danganronpa* works for financial gain. Despite their agreement with Miwashiba, the Voices team announced that they were planning a stream in order to raise funds for the vet bills of a team member's cat, which was suffering from Feline Infectious Peritonitis. To encourage viewers to donate, the stream was intended to include a Q&A with the team, taking voice acting requests from the DRRBV characters, and other content, and as such featured Miwashiba's original characters and the *Danganronpa Re:Birth* name. In their public statement about the project's cancellation, DRRBV explained that the stream had been a "last straw" in a list of concerns that Miwashiba has had since their project's inception, and although they had been able to negotiate and compromise their way around issues with Miwashiba in the past, this event could only be resolved by them cancelling the project in order to respect Miwashiba's wishes to avoid legal problems.

After the cancellation announcement, the *Voices* team released a number of unused art assets and planned future plot details on their discord server, but have not posted them publicly on any of their social media.

## Trivia

* Maiko's execution translates into "*The Red Shoes*" (あかいくつ, 超高校級のダンサー 神楽舞子処刑執行). It is fairy tale about a peasant girl who is forced to wear red shoes that won't stop dancing until her feet are cut off in reference to her talent.

## External Links

* **Game Homepage**: danganronpa.soragoto.net
* **Tumblr**: Official Resources Tumblr **@Eipronpa**
* **Twitter**: Creator/Developer **@MiwasibaS**
* **Tumblr**: Creator/Developer **@miwashiba**

## References

1. ↑  : "*皆で楽しくなれるよ　予想以上の反響頂いてありがとうございました～～～中々走った一ヶ月半だったけどよかった*"  (1st April 2017)
2. ↑  : "*Sorry, this is April Fools. There are no plans.*"  (31st March 2017)
3. ↑ The script for the prologue and Chapter 1. (Japanese only)
4. ↑ Gematsu's April Fool's Day 2017 compilation
5. ↑  : "*【DRRB】ダンガンロンパ-Re:Birth- Part1【非公式二次創作】 (37:35) http://nico.ms/sm31542763 #sm31542763 これは自己紹介動画まとめである*"  (17th July 2017)
6. ↑  : "*💞DRRB裁判動画【前半1/2】7月22日（土）投稿予定です！宣伝PVにてボイス初登場のモノドラCVはmegaさんにお願いしております。お楽しみに！（カッコイイアレンジBGMはテヅカさんだよ #DRRB*"  (17th July 2017)
7. ↑  : "*【DRRB】ダンガンロンパ-Re:Birth- Part2【非公式二次創作】 (33:43) http://nico.ms/sm31602860 #sm31602860 DRRB、裁判パート1/2公開となりました！よろしくお願いします。　#DRRB*"  (22nd July 2017)
8. ↑ **DRRBV Tumblr:** Launch of @danganronparebirth-voices
9. ↑ **DRRBV Youtube:** Danganrebirth-voices - Class Trial trailer
10. ↑ **DRRBV Youtube:** Chapter 1, Class Trial Part 1
11. ↑ **DRRBV Youtube:** Chapter 2, Daily Life Part 1
12. ↑ **DRRBV Curious Cat:** Discussion of developing with Aviutl
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 **DRRBV Twitter:** August Update Log
14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 **DRRBV Twitter:** The End of Danganrebirth-Voices
15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 **DRRBV Twitter:** The End of Danganrebirth-Voices (Full Message)