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Death Parade is an anime based around the concept of judging individuals after death. This show takes on a somewhat unique and fresh approach to this by having a so called "arbiter" decide the destination of the dead by having them participate in games which range from arcade fighters to bowling and air hockey. Although this may initially feel like an episodic formula, Death Parade manages to maintain novelty by avoiding repetitiveness and giving its characters identities, motives and desires whilst managing to flesh them out with flashbacks which occur as the participants progress through their playing of the game. However, whilst all of this ... is intriguing, Death Parade's execution of its story, particularly towards the end, leaves a lot to be desired.

Death Parade throws you straight into its setting by having our lead character and arbiter, Decim give a brief explanation to an oblivious couple who cannot remember what just happened to them. This is a recurring plot point throughout the show, as being able to remember your death would supposedly be sufficient to put you off cooperation and would not be in the arbiter’s best interests. One wonders how exactly this is the case, but putting that aside all visitors to Decim’s bar do eventually concede to participating in the games.

Regardless of the winners and losers of the game, it is up to the arbiter to decide the fate of the participants who are either thrown into the “void” (A sort of graveyard for souls) or sent for reincarnation as opposed to the traditional afterlife destinations of heaven and hell. However, Death Parade neglects to mention how exactly this is determined by the arbiter and how such a choice would be made. In addition, if the game is not progressing as the arbiter would like he or she is capable of manipulating the game by attempting to “draw out the darkness of human souls” with the use of a device. Very little is explained about the significance of this and how it would affect the arbiter’s decision. In fact it feels like it’s just there for the sake of it and serves no purpose other than to let us know “Hurr durr…humans are evil”. This results in it feeling very cheap and one dimensional and is quite disappointing given the context of the show. You can’t help but think “Surely, if you want to judge people properly you should put the misanthropy aside?”

Ultimately its Decim’s interactions with our lead female character (who I’ll refer to as Onna to avoid spoilers) that the show gives focus to. Onna serves as Decim’s aide through the show and is played out to be more human than the inorganic and almost robotic Decim for the sake of fleshing him out. There are times where Onna is outright upset or angry over Decim’s actions through the show and some times it feels as if the writers are just using her as a means of adding some more drama to the story. However, I personally didn’t feel there was much subtlety in her character and at least for me there were a few times where she came across as annoying and I just wanted her to shut the fuck up.

There are quite a few other characters in the show but they all end up feeling inconsequential to story. In particular, the interactions of Nona and Oculus, which could have had potential end up feeling hollow as just a crude means of creating tension in the story. I honestly believed these interactions were building up to something interesting. Only near the end I started wondering what was at stake here “Does giving Decim emotions and making him a bit more human….do something?”

In all honesty, I believe the writers lost their way with the finale of the show. The ending was centred around the judgement of Onna. We got to learn her name and see her past but it all felt quite flat to me. The reason for her death felt confusing to say the least and I had to reread her dialogue several times through the penultimate episode and even then I didn’t quite understand why exactly she did what she did. I’m not sure I can just chalk that down to the subtitles being bad.

Finally, there was a lot in the ending of the show that felt forced. Decim’s sudden outburst and acquisition of emotion, the choice Onna had to make and the last scene between Ginti and the girl (which could easily have been omitted and felt more like an afterthought than anything else). It was all pointless melodrama and disappointing considering the decent start of the show. In addition I felt as if the writers were confused with regards to the ending of the show and the plot in general, which is reflected by the lack of developing any of its overarching themes and lacklustre conclusion. I was also expecting something a lot more substantial with more meaning in that final scene between Decim and Onna but even that turned out to be unremarkable.

At least the OP was catchy.