So many deaths, and yet that one at the very end… it serves to remind us how each death is a tragedy in its own right. At this point in the anime, people are dropping like flies. Each one of those flies was loved by a certain number of friends/family. I haven't felt saddened by a show in a long time, and only danganronpa could evoke such a response really.

Why do the reserve course students want to go to Hope's Peak? I mean, for the main course students, the school doesn't actually "teach" them--it just lets them run loose, doing whatever they want. So it can't be that people want to go their for the amazing teachers/instruction, because... they don't have it. And it can't be because of the amazing student body, because... the reserve course students are separated from the main course students. So why would any non-SHSL want to go to Hope's Peak over an actual elite high school??

Kirigiri's too prominent in the OP to die before the last ep, tbh.

I was ready to count Juuzo as an "ambiguous" death but on a rewatch it was pretty thorough (tons of blood from the mouth, sword shown burning him up yet blood not stopping a la cauterization.) In any event I'm expecting survivor count shenanigans next ep.

So at this point the only NG actions we don't know are Munakata and Mitarai. It's probably worth noting that we never got official confirmation of Juuzo's NG action, which opens the door for it being something different (probably Chisa-related.) No real guesses for Munakata or Mitarai's, though I can kind of see Kodaka giving Munakata the extremely mundane "can't use doors" just for laughs. (Unless Mitarai is the attacker and his NG code is "don't kill someone during the sleep period"?)

Mastermind money is still on Komaeda, especially if Kirigiri's dead for real. "Kirigiri died because you saved the DR2 students but you weren't wrong saving them because they reformed after all but actually one of them was batshit from the get-go so you still fucked up" is the kind of twisted morality train I could see them going for.

Attacker guesses in order: 16th player, Fakeahina if that's not just animation slipups (which I think it is) = Chisa, Mitarai, Munakata, other. If the 16th player is real and someone that Munakata went out of his way to help/protect/trusted, that could explain why learning their identity from Tengan made him snap. (So if Chiaki gets pulled out of the fire in a Despair ep, welp.) Chisa/Fakeahina would achieve similar. Mitarai would be twisting the knife on the kid himself and could work if he gets further broken in the remaining Despair eps, but doesn't explain why Munakata would flip after hearing his identity. Munakata himself could be brainwashed to kill during the attack phase (anime brainwashing will be this series' nanomachines.) I don't think I buy the alternating attackers theory at this point.

Do you think Kirigiri is not dead? That's something I keep reading a lot in the fans' speculations (there's a "Cure W" theory) but it sounds more delusional than anything. The only one who is obviously not dead in my opinion is Togami.

The idea of the attacker having an NG code along the lines of "not killing anyone during the sleeping period" is most certainly interesting.

At this point I think it's fairly obvious Munakata is being forced to do whatever he's up to (while pushing his own personal agenda at the same time - could be related to the Jabberwock Island assault). He didn't seem to know the NG codes at all so, at the very least, he's not our culprit. I agree with you on the idea that he could have helped the mastermind in their endeavor, which Tengan probably deduced, hence repeating that Munakata "sacrificed" Yukizome. 16th player theory is interesting and that's something I've been thinking for a while now (Hagakure counting in the "survivors" in the OP sounds like a red herring). We should note that Monokuma's recap stated that all of the Future Foundation directors were trapped into the final killing game, yet the 13th one has been conspicuously missing from the outset. However, I don't know how they would introduce them this late in a satisfying way.

