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| Wow, that was seriously good! Absolutely loved the concept of this special, and definitely wouldn't mind a full series about it. Oh, and that old man was truly a badass! Also, the bartender reminded me so much of Ginko =P Easily a 9/10 from me. |
| Loved it. There's so many directions they could take this if this were ever made into a series. Not a humorous piece, but there's one part that made laugh. It's only a portion. I was too lazy to make a longer one, so it looks pretty shitty. You get the idea though.  |
| For another perspective, note the Noh masks on top of the elevators. The Hannya above the old man's elevator is a demon, usually for representing vengeful female demons. The mask on the younger man's elevator is just a mask representing females. To further the younger man's outburst, I would have liked the open end to show two people could not be judged against each other, except the show presents signs that clearly incline towards one side. Of course, which side is still up for interpretation, but I prefer a cleaner open ending. |
MissileSoupApr 7, 2013 2:43 PM
| everything from Anime Mirai should be fully serialized :o 9/10 also, im totally buying a bar and naming it Queen Decim |
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| Really intense, good job Madhouse. The ending is definitely open to interpretation which is both frustrating and interesting. Idon't think the young man did anything to deserve Heaven, on the contrary he was violent, impulsive and his moral values weren't that high. He was always jumping at everyone, he thought he killed a person and merely justified it... No way he went to Heaven. But then you have to consider the old man's smirk, so I don't know. |
MissileSoup said: For another perspective, note the Noh masks on top of the elevators. The Hannya above the old man's elevator is a demon, usually for representing vengeful female demons. The mask on the younger man's elevator is just a mask representing females. To further the younger man's outburst, I would have liked the open end to show two people could not be judged against each other, except the show presents signs that clearly incline towards one side. Of course, which side is still up for interpretation, but I prefer a cleaner open ending. Yeah, those masks are just traditional Noh masks, so I don't think those in particular are any indication of whether they went to heaven or hell. Also, it is stated at one point by the bartender, that "in general, humans go to either heaven or hell after they die. There are, of course, many exceptions." Now how are we intended to take the "many exceptions" that he speaks of? It could be due to difference of religion, or maybe it's referring to spirits who continue to roam around on Earth because they have a strong attachment to something and are not meant to move on (I just say this because there are many shows and movies in Japan, it seems, that tend to refer to this, but that might just be from my personal observation). So in essence, even if the masks could refer to demons or humans (particularly females), those are NOT necessarily the indication of which went to heaven or hell or if they even went to one or another in the first place. The old man's smirk sticks out a whole bunch as well, and that can be taken in many different ways too. The Hannya mask represents a demon that was originally a female woman consumed by jealousy and obsession, so the mask alone is really peculiar. Aesthetically, the mask might look mean and angry from the front, but when looked at from different angles, it can look sad. I feel like we might be able to take that under consideration if we're trying to figure out between "heaven" or "hell" one might have went to. The old man might have seemed to give up his spot in heaven, maybe, but when he had a talk with the bartender, maybe he was asking to switch spots back to heaven. Maybe that smirk was because he was clearly able to trick the guy into going to hell. Who knows? On the other hand, these masks aren't just used in plays, but they're also used in Shinto religious dances. And within the Shinto religion alone, there is no particular difference between "heaven" or "hell". When a person dies, their spirit becomes a deity of sorts, from my understanding, and they're able to bestow blessings upon their family members while they live in a blissful place in the heavens along with other deities. They might just go on to live like that. What I'm trying to say is, I don't think those masks are really a good indication of who went where, and as the bartender states, there are exceptions to the "heaven" or "hell" rule too. It's all left up to our interpretation, and I personally would like to know what happened too, but this ending was perfect for this kind of story, I think. Once again, this is all just my interpretation, so don't take my word for this. As for my overall rating of this OVA, I'm still stuck between 8/10 or 9/10 right now solely because I was amazed with the entire episode, but there was something about this OVA that felt off; it was amazing nonetheless. I think Death Billiards seemed wonderful BECAUSE it's a one episode OVA. I felt they left off at a nice spot, and normally, when you leave questions unanswered, it feels a bit odd, but this was done so well, it felt satisfying for me. They left it all up to interpretation from the beginning, so the fact that they didn't spell everything out for us as the viewers was a refreshing thing to see. Then again, having a bit more might not hurt; especially if we got to see more about the background of the workers at Queen Decim. Edit: I just decided to stick with a 9/10, because rewatching it a second time, I was much more impressed with it than the first time. What a great feeling. |
tsukiko_prprApr 8, 2013 7:00 AM
