Death Parade : Rolling Ballade

“Rōringu Barādo” (ローリング・バラード)

Episode three see’s us back at the games and this week the game is bowling.

And for the story it is perfect, two old friends reunited after death.

This episode answered my question from last episode as both Shigeru and Mai were able to be reincarnated, the whole episode didn’t need to have anything bad behind it. In fact again it explored quite deeply a part of what makes humans human.

Shigeru and Mai had been friends as kids but had grown apart the older they got, Mai put that down to him missing another friend called Chisato so after school got plastic surgery to look like her and catch his eye. The sad bit being that they died in a bus accident before they got to talk to each other.

It was a nice episode that seemed to scream about the missed opportunities that humans have and how you can’t really wait. They were lucky that they died together and got to come to Quindecim else they’d have never gotten that chance to talk.

I think the Assistant liked this week better though I don’t really like her with Decim whilst the games are playing. She reacts emotionally to everything which takes some of the mystique and dread out of Decim. If she acted that way during a more tense and heightened game I think it would ruin it a little for me. That isn’t to say I don’t like her, I think her relationship with Decim is interesting and it is nice to see a more human reaction to things next to Decim but I’m not sure I’d like that to happen in front of the people that are playing the game.

Unlike the first game which was etched with emotional pain being turned physical this game very much asked the players to look inside. No one got hurt and therefore the sudden realisation that they had died didn’t hurt as much as it could have, also there was no need to beat each other they got one last chance to be human before they died.

Whereas I love the whole darkness surrounding Death Darts I liked looking at life a little differently this time out. Seeing people be people and their weaknesses not being punished was nice. Too often people see other humans weaknesses as something to point out and belittle. Shigeru I guess could have reacted differently to Mai and what she did but he took it on the chin and realised that regardless of who he had thought this girl was up until remembering it was still her that he’d had fun with. He reacted in a normal and calm way.

There isn’t much to analyse with this game because it was just nice. I liked the episode just as much as the first but it was different. The only problem, as I said above, that I might have is with Decim. I like that he was unemotional and he added to the tension in the first game, if the Assistant is going to break that in later games to give Decim a telling off or to react in a negative way I think it’ll ruin some games. Until then I have no problems as I really enjoy this series so far.