[Anime]Death Parade

by TopgunUK Thu Jan 08, 2015 8:47 am

Death Parade
A full TV anime with the same concept as the Anime Mirai 2013 short Death Billiards
Directed by Tachikawa Yuzuru
Music by Hayashi Yuuki
Character design by Kurita Shinichi

Status: Airs Jan 10
Producers: Madhouse
Genres: Game, Psychological

Synopsis: "Welcome to Queen Dekim." What greets two unsuspecting guests is a strange bar, Queen Dekim, and the white-haired bartender, Dekim. "From here you two shall begin a battle where your lives hang in the balance," he says to introduce the Death Game. Before long the guests' true natures become apparent. As a matter of course, at the game's end Dekim is revealed to be the "arbiter." Dekim's judgement on the two guests is...

Anyone who hasn't watched Death Billiards yet should give it a try now, it's basically a pilot episode for this show, hopefully they won't be airing it again as the premier episode though because it would suck having to wait another week for something new.

[Anime]Death Parade Yande.re%20305834%20death_parade

[Anime]Death Parade Yande.re%20305834%20death_parade

by TopgunUK Sat Jan 10, 2015 3:16 am

First episode is out, reintroduces the concept from Death Billiards for first time viewers, pretty good.

Love the OP, though it's not quite in tune with the tone of the first episode at least.

ED is pretty good too, and it seems each one will be made of episode specific art.

by Destructo Sat Jan 10, 2015 9:08 am

This is an interesting show. Not gonna lie, I was very engrossed in the couple's story. ~~Goddammit, she just wanted the money. ;_;~~
Wait a minute. no no no no no, that's not right. hold the fuck up here.

Is that gonna be the formula for this series?

by TopgunUK Sat Jan 10, 2015 10:54 am

The end of the episode and the PV for episode 2 indicated that there'll be some non-episodic story stuff, and there are a lot of cast members to introduce so it's hard to say if it will be the formula.

It was the formula for Death Billiards and this episode, but the PV for episode 2 looks like it might not have any games at all and just focus on the regular cast.

As for this episode:

[Anime]Death Parade 1420842732443

This nameplate in the ED from their wedding was for her friend Machida (Matchy) so Machiko told the truth when she said she wasnt the player the girls were talking about in the bathroom.

My take is..

The husband got suspicious, untrusting and jealous after hearing the bathroom conversation and it drove a wedge between them, probably driving her to actually cheat once (you could see in the shot of her in bed she was ashamed afterwards). She was lying when she said she never loved him and that it wasn't his baby probably to make the separation easier on him and to ease his guilt at mistakenly killing his own wife and unborn child by giving him a reason to really hate her.

by Destructo Sat Jan 10, 2015 11:02 am

that makes sense. So the masks above the elevators and how they changed at the end mean something, too?

by TopgunUK Sat Jan 10, 2015 11:20 am

Destructo wrote:that makes sense. So the masks above the elevators and how they changed at the end mean something, too?

I think so, but really don't know for sure yet.

What I thought when watching the episode was, the reincarnation was the "heaven" or good option whilst your soul being sent to the void was the "hell" or bad option.

I still think that, it seems to me that the void option is like ceasing to exist and that's not good, a lot of people are basing their understanding of it on Buddhism though and suggesting that that's the "heaven" option because maybe she's being removed from the cycle of reincarnation and reaching nirvana, I think if that were the case they'd have said she reached nirvana and not implied she was just being sent to the void, according to an anon who speaks nip, they used a word for void that is not the same one used in Buddhism so this supports my conclusion.

I hope they'll be less ambiguous on that in future, I'm glad they didn't go with literal Heaven and Hell as concepts though, that really pissed me off in Hell Girl seeing people sent to be eternally tortured for stupid or sometimes even no reason, here if being obliterated and simply not existing again is the worst result that's a lot more palatable for me.

by **Ojou** Sat Jan 10, 2015 12:02 pm

Definitely looking forward to the next few episodes for at least some answers to that ^
I'm quite curious as to what the bloodmoon and geisha masks represent exactly in this scenario. Like how they tie to this whole "reincarnation" and "void" stuff.

Not even sure exactly what the "void" could represent at this point. It's pretty vague as of now.

by GhostCell Sun Jan 11, 2015 12:50 pm

So she was cheating on him right that's why her elevator had the demon mask on top? But the whole you will bet your lives part, what does that mean if they're already dead? Shouldn't she be the one who gets to go somewhere good since she "won"? I feel like I should stop now and watch this anime in a 4 episode chunk from the beginning.

by Revy Sun Jan 11, 2015 2:01 pm

Didnt she win? I dont get it.

That mother fucker just tried to stab his wife with darts.

by TopgunUK Mon Jan 12, 2015 12:07 am

If you watch Death Billiards, and this ep.

It's kind of clear that the game is just a device to force a conflict between the two contestants and have them be tested as people and it's not a clear cut if you win the game you win the prize sort of thing.

If the masks above the door signify where you end up going (it seems like they must be important since they switched places during this Death Darts episode) Then the winner of Death Billiards had the opposite mask to the winner of Death Darts, meaning the result of the game itself is probably meaningless.

Unfortunately Death Billiards was probably even more ambiguous than this episode was and this episode was pretty fucking ambiguous with seemingly dozens of interpretations out there.

