Death Parade (12 Episodes Single Season 1 Ova) 8.47 out of 10
Death Parade in Winter 2015 was heartfelt, vivid & thrilling, with some occasional laughs & smiles along the way - Padding on even more juicy content to aide Madhouse's comeback montage from the grave. After Madhouse's exodus of both long time in house staff, founders and animators alike, many were left to quietly ponder what was next for the future of the animation giant Madhouse, loosing key creative talent Satoshi Kon after passing away in 2010 due to pancreatic cancer, leaving Co Founder and Key producer Masao Murayama with Kon's incomplete film - "Dreaming machine" which still remains 1/3rd done to this day due to financial difficulties, eventually leaving Madhouse to create studio MAPPA in hopes of one day completing it. After a novel anime such as Tatami Galaxy in 2010, the rest of the season was filled with uninspired & ill received marvel universe adaptations & sequels, which led to Madhouse remaining in a slump for the rest of the year & continuing so 2011 onwards. Until October, where Madhouse started rebuilding, slowly starting to getting the ball rolling once again with the Chihayafuru adaptation with remaining talents such as Morio Asaka being lead director - Directing one of my personal favourites of all time. A great start with Chihayafuru slowly but surely led to a string of other successes throughout 2012 & 2013 with series such as Btooom!
Eventually leading on to beginning Madhouse's red hot streak throughout 2014-2015, that had Madhouse booming with success with key adaptations of various titles, rewarding the loyalty & efforts to recuperate and rebuild Madhouse once again as a prominent and leading figure within the animation industry. While perhaps no longer a haven for both populist & contemporarily experimental productions, Madhouse was shockingly able to actually improve upon their past standards & loss of in house talents in a relatively short span of time, evidently reaching a fine eye point in terms of animation quality. Along with such transitional efforts, with series such as Death Parade & One Punch Man, not only is Madhouse keeping it fresh & entertaining, they're making a return to form, by keeping it emotional, with their tried & true traditions of good storytelling.
Death Parade stands testament to that - A story about Death, Regret & Loss,
A Parallel to what Madhouse as a studio has had to deal within these past few years.
A Little Feature History on Madhouse
After 2010's Tatami Galaxy led by Director Misaaki Yuasa, responsible for series such as anime original Kaiba, Kemonozume & the return of Black Lagoon with the Roberta's Blood Trail Ova series & of course High School of The Dead led by Tetsuro Araki, the rest of the 2010 & 2011 seasons had Madhouse in a slump of uninspired and ill received Marvel universe adaptations with the likes of the X-men & Iron Man adaptations. Madhouse also suffered the loss of the late & great Satoshi Kon, responsible as lead director for mesmerizing films such as Paprika & Perfect Blue, as well as psychological thrillers such as Paranoia Agent, in addition to also loosing cofounder Osamu Dezaki, after passing away from lung cancer due to being a notorious chain smoker. Along with more fundamentally populist series with a broader public appeal led by directors such as Osamu Kobayashi responsible for series such as Paradise Kiss & Beck, along with Tetsuro Araki's directorial debut with Death note & Morio Asaka's work on series such as NANA & Chobits to name a few - Madhouse was also responsible a movement in the early 2000's for pushing the boundaries with provocative & experimental productions alike, with a powerhouse of well known directors at their disposal.
Satoshi Kon along with directors such as Misaaki Yuasa & Hamasaki Hiroshi, led to eerily psychological & nihilistic anime classics such as the cyberpunk thriller Texhnolyze & the silently disturbing Shigurui based on the Edo period where Samurai & violence rained supreme, which embodied Madhouse's ventures into dark & experimental territory. Madhouse has since lost it's name in the experimental spectrum regarding anime, loosing their identity as a contemporary collective that prided themselves as once being artistic innovators. In addition to its broader populist appeals led by directors such as Tetsuro Araki simply left. Being that Tetsuro Araki went on to join the likes of Production I.G directing series such as Attack on Titan & Guilty Crown, Hamasaki Hiroshi went on to work on the visual novel adaptation of Steins;Gate for White Fox. In addition to Co founder & lead producer Masao Maruyama leaving to create studio MAPPA, in hopes of one day finishing Satoshi Kon's incomplete film "Dreaming Machine", which would have been Satoshi Kon's 5th Feature Film had he not passed away.
