Danganronpa: Kibou no Gakuen to Zetsubou no Koukousei - The Animation

[Talon87]

Naegi. Duh.

First, the player plays as Naegi in the original game. Few are the games which force upon their players a No Win situation. The few that do usually achieve cult status. Maybe that's Dangan Ronpa's claim to fame? But your question is strange right out of the gate because of the fact that like 99% of games don't do this.

Second, because Super High School Luckster should not be beatable (it's too much of an Emiya Shirou-esque ability). I did mention in an earlier post the one power which I think is best suited to winning this game aside from Super Luck (will spoiler tag it again below), but I still think Super Luck, as per its very essence, should trump it.

Spoiler: show

Super High School Liar

Third, because I imagine that the "sequel" to Dangan Ronpa is actually a prequel, exploring how Kirigiya Kyouko arrived here in the first place. (Playing off of that is the conviction that she was the winner of a previous survival game.) Given this, there's no need to worry about Naegi not really being cut out to be the star of a second game nor is there any reason to worry about the consequences of having him win it all.

That stated, here's really the only thing we can be absolutely certain of: if the final trial determines the game's winner, then Naegi Makoto will be alive right on up through the conclusion of the second-to-last trial; and if the final trial does not determine the game's winner, then Naegi Makoto will be alive right on up through the conclusion of the final trial. We know this because, duh, in the original game he is your eyes and ears to this world, so if he died, the game would be over. You'd have lost your eyes, your ears, your narrator. Can't have that happen. (There are ways around this, like by having one of the survivors become the new eyes and ears for the player, but again: too few games do things like this.) So given that, we can assume that Naegi is going to be in the final two, three, four, or (at most) five. (I have a hard time believing that the final "round" of the game would involve six or more students. This doesn't count an off-set mole, by the way.)

So, let's twist your question around, shall we? Instead of me answering who I think will win -- since obviously I would expect it to be Naegi -- I'll tell you who I expect will be amongst the final students keeping him company.

First off we have Kirigiya Kyouko. No doubt about it. Will be astonished if she dies in either this story arc or the next one.

Second up we probably have Ishimaru. I wrote him off for an early death originally, but I dunno, I kind of feel like he might be around for a long time now. It feels like we missed the window for him to be a minor character, and so now he's going to be a major one.

As for the remaining two guesses, man, this is really tough. Really, really tough. My inclination is to guess stronger players -- Celestia and Togami leap to mind -- but the thing is, you usually wouldn't expect to lose a weaker player to another weaker player. ^^; You'd expect a stronger one to kill a weaker one and for them to exit the game in that manner. So like ... I dunno if there's enough room for both Celestia and Togami to make it to the finals. Especially not if I'm including Ishimaru. Maybe that's my mistake. ^^; Maybe he needs to go. Hmm ... I dunno.

RANDOM GUESS: Naegi, Kyouko, Ishimaru, Celestia, Touko

The thing is, for Episode 06's casualty, I could just as easily see Touko or Ishimaru being there too. ^^;; Difficult. OTL

[kaisap112]

Originally Posted by Talon87

Third, because I imagine that the "sequel" to Dangan Ronpa is actually a prequel, exploring how Kirigiya Kyouko arrived here in the first place.

Well....there is a prequel to DR already. Two light novels, in fact, called Dangan Ronpa Zero. Just to be safe: people, don't read them until you've finished the plot of Dangan Ronpa BECAUSE SPOILERS ARE QUITE BIG IN THOSE THINGS.

As this was brought up by someone other than me, I feel safer admitting it to everyone who hasn't figured it out from all the avatars and sigs around UPN:

Spoiler: show

there is Super Dangan Ronpa 2, which seriously ramps up the difficulty level with the cases.

I won't talk about those in this thread further than that, though, let's focus on the anime.

Episode 6: I'll be surprised if I see no comment on

Spoiler: show

Ishimaru going Super Saiyan in this episode.

[Midgeorge]

Episode 6 theory:

Spoiler: show

This one had me puzzled for a while, but I imagine the culprit is Celestia. At first I thought that it actually could be Hagakure, and the show would throw us off by making it so obvious that we would believe it to be someone else. But I realised that'd be terrible writing, and something about Celestia's constant pointing out that the killer is male seems really suspicious to me. The only person who effectively could've moved Yamada's body is her, seeing as she was (supposedley) the only person on that floor besides Asahina, who may have passed out. Also, she seems to be the person to start all of the commotion around the scene, which is pretty suspicious. The students can only take her word for everything that has happened, tying back to what she said at the very beginning of the episode: "From here on out, all we can do is trust in one another."

