ダンガンロンパ/ゼロ 1 [Danganronpa/Zero 1]

Danganronpa/Zero #1

by Kazutaka Kodaka, Rui Komatsuzaki (Illustrator), 小高和剛

二氏激賞!!
虚淵玄「新たなサイコスリラー界のスーパーヴィランとして完成」
奈須きのこ「毒薬」

『才能こそ人類にとっての希望』との理念に則り、《超高校級》の才能ばかりを集めた私立希望ヶ峰学園史上最大最悪の事件……。記憶を失い続ける女子高生・音無涼子(おとなしりょうこ)と、《超高校級の神経学者》松田夜助(まつだやすけ)に迫る“危機”と“絶望”の行方は――!?
全ミステリーファンを沸騰させた傑作ゲーム『ダンガンロンパ』の目眩く“前日譚”を、担当シナリオライター・小高和剛が自ら小説化。

サイコポップ、ここに始まる――!

Genres: Light Novel, Manga, Mystery, Fiction, Horror, Crime, Video Games

256 pages, Paperback

First published September 16, 2011

About the author

Kazutaka Kodaka (小高和剛) is a Japanese video game creator and writer. He is the creator and scenario writer of the Danganronpa series. He is a former employee of Spike Chunsoft and the co-founder of TooKyo Games game developer studio.

Reviews

[Every · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really really really love Danganronpa. The games, the anime, and because of this I was super hyped when I found out that there were also novels.
Problem: I don't speak Japanese.
Solution: Read a fan-translated version.
Second problem caused by solution: I can't be sure if I just dislike the way the story was written, or I just had a really unskilled translator.

The writing style made it too hard to properly read: the main character has some kind of short therm memory loss, which wouldn't be that annoying if she hadn't had the urge to keep reminding herself and the reader. Her obsession with the main lead is just weird though it reminds me of Touko and Byakuya (my favourite love/hate relationship) this particular relationship is just yuck.

It did have some positive points, which earns it three stars: Junko Enoshima was spot on. Her different personalities shine right through and she is completely out of her mind. Perfect. Same goes for Kirigiri, really in character.
It also adds another spot of WTF in the series, which is always nice.
I do surely hope I might be able to understand book two just a liiiitle bit more

[Kenchiin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recommended for every fan of Danganronpa, for sure.

[Tomas Elizondo · Rating 1 out of 5]

I liked the game, but this has to be the worst novel I've ever read.

Characters have no purpose in their life other than being part of the story. Therefore they fall really flat. I had a really hard time trying to care about any of them, and more than anything they really bothered me. With the only exception of some (not all) of the appearances of Kirigiri Kyoko whom I already liked from the game.

The plot makes very little sense. It's very forced and it's not even good. The story goes really slowly, and takes an unnecessary amout of time to get absolutely nowhere. Most of the novel except for the end really has no purpose whatsoever in terms of plot, and given that the non-plot elements of this novel are so bad, I don't know why most of it was even written other that to waste pages.

The writing style especially is extremely bad. Some of it could be attributed to the translation, but I don't know to what extent. Some of it is in first person, and some is in third. The narrator arbitrarily changes from being bound to a character to being omniscient, and that's independently of being first or third person. There is a particularly bad chapter where we are given the feelings and thoughts of two different characters SIMULTANEOUSLY. What kind of narrator even is that?

I don't recommend reading this at all. If you are interested in it because of the games, read only the first chapter and then skip directly to the last 50 pages of the second novel, you really need nothing more.

[Vlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a fellow Dangan Ronpa anime watcher and game player, I was delighted to find out there was a paper version of it. I normally like watching the animation FIRST then reading the manga, but I was disappointed that I did not read this sooner.

Behold, the manga in all its glory, is right here. I suggest you stop reading whatever book you're reading and read this.

The plot is very unique, compared to the other mystery manga or anime. It may be confusing at times, especially towards the end, but everything will click into one whole piece. As for the characters, I love how they are described by the title, 'Ultimate Highschool ___________" They could be Ultimate Highschool Baseballer, Ultimate Highschool Model, or anything. They have their own little backstory that explains how they act during different situations or pressure.

