Time for Onna, or Chiyuki, to get her judgment, eh? Time for Oculus to intervene, or not, and time to find out what Nona’s gambit was all about. We’re nearing the end, and it’s time for us, as well as Decim, to tie up loose ends.
Thoughts and Notes:
1) Mayu’s Choice, Ginti’s Predetermination:
That lighting, Ginti is such a villain.
1) So, back to Mayu, it seems. We learn Harada, who would’ve sacrificed Mayu was sent to the Void. We learn of how terrible it is to be in the Void, not the lack of any thoughts, but a terrible sensation, and nothing else. We also learn souls can be taken out, if you send someone else in their place – does it mean you need to send someone who is not supposed to go there, or one who is supposed to go there is fine too? Does a soul come out of the Void whenever a new one goes in, or just when one actively makes a “trade”? And is it up to the soul whether it wants back or not?Anyway, plenty of questions, which are orthogonal to the main issues of the show, but any answer could affect the read of the show’s themes.
2) Ooooh. Mayu’s choice. Choosing between a guy she has a crash on, and a guy she doesn’t know at all. Of course, now I’m thinking the above might all be a lie, and this is a test. After all, Ginti is trying to decide where Mayu belongs, and this could be an attempt to draw out the darkness within her, now that her love for Harada won’t mask her own willingness to self-sacrifice. She’s being given the choice that this show is not about, as both people can end reincarnated, or sent to the void.
3) “When the moment comes, they all cling to life. That’s why I never had to second guess my judgments.” – Ginti makes it sound as if he “brought out the darkness”, then seeing the darkness, sent every single person to the void. I wouldn’t be surprised. This is why he’s not sending Mayu to reincarnation, because he can’t believe anyone would not be a total tool in order to save their own hides.
4) “Who is this person?” – “Do you need to know?” – Of course, Ginti, just like what Chiyuki accused Decim of, all people are the same, so why do you need to know them? Then again, isn’t Ginti in this position because Mayu showed him not all people are the same?
2) Sound and Silence; Attempting to Reach:
A quiet moment. A /moment/.
1) I smiled at Decim inviting Chiyuki, as if she’s new, as if she’s a guest (which she is), but then was surprised as we made the smoothest switch to Chiyuki’s first visit.
2) The Chavvot story music playing as Chiyuki is skating ;_;Man, this performance for one, with the audience of puppets.
3) Wow, this was such a lovely sequence. And then, as all dreams must, it ends, the gossamer dissipates. Chiyuki, in life as well, was like a doll, and then she broke, her strings all loose now with no one to play with her. At least in death, she had one more opportunity to dance as she once did.
4) “People just can’t understand each other.” – This is very important, in the context of this show. If people can’t understand one another, can’t understand what makes them tick, as opposed to what should make them tick, then they also can’t judge one another. It’s all going by, “How would I have acted in this situation?” or “How would I feel if I act in this manner?” rather than what truly allows you to judge others.But Chiyuki doesn’t believe in it entirely, which is why she told Decim, sometimes people are that simple, andcan be understood. But this is an understanding that leads to empathy, not judgment, to her. Yes, we’re all alone, but people are simple, and can be understood, if we don’t just try to cast ourselves on them.
5) “It’s wrong to want to understand each other.” – Judging the whole concept of judgment?
6) LOL, it’s like when Decim offered the couple in episode 3, with the bowling, 5 minutes to spend together. His lack of facial expressions makes it hard for Chiyuki to appreciate his “joy” at having met her.
3) The Sound of Inevitability:
1) Mayu has a point, and it’s not that her life is meaningless, because she doesn’t believe that, but she decided to dedicate her life to something, and even if others think it’s meaningless, she’s happy with it, with her choice. And even if not entirely happy, she still accepts her choice as meaningful.I often say that if others tell someone that they have no life, it’s meaningless, which relates to Chiyuki’s words as well, but it is when someone says of themselves that they have no life, that’s when it means they’re unhappy with their position in the world. That’s what Mayu is telling Ginti, that he says of himself that his existence is meaningless. But Mayu is judging him as if he were a human, which he is not.
