So, as an avid anime fan for many years it hit me that despite having a blog for over 3 years on which I have done many novel reviews and several reviews for manga as well, but I have never attempted to review an anime before. Death Parade is an anime I have heard tons of things about from YouTube to friends in general and decided although it isn’t what I’d normally watch I’d give it a go and I devoured all 12 episode in one sitting. From the animation, music and the character arcs I was left absolutely stunned and in tears as I finished the final episode of this anime and despite the story wrapping up nicely I would love to see a season 2 at some point.
Synopsis
The series revolves around Decim, the bartender and Arbiter of Quindecim, and his assistant the black-haired woman. Quindecim serves as a holding area for souls of people who have died at the same time. Decim intimidates the recently deceased people to play a "life threatening game" so he can evaluate them and decide whether their souls will go to the void or be reincarnated.
Plot/Story
Death Parade (デス・パレード Desu Parēdo) is an anime series created by Yuzuru Tachikawa, a producer from Madhouse. It is based off of the 2013 animated short film Death Billiards, also created by Yuzuru Tachikawa. It started airing on January 10, 2015. The series has 12 episodes in total.
Death Parade opens with newlyweds Takashi and Machiko entering the Quindecim bar, and here we are introduced to Decim, the arbiters and the realm of judgement. To open the series with such a bang was for me quite a shocking move as setting the pace this high so early usually results in some disappointment later on but Death Parade doesn’t suffer from this.
While the episodes at times may be repetitive as almost everyone features a judgement of some sort, the plot does have quite a lot of progression. This mainly comes in the form of character progression but there is also an overarching progression of the world as well. For me the character progression was brilliant especially for characters like the black-haired woman, Decim and Nona but there are also one or two stubborn characters that change very little in the series and I liked this, purely because it adds a lot of diversity to the cast of characters. Those who can change and those that can’t.
As mentioned previously this series don’t have the typical arcs that an anime series would have. Rather than having arcs that encompass several episodes, Death Parade’s episode are almost individual stories within themselves however the character arcs overlap specifically those of Nona, Decim and the black-haired woman which helps pull the story together without the need for story arcs which was something very refreshing for me personally.
The ending of Death Parade does leave an opening for a second season although some characters wouldn’t be present, and I feel that if there is a second season Decim will be the dominant force in it, primarily due to where his character ends up at the end of the series but there is also an opening for other characters to return once again, as this is the nature of the arbiter’s world.
I didn’t feel there were any major plot holes, but I was left with quite a few questions at the end, the main ones are explained below:
1. Who is really in charge? – It seems for most of the series that Oculus is the one in charge, however, Nona is the one who interacts with the other arbiters and she seems to have a fair amount of power over them as seen in the scene where she corrects Decim and she is physically able to disarm other arbiters as she does with Ginti.
2. Was Decim human? – There is a split-second frame where Decim awakes and his eyes don’t bear the symbol of the arbiters, but it appears moments later. Decim ability to learn also made me think that he might have been human at one point, maybe all the arbiters were. Because, let’s face it, you can’t understand humans without human emotions.
3. What is the ranking system for arbiters? – We know there are 100 floors in the tower of Death Parade, but the ranking system of the arbiters is confusing. It initially seems that the higher the floor on which you reside the closer you are to being god. Nona and Oculus occupy the highest floors, Ginti is on the 20th and Decim on the 15th. This would make Decim seem like the lowest ranking arbiter however, he gets the most guests. I don’t know where this is because Decim has such a large character arc and was therefore given more screen time, but the only other arbiter we see make a judgement in the series is Ginti and that is once.
4. Why was the black-haired woman unique? – If you have seen the series you know that this character had a very unique trait about them that had never been seen before by the arbiters. And my main question for this is why? If ever other person in the series that wasn’t an arbiter doesn’t have this trait, why does she? It is never explained which irked me a little.
Characters
Decim
Decim is by far the arbiter we see the most of throughout the series. Decim starts the series very stone-faced and detached in his manner and speech. He seems quite emotionless and just does the job he has been takes with but takes a massive amount of pride in it. We know that Decim has been an arbiter for five years, we don’t get a time frame for any of the other arbiters. The only one that comes close is Nona, but we only know she has been “in charge” for the past 82 years so she has been an arbiter for longer than that. (in charge is in quotation marks because it is debateable). Decim still lacks understanding of human emotions, and still shows incompetence at some parts of his job and this causes some conflict as it displeases Nona but is exactly what Oculus wants.
Throughout the series Decim has the most character development followed closely by Nona and the black-haired woman and it really transforms his character towards the end of the series and I would love to see how he deals with these changes for better or for worse.
