Dub Talk Retrospective 001: Death Parade

0:00 warning The dubt Talk podcast contains language and content that may not be suitable for younger audiences listener discretion is advised there will also be spoilers for various anime throughout the course of this episode please use caution in case we discuss a series that you haven't finished yet finally the opinions expressed are those of the individual participants and may not reflect the dub Talk podcast as a whole enjoy the show [Music] hello wi all and welcome to a special

0:45 episode of dubt talk the podcast where we discuss the latest and greatest in English dubs my name is Stephanie and I'm joined today by Aman and Gigi so um how do you feel about elevators they're fine they're fine how do you feel about bars I oh I love those who doesn't like drinking and how do how do you feel about anniversary celebrations speaking of I I don't know all of mine are kind of cursed oh oh no oh no yeah I I have a bad story I'm not going to tell you but if you see me at a con you can ask me about it and I'll tell you

1:32 so that means the next time we go to a con together I'm allowed to ask you I mean I it is not fun I mean that it's not a fun story but yeah I can't tell you I listen you opened yourself up to that anyway anyway we have arrived to the year of 2025 or at the time of recording this we close enough um and for us here at the podcast it's a very very special time as this year we are celebrating 10 years of the podcast we're old holy crap oh my God we've been doing this for freaking ever man we're going to have to come up with a new [ __ ] logo to put on our accounts Jesus

2:17 Christ can can have a party hat oh we need party hat right now call a party let's go let's go to Party City we need to go get they're all closed [ __ ] I forgot they went bankrupt didn't they yeah much like us 10 years we're still poor this podcast is sponsored by Gigi needs a new Macbook Stephanie's to fix her MacBook that she bought a year ago God anyway so we're celebrating 10 years so you're probably thinking what the hell are we going to

3:03 be doing order in order to celebrate this fun little Milestone um I thought what better way to celebrate than by bringing back some old favorites of ours so for this year only dub talk has created a special series of the podcast called dub talk retrospective over the next 12 months all the hosts will be covering a series that we have previously discussed as bra and new episodes but we're bringing them with fresh and New Perspectives from both new and old host from both old and new hosts alike and what better way to kick the year off than by having the boss lady uh bring back one of the very first series we covered on the show today we are

3:50 heading back to the good old Quinn deham as we pass judgment on the 2015 series from Studio mad house director yuzuru takikawa and based on the short film death Billiards that's right we're gonna be fully discussing for the first time the English dub of death parade oh boy everybody put your your hands up I just I just want to point out this op is made of Lies it it it is so comedically unrepresentative of the show you're about to watch watch it is such a total shift it's not even

4:36 funny for those who don't know if you you need to go listen to the opening Flyers by bradio with with a d b r a d i o I believe it's spelled that song is just like that was the hype song for 2015 do you know that they won't play it live anymore or they just are they just sick of it oh my God I don't know I heard it on gig uck video so who knows what truth that citation needed yeah yeah citation citation I may be lying but if I am gig lied first g Gigi needs to site her sources today anyway all right if you haven't heard of this series in the 10 years it

5:21 and us here dub talk have been around here is your summary the game begins when your life ends when two people die at the same time they're sent to a place that's neither Heaven Nor Hell a lavish bar Between Worlds where the stakes are high and the rules are simple if you win you live again if you die you're gone for good deham is the bartender charged with serving Souls who enter quind deum he may make a mean cocktail but his true profession is to play the role of arbiter a judge who determines whether or not a soul is worthy of reincarnation to Aid in his judgment the bars patrons are forced to play Simple games laced with sadistic twists designed to bring

6:08 their true nature to light to deham judgment has always been black and white that is until he meets a mysterious young woman whose fate seems impossible to decide his indecision shakes the very foundation of the games and raises the biggest question of all who is fit to judge the Dead so this show can be a lot mind you that so that's the summary from um the ever wonderful limited edition set that I have cuz I love this show a lot like I I think I was kind of obsessed with the show a little bit in 2015 were you and it a little bit um and