If you're done reading Book 1, buy Book 2. Then Book 3, Book 4- BUY THE WHOLE ENTIRE SERIES.

[Aneko · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't really want to say it, since I'm currently kind of Danganronpa obsessed, but... I can't really bring myself to like any of these 'new' characters.
Actually, slash that, I want to punch both Yasuke and Kamishiro in the face and give Ryouko a cup of cocoa and THEN punch her in the face. Kyouko's appearance kind of saved this for me.

[Hessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story is great and so are the characters! I think the translation is kinda bad and messed up which ruined the beauty of the LN a little bit for me other than that everything is fine.

[faustyna。 (lekkidramat) · Rating 3 out of 5]

kocham gry, kocham to uniwersum.

danganronpę zero pewnie też bym pokochała, gdybym nie przeczytała tego w fanowskim tłumaczeniu, bo w tej formie mało zrozumiałam przez błędy.

to brzmi jak challenge: nauka japońskiego.

[Siknakaliux · Rating 1 out of 5]

The most prevalent and recognized side media in the series and somehow has never received a localization. Oh well. The plot is simple: An alternate personality, Otonoashi Ryoko is an amnesiac student somehow in HPA and the story essentially tells bits and pieces of how she orients herself throughout the school with her notebook, her meetings with her boyfriend Matsuda Yasuke, his attempts to "cure" her condition with that plan having ulterior motives as well as brief moments with the schools operations such as the Steering Committee and how they do things.

As light novels go, I'd say this is generic in terms of quality and structure. Yes we get a bit of plot and how it ties into the games and events overall but I'll focus on the overall writing style. Is it good? Slightly. It's alright at most parts, but the obnoxious exaggeration of sound effects and dialog really gets to me most times and not only that it's constantly repeated, leading to some irritation and some reduction in IQ. Notable examples:

- "Matsuda Matsuda Matsuda Matsuda Matsuda Matsuda Matsuda Matsuda."
- "Siiiiigh...... Zzzzzzzzzz... Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz......GYAAAAAAAAH!"
- "―M...Matsuda! C‘mon, Matsudaaaa!!"
- "I turned my eyes down to my notebook following Enoshima-san‘s urges, and then – SMASH! FWOOOOSH! CRACK! WHOOP! SWISH! TATATATATA!"

...You get the point. Essentially the MC's repitition of "Matsuda" on the scale far too often grated my eyes, and as such the sentence should have easily been written differently. The characters, some having less papertime than others are written in a simplistic and straightforward way, with little additional info being presented and as such, take up mostly by dialog. Everything else about the light novel is simplistic and lackluster, with dialog being the dominant factor of character interactions and events and scenes written simplistically with little descriptions as well as the overuse of sound effects literally being written out.

As for fanmade "localization" attempts, many people have shot their attempt at translation and the results are mostly the same, if not similar. You can translate and interpret as many times as you want and the result wouldn't change. The main structure of the story is inheritally shoddy and of lower quality in terms of detail and structure, which essentially is basic enough for anyone to read and any claims of "mistranslation" and the like are full of crap anyway.
Overall it's an ok read, and the story does expand on DR's storyline as well as the introductions of some new/LN exclusive characters. In terms of structure and quality it needs work but it's a light novel so they're all the same anyways.

[Terézia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Danganronpa. I do, I do. But I acknowledge it is my niche interest since I was a tween, and that the plot, despite its great intentions and meanings about the polarity of the despair and hope, is a little... Beyond the hills.

When played as a game, I enjoyee it. When watched as an anime, I liked it. But when I read it as a novel, I, unfortunately, found myself taking it too critically.

Few average-anime tropes? Yes.
Faster pacing? Check.
Words and sentences that could be left out and would not be missed, because they serve more to tell than to show? Hell.

Really have been looking forward to this piece, but I cannot help but feel as if it had let me down.

Do read it as a Danganronpa fan, but not as a literary enthusiast, is my takeway (aside from the lore knowledge, of course).

[Christina (Mystic) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This gave a lot of nice background on the Tragedy and the events that happened prior to Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc and DR 2: Goodbye Despair. I enjoyed the story, though I DID find it a bit predictable. But that's ok. The information it gave was worth it even if I did figure some of it out.

