papercutlife's Blog

Anime Relations: Death Parade

Death Parade, the anime I never knew I needed in my life as much as I did. Twelve episodes that turned my brain into mush and my eyes into the dead sea. It made me think about the purpose of life, my role in society. And now I wonder, is it even possible for people to understand each other? We are all indeed just dummies, it would be only reasonable to look at ourselves just as the arbiters looked at human kind. Wouldn’t it be nice if all our decisions were purely pragmatic? If we lived (as Ginti said) just to die? The arbiters create extreme conditions to bring out the darkness in human soul so they can yield the judgement, but what about the thing that stands behind the darkness? What about the emotions they don’t possess? The arbiters never lived nor died, how can they decide about something they know nothing about? Right. That’s where Chiyuki comes to the scene, she knows what life feels like, even though she doesn’t remember it. I think Nona knew exactly what she was doing though she was unsure at times. She used her pragmatic free of emotion thinking to create something that could work with the dead more efficiently. That something was Decim. An arbiter with emotions he didn’t know he possessed. But unlike Ginti or Oculus, he felt, deep within, the need and the urge to find them. That’s why he created such an extreme condition for Chiyuki, to help himself understand her, not to harm her. We could see it throughout the whole season, how he sored the dummies of people that were sent into the void, giving them at least some satisfaction, how he refused to press the remote button that would change the course of the game. The whole time there were hints that Decim was different from the other arbiters. The build up in this anime is just remarkable. The inner fights people wage every day, the lengths they’re willing to go to just to make the decisions they deem to be right. How can you blame them? How can you send them to the void when the only mistake they’ve ever done was being human? Anyway, enough of my philosophical blabbering. What do you think about this anime? I plan on making this a series, just talking about my favorite anime and giving my opinion. Making this video was hard, because I’m still not completely sure I understand the plot and all the ulterior meanings and hints. I definitely need to rewatch it once or twice. Anything to see Decim smile again. I don’t know why I get so attached to every anime I watch, probably because they’re so good. And emotionally wearying. Anyway guys, I hope you liked this analysis of mine and be ready for more!