6:53 it's very it's very interesting and fun getting the chance now to come back and revisit it um like 10 years later cuz at the time when we did the first episode of course it was the original OG's so it's myself Hardy and Megan at the time there was only one episode of the English dub out so there wasn't a lot that we could really talk about and sink our teeth into but we I remember I remember it's been a minute since I listened to the original episode I remember that we all like really enjoyed it and we were so excited to like see more more of it um but at the end of that season when it aired I was kind of just like dang I wish we had the chance to like go back

7:40 and revisit it so when the 10year retrospective idea came up I was like okay I I won't lie I was stuck between like seven or eight options for the show I wanted to pick and like cover again I was just like what do I want to do and but in my heart death parade was always that one show that I always want really would want to revisit um at some point at some point if we were ever given the chance to and I'm so excited we get to talk about it again now and this time with a couple of fresh faces to it um I know I think Gigi have seen the show before but Aman has never seen the show before so how' you like that ride Soldier yeah bar baring maybe like

8:25 an episode that you showed on stream back in the day I I've seen I recognize that seen that before y yep yeah I think when I was actually making YouTube videos and I did like best of the year and worst of the year I think I distinctly remember death parade being my number two that I watched one year don't go back and look for that video I might have prived it already gotcha do you remember what your number one was at the time no it was probably something stupid diabol lovers it might have been I mean say heram trash perhaps it might have been Hunter Hunter shter trash might have been what I said

9:12 it might have been Hunter Hunter I don't know I was oh that's okay that that's not trash I also need to finish Hunter Hunter when I started my channel I was really obsessed with talking about every episode of Hunter Hunter so it might have been a thing but I'll I'll start searching for it maybe I'll find it by the end of this episode we'll figure it out along the way uh but anyway um yeah so nothing really is going to be different um with the retrospective series uh in terms of how this is going to work um so we will be covering the series from be beginning to end uh talking about the casting the staff the direct the um the performances and just

9:58 the series in general um but the one of the points of this the retrospective Series this year is especially for those who have previously been on the episodes that we're covering but are returning for the new ones one of the points that I kind of wanted to make known um well maybe not necessarily known but one of the things I wanted to make with this retrospective Series in particular um is kind of seeing how our thoughts and feelings and perspectives may have changed in the 10 or so years that we've originally done these episodes um so I'm excited for this series and I'm even more excited to dive into this so are you guys are you ready to play the game do you want to play a

10:44 game with me I mean I'm already I don't have a lot of choice yeah yeah cuz you're not allowed to leave anyway I hate to tell you until we um until we do this so uh but I promise you I promise you we're not going to do reincarnation or void we're not doing that Shenanigans unless I change my mind by the end um as long as there are drinks I'm okay listen I we I have box wi over there I have the hard stuff over there like we're we're stocked step we are stocked and ready to go Steph don't don't either destroy my soul or reincarnate me this week's chainsaw man was really good I want to know what happens next or I die she good is crazy good this week thank you I'm not even I'm not even

11:31 really I'm not even really reading chainsaw man so I have no idea the context but it's fine anyway why don't we get started as we always do then with our ADR staff so we have an ADR director we have our assistant ADR director and we do have two people on the script for this show uh but one of them only wrote for one episode uh we'll start with our script writers as our main script writer for the series we have Bonnie clinkenbeard who who has written for other shows such as Alison zoku fire force and yurian ice and I'm going to say this now actually I decided to be a dumbass last night when I was working on credits I went through and I would tell and I'm not kidding I went through and

12:18 found any credits for people that were like any of the credits I found for these folks are credits that I that are from previous episodes of shows that we have covered so all right we're really we're really going like full back in time kind of deal um as for our other script writer uh specifically for episode four we have Blair Rowan who has written for scripts such as blood blade Battlefront CLE the right answer and I thought I put a third one in here but I guess not my bad um our assistant ADR director uh that would be Chris George who has directed other shows such as Dr Stone season from season 3 onward uh

