I spend extra time than I ought to on TikTok, and meaning I’ve seen my fair proportion of the Grimace Milkshake development. And associates, it would simply be as a result of Grasp Detective Archives: Rain Code, the newest recreation from the individuals behind Danganronpa, is just some days away, however I can’t watch these movies and never instantly assume they appear to be discovering a useless physique in Spike Chunsoft’s teen deathmatch homicide thriller collection. Wow, that was a loaded couple of sentences. Let’s break it down.
The Grimace Milkshake development has individuals (largely teenagers) ingesting the brand new purple, berry-flavored milkshake meant to commemorate the birthday of Grimace, considered one of McDonald’s mascots who hasn’t been seen within the chain restaurant’s advertising and marketing in over a decade. The shake is purple, identical to the character, albeit in a a lot lighter shade. The movies sometimes begin off fairly regular, with members ingesting the shake and wishing Grimace a contented birthday. Then shit will get bizarre. Whereas there are riffs and completely different interpretations of what comes subsequent, the constant throughline is that the TikTok shortly turns into a horror present. Quite a lot of the time, there’s some model of individuals violently throwing the shake (and different entrails) up, however some have determined to subvert expectations and switch it right into a monster film starring the purple man.
Truthfully reader, I’m obsessed. The absurdism of all of it and the way in which a few of these creators decide to the bit? Iconic. Nearly makes up for the truth that the Grimace Shake made my buddy nauseous when he drank it.
But additionally, now that it’s been dropped at my consideration on Twitter that the grim aftermaths in these TikToks look identical to Danganronpa our bodies, it’s all I can see. For those who have by no means performed considered one of Spike Chunsoft’s (glorious) homicide thriller video games, the collection focuses on teams of highschool college students who participate in a dying recreation orchestrated by Monokuma, an animatronic teddy bear. In every recreation, the participant has to unravel the murders of their classmates. However the collection additionally has a reasonably distinct visible component that carries all through: the blood is pink.
The next picture is from the demo for Danganronpa V3: Killing Concord, and depicts a completely fabricated crime scene. So this isn’t a spoiler.
![Hiro is seen dead and bloody in a shower.](https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/c_fit,f_auto,g_center,q_60,w_645/41a4c58706ec59f10a61f4e19a6d53ff.jpg)
The Grimace Shake just isn’t the identical shade, however the milkshake-addled our bodies of teenagers we see on the finish of those Tiktoks are nonetheless fairly evocative of a Danganronpa crime scene. These movies nearly by no means have precise pink blood within the scenes, so seeing a dying splatter in a vibrant colour simply instantly brings me again to Hope’s Peak Academy and all of the violence that occurred inside its partitions. At this level I half-expect the haunting physique discovery music from Danganronpa to play throughout these Tiktoks, and folks have made edits that just do that to actually promote the bit.
Nearly makes me need to return and play all these video games once more, however fortunately Grasp Detective Archives: Rain Code is simply days away. If that recreation pursuits you, possibly control Kotaku on Friday, June 30. Perhaps let’s meet again right here round midnight Pacific Time?