Danganronpa 2: Chiaki Nanami's Goodbye Despair Quest Volume 1

by Karin Suzuragi, Jackie McClure (Translator), Spike Chunsoft (Creator)

“I guess you could say gaming is my life…or my life is a game.”

What could be nicer than the semester at the elite Hope’s Peak High School to kick off with a class trip to the tropical resort of Jabberwock Island? And what could be more horrific to then be told by the principal that now they’re all trapped there…and the only way they can ever leave is to play a murder game!

The rules are to escape, you must not only kill a fellow student, but get away with it, as the survivors will then cross-examine each other in a class courtroom. If they vote the wrong person guilty, the killer goes free…and the rest of them die!

Chiaki Nanami is the Ultimate Gamer, selected as one of Japan’s most expert teens to attend Hope’s Peak High School. With no margin for error and the stakes so high, the Ultimate Gamer will need to use all her playing skill to suss out the secrets of Jabberwock Island and find the “true ending” for Nanami and her friends…survival and escape!

Genres: Manga

200 pages, Paperback

Published June 18, 2024

Reviews

[Matthew Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of Danganronpa and recently I found out about the existence of this manga, so I decided to read it. I really like the concept of seeing the events of Super Danganronpa 2 through Chiaki’s perspective, it is quite a neat idea and it was executed in a good way. Also this manga has some differences with the original game and instead of disliked it, I really liked that, adding some scenes, dialogues or order of events was a pretty good decision for this adaptation. The illustrations look excellent the whole way through. There are parts that foreshadow later events in the story and I liked that a lot. Also it was quite funny in many parts.

Overall a very entertaining experience and a good read for fans of the series and for people that are not very knowledgeable about the franchise, I am interested in reading the next volumes.

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

I have great memories of this game and the characters so it was really fun going through the first chapter with Chiaki as the main character! Although this didn’t change much. Maybe more in future volumes. I’d like to see her interactions with other characters without Hajime around.

It was cool that she mentioned Virtue’s Last Reward! A nice Easter Egg.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

i’m happy with this version of danganronpa 2. i enjoyed the story coming more from chiaki’s perspective, as they didn’t change too much from the original plot in the game, which is nice! i can’t wait for a second volume <3

[Summer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feels like a better fleshed out manga than the previous one that only had three volumes. Art is a lot nicer too.

[Reese · Rating 5 out of 5]

Course my danganronpa loving ass would enjoy this

[Shimapan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly not bad for a video game adaptation! The art is decent and the plot hooked me more than I expected.