13:05 life lessons with uramichi Onan and Snow White RW hair as for our lead ADR director that would be Zack Bolton who has directed series such as Dimension W Peach Girl and Psychopaths so how do we feel about the directing and writing on this show sorry I was going through my YouTube video video go ahead oh you're looking through your video so the problem is is that I split them up and I can't I didn't write them down so whatever it's fine it's fine I'll I'll go first then okay thank you how do you feel I think this is a very good dub shocking I know um this is an

13:54 interesting show I'm got I got to talk more about the kind of show this is later when we're probably talking about the show as a whole or whatever um but this is obviously this is a semi semi Ensemble semi sort of episodic show you have a corecast and then a lot of people who only show up for one episode and then they're never seen ever again right uh which I I think is often that aspect is often hard because you basically have a lot of characters who are given enough characterization and then you never see them again and so you you I feel like that is often a challenge to kind of direct and right and cast for because you need to get people who are like going to be very strong for this very specific role but also ideally somebody

14:39 you know uh you know this is very much in the days and obviously it's a it's a FUNimation dub so like double amping on casting like it's not long enough for that to be in the cards anyways um so it's like okay I need to cast people who are going to be good at this but who I don't want to already be using somewhere else was this was this about a simal dub this was this was one of this this was one of the first in the full like full launch of the simal dubs um this actually was all one of the first from the double talk block and remember that yeah the double talk block their first season that they did was assassination class from Death parade in Tokyo Ghoul route a um that was that Trio there was the actual like first podc podcast

15:24 version of dub talk um with the OG's so yeah where where does the time go it's oh God out the window anyway so you you have that aspect of then you have your actual ongoing cast um like especially now being reminded you know obviously the FUNimation scene have been going on for a while it's not like anyone here is like a newbie per se uh you know Zack Bolton I I don't even want to think about how many shows he probably directed at this point um but obviously they're doing simal dubs which is new uh New Frontier here and I do think at least based on this I would not have necessarily guessed off the top of my head that like oh this is made under new and interesting conditions that no one

16:10 had really been trying before in this particular fashion or at least not very few people you know like this is still probably like what the first like 10 shows that really be done like this in the United States pretty much I think so yeah cuz they they piloted the program with two shows the season prior one of which was psychopath season 2 which I'm pretty sure Zack Bolton was retained as the Director on um so he had already had Le kind of an experience with the simal dubbing process by the sounds of it yeah um I think I think listening to this I don't think you'd necessarily be able to pick up on that not already knowing that context like this sounds very good everyone sounds like they know what they're doing uh mhm the writing's

16:55 very I don't want to say Snappy cuz not that's not Snappy per se but like every Everybody sounds very distinct um I think the the show has a weird tone and I do think the I think um Bonnie and and Blair's writing do match that pretty well because this is some yeah this some Twilight Zone ass like we're only going to give you as much information as we think you need you're still going to have a lot of un answered questions at the end and that's that's that's intentional yeah I've always I've always I've always found that um I've always found that Bonnie as a writer um her style kind of leans more faithful to the original

17:41 adaptation um with some minor tweaks and adjustments to kind of make to help it fit for a North American audience and also match lip flaps um and Bonnie's writing has always been for me some of my favorite adaptation work to be honest um like I I I do remember highly praising her when we originally gave our impressions of this show uh as well as various others um and then like CU this writing of it this show it is a dramatic show um but it also hits a lot of emotional beats a lot with most of it coming from the different episodic characters primarily

18:27 and then with Our Mysterious um blackhaired woman um as well towards the LA the back like third of the show and the I think the writing does very well to not over not over drama dramati dramatize it and also not make it hit in the wrong way cuz there are characters who have murdered people there are PE characters who have committed suicide there are characters who um apparently blew up an explosion uh we'll get to that in a minute

19:13 but as as there are some funny moments in the show themselves um but when it's able to hit those dramatic and emotional beats I think Bonnie's writing primarily Bonnie of course but Blair is phenomenal too with the episode he did good Lord um the writing hits nicely and then directing wise looking at looking at how the cast is laid out especially for a lot of the major characters you can tell that Zach when he cast this show um pulled from what he knew and I mean they you say that about a lot of things but I think one of the funniest things that he did uh he pulled