[Vendea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jsem fakt ráda, že mám Danganronpu nahranou a nakoukanou, protože jinak by to nedávalo smysl... Celá tahle hra/anime je geniálně vymyšlená do nejmenších detailů. Tuhle light novelu, která se odehrává mezi The Tragedy a První Mutual Killing hrou, je třeba číst fakt pomalu, protože kdo zná, tak si všimne... Jo, prokoukla jsem tě, Junko a vím, kdo jsi. Neskutečně mě to bavilo. Má to stejný feels jako hra/anime, charaktery se chovaj dost podobně a i celá ta amosféra... ah... druhá část bude určitě ještě lepší. Jen Otonashi je teda pěkně otravná. Neustále čtenáři cpe, že má výpadky paměti a všude tahá ten svůj deníček...

4/5* - loved it

[isa · Rating 3 out of 5]

nota: 3,75

em geral gostei muito e to mega ansiosa pra ler o II tomo ;)

pontos positivos:
-tem ilustrações coloridas <3
-trouxeram alguns personagens que aqueceram meu coraçãozinho
-grande empatia pela personagem principal

pontos negativos:
-intercala a 1ª e 3ª pessoa do singular na narrativa e isso confunde muito

[Isabella · Rating 3 out of 5]

it is interesting so far... nowhere near as good as the games but it's not a bad read either

let's see if volume 2 is better!

[maya · Rating 5 out of 5]

[read an English fan-translation]

the last time I read this was 3, almost 4, years ago; it's even better than I remember.

[Alicja · Rating 3 out of 5]

zrobie wszystko przed skonczeniem ultra despair girls

[Dramapuppy]

I'm not going to rate this because I read a fan translation online.

All right, this is not high quality. Let's just get that out of the way. If you're expecting a book to recommend to your friends, a book that captures the magic of the Danganronpa games, a book that is satisfying to read, do not read this.

But if you just finished the games and now you have a serious case of Danganronpa withdrawal, then you'll probably enjoy this.

The blessing and the curse is that it's written exactly like the games. As someone desperate for more Danganronpa games, I appreciated this. But visual novel text does not translate well to book form. It's ridiculously dialogue heavy. You end up with characters narrating their own actions, something that makes sense in the games, but not so much when the author could have just told you.

As ridiculous as this book was, I'm still going to read the second one because I'm so addicted to this franchise. I have a problem.

[Earwen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow the writing in this is atrocious. I've read light novels before and I even read fan translated light novels before and I rarely saw something so sloppily written. You can only blame the translation to a point I think they really did the best they could given material.

Also the art in this is obliviously not done by the main team or whatever from the games. It's not outright bad but the artist obviously has a thing for legs as they're not only front and center in every illustration but also take up half the picture. It's especially egregious because the legs in other canon material are little more than sticks.

That said it was fun enough, most of the new characters got on my nerves and the plot is sort of all over the place but I'm hoping the second volume will kill off the annoying people and give some sense to the plot. Two stars for now, I might change it after the second volume.

[Blue! · Rating 3 out of 5]

This seriously needs an official English translation.

Oh and as much as I love Rui for birthing the danganronpa art style, he could have toned down the uh...legs in his illustrations for this book.
You’ll get what I mean if you see them haha...

The plot was nuts, like all spinoffs from this series are, but not terribly bad.

Oh and if you’re a massive junko fan, definitely read this.



Spoilers below~




Ryokos hair alone was a dead giveaway that she and junko were the same person all along. But I still appreciated the plot twist. And the fact that if junko wasn’t aware of her Ultimate, she would’ve been a *good person* is interesting.

[Alexis U · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think the fanlation I read was pretty mediocre-to-bad. But this story overall was particularly silly, more than a little off-putting, and generally underwhelming. I think reading this while playing DR2 and, after, when I was watching DR3 was the best choice but it also made this LN seem particularly unnecessary. I haven't finished the second volume because overall I just don't care much about this.

Should this ever get an official English translation, I'll definitely look into it again to see if it's any better.

[Overlady · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ryoko Otanashi and Yasuke Matsada are the main characters of this story.
Ryoko suffers from the constant loss of short term and long term memories.
Yasuke is an ultimate neurologist.

