I spend more time than I should on TikTok, and that means I’ve seen my fair share of the Grimace Milkshake trend. And friends, it might just be because Master Detective Archives: Rain Code, the latest game from the people behind Danganronpa, is just a few days away, but I can’t watch these videos and not immediately think they look like discovering a dead body in Spike Chunsoft’s teen deathmatch murder mystery series. Wow, that was a loaded couple of sentences. Let’s break it down.
The Grimace Milkshake trend has people (mostly teens) drinking the new purple, berry-flavored milkshake meant to commemorate the birthday of Grimace, one of McDonald’s mascots who hasn’t been seen in the chain restaurant’s marketing in over a decade. The shake is purple, just like the character, albeit in a much lighter shade. The videos typically start off pretty normal, with participants drinking the shake and wishing Grimace a happy birthday. Then shit gets weird. While there are riffs and different interpretations of what comes next, the consistent throughline is that the TikTok quickly becomes a horror show. A lot of the time, there’s some version of people violently throwing the shake (and other entrails) up, but some have decided to subvert expectations and turn it into a monster movie starring the purple guy.
Honestly reader, I’m obsessed. The absurdism of it all and the way some of these creators commit to the bit? Iconic. Almost makes up for the fact that the Grimace Shake made my friend nauseous when he drank it.
But also, now that it’s been brought to my attention on Twitter that the grim aftermaths in these TikToks look just like Danganronpa bodies, it’s all I can see. For those that have never played one of Spike Chunsoft’s (excellent) murder mystery games, the series focuses on groups of high school students who take part in a death game orchestrated by Monokuma, an animatronic teddy bear. In each game, the player has to solve the murders of their classmates. But the series also has a pretty distinct visual element that carries throughout: the blood is pink.
The following image is from the demo for Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, and depicts an entirely fabricated crime scene. So this isn’t a spoiler.
The Grimace Shake is not the same shade, but the milkshake-addled bodies of teens we see at the end of these Tiktoks are nonetheless pretty evocative of a Danganronpa crime scene. These videos almost never have actual red blood in the scenes, so seeing a death splatter in a vibrant color just immediately brings me back to Hope’s Peak Academy and all the violence that happened within its walls. At this point I half-expect the haunting body discovery music from Danganronpa to play during these Tiktoks, and people have made edits that do just that to really sell the bit.
Almost makes me want to go back and play all those games again, but thankfully Master Detective Archives: Rain Code is just days away. If that game interests you, maybe keep an eye on Kotaku on Friday, June 30. Maybe let’s meet back here around midnight Pacific Time?