Also she's the Super High School Level Gambler, and the money shown at the start seems most suited to her. It would be so stupid to not have the money have any relevence to the murder, and Hagakure's little head-tilt at the start makes it a little less likely for it to be him. It would be too obvious.

I dunno, gut feeling I guess. I just can't believe it to be anyone else at the moment. It'd be far too obvious to be Hagakure, and I very much doubt it to be Kirigiri. Maybe Hagakure was the culprit after all, but if he is then I still think Celestia was a part of something to do with it. Maybe they're both in on it? I don't know, I'm probably 100% wrong and it was Togami or something.

On a side note, that alter ego thing was bad and the writers should feel bad.

[kaisap112]

Originally Posted by Midgeorge

Spoiler: show

On a side note, that alter ego thing was bad and the writers should feel bad.

Spoiler: show

But I like Alter Ego! And it would've been a lot more boring if they'd just been typing and reading a computer screen. Wanna stare at an "Encrypting..." bar or get some character development?

Ishimaru and Hifumi did indeed have that fight over Alter Ego...don't forget that. "MY UNDYING LOVE FOR THIS AI" wouldn't be the dumbest motive we've been given in this story so far.

[Midgeorge]

Originally Posted by kaisap112

Spoiler: show

But I like Alter Ego! And it would've been a lot more boring if they'd just been typing and reading a computer screen. Wanna stare at an "Encrypting..." bar or get some character development?

Ishimaru and Hifumi did indeed have that fight over Alter Ego...don't forget that. "MY UNDYING LOVE FOR THIS AI" wouldn't be the dumbest motive we've been given in this story so far.

Spoiler: show

I just find it insanely hard to believe that, as good at programming Fujisaki might have been, she could create a program with visuals, extremely advanced artificial intelligence, and personality and voice of other people, in a fucking day, even with my brain turned off!

I understand why they put it there and I like Alter Ego as a thing, but its still retarded. I am intrigued by the photo with Oowada, Leon, and Fujisaki all together though. I very much doubt they're all alive but its a thought.

[Doppleganger]

I haven't rewatched the episode, but I have to agree with Midge. Here are some notes from when I watched it raw:

Spoiler: show

Celestia is just too suspicious to rule out, although she was with other characters for most of the episode and thus has a pretty solid alibi. That said, I don't know why she would go to the lengths to kill two characters, although I definitely think she killed Yamada. If you notice, there were two corpse announcements made in this episode - one with the discovery of Yamada, and one with the discovery of both bodies at the end. When Naegi went to see the body of Ishimaru, Togami, Sakura, and Fukawa were already there. Therefore, it's entirely possible that once announcement was made for either Ishimaru or Yamada, and not both, because three people have to be present to trigger the announcement (?). I don't remember where that was brought up, but I think that's true.

In any matter, because the announcement triggered at the end after Yamada died, it seems clear to me that Yamada survived his second attack (or faked his death) when Naegi/Celestia/Asahina discovered his body, then tried to run away when Celestia/Asahina left him alone. Celestia then could have followed him, attempted to kill him again, and dragged Ishimaru's body to the same area. Why, I don't know. There doesn't seem to be any point in moving Ishimaru's body.

I don't know what to think of Yamada's dying breath means. Like Maizono's "dying message" it's hard to give credibility to the dead pretty much pointing out who killed them. Yamada pretty much cemented Hagakure as the culprit by saying "Yasuhiro", but Yasuhiro could mean something in Japanese that he was trying to convey. Alternatively, it could have been part of a sentence Yamada was trying to say that got cut off, something like "Yasuhiro tried to save me from Celestia". We pretty much need to see what Hagakure was doing to really see how credible he is.

[kaisap112]

Originally Posted by Doppleganger

I haven't rewatched the episode, but I have to agree with Midge. Here are some notes from when I watched it raw:

Spoiler: show

three people have to be present to trigger the announcement (?). I don't remember where that was brought up, but I think that's true.