It features events that took place between Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School - Despair arc and Danganronpa : Trigger Happy Havoc. It's basically a prequel.

I would say that this light novel is a mandatory read for hardcore fans. It gives more context to the story as a whole.

Be prepared for a despair inducing despair story.

My rating is biased as I'm influenced by my love for the series.

[Banafsheh Esmailzadeh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy crap, so messed up... onto book 2!

[Trinity · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good book. It was a bit slow in the beginning, but it progressed to a very interesting twist at the end. I would recommend this story to others.

[Gprugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This rating is for fans of the Danganronpa 1 game, not for a general audience.

[liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now this was weird

[Soyorin · Rating 1 out of 5]

“Some boys in the area looked at me in surprise. Maybe my skirt flew up for a second during my vigorous leap.”
“‘Of course, how silly of me! Matsuda-kun never has to use the toilet at all!’‘What do you even think I am, Ugly?’‘You’re the most sublime being in human history, of course!’”
“It’s easy to tell what the next step should be, isn’t it? It’s even more obvious than ejaculation.”
“‘You see, I want you to let me do you a little,’ replied Kamishiro-kun with a big smile on his face.”
God, can Danganronpa writers—both those working on the games and the novels—just stop shoving in lewd jokes that aren’t even remotely funny? The franchise’s novels can absolutely shine without that nonsense (the Kirigiri series proves you don’t need it, after all).
Anyway, I read the Chinese translation back in 2023 and revisited the English version this year—and despite the translators’ best efforts, both editions are so abysmal that I’m now fully convinced the original writing is even worse. The story’s core structure is fundamentally shaky, and its attention to detail and overall pacing are just dismal.

[cherry · Rating 4 out of 5]

No es algo a lo que esté acostumbrada a leer, los personajes tan exagerados hicieron un choque con lo que estoy acostumbrada, pero después de un par de capítulos ya pude meterme más en la historia y la estoy leyendo por algo más que "sólo quiero terminar con esto para seguir con los juegos y la serie". Estoy muy interesada en lo que sea que Matsuda sienta por Ryouko ya que siento que tuvieron toda una historia juntos pero él es el único que recuerda y eso lo lastima, mi teoría es que por eso la trata mal para convencerse a sí mismo que no siente nada por ella, ya que no la lastimaría porque lo olvidaría en un minuto y él podría olvidarlo todo también... ah es toda una teoría rara que saqué luego de su pelea, pero sospecho que hay algo mucho más heavy de lo que nos muestran entre estos dos y ya quiero saber qué es

[Sofia~ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me gustaron más las escenas de personajes conocidos (Jin, Kyoko, Junko) que de nuevos.

Ugh los personajes masculinos en esto (sin contar a Jin e Isshiki), wtf? Pueden ser más desagradables?

A veces la lectura es tan... tan... manganime(?); usando típicos tropes "shut up, old man! I'm a teenage male shonen protagonist, I know best!" *rolls eyes* -_-

También es como que dan muchas vueltas con "The Worst, Largest, Most Awful Incident in Hope's Peak Academy" sin contar de qué trata; ya cansa -_-

Pero bueno, lo terminé. Ahora a seguir con el volumen 2.

[Gigi Maroulis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've heard about these light novels before and have been curious as a big fan of Danganronpa, however, it wasn't until my boyfriend found a copy of a fan made English translation that I decided to read it. Right away, I got very into it. It was really nice to try to associate the events here with events in the anime and games. I really liked the amnesiac protagonist and seeing more of her as time passes. I am really looking forward to starting the second volume.

[Zakdj · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is only the first half of the story, and for what it is it has interesting ideas with some really engaging moments. It does suffer from some odd pacing, however. I’m interested enough to see it too it’s conclusion. I like the protagonists gimmick more than her actual character, which is hopefully something the second volume improves.

[Αλίς · Rating 3 out of 5]

Danganronpa zero shouldn’t be two novels, part 1 on its own is pretty weak. But this was great to read after completing the first game, giving more insight into the beginning of The Tragedy and we get to see Mukuro’s personality, finally.

Ryoko is pretty annoying but she makes for a very interesting protagonist. The concepts danganronpa come up with are always insanely original.