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Monday, May 25, 2015

Death Parade

By: Robert Murphy


There is a never ending amount of contradicting thoughts and ideas about what happens when we all reach the end of our lives and where exactly we end up. Do we end up in a cloudy city in front of a giant golden gate or are we plummeted to a dark unforgiving place full of torment? Well in Death Parade you end up in a bar which is definitely my kind of afterlife or at least it seems ideal at first glance. People arrive hear once they have passed on but have no memory of their individual deaths, they stand before Decim who at first glace would appear to be a regular bartender but has a far larger role to play for the people who come here. Decim is an arbiter that judges pairs of souls that are sent to his bar and sends them to Heaven or Hell based on how they perform in a random game that they compete in. Winning the game however isn't the important part, what comes from playing the game is. 


Now I said Heaven or Hell above when it came to determining which place that the human souls that Decim judges will go to because that is an easier way for humans to see it as but the show believes something inherently different. Decim and his fellow arbiters end up judging the pairs of souls that are sent to them and either send them to be reincarnated into another body or sent to the void where the soul experiences nothing but a black emptiness for eternity. How Decim decides this fate is even more interesting as he has to basically trick those who come to see him into playing one of his games that will trigger emotional responses they play. The games usually show some reflection upon the persons life or jar memories of events that happened leading up to their deaths. Decim also effects the game in various ways to make sure the players experience distress and unleash the true darkness of their souls. It is the belief of the arbiters that the truest self of a human is at their basic instinct of fear and despair and that is the point at which they should judge them. It's worked for the longest time and no one has questioned it until Decim meets with an event no arbiter has before. 


A woman in black hair (she remains nameless for a reason) appears at his bar but has perfect memory of what happened to her and that she is dead. Because of this she cannot be tricked into playing any of the games that Decim has and instead her entire memory is wiped and is left to be Decim's assistant until he can judge her. She follows along and helps Decim in one way or another with his judgments but ultimately she ends up changing the way Decim views the way things are done. The black haired woman doesn't like the way judgments are done because humans are more complex than just fearful and angry creatures, they should be judged on more than their worst moments. Decim throughout the series sees what she means as well and often questions his decisions because of her way of thinking, she understands humans because she is one and Decim and his kind could not possibly understand everything about humans because they aren't human. We later find out that Decim is a unique member of his kind though as he is able to feel human emotions and that is why the black haired woman is able to effect him in such a way.

It becomes clear as you watch Death Parade that the black haired woman is not the only one who feels the way arbiters judge is not correct all the time. Their is a hierarchy of managers and upper level arbiters which watch over the other arbiters under their command. The one that watches over Decim, Nona, is often quoted in saying that she enjoys different ways of judging people and that her arbiters should draw upon their own experience to place the souls they are judging in the correct place. Her solution to this problem is Decim who has been given human emotions and would hopefully be able to judge the souls he encounters with a clearer insight into the human nature than the rest of the arbiters would. Whether or not he succeeds in this remains to be seen but his character is definitely a unique one that I enjoyed especially as his relationship with the black haired woman develops throughout the story.


The one aspect to the story that I didn't understand was the addition of another arbiter by the name of Ginti. He is the polar opposite of Decim and does not understand his obsession with humans, he views them are idiotic species and the fact that he must pass judgement on them bares no meaning to him. Ginti doesn't understand why Decim cannot judge the black haired woman and it causes him untold anger towards him. This is until he ends up in a similar situation as Decim as he is shackled with a teenage girl he did not judge but no matter what he cannot see what it is about them that Decim does. It is a nice correlation for the story but one that I feel doesn't work out because it isn't properly expressed as to what Ginti is doing with the girl and why she is around still, whether it is to try and understand Decim or just that he cannot judge her remains unknown. It becomes exceedingly anticlimactic when his judgement for the girl does arrive as well. 


Overall, Death Parade takes an interesting look into human nature and death. As you watch the show you begin to question who is really "right" in the situation and whether or not arbiters are truly judging human souls properly. The overarching storyline created with the addition of the black haired woman also makes your decisions even harder to determine things for yourself just as it does for Decim. The wonderfully unique world of Quindecim bar (Decim's domain) is beautifully designed along with the rest of the world and the philosophical issues made the show a great watch all the way through. 


Good:

- The in depth look into human nature 

- Decim and the black haired woman's relationship all the way through

- Beautifully designed worlds


Bad:

- The Ginti storyline gave an interesting comparison to Decim but doesn't follow through with his own judgement issues


Scully Rating: 8.8 out of 10

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