English Dub Review: Dead Mount Death Play “The New World”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

The Corpse God, now inhabiting the body of Polka Shinomiya, reflects on his life and how he planned for his eventually death to lead to reincarnation. In the present, he frets about how he has now killed his would be assassin, Misaki, and that will make it hard to live a peaceful life in this new world. Misaki also reflects on her own life while she’s dead, including that she got revenge on her parents killer and then went on to make it her trade. Polka decides to revive her as a zombie, but is also confronted by her coworkers, including Lisa, the one running this group of killers. She decides to allow Polka to work for her, as well as letting him escape custody in order to save a bunch of kids from a burning building.

OUR TAKE

This is basically following up on the first episode of this Reverse Isekai (Reversekai?), fully establishing the premise of the series and fleshing out both Polka and Misaki’s backstory before setting the status quo. Polka, the former Corpse God, was not always the big skeleton monster we saw in the beginning of the first episode, but an orphan who ended up being used for his abilities while being shunned for his darkness and weirdness. He had also basically made use of his abilities to have a back up plan in case he was ever actually killed, which I suppose he figured would just lead to him having a retirement plan instead of just being a tool for someone else’s plans down the line. But I guess when you’re good at killing, you’re gonna be wanted for employment anywhere, no matter what world. Even more so if you’re the only one who can summon giant skeleton hands and revive dead bodies. Now THOSE are things you’re gonna want to put on a resume, even for something like interior decorating. I’m guessing a portion of this series will be about Polka learning to consider a better purpose than being a tool.

And then we have Misaki, who we’re also learning a great deal about here which no doubt means she will be an important part of the plot moving forward. Her seemingly unending optimism and energy will probably be used to counter balance with Polka’s stoic demeanor, but I do worry the two of them are both a bit two one note in either regard. Then again, they’re also both people who have become accustomed to being tools for killing, so it’s possible they will be able to relate to each other in ways that other characters can’t. And then we’ll have other, more normal characters added in order to further balance things out. Plus, we very likely have to find out why Polka, or at least the body he’s inhabiting now, was set to be assassinated and who in this world probably knows the old version. Not to mention they gotta clean up his neck at some point, geez that’s gross. My point is that there is very clearly a lot of story potential in this show to tap into, and I’m sure those who like this genre will be looking forward to diving right into it. Not sure I can say I’m one of those people!