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| Bartender reminds me of David from Prometheus, which isn't a bad thing. The young man's rant at the end about not being equal, plus the bartender admitting life's not fair, makes me think that actually winning the game is not whats important. What's important is respecting the game and your opponent whether you win or lose. A couple old sayings came to mind while watching this: "It's not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game" and "Life is a game" When the young man became desperate and decided to use violence to win (selfish act), that pretty much sealed his fate for hell. While the old man played dead so the young man could win (unselfish act), improved his chances for heaven. |
anisukidayo said: ... I never said it was an indication of anything, and don't disagree it is up for interpretation. I merely offered a different angle other than simply judging from their flashbacks, or the old man's smirk. It could also be that neither elevator led to heaven nor hell, and rather just life and death. It could be that they both led to same place, wherever. It can mean something, or nothing. Nonetheless, the decision to place the respective masks above the elevators can't be arbitrary, as it certainly isn't common practice (going back and reading the comments, I see that people have also noted the masks). The open end left enough for speculation, but there really isn't anything of substance to warrant anything deeper. Also, my interpretation, from context, is that when the bartender mentioned the place that is neither heaven nor hell, he's talking about the bar itself as an intermediate. Could be wrong. And could anyone extract anything from the billiard balls and organs, other than it being a cool gimmick? |
MissileSoupApr 8, 2013 11:30 PM
| It's surprisingly nice! I shall give it 9/10... I think that we'll never find out where they went to though because even if we manage to use all the evidence/reasons in the episode, there's still a good reason that both of them may either went to hell or heaven, or none. Well, unless the author make another spin-off, then we can compare to get closer to our answers. |
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| 10/10: Best anime I've seen in a very long time. No joke. I'd pay to see more. The concept was dope and it caught me off guard. What are you doing being a bartender/referee for a heaven or hell game, Ginko? |
"Cheer up, you’re never alone! There is probably at least 1 bug in your room." |
rederoin said: Negative-Travis said: Ovyda said: GOD, I beg you! Make it a series! So good! Damn right. It's two of my favorite things right in the title: Death and Pool. Dug the bartenders as well. Anybody know of any other pool anime? It woulden't work as a full series I think though. the 'reveals' and 'mystery' where part of what made it so good. Maybe a few OVA"s to reveal some about how exactly it works, but 13+ episodes just would not be as good. I think a series would be doable if it centered around the bartenders and not the players. |
| I'm dead. Don't come looking for me. |
Negative-Travis said: rederoin said: Negative-Travis said: Ovyda said: GOD, I beg you! Make it a series! So good! Damn right. It's two of my favorite things right in the title: Death and Pool. Dug the bartenders as well. Anybody know of any other pool anime? It woulden't work as a full series I think though. the 'reveals' and 'mystery' where part of what made it so good. Maybe a few OVA"s to reveal some about how exactly it works, but 13+ episodes just would not be as good. I think a series would be doable if it centered around the bartenders and not the players. I think it can do both... just like another Mushishi/Hell Girl/Natsume Yuujinchou kind of storytelling of course seeing different characters having different reasons and different lives playing the games and then come to a realization later on can be interesting... the people tending the bar itself are quite interesting as to how they got there or was it really that they were made to tend there or they just forgot about their past lives as well... anyways this has the capacity to be great if made into another anime series as it can dig many aspects of life seeing it from different angles from different people... |
HidoiSanApr 8, 2013 10:23 PM
...if you're going to say what you want to say, you're going to hear what you don't want to hear... |
| Nice still illustrations and some good animation but it was super-gimmicky and I didn't really like it. I especially thought it was very obvious almost immediately that the two visitors to the bar had died. About the only thing that catches my interest is that the woman in the bar has a much more human demeanor than the bartender. What's her story? |
| I honestly have no idea why I enjoyed a short 25 minute show so much It honestly had me captivated for the whole time and the artwork itself was amazing I'd like to see a follow up just to see what actually happened and the workings behind the game a bit more but still maintain that mystery |
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| Best thing to come from Anime Mirai I've ever had the pleasure to watch. To be expected from MadHouse though. Shame Triggers one wasn't as good, still pretty fun though. |
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| I'm going to be pondering a lot of thoughts for a while, after watching this. |
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| Wow, that was very interesting thing. |
 you tellin me mangas aint japanese colouring books |