19:59 definitely from a lot of um Psychopaths for for this one um especially with one of our leads and one of our major characters in the show I just find it the funniest thing again that these two are at odds against each other just like they were in Psychopaths but we'll get to that in a bit um but I what's also interesting is um how Chris Chris also handled the directing as well because while I did not pay attention to all of the end credits just to like see who directed what I did see that the last like third of the show was purely Chris directing

20:45 it so it started with episode 8 and all the way I think all the way through to the end essentially and those are some of the hardest hitting episodes of the show in my opinion so the fact that he was able to handle those phenomenally is just like kudos to you Chris again I don't know if like I don't know if this was one of those situations where Zach did only directed like maybe one or two episodes and then Chris did go over the rest of it um but how at least a&n credits it is Zach as the lead ADR director and Chris as the assistant um the argument could be potentially made that Chris did more of the directing than Zach did but I but I can't speak to that um but again similar to the writing

21:33 similar to the writing for the directing front the dramatic moments were there the tension was there the emotional beats were there like it's it was one of my favorite shows and dubs from 2015 for a reason and I I still think it holds up even now uh 10 years later and I I'm just like Yay like I it's it's such a strong Staffing effort on this one and it reminds me and makes me sad that we don't see Zack Bolton direct things anymore he's mostly a producer now he's mainly a producer now and I miss Zack Bolton directing things honestly cuz some of his stuff was like

22:19 top tier honestly I think that while I was watching this in the year of Our Lord 2024 um going back through all of the stuff that we've done and all everything that I've learned in the past you know 9 10 years um this feels and sounds to me like a quintessential classic quote unquote FUNimation dub yes it was like coming home like I was like I know everybody here like I don't have to figure out who people are like this is great like I can pick them out like the this is where my my wheelhouse used to lie was like in casting like this um and you're talking about Bonnie and the

23:06 writing for this uh very close to translation not a lot of Jokes which is why you like it and there there there's some there are some funny moments in there but you don't like it when people make topical jokes and I was like yeah this is a Stephanie dub yes cuz I'm like I'm like the memes about to say that's always the difference between you and me like I like more faithful adaptations when possible though I do appreciate a good joke and a good meme in a in a dub I like especially now like I do appreciate that a lot more now that there are some shows and dubs that are just like well totally just for the for the hell of it

23:52 just mify it and sometimes it's called for um and yeah but no like yeah and and I like I like the the scripts where people can just go ham and be creative and do whatever they want not to say that this is not a creative script but it's pretty much you know very close to the adaptation um and then the casting is just like cherry-picking who's who's got a couple hours today that can who's sitting around the office and can come in the booth oh you know like you over there who's in a million other things get in here like let's have you screw scam or cry like er Eric Vil get in the booth we're not talking about him tonight but Eric Vil get in the godamn booth I was like SII I was like I made Chris watch

24:39 this with me cuz he's never seen it really yeah he didn't see like the last three episodes cuz I watched those right before we started recording today but I was like Sanji and he's like Sanji and I was like I finally did it like I'm placing one piece voices like this is where my my life is now I was like soy um but no like I think the direction was very well done um given the material that they had and especially if it was a simal dub cuz I watched this streaming on Crunchyroll where the captions were AI or autogenerated oh God thanks Beckham E I hate that thanks Beckham loved it um I hope you bended it the

25:25 right way uh oh man but yeah but whatever um so like you know everybody you know back in the day you know let me get my cane and sit out on the front porch um back in my day I think it you know I think knowing that that cuz I forgot about double Talk Jesus Christ um yeah knowing that they were on some sort of like a time constraint also would kind of lead to me why the translation was so accurate to the source material because they didn't have a lot of time to like write new stuff but also the subject matter for this show didn't really Merit that so I'm not surprised that there were like very few jokes about Street Fighter 2

