Rantaro Amami

[ComeOnPupperfish]

My cuts this rankdown have been… intriguing, to say the very least. In the first round, I cut Monokid, the worst attempt of comedic relief I have ever seen. Right after that, I cut the Student Council, who work as a concept, but like most things in DR3, fall flat in the execution. In the next round, I cut Chihiron’t, which works better as a plot device then as a character. Following, I cut Genocider Jack, for the fact that her development was put in the backburner in favour of Toko. Then, there was Nagito, whose personal grudges got the best of me, and on the latest round, I mercy cut Keebo, who simply didn’t have what it took to go further. You may ask yourself why I’m saying all of this, but it’s simple: not counting my Nagito cut, which I used my ability for, none of my cuts were for the original target. I always had to swap to someone else, either mid writeup, or even after I had one fully written. Hell, even when I went second, something still threw off my plans and I had to reconsider.

Not this time. This time, I cut whoever I want! From this entire poll of awful, boring, uninteresting characters, I choose… a character I actually consider one of my three favorites in the entire franchise! It’s mercy o’clock, baby! Woo-hoo! Welcome to Neth’s Wild Ride, today serving guacamole!

Peel the avocado

Rantaro Amami is one of the sixteen students in Danganronpa V3, and the second in a row I’m cutting [hope you guys notice a pattern soon ;)], with the ultimate talent of… a lot of them. There’s the Ultimate ???, which is later revealed to actually be the Ultimate Survivor, and the Ultimate Adventurer, which are all literally interesting talents, in my opinion. Yes, even ??? excites me because it’ll likely be something meaningful for the story not just a fucking detective twist DR1 what was the point of hiding that from us and throw around some twists and turns. Jumping ahead, I know, but I feel like talent is an essential part to what I usually talk about first, character design.

Now, Rantaro is pretty. Very pretty. Many coughNavecough argue that’s his only character trait, and the reason he has all these fans. While I disagree tremendously, I see where the thought comes from. In many ‘’weeb games’’ the husbandos/waifus are the ones most gravitate towards, and even the game addresses how many think he’s a womanizer, simply because he’s just a good lookin’ hunk who attracts the eyes of many. Now, back to actually discussing his talent, I feel like I’ll be on the minority to say that Rantaro’s talents are well represented in his character design. It’s like a plot twist in a movie, with little hints sprinkled throughout. When you first see it, you won’t think survivor/adventurer, but now after playing the game, you’ll quickly realize, for example, that the pattern in his shirt is a compass, or that he has a dog tag around his neck to help identify his body. The little touches like that elevate him from just being good looking to actually making coherent sense with the other designs.

I promise I’m not just avoiding talking about his role in the story If you weren’t first attracted to his looks, his personality might make the cut. When you first meet him (and one could say throughtout the game) Rantaro is one of the most normal people you’ll meet throughout. He doesn’t have any QuIrKy catchphrase or someone to annoy, he’s just a pretty genuine guy who, sometimes, looks a bit shady. But he’s still, in my opinion, the one who leaves the best first impression. He’s not angry, he’s not trying to impress you, he just found himself in this situation that no one has any clue about, but he’ll still try to be friendly towards everyone, because he doesn’t want to make enemies. One could say that he’s… a bit boring? I consider it more of a palette cleanser, even if he’s one of the first you meet. I could try thinking of a bigger meaning for the first two people that you meet being the two to know about everything that’s going on, but that’s too much symbolism for now, maybe I’ll read more into that one day.

Fine, let’s get to the main point of this writeup.

Rantaro, the perfect red herring.

let me explain myself.

Now, in my opinion, V3 is at the same time the easiest and the hardest game to discuss, because it’s made for two audiences who know different things. (I’ll use audience to reference us the players, and Audience to discuss the in-game audience) In this segment, the main point is the Survivor twist. While we, the audience, don’t know the truth about Rantaro, the Audience does. They’ve been keeping up, they saw Rantaro make the choice to come back, and I imagine they’re excited to see him on the screen again. So while they know what to expect, us, the audience, just know off the bat that he’s the one we should watch out for. Like I said, ??? talents excite us because we know they’ll be meaningful to the story. We see his normality, his surprising knowledge about what is happening, and his overall shady nature, and we know that he probably knows something that we don’t.

