Though I'm not an avid anime-watcher, I watch a fair bit of anime, and of the many series I've watched, Death Parade finds its way into my top 5 easily. Here's why.
Death Parade like Ergo Proxy, another personal favorite of mine, is not just a mysterious thrilling story, it boggles your mind. Ergo Proxy focused on contesting conventional values and the interaction between the humans and earth. Death Parade, in my opinion, is all about humans, and why no one is right when it comes to judgement.
Why I think this show boils down to a rigorous comment that objectivity, subjectivity, everything is flawed. It's human v.s. judiciary, but no one wins.
I think the human views are fairly obvious. In all the trialled humans are overflowing emotions in the crisis situation that Decim and co. create to see what they "truly" are. What we see again and again is a primal desperation for survival, with the exception of the couple in episode 2. We find that every single human has a reason to live, whether it is to right a wrong or not. It's all selfishness, but whether their selfishness is justified is really up in the air. But we are presented with what an "arbitrator" would decree.
Your arbitrators are pure objectivity. They have no experience in living, no emotion, just pure basic logic and cognition. They work on face-value from the memories they are sent from the information bureau and what they observe in the games. It's evident that they do not have any idea of love or altruism as seen in episode where Decim realizes that the wife was lying all along to relieve her husband of any guilt. This is the first incidence where the show screams, "OBJECTIVITY GETS IT WRONG TOO." That episode also screams, "who can you blame for a misunderstanding?" the misinterpreter or the misinterpreted? Then we have Nona, who says something interesting, "everyone gets it wrong sometimes". You would think when its matter of life and death mistakes are not allowed, but her line tells us, "Yup, arbitrators fuck up and we wrongly voided people." Which is why Nona is trying to revolutionize Quindecim judgement through Decim and this girl.
I think it's worth thinking about Nona for a second. If she is a dummy, why on earth would she install emotions into Decim and keep the girl alive in limbo as a fresh view on judgements? I think the point is, is that even considering judgement objectively, objectivity is no flawless judgement system, which is why a dummy would make the decision to introduce emotion to the judging process. Some may argue she has emotion, but I'm working on the assumption that she is a "manager" another form of a dummie, and thus lacking emotion.
We are shown that objectivity gets it wrong. Then when we get two murderers in episode 8 and 9, we see where subjectivity goes wrong. We pity the man who avenged his little sister's assault and like the girl we want to save him. But in the end, he is still a killer who feels an ebbing desire to inflict pain onto the ones who did his sister wrong. These two episodes tell us that justice and injustice go hand in hand. In vengeance, you do yourself an injustice. You always have to sacrifice something to accomplish another, a means to an end. Both killers were no longer up-serving citizens who fought for what they deemed right the moment they killed. The moment you have to judge someone who plays with other's people lives, subjectivity fails, because we begin to evaluate the intentions behind murder. But honestly, intention can't justify shit, you smote life, and thus you deserve chilling iron in your judgement too.
On the note of episode 9, we actually see a different "hell-signalling" mask above the elevator. It's not red, it's black and white. This is clearly no coincidence. Whether this indicates special judgement/imprisonment/punishment, I don't know, but it does seem to indicate that different degrees of sins have different outcomes. Adultery is to red mask and murder is to black and white mask. If anyone has any idea, I'd actually really like to hear your ideas on the matter.
I really liked this message they were trying to send across.
Another sub-message I thought came across quite clearly was that you do not die unless you live. Even if you choose to focus your life on something meaningless in an objective viewpoint, it's meaningful in that you made that choice.
The one place I fault this anime is the characters and it's because of Ginti. Because he took up a solid 3 episodes. I think it's enough to put him above the support category. He's given his spotlight and for some reason, I still can't figure him out. I think this red-haired hot head resembles a devlish character as compared to the white, angelic, calm figure of Decim. He's like Decim's foil. So expressive, but so cold in judgement, whereas Decim is so cold, but actually emotional. I think Ginti's choice to condemn both the girl and the popstar is demonstrative of his choice to stick to arbitrator code. He made the choice that Decim didn't. Either way, the memory of these humans who made arbitrators doubt themselves live on. For Decim as a mannequin, for Ginti as a doll. But if he actually has "feels", evident through his jealousy when the cat snuggles up to the girl, why does he condemn her to the void? I think his character calls into question objectivity as a concept. though he is supposed to resemble calculated logical judgement, I think he ends up condemning the girl for deeming her obsession stupid and meaningless. THAT'S HIS JUDGEMENT. SUBJECTIVE! NOT OBJECTIVE! Question. What on earth are they meant to represent if the objectivity they're meant to uphold is really just an illusion? Just as the husband in the first episode misinterpreted gossip, ANYONE CAN MISINTERPRET ANYTHING-- EVEN ARBITRATORS, like Ginti's interpretation of her passion and fervor as idiocy. Why Ginti decided to condemn the girl and the pop-star, but still honors her existence really confuses me. Also, does the disappearance of the cat mean he's now purely objective? Then why does he keep the doll, a reminder that objectivity wavered in judging the girl's love for a pop idol? I just don't know.
Though I realize that I'm a bit harsh to down rate this anime because of an incomplete character development in Ginti, and, to be honest, in that old lotus kami guy and the death monitor girl. I will remain with my rating for this season as a standalone and I'll change it when I see season 2, if there is one.
Other than this. DAMN GOOD ANIME. RECOMMEND FOR ALL. PUT IT ON YOUR BUCKETLIST PEOPLE. OP was so good, I bought it, listen to it non-stop. Artwork was damn good. Everything was damn good--but Ginti.
Another really well done piece by Madhouse, madrespect.