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Kyoko really is dead. At the same time, though, I wouldn't be surprised if she had managed to outsmart the mastermind and ensure that she would live. I'm not going to pretend to know how exactly she could pull it off, though. DanganRonpa has employed the absurd and the implausible enough times before that I see no point in trying to guess at how Kyoko could survive when when we could well see Kodaka pull an explanation out of his rear. Instead, I'm trying to look at the situation from a writer's perspective. Killing off a major character, let alone one as popular as Kyoko, is a huge risk and not a decision I would expect a competent writer to take lightly--though even good writers are fallible, so I can't rule out the possibility of Kodaka misjudging the situation. If Kyoko's death is real and was handled poorly, fans will be furious, as it will come off as a great character being callously tossed aside. As such, the question I feel we should ask is this: What purpose would Kyoko's death--specifically, the death we've been presented with--serve? Would it be a net gain for the story or a net loss? Maybe it's because I'm too attached to Kyoko, but I have trouble seeing a good reason to kill her off. However, this is assuming Kodaka and I see things the same way; it's possible that what he saw as a good reason is what I would see as a bad reason.

As much as I'd like Kyoko to be alive, if only because she may well be the only reason I'm still even remotely interested in this series, Kodaka may have written himself into a lose-lose situation. If Kyoko is popular enough, then actually killing her off means running the risk of a noticeable chunk of the fanbase abandoning the series--though that depends on how many fans would see Kyoko's death as a deal-breaker. This is where we reach what I think is the strongest argument against Kyoko actually being dead: the audience. It's difficult for the audience to be interested in a story if they don't care about any of the characters. To that end, a writer needs characters for the audience to sympathize with. However, if the writer kills off too many sympathetic characters, the audience is going to be hesitant to be invested in any of the other characters, no matter how sympathetic the writer tries to make them, as the audience feels punished for liking a character. As far as I can tell, Kyoko is the most popular character in the series, so Kodaka would need a very good reason to kill her off if he wants to keep the audience interested in the series; she's too important for her death to just be something for Makoto and Aoi to cry over. As things stand, though, I fail to see why her death was necessary.

At the same time, though, revealing Kyoko to actually be alive would likely annoy a fair number of fans, too, if only because it undermines the weight of the situation and calls into question the "anyone can die" aspect of the story. My take on the series is that a key part of its appeal is the suspense; if the audience can reasonably expect certain characters to not die, then the series also risks losing fans--not to mention a character seemingly dying only to be later revealed to be alive can very easily come off as a Deus ex Machina, and not a good one. Just as Kyoko's death will need to be handled very well in subsequent episodes for it to avoid driving fans away, her being revealed to be alive would also need to be handled very well.

Considering the number of participants, it'd be borderline miraculous if all the survivors from the last killing game survived this one too. Having your favorites die is part of Danganronpa isn't it? Now all the Kirigiri fans know how all the Ishimaru or Celes fans felt at the 3rd trial of the DR 1. Sure it's sad, but as Komaeda would say, you need to overcome that despair to achieve an even greater hope.

I can't believe Kizakura's death was in vain though. If Kirigiri turns out to be alive, at least his sacrifice yielded more.

Which is why I wouldn't be surprised by either outcome. As I said, revealing Kyoko's death to also be fake would hurt the "anyone can die" theme that has been a mainstay of the series. It makes sense, statistically speaking, that at least one of the survivors of DanganRonpa 1 would not survive DanganRonpa 3. This isn't a series that strikes me as particularly fond of giving anyone a proper happy ending, either.

I feel the comparison to Kiyotaka and Celeste is invalid, though (and for what it's worth, I liked both of them, too, albeit for different reasons); Kyoko has had far more exposure at this point in the series, which is a common sign that a character is too important to kill off in such a manner. Admittedly, she's not the central protagonist, but again, that's where her popularity and the potential repercussions of truly killing her off come in. Also, yes, as you pointed out, Koichi sacrificing his life to save someone who dies an episode later does strike me as rather meaningless with regards to the plot, and I think that's a major reason why my interest in this series has been waning; while I'm not necessarily opposed to the idea of characters--even major characters--dying, I hate it when a character's death serves little to no purpose.

As I said in my previous post, I wouldn't be surprised by Kyoko being dead, but I also wouldn't be surprised by her having some sort of trick up her sleeve that kept her alive. That said, my personal interest in the series likely hinges on her survival. DanganRonpa 2 left me very close to uttering the eight deadly words (or nine if you count contractions as more than one word); why should I get emotionally invested in the fates of any of the remaining characters if they're just going to die meaningless deaths?

