May 3, 2021
SOME SPOILERS INCLUDED
It is no secret that Madhouse has many household anime under its belt. They have no small number of popular, well received shows, and judging by the first episode, this going to be their next attempt to create something wonderful. Now let's talk about what went wrong.
Very good art and animation, as expected from Madhouse. Opening is amazing, and the soundtrack is no slouch either. Death Parade is a mostly a character driven show, however the characters are mostly underdeveloped, with the exception of Decim and Chiyuki. It has a repetitive premise, where by the episode 3 you already know exactly what is
...
going to happen, but that doesn't mean it can't be entertaining.
My main problem with this show comes from its inconsistency. For every great meaningful episode, e.g. episode 4, which lets you pondering about the judgement of 2 people who both show regret for their actions, but one is reincarnated while the other one is sent to the void, there is always an idiotic cliche episode for the sake of standing out, e.g. episode 3, which involves a college student and his childhood friend who has undergone a face reconstruction surgery to look more like his crush because she was in love with him as a kid. And this decision is not made out to be a crazy decision, but as a touching decision made in a name of love.
Just to be clear, up to this point, this show was presented as a grounded commentary on humanity. This.
On top of that, their deaths are shown to be completely unrelated to their actions and are basically a coincidence.
Death Parade hits its lowest point in episode 6, where for some (to me) unknown reason, we are presented with a fan service episode with a boy idol and his teenage fan girl.
To top it off, lets talk about character development. As I already mentioned, there isn't much of it with the exception of Decim and Chiyuki, and I don't really have a problem with Chiyuki. Where my problem with Decim lies, is episode 9, where his entire worldview is changed in minutes by Chiyuki, who was in Quindecim for a relatively short period of time. This makes the previous episodes much less impactful and interesting. Where was Decims resolve?
To sum it up, 4/10. This rating could've been higher, but the pure disappointment that followed after the first episode was simply too much.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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