Danganronpa: The Animation

Danganronpa: The Animation (ダンガンロンパ: The Animation), full Japanese title ダンガンロンパ 希望の学園と絶望の高校生 (Dangan Ronpa: Kibō no Gakuen to Zetsubō no Kōkōsei), is an close, but abridged, adaptation of the first Danganronpa game, Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc.

It was announced in Spring 2013 by Lerche. The Japanese voice actors returned for the anime. A promotional video for the anime was released at ACE2013.

FUNimation confirmed the rights for North America in 2013 and will be streaming in their official website.

Promotion
The anime was first teased on December 2012, Kadokawa Shoten's Newtype magazine announced that there would be an anime television series adaptation of the game, titled Danganronpa: The Animation, produced by Lerche and directed by Seiji Kishi.

On April 24, 2013, an illustration contest was announced on pixiv to commemorate the PSP game getting adapted into an anime. To enter, participants must draw a character/characters from the first game. Winners would be picked by the Danganronpa staff and the overall winner will be awarded autographs from Seiji Keshi, Makoto Uezu, Kazuaki Morita and Rui Komatsuzaki, along with official merchandise and all winners will have their work printed into the pixiv x Danganronpa: The Animation Illustration Collection (temporary title) art book. The contest ended on the 21st of May at midnight.

hagi was announced to be the grand prize winner on July 3, 2013 with her entry 弾丸論破. 40 runner up winners were also announced.

A number of posters with the characters were also displayed over the country and a large van advertising the anime release was also seen. An exhibition was also held on August 6 until August 18 at Akihabara UDX entitled "Danganronpa Kibougamine Academy ‘Become a Student’ Exhibition". The exhibition features merchandise from both games, including a preview of a Nendoroid of Makoto Naegi and life size stands from the school trials.

A second anime series, titled Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School, aired between July and September 2016. The series concludes the "Hope's Peak Academy" storyline and is split into two parts; Future Arc which takes place after Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, and Despair Arc, which takes place prior to the events of Trigger Happy Havoc. Seiji Kishi once again directed the series at Lerche, while Norimitsu Kaihō wrote the screenplay.

DVD Release
The anime was released on DVD & Blu-Ray with the first part being released on August 28. Both the Blu-Ray and DVD come in special edition versions which include Makoto Naegi's Worst Day Ever, a short story based around Makoto Naegi, trading cards, a CD of the opening theme and a 16 page booklet of the character designs.

On December 31, 2014, FUNimation revealed they acquired the home video rights to Danganronpa and released it on Blu-ray & DVD on November 10, 2015 with an English dub.

On April 4, 2015 at Sakura-Con, FUNimation Entertainment announced the English dub cast of the anime. After some uproar over the casting, a post came about, stating that FUNimation were originally going to reveal the English dub of the series much earlier but as the game adaptation was already going to be dubbed, it was postponed until further notice. When FUNimation launched the series on BD/DVD on November 10, 2015, featuring a different English dub cast from the game, while Manga Entertainment released the series in the United Kingdom on November 9, 2015.

TV Stations
Times subject to change

Distribution
The anime was well recieved in various countries all over the world, it received a license in various countries all over the world such as: North America, Europe, Australia, China, Taiwan, and South Asia.

FUNimation licensed the anime in 2013 for North America and Europe. They later announced the home rights release in 2014. They began to stream a dubbed version on 2015.

FilmConfect gained rights to distribute the Danganronpa: The Animation in 2016, and began releasing volumes of the dubbed and subbed anime on Blu-Ray and DVD in September 2016. The fourth and final volume, however, was the subject of heavy delays due to an ongoing pay dispute between FilmConfect and Franciska Friede, who voices Kyoko Kirigiri. As a result, in the final volume Kyoko's voice was re-dubbed by Johanna Dost

Animax Asia broadcasted the anime on TV on October 2015 for South Asia territores.

Trivia

 * Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair was originally going to have a anime adaption until it was replaced by Danganronpa 3.
 * The English language dub began as early as the first trailer for Funimation's dub of The Animation, and as such, NIS America and Funimation's localizations were occuring concurrently, which is why there are discrepancies between how certain things, such as character name romanization and the voice cast, differed between the first game and the Funimation localization of the anime. This lead to backlash from fans of the franchise due to feeling Funimation were not being faithful to the original. Nevertheless, Funimation kept it's localization style consistant when later localizing Danganronpa 3, which is why the official Funimation title of that series is "Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's High School" rather than Hope's Peak Academy.
 * In FUNimation's dub, they replaced all the voice actors except for Bryce Papenbrook.
 * This ultimately causes Komaru Naegi to have three different English voices. Weirdly enough, according to the DVD commentary, Cherami Leigh was getting married at the time of recording, leading to Alexis Tipton voicing Komaru for the few lines she had. This indirectly lead to Rachel Robinson (friends with Leigh) voicing Sakura due to being in town at the time.

Links

 * Anime Official Site
 * Danganronpa: The Animation on FUNimation.com
 * German Official Site
 * Taiwan Official Site