I think Kirigiri isn't dead. She's too much of a fan and developer favorite to actually be killed off.

All I can say is if Kirigiri is truly dead, and the bum stuck outside is still alive at the end of this series, I will officially lose all hope for this franchise. (see what I did there?)

Of course, as was previously pointed out, Kirigiri's death is really a lose-lose situation, because she's too popular to kill of without pissing off a major portion of the fanbase, but at the same time, two fakeout deaths for survivors of the first game removes all tension from the situation. Really, the only way to win is either show Kirigiri's survival as having been properly foreshadowed for several episodes, or have Naegi die too, perhaps with Mitarai picking up the torch (not an ideal solution, but it's the best I have at this point).

So let's summarize here. Tengan's definition of an "attacker" involves every participant to be one (or anyone could be an attacker? he was really vague here), and Asahina believes she figured out the attacker's identity based on Kirigiri's investigation notebook (was she accusing Munakata here, or just being hostile towards him?)
Plus, as predicted by Bolt Storm, survivor count shenanigans are real: one of the four deaths from the previous episode did not count. Most "logical" explanations: Sakakura, Miaya not being counted from the beginning. Kirigiri surviving is a possibility but it would be bullshit (saved by Cure W? faking her death?). Ruruka... no chance, she's done.

tengan's explanation makes no sense. the closest thing i can think of is Ou-sama Game, which was terrible. maybe he's just wrong? after all, if you are wrong about something but think you're right, is that a "lie"?

ha, called Munakata's NG code (not that it was a tough one to guess). The only thing I don't get is, if Munakata didn't have a problem cutting doors down before, why did he develop one at the last second? (Also while we're on the subject, I do like how they're filling in the unknown NG codes.)

The ocean reveal was underwhelming. It reminds me a lot of ZTD's location twist--it's a big difference from what we thought was happening, but... it doesn't actually change much. It explains how Monokuma changed all the paintings at least.

Survivor count is definitely weird. It's possible that Monaca (not Gekkogahara) and Hagakure are being included, in which case it would be accurate. Hagakure being in the OP but not actually being a participant in the game sounds like the most likely "twist." Which would give us a mysterious 16th player. Depending on how Gekkogahara/Monaca is being handled, there could be a mysterious 17th player. Another possibility for the survivor count is that somebody came back to life. Considering the physics-breaking stuff Kimura's other drugs could do, I wouldn't be too surprised.

I think Kirigiri's gone. She's most likely the victim of the "prophecy" (since it was part of the NG code, it explains how Monaca knew what she did), and the things she told Naegi were clearly meant to be last words before she died. (Or she's faking it and/or has some master plan, and they were the last words to make sure he didn't break down since she knew he'd think she's dead. w/e idk)

A big question for me is exactly how Monaca/Gekkogahara worked. Since Monaca knew about Kirigiri's death, she and the mastermind are in some sort of cahoots, right...? (Or maybe Monaca just got some intel...?) My main issue/question is that since Gekkogahara was a robot, and therefore not affected by the sleeping drugs, shouldn't she have been "awake" for Gosu's death...?

also, looks like my main prediction for future arc was correct: 2 eps of plot, 8 pointless episodes, 2 eps of plot

Last week, I told myself to look at the survivor count during episode 10. By all rights, four people should have died in the last one, the count was at 9, so if the survivor count is equal to, or greater than 6, there's still hope for Kirigiri. Turns out, the survivor count was indeed 6. At least I can breath somewhat easier now when watching the rest.

Potential wrinkles: Does Gekkogahara count as a survivor? If she doesn't, who's the 17th individual who counts as the 16th survivor? Also, there's the deader-than-dead flashback montage they gave at the beginning of the episode, plus Kirigiri was tripping death flags like crazy in episode 9. The other issue is that they're seriously going to have one heck of a job explaining how she survived without making it sound like they pulled her survival technique or her need to fake her death out of their butts.

