Ten Years Later: Death Parade

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Before Mob Psycho 100, Deca-Dence, and Blue Giant, Yuzuru Tachikawa invited us to Quindecim to watch some death games (with a killer opening song to boot). And having rewatched all 12 episodes of Death Parade in preparation for this retrospective, I can say those games are still just as exciting and thrilling as they've always been.

Death Parade has humble beginnings. It was once as a single episode OVA, titled Death Billiards (also written and directed by Tachikawa) released in 2013. In 2014, it was picked up to be a TV anime which began airing in the winter 2015 season. Tachikawa directed the series and wrote the screenplay for every episode. Writer-directors in anime are not unheard of, but they're uncommon enough for you to be impressed when you see them. As a result, this is a rare case of an amateur auteur masterpiece debut. An anime like this one only comes around so often, and in some ways I wish there was more of it, but I also feel content with what we have. It's not an epic that spans several seasons explaining this mysterious world, nor does it offer any concrete conclusions about this world's future. It's just a peek. A small bit of insight into a strange world that muses about what it means to be human, to die, and most importantly, to live.

That said, it's hard to describe the plot of Death Parade to someone on the outside because I feel like it's best to go in blind. When it aired its first episode back in 2015, I knew nothing about it, and as the story of that first episode unraveled, my jaw slowly gaped to the floor up until that insane ending. The OP, featuring "Flyers" by Bradio might be one of the most misleading intros in all of anime, and yet it feels so perfect. Everyone knew it'd be one of the greatest anime openings of all time, and ten years later that sentiment hasn't changed one bit. I still blast it all the time. In fact I've already said too much for those who haven't seen it. My recommendation to the uninitiated reading this is to stop reading this immediately and come back here once you've binged all 12 episodes. For everyone else, this one's for you. Actually, I'll give you another warning in bold because I feel so strongly about recommending the series this way.

If you haven't seen Death Parade yet, go watch it before coming back here for this retrospective!

So, about that twist partway through the first episode. When you're watching it, it's not clear immediately that both the players are already dead, yet it seems so obvious once you pick it up. The best part is that it's not an end-of-episode twist, so the drama for the second half is completely recontextualized. It's no longer about them finding out how they died or trying to "move on." It's all about a competition to see which of them will go to reincarnation or the void, and this little game of darts suddenly has so much more on the line. Then the wife drops a bomb that the child she was carrying wasn't really her husband's and everything just flies off the rails. Then there's that ending shot where, despite the husband lunging after his wife with a dart, he's implicitly sent to reincarnation while his wife goes to the void. It works so well as a standalone piece, and I would have been fine with 12 episodes of this, but Tachikawa added an overarching element to the concoction: a mysterious amnesiac black-haired woman (unnamed until almost the end) who exists in this world without her memories.

She and Decim (the owner of Quindecim) act as arbiters in various cases of games. Watching through it, I was a bit skeptical of some of the choices. Namely, the episode where a suicidal shut-in competes with a struggling single mother of multiple children. Despite Decim comforting them both and reassuring them they did their best, and they both clearly seemed like misunderstood and sympathetic souls, only one gets sent to reincarnation? But I guess maybe that's the point. Another arbiter named Ginti ends up sending a schoolgirl to the void because he doesn't like what she has to say about reincarnation and the void with regard to her idol. What we're meant to take away is that arbiters are an imperfect method of passing judgment and some serious reform is needed in the afterlife. We're treated to a number of cases, including dead teenagers who had crushes on each other, a young man and an investigator involved in a murder case, an old woman ready to pass on, and more. Each of these vignettes were powerful in its own way, to the point I wish the anime was just that. Outside of the Quindecim cases, the series just isn't as interesting.

One thing I experienced on my rewatch was that I realized how much runtime is actually dedicated to non-Quindecim cases. There's a whole subplot about Ginti having trouble passing judgment on a boy idol and his eccentric and obsessive fangirl. It had its moments, but it just didn't convey the same special something the others did, and there's a whole episode dedicated to retelling the events of episode one from the black-haired woman's point of view, to help explain some of the logic and events behind the players' motivations and the function of the games. I appreciated it, but it almost sucked the entertainment out of the story with how long it went on. Another episode focuses on Decim's background as an arbiter. Appreciated, but it doesn't quite fit in the mold of the story. It's like the other emotional end of explaining the joke. You don't need to give us the explanation. Just let the story be this time, or else you risk the audience tuning out.

The story, like its setting, exists in this weird in-between. There's enough worldbuilding, backstory and other cast to pique your interest and take a significant amount of runtime, but not enough to offer any satisfying closure within the background of the world. I think if Death Parade were 10 episodes instead of 12, or if some of the other non-judgmental plots were replaced with other judgments, it would have worked a little better. I actually like the idea of this world being mysterious and unexplained. The intrigue is part of the appeal to me. But in retrospect, this is a minor nitpick. The ending is nothing short of a punishing, pulverizing pounding of the heart, hitting with all the passion and love for the craft of a freight train. On the other hand, I wouldn't have complained about a 24-episode run that offered more lore and a more satisfying conclusion to the overarching plot. But again, I think part of Death Parade's charm is in its mystery. How did these gods get here? Where did these rules come from? What do the other areas in this purgatory include? What exactly are Oculus' and Nona's roles here? It's a bit hard not to draw comparisons to the 2010 anime Angel Beats! (a favorite of mine) But I think that one had the right idea about rules of the afterlife. "Just accept things as they are," Yurippe says in episode 1. Death Parade mostly does this but drags its feet to make sure it doesn't do it too much. Still, it doesn't detract at all from the emotionally devastating ending.

