Story: 7/10
I watched Death Billiards first, since I knew that it was kind of a precursor to this show. In hindsight though, that may not have been the best decision because when I watched Death Parade I was struck by how different the show was from the movie/special. In Death Parade, they add a lot of stuff that wasn't in the original work and it's nearly completely different, with only the concept of morality and the setting remaining the same.
I'll be quite honest, the first three episodes were somewhat of a snooze for me. I kind of regretted watching the show at that point, but I pressed on. The first three episodes were also hard because that was where the differences between the show and the movie were made painfully apparent. Starting with episode 4 and on though, the show started to really make me think about things, like "Who says one person has to get reincarnated and the other sent to the void? What if they both deserve one or the other?" The show started to get interesting from then on out, but then we start moving away from the people being judged to the people judging them. This was a bit hard for me to get used to at first (since I still felt it was being unfaithful to the source material), but it ended up being pretty good despite the shift in focus.
The last episode, though, felt a bit lackluster. I felt that episode 11 (easily the best of the show) was building up to a huge ending that would be really impactful, but episode 12 just kind of ended the show. No more, no less. I won't talk specifics, obviously, but I felt that it wasn't the right ending, especially with what it seemed it had been building up to. It's kind of a feeling of "That's it?"
From the beginning, this show is fraught with inconsistencies, and that is one of the biggest downfalls. These inconsistencies are unfortunately very noticeable, and I spent a good portion of the show wondering why they were breaking their own rules so much. There was also no explanation given for certain story aspects, and I can't say much due to spoilers, but it was really confusing to me.
The rule-breaking is in line with both stuff stated in Death Billiards and the show itself. I'm not sure why they decided to make all these rules and then just blatantly break them. And like I said, it was pretty noticeable when they did it. They did move away from that after the first few episodes, but then just went right back to it in the end.
If you really want to be a stickler, you could ask why everyone in the show that's being judged is Japanese since obviously people die from all around the world, but I think they did that so that we wouldn't have the language disparities going on. The problem with writing this type of show is that if you do end up making an explanation for why everyone is Japanese, you could really write yourself into a corner with it, so I'm fine with them not addressing the issue.
I don't know if they always intended to make a show out of Death Billiards or not, but we ended up with one anyway. So if you do watch the show, it's up to you if you want to watch Death Billiards first or not. It didn't sit well with me when I did, but that's just what I think.
Art: 9/10
Studio Madhouse did a great job with this, as could be expected. The classy high-end bar atmosphere in Quindecim was portrayed really well; and I liked the character animation. A certain scene in episode 11 (if you've seen the show you probably know which one I'm talking about) was extremely well animated and blew me away when I watched it.
The opening is also really well animated, though the sequence is possibly one of the biggest lies ever. It's kind of funny looking back, since the opening was really the first thing I saw of the show besides opinions, and I was like, "Huh, this looks like a happy show." Quite the opposite, as it turned out. The opening shows the various characters dancing around and generally having a good time, when the show itself is about the darker parts of human nature.
A cool thing about the opening was that some scenes from it actually did happen in the show, which isn't as often an occurrence as you'd think. It wasn't one of the partying scenes, I should add.
The only problem I have with the art and animation is that sometimes the facial expressions would get extremely distorted. So much that I could no longer take the scene seriously. Death Note, another Madhouse production, had the same issue, and for the same reason I couldn't take some of its more dramatic scenes seriously.
And on the topic of Death Note, was that Light Yagami I saw in episode 11 or are my eyes playing tricks on me? I have absolutely no idea what he or his dead ringer lookalike was doing in this show, and the show didn't care to enlighten us. There's another thing we have no explanation for. It could just be a joke on the animators' part, or a throwback to Death Note itself since the two shows are somewhat related on the morality grounds, but it was really weird for me to see.
Sound: 8/10
The opening song, Flyers by Bradio, is really upbeat, tying into the happy opening sequence and giving the feeling that this will be a lighthearted show (it lies). It's a really good song and definitely up there in terms of favorite anime openings. Makes you want to put your hands up, as it says in the song.
The ending song, Last Theater by Noisycell, made it onto my personal favorite ending songs list. It's all around a really good song, and despite the fact that it's performed by a Japanese band singing in English, it doesn't sound like Engrish.
