English Dub Season Review: Dead Mount Death Play Season One

Overview (Spoilers Below):

As a legendary hero nears victory against a necromancer known as The Corpse God, things take an unexpected turn with the dark sorcerer’s final gambit—reincarnation magic. This last-ditch effort catches the brave fighter off guard, and now he’s a boy named Polka Shinoyama (Morgan Berry) in a whole new world! The showdown between good and evil just got epic.

Our Take:

Dead Mount Death Play is an anime adaptation of a manga series written by Ryohgo Narita and illustrated by Shinta Fujimoto. It is directed by Manabu Ono, who also wrote the scripts with Yukie Sugawara and Yoriko Tomita. It was produced by the studio Geek Toys, and the character designs were handled by Hisashi Abe. The music is composed by the music group F.M.F, consisting of Yuki Nara, Eba, and Kana Utatane. The first cour’s opening theme song is “Nero” by Sou, while the ending theme is “Aolite” by Inori Minase. The second cour’s opening theme song is “Scrap Art” by Inori Minase, and the ending theme song, “Hope,” is performed by Yuuma Uchida.

Isekai shows usually have the main character transported from the real world to the fantasy realm filled with creatures and magic, mainly through reincarnation. However, there are some occasions where the genre flips over its head by having them go in the opposite direction. Instead of reincarnating into a world filled with endless possibilities and untold strength, a character from that fantasy realm gets transported into modern-day Earth. This type of isekai genre, known as the “reverse isekai,” offers everything you’ve come to expect from a regular isekai show, but backward.

One particular show that fits this category is Dead Mount Death Play, a dark fantasy series involving a necromancer accomplishing something other than bringing sorrow and death: living a peaceful life. Of course, he’s not achieving that in his fantasy-like home, but rather in the real world. I’ve watched plenty of isekai shows recently, with some being good while others were either tolerable or mediocrely formulaic. So when I heard that this show is taking the reverse angle on its formula, I was ecstatic to see it standing out above the countless isekai anime that’s been crowding the market for years. But does that make it a worthwhile watch regarding its quality? Yes, it is.   

Consisting of two cours, the series involves a necromancer named the Corpse God using reincarnation magic to transfer his body following his battle with the hero. He ends up in modern-day Shinjuku but in the body of Polka Shinoyama, a young boy from a wealthy family who had his throat slit by the assassin, Misaki Sakimiya (Bree Han). As he seeks to live a more peaceful life than his last one, the Corpse God winds up in the mysterious Shinjuku underworld led by Clarissa while confronting other dangerous criminals.

The first cour of season one consists of Polka cooperating with Misaki and tech contractor Takumi Kuruya (Brandon Acosta) to confront several adversaries while starting his career as a fortune teller. That includes Tsubaki Iwanome (Jason Douglas) and Gozaburo Arase (Derick Snow), two police officers who lead a group tasked to hunt supernatural beings, and the Fire-Breathing Bug, a mysterious being with pyrokinesis. The second cour then sees Polka and the crew tackling new dangerous adversaries following the events of its twelfth episode, “The Sacred Place”, in which his powers were exposed to the entire world. In addition to the Fire-Breathing Bug and a wanted criminal named Solitaire, the Corpse God faces a powerful adversary known as Civil, who shares a connection to his history. 

The isekai genre is known for having the main characters from the modern world interact with the fantasy realms they’re reincarnated in. This resulted in some humorous and charming fish-out-of-water elements that periodically overshadow its formulaic narratives. Dead Mount Death Play refreshes this formula by reversing the structure, with the Corpse God from the fantasy world reincarnating as a different person in the modern world. This direction offers an intriguing dynamic with the Corpse God in Polka’s body exploring present-day traditions. However, that element was briefly explored in the fourth episode, “The Mad Dog”, which involves him confronting diamonds, currency, and fruit juice.

Most of the plot focuses on the Corpse God adjusting to Polka’s lifestyle and striving to live peacefully in the modern world. From the first episode, the show went for a dark fantasy action tone that’s consistently thrilling and stylistically bleak. Afterward, it transitions to a supernatural horror mystery when Tsubaki Iwanome (Jason Douglas) and Gozaburo Arase (Derick Snow) arrive at the scene. It contains some of the series’s action from the first couple of episodes, but a chunk of the season is exposition after exposition. These scenes have plenty of entertaining moments, including the dynamic between Polka, Misaki, and Takumi and some intriguing surprises regarding the Corpse God’s world.  

However, there are also some moments that came close to derailing this experience, especially in the first cour’s second half, such as the convoluted plot details. I’m okay with having dialogue-driven scenes in movies and shows if they’re interesting enough to draw my attention. Fortunately, Dead Mount Death Play managed to grab my attention long enough to become an enjoyable treat. Aside from struggling with specific sequences without English subtitles, I was engaged with the events surrounding the Corpse God’s experience in the modern world. 

The only thing I was concerned about going into this show was its tone. Dead Mount Death Play may seem like a dark fantasy action horror isekai series based on the title alone, but that doesn’t make it a hundred percent scary. The series periodically attempts to provide levity into its dark and violent tone through light-hearted and silly scenarios, especially from the Phantom Solitaire. I was afraid this tonal shift would make the show unnecessarily random and jarring, but after watching it in action, I became genuinely surprised at how amusing it was. Some of its humorous moments did feel out of place, but the remaining ones were suitable in delivering decent laughs amid its serious vibes, with some coming from the Phantom Solitaire.

The series also features some decent casting choices for the English dub, including Morgan Berry, who provides solid voice work as the ominous yet caring Polka/Corpse God. However, the highlights of the cast would have to be Bree Han and Derick Snow as Misaki and Arase, respectively. Misaki is someone who kills with a smile on her face due to her tragic past, and Han does an impressive job capturing her deranged but immensely charismatic personality. Derick Snow also did well manifesting Arase’s psychotic and creepy persona, especially in “The Mad Dog”.

The animation is provided by Geek Toys, the company behind other shows like Date A Live IV and Liar, Liar. The style offers a gritty and bleak presentation that’s also not without a few goofy moments, mainly the segments with the chibi versions of the characters. It’s undoubtedly sublime for displaying its grim backgrounds and engaging action scenes, including the battle between the Corpse God and Shagrua Lugrid in “The Reincarnation”.

Overall, Dead Mount Death Play reinvigorates the isekai genre well enough to avoid getting assassinated early. It can be a tad confusing for specific viewers, especially without subtitles, and its tone was a bit out of place at first. However, the series managed to outweigh its troubling issues, providing a refreshing and grimly entertaining approach to the long-running isekai genre. It may not be the best series I’ve seen from the genre, but it does pave the way for more projects to take a crack at the “reverse isekai” concept in the future.