For a show that does all that though, its premise is surprisingly simple. What happens when you pit two people against each other in a game with their lives at stake? A lot actually, when you add in the fact that these people slowly realise they are dead. These games function as a means to expose the deepest recesses of the competitors’ personalities, in order to determine whether they will be reincarnated, or cast into the void. This makes Death Parade, characters-wise, a tricky beast to judge, for the simple reason that you are introduced to a new pair of character in most episodes. Each episode, the focus is placed on determining the true personalities of these new characters, before showing whether they are sent to the void or reincarnated. Without strong characters here, the anime would have been a dud. Thankfully though, they are all very well done, each feeling unique with their own motivations and back stories. Each also has a hidden aspect of their lives that the arbiter seeks to extract. As is fittingly remarked in the show, ‘The truth is, there are no lives that are nothing but pretty’. This fantastic quote sums up nicely the sorts of characters you will find in Death parade, and what it is the arbiters look for.
Now you might be thinking whether, given the complexity of human emotions and personalities, how this game method could possibly be an effective way of judging them? You would be absolutely correct. This is a point Death Parade wisely decides to deal with head-on. The story is mostly episodic, but over the anime you watch the arbiter, Decim, struggle to decode the emotions of humans when he is neither human nor capable of feeling emotions. It’s incredibly provocative stuff. From time to time, I found myself disagreeing with Decim’s opinion on who deserved reincarnation, but this really emphasises how tangible and different human emotions are. Death Parade really nails this down: Using these very small human interactions to ask larger questions about whether what the arbiters are doing is right.
Death Parade’s not entirely about these human-human battles though. Decim’s female companion (I can’t name her sorry, spoilers!), provides a human touch to the world of the arbiters. The focus gradually shifts to her own story and her relationship with Decim. Now you may not see it as such, but I think episodic formats often seem to struggle when it comes to reaching a conclusive ending, for by introducing new characters every episode, this duo is left with less characterisation than might be expected. Without delving too far into spoilers, their side story becomes the main conclusion to a strong anime, but has some flaws: An enemy appears in with little in the way of motivation, and at the expense of the traditional games. Thematically though, Death Parade ends on a high, with Decim’s gradually dawning understanding of morality exposing a difficult discussion about what it means to be human, and it is here the strength of the story becomes apparent. This is a story of what it means to live. There is a sense of moral relativism here – is what humans judge as right and wrong dependent on the human capacity to feel emotion? If it is, then because Decim cannot feel emotions, can he truly be an effective judge? This is your decision to make.
I’ll leave it here for the most part, but as an aside though, but I’ll make an extra point about the OP. In case you haven’t seen it it’s an odd one that is entirely unlike the rest of the show but is nevertheless brilliant. Death Parade is an anime that is all about its sombre atmosphere, but this OP is one of the catchiest, most upbeat opening themes I have had the pleasure of watching. Just something more to love about the show. Death Parade is consistently exciting, emotional and provocative, appearing out of nowhere to take the place as one of the highlight anime of the season. To wrap up, it’s something you should be watching, being one of the most thought-provoking anime I have watched.
