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Jackie Pham
Mr. Olszyk
Religion IV D
14 March 2016
Lets Play a Game in the Afterlife
The Death Parade series is a psychological thriller anime that began with a twenty-five
minute original Japanese anime film, Death Billiards, which aired on March 2, 2013 and was
produced for the Young Animator Training Projects Anime Mirai 2013 by Madhouse. This later
continued as an original Japanese anime television show titled Death Parade, which aired from
January 10, 2015 to March 28, 2015 for twelve twenty-five minute episodes. The series takes
place at a bar on the line between life and death and revolves around the arbiter, Decim, and a
woman who was unable to regain her memory, Chiyuki. This anime series has a significant
amount of religious thematic material because of the emphasis on the morality, the concept of
life and fate, and the idea of a judgement made in the afterlife.
Throughout the series, the main idea that is repeated is that when two people die at the
same time on Earth, their souls are sent to a bar to play a pre-determined game in which their
lives are at stake. The catch is that the players enter the bar with their almost or all of their
memories wiped, especially the cause of their death, and as the game continues, memories about
their cause of death would slowly return but the arbiter would have had already received a
kaleidoscope-like view of the memories of the deceased. Using the players sportsmanship and
their change in attitude as a response to their returning memories, the arbiters would then judge
the souls to determine whose would be reincarnated and whose would be banished into the void,
which refers to the idea of reincarnation and also the concept of heaven and hell. In addition, the

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arbiters are the specific persons put in charge of judging the souls because they do not have the
ability to express any emotion to ensure that the persons path is rightfully determined without
any mistakes.
The main characters in the series are Decim, the arbiter and bartender of Quindecim, and
an unnamed black-haired woman and Decims assistance whose name is later revealed as
Chiyuki later on in the series. As an arbiter, Decim is supposed to be emotionless but in the latter
episodes, it is revealed that Nona, the head arbiter, made Decim into her guinea pig as she had
programmed him with human emotions. This factor adds variation to the anime since Decim
would question the judgement system. On the other hand, Chiyuki is one of the many deceased
who had visited Decims bar however, during her game, her memory never returned to her so an
exception was made to allow her to stay at Decims bar as a helper in hopes of her memories
return during that time period. In the beginning, Decim judges souls by following the original
system and judges without any emotion successfully even with Chiyukis questioning of his
methods because he states that that is what it is to be an arbiter. As the anime progresses, his
confusions deepens as Chiyuki expresses her opinions on what should have been done. For
example, one of the episodes was about two deceased playing a video game against each other
and Decim handed Chiyuki a button for her to press to cause a malfunction in one of the
controllers to determine who would be the winner for reincarnation because according to Decim,
the winner is already decided the moment the people have entered, as he had witnessed the
important bits of each persons memories. The button was just there to test if the soul, who is the
decided one to enter the void, would react rightfully or if they would lash out and show their true
colors. Since Chiyuki refused to press the button, Decim ultimately presses it. As Decims
emotions becomes more evident, he explains to Chiyuki that he thinks humans are not foolish

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and that he has respect for people who live fulfilled lives. Chiyuki is an important factor in the
development of Decims rationality into a more human-like one since Chiyuki explains to Decim
that people [werent] as complex as [he thought] they [were]. Theyre simple, and they get sad
or angry over simple things. Thats how they [were]. Theyre quickly affected by the littlest
things, and live without knowing where theyre going to fall down. Thats who people are. This
helps with later realization that life is very delicate and intricate so judging without any emotion
or understanding makes the decisions flawed.
As the series continues, Decims emotions develop and Nona decides to send an extreme
case to Decims bar for him to judge. This case was to judge two deceased murderers who were
both on a mission to avenge their injured or deceased loved ones but died as they finished their
missions. As the memories were slowly revealed, one of the murderers had been a detective who
was avenging his wife who was murdered and the other was avenging his sister who was raped.
Eventually, both souls memories showed that they had killed the people they wanted but they
had both become mentally unstable. The detective began to kill people who he had suspected to
become potential criminals in the future and witnessed the other murderers sisters rape. In the
end, the one who was avenging his sister murders the detective but dies from a fatal wound from
the struggle with his sisters stalker. It is implied that both was dropped into the void but Decim
states in the end that life is truly a mysterious thing. Each and every life spins its own separate
tale, yet they become intricately intertwined. No one ever knows how they will end up.
This work is well done since the cases portrays some causes of death in an extreme way
and the reactions from the moment that some people recover their memories falls under the
psychological genre very well. The art is simple and the background music is chosen well as it
helped illuminate any empathy for any other the characters under judgement or the arbiters. As

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more and more memories were recovered, it was planned in a way that as the characters were
surprised, the viewers would be just as surprised and shocked while watching it.
This film has a positive opinion about religious belief because the judgement is designed
to help with figuring out which soul should be reincarnated to help with the world or be sent to
the void to never be seen of again. In the beginning, when Decims followed the system, his
judgements were questionable. But as the series continued, Decims emotions benefitted him
because his judgements became more plausible as he began to be more rational with his
conclusions and had even sent two souls into the void at once. Another positive viewpoint is
ones misled morality pointed to the correct path by someone else. Decim was perplexed with
what the correct course of action was between following the system and following his implanted
emotions. With Chiyukis bluntness with the correct answer, Decim was able to find a halfway
point to carry out his job properly.
Although this anime isnt explicitly emphasizing a religion in particular, it accumulates
the general questions asked in the area religion is concerned. These questions include: What
happens after death? What is the correct moral decisions in every action and why is it correct? Is
every happening in life set by fate or is it a coincident? Even though there is no definite answer,
there are many different ideas found in different religions.

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Works Consulted
Death Billiard. Funimation, 2013. Film.
"Death Parade." MyAnimeList.net. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2016.
Death Parade. NTV, Japan, 10 Jan. 2015. Television.