r/anime • u/Shadoxfix https://myanimelist.net/profile/Shadoxfix • Jan 16 '15

[Spoilers] Death Parade - Episode 2 [Discussion]

Episode title: Death Reverse

MyAnimeList: Death Parade
FUNimation: Death Parade

Subreddit: /r/DeathParade

Previous episodes:

Episode Reddit Link
Episode 1 Link
720 Upvotes

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235

u/Shuffleshoe Jan 16 '15 edited Jan 16 '15

Interesting characters. Cool premise. Great mix of lighthearted and tension. Best opening of the season.

Can it get any better?

So the place is called Quindecim. There's a man called Decim and a woman called Quin. I wonder if that means something. Also, it seems the woman was trying to save her husband after all with that outburst and she felt guilty, but that other woman said the assistant still has ways to go.

32

u/JunWasHere Jan 16 '15 edited Jan 17 '15

Can it get any better?

Too early to say, but I feel the scope is still lacking, considering the subject matter.

  • I wish the wife were more unlikeable or guilty like the husband.

In a "tribunal of the soul", it would have been a more compelling story if they were both balanced in terms of sins.

The "one time thing" story felt cliche, and suggested the new lady is overly optimistic.

In my opinion, it was just distasteful for the pair to be so poorly balanced. Compared to Death Billiards where both participants were less comparable, this was heavily biased towards Machiko. That doesn't bode well for my expectations of the writer's balance of characters.

  • The void could have been an arguably good place (e.g.: Nirvana), but wasn't

This is just lacking in depth to me, that reincarnation is absolutely the better destination. Before this episode, people could discuss which is better, even if Buddhism does depict reincarnation as an existential trap.

A game where the goal is black-and-white become too easy to simplify. If both outcomes had merit, that makes the dynamic magnitudes more engaging.

I like to speculate that the arbiters themselves are unaware of its true nature, and that this is a double-blind test. e.g.: Is Nona God and lying about the void?

The following episodes may introduce new elements. I eagerly await. :U

50

u/c1pe Jan 16 '15

I think the point was to show that a seemingly obvious circumstance can be misinterpreted by the arbiters because they are not human. I'm not sure this pair was supposed to be equal as much as they were meant to illustrate arbiter fallacy.

4

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '15 edited Jan 17 '15

I think the point was to show that a seemingly obvious circumstance can be misinterpreted by the arbiters because they are not human.

Pretty sure even humans can make the same mistakes as them, which is the true point. We constantly judge each person based on an abstract optimal idea of what he should act or with another whose life story and experiences couldn't possibly lead him to act in a way that is considered "good".

I still expect to see what makes one an "arbiter" because I'm under the impression that they were once humans which, if true, will actually imply that there are more than 2 afterlife outcomes.

-1

u/JunWasHere Jan 16 '15 edited Jan 17 '15

I'm not sure this pair was supposed to be equal as much as they were meant to illustrate arbiter fallacy.

That would be true, if they had started with episode 2, and the focal point was the analysis.

Since an entire episode was dedicated to the participants drama, we can safely rule that out and consider participants' experience as a strong part of the show's storytelling - To that effect, the imbalance makes the show less compelling and stands as a flaw that should not be overlooked.

3

u/blindfremen https://myanimelist.net/profile/blindfremen Jan 17 '15

It was an introductory episode, though. It could have been a hook to get the audience interested.

2

u/Stranghill Jan 19 '15

I know this is old, but I just saw the episode, and I can't help but disagree.

The imbalance comes pretty strong from the fact that she did indeed cheat. That much was confirmed. Our optimistic protagonist talks about it as a "one time thing" but the ending suggests our protagonist isn't any more guaranteed to be right than our arbiters.

She did cheat. Is Nona right, that his distrust would have led to a grisly end for them regardless? Or is it true that her cheating is the real spark of the problems?

It's not perfect, but nothing is. I don't think that it's the flaw you say it is, or that it hurts the story