It was two episodes ago. Case 2, discovery of the victim.

[Talon87]

Just finished Episode 06 myself. I'm going to have to go back and rewatch it to pick up on any clues since, contrary to what Kaisa said, I didn't think it was super obvious who the culprit was. Well ... unless it was {spoiler box}, in which case Jesus fucking Christ on a popsicle stick did the anime make it too obvious.

Spoiler: show

Celestia. I mean ... either it's her or else she's a red herring, but there's no other options than those. Because good lord did the episode make it seem way too obvious that she was trying to orchestrate how people interpreted what was unfolding around them.

• At times, she spoke way too calmly, and different from her usual calm voice too. It was very obvious.
• At other times, she showed way too much terror, something we've never, ever seen out of Celestia before. It just seemed like bad acting on her part.
• SHE KEPT. FUCKING. TALKING whenever Togami or the others were trying to piece together what they had just witnessed. It was like she was constantly trying to steer their brains towards a particular destination. Sort of reminds me of magicians who use the power of suggestion to fool people into thinking that they've been handed a five dollar or a ten dollar bill when really they've only been handed a one dollar bill.
• More screentime than she's ever had before, and by a fair margin.

However, this last bullet point can also be applied to Aoi, so *shrug*.

Anyway, I'd like to go back and rewatch it myself. See if I can piece things together properly based on what we know. One question I do have though is:

Spoiler: show

Assuming it is Celestia who did it, why would Yamada cover for her? Perhaps Doppel's right that he merely ordered his sentence poorly, but leading off with "Yasuhiro" was dumb. Guy shoulda just pointed at Celestia and said "HEEEEEEER .................. -.- *dies*". If Dangan Ronpa is going to ultimately reveal that he covered for her because "he loves her" , I'm going to ask that you gag me with ten tea towels because good lord is that stupid that he'd still have a crush on her as he lays there dying from her killing blow to his temple.

As for Doppel's Japanese speculation ...

Spoiler: show

As far as I know, Yasuhiro is only a name. It isn't a pun, word fragment, or phrase fragment of anything else Japanese (e.g. "Yasuhi Ro____" or "Ya Suhiro" or "Yasu Hiro____", etc). There is a numeric pun to be found within his name though, which I'll spoiler tag just in case it becomes relevant in a later event.

Spoiler: show

Going by Japanese numeral ciphers, Yasuhiro's name is 8316:

Ya = 8 (yattsu)
Su = 3 (from English surii)
Hi = 1 (hitotsu)
Ro = 6 (roku)

So if we ever see the numeral code 8316 coming up, we know it has to do with Yasuhiro.

As for the big plot twist at the end of the episode ...

Spoiler: show

If I recall correctly, much earlier in the thread several individuals had already speculated about the students having all already known one another. This ties into how we (obviously) don't really know what happened in between Naegi standing in front of the school doors in Episode 01 and Naegi waking up inside the school as our adventure began. For all we know this game we're watching Naegi play is the second, the fifth, the one hundred twenty-third iteration of the game from Hell. Who knows. Perhaps in the universe of Dangan Ronpa we have the technology to bring the dead back to life. Perhaps in the universe of Dangan Ronpa we have the technology to turn back time. Perhaps we're stuck inside the Infinity Loop? ;p

[kaisap112]

Originally Posted by Talon87

Just finished Episode 06 myself. I'm going to have to go back and rewatch it to pick up on any clues since, contrary to what Kaisa said, I didn't think it was super obvious who the culprit was. Well ... unless it was {spoiler box}, in which case Jesus fucking Christ on a popsicle stick did the anime make it too obvious.

Spoiler: show

Celestia. I mean ... either it's her or else she's a red herring, but there's no other options than those. Because good lord did the episode make it seem way too obvious that she was trying to orchestrate how people interpreted what was unfolding around them.

• At times, she spoke way too calmly, and different from her usual calm voice too. It was very obvious.
• At other times, she showed way too much terror, something we've never, ever seen out of Celestia before. It just seemed like bad acting on her part.
• SHE KEPT. FUCKING. TALKING whenever Togami or the others were trying to piece together what they had just witnessed. It was like she was constantly trying to steer their brains towards a particular destination. Sort of reminds me of magicians who use the power of suggestion to fool people into thinking that they've been handed a five dollar or a ten dollar bill when really they've only been handed a one dollar bill.
• More screentime than she's ever had before, and by a fair margin.

