Spike Spiegel

Spike Spiegel

Member
Sep 26, 2022
71
This post is in relation to the anime Death Parade and will have spoilers for the series.

The anime death parade deals with where we go after we die. Specifically in the show if it is deemed you are a good person your soul is sent to be reincarnated. If you are found to be a bad person you soul is sent to the void, basically it's reduced to nothingness. The series takes place in a bar that represents purgatory. When people arrive there they don't know they are dead. They then are forced to compete in games that bring out their worst or best qualities, determining their fate. Our main character arrives at the bar knowing she is dead already but with no memory, thus making her unable to be judged by the conventional means.

Over the course of the series we learn more about her and in the climax we learn how she died. She killed her self after a devastating injury that prevented herself from following her passion and the only thing that she felt gave her worth ( simplified version) . We later cut to a view of her mother in the real world crying over a memorial in their house to their daughter, confused and sad. As the main character watches on unable to be seen. Our main character is presented with the final choice to determine the fate of her soul. She could be brought back and reincarnated as herself but a random person on earth, one out of billions would die in her place. Or denying the option letting her family live on as is, and the risk of her soul being sent to the void.

When I fist saw this scene I cried, due to my relationship with mental health and suicide. It brought out many conflicting emotions and thoughts about personal choice, our personal impact on people, why we live, among others . While the show goes on to frame our main characters eventual choice as the correct one, it never makes a clear statement about suicide despite its impact on the show.

To this day I rewatch scenes and episodes, I think it has a great soundtrack as well as it's intro, all around it's a show worth watching. The point of this post was to see if anyone else had seen the show and if they felt the same things. There is so much more to the show ( as well as a cameo from light from death note) that I did not include as well as other deep ethical and moral questions that I think would be fun to explore .

Thanks for reading .
 
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TheShadowKing

TheShadowKing

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Dec 5, 2023
178
Death Parade is amazing one of the best 12 episode animes
 
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