About

“The Ultimate Survivor: A Rantaro Amami Zine” is a physical, for-profit fanzine that will feature page illustrations, writing, and merchandise all featuring Rantaro Amami from New DanganRonpa V3: Killing Harmony with the theme of “survival”.The theme of “survival” will be broad and all-encompassing, with contributors being invited to determine what that theme should look like in their own individual pieces.All contributors will be accepted via applications, which will be open from February 8th through March 8th 2025. (A full schedule can be found on the “schedule” tab.) Contributors will be given a period of four months to work on their pieces. This project is for-profit, meaning that all profits made from this project will be distributed evenly amongst the contributors. The amount of compensation will depend on what is raised during our preorders period, and subsequently leftover sales.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a zine?
A “zine” short for “fanzine” or “webzine” is a small, independently created and distributed magazine usually focused around a certain topic. Zines have a richer social history as having been used to spread awareness on socio political issues, or to publish entries in independently written comic series. This zine will be focusing on Rantaro Amami.Who is Rantaro Amami?
Rantaro Amami is a character from the third installment in the DanganRonpa series: New DanganRonpa V3 Killing Harmony.Is the zine SFW?
This will be a SFW project, but you can expect canon-typical levels of violence, cursing, and gore to be present within the zine.Will this zine contain ships?
No. We will ask that all pieces please avoid all elements of shipping or even implied romantic subtext between featured characters. The focus of this zine will be our theme, “survival”, but we will also encourage contributors to depict Rantaro interacting platonically with the other members of the cast, as well as his sisters.Will this zine feature V3 spoilers?
Yes it will, and it will likely also contain spoilers for the rest of the DanganRonpa series.Will this zine feature AUs?
We will be allowing certain AUs such as Non-Despair/No Killing Game, Hope's Peak Academy, No Ultimate Talents, Post-Canon Virtual Reality, and other Alternate Universes along those lines... but in keeping with our theme, which focuses on Rantaro's ability to withstand adversity, particularly relating to his relationship to his travelling and his sisters, we will be vetoing AUs that take him out of the canon setting altogether. We hope you can understand our reasoning behind this decision!Will depictions of trans or other LGBTQ+ headcanons be allowed?
Yes, this is fine and even encouraged, so long as all explorations of sexuality be done in accordance with our guidelines. (So no shipping, and everything must be SFW.)Am I allowed to make changes to canon character designs?
Within reason, yes, we will allow room for appearance, ethnicity, and stylistic headcanons to be depicted in your works. Rantaro and all other characters must be recognisable as the characters from the source material, however.Will this zine feature characters from all three games?
As mentioned above, we will be encouraging, but not requiring, the inclusion of the other members of the V3 cast. Cameos by characters from the other installments in the series will be discussed on a case-by-case basis, but not disallowed outright. (Particularly for any pieces taking place in a Non-Despair/Hope's Peak setting.)Rantaro's sisters don't have canonical designs or personalities. What if I want to include them in my piece?
We will be encouraging creativity when it comes to creating and depicting Rantaro's family members. The mod team will also be available to provide resources or brainstorming help for those who aren't confident in designing or depicting original characters.Will this zine be physical or digital?
This zine will be physical!How many contributors will you be accepting?
After going through contributor applications, we ultimately chose to take 3 writers, 3 merch artists, and 15 page artists.Will this be a beginner-friendly zine?
We will be accepting contributors based on who we personally feel has the style and quality of work that fits in with our vision of the project, so we can’t promise more of a focus on a beginner-friendly application process. Additionally, in order to be sure that our zine is affordable, we will have to have strict constraints on the amount of contributors we can accept. However, we encourage everyone who is interested to apply! Please note that the mods’ decisions are not indicative of your talent or value as an artist.How old do you have to be to apply?
Due to the themes and topics explored within the DanganRonpa series as a whole, we are asking that all contributors be at least 15 years or older on the date that result emails are sent: March 15th, 2025.Will this zine feature guest creators?
Yes it will! We invited three page artists, a merch artist, a writer, and a cover artist as our guests.Can I apply for multiple roles?
Yes you may! But in order to diversify the contributor pool, you will only be accepted for one role.If I am rejected, will I still be emailed my application results?
Yes, all who apply will be emailed.How will contributors be compensated?
Every contributor will be provided with, at minimum, a free digital full bundle. Provided that we are able to go physical, we will be aiming to make enough money to give every contributor the option of a free full bundle as well. Contributors will be given the option to receive a portion of whatever profit we make or donate their portion to charity.Where will the zine be shipped from?
All physical orders will be shipped from the Southeastern United States.Where can I go if I want to ask you a question anonymously?
Due to the shutdown of Retrospring and the lack of trustworthy alternatives, we will be directing all anonymous questions to our Tumblr inbox. Please feel free to message us on any of our socials, shoot us an email at [email protected], or ask us questions via our Interest Check, opening January 1st, 2025. All anonymous questions will be compiled into a Q&A thread for easy access.My question isn’t answered here!
See above!

Schedule

January 1st 2025: Interest Check Open/Project Launch
February 1st 2025: Interest Check Closed
February 8th 2025: Contributor Applications Open
March 8th 2025: Contributor Applications Closed
March 15th 2025: Contributor Emails Sent
March 30th 2025: Pitches Due
April 30th 2025: Check-In One
May 30th 2025: Check-In Two
June 30th 2025: Check-In Three
July 30th 2025: Final Submissions
August 31st 2025: Preorders Open
October 17th 2025: Preorders Closed
November 2025: Production Starts
Dates TBD: Shipping

Guidelines

⟡ We ask that all contributors be 15 years of age or older by the time contributor emails are sent out (March 15th 2025)!⟡ We are aware that the theme of “survival” is rather broad, and this was intentional! We would love to see a wide variety of different pitches. However, we will ask that all pitches please be in accordance with our SFW guideline, as well as being something that contributors can safely and comfortably execute within the page size and word limits provided.⟡ This zine will contain themes of violence, death, and gore on par with the level shown in DanganRonpa. However, gratuitous violence or excessively graphic gore will not be allowed. If you have any questions about what that looks like, the mods are open to discussion on what will fit within the guidelines of our project.⟡ We will have a zero-tolerance policy for plagiarism. If it is discovered that you plagiarised either items on your portfolio by tracing, heavily referencing without credit, or outright stealing the artwork of others without permission, you will be immediately banned from the zine with no chance of reacceptance.⟡ Works created with the use of AI, either for inspiration or for the actual creation of your piece, will not be featured in our project. We strongly advise that you do not include them on your portfolio either.⟡ For the duration of this project, we will be asking that you please keep your piece completely private until you are given express permission to share it! This includes sharing WIPs, asking a trusted friend to beta read or offer art critique, or using your piece for compilations on your public socials. However, with explicit mod permission you may include your works on private portfolios. Once the project has completed, your piece is yours to do with as you wish, including posting to your social medias or selling on your personal merch store.⟡ Bigotry, bullying, and harassment will not be permitted within the project, or amongst the contributors. Any contributors who violate this guideline will face removal from the project in the interest of curating a safe and comfortable workspace for everyone involved.⟡ If you have any criticisms of the mods, we are completely open to hearing it! Please feel free to message any one of us at any time with concerns or fears and we will do our best to respond adequately. We will ask that disputes be handled privately first and foremost.⟡ Please make sure to strongly consider your current workload and schedule before applying to this project! In applying to the zine you are committing to follow our schedule and guidelines. Life happens, and we will of course be providing extensions for anyone who needs them, but all we ask for is strong and timely communication, as well as a general adherence to our schedule.