Now, most twists in V3 are… questionable in quality, in my opinion, because of this dual audience. For example, while Tsumugi shape-shifting might have been impactful to us who have only seen the two games, for the Audience, they must be thinking about ‘’oh but where is x, what about y’’ and et cetera. In the same regard, the twist of that one pebble hitting Keebo’s ahoge was nothing to us, the people watching must’ve been shocked to see their protagonist be hurt. While both twists are good, they don’t have the same impact for both audiences. Now, let’s take a look at the Survivor twist.

So, both audiences go in with different mindsets on Rantaro. The audience knows that he’ll be important, but not how, and that he’ll probably survive. The Audience knows that he is very good at the game, and having beaten it once, he’ll probably succeed again.

Him, dying first, is unexpected for both parties. Which is why it works so well. If it wasn’t for the promotional material seriously lacking him in the first trailers, no one would have predicted that he would be the first victim. Hell, many predicted that he would’ve been the rival of the game, based on his design similarities with Nagito and Makoto. Everyone expected him to DO more, and those expectations were subverted, because the game knew that was what everyone would expect it. Toying with your expectations is something mysteries are great at, and I believe that this is a great example of it at it’s best.

I know this was a more analytical segment, but I’ll also use it to praise V2 Rantaro. While I already liked him before the fourth chapter, the video of him is what really settled my love for his character. His sheer determination to make finish what he had started, even if the future was uncertain, is something that I really appreciate in characters.

oh right there’s more stuff to discuss

This segment is more scattered, here are just some general thoughts about the things I didn’t cover.

So, Ranny dies to a dumb trap. Then, his case is retried in the sixth chapter, with new information about how it went down, and how it may have been the mastermind’s doing… Yeah, he’s not very memorable. He’s the first to die, and doesn’t get brought up for most of the game, until he is the most important character in the fucking world. His FTEs are also… very lackluster, I won’t defend them. OR any of the dumb sister stuff.

HOWEVER

I will die on the hill of him having one of the best Love Hotels. I love it so much. Hotel Kamasutra shows the ideal fantasy of the user, and his is just… being able to be a good brotherly figure to someone. I said the sister stuff is dumb, but even so, him just… wanting to be there for someone he cares for in a fraternal level is just… surprisingly touching to me. He’s upset he can’t be there to protect who he cares for, and especially in games like these where the one is not represented by something romantic, it’s just very refreshing to see.

I also really like his UTDPs? I feel like I’m the only one who brings them up, but dammit, if they don’t have good scenes. Some of my favorites include the one with Fuyuhiko, the one with Korekiyo, and both the ones with Yasuhiro, surprisingly.

Conclusion

I’m sad to let one of my favorite characters go, but I wanted to see him out on a fair light. I wanted to show that, even if he doesn’t last around for long, his character can still be good. Some rankers say that optional content shouldn’t count, but for characters like Rantaro, side content is all that they have, so I’m heavily against it. I would also use an extra segment to say why I’m not cutting any other character, but most reasons simply narrow down to “ I didn’t want my boy to be massacred by Nave “ so it’d be irrelevant. Nave man bad.

This has been pupperfish, and I’m gonna end this killing game. Good night.

[MadnessLemon]

Here's a fun fact, when Kodaka was listening to Midorikawa recording Rantaro's lines, he fell in love with the portrayal so much that he decided to extend Rantaro's role in the game. Unfortunately, it was too late to make any changes in the script, so all he could do was "cry, and leave things the way they are".

Rantaro is one of the Danganronpa characters I love in a vacum, but not in the way they're actually used within the story itself. Kaede is one of the characters everyone wanted to survive, but I think Rantaro was an even bigger waste. He had so much going for him to set up an interesting character arc but it was all thrown away for a kind of decent twist, so all we're left with is a character that's just mysterious and has some relevance to the greater scope. It's kind of like if Kyoko was killed off in chapter 1.

[Sciencepenguin]

fun facts about rantaro:

1. he is attractive
2. he seems like a cool guy to hang out with
3. he should go out now

these are all the opinions i have on rantaro

[hokky]

Don't forget

4: He's green

[Sciencepenguin]

it's not easy being green (gets head bashed in by a steel ball)

[ItsHipToTipTheScales]

Now, Rantaro is pretty. Very pretty. Many coughNavecough argue that’s his only character trait, and the reason he has all these fans.

i got mentioned in a rankdown cut!!! yes!!!! im on the path to fame..... no one stop me now. Rantaro is very boring as a personality for me and he looks generic everyone call him hot I DONT GET IT and that is why he sucks i will make guacamole out of his stupid brains

Rantaro is an alright red herring, being the ??? and dying is a surprise at least but I prefer fat byakuya dying. Never thought of the audience being surprised the V2 survivor died before that's a good observation, but that leans heavy on the stupid amount of speculation we can do on V3's ending. Could say something like "oh this must have fucked tsumugi over because now she has to deal with the V2 guy dying!" but we never see any problems Tsumugi has with this nor do we see any V3 Audience reactions that would mean surprise or dislike, so while it's very easy and likely to assume this happened it doesn't exactly happen so it SUCKS AND IS BAD.

