Death Parade – 11

Shinigami eat apples, arbiters drink alcohol.

Hmm, Mamoru Miyano or Mamoru Miyano. Such hard choices. Anyways, wow what an episode.

More proof that the arbiter’s current system has some problems in it, the test made Mayu take was very unfair in some ways. Yes, it was pretty simple and got to the point of exposing Mayu’s darkness, but this is kind of like what Chiyuki was saying about the arbiters just creating darkness in people. Ginti already knew what Mayu’s bond with Harada was like. Of course she would choose Harada over Light the other guy, since it’s long since been established that she has a thing for Harada. To Ginti though, this just proved a few things he already assumed about humans. For Mayu’s choice of Harada over the random person, Ginti knew the kind of choice she would make. Plus having someone’s life’s meaning be another person probably didn’t even register with him, since to Ginti human life is already meaningless.

However, this is also completely overlooking the moral struggle that Mayu obviously went through before making the choice. Also, it’s overlooking how she was more than ready to sacrifice herself for Harada when she suggested going into the void to wake him up. Though this at least looked a little more in depth at Mayu’s devotion to him, since the judgment before was cut short and it was kind of ambiguous as to if she would have fallen into the pit if she didn’t have that… uh, issue. The destination she ended up being sent to is pretty sad, but that elevator scene was just beautiful. It was bittersweet, since she was heading for the void with Harada, but there was that genuine moment of joy when he woke up, and while their souls fell into the darkness, they seemed to merge together at the end. Hopefully this isn’t the end for them, but if there isn’t any other closure regarding their characters, at least they seem to have each other in the void.

The difference between Ginti’s actions and what Decim would do (well, what Decim would do with Chiyuki acting as a moral compass) is clearer now though. Ginti didn’t seem to have any remorse, interest, or any consideration for Mayu’s smaller actions. He knew when put to the choice, Mayu would follow her own interests and that’s all that mattered to him. Decim probably would have at least taken some kind of interest in Mayu’s struggle or questioned it afterwards. Though this was a good example of how regular arbiters act, since we’ve only really seen Decim. Ginti might have seemed more human in the previous episodes because Mayu was probably throwing him off.

Decim made a point about understanding humans this episode though. Plus he said some things at the beginning of the episode about how humans and arbiters need to go through judgements together, since they do have meaning. So maybe he wouldn’t have done the same thing with Mayu that Ginti did. Or at least he wouldn’t do that now. It’s hard to say what he would have done before, since the situations in the judgements always seem to be unique.

Finally, there’s Chiyuki. There’s not much to say about the skating scene other than like the elevator scene, it was amazing to watch. The flashbacks told an entire story without words, and while Chiyuki’s story was kind of mundane, Death Parade depicted it to have it’s own significance and meaning behind it. They’ve shown us who Chiyuki is through the episodes, but seeing her backstory added a lot to her character in that we got the opportunity to see her live life to the fullest, and how that fell apart at the end. It’s just a shame that Chiyuki only seemed to realize how much life is worth after she ended her own. It still seems kind of a mystery as to how Chiyuki retained her memories (maybe due how she slipped into depression, but then again, that happens to many people), but something unusual like this occuring was probably bound to happen eventually. Again, the system and even the positions on the technical side of judgements don’t seem to be perfect.

What’s left now is Chiyuki’s judgement. We’ve seen before that suicide doesn’t immediately equal a trip to the void, and even if Decim judged as harshly as Ginti seems to, Chiyuki hasn’t really shown any darkness. So Decim probably has some plans if he knocked Chiyuki out like that instead of just choosing a destination and sending her off normally. He also asked for memories which probably plays in to that, since Chiyuki seems to have hers in tact. Since he has a desire to learn about humans, and Chiyuki’s actions seem to have intrigued him, maybe it has something to do with that. But I guess we’ll have to wait until the final episode to find out where this is headed.

It’s going to be hard for the next episode to top this one. I remember saying in one of the first episodes that Death Parade did a lot with the facial expressions and showing instead of telling, and they really took it to another level here. Hopefully the next episode delivers just as well as this one did. I don’t know how they’re going to provide closure on everything, since Oculus confronting Nona seems like it will complicate things, and Decim’s actions are kind of ambiguous, but let’s see what they do.

Though “Suicide Tour” doesn’t exactly sound like a cheery title for the last episode.