There are times when surprises happen to you when you are not prepared for them. The reality is that they do not frequently occur, at least when it comes to anime shows that have no hype behind them but somehow have a huge following when word of mouth spreads around. Often than not, these surprises turn out to be positive outcomes when finished from beginning to end. Death Parade is one particular surprise from 2015 that will reign among the greats in this specific year.

Death Parade starts as an episodic anime showing the life of a purgatory that hosts a game that will determine two people’s fates intertwined from their former lives. Each episode hallmarks a unique story that develops the characters nicely, even with only one episode. What also works is how they layer these stories with a mystery that adds suspense to the actions that these characters do. It does seem like an attempt by the writers to make it exciting to watch rather than a slow burn for most people, but it is still a warm welcome to make the narrative more engaging. They add great emotional depth to the characters that build a melancholic, humorous, and heartwarming flavor to each of them. It is always great to see a show like Death Parade tackle these three elements simultaneously to have a unique identity to its story and do it successfully.

For the characters themselves, I’ll start with the ones put into purgatory to delve into the games that our main protagonist, Decim, puts them into. As I’ve mentioned before, the characters that Decim looks after are developed accordingly concerning the amount of screen time they can muster. That means they aren’t treated as just throwaway characters that we know aren’t going to be seen again, but are written with deep intentions from how they are seen as either good people or rotten from the inside. There is one instance where one duo, named Haruda and Mayu, do have more than one episode to help develop them, and they’re the most substantial arc because of it. Their arc has the humorous and sad moments that are packed together at the right time where they don’t feel awkward in one episode, even at the most instantaneously funny ones involving one of them falling on a pit of big spikes.

The characters that aren’t the ones participating are a mixed bag. On the one hand, you have characters that are so beautifully developed and emotionally tragic in how they are portrayed. On the other hand, it seemed as though they were just plot devices and didn’t feel like actual characters. An example of the latter is Ginki, where it appeared as though the writers wanted to put an arrogant-type character into the mix to balance out the cast a little more. The same can be said about Nona, who has a more significant impact on the story than Ginki does, yet does not even come close to the greatness of the minor characters I mentioned. It’s not terrible by any means, but they never felt fully realized for me to have any connection to them.

The all-around great characters are our two main leads: Decim and Chiyuki. Their slow development adds to their character arcs that we get to see later on in Death Parade and the relationship they’ve managed to make from their first meeting. It helps how different Decim and Chiyuki's personalities are. Decim is the stoic one, and Chiyuki is more emotional, and yet they still play off each other's chemistry exceptionally well. Individually, there is more to Decim than when we see him for the first time as this unemotional character. Obviously, without giving anything away, let us say that he has the most compelling character growth that I’ve experienced in recent times to the show's end. Chiyuki has the same amount of development when we get to know her past a bit more that is both tragic but uplifting at the end of it. They’re both unique characters that make Death Parade a good sit just for those two alone.

Another big positive to note is Death Parade’s direction from the artistic and general side of things. Its art direction is quite a sight to see, though nothing too spectacular as it doesn’t break too many boundaries. Despite that, it still has detailed character designs that give all of them a unique visual trait that makes them distinguishable. Now for the general direction, it is incredible how much care was put into producing some of the most intense moments that will have you at the edge of your screen to see what will happen next. This goes right down to how perfect the music plays off the scenes of whatever mood is set to encompass a stylistic tone, whether in a life or death situation or just lounging around at the bar. The way scenes are shot with the constant close-ups, although affecting, can become tedious at times. Thankfully they don’t go overboard with it throughout the show.

One thing to mention that makes Death Parade an exciting show to watch is how it does not treat the mystery aspect of the show lightly as an afterthought. Some things are left uncertain to the viewer that was done purposefully by the writers to make the audience think more about what they saw. Many other shows of the mystery genre involve too much explanation of various aspects of the story. Death Parade, especially the one involving the first episode, leaves many things unnoticed for the viewer to contemplate after watching it. Then the next episode puts a different perspective on the last one and puts a whole new light on the scenario that the audience may or may not have noticed. That is one of the many intelligent moves that the writers implemented into the show.

Death Parade was a definite surprise for me to see how I didn’t have much expectation going into it. Usually, episodic anime try to be too formulaic in its structure, but Death Parade flips it on its ears and makes an exciting way to compose a narrative. With a show like this to come out in the Winter season of all things, you know that this year will be an interesting one. At least one could hope it will be.

Grade: A-