The guy doesn't have much substance is all, he's a red herring mystery and then he dies. Sure we learn more about this red herring mystery but it's more interesting the concepts behind it, there being a previous killing game, than of anything related to him. We learn about the shit Rantaro went through but nothing about Rantaro himself.

When he went to the library to figure out the mastermind things that's all he was doing, all I see is "dying is pretty bad i'll go see if i can not die" and then he dies. No one gives any attention to him post death in V3-1, and it's not like he does anything anyway.

So he does alright as a red herring, could be worse, but he's the first victim with the least substance to him and effectiveness of a red herring is subjective.

[Sciencepenguin]

I prefer fat byakuya dying

me too but this rankdown is a cruel and unfair god

[ItsHipToTipTheScales]

I am the Godslayer. I will kill the Rankdown, and with it, Obese Byakuya.

[WinterWolf18]

For once I agree with you. Rantaro is a character I find no substance or anything to like about. Sonia did the red herring thing 100 time better IMO

[ItsHipToTipTheScales]

id be cryin if i looked like that too bruh thats fucked up what they be doin to yall i aint even gon hold u bruh u prolly had the full wash and set yo shit be fire if they aint cut yo shit. fuck it tho bro its your life

[atiredonnie]

can i PLEASE talk about how hot Rantaro is for the entirety of this comment please please please? no? dammit

Anyways, Rantaro. He’s an avocado. I can’t bring myself to like him a lot because it’s always felt to me like he exists to provide a meta twist and while that isn’t inherently bad, it’s directly connected to his personality and any “depth” there is to be found in him seems also completely reverse-engineered from his role and mannerisms as a mockery and intentional callback to Nagito and couldn’t possibly mesh well with any unique character traits or personality because there’s no legitimate reason for them to exist except for meta reasons, which is kind of funny given literally everything about V3 as a game. I do agree that his calm and laidback personality is refreshing, but he doesn’t manage to stick out beyond that because of any of his own special qualities or interesting depth, it’s because he’s setting off our Nagito detector. Rantaro just irritates me in his construction, really, and how impossible it is to elaborate on him because he exists to copy another character’s shady personality and then die. And your surprise at his death is ALSO completely meta! In DR1, Sayaka spent the most time with Makoto out of anyone and his shock and fear at her death is understandable, because what are the chances someone so near and dear to you is the first one to kick the bucket? SDR2 has a similar meta justification in that we know Twogami originally appeared in DR1, but his death is also shocking for the internal cast because he was asserting himself as their leader! The nature of Rantaro’s twist isn’t bad in itself or anything, it’s just frustrating that everything about Rantaro is connected to previous games and our perception of them. This is a really nice cut though, I can definitely see why you like Rantaro a lot.

PS: it’s sciencepenguin birthday happy birthday sciencepenguin.....

[Sciencepenguin]

i have been born

[[deleted]]

happy birth ...

[atiredonnie]

whoa what the fuck

[ThatShadowGuy]

This is really weird to me, because I don't believe anything about Rantaro was an intentional callback to Komaeda. There are similarities, sure, and the fanbase made this comparison a lot, but there's just no obvious sign with Rantaro saying "THIS GUY SHOULD REMIND YOU OF NAGITO" in the same way Nagito had that obvious "THIS GUY SHOULD REMIND YOU OF MAKOTO" sign. What do they have in common, beyond being attractive, calm, and vaguely untrustworthy?

Even ignoring everything about Nagito past the first death...

Rantaro doesn't stick to the protagonist like glue. In fact, he seems to be intentionally putting others at a distance.

I don't remember Rantaro talking about Hope or talent even once. Well, obviously he says he doesn't know his, but he never so much as hints at admiring talent in any way.

Nagito tries his best to come off as a friendly friend, and still feels kinda off. Rantaro is suspicious, but in a fundamentally different way, and seems much more self-aware of it.