2010 & 2011 left Madhouse with a questionable future, the passing of Satoshi Kon, his film "Dreaming Machine" that's still 1/3rd incomplete to this day, the migration of many key primary talents, directors & animators alike, & eventually key producer & co founder Masao Maruyama. Only until late fall of october in 2011 did Morio Asaka's adaptation of Chihayafuru, Hiroshi Koujina's Hunter x Hunter reboot, Kotono Watabe's adaptation of Btooom!! did Madhouse seem to once again get back up on it's feet and breath life & hope into it's future within the animation industry.Come 2014 was the beginning of Madhouse's crazy hot-streak of with series such as The Irregular at Magic Highschool, No Game No Life led by director Atsuko Ishizuka, Shimizu Kenichi's adaptation of Kiseijuu: Sei no Kakuritsu, Ore Monogatari led by Morio Asaka, Overlord led by Naoyuki Itou & One Punch Man Led by Shingo Natsume.
And Finally, after 4 years Madhouse produced it's first Anime Original with Death Parade. Even despite outsourcing a lot of labour on productions such as One Punch Man & others to studio's such as Bones, I feel the combination between these collaborations, along side their remaining in house talent, was enough to also bring in and adapt key titles, & to great success at that. Not only did the general animation quality of Madhouse productions actually improve in a relatively short timespan of just 2-4 years, with the Anime Original Death Parade, expanded off of the short Ova "Death Billiards" reasserted the promise & confidence we had in Madhouse before, as Madhouse once again wen't back to telling fresh yet familiar stories.
Along with other blockbuster franchises Madhouse was able to adapt into being such as No Game no Life, One Punch Man, & Kiseijuu: Sei no Kakuritsu and many others in between - Death Parade seemed like a promise from Madhouse, that they were not yet finished with creating & telling their own original stories as well.
& Thankfully I can tell you that Death Parade rocks quite alot!!
I feel the reason why Death Parade felt so engaging and fresh was because of the amount of individual character opportunities Yuzuru Tachikawa was able to rotate in, being the Auteur for Death Parade so to speak.Being that Yuzuru Tachikawa is not only the director, but also the original creator, in addition to also having written the screenplay, being a story boarding artist, & also being responsible for being episode director during the climatic finale in the 12th episode.
In that respect Death parade almost seems like an anime based on counselling of sorts, though in a format familiar to a game show. You see, without trying to give to much away, people are sent to an arbiter unbeknownst to how or why they're sent, forced to play a series of games, typically in pairs to forcibly draw out the darkness in each others souls, motivated by the fear of death by not doing otherwise or perhaps loosing the game at hand. Within the second next episode or rather the end of the first you'll find out the twist that lie here so I rest my case.
Thanks to this ongoing traffic of new people arriving at the arbiter Decim's bar, due to the fear of death from perhaps losing the given game, the two people playing are naturally forced to be competitive, often clashing emotionally, being that their lives are being staked. Playing a myriad of games such as billiards, air hockey or even darts - Games all rigged/designed to draw out the lingering darkness within each players heart, often including a dizzying string of memories both fond & cruel. In this somewhat episodic fashion of both introducing and revealing character intentions, comes with a diversity of creative opportunities for characters, as each character has to draw the strength & fortitude to recondition their hearts, to why remaining alive is something that they'll fight for, or perhaps throw away in exchange for their sought vengeance. You see, often times the two people sent to Decim's bar often have some type of connection, often times with very conflicting and tumultuous pasts , as both are forced to essential compete for each other's lives without fully knowing the purpose of why they're really there, playing games at the Quinn Decim Bar.