| How I wish this was a serie instead of an OVA. I would pay for it to become one. I personally hope that the young man will go to heaven, I didn't like the old guy at all. He was being a jerk most of the time and well I do think that the younger man truly regretted that he cheated on his girlfriend and wanted to go back to life to at least be able to apologize properly. I was also touched by his speech near the end, I didn't see such character depth coming from him and especially not from a 24 min long OVA, truly surprised me in a good way. I don't really see any hint or reason why the younger man wouldn't go to heaven, the older guy was obviously a bit twisted seeing his smirk at the end and the sadistic enjoyment he seemed to have during their game, simply because his pool skills were better and he had a better chance at winning. Also, the younger guy showed to be very attached to his life despite having regerts and showed remorse in the end. And I personally think his value as human being was greater because he told the bartender that no life is truly equal and stating such a thoughtless thing after hacing died is like mocking those who are still alive and struggling to overcome those very unequalnesses. I think it would be possible to make a serie of this, if they indeed out the focus on the bartender (the male one, the female one seemss a bit bland) instead of on the visitors. If they would make it an 11 or 12 episode long anime it would be possible to keep it interesting yet at the same time, expand the plot a bit. Maybe with a game that ends in a draw, one where the opponent forfeits/let the other one win, perhaps a game that takes 2 episodes because of a special something happening, or even a visitor who isn't completely human and thus an exception? If you look at it that way, 11/12 episodes wouldn't be too hard to fill up with interesting stories. |
| I'm having a hard time deciding between 8.5/10 and 9/10, this was really good. |
| This was pretty cool, interesting, and intense all throughout. Also, I loved the characters and the general story. Feels like it can be expanded into a full anime series. |
"The world cannot be changed with pretty words alone." ~ Lelouch Lamperouge (Code Geass) |
| The suspense, the animation, the tone, and the character development... Love it to death <3 |
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| Kinda pissed at the ending but I guess I have a good idea who went off where. |
| Well that wasnt to bad |
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| That was really good! I wish there were more episodes though |
| I liked it in the start, but at the end it didn't really come off as through-provoking. Instead it just vague for the sake of being vague. There's not much to discuss or speculate about and even if you do, nothing will really make any sense. |
I have my own anime blog. It's called Anime Viking. Hope you'll you read it! |
Shaduge said: I like how the old man was sent to hell Like I said before, that's not confirmed. Shaduge said: That reminds me of something else, it's like when people were laughing at the idea of a human going to space, I can tell that for the last milleniums anyone who said it would be called crazy, but now you'd be called crazy if you denied it. The idea of going to space simply exceeded the humans at that time. And there are countless of other examples, like the earth being round, establishing communication with a faraway person, etc. Humans are still evolving each day even if it's barely noticeable, what you'd call ludicrous today might turn into common knowledge tomorrow. Unfortunately we never learn of this, we are and we will still mock what we can't understand. I can't tell that justice is something we'll ever reach though, we cannot materialize what we can't even give a proper meaning to, and we've been unable to do it for thousands of years now. Only someone that has been watching over the most desolate places on earth, over every corner of the universe, over every living being that set foot on this world, over the most trivial events since the beginning of time knows what justice is. Kind of reminds me of people that demand concrete proof of God's existence, no human will ever be able to do something like that. And even if, by any chance, God appeared in front of all of humanity for a single minute, gave us a glimpse of heaven and hell and told us to worship him, you could say that at that time everyone in the world had no doubt that God exists, everyone longed for heaven and feared hell, after 5min how many will still believe in God? after one day? After a hundred year? and I said still believe, I didn't even say still worship. In the end, it'd be no different from now, so it's up to each one, to either believe in God or not. I'd say they both should go to hell, but what I think or what any other human thinks doesn't matter here, it's not up to us to decide. And yes, to believe in concepts like "Heaven/Hell" and "God" is an individual choice. I maintain a status quo on this matter, choosing not to believe or disbelieve it. The question becomes on whether the belief of the existence of heaven/hell actually makes people do "good" or "evil". Not to mention it's hard to delimit the boundary between "good" and "evil". I always found it funny that humans always need some form of threat of punishment (i.e. concept of hell, laws, etc.) in order to behave well. That's just part of human psychology. Oh well, everyone knows that you can train animals using rewards and punishments as well. All can be traced back into primal survival instinct. |
bla bla bla The endless debate between fans and haters. At one point, after spending a lot of time on MAL, you just realize it's totally pointless.Niko-kun said: On MAL, everyone who has used the lame rating system becomes a critic and an intellectual by default, haven't you heard? |
| Am I the only one who liked the old man better?! I guess him asked the bartender to send the young one to heaven and that he would go to hell instead of him. The old man was a rebel when he was younger, but he changed and turned into a good person, the young one was good, but made his long time girlfriend hate him when he cheated on her, and also showed his true nature when he thought he would die in the end of the game, the old man just defended himself. |
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| I just didn't understand what the old man said in the end :s |
