I'm curious about how it seems that this group of students are all normal and have had (fake?) memories of being Ultimates planted in their minds.

But I'm loving how meta they're being about this setup, like with everyone's clothes being normal school uniforms before the Monokubs give everyone their "Ultimate" personas.

Um, initial impressions of the cast...

Kaede is a pretty good heir to the Protagonist Ahoge so far. I like how she thinks of piano compositions to calm herself down, though not knowing what they sound like kind of dulls the effect for me.

Shuichi's also cute, and his outfit reminds me of Naoto from Persona 4. I'm already shipping him and Kaede, help.

NicoB: Please don't die, dude.

Same... T_T

Other notable impressions, and I can't keep anyone's names straight yet, so bear with me...

Entomologist Guy is a precious cinnamon roll and I'm worried about his chances of survival. Like NicoB said, the big burly ones have a bad habit of dying...

Anthropologist Guy hits my "long, pretty hair" appeal buttons, but he's so effing creepy. Probably won't survive.

Love Maid Girl's design as well. Her whole "my desire is to fulfill the desires of others" deal reminds me of Peko, though. I can see her dying as well.

Inventor Girl also has a cool design, but her personality is awful. She's probably doomed in order to keep her from just inventing an "escape while you sleep" gadget or something.

K1-B0 is so adorkable and I love him. I doubt he's an actual robot, though, considering he looked pretty normal like the rest of the kids at first.

Rantaro and Kokichi both hit my "y'all are fucked up" alarms, for obvious reasons. I'm betting Rantaro takes the Komaeda role, more or less. (He also seemed pretty genre savvy when everyone met for the first time, saying that there'd only be 16 students, iirc...)

Also, Kokichi's character splash art reminds me of Nobunaga from FGO for some reason. Also-also, I want him to show up in Mafia and troll Proto so bad.

Tennis Guy pleasantly subverted my expectations that he'd be another Teruteru. His voice being so deep reminds me of Andersen, lol

Aikido Girl just gets a "meh" from me, tbh.

I know I should keep an eye on Maki and Kaito, so I figure they'll get some good character development.

Himiko's also cute and kind of reminds me of Tanaka as a fellow chuuni.

Artist Girl is pretty out there. I can imagine her hypothetical execution would be her getting ritualistically "sacrificed" to Atua.

I'm missing someone...

Oh, Cosplay Girl!

I hope she survives, but I kind of doubt she will. Her art with two kinds of scissors reminds me of Kayo Sudo in mothy's "The Tailor of Enbizaka," lol

So... is Monokuma actually dead for real? I doubt it, but who knows at this point

It's also strange that there are plants growing everywhere (and they look gorgeous), but no bugs or animals. How are the plants getting pollinated?

The narrative the Monokubs have spun also implies that Ultimates aren't usually gathered together like this. So has Hope's Peak been erased from everyone's memories while they're in those pod thingies or whatever we caught a glimpse of?

...Huh, the whole thing being VR would explain the plants/no critters issue, but they've already done that twist.

Aaaaaand Monokuma is back!

Except now he's more like a cat, kind of?

Omg it is a Yo-Kai Watch reference

Pffft the fourth wall is going to be in tatters by the time this game is over

Welp, now we have a more concrete motive to work with!

"If no one is murdered by nighttime two days from now, everyone dies!"

A giant meteor will crash down and--oh wait, wrong killing game.

Ohhh, right! The Monokubs mentioned an "Ultimate Hunt" in the gym the first time around!

"Wh-who the hell uses bowing as a threat?" I love you, Kaede.

But I'm guessing the reason why Rantaro can't remember his talent and remembered the Ultimate Hunt is that his memory implanting didn't work for whatever reason.

Oh good, Shuichi's still alive. Betcha Miu's dead, though.

Ryoma presents a nice moral dilemma here. Offering himself as a sacrifice to get his killer free in the hope that they'll bring back help for the others...

Too bad there's no way Monokuma would let it be that easy.

...what are you planning, Rantaro?

Augh Shuichi stop raising all these death flags

...Well. I did not see that death happening right off the bat.

Aw geez, what if Kaede really is the murderer and K1-B0 is the true ahoge protagonist?

Or maybe it's Shuichi...

>already shipping shuichi and kaede

ONE OF US! ONE OF US! ONE OF US!

And it's alllll gonna end so. Very. Happily. For them!