Death Parade revolves around a story of how arbiters judge “customers” through

special games for them to divulge their darkest soul without letting them know that they

are already dead and then decide whether they are able to reincarnate or go to the void.

Arbiters are merely puppets due to their emotionlessness, they have not lived and

experience death. Hence, there is a question if arbiters’ judgements are accurate since

they lack experience and knowledge about human beings. Superior arbiter assigns a

new arbiter - Decim - who is implanted which human’s emotions locked inside his heart

along with an exceptional human being who is totally different from normal human and

observes them through time. This extraordinary girl - Chiyuki – is assigned to be his

assistant who gradually changes him and indicates that his judgements are usually

conservative and cold-hearted.

The first “customers” were husband and wife. They were not a happy-married couple

due to the husband’s doubt about the wife’s faithfulness. While playing the special

game, they gradually remembered their lives and revealed their darkest selves inside.

The husband was willing to harm the pregnant wife along the game since he did not

believe that the child was his. The wife actually had an affair with another man but the

child seems to be the husband’s. After explaining everything to the husband, he was still

extremely skeptical therefore finally the wife recognized he was not the man that she

loved and married, however since she still loved him, she sacrificed herself by trying to

tell him that the child truly was not his and because of this Decim sent her to the void.

Chiyuki explained to Decim why the wife did that and he thought he made the wrong

judgment.

Many other stories of Death Parade were about sacrifices, altruism, blinded love and

the dark side of human’s soul. There was a beautiful story about childhood friendship of

two girls and one boy. The boy gave much attentions for the first girl but she moved

away. The second girl fell for him but he did not notice until they grew up. The boy and

the first girl met each other at Quindecim – the place Decim organized games and

passed judgement – however, finally the boy realized that was not the first girl but the

second girl had plastic surgery in order to look like the first girl. Despite that blinded

love, the boy still talked and reminisced their childhood together. There were many

other stories almost the same as those ones.

Death Parade touched every dark and bright corners of human’s lives. The darkest

story was about two murderers: a student and a detective. The student had a sister, he

loved her the most as he was willing to sacrifice his future, dropped out of college and

worked hard so she was able to continue studying since their parents were dead. The

detective had a faithful and caring wife, however he always concentrated on working

and neglected her, never cherished her. The drama happened when the sister was

sexually abused by a strange man and she saw there was another man who was

standing and watching cold-heartedly. The detective’s wife was murdered while he was

outside working. They were both seeking for revenge by deciding to take justice into

their own hands. After murdered the sister’s assaulter he stabbed the other man who

was walking in since he thought that was the heartless observer. Turned out the man

was the detective and he was also the observer. The detective also murdered his wife’s

assailant and he was proud of his deed. The insensible detective’s reason for not

intervening was delivering punishment by his own hands – “In order to accomplish

anything, sacrifices must be made”, he said. He considered himself as a powerful

person as arbiter and ignore other people’s feelings. To draw out the darkest soul of

the student Decim let him decided whether he wanted to kill the detective the second

time after witnessing the detective’s bare dark soul. Doubtlessly, the student tried to kill

that detective yet Chiyuki stopped him but she could not. Chiyuki confronted Decim, told

him that this was not the right way to pass judgement by dredging up the darkness

inside impassively, he was doing the same thing as the detective did. People are

simple, they get sad or angry over simple things as they are human, hatred lived inside

anyone. Decim was touched deep down in his heart, this was the second time he felt

guilt about his judgement.

Darkness inside human’s soul and the way they chose to solve their problems are not

the only main ideas in Death Parade, but also valuing the lives that our parents gave us.

Ginti – another arbiter – conducted judgement for a selfish, shallow and serial cheater

celebrity with his huge fan girl. This celebrity caused his girlfriend to die due to his

unfaithfulness. He repented what he had done which motivated the fan girl to be willing

to sacrifice for him by any mean. The celebrity was certainly casted into the void yet

Ginti was unsure about where could he let the fan girl went. Ginti tested her by letting

her chose to kill an innocent man for that celebrity to be reincarnated. This fan girl even

though asked about that person’s life, she still chose the celebrity. He gave her another

chance by asking her what her life would be without that celebrity, she said “nothing”

since she devoted her life to him – a totally stranger. Eventually, Ginti sent them all to

the void.

Chiyuki was a human, there were problems with the process hence Decim could not

judge her so he kept her beside him as his assistant. However, human are not be able

to live in Quindecim, gradually Decim had to judge her or she turned into puppet.

Chiyuki little by little remembered about her life. She loved to skate but one day she

broke her knee and cannot skate anymore. She got depressed, ignored everyone’s care

for her even her parents tried their best to cheer her up. Finally, she committed suicide

neglected her parents’ love. Thanks to her, Decim realized many meaningful things from

human’s lives hence he gave her a chance to go back to her house, watching her

mother living. She realized how much her mother loved her, her mother even blamed

herself for not fulfilling obligations of a mother. Decim gave her a chance to revive by

exchange for some else’s life. The unlucky one can be her family or friends but he

persuaded her that there were many people dying and the chance was small. Watching

her mother suffering, she could not stand it but she thought everyone has someone they

love and cherish them, someone the same as her mother. She repent for not valuing

her life and was desperately willing to revive