Decim also demonstrates a unique ability throughout the series. Decim can create threads and use them to restrict rude customers from moving or use them to hang things. They are strong enough to stop a person in their tracks and swing them hard against the wall. Some of the more offensive aspects of these strings were seen in Decim's battle against Ginti, where they were strong enough to stop the water balls Ginti threw at him, despite their speed and strength, and could grab Ginti's wrist and swing with enough force to throw him across the room and smash through the water tank. He was even able to use them to carry many chairs at once and throw them swiftly and strongly against Ginti.
Black-haired woman/Onna
Although the black-haired woman is given a name towards the end of the series I won’t use it as it is a major spoiler, but she is referred to as Onna, those that have seen the show will understand the importance of names.
Onna seems to be an innocent but sceptical woman however, after spending some time in Quindecim, we learn that she is actually very strong-minded woman and does not hesitate to oppose Decim if she feels there is something wrong in what he says. She is also unique as although we meet a lot of humans throughout the series she retains a huge portion of her humanity and gives valuable insights to Decim whenever he is judging.
Onna is initially given the role of Decim’s assistant by Nona and I am not sure why Nona did this but overall it works out well however, there are a few sketchy parts where you really have to evaluate what Nona was thinking when she left Onna with Decim. I don’t want to say too much about Onna as it might give something away so I’m stopping here, it’s vague but it is the best I can do.
Nona
Nona is the manager of the Arbiter system, as well as the bartender of Nona Ginta located on the ninetieth floor. She is the boss of Decim, Ginti, Clavis, along with the rest of the other arbiters. He appearance is quite deceiving as she is small, almost child-like but displays a lot of dominance and physical power over other arbiters.
Nona has a rather overall serious demeanour and disciplines her employees. She administers rulings for who is responsible for each floor under her and corrects any mistakes that they make. Despite her young appearance, she is a calculating person and is an experienced and knowledgeable arbiter. Nona isn’t around for a long periods of time with the exception of a few episodes but when she is in a scene it is for a very important reason. Nona entering Quindecim or speaking with other arbiters or Oculus always meant that you were going to learn or witness something of great importance.
Like Decim, Nona shows unique abilities, Nona adapts unnatural, immense strength and becomes capable of knocking down anyone she must. She uses this ability against Ginti to interrupt his fight with Decim in Episode 5, as well as to silence him at several points during the series. Ginti usually ends up in agonizing pain from her hits to the point of being unable to move.
Ginti
Ginti is bartender of a bar named Viginti, which is located on the 20th floor and he is by far the character I liked the least. Ginti is very rough in nature and very rude, often getting irritated easily. He is also prone to violence and likes to clash with Decim, whose face alone pisses him off. Ginti has no true desire to be an arbiter and simply views it as a job he has to do. Compared to Decim, he is far more direct and aggressive with his customers, giving them less information and starting the game faster so that he can finish it as quickly as possible. In this process, however, he shows boredom and indifference while watching until he activates the most extreme conditions of the game, wherein he shows his sadism. The fact that he enjoys his customers’ suffering roots from how he looks down on humans. He seems to view them as lesser beings, and even believes that they shouldn't be getting along with arbiters. This is shown by the way he opposes Onna being an assistant to Decim.
Ginti only appears in three episodes of the series; ep 5, 6 and 11. In this short space of time we can clearly see how much one arbiter can differ from another with Decim and Ginti being almost polar opposites. Like all the other arbiters Ginti has his own unique abilities which are the power to create water orbs and manipulate them at will. They are contained in small, wooden containers, which seem to be kokeshi dolls. The dolls also take on the appearance of Ginti’s guests much like Decim’s mannequins. He can also transform his physical appearance and seems to be the only arbiter with this specific ability.
Oculus
Oculus is the creator of the system of arbitration. He observes all floors and is in a higher position than Nona. He is the second in line to the position of God. Despite this he doesn’t often interact with other arbiters with the exception of Nona who seems to visit him frequently and even has the guts to tell him when she thinks his way is wrong.
Oculus at first seems like a childish grandpa-type character, who spends his free time playing galactic pool, usually with Nona, as he expresses discontent when suggested to play with anybody else. This is actually just one side of his personality, as late in the series shows as having a near-nihilistic philosophy believing empathy and the meaning of life is only relevant to those who can die. That arbiters cannot be too human to judge, as ''humans can't judge humans'', even though it can negate their competence in their judgments, sometimes severely. While he has no major significance to the wider story he is essential in understanding why arbiters think the way they do and how the world itself operates.
Oculus is only shown to have one unique ability which is he can extend the lotus flower on his chin in order to view the memories of others, however, I don’t believe that this is his only ability especially since he is referred to being second to God. I felt the progression of his character throughout the series is leading us somewhere but before we arrive to it the series ends. I felt Oculus’ character development would improve with a second season where he would really come into his own especially given the events that take place within the series.
