Death Parade • デス・パレード
Season 1, Episode 2
Death Reverse | デス・リバース
"Sorry that was mean. A trick question - you don't actually have a name."
Original Air Date: 16 January 2015
Running Time: 23 minutes, 11 seconds
Language: English; Japanese
A black-haired woman with no name or memory is taken by a girl named Nona to the Quindecim, where she and Decim hire her as an assistant. Nona takes the woman backstage to observe the darts game between Machiko and Takashi, explaining the nature behind the games. After the game's conclusion, the woman gives her thoughts, which come as a surprise to Decim.
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| "Didn't I tell you? You're here as an assistant." |
An interesting continuation from the previous episode, it's basically an alternate interpretation of the events, but from outside the game with a new black-haired woman who doesn't really know what exactly is going on. This serves as a pretty good way to not only give the audience a sort of double-take for what happened last time, but we're starting to get into the real plot of it here.
Considering the way the previous episode had set up the newlyweds and portrayed their relationship, I really didn't even consider the possibility that was offered to their situation here.
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| "Occasionally we make mistakes. People can have surprising motivations and unique ways of expressing their emotions. As an arbiter you can't afford to brush things off.: |
But more importantly is more insight into what exactly is going on. Nona, the cutie, serves as Mrs. Exposition here. We learn more of what arbiters are and what happens to souls after judgement. But apparently these arbiters are not flawless. Also, during the nameless woman's explanation of her perspective, Decim seems to not fully comprehend things that we might more easily understand. These arbiters clearly aren't human, but I wonder if they have
actual emotions... So far it seems like Nobodys from
Kingdom Hearts or something like that.
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| "Drinks and seriousness. There's not much to Decim besides that." |
I am still loving these character designs as a whole, even if they do all look like a goth band. Nona is absolutely the cutest, but also looks relatively professional, y'know. That and I have the same habit of resting my arms in suspenders. I'm pretty sure I'll continue the series in English because of her though. She has childish looks and mannerisms, despite clearly not being a child and being the boss around here, and it works well in the English version, but the Japanese version pushes the cutesy voice a bit too far. I feel that Jad Saxton helps subvert her childish appearances which gives a "more than meets the eye" effect. Her voice is still youthful, but has a mature speaking style and quality that reflects the character better than the sing-song cute voice of the Japanese version. The black-haired woman on the other hand seems pretty equal to me in both versions (I mean I still hear Ennis from
Baccano! in this, but it's not too big of an issues).
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| I'm having flashbacks to middle school!!! |
This episode served as an interesting introduction that helped establish the tone a little more by subverting our established opinions from the previous attention-grabber of a first episode, in addition to setting up the bigger plot. My only real qualm is Clavis' hair. Mostly because I don't understand exactly what's going on there...
"I have a respect for people who have lived a fulfilling life."
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