I hope there's more clarity going forward, but it's pretty interesting to analyze and speculate in the meantime.

GhostCell wrote:So she was cheating on him right that's why her elevator had the demon mask on top? But the whole you will bet your lives part, what does that mean if they're already dead? Shouldn't she be the one who gets to go somewhere good since she "won"? I feel like I should stop now and watch this anime in a 4 episode chunk from the beginning.

Literally no one watching knows how everything works yet, the show is too ambiguous about so many things, so you shouldn't feel left out if you aren't certain about things yet, in fact even Onna doesn't know what's going on if Bartender (Not)Ginko doesn't tell her and she's working next to him in Death Billiards.

I'm pretty sure he just tells them they'll play with their lives on the line to provoke the right sense of desperation from them without revealing too much.

by **MikuHatsune** Mon Jan 12, 2015 3:08 am

TopgunUK wrote:

damn you sam.....damn you....

[Anime]Death Parade 7X26UIz

by **Ojou** Mon Jan 12, 2015 4:04 pm

GhostCell wrote:So she was cheating on him right that's why her elevator had the demon mask on top? But the whole you will bet your lives part, what does that mean if they're already dead? Shouldn't she be the one who gets to go somewhere good since she "won"? I feel like I should stop now and watch this anime in a 4 episode chunk from the beginning.

Well they weren't aware they were dead until the "game" was nearly finished. And I'd assume it'd have to do with being sent into oblivion and that your soul can't ever return or something like that. What peaks my curiosity moreso is what exactly is represented by the "bodies" behind the bar. The ones who don't get sent to either place, are they just trapped in limbo for eternity because they never decided to play?

by **Ojou** Wed Jan 14, 2015 8:26 am

Just watched Death Billiards, and yep it was even more confusing. Damn you for not telling us what the old man said or where they went!

by TopgunUK Sat Jan 17, 2015 3:35 am

Bracing self for my interpretation being torn apart by this ep.

TopgunUK wrote:Bracing self for my interpretation being torn apart by this ep.

Never mind, I was pretty much right about everything, feels good mang.

The episode was just the same events from Onna's perspective, and provided clarification for most of the stuff people were left wondering about after the first episode, I think it's important they did this at least once. Still stings not getting a new game for another week though.
_____________________________________________

Nona said the term is for 3 months probably meaning how long Onna will be Decim's assistant.

What happens when the 3 months is up? Onna NO!

by Revy Sat Jan 17, 2015 2:45 pm

I think she's already dead.

and

TopgunUK wrote:Never mind, I was pretty much right about everything, feels good mang.

>Well Played!

by TopgunUK Sat Jan 17, 2015 11:30 pm

I'm sure she is already dead, but what will they do with her once these three months are up? Will she end up in the void? Is that mannequin in the ED representing her?

Onna, NO!

by Destructo Sun Jan 18, 2015 1:12 am

Hm, I was hoping someone in the show would explain how Takashi and Machiko's ends were decided with those elevators. Well, whatever. I'm sure it'll get explained down the line.

This Onna lady's pretty belle doe.

by TopgunUK Sun Jan 18, 2015 1:22 am

Destructo wrote:Hm, I was hoping someone in the show would explain how Takashi and Machiko's ends were decided with those elevators. Well, whatever. I'm sure it'll get explained down the line.

This Onna lady's pretty belle doe.

I think the episode showed that Decim (as the Arbiter) makes the judgement himself.

And he's not perfect, since he didn't pick up on the fact that Machiko was lying for her husband's sake and took what she said to be the truth, that's why he feels he's made a mistake when Onna explains it to him.

by Destructo Sun Jan 18, 2015 1:30 am

I guess that would also explain why Nona also gave him a talkdown at the end there. Hm, interesting.

That makes me question how long he's been doing this arbiter biz. I don't even know if that's a valid question; maybe Decim's been doing this for...forever? But being told off by Nona like that about not considering people's feelings makes me feel like he hasn't had any other case like this. I dunno.

lol, and I also liked Funi's subtitle "Newly wed, and newly dead." That is some good stuff.

by GhostCell Sun Jan 18, 2015 11:36 am

I wonder if both participants can be reincarnated/sent to the void. This is one imperfect ass system makes me wonder though if Decim and Nona were even human if considering they were surprised at the assistants assessment of the situation between the couples.

by TopgunUK Sun Jan 18, 2015 12:05 pm

In Death Billiards, Decim says he's never experienced being alive.

I imagine it's the same for Nona.

by GhostCell Sun Jan 18, 2015 1:56 pm

I'm thinking its safe to assume that anyone that has crosses for pupils wasn't human then.

by **Ojou** Mon Jan 19, 2015 5:29 am

Well at least some stuff makes more sense now.

by Revy Sat Jan 24, 2015 6:08 am

After such an nice and uplifting episode, I fear for next week.

by TopgunUK Sat Jan 24, 2015 6:48 am

Yeah that was really nice.

The contrast between the suffering last game and the healing this game is ridiculous lol.

And throughout the episode I thought one person had to go to the void so no matter how happy it seemed that was still a shadow hanging over it, then we find out they were both reincarnated when it shows the elevator masks, maximum happy endo.

Spoiler:

Also, Onna and Decim are both great. Dat "Is five minutes enough?"

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