Death Parade Episode 5 デス・パレード Anime Review

Plot build-up 

This episode, it had info dump all over the place like every scene had something to grasp on. But though it created more questions than answering them, it answered the most important question as to whether this series going to be episodic or not. It's definitely not episodic especially after this episode and it clearly tells us that there is a main plot revolving around and building up.

I have a theory-crafting about something which I'll explain at the end of this review but before that lets discuss the main plot revealed in this episode. Our main female character and currently the assistant of Decim, is being judged and we also found the reason as to why she is being judged. She is a human, and when she came to this bar, she already remembered that she was dead and that's really odd cause if she remembers that, then she can't play the game with her life on the line, something that'll get out her real emotions and darkness of the soul. And that's why Decim had to extend his judgement period for her cause he couldn't come to an conclusion. So now Decim has 3 months to figure out how to judge her and while he does so, she'll work as his assistant completely unaware of the fact that she is being judged and that's quite screwed up if you think about it, what if she changes over this 3 months course? Really love the direction in which this series is going.

That doll (not that bartender who came in as disguised) was a artificial human? What the hell? If you've been reading my reviews, I stated a theory about those dolls or mannequins shown in second episode and I was correct but it could be used to create an artificial human? Whoa, that's crazy and give rise to a lot of question like does that mean all humans who are being judged are like this as well? We were also introduced to multiple new characters in this episode, like that crazy bartender Ginti who had a short fight with Decim and that old guy who was shown playing pool with Nona. That old guy, he looks like someone who is very wise but at the same time his eyes gives out a completely different vibe as of some Satan or devil cause his eyes besides looking devious, are completely different from everyone else who have a definitive pattern of a cross but his are completely dark (with cat's eye type of design) so that brings up another question, as this series is having all these elements such as reincarnation and void, do they have demons as well? Besides that we are also introduced to Castra who wore a weird looking mask of a bone or something and was watching over the human death rates around the world. Interesting to note how she her eyes had 'x' type of design.

So coming to that theory crafting part I mentioned before, there are two of them. Firstly, how do you become arbiter? cause it was shown that these arbiters have to take test (In which Decim screwed up) and what happens if a arbiter fails in it, like will he/she lose their job? will they you go to reincarnation or void? and why do they have to be judged if they are not humans? From what it looks like, Nona is judging Decim but what if both Nona and Decim are somehow related? cause she has that elderly vibe towards Decim and if that's true that pretty screwed up if you think about it not to mention she has been around for over 80 years as a manager and Decim has only been arbiter for 5 years. Now secondly, that picture book Decim's assistant keeps having dream of, its still unclear as to what it really signifies as Nona is shown reading the same picture book, but what if that girl and Decim used to love each others back when they were humans or something? Overall a great episode with a lot of info dump, really interested to see how this plot develops and what plot twist we'll get. Thank you for reading this anime review, what do you think about this episode or about the theory-crafting I mentioned? let me know in the comments below and have a wonderful day or night wherever you live! Links to this episode are available in download section.