Death Parade | | Anime review

So.. I decided to watch an anime after finishing a report I was working on and finding it difficult to sleep last night. I already had some anime downloaded on my phone. I settled with Death Parade since it was just twelve episodes and the shortest among the ones I had. So I picked it, thinking I’d just watch an episode or two before bed. Long story short, I ended up watching everything. The good part? I had nothing planned for today.

The Plot

Death Parade tells us that after humans die, they do not go to heaven or hell. Instead, they go to a bar called Quindecim. A bartender named Decim ran the bar. However, Decim is not just a bartender, he is also an arbiter. His job is to judge souls through a game. Two people who died at the same time are brought to the bar, with no memory of how they died. Decim tells them to play a game, it could be darts, bowling, air hockey, old maid, anything. But these games are not what they seem. As the player who’s already dead play, their memories come back piece by piece, revealing who they truly were and how they died. The games bring out the darkest, rawest parts of them - fear, guilt, love, anger, regret. After the game, Decim judge and then decide who among the two will be reincarnated and who will be sent into the void.

Decim does his job like he is a machine. He follows the rules and judge by what he sees. But then comes Chiyuki, a woman who becomes his assistant after dying with her memories erased but completely aware that she was already dead. She’s different him. She’s kind, and gentle. While Decim judges others, she kept questioning him if people should really be judged that way. It was because of her that Decim starts to come to some understanding about human emotions. The story goes on with her own truth about how she died and how she faces it.

I really enjoyed watching Death Parade. It was really different from the handful of animes I have seen. It was beautiful and heart touching all at once.

Decim easily became one of my favourite characters. There was something calm yet lonely about him. His calm voice, his stillness. The way Decim changed because of Chiyuki, slowly and not forced, made their bond so deep. It felt like he released all the emotions he had bottled up at the part where he cried for her. He is arbiter and arbiters are not supposed to feel emotions like humans.

Although the ending was sad, it wasn’t the kind of sad to ruin my good mood, no. It was kind of a small ache.
The opening song made me laugh, though. It was so cheerful compared to the mood of the show. I liked the contrast, regardless.

The anime was really engaging and had some depth in it, even though it was short.
Death Parade, is a 9 out of 10 for me. It was a nice and sad watch. The music, the plot…. Everything just flows well together. If you’re into psychological anime, then you should not skip out on Death Parade.

Image source: IMDB

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