Danganronpa - Episode 2

Like it or not, Naegi and his fellow cohorts at Hope's Peak Private Academy have no choice but to settle into their new "home", even with the prospect of being murdered by their fellow students and an increased urgency to escape playing on their minds.

For Naegi himself, concerns about the state of his bathroom door are soon interrupted by a visit from first Monobear, closely followed by Maizono, who is in quite a straight after what seems to be attempts to break into her room.  With the idea of the two sharing Naegi's room together off the cards, it's instead decided that the two will swap rooms for the night, which seems to pass uneventfully.

At least, it looks that way until Maizono doesn't turn up for breakfast the next morning, only for Naegi to find her stabbed to death in the bathroom.  It's clear that the first murder of this "game" has taken place, but who is the culprit?  Although anyone who kills another is promised a "graduation" from the academy, there's another twist to this tail - they'll only succeed in being released if they can pass a trial of their peers without being fingered as the murderer.  Unfortunately for Naegi, he's the obvious suspect given the location of Maizono's death, but does he have the evidence required to clear himself from this charge as the trial looms?

After setting up its premise with an enjoyable start, this was another equally entertaining episode to expand upon the show's concept and show us how the series is going to work.  There's a worry that things could become too formulaic in the long run, but as someone who loves a good murder mystery and equally loves the idea of some kind of survival game as a key tenet of a series, this seems like a near perfect combination.  If the series can prove to be as smart as it clearly thinks it is in presenting these cases and their resolutions, then I simply can't wait to devour more of this series over the coming weeks, flaky animation be damned.