However, this last bullet point can also be applied to Aoi, so *shrug*.

Somehow no one in this thread has pointed out/noticed the clue I meant (and now I've found another one, so two clues at least!)...I don't mind though since your theories amuse me *strokes Persian cat* :3. But I have to ask about the fourth point:

Spoiler: show

Can screentime per character be a reliable indicator? We had Togami&Fukawa a ton in the last case, and I don't recall Leon getting almost any screentime in the first case.

The game actually amplifies the amount of red herrings when there's so much more dialog between many different people, of which Social Links are ones you get to choose yourself (would you remember stuff said by Character A after you've had an enlightening chat with B, your favorite character ever?).

[Talon87]

Rewatching Episode 06 and noticing some things.

Spoiler: show

When the students discover the art room, right after Hifumi snorts steam out of his nostrils, we see a crapton of wooden mallets. This strongly suggests that the murder weapon mallets' origin was the art room. And who likelier to have designed them the way they were but Hifumi the artist?

When the quartet (Aoi, Sakura, Kyouko, and Naegi) find Celestia sprawled out on the ground, there's no blood on either her body or on the mallet. Seems awfully strange that the attacker would be so merciful to her but not to the next two victims. ;p (+1 point that Celestia is behind this)

Yeah, the way Celestia goes all "Oh no. Yamada is in danger" feels like super fake acting. ^_^;

How could Celestia know that Hifumi was taken away by the Justice Robot if she were knocked out by his attack? :p

How could Celestia have taken a snapshot of the Justice Robot at the elevation she did (clearly not ground level; either eye level or else tabletop level) if she were about to pass out from his attack? :p

When Celestia sends the others off to find Yamada, she doesn't accompany them at first. Why not? :p (Could be when she went to kill Ishimaru, assuming she did it and not Hifumi. [See later.])

When the entire group splits up to try and find the Justice Robot, nobody accompanies Celestia. This makes it very easy for her to do who knows what.

When Celestia cries out and claims to have been attacked by the Justice Robot for a second time, she once again is not bleeding. How strange that the assailant goes easy only on her. :p She also manages to gather the entire gang (minus Kyouko) to her present location, buying time for Hifumi to either a) murder Ishimaru or else b) ready himself for the next fake attack against his person.

One thing that's been bothering me this entire show is Celestia's finger adornment. It's the sort of thing you associate with assassins in the movies: the tip is sharp and coated in poison. All they need to do is prick somebody to administer the lethal poison. Assuming Celestia killed anyone this week, how does her finger thing factor in? I'll tell you.

Here is what I am thinking:

Spoiler: show

1. Celestia took a gamble that Hifumi would buy this story: that she (Celestia) would support his efforts to escape from this prison, even if that meant sacrificing herself.

2. Hifumi stupidly believed her.

3. Together, the two made the Justice Robo costume, painted the mallets, etc.

4. Unbeknownst to Hifumi, Celestia stole Alter Ego.

5. Celestia posed for the camera as Justice Robo, pretending to abduct Hifumi.

6. Celestia helped Hifumi to throw the others off the trail that he was going to murder Ishimaru.

7. He murders Ishimaru over Alter Ego (who he mistakenly believes has it, despite what Kyouko said about the instructions to scream if either of the two of them showed up). Meanwhile, Celestia buys Hifumi time to do this by screaming and drawing everyone to her present location. (She places herself in the perfect spot to buy Hifumi ample time.)

8. Hifumi returns to the infirmary and fakes the second attack on him (this time what's supposed to be his death).

9. After Celestia escorts Aoi out of the room and Naegi leaves, Hifumi readies himself to relocate Ishimaru's body. Once the coast is clear, he does.

10. However, Celestia then joins Hifumi and poisons him with her finger talon ... thing. The poison incapacitates him quickly, but he's so large that it takes time for the poison to kill him. Importantly, Celestia has worked this out with Hifumi in advance. She's told him that she's merely placing him in a deep sleep, one that's mistakable for death, and that this will allow him to fool the others into thinking that he didn't kill Ishimaru -- someone else did!

