Death Parade

[David75]

I find the show quite bland and boring at this point.
Might change in the future. I've watched quite worse, till the end... so I'm waiting to be surprised here.

[Ryllharu]

I'm the opposite, I find it quite interesting and want to know more about the recurring characters. They've hinted at some pretty neat stuff with Decim, Kurokami, and Nona.

I fear that it will get bland and boring if they run out of ideas for the "filler," which is the pub games competition between random people who are either neutral and rotten people (OVA), liars (episode 1), or simply not honest with themselves until it is too late (episode 3).

[shinta|hikari]

There should be lots of possible stories to tell. This reminds me of Kino or Mushishi.

[neflight86]

After seeing it for the third time, this show has my favorite opening of any this season.

And, there's something to be said for ponderous anime that tries to be more than moe/shounen/light novel. I like the variety.

[Lucifus]

Both favorite opening of the season and favorite series of the season for me. Hell yea, thanks for the recommendation Shinta. I don't find it bland or boring in the least. Great animation as well.

2nd the Mushishi vibe, and of course Hellgirl.

[Buffalobiian]

HS - Episode 04

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Thank you for not running through the rules and skipping the intro. I don't know if I could have sat another one of those in a row like that. The idea behind this episode was good: Do you judge someone by comparing their worst moment against someone else's, or do you judge them as a whole?

It's true that your worst comes out when you feel threatened. For example, someone might act in a non-racist nor xenophobic way until their employment is threatened by an international workforce. You really do need to test someone's values, so Decim's not wrong here.

That said, popping the top off your control stick is hardly a big issue. I'm sure you can play just fine without it for two rounds.

I'm not sure about him consolidating someone even though he's ruled them to go to the void however. It seems like this type of human compassion is at odds with his role as an Arbiter. He needs to understand human emotions, but not be swept by them.

[Ryllharu]

If the masks are still indicating which way they go, and the demon mask is hell, Decim fucked up royally again.

Misaki, despite all her bitchiness, despite how much her older children had grown to hate her, and despite the horrible things she did to other people, had learned her lesson before she was murdered by her manager. She slapped her because her assistant had scheduled work for her when Misaki had intended to spend some time with her family. A rare event because she works her ass off to support her children by herself. All the time she was struggling to make it, sure, she was ignoring her kids, but her intentions were the best she could make of them given the life she had. She had been manipulated, she had been abused, she had been toyed with...and since she viewed that as how "successful" people act, she did so as well.

She flipped out in Quindecim because she was desperate. She had gone through all that to make a life for her five kids, was finally getting to the point where she could redeem herself in their eyes, and when she snapped for the last time, she caused someone else to lose their shit and got murdered.

Compare her to Yousuke. His parents got divorced, and the only goal his stepmom had was to get him to treat her like a mother. Because his biological mother sure as fuck didn't act like one. Yousuke never learned his lesson while he was alive. He only realized how awful he was after her was dead. Committing suicide because he felt guilty about how he treated his stepmom doesn't fix it, it probably only hurt her further. He threw it all in her face the whole time.

Misaki wanted to be a happier person. While the beginning of the episode made it seem like the promo image of her and her family was just PR, by the end of the episode, the audience understood that it was genuine, even if the smiles on her kids were forced, hers had not been. She was ready to redeem herself. Yousuke didn't try to fix the problems he had created, he ran away. He always ran away.

Kurokami should have flipped out at Decim for basing his judgment only on what happens in the bar. He has their past, he knows everything we get to see in the flashbacks. But he only tries to force a conflict to make his decision. It works to show who the rotten bastards are sure, but this case wasn't anything like that. Here, he chooses the one who didn't have the drive for a second chance. In these situations, he picks the cowards, by thinking their inaction, indifference, or apathy means they are a better person. It's far more nuanced than that, and he's clearly been picking the wrong ones in these kind of matchups.


@Buff:
Regarding the joystick handles, the Japanese grip them in a very specific way, which is why they are ball-shaped. Underhand or Overhand, fingers and palm curled around the ball. Westerners will often get a bat-shaped stick, because they grab the joystick by wrapping their hands around the metal rod with their thumb oriented skyward. Playing a game with that kind of grip works easily with the rod alone, while the Japanese grip would be very difficult or even impossible.

[shinta|hikari]

The suicide dude regretted his suicide and wanted another chance.

The actress almost killed the dude based on an assumption. No one ever told her about the consequences. She has the propensity for violence, understandable considering her life history, but not forgivable. She also wanted to return to her old life (because it was finally looking up), not get a new one.

