# Death Parade (2015)

> In a bar between life and death, the dead must play one deadly game of chance that decides whether they are reincarnated or erased.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/55134

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 12
- Episode runtime: 23 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: animation, drama, mystery
- Network: Nippon TV
- Cast: Asami Seto, Tomoaki Maeno, Misa Kato, Yuna Taniguchi, Atsumi Tanezaki, Koki Uchiyama, Shota Yamamoto, Rumi Okubo
- TMDB rating: 7.8/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4279012/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: melancholic, austere, tense, philosophical, unsettling

## What critics say

Audiences generally rate this short anime positively for its dark, philosophical take on the afterlife and its morally charged games.

## Synopsis

Death Parade (2015) is a Japanese anime series created for Nippon TV and produced by Madhouse, a psychological mystery drama that unfolds as a single-season, twelve-episode run. Set in a limbo bar that is neither heaven nor hell, the story follows a bartender named Decim (Tomoaki Maeno) who presides over newly dead guests forced to play a game of chance against one another, with each round exposing jealousy, guilt and buried cruelty. Decim's quiet authority anchors every case, while guests such as Mai Takada and Mayu Arita, voiced by Yuna Taniguchi and Atsumi Tanezaki, are drawn into games that test what they are willing to sacrifice. Each episode is largely a self-contained case, but the recurring bar and its sinister rules give the series a steady throughline. The tone is austere, melancholic and tense, with a cool, almost clinical atmosphere that lingers on faces and silences. Its macabre premise and moral weight suit viewers who enjoy the philosophical unease of Death Note and the stylized dread of Psycho-Pass. Fans of afterlife stories and mind games will find the series a sharp, unsettling watch.

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