Death Parade ~ Episode 4 [Death Arcade]

Here we are again, time to judge the splendor of human souls. Who are the unlucky people who have stumbled into Quindecim this week? Well, we have budding TV actress Tachibana Misaki and Otaku shut in Tateishi Yosuke. We go through the usual, they don’t believe they’re stuck here thing and then Misaki has an idea. She drags Yosuke to the bathroom and informs him that she is sure that they are on a hidden camera show.
So with that logic they decide to play along and go and press the button and get the Death Arcade.

Quindecim sprouts two arcade machines and pins them against each other in a fighting game, the characters? Themselves, everything from their image to their stats, to their hobbies are all considered and computed down into fighting game characters. So they begin fighting, round one obviously goes to the one who would know more about video gaming.
[Not, that’s not stereotyping.]

She pulls him into the bathroom between matches and is like, “It creates more tension if you let me win and it’s 1-1.”  so they go back, go to round two. He lets her win most of it but then starts fighting back. Decim pulls out some sort of….thing, that pops the top off the control stick and lets her win. She runs him off to the bath room again and bitches him out for trying to fight back but he says he didn’t think it was interesting if it was too obvious.
She’s like, “Woah, that makes sense. totally misjudged you. sorry.” and then they talk because Yosuke is starting to think this might not be a hidden camera thing.You know, since neither of them can remember how they got there and they’re both regaining memories slowly during the game.

So they flat out ask Decim if this is a hidden camera show, he says no. They aren’t being filmed and that they need to continue the game, Misaki is freaking out. They begin the fight and it’s going alright, she pulls some super move that uses all of her children. Then Decim uses the thing again, popping off the top of her control stick.
Kuro [or Onno, I believe that’s the ‘official’ fan name for her.] gets mad at him for it but he insists that it’s necessary for seeing the darkness in their souls. Kuro calls BS and smashes the device but then notices something else being smashed. Yosukes face into the arcade machine by Misaki.

She practically kills him, good thing they’re already dead. Once she snaps out of her rage and figures out what she’s done she has a mental breakdown and begs Decim and Kuro/Onno to take him to the hospital. Well, being that they’re dead that’s not really a thing that can happen. Decim tells her to continue with the game, she thinks he’s crazy but does as she’s told.
Yosuke, in his passed out state is starting to remember everything. His life, his…adoptive mother? step mother? wasn’t too clear on that. Either way, a woman who loved him and only had one desire that he would one day call her “Momma.”

Last minute he wakes up and gets back on the game and plays his super move including his Mother throwing home cooked meals at Misaki. They’re both down to the same amount of health. They go to hit each other at the same time, it’s a double K.O. as they both realize that they are dead.
Yosuke was a suicide and Misaki was killed by her manager. Woah, I like this. I like the idea that two people that don’t know each other at all can end up here. The previous episodes it’s been friends or couples but these two are complete strangers that just happened to die at about the same time. There’s no baggage between them, just their own lives stories. So, they both realize their dead and react in very different ways.

Misaki lashes out violently and screams and cries, she can’t handle the idea she’s dead. I guess the one redeeming thing really was how worried about her children she was. Yosuke is more quiet, crying, wondering to himself why he’d done it and regretting that he couldn’t even fulfill such a simple wish as one day calling her Mom.
They both break down in Decim’s arms and cry, they are taken to the elevators and by what I can tell by the masks this episode. Yosuke was re-incarnated [omg, hopefully as that woman’s real son. Wouldn’t that just be the sweetest ending?] and Misaki is sent to the void.

This was a good episode, it followed the patron of the judgement show again and as i’ve said before there is nothing wrong with that. That’s pretty much exactly what I signed up for. Next episode however looks like it’ll break the patron a bit, it seems like a few more of Quindecim’s workers are going to pop out of the wood works and we’re going to get to learn more about all the people dancing in the opening. So there is that to look forward too.
Anyone have a preference on what I call the assistant? should I keep calling her Kuro or switch to the more common fan name of Onno? Either way, see you for the Death March!

~Midnight