How Fanart Conveys Character // Danganronpa Spoilers Ahead

Art by @Breadgycrumbs on Instagram.

Content Warning: Mentions of murder, forced suicide, and death.

Pictured left is a drawing of Junko Enoshima, a Danganronpa character, created by Breadgycrumbs on Instagram. For context, Junko Enoshima is a murder mystery series’ main villain with an insatiable bloodlust and the desire to watch other characters tear at the seams. She is malicious and sadistic, enjoying watching—and causing—relentless physical and emotional agony. For instance, she brainwashed over 200 students into killing themselves, spared only a single one, and then trapped 16 students in a killing game. The rules of the game are simple: kill someone, get away with it, and you will be free to leave the place you are trapped in while your classmates will be executed. That's horrible, right?

Well, Breadgycrumbs intended for the viewer to sense Enoshima’s maliciousness when they looked at this artwork. Their use of neon colors invokes a natural phenomenon called aposematism, which would make the reader feel a sense of danger. It's that thing that happens where frogs are neon and predators are like, "woah. I shouldn't eat that. It could be dangerous or toxic." Junko's colors aren't that bright, so Breadgycrumbs had to saturate the art on purpose. It's a clever effect that most people wouldn't think about consciously.

The lack of ‘clean’ linework characterizes Enoshima to the viewer, even if they didn’t know anything about Enoshima or the series she is from. It adds a nice dash of 'organized chaos' to the piece and I feel like that describes Junko fairly well. The blur effect on the edges of the image, which Breadgycrumbs went out of their way to add to the piece, makes her look more intense. These added effects make it clear that Breadgycrumbs was trying to convey Junko Enoshima as malevolent and almost venomous, in a metaphorical sense. The venom part goes back to the toxic frog comparison, which also makes sense for someone like Junko.

Using these subtle effects to display Enoshima’s immensely horrid crimes was purposeful and a work of genius; it is quite funny to see how much can be told without even using words.