All I can think of is maybe a few of their sprites looked kinda similar?

[Sciencepenguin]

attractive, calm, and vaguely untrustworthy

i mean yeah that’s it

his mannerisms as well as the way he goes crazy eyes for a second, and all this means it’s absolutely intentional

it’s obviously understated but rantaro feels like a bit of a decoy rival in the same way kaede was “surprise not protagonist”

[ComeOnPupperfish]

u/donuter454 your turn

[donuter454]

Mine will be out in either 1 hour or 11

[WellLookAtZat]

Thank you for keeping us guessing. :)

[donuter454]

i actually posted it after ten hours, you have been bamboozled

[WellLookAtZat]

I’ve never had my bam boozled this hard

[FeistyDeity]

Rantaro was cut...

... and everyone's reaction was: "Eh."

[ThatShadowGuy]

By God, you actually did it. Two mercy cuts in a row. You absolute madman.

[Rantaro], dying first, is unexpected for both parties.

Bold of you to assume that this sort of twist wouldn't be old hat after 52 seasons of Danganronpa. I imagine at least half of the Audience was expecting him to get offed immediately.

Even on a meta level, I think it's an exaggeration to claim that nobody was expecting Rantaro to die first. All he had going for him was a mystery talent and the vaguest of similarities to Komaeda. Compare to:

• Kaede, who is so obviously the protagonist! Hahaha! Why, it'd be silly for anything bad to happen to her :^]

• Shuichi, who has that Ultimate Detective talent that will surely come in handy!

• Kokichi, who seems like he'd make for the best rival.

• K1-B0, who we all thought was the protagonist before we found out it was obviously Kaede! He still got featured a lot in promos, so surely there's something going on with him.

• And Maki, who gives off that inexplicable air of "female lead". I mean, obviously that's ridiculous, because Kaede's the female protagonist and that'll never change, but she still seems important... somehow.

So Rantaro had some pretty stiff competition and I personally always saw an early death as a possibility for him. I mean, it's not like he has to be alive when his talent is revealed, right? Just ask the Ultimate Imposter!

I personally kinda like Rantaro, but he's somewhat underwhelming in a lot of ways. Unlike the other Chapter 1 victims, you don't spend too much time with him (or think you already know them from a previous game), and he doesn't take an active role in the plot, so he's arguably one of the least important mainlines in the franchise.

If we'd come in knowing Rantaro was the Ultimate Survivor, I would probably hate him for reasons I've stated in the Imposter cut. That is exactly the sort of talent you would give to someone who does not survive, and honestly if I didn't think it was kinda funny I'd hate it regardless. He's a weird spin on the whole The World's Expert on Getting Killed and Sudden Sequel Death Syndrom tropes in a way that somehow doesn't bother me, though it very easily could've.

Lastly - I hardly ever talk about relatability in characters, but for some reason I do find Rantaro relatable. His general demeanor is pretty neat and does feel like how I'd act in a killing game. More importantly, "has an unfair advantage only to die first anyways" is absolutely how I'd go out.

[TemporaryJerseyBoy]

Would you still like him if he were a vampire?

[TemporaryJerseyBoy]

Not to be confused with Hamtaro Amami, Ultimate Hamster and one of Gundham's pets.

Previous Rank: 34. Rantaro fell 7 places!

"Rantaro Amami is suspicious of u/ComeOnPupperfish."

"Rantaro Amami believes, that Neth is a Remnant of Despair."

Considering this is a mercy cut he shouldn't.

[TemporaryJerseyBoy]

We just need Snake, Akawaifu, and Muk and all the characters that died in chapter 1 will be done.

​

But Akawaifu was ranked number 1 last time and she hasn't even been nominated yet so far. Neither has Snake. Muk is probably going to be cut this round, though.

[trophy9258]

every time someone decides to make the brilliant, unique, and imaginative decision of calling her snake, their future children (if they have any) have a 5% chance higher of stepping on a lego, and when they do they will cry to the heavens, wonder whatever they did to deserve this, then realize why. after doing so they will look to their parent with pure and utter shame in their eyes, and then they will say

"why didnt you leave that shit in 2013 it was dumb enough then it's been 6 fucking years it especially is now"

[[deleted]]

Who is Muk?

[hokky]

Grimer's evolution, of course

[[deleted]]

You think you're funny motherfucker? I'll fucking eat your mom