The nice guy decision would be to send them both to reincarnation, but I personally would not want a woman who beats her assistant (likely regularly, it didn't look like an isolated case, especially if the assistant snapped) for setting her an appointment, or who smashes someone's face into a monitor based on speculation, in this world.

[David75]

flushing the guy might not be based on deciding who's right or wrong... but maybe on who's got the will to live in the end.
It felt like his soul was tired of living. Sure he got a bad start in that life, but then got a very loving and easy going foster familly and didn't take that as a chance and only lived in the agony of that bad start. He then terminated his life when he could have been happy should he try to accept the love he was offered.
For such a tired of living sould, going to the void might be a good solution, there's no point to reincarnate it and have another life of depression and suicide.

As for the woman, she had a shitty life from begining to end, always fought hard, did major mistakes too and probably victimized some people the way she was. But in the end she always had a strong will to live, have children and raise them, regardless of difficulties. She was reincarnated for that reason maybe. And maybe because in a less shitty setting, she would not victimize anyone and get killed for that.

Regarding the show's pitch... well it remains as bad as it was from ep 1. There's even a rule that was loose here: the die at the same time one.
It feels like both of them didn't even die at the same place at all. So now the rule feels a bit useless.

[Buffalobiian]

They didn't need to die in the same place, just at the same time.

Also David, you've got it the other way around. This show considers the white mask (reincarnation) as Heaven, and the dark demon mask (void) as Hell, contrary to Buddhist interpretation.

[David75]

You're right, for some reason I switched them both. I was so willing to see the guy right and the woman left that I remembered it that way.
Strange how our will/reason and brain work at times.

[Ryllharu]

Bottom line was this:

Misaki had a horrible life, but made the best of it and acted badly, but to ultimately support the ones she truly cared about. Was she the perfect mother? No, but she was trying to get there. Her last act was apologizing to her children for breaking a promise, one that she didn't even ruin.

Yousuke had a generally great life, and squandered it. He had something good, and hurt those who deserved it the least. His last act is declaring his life sucks, killing himself, ultimately hurting those who cared for him even more.

The person who deserved the second chance is one who appreciated life the most and fought tooth and nail to make the best of the shitty life she was given, not the one who spat in the face of those kind to him on a routine basis and ended it all because he was, unsurprisingly, miserable.

[shinta|hikari]

The person who deserved a second chance is the one who was not criminally violent.

[Ryllharu]

That's far too simplistic for a reason to choose which one goes where, and part of the reason Kurokami was pissed at Decim.

He forced that out of Misaki.

I will grant that the arcade cabinets was by far the worst of any of the games we've seen so far. There was no bodily connection to the participants at all this time. The supers had an emotional connection, but not one that made any sense. Yousuke's stepmom loved him, however it should have been displayed with her appearing on-screen to defend him, but then his character pushes her off screen so that it didn't do anything. Misaki was given similar treatment, where her older children only half-assed it because they resent her.

The two didn't match the respective sins of their backstories. Misaki's game character got the short end of the stick, while Yousuke's got a clearly unfair advantage.

[shinta|hikari]

Actually, the actress was criminally violent in her real life, even after getting what she wanted (acting career, fame, money, happy kids). Hitting her assistant (presumably many times in the past as implied by the scene. She looked pretty damn used to it.) got her killed.

[lelouch]

The bottom line is this:

Decim is an asshole.

[Buffalobiian]

He's not an asshole, he's just interested in judging people by their worst aspect, while some may argue you should judge someone as a whole. He's also not exactly perceptive either.

[Xelbair]

Honestly speaking? no one deserved to be reincarnated this episode. no one.
Misaki chose to be a star in tv - she could spend more time with her family, but she (unknowingly) decided not to. She could talk to the her manager, spend less time chasing her career.
she also hand tendency towards violence, and judging by some flashback-scenes - she neglected her kids just to have sex with yet another random boyfriend. She always chose pleasures over responsibilities, never thinking ahead(just like our NEET)

On the other hand we have typical NEET, who took his life just because he was fucking bored. seriously? bored? He wanted to end his miserable life(which was miserable due to same reasons as Misaki - his own decisions + pressure of society) - it would be a fitting end for him to go to Void.

Decim was obviously shaken - look at his clutched hand later on. This is a job for him - not a comfortable one - but the one he has to do.

[neflight86]

Ep 5

Well that's one way to revisit the overarching storyline. Interesting situation we have here now that nameless girl's been filled out a bit. The action, while nice, seemed pointless this ep; the intrigue was enough to keep my attention.

[lelouch]

Ep 6
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Genti is a pretty shitty arbiter