English Dub Review: Death Parade “Death Counter”

Death Parade just pulled a curveball out of its ass with “Death Counter” that just may be nastier than Clayton Kershaw. The game ended early on, before the break. However, “Death Counter” really took off after the game ended. I just need to take a second to compose myself after watching this. This was the perfect conclusion to this episode. It showed Decim as a sadistic arbiter, who thought that he needed to see if Shimada would try to inflict harm on Detective Tatsumi. I was blown away at how the story unfurled.

For a show that pulls a different plot for (almost) every episode, the storytelling was detailed, and well thought out. Shimada was shown to be obsessed with saving his sister, and was thrown over the edge when he saw how Tatsumi was involved. At the risk of throwing spoilers out, I won’t get into it too much. But Tatsumi doesn’t play the role that you think it is. I had him pegged as the murderer from the moment the story dribbled out. I can’t say enough that this was the best story I have seen in an anime in over 10 years.

Decim and the Black-Haired Woman played such an integral role to how “Death Counter” came about. Decim almost seemed in a borderline bloodlust when he tried to get Shimada to inflict a lot of damage to Tatsumi. This was the most cold, heartless moment from Decim, and something I would expect from Ginti, because he hates people. The Black-Haired Woman tried to hard to keep Shimada’s best interest clear, but because Decim’s bloodlust took hold, things got real fucked up.

“Death Counter” was as great as “Death Rally.” I can’t speak highly enough. I was worried that “Death Counter” was going to be an episode that suffered from a disappointing slump, because “Death Counter” was so great. Thankfully, that was not the case. The story was even better than what “Death Rally” offered, because I felt like I got hit by a brick because of the story. I was amazed at how the quality spanned two episodes. If I could give “Death Counter” an 11, I would.