Black and White Monobear Sundress based on Dangan Ronpa

A sleeveless sundress with a hem above the knee and a scoop neck. It is split in half, with one half black and one half white. The white half is patterned with large black polka dots, while the black half has a strange red lightning bolt-esque pattern around the hem.Click for larger version (PNG); click for PDF version. Click here for the list of dolls.

Lately I’ve been reading about a game called Dangan Ronpa (which literally means “bullet rebuttal,” but no one actually calls it that), and its sequel, Super Dangan Ronpa 2. It’s been getting some buzz lately, as a fan translation group has finished a patch for it, causing an onslaught of Let’s Plays, and there is an anime version currently airing in Japan. There’s also a full Let’s Play in screenshot form.

The premise of the first game is that a group of high-school students who are all supremely talented in one area or another are imprisoned inside their school and pushed to kill each other. The description may remind you of the Hunger Games or Battle Royale, but in practice it is a murder mystery with elements of Fallout and And Then There Were None, as you try to discover the truth behind each murder, the secrets of the school and the state of the outside world.

The leader of this murderous game is a bear named Monobear, or Monokuma, depending on whose translation you like; it’s also a play on the word “monochrome” in Japanese. For Monokuma has a distinctive design: he’s a white, sweet-looking teddy bear on one side, and a black bear with a glowing red eye and a terrifying smile on the other. He’s smug, seemingly all-knowing and his laugh sounds like “Upupupu.” He’s voiced by Nobuyo Oyama, who is best known as the voice of Doraemon, a popular character from a long-running manga and TV series. In other words, for Japanese players who grew up with Doraemon, the effect is probably something like hearing Winnie the Pooh or Mickey Mouse trying to manipulate you into killing people.

Today’s dress, then, is a jaunty polka-dot pattern on one side… and creepy red Monobear eyes on the other. It doesn’t really have any relation to the game, I just thought the design would be cute and slightly unsettling.

If you want to get in on the mutual killing fun, there’s the Let’s Plays and anime I linked earlier, and if you finish those up and want to get into Super Dangan Ronpa 2, there is an ongoing Let’s Play on the Something Awful forums, where the readers follow along, making suggestions for what to do next and forming theories as the game is translated. Sometimes a paywall prevents people without SA accounts from reading the forums, so check has the sa paywall gone yet on Tumblr or just succumb to despair while the game goes on without you. Upupupu~

Let’s have a contest! The winner gets to tell me how to color one of my black and white dresses. Standard rules apply: if you won either of the two previous contests, please don’t enter and only enter once per new post. Here’s the question: What’s Milo’s favorite thing in my kitchen? (Besides the food.) Please post your answers in the comments! Edit: Lauren got it! He has a love for spoons. Lauren, please post your request in the comments!


Hinawa’s Red and White Dress from Mother 3

Click for larger version; click for the list of dolls.

OK, I really can’t call this dress a costume, since it’s from a video game I’m very excited about, although it would make a good and easy, albeit verrrry obscure, Halloween costume. This is an outfit from the Game Boy Advance game Mother 3, worn by the main characters’ mother whose name is Hinawa. Mother is a series of Japanese RPGs, the second one of which is known in America as Earthbound. (The first one was fully localized, but never released in America.) Mother 2 (Earthbound) was a quirky, sometimes creepy, playful game which was extremely popular in Japan, but not so much in America. However, it became a cult classic and it attracted a huge, dedicated fanbase. They tried like crazy to get Nintendo’s attention, but even after sending Nintendo a petition to bring Mother 3 to America with more than 30,000 signatures, they were ignored. After Mother 3 came out two years ago and it was confirmed that there were no plans to bring Mother 3 out in English, they got together and made a translation themselves. It’s a fantastic game — if you liked Earthbound, please try Mother 3!

New poll soon…


Cloud Strife’s Purple Dress from Final Fantasy VII

Click for larger version; click for the list of dolls.

This demure-seeming dress is actually not as innocent as one might think. It belongs to a videogame character named Cloud Strife; with each successive post-Final Fantasy VII appearance he makes, he becomes cooler and cooler. It’s as if to help us all forget that in FF7, rather shortly after you first meet him, you had to dress him up like a girl to gain access to the red light district. (The first time I played that part, I had my mom watching. Awkward.) Your female co-conspirators Tifa and Aeris have plunging necklines and bared arms in their chosen dresses, but with Cloud we are spared that vision…

FF7 has been on my mind recently on account of Brian starting to play it again, but our PS2 is now quite thoroughly kaput, and I don’t think he’ll have the heart to start it up again just to have it crash once more.