10 Second Anime - Death Parade - Episode 12 [END]

Death Parade - Episode 12 [END]



Decim delivers his judgment of Chiyuki's soul. Slight changes have been made to the afterlife. Season Finale.

Heh.

Oculus' lotus petals may be fast, but Nona was faster. We never did see what her special attack was. Decim had his puppeteer strings and Ginti controlled liquid, but all we saw of Nona was her strength.

 

Decim needed all of Chiyuki's memories to reconstruct her house and her mother to make the ultimate trial. Interesting that his test amounted to a well-conceived version of Ginti's test for Mayu. They both required harming another soul in exchange for a desired result. Ginti's test for Mayu was cruder in the sense that a living person knows what the consequences of death are for someone, but having only been told what the Void was, Mayu didn't have a full picture of what happens to a soul sent there.

 

Nona may be playing the long game against Oculus here. The story focused on people learning that Decim felt emotions, but he and Ginti came to their jobs together, so I suspect he also felt emotions. The epilogue confirms this for me as both Decim and Ginti honor the memories of their human assistants.

10 Second Anime - Death Parade - Episode 11

Death Parade - Episode 11



Chiyuki gains back her memories with Decim's help. Ginti decides Mayu's fate.

Heh.

Ginti is a dick! Because Mayu had been with him so long, a regular game wasn't going to work, but having her choose to send a stranger's soul to the Void in exchange for Harada's was too cruel and personal. And we found out that Ginti had sent Harada's soul into the Void, even after his act of redemption in trying to save Mayu during their game. Has this Ginti guy sent any soul back for Reincarnation?

 

Decim had previously explained that the souls leave their dummies during their final elevator ride and now we know what that looks like. Mayu genuinely thought that Harada's soul had reanimated the dummy, which I think was a lie Ginti told her, but the sequence was vague enough to leave a little hope in there. I think the Harada dummy's eyes just popped open during the fall, but they opened in a linked way instead of some obviously disconcerting doll eyelid blink. There's room for interpretation either way, but the two souls finding each other in the void and merging definitely meant that Mayu got her wish.

 

Nona saw a chance to make something interesting happen because of a bureaucratic snafu and she took it.

10 Second Anime - Death Parade - Episode 10

Death Parade - Episode 10



Decim and the Black-haired Woman join a guest in the judgment game. Oculus suspects Nona is hiding something.

Heh.

We were told earlier in the season that a soul can only occupy a doll temporarily, and it looks like Kurokami's time is just about up. I forget what happens to the soul if it's not judged in that time. Maybe it was never mentioned. Ginti will have a problem with Mayu pretty soon too.

 

Interesting that when the staff members join a game, their details are added just like the souls who are there for judgment. Kurokami got some hints that we've been seeing since we first saw the opening credits - the Chavvot book, the ice skates and the skater's costume we saw in her dresser.

 

Kurokami remembered her name! Chiyuki - spelled with the characters for "Know Happiness."

10 Second Anime - Death Parade - Episode 9

Death Parade - Episode 9



Decim brings out the darkness from the two killers, but the Black-haired Woman objects to the provocations.

Hmm.

The young man and the detective turned out to be directly related to each other's deaths. The detective's circumstances were especially dark, as he essentially turned into a serial killer after avenging his wife's death. He was no longer concerned with preventing crime, showing no compassion to the victims of those he hunted, requiring their presence only to make sure his prey deserved death at his hands.

 

We're supposed to make a connection with what the detective was doing and how Arbiters work in the afterlife, but I'm not buying it. Kurokami still sees a chance for these souls to find redemption, even making it clear to the young man that there is no Heaven and Hell, only Reincarnation and the Void. This is the clearest explanation of how the afterlife works in Death Parade.

 

We also saw Decim actually feeling the weight of destroying someone's soul who may not deserve it. I don't see Kurokami's empathy as having much value after the souls have appeared for judgment. They have just been put into dolls to react to stimulus set forth by the Arbiters. Their souls aren't being shaped anymore. It's their lives that shaped their souls.

10 Second Anime - Death Parade - Episode 8

Death Parade - Episode 8



Nona sends Decim an irregular pair for judgment, in which one, or both, have killed someone.

Heh.

We're back to a structure very like the first pair of the season, where the story appears to concentrate on the mystery of how the souls died, and here, who they killed, but it's actually a setting to see how more of the afterlife works, and to advance the overall plot of how different Decim is from other Arbiters.