I still want them to try though, if for no other reason than that if it were me in Kirigiri's position, I'd try chopping my arm off if I got all the way to the third round without Naegi dying. I mean, it beats death, and I'm sure Naegi's not stupid enough to die for the sake of Kirigiri's arm. Just dying without even trying something like that first makes no sense whatsoever.

As for the rest of the episode, looks like they finally got through to Munakata. Loved Naegi figuring out Munakata's NG code all on his own, then using it to set a trap where neither one of them would have to die. Our little doofus is growing up.

except why couldn't he cut open the door like he had been doing up to that point?

also considering Munakata's mental state, it was a pretty big risk to hope he'd realize that when he did... but I guess they're really playing up Naegi's SHSL luck in this show

The bracelets don't kill you. I'll have to double check this, but I believe the survivor count shenanigans didn't start until just after Bandai's death. Other than him, there were three others that got "poisoned." Izayoi(sp?), who was stabbed in order to make it look like the NG code didn't kill him; Kizakura(sp?), who fell down that big hole, and likely died on impact with the ground; and Kirigiri, who's just lying down. Ergo, assuming the bracelets themselves don't kill you, the survivor count actually fits perfectly.

And if that's the case, my guess is that Bandai is the attacker. Nobody would try to kill him in-between sleep phases, because he's supposed to be dead already.

but I think there were 15 survivors in episode 2's count, and 13 in episode 3's count. Which means two people died in between. Gozu is one of them, killed by the attacker. The other one has to be Bandai, unless there were some secret death happening but there's not enough information to make the leap.

Speaking of weird things.
I remember something very peculiar. In episode 4, when Kirigiri was investigating Yukizome's death, Mitarai asked her: "what would you say about the kind of person who'd start a game like this?" Here, the wording is weird imo. It's as if he knew something and he asked for a judgment on the person who set this up rather than an objective analysis of the mastermind's profile based on clues.

Interesting theory, but survivor shenanigans arguably "start" in EP1 where it says there are 16 survivors, since we don't know exactly how Hagakure and Monaca/Gekkogahara are counted.

I think it's been said Hagakure doesn't count? In one of the opening scenes, didn't Monokuma say Hagakure isn't participating? Interesting theory though, currently I'm keeping my eyes peeled for any proof of Yukizome=Asahina theory, but this sounds neat too.

Of course Hagakure doesn't count. Nobody cares about Hagakure. Nobody likes Hagakure. He serves no purpose.

Nanami T_T. That death was so sad. Maybe sadder than her SDR2 execution. I saw her trending on Tokyo trends and now know why. I want to see hope prevail by the end of future, and see the remains of the 77th class return to their former glory now.

Naegi broke the heat/supercut function of his sword with the water/electricity trick. You can see the sword shorting out. At that point, it was just a regular sword, so he couldn't cut through any walls

(Munakata hasn't actually been cutting open any doors up to this point--I guess that would be considered "opening" it. He's only been breaking the glass near the doors or cutting open the wall next to them)

Welp, Local Man Ruins Everything once again. Rather than deal with the potential fallout of his best friend finding out he's gay for him, he's willing to let Junko destroy the school/world as we know it.

Don't get me wrong, I know that'd be hard for anyone to go through, but Junko seems like she'd be the kind of person to promise something, then break that promise for craps and giggles. I mean, there's no way Junko might lie about something like that, right?

Asahina's deductions will be wrong, and they will take actions for naught based on her interpretation of Kirigiri's notebook? I'm ready for this but damn.

I hope we'll get as much answers as we can. *in the background, Kodaka is laughing in despair*

Anime brainwashing into suicide is a real deal. We have full answers on how the game worked (except for Mitarai's NG code, which is weird). But the "mastermind reveal", on the other hand, is still shady. Tengan is officially the prime suspect, but I believe him when he said he's not a remnant of despair. So it's either that the mastermind is someone else, or there is more to the mastermind's motives than meets the eyes.

Mastermind Chisa and/or fakeahina would've been so much better.