And the OST for this show was pretty good. The soundtrack did well to carry the different scenes; and combined with the brilliant animation for the part I mentioned above, it moved me to tears. The soundtrack wasn't anything super special, but it definitely did its job well and was enjoyable to listen to. Like the art, it also captured the classy bar atmosphere really well while being able to shift to cover the dramatic scenes.
Funimation is doing a broadcast dub for this show and while I haven't gotten the chance to check it out yet, it looks like it's pretty good. We have Alex Organ as Decim, Jamie Marchi as the black-haired woman, Jad Saxton as Nona, and quite a lot of recognizable Funimation voice actors doing the one-time characters.
I watched this show subbed since Death Billiards isn't dubbed and I didn't want to have to switch between languages. The Japanese cast did a great job, and I was really impressed by the voice acting in the emotional scenes.
Not much else to say here except that the sub was really good and the dub looks really good too, so it's safe to watch whichever one you're comfortable with.
Character: 8/10
This show is pretty heavily character-driven, which can be either a good or a bad thing depending on how you look at it, since as I said the show gradually shifts its focus from the ones being judged to the arbiters judging them. The one-time characters we see in the first few episodes all have their own backstories, motivations, and flaws, and raise some pretty interesting questions once we get to some of the more morally complicated episodes. I'm actually kind of glad that they did shift the show to the arbiters, since watching episode after episode of the same "people being judged for the afterlife" thing would get easily tiresome and repetitive. However, I do think they should have given more development to the supporting characters, though the main two are pretty well developed.
I'm not sure why they decided to give the characters names in the show (they didn't have names nor need them in the movie), but it makes them easier to talk about rather than relying on physical description.
Decim is one of our main characters, the bartender in charge of Quindecim. Since he's an arbiter, he's supposed to have no emotions, but he does show traces of admiration for the human race from time to time. There's an interesting plot element regarding Decim, but it's never fully explained, so I'm left a bit confused about it.
The black-haired woman, Decim's assistant in some ways, is the other main character and a little more mysterious. Her backstory is very spoilery so I will refrain from talking about her much, but she does provide some interesting perspective to the judgment process due to it.
We also have many supporting characters, from other arbiters to the people being judged to the sort-of god of this world. Nona, a high-level arbiter who seems to be the overseer and showrunner, and the redheaded arbiter Ginti were pretty interesting people, but needed more development to make them shine.
Also Ginti, as an arbiter, is supposed to have no emotions, but he's a pretty angry person. And where I come from, anger is an emotion. There's another example of the show breaking its own rules with no explanation as to why.
There's a few other arbiters showing up from time to time, but they are barely developed and hardly relevant. Even the god of this world really doesn't do much for the show, despite the hints that he would.
And as far as other supporting characters, the people being judged most every episode are all pretty interesting in their own ways. We get instances where both deserve reincarnation (in my eyes), both deserve the void, and some where I had no idea what to think. Since they only appeared once, there was only so much development they could have, but it was pretty well handled.
I would have liked to see less of male vs. female conflicts though, since that happened almost every episode. I get that the lovers' quarrel is more interesting than two people of the same gender, but like the rest of the concepts in this show, it gets old if not used right.
Enjoyment: 8/10
Since I watched Death Billiards first, the beginning of this show was kind of a drag for me since I didn't feel it was sticking much to the original concept. It ended up getting its feet on the ground after that though, and just got better and better from then on out, until we hit the last episode, and even that was pretty good until the ending. I've already said I wasn't satisfied with the ending, but if we did get another season it'd be nearly impossible to make the story as captivating a second time around since they'd have to come up with a new plotline besides the whole "judging dead people for the afterlife" since that can get really old really fast.
I've already said this as well, but I'll say it again. Episode 11 was, for me, by far the best of the show, and if this show had continued along that train of thought, it would have ended up a lot better.
Overall: 8/10
Despite its flaws and shortcomings, Death Parade is a pretty enjoyable watch and can raise some thought-provoking questions about human nature.
Oh, and with all this talk about morality, you'd probably expect the dialogue to be super philosophical and kind of pretentious, but the show does a pretty good job of avoiding that. There are some moments where it does get a little too much into the philosophical discussion thing, but for the most part they let the viewer think about it for themself.
So, all in all, Death Parade is a pretty good yet flawed show that has fantastic audiovisuals and an interesting story to hear. It doesn't accomplish everything it sets out to do, but it was still an enjoyable experience.