26:12 characters or whatever I think um if if I remember right I think this show was at least on a two week delay when it came to the simal dub but still for a brand new simal dub like that's pretty good no it's still impressive cuz I think the fir the very first day and date one was technically my hero you can't say it's Space Dandy because in reality Space Dandy came out before Japan got it so that's one of the few instances where it's like we got Anime before Japan did but no I think my hero was technically the same um the first um day and date yeah I think you're right I think you're right I uh but yeah you know I give everybody kudos for this like this is

26:59 not an easy show to um be a part of just because of the subject matter and the fact that it's consistently changing from episode to episode so I think like the casting was good the direction was good the writing was not my taste but it was still good um and when we talk about some of the characters coming up I will give you um two things that made me change over to the subtitles oh boy oh boy just for a minute though I changed him back don't worry I watched the whole show but uh you know you know how it is but yeah let's let's keep this party rolling do we want another round of drinks I do I would like I would like a

27:45 cosmo please M I love the sound of that that sounds delicious what about you Alan you want anything to drink rum just straight just give me the bottle [ __ ] it does it have a lady on it doesn't have a sailor on it no I don't what kind of rub are you serving in this dump God if it doesn't have either of those I don't want it okay is there any other thoughts on directing and writing before we move on to our characters let's go to the next floor all right uh so as we kind of already alluded to uh a lot of this show

28:31 is episodic based and because of that there are characters that are part of that episodic nature um that are the wonderful Souls that come to Quin deham or in guy's bar when in this case um as well who play the game and are judged so what instead of covering them all um I made the request that each of us select one episode that has one pair of characters that we can talk about so we are going to be covering the characters from three specific um episodes or in my case EP two episodes for mine technically um so

29:18 if I remember right was it Gigi who picked episode 4 that was me nobody's surprised so we're going to be covering episode four death arcade which was Gigi's pick um we are also have uh episode six cross heart attack which was Alan's pick and then my pick was episodes 8 and nine which is death rally and death counter um so the characters we're going to be discussing starting with death arcade episode four we have yoske uh tatashi um he is a recluse a shot him uh kind of depressed uh he commits

30:04 suicide uh and he realizes that he should have treated his stepmom a little bit better instead of ignoring her all the time but I digress um then we have misaki tachibana uh she oh she's a piece of work um she has five kids from different lovers um has been in very toxic and abusive relationships but somehow managed to become essentially a reality TV show star and she ends up killed by her manager or assistant or something because she was pissed that she got scheduled for something when without being consulted or something I think that was the story uh for those two characters as yoske we have good old Ian

30:51 Sinclair who is voice characters such as Magnus swing and Black Clover sosuke yamazaki and free and and shho kimizuki in SF of the end as for misaki it's Monica Rial she has voiced characters at such as mitski Nas in beyond the boundary Emma Guzman in Garo and sugaa in Noragami for episode six cross heart attack we have Mayu arita who is a huge fan girl of uh this this boy band called cross heart attack and uh very much the vibe is a gatu girl a little bit uh but she is obsessed with one with one uh dance Prince named harida who is a member of cross heart attack uh and

31:37 unfortunately is uh he's very popular but he's also a womanizer and uh that gets him in a lot of trouble uh Mayu ends up apparently Dying by slipping on soap in the bath and knocking herself out on the floor uh remember that explosion joke I made earlier yeah harda got his ass blown up by um the sister of his ex-girlfriend who committed suicide yeah shit's complicated um but the big thing with Mayu actually is that so these two get judged with guy he's a different Arbiter than our lead Arbiter decam and uh Mayo for some reason he ginty couldn't judge so she sticks

32:22 around for a lot longer than just this episode um Mayu is voiced by Leah Clark who who voiced characters like eono uh in darling of the Franks saki monimi in Eden of the East and Mari in yurian ice as harda we have Jesse James gley who has voiced characters like kenro in Dr Stone rionos hanuma in actors songs connection and Zen Wisteria clarines in Snow White with the red hair finally for episodes eight and N death rally and death counter we have shimaa and tatami shimaa is a young adult who is trying to take care of a sister after his parents died uh Tatsumi is a detective um just working the beat but both of these two are murderers we find out uh shimaa