 

The last memories of both the detective and the young man had them walking on the same street, but at different times of the day. I'm sure their separate stories of revenge are related to the other's circumstances surrounding their deaths.

 

The detective saw that Decim's eyes, though emotionless, hide no subterfuge. He tells the truth in everything. I wonder if all the Arbiters are constrained to tell the truth, but have different strategies in withholding answers until the certain points of progression for the games and after the games have been finished.

 

Kurokami can receive others' memories too? Just how much of their lives do each of the souls receive when they appear for judgment? The same amount as the Arbiter?

10 Second Anime - Death Parade - Episode 7

Death Parade - Episode 7



A visit from the former Quin Decim allows Nona to reminisce and consider her future plans for Arbiters.

Hmm.

We got some interesting glimpses into how this tower in the afterlife works The people who step through the elevators are only the souls of the newly dead stuck into mannequins. The light coming through the cracks of the elevator doors are the souls leaving the dolls.

 

Nona confirmed that the floor levels don't mean any kind of heirarchy. Ginti and the new Decim came on as judges at the same time. One thing that Nona worries about is putting emotions into the personalities of the Arbiters. The story concentrates on Decim having emotions, but maybe Ginti does too, because they both have souls sticking around whom they haven't judged. Yay Mayu!

 

What I don't understand is how anybody can have a personality without feeling emotions. Unless each staff member is a programmed AI with randomly selected preferences to give a simulacrum of a personality, that would explain not "feeling" emotions.

 

Kurokami is slowly regaining her memories. Now we understand why it was so easy to erase her memories - she was just a soul inside a doll. But she still had her personality, even if she couldn't remember who she was. Arbiters' animus and people's souls are different, by design, so that the judges don't identify too closely with those they judge.

 

I wonder if Nona trying to make arbiters who break Oculus' third rule is part of her boredom. She may not be able to feel emotions, but she appears to be very interested in them. This is why she's keeping Kurokami around and reading the children's book from the mystery woman's memories. Change is coming to the afterlife tower and even Nona is starting to worry about what may come.

10 Second Anime - Death Parade - Episode 6

Death Parade - Episode 6



Another judge, Vi Ginti, examines a male idol and one of his fans. The couple frustrates Ginti with an irregular session.

Heh.

Vi Ginti is just viginti, Latin for the number 20. His cat, which there must be a story on how a cat came to be judged in the afterlife, is named Memine. I presume this is slightly changed from the Latin memini, which means "I remember, or I am mindful of."

 

This Mayu girl just went to heaven, not purgatory. Playing twister with her favorite idol and sacrificing her life for him? Of course that's heaven.

10 Second Anime - Death Parade - Episode 5

Death Parade - Episode 5



Quin Decim receives a pair with unusual circumstances. The staff offers tantalizing hints about the afterlife and the Black-haired woman.

Heh.

Performance reviews are pretty rough when you have the threat of violence.

 

Again, people in the afterlife have no names. Ginti is latin for 20, so I guess Ginti is Decim's superior by seniority. Oculus, the guy with a lotus growing out of his head and beard, means "eye." Castra is latin for fort, but is sometimes used for "marching camp," a temporary fort during a Roman army's campaign. This is probably the reference for the title of the episode - Death March.

 

The Chavvot book factors heavily again. Chawwoth is Hebrew for "tent villages" (chawwah is the singular). There are several references in the Old Testament to a place named Chavvoth-Jair in Gilead, which is east of the river Jordan. Jair was one of the Judges of Israel, who ruled for 22 years, and the area where his sons established villages became known as Chavvoth-Jair. That's kind of fun since this show is about judges in the afterlife, but I'd like to know the inspiration behind choosing Jair and his towns for the name of the deaf girl in the creepy children's book. Heavy allegory for the plot tied to Kurokami's circumstances, though, that much is clear.

 

According to Oculus, the one closest to God, God isn't around anymore.

Kurokami came to Decim's place already knowing she was dead, so she wouldn't play any of the games. They didn't mention who her partner was or what happened to him. So Nona erased her memories and Decim has her around to keep judging her by noting her reactions to the judging games.

We got a few more rules for how the afterlife works, but we don't know why Quin Decim keeps failing the "no memories" test. They call this the "Quin" test. If Decim passes it, will he move to the 16th floor and call himself See Decim? He's only been doing this for 5 years, so maybe he hasn't been tested a lot yet.