11. Hifumi blames his death (one he believes to be fake; he doesn't realize that this time it's for real!) on Yasuhiro, in order to frame Yasuhiro for Ishimaru's death, throw the jury off, and escape from this school.

12. Celestia is thinking "All according to plan " because now the jury is going to blame Yasuhiro for the murders instead of Hifumi (for Ishimaru's) and Celestia (for Hifumi's). Since Hifumi's already dead anyway, this means that the only eligible candidate to escape is Celestia ... and so she will, she thinks, at the cost of everyone else's lives, even her fat, stupid manservant Hifumi's.

Even if I am way wrong, at least I've come up with a pretty detailed theory that's sure to entertain you video game people.

[Ex-Admiral Insane]

Kaisap, does the glaring clue have anything to with

Spoiler: show

The fact that Celestia find the camera at the beginning of the episode on a table in the Pool/Gaming Room?

For people who were wondering, this is something I noticed but am unsure whether it´s a real clue. If it is, I'm guessing its a pretty big one.
Never mind, Kaisap confirmed it isn't a clue. Safe for viewing but otherwise meaningless.

[Talon87]

Could you please better label your spoiler box? I'd like to know whether it's safe for TV viewers to click on or not, thanks. (And if so, when.)

[Doppleganger]

DIRECT RESPONSE TO TALON'S POST ABOVE EAI's

Spoiler: show

Celestia stealing Alter Ego would explain why Kirigiri didn't hear any screams. Alter Ego has no reason to distrust Celestia, or scream if she took him somewhere. I have a hard time believing Hifumi would be that stupid to believe Celestia if she lied to him and told him Ishimaru took Alter Ego to motivate him to kill. I mean god dang, Alter Ego's a freaking program, to kill one of your friends over something that insignificant?

I rather believe Celestia killed Ishimaru herself...Hifumi is probably too fat to pull it off anyway.

[Talon87]

You too, Doppel! Seriously, people! If you just say "spoiler" with no indication of what's inside, I won't read it. Vice versa, someone else might and get screwed by a real spoiler. Please, please label your spoiler boxes. It's not that hard. -_-;

[kaisap112]

Originally Posted by Ex-Admiral Insane

Kaisap, does the glaring clue have anything to with

Spoiler: show

The fact that Celestia find the camera at the beginning of the episode on a table in the Pool/Gaming Room?

It doesn't. And there's two clues now that I find glaring that haven't been mentioned already. I'm tempted to start giving hints about them, just to see the "OH MY GOD THAT'S RIGHT " reactions until Talon comes in and shoots me down in 0.2 seconds as usual.

[Doppleganger]

Originally Posted by Talon87

You too, Doppel! Seriously, people! If you just say "spoiler" with no indication of what's inside, I won't read it. Vice versa, someone else might and get screwed by a real spoiler. Please, please label your spoiler boxes. It's not that hard. -_-;

I'm having internet troubles, so for whatever reason I didn't see that. Though, my information isn't any greater than your own.

[Talon87]

Your current label's not much better: is it the known culprit (because you looked ahead?) or is it the suspected culprit? The thing is, I can't make any safe assumptions with you because of your tendency to read ahead or to open up spoiler boxes you weren't meant to; I have no idea whether you've done that with this case or not.

[Doppleganger]

Sigh. How's that?

[Talon87]

Better.

As for a response to what you wrote ...

(Episode 06)

Spoiler: show

Hifumi's motivation to kill Ishimaru is (you could say) love.

• as a stereotypical otaku, Hifumi may have a 2-D complex. Alter Ego's a 2-D waifu.
• Hifumi said that Alter Ego's the first woman he was able to be truly open with and who showed no revulsion as he explained his likes & fetishes and whatnot. So he's probably smitten with her for this reason too.
• Ishimaru was threatening to not only take possession of the laptop but to have Alter Ego take a backseat to 2-D Ohwada. Hifumi wouldn't stand for either of these things.

Is this enough to kill over IRL? Hell no! But is it enough for Dangan Ronpa? Sure -- because you've also gotta consider:

• killing is the promised ticket out of this Hell
• Monobear offered $10,000,000 to the person who wins the game this round (if any)

Sakura nobly said that you can't buy lives with money, but one might say that that's a rather naive belief. $10,000,000 is more than enough to make killers out of many if not most people. See: the Espoir (which was offering far less, too).