Though at times I will say that (This is also partially dependant on the dub) that character reactions from these visitors are at times overblown & stereotypical, somewhat of a mild issue. Each individual sent to the Quinn Decim as a rule of thumb always has no memory of how they got there, and sometimes even forgetting who they even are.Though one day a young woman walks in, that actually remembers her life prior to actualy arriving at the Quinn Decim, conflicting with her reasoning as to why she ended up in the Quinn Decim in the first place, and for these reasons Decim is unable to be prompt her into playing any games, therefor she's unable to be accessed or judged by the arbiter Decim. As a short term deal, in addition to having her memories erased, she's offered to help out Decim as an assistant in his dealings as an Arbiter. Suffice to say Death Parade definitely has an interesting set of story mechanics, though the meat of the show so to speak, really is a character story, relating what it means to be human & and what life in and up in itself actually means to any given person.
Either at a loss or in pain due to the series of misfortunate events that may have occurred during course of their lives. It's a story that's collectively able to work in themes such as being abused within the shadows, the feelings of deep regret accompanied by the pain of loss, through the string of characters brought to the Quinn Decim on a daily basis to be judged by an arbiter.It's a story that feels rather timely, in addition to being rather short & sweet. Being more about both Decim & the young woman's character story about self discovery & penance to one's deep regrets over the mistakes they've made in life - Rather than having a more overarching & ambitious plot line or narrative.
- Mild Spoilers -
You may be wanting a bit more of a further explanation into things such as "arbiters" or "judgment" as a whole, though if you don't want any further explanation please don't read the rest of the given section, as I feel it necessary to provide certain information regarding the plot, to actually be able to talk about other things that occur "back at the ranch" so to speak.
You see Arbiter's are sent pairs of people to lay judgment upon the dead, heeding the rules of being an arbiter, which includes the following:
- An Arbiter cannot cease making judgments, as that is their reason for existing.
- An Arbiter cannot experience death - as that would link them to close to humans
- An Arbiter cannot feel human emotions, for they are dummies
- An Arbiter may never work hand in hand with life - for it will ruin them
Though Arbiters are sent the given persons memories of their past lives, it's not enough to fairly judge the person. The catch is they almost always forget details about their past lives, & how they got there due to byproduct of shock that death provides. That goes without saying, also forgetting the fact they're actually dead. So in addition to this, the arbiter probes them, jogging their memories by forcing them to play a myriad of games such as billiards, air hockey or even darts rigged/designed to draw out the lingering darkness within each players heart, often including a dizzying series of past memories both fond & sad. The young woman with the black hair, is an exception though, as when she's sent into the Quinn Decim, she remembers the fact that she's dead, so as a result she's unable to motivated by the fear of deathly consequences, and therefor unable to be prompted to play any games, leaving Decim unable to judge her. As a short term deal, in addition to having her memories erased, she's offered to help out Decim as an assistant in his dealings as an Arbiter.
As a human, not an arbiter, the emotionless husk that Decim is, his idea of what fair judgement means is far from the young woman's idea of fairness. Often times, being human she has to show Decim the error in his ways, as he lacks the sensitivity to fairly judge his visitors correctly at times. It's his young assistant that teaches him what being human means and how valuable the concept of life actually is. Through this, she teaches him how it's wrong to probe the darkness within people through extreme conditions since it's unfairly and unnecessarily creating pathos that may not necessarily even exist within the person heart in the first place. This is where the head arbiter Nona comes in, it's later revealed that she to believes it's unfair to whimsically judge the dead as beings who have never experienced life, death or even emotions for that matter, believing that in the name of fairness, arbiters can't speak to morality without these traits, however painful the experience of life, death and emotions for an arbiter may be.Being an Arbiter entails dealing with several judgements in a single day, to avoid both fatigue and pressure, each Arbiter's memory is periodically wiped of their memories in dealing with judgments, to avoid mental break downs, in addition to the absence of human emotions. Though Nona recognizes that it's too cruel & unfair to decide the fate of living beings on the whims of an arbiter who has never experienced life or death themselves, let alone any sort of human emotion. Believing in an arbiters worth as a person and individual entity, rather than just a mere dummy.
Nona, being the head honcho of the arbiters goes as far at to break these rules, putting herself, precedent & long time rule as the head Arbiter at risk of other more conservative forces conspiring to other ends.
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