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Tenori said: I just didn't understand what the old man said in the end :s I don't think you're supposed to know, I think it's implied that he gives up his spot in heaven (look at the masks above the elevators), but where both men really ended up is intended to be ambiguous. The young man is in the "heaven" elevator but looks completely broken, and the old man is in the "hell" elevator but he ended up being satisfied with himself. I think it's just intended to go along with the point that life isn't fair, people aren't judged equally, etc. |
| Just finished the one-shot. I wholeheartedly agree with the comment of one guy from the anime blog I periodically read: it's pretentious. The problem is, it's been established indirectly that viewers are supposed to question the show, to doubt everything that the characters does. To think outside of the box. Now, tell me, how does having two Noh masks which, to non-Japanese, is basically screaming HELL AND HEAVEN considered 'deep'? Since it isn't, that means there's something deeper to it; that the Noh masks represent something (or they may just be irrelevant props, who knows). So hey, by my logic, it means we just have to 'go against' the obvious parts. Does it seems that the young man is going to Heaven? Well, he's going to Hell because that's what 'deep' represent. But wait, there's no evidence supporting that! Heck, so what's with all the 'repenting' and flashbacks they show? So I must be thinking too deep into it. That's it, the young man's going to Heaven. No, wait! That means the young man and the old guy just have a 'life and death' duel choke full of 'philosophy' and 'violence' and 'drama' which practically screams 'THINK HARDER, DEEPER!' but I'm supposed to accept whatever they spoon-feed me at the end? Including the part where they purposely show the old man telling the bartender something and the young man lamenting about how unfair the world is? So I'm supposed to just switch off my brain and go auto-pilot all the time, that there's nothing more mind boggling that the show want to convey? Bull shit, it's tagged psychological not ecchi or harem or love comedy. This is a fking full-fledged one shot that's trying to convey SOMETHING, ANYTHING. Oh, and you know the part where the young guy said 'I don't need you to remind me about the unfairness of life?' My sentiment exactly. Even kids know that life's unfair, that parents and wealth plays a big role in deciding your starting point. That's shallow and not deserving any praise. To begin with, the old man's simply going back to the elevator he came from (I'm assuming they come with different elevator, cause that's logical?) and if we interprets it as it is, well, either they simply go back to their respective elevator or the old dude come from Hell and the young man come from Heaven (lol). Still, 8/10 because it's looks nice. And it's short enough that all the bs doesn't matter. My only complain (other than the obvious) is that there's less Billiards in Death Billiard than I'M SO DEEP! LOOK AT ME! |
| what if the old man is the devil, and throughout the whole story the only one on trial was the young man ....but that doesn't really makes sense cause of the old man flashback's ... I hate this |
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| That was amazing. Wonder what that smirk at the end with the old man meant. |
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| I don't get the point of the tradition... are the gates of heaven too small for two souls to get through at the same time? :P In my opinion the main point of the show was to prove that one's personal aims from outside society's expectations are harmfull to himself. Sad. The art was great, the duel- perfect. I loved the angel character design, and the "I understand, it's all right" hug. I don't know what would've happened within 25 minutes for critics to give a 10. @Ocean_Sea He was smiling because he's fooled the young guy. He lost. and whatever the prize was: life or heaven -was supposed to be the young man's fate. The game was arranged (the old man was master of billiard) so that each one of them would get what deserves. |
| Would we call this a movie? |
parfaited said: I liked this...a lot. The last bit of dialogue where the younger guy went off on a tangent about how lives are different but that's what it means to live and why would anyone try to classify us as being similar has really resonated with me. This. I loved the speech he did at the end, it really got to me. The atmosphere was also great, it kind of struck me as a mix between Death Note and Catherine. |
| This movie. 9/10. Im hooked. its only 25min can you believe it? but its tooooooo..uh. I am damn attracted to it. DAMN THIS IS SO AWESOME! the ending fuck yeah wtf i mean ..man ...!! now thats what we called unique . It left questions that have probability . the oldman obviously 'go to hell' in my humble perspective . but that smirk of him...left me like breathless for a second. I enjoyed this movie a lot , and how they end it satisfied me . I hope there will be an alternative version of this story , I would really love to know how it goes when if theres a series revolves around the bartender 'life' (though he claimed he never did 'alive') .. anyway , this one is one of my favorite show! :) |
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| i love how the old man was a former pool/kendo champion, which is why he's still so kick ass at his age 7/10 it was 'good'. |
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| For a training project this short movie is rather good, great art, great animation and quite a nice concept as well! I rather liked this short movie 8/10 |
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| Hmm. Couldn't decide between an 8 or a 9 for this one. Ending left a sour taste in my mouth, despite everything leading up to it being amazing. Given the posts that explained a bit and offered some interesting analysis, I guess I'll go with the 9 though. It seems there were tell-tale signs that I didn't notice at first glance. The flashbacks were particularly interesting highlight of the story. |
| Ok that was totally awesome 9/10.I would LOVE to see it as TV series. |
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