Otonokizaka's new bonding program seems to promise a good time for its nine participants, taking them to a tropical island with assets that rival and even surpass some resorts. Pleasant introductions and a trip to the beach certainly do promote a family environment as the program is meant to achieve, but it's short-lived when a black-and-white teddy bear arrives at their breakfast feast with some very bad news...
Dangan Live! is an ongoing Crossover RP/Quest/Visual Novel between the Love Live! and Danganronpa franchises, which puts the girls of μ's into a setting most resembling that of Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, but sprinkled with some aspects from other parts of the franchise and occasionally tweaked to fit the medium and narrative system. That, and μ's isn't μ's; this time, Honoka and company are just nine unlucky high school students.
As per the norm for quest systems, it's played by submitting actions, though unlike the game it's based on, the perspective characters get swapped between chapters, depending on your choices. That being said, it's up to you and the other players to keep the girls from making the wrong decisions and spiraling into despair. It's run by two people: Heather, the game master and creator, and Dantenote , who also works on a Love Live! abridged series known as Manly Idols! or GM!18.
A link to the posts in chronological order is here
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The cast being Love Live! girls doesn't change it from being as spoiler-ridden as the actual Dangan Ronpa games. That being said, all spoilers are unmarked.
Contains examples of:
- Alliterative Name: The Titty Typhoon, which seems to be some kind of dance club.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: Just before she dies, Nozomi tells Eli that she loves her.
- Anyone Can Die: The protagonist-swapping system allows for even more unpredictability with deaths, and even the current player character isn't exempt from dying in their chapter.
- Art Evolution: The "graphics" gradually improve as the series goes on.
- Black Blood: Pink, as in Dangan Ronpa.
- Blue with Shock: As in Dangan Ronpa, the sprites of the characters gain this effect when under significant despair.
- Canon Discontinuity: The 100th update is a dream.
- Closed Circle: Essentially the same island as Jabberwock.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: The series was actually inspired by a Tumblr post detailing the executions of μ's, Dangan Ronpa-style.
- Rin is trapped on a conveyor belt that speeds up until it leads her to a gladiator-styled arena filled with tigers, which proceed to tear her to shreds.
- Nico performs in front of a crowd of Monokumas while being pelted with rocks, until finally she's crushed by a boulder hanging overhead.
- Determinator: To distract Monokuma from acting on Nozomi accidentally breaking a rule, Eli tears open the stitches on her stomach's stab wound. That takes guts.
- A Dog Named "Dog": 'Umineko' is Japanese for 'seagull'.
- Dying Clue: Honoka knocks aside a cup of yakisoba to hint at her killer, which it does albeit in a roundabout way.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: Nozomi dies in Eli's arms.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: After Rin's execution, Umi is so enraged about everything that's happened that she nearly attacks Monokuma. It takes Honoka, Maki and Nico to physically hold her back, and it takes a slap from Nico to get her back to her senses.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- Monokuma's initial explanation of his rules don't mention the fact that in the case of a killer getting away, all others will be executed instead. With that in mind, Kotori hatches a plan where Umi kills her so that Umi can escape the island and get help from outside. Unfortunately, it doesn't even go as far as the murder when Eli intervenes.
- Tsubasa, in a fit of rage, nearly attacks Monokuma, who punishes her with the Spears of Gungnir. When Eli tries to make a move to save her, Nozomi winds up saving Eli instead.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Each chapter plays on a song title from different μ's subunits:
- Chapter 1 is "The End of Our Happiness", referencing lily white's "Futari Happiness".
- Chapter 2 is "Don't Worry, We're the Trouble Busters!", referencing BiBi's "Trouble Busters".
- Chapter 3 is "No Matter What, We're Eternal Friends!", referencing Printemps's "Eien Friends".
- Living Emotional Crutch: Nico's philosophy of "an idol's job is to make people smile," carries over from canon even when she's not an idol. She puts herself in this role for everyone and keeps it up even until she's about to be executed, trying to help Maki, the most distraught over it, face the results with dignity.
- Meaningful Echo: To reassure Umi that there's aren't any hard feelings between them after being stabbed, Eli tells Umi that they should both be thankful for what they do have—their lives. Later, when Eli's suffering from the shock of Nozomi's death and contemplating dying herself, Umi tells her the same thing, and not to waste everyone else's sacrifices. Eli recovers.
- That Was the Last Entry: The last entry in Kotori's journal is a series of apologies stained with tears, and it's one of the pieces of evidence that incriminate her in regards to the attack on Eli.
- Trauma Conga Line: None the of characters are really having much of a good time, though Umi has it the worst. First, she has to kill Kotori on Kotori's own request, and then has to deal with the guilt of stabbing the wrong person instead. Right afterwards, someone else kills Kotori, and she's one of accused in the trial that follows, for both murder attempts. Later she has to smooth things out with Eli and Nozomi, but when Honoka tries to help her, she dies next, leaving Umi with neither of the childhood friends she started the trip with. And she still has to lead the trial.
- Relationship Values: Hope Shards are present in the game, though rather than being used for buying skills or unlocking endings, they affect the story outside free time and more or less symbolize strength of the bond between characters. Their effects go as far as affecting who dies and who doesn't, best exemplified when all the Shards Nozomi shares with Eli prompts Nozomi to die in her place when the situation escalates.
- Sadistic Choice: As usual, Monokuma's rules enforce this.
- Ship Tease: For one, the Hope Shard system has the Hope Shards shared between characters rather than being collected from the cast by the player. That being said, the teasing often goes hand-in-hand with free time.
- Kotori and Umi adopt a seagull and name it Umineko. Umineko has a report card that says he sees Kotori and Umi as his new parents.
- Rin committed the first murder specifically because she was afraid of Hanayo getting hurt, and when she's on the conveyor belt to her death, Hanayo is used as the bait that makes Rin start running and powering up the belt in the first place.
- Nozomi drops hints that she likes Eli from as early as the prologue, and outright states that she loves her right before she dies.
- It's All My Fault/Survivor Guilt: Nozomi's death drives Eli into thinking that it's her fault, since Nozomi wouldn't have sacrificed herself if Eli had died on the first night, when Umi stabbed her. When she tells this to Umi, Umi reveals she had been feeling the same, and traces everything back to that murder attempt, saying that it might actually have been for the best if she'd killed Eli and been executed, but then explains that they can't change what already happened and have to move on for the people who died in their place.
- Wham Episode: The beginning of Chapter 3 is a game changer by itself: the surviving girls find Tsubasa Kira and learn that A-RISE is trapped on the island, too. Then, Nozomi, the protagonist of the chapter, dies, and that's not even the murder of the chapter's trial.