I dunno, it's just a working theory. Celestia gambles that Hifumi will be dumb enough to believe she'd do this for him, her gamble pays off, he kills Ishimaru thinking he's getting out of here, and then she kills him thinking she's getting out of here.

Now let's see if we can't find those clues of Kaisa's!

[Ex-Admiral Insane]

Originally Posted by kaisap112

It doesn't. And there's two clues now that I find glaring that haven't been mentioned already. I'm tempted to start giving hints about them, just to see the "OH MY GOD THAT'S RIGHT " reactions until Talon comes in and shoots me down in 0.2 seconds as usual.

Okay fine, is the clue:

(Thing I noticed that I like to think is a clue in Episode 6)

Spoiler: show

There is no blood on Justice Hammer #2 despite the fact that Yamada has an apparent open head wound? Justice Hammer #1 has no blood because Celestia didn't have an open head wound. Justice Hammer #3 had some (though it looks like it was more splashed on) and Justice Hammer #4 had clearly blood on it to indicate it was used to kill. I'm suspecting Yamada to use his artist skills to create blood-like paint(?). What's he storing in that backpack of his? Of course the theory of a fake attack was in Talon's post so not very original...

And what I meant with my previous possible clue was whether the picture might have been taken beforehand? Just like the picture the AI found. Though I find this vague at best so no further comment needed on this one.

[Talon87]

Trying to figure out what clues we've overlooked.

(Episode 06)

Spoiler: show

Yasuhiro is clearly excited when Monobear announces the $10,000,000 prize. He then tries to avoid detection (rather poorly ) when Touko asks if anyone here is in need of money. I seriously doubt he's the killer but if he is, well, then this'd certainly fit the bill as a big clue.

I doubt it's this since I already mentioned bloodless mallets with Justice Hammer #1, but it's worth noting that Justice Hammer #2 is also lacking blood. Very strange considering how much blood is all over Yamada at the time.

Doppel already pointed this out, but I guess I'll point it out more precisely: when Monobear first announces that a corpse has been found, it's likely because Togami, Touko, and Sakura discovered Ishimaru's. It was just a (well-timed) coincidence that Naegi, Celestia, and Aoi discovered Hifumi's "corpse" at the exact same time. We know therefore that he was still alive then (even though this becomes mega obvious later ).

Is the clue the fact that, were Celestia innocent, she had no reason to escort Aoi to the girls' restroom rather than keeping her company right there in the infirmary? Like, this is pretty obvious and alluded to already, but maybe it wasn't ever explicitly stated. But anyway, stating it now: toilet stalls in a restroom are way inferior to hospital beds in an infirmary. If she were innocent, Celestia would've just lain Aoi down there, on one of the beds, and kept her company. The only reason to remove her from the infirmary is to give Yamada the window of time he needs to lug his fat ass out of there.

Is the clue the director's decision to show that one door with the four pie piece window and the purple wall? (Circa 17m26s.)

Is the "clue" the fact that the numbers on the mallets are meant to subconsciously convince the jury of the order of events, even though in reality Ishimaru was likely struck by Justice Hammer #4 before Hifumi pretended to be hit by Justice Hammer #3? I doubt this is it but I really can't see what Kaisa's going on about, so ...

Is it something to do with the fact that, despite the profuse bleeding the victims' bodies kept doing, there was no trail of blood on the school grounds, no blood all over the victims' bodies in the final scene (just a little; not too much), and no blood on the person who should have moved them?

Is it the fact that Yamada is far too heavy for any of the other students to be able to lift his body and move him to a different room (let alone relocate him from the second floor to the third floor), thus proving that he relocated under his own free will?

Is it the fact that, in the ending credits' photograph, Hifumi is shown in possession of the pink camera that Celestia later finds on the third floor (which they had only just recently been given access to)?

I kept waiting to see if Celestia's earrings would disappear; and while they never did, I'll go ahead and ask anyway: is it the fact that she wears such large earrings which could potentially be where she stores her poison? (Assuming I'm even right that she kills via poison via that finger talon.)

Does it have anything to do with the maps of the school grounds?

Does it have anything to do with Kyouko?

Does it have anything to do with Yasuhiro?

Does it have anything to do with the physics room or the physics prep room?