Clavis
Now we see extremely little of Clavis throughout the series, but I enjoyed his happy go lucky character. Clavis appears mysterious and formal but always acts amiably and serves with a smile. Clavis enjoys a good drink and likes to tease others. He is very loyal to Nona on a personal level.
When he appears in quite a few episodes he doesn’t really serve a significant purpose and doesn’t have a lot of progression overall. I would have like to have seen judgements from other arbiters not just Decim and Ginti, to see how widely the opinions of the arbiters differed.
Quin
Quin despite having very little screen time in the series (I’m sensing a trend here) I really liked Quin. s a worker in the information processing bureau and is in charge of sending the memories of the dead to arbiters, as well as testing their abilities. She used to be an arbiter in Quindecim until Decim replaced her. I also liked how all the bars are in some way named after the arbiters running them. Example, Viginti is run by Ginti and Quindecim has been run by both Quin and Decim.
Quin is a chatterbox who loves drinking sake and gets along very well with Nona. She is very enthusiastic about all alcohol in general, but especially more so if it comes from the world of the living. She seems to regret taking a position in the information processing bureau, as she states that the work done in that department is endless and fast-paced.
Despite her small amount of screen time, she provides some backstory into the world and characters specifically Decim and Nona who she seems to be very close too.
Castra
Castra is a character we only see once or twice in the series but rather than serving a purpose it is what she represents that is very important. Castra is an organization clerk who measures coefficients of the dead and classifies them in various fields in order to determine their bar destination. Her alternate title is Queen Of The Dead. There is not much known about Castra's personality, but when talking to Nona about Ginti and Decim, she states that she likes her men simple-minded.
Mythology
As I mentioned in my section on Castra, it isn’t the character but what she represents that is important. It is widely believed that Nona, Decim and Castra represent the 3 Roman Fates.
In Greek and Roman mythology, these are the three goddesses who determine human destinies, and in particular the span of a person’s life and his allotment of misery and suffering. The Fates were personified as three very old women who spin the threads of human destiny. Their names were Clotho (Spinner), Lachesis (Allotter), and Atropos (Inflexible). Clotho spun the “thread” of human fate, Lachesis dispensed it, and Atropos cut the thread (thus determining the individual’s moment of death). The Roman goddesses were named Nona, Decuma, and Morta.
In the case of Death Parade Clotho (the Spinner) is Nona, Lachesis (the Allotter) is Castra and Atropos (the inflexible or the cutter) is Decim. While the positions of Nona and Castra within the fates is debated because we see so little of them, it is clear that Decim is the final fate and he deals with the dead and their judgement.
Art/Animation
Death Parade was animated by Madhouse Inc. Madhouse has created and helped to produce many well-known shows, OVAs and films, starting with TV anime series Ace o Nerae! (produced by Tokyo Movie) in 1973, and including Wicked City, Ninja Scroll, Perfect Blue, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, Trigun, Di Gi Charat, Black Lagoon, Death Note, Paprika, Wolf Children and the first season of One-Punch Man in addition to Death Parade in 2015.
The animation style is very smooth and clean and really fits with the anime of the time.
However, the animation teams have worked in many references throughout the series that really hint to the true nature of the series from the Buddhist symbolism to the depictions of the planets and the universe.
There are also literally threads which can be represented as the threads of fates which interact with the majority of the human characters.
You can see examples of the animation style in the pictures throughout this review not just the two I have placed here.
Music
The OST was very good in my opinion although I did feel that the soundtrack might have been a little too upbeat for the tone of the series, however, this is probably a deception on the part of the animation studios and the creators in order to make the reveal of the series’ nature quite shocking.
I felt the soundtracks flowed very well with the scenes they were used in and in the tense scenes there is no music and we can only hear the characters allowing us to get completely sucked into the story.
The intro Song (OP) was Flyers by BRADIO and it really fits the series despite being so upbeat because the lyrics really fit what the series is all about, but it goes about expressing in a way that is slightly misleading which actually makes the viewing experience better.
The outro Song (ED) is Last Theater by NoisyCell, now I will be the first to admit it I prefer OP’s to ED’s however, I loved Last Theater so much that the second I heard it at the end of Episode 1 I instantly had to download it along with Flyers and haven’t stopped listening to them yet.
Final Verdict
I loved Death Parade and every time I re-watch episode I always notice something new in the background or something new about the characters. I will say that the religious and mythological symbolism in the series is quite high and some of the more subtle ones can go over your head. While this doesn’t distract from the viewing experience or the enjoyment of the series, I found that having these snippets of knowledge already stored in my mind took the experience to another level.
GRADE: *****
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