The finale to Death Parade is, to this day, one of the best out there in anime. It perfectly encapsulates everything the series has to offer, the best culmination possible for its themes, backstory, and closure. The last two episodes, in general, are just phenomenal. The ice-skating sequence with Chiyuki is still so beautiful, lovely as it is heartbreaking. Despite how I feel about her subplot dragging on too long, Mayu having one last embrace with Haruda before they're both sent to the void left me with an aching bittersweetness you can only get from a Makoto Shinkai film. Episode 12, the final episode, brings everything to its peak.

If you had the chance to undo a terrible mistake that cost you your life at the cost of someone else's, would you take it? That's Chiyuki's final test. It's meant to show Decim, and us, how much she's learned and grown during her time at Quindecim. We know it's the wrong choice to take back your life in exchange for someone else's, but it's not wrong to want to. Chiyuki has learned so much from her time at the bar and we all want her to just reach out and tell her mother not to blame herself and to apologize. But living with the mistakes you make is part of life and part of that growing process. Chiyuki understands that, but where does Decim fit into all this? Despite Chiyuki being the subject, it's Decim who really steals the show here. There are a number of anime and stories out there that focus on an emotionless character (or seemingly emotionless character) learning how to express emotions and understand them. 2018's Violet Evergarden immediately comes to mind.

To Decim, this isn't right. Chiyuki should take the chance at living again. She should fail, because he realizes that's what he wants. He now understands how Chiyuki is feeling and wants her to be with her mother again just as much as she does (and we do). But she can't. It's too much for him to bear, and the world he makes literally crashes down on him. He experiences firsthand what Chiyuki was saying about the cases with the detective and the young man in the murder case. Decim had usually stayed away from using the remote to create extreme conditions in the games because he respects those who have lived full lives. Creating an extreme condition runs the risk of tipping the scales in an unfair direction.

All of this, by the way, is brought to life beautifully in the English dub, which is how I rewatched this. Alex Organ as Decim and Jamie Marchi as Chiyuki do an amazing job here, especially in the finale. They get all the emotion just right. All of the other voice actors are great too, under the guiding hands of Zach Bolton and then-new dub director Cris George.

But for all of the questions Death Parade doesn't answer, it spends the most time answering the ones it needs to. As Chiyuki asked before, what if the arbiters are instead creating darkness in human souls rather than uncovering it, muddying the arbiter process? Can an arbiter objectively pass judgment when he himself is altering the conditions of the judgment? There's no correct answer to this, and I think it's for the better - and the show seems to agree. All we know is that *something* is wrong with the way it's done and there needs to be a change. It's just a question of what kind of change needs to happen. Death Parade doesn't need to preach about the right and wrong ways to pass judgment on human beings, but it's worth asking, and hypothetically if it were to be the case in real life, what should we do? You might think it's better to be as objective as possible without emotion as Oculus demands, but Nona thinks emotion is *necessary* because objectivity doesn't get the full truth about a person's reasons for behavior. Humans are more than just their memories, as Chiyuki says. Tachikawa doesn't proclaim either of them to be correct, but is at least sympathetic to the idea that arbiters should treat judgment with more care and maybe there are some problems with the old system.

Despite the open-endedness of the overall background story, Tachikawa leaves us on the best note possible. Decim has learned to accept emotions, and he'll never forget the lessons Chiyuki gave him as his assistant. Something will change. Despite Oculus' objections, it's clear the system is moving in a new direction. One which recognizes that passing judgment is a complex job, and now Decim will go into it with a smile on his face. The more I think about it, the fonder I feel about Death Parade. Any minor nitpicks I have with it just seem to melt away in the face of the finale. What a series.

Ten years later, we still don't have the best answer for what should happen in Death Parade, but things are all right. All is well in Quindecim.

Aside from the series itself, Funimation released Death Parade on Blu-ray and DVD the following year, and this is how I revisited the series. I noticed there was a whole special featurette starring Jade Saxton (Nona), Jamie Marchi (Chiyuki), and Rob McCollum (Ginti) playing pool with money on the line. It's about 15 minutes long, but it was like looking back into a distant world. Crunchyroll, as they are now known, were a completely different company. It reminded me of all the cool things they used to do with their Blu-rays and their YouTube channel. Gone are the days of behind-the-scenes featurettes and episode commentaries. They used to put a lot of dedication to the craft, and the Playing with House Money feature was a nice bonus at the end of the series. A fine reward for those who chose to watch the dub from beginning to end.

Death Parade might be overshadowed by some of Tachikawa's newer projects well into its 10th year since broadcast, but it remains a solid debut, one that continues to ask tough questions about life, death, and judgment. It's also a peek into a different world for the industry at the time. Maybe today people aren't talking about it as much as they should, but in a season of Tokyo Ghoul, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and Durarara sequels, it stood out. To me, it still does, and 10 years later, I haven't forgotten it. Now if you'll excuse me, time to put on Flyers and feel nostalgic about this emotional rollercoaster while raising an honorary Quindecim martini to more original anime like Death Parade.