Does it have anything to do with the locked door Aoi couldn't open? (I doubt it since this seems like the sort of thing we won't be able to work with until next episode.)

[Ex-Admiral Insane]

Talon, in addition it might be worthy to note:

Spoiler: show

Ishimaru might have even been killed the night before, possibly because he uncovered the traitor who had stolen the AI?

No one has checked the Art Room until the very last scene. If the murder had taken place there, there would be blood stains that no one would have noticed until the last moment when someone (I'm guessing Yamada) moves Ishimaru's body back. Physics Lab Storage Area would be a semi-good place to keep a body hidden for the time being. (Doubtful)

Could there be a small possibility that Hagakure was incapacitated so he would have been 'missing' and taken the blame. Kirigiri might have found him which would explain her absence, but I'm finding this highly doubtful.

The second time Celest is attacked, there's no hammer or anything (she doesn't exactly say what attacked her). Don't know how helpful this is.

[lilboocorsola]

@kaisap Is the clue you're referring to... (don't click unless you want to know who the culprit is)

Spoiler: show

...The fact Celestia said the murderer killed "those guys" right before Togami told her there was a second murder, and then acted all surprised upon hearing the news? I couldn't tell by listening whether she specifically used a plural pronoun in Japanese, so I want to double-check it was the same across different subs. I watched the one on Dailymotion (which I have begun to observe makes some mistakes/omits things now that I'm listening more closely).

That reminds me, there was a major clue in the second case I hinted heavily at to Talon that I don't think actually came up at any point. ^^;

Spoiler: show

In the game, Oowada also slips up by referring to Chihiro by a gender-neutral(?) name, which he was known to do for guys while addressing females as such. I actually dropped an early nudge towards this notion in my post here. Figured since they established Oowada's original form of address for Chihiro then it would definitely come up in his own trial, but I guess they cut it for time.

[kaisap112]

Gather round, boys and girls, it's time for Kaisa's Hint Hour! *shot*

Yuki gets one point for getting one of the clues I meant correctly! *applause* She's effectively spoiling the culprit though, so her spoiler box won't probably be read by non-spoiled members. T^T

I'll give a nudge in the right direction with this hint: dialogue. It contains both of the clues.

If you've already gotten irritated beyond belief by my little game, I'll box the clues here. I won't say who is and isn't the culprit, just what I find to be potential clues.

Clue #1: Odd phrasing

Spoiler: show

This was made more obvious in the non-UTW sub, but UTW also translates this clue. When Naegi & Co. find out that Yamada's corpse is missing, Celestia says that the culprit will kill all of them...

Japanese: "karera no yoni." ["just like they were", with a pronoun indicating more than one male or female, or a mixed group]

Dailymotion/etc sub: "just like those guys."

UTW sub: "just like the rest."

After this Togami mentions Ishimaru's death, to which Celes reacts with shock - even though she herself just said there was more than one victim.

I'm half-expecting Talon to jump at my probably misspelled Japanese, but at least the translation is...somewhat accurate? *hides from Talon-sensei*

Clue #2: Last Words (based heavily on speculation and the possibility of a red herring)

Spoiler: show

I doubt I need to explain the Japanese name order too much ("last name, first name" order). Now, first names have been used in this show on multiple occasion, so that in and of itself isn't completely weird, but take note of who use the first names of which characters. It's extremely easy to say Yasuhiro in this case means "Yasuhiro Hagakure" - but think about it a little. Has anyone called Hagakure by first name before, in any situation? As far as I recall, Yamada doesn't really call people by their first names, as much as he seems to love throwing the honorific dono around (IIRC it's another otaku-tick of his).

This gives us multiple new options as to who could be the culprit. We could go ahead and said "the afro-guy did it". But I'll throw two other options you could also consider:

A) Is Hagakure the only person in the group with the name Yasuhiro?
B) Could the killer be the before-mentioned 16th student we haven't met yet as far as we know, and their name is Yasuhiro?

These aren't the only possibilities, but I'd like to try and broaden your views a little. :3

[lilboocorsola]

I recalled the second clue from the game. However, I don't think it's as "glaring" as the above for first-time viewers. So far the animé itself has given no indication that the second clue bears any meaning other than what it appears, at least one that leads you directly to the culprit.