Death Parade Episode 3 デス・パレード Anime Review

 WAS IT A HAPPY ENDING?

It looks they'll continue to show us a complete arc between two guests per episode unless there's a story development about the whole place, bartenders etc cause we still have a lot of unanswered questions. I honestly don't mind this as long as they can keep up the uniqueness between the guests shown in each episode and so far, they're doing an amazing job. So this time we got a college student and a girl who works at a local bowling  alley. As shown at the start of the episode before that epic OP kicks in, from what it looked like is that they both use to play together when they were kids but apparently Shigeru, the boy, can't seem to remember her name though its at the end of the episode when all the pieces starts falling in their places and we find out the real story. Last time we had darts and this time we have Bowling. Both of them have to play with bowling balls which have pulses of their hearts embedded in it. The twist? they have to use not their own but each other's balls so basically when the boy hold the bowling ball having the heart and pulse of the girl, he can feel her heart beats and warmness. I honestly thought this was not as amusing as last time but I soon realize that it had significance which I'll explain soon.

Shigeru only seems to remember that he was travelling by a bus on his way back from college while the girl doesn't seem to remember anything at all, not even her name. From the very start when these two characters met, Shigeru seemed interested in her and was willing to play the game even though his life was at stake to help her remember her name as Decim promised they'll eventually remember everything as the game finishes. There's no pain involved in this game unlike last time and it was surprising to see how both the guest played the game happily, cheering each other on. As they both came towards the end, they started to get their memories back, now this is where those bowling balls play a significant role. As Shigeru remembers everything, his heart starts to beat rapidly and the girl felt that when her turn came. But its their reaction after they found out the truth that really surprised me and Decim as well. Another interesting note is that they've already decided who was going to win as the girl was going to pull off a gutter.

I'm not really sure about this but that girl might have taken that job to work at the bowling alley cause as we all know had crush on Shigeru since they were kids and he often visited that place. Back when Shigeru and that girl were kids, they had another friend who use to play with them, a girl by the name of Chisato who moved or shifted away back then. Shigeru apparently liked Chisato and that girl (guest) liked him, a classic love triangle. But after Chisato moved away, that girl started to fall further way from Shigeru and so to catch his attention, she decided to perform a plastic surgery which would make her look like how Chisato would have probably looked by her age. Mid way through the game Shigeru thinks she is Chisato (and even that girl thinks likewise) and ask her out on a date once the game is over. The fact that both of them were dead came first to Shigeru and he also found out the truth about this girl that one his friends told him back at the bowling alley. Now this is the best part, even after he remembers everything and realizes that she is not Chisato (even she realizes that) and that they both were involved in an bus accident, he still asks her out on a date cause he realizes how much she loves him as she went through those surgeries just to catch his attention, beautiful. They both were in tears as she found out he was asking her out even after he knew the truth. After the game ends, their request to have some time for a date is granted. And after the date is over, they say goodbye to each other for the last time and enter their respective lifts. 

Overall a beautiful and emotional episode, completely different from those previous two. The art style and animation was really good. We also get to see some developments of Onna, still a lot about her is yet to be revealed. I really don't know which one of them is going to haven or hell and honestly it's really hard to even guess that from how much we know so far. What do you think? let me know in the comments below. Thank you for reading this anime review, have a wonderful day or night wherever you live! Links to this episode are available in download section.