2) Also, Ginti told Mayu he’s sending her to where Harada’s soul is, so of course it was a lie about getting the soul back. Either she’s sent to reincarnation, or to the void. Is Harada there, perhaps he was reincarnated and telling Mayu he was sent to the void was a lie for the sake of judgment? Or perhaps he was sent to the Void, and Mayu is told she’s being sent where she is just so she could be reincarnated? The return of the tiger and the princess. Many options, and likely some lies.
3) And the two lights became one, so now they are not falling alone in the void, so is it the void for them, any longer, or something new?
Post-Episode Thoughts:
Until next week.
This episode was very much the continuation of last episode. Small moments. There’s not a lot of drama on the screen, within the show, but the drama is there, within us, the watchers, and the characters. There are no emotional outbursts, there’s nothing that is loud. No, it’s all small, it’s all fragile, like sharp shards of glass that cut us even as we try to shield them from the world.
Chiyuki continues with her tone, but is somewhat self-contradictory. Can humans be understood? Can humans be judged? Should humans be judged? But the show is aware of this, and isn’t trying to sell it wholly as “the truth”, with Decim raising an example of why he wishes to understand people, and how it’s not wrong. That something is impossible does not necessarily make the strive for it worthless, and it’s certainly not meaningless, as Mayu let us know.
And then we have Ginti and Mayu. Ginti as the epitome of all that is inhuman, that has a meaning in a meaningless life, in doing its job, like a ruler, or the sun, he, or rather, it, simply exists to fulfill its job. Ginti gave the only judgment he knows, unchanging. But humans, they reject that this is their nature (though perhaps it might be), and claw to themselves a meaning, and create new meaning even in the depths of the Void, through connecting to others.
And damn, that remembrance and skating scene was so great.
Geekorner-Geekulture. 
“And damn, that remembrance and skating scene was so great.”
I remembering joking with a friend of mine as we were watching that this scene was where all the show’s budget was going into. In all honesty, though her back story was pretty standard, I found the execution of it inspiring. Maybe it’s the rose coloured glasses talking, but this show for me can do no wrong. Even Mayu – whose extended inclusion I thought was utterly pointless – conveyed some interesting ideas concerning the arbiters.
I agree with you on the small moments and i think its refreshing to see from a show that isn’t strictly slice of life. The universe isn’t at stake, just the afterlives of these characters but because we care about them so much, we become extremely invested in everything that is happening. Goes to show you don’t have to hold the world hostage to heighten stakes.
Mayu is sent to the void because she choose to cling to a particular instead to the the whole. An idol, we can say. She decided to not sacrifice another being, but for the wrong reason: selfishness. She has been given the choice to ascend leaving back the dead or to sink with the dead itself; she decided for the latter.
(Spoiler last episode)
Chiyuki did a similar choice, but not for her’s sake. She said: “I don’t want to do evil but please, save me”. She values her life, but not at the expenses of others.
That’s the constant to decisions in Death parade. It is not the act, it is the reason you do it (that’s most evident in Death billiard).
At the end, the clash between Oculus and Nona is the clash between buddhism and christianity. Oculus, with the lotus beard, sustains detachment from feelings since they bring sufferance; Nona, that to judge a human being you must have felt and suffered like an human.
That’s sustaining the need of Incarnation – not a distant demiurge, but Christ as final judge, since he has been into the world and suffered injustice and death.
You missed the entire point of the show. The judgments, especially made by Ginti, are arbitrary. Ginti all but admits he sends everyone to the Void.
You’re trying to give it meaning, but the meaning you give it doesn’t say anything of the show’s beliefs, but of yours.
Also, the show keeps making use of Buddhist imagery. You should probably stop thinking of it in Christian terms. Especially seeing Chiyuki committed suicide, and that wasn’t much of a point in whether she’d end up.
Though it’s interesting, that they tell them “Heaven and Hell” only to find out later it’s about reincarnation, I’d say that if anything, the notion is that the “Christianity message is a lie” here, and not just by Oculus.
But nah, all of this feels the wrong direction, one that focuses on the judgments as correct, when the show keeps hammering at you how arbitrary, wrong, and even manipulative they are.
Edit: In the future, since there’s an episode 12 write-up, you should’ve posted this there, so people wouldn’t get spoiled if they read the write-up after watching the relevant episode, which some do. Thanks!