Ginti didn't like how Decim called Kurokami "fascinating" in his monotone voice.

Don't mess with Nona. Even Decim can't handle the ownage she brought down on Ginti.

10 Second Anime - Death Parade - Episode 4

Death Parade - Episode 4



Two newly departed fight for their lives in a fight video game. Decim's sabotage helps him judge the souls, but Kurokami objects to the harsh methods.

Heh.

Just because you're losing at a videogame is no reason to bash the other guy's head in.

 

I liked the character specific touches on the arcade game. The young man's hobby was "otaku," but his ability was "none." Harsh, man. Meanwhile, the lady's ability was "temptation." Not really a surprise where she ended up at the end.

 

This couple didn't die in the same place and time, so it's still a little vague how these people get paired up for judgment. The circumstances of their lives were both related to their family situations, so perhaps each couple has a "theme" for how their lives ultimately cause their deaths.

 

The most interesting thing for me was how Kurokami reacted to the heavy-handed methods Decim uses to draw out people's reactions. A good apprentice also teaches the master, which is the dynamic I suspect the story is aiming at.

10 Second Anime - Death Parade - Episode 3

Death Parade - Episode 3



A pairing has a friendly bowling match and finds so much more.

Heh.

Judgment in the afterlife doesn't always have to be so full of tension.

 

I think the only reason these two needed to be judged is because the young man died before showing his childhood friend what kind of reaction he would have to her plastic surgery.

 

In the OVA Death Billiards from 2013, Kurokami (I'm just going to start calling black-haired girl this because in the closing credits, she's called kuro kami no onna 黒髪の女) did all that "First! Second! Third! Fourth! Fifth!" in laying out the rules, so it's fun to see her do that for the series.

 

In that OVA, it wasn't clear whether those two people died in the same place, just that they died at the same time. In the series, the two couples we've seen so far have died in the same place and time.

 

Because the young man was woken up on a couch, we didn't see whether he came down an elevator with the demon mask over it. I'm still not sure this matters or not. But we did get confirmation that the masks show where the souls are going to end up after playing the game.

 

Kurokami did a little "you go girl" fist clench when the young woman scored her date with the man she loved.

 

Quin Decim needs to work on his joke delivery.

10 Second Anime - Death Parade - Episode 2

Death Parade - Episode 2

The black haired woman gets a behind the scenes look at Quin Decim judging last week's couple.

Heh.

Nobody in this show has a name. Quin Decim is actually just quindecim, latin for 15, and he's the arbiter on the 15th floor. Clavis the elevator operator is just clavis, latin for key. Nona, Decim's superior, is just nonaginta, latin for 90, because she occupies the 90th floor.

 

Decim is an odd one. Those hanging figures we saw last week were just mannequins. His hobby is making mannequins. That suggests he relies too much on external appearances instead of paying attention to people's feelings, which is something Nona chides him for in not noticing that Machiko could have been lying about her extramarital affair at the end of last week's episode.

 

I'm not sure what the penalties for a mistake in sending a soul to the void would be. Nona didn't act like he made a major mistake, so perhaps he did make the correct one, in her view, but came to the judgment in an incorrect or incomplete manner. We saw that Decim, and presumably Nona, received the couple's lifetime memories, whereas the black-haired woman did not. They had more relevant information to sift through than just what the two were presenting during their time on the 15th floor. Still, Black-haired woman showed more imagination for a woman's intentions than Decim did.

 

Decim likes jellyfish too, judging from that big aquarium and the chandelier.

10 Second Anime - Death Parade - Episode 1

Death Parade - Episode 1

A mysterious bar's staff helps to judge the fate of two people who died at the same time by having them compete in a bar game. Themes of morality, the afterlife, and the consequences of choices factor heavily in the storytelling.

First Thoughts.

An anime without any kids in school, dealing with adult themes and situations? And the characters dance and drink their hearts out in the opening credit sequence? Sign me up! This is a high concept story, but the episode moves us quickly into what the stakes are for the first two guests we see. Because it's a first episode, I'm not sure what the rest of the episodes will be like. The opening credits focused entirely on the staff of this waystation to the afterlife, so it's not a stretch to think that the larger story won't even focus on each couple who shows up to be judged, but used as starting points to the stories behind the staff and how the bar actually works. I'm intrigued and I hope the next episode establishes the true tone of this show before I become too invested.