33:12 murders a man two men murders a man because this dude was stalking and then assaulted his little sister Tatsumi uh eventually goes on some vigilante justice [ __ ] because his wife got murdered uh one day so vengeance is a [ __ ] uh as Shima we have Tau Habor who voiced characters such as uh Kia in aetco uh kikawa in grimgar ashes and Illusions and he hiku hin from or high school hosla as tat toi it's Kent Williams who his voice characters say like Quam in AKA 13 territory Inspection Department hatoma in fruits basket and Osamu yamanami in starblazer Space Battleship

33:59 yam that was a long spiel and I apologize for that so how do we feel about these performances is there a particular episode you guys want to start with I guess is my first question well I'd like to start out with my kudos to Aman who picked my second favorite episode is the one he wanted to talk about so bonus for everyone yay everybody's a winner excellent taste everything is definitely coming up GG you know shouldn't it shouldn't it just revolve around me no I'm just joking well anyway as as any good um listener of this podcast should know or maybe you need to look through the archives too to to figure some stuff out

34:48 um I like Ian Sinclair yeah I like a lot it's it's facts it's it's a it's a known fact some people have made some lwd jokes having to do with rain jackets listen we do it to each other not just with you likeing in stclair but we've done it to to me to Megan To All the Girls sometimes the boys but but we're we're mature now so we're not going to make any of those jokes today right well given the character that Ian does play I don't think we can even if we wanted to why why is he so good like

35:34 this is a this guy is a wreck I was like this is I was like what I was like how like when you think of Ian Sinclair and like you know his personality in like real life you can realize what a good actor he is when he has to play characters like this who are like Shu inss who don't want to talk to anybody bu but then holy crap you put him in front of an arcade machine and he's like going ham um really though I will say that I wanted to talk about this episode because of Monica real oo okay holy crap you guys um other than one other screaming thing which is

36:20 at the very end of the anime um like Monica freaking killed it she killed it here it was her big girl you know as we like to say here her big girl voice not the the high pitched one and just you know I really want to give all the actors in this show like their flowers and give them their props because again not easy subject matter and everything for the most part is very dramatic and there's a part in here where Monica's screaming about wanting to get back to her children and you know that part just murdered me like it was just so good and I was like oh girl I

37:09 was like o like like everyone should listen to this and be like this is the way like you want a master class like here it is and then you put the two of them together and I was like forget it like why why does anyone else exist like this is just it's it's perfect perfect like the characters don't know each other like a lot of the pairs like when they come into here know each other these ones don't so they're kind of like Ian's character is like coerced by Monica's character into like playing this game and then she kind of like takes it over so her character is pretty evil and Ian's character just doesn't really know like what the [ __ ] is happening and Monica's character just thinks it's a reality TV show happening

37:56 right now right we got some like and Kate Plus 8 up in here which I was like okay Kate the where are the cameras the cameras are here Original's like there are no cameras de's Like There's No cameras she's like wait what you want some Caren [ __ ] going on like it's the thing but no the the two of them are just so good here and I just wanted to Spotlight that for a second because like the acting in this episode specifically was just phenomenal and then I'm going to shut up so everybody else can talk now but that was just so good I like how cuz I actually kind of wanted to bring it up too I like how you mentioned that these two in particular they don't know each other because you're right every other character well

38:42 there's only one other technically I guess set um that don't have never met before in their lives but a lot of the characters do know each other you have um I'm I'm going to probably shout out some of the other other ones while we're here uh for episodes one and two you have Eric and Eric male and Trina nishim Morris characters they're a married couple in that in those episodes you have I think it's episode three you have mic solaad and B April they were childhood friends then you have episode four here episode five wasn't really anything that's just ginty being a jackass episode six is Mayu and harda and the connection there is that she's his biggest fan then you have seven I don't really had don't they

39:29 had anything eight and nine is complex as [ __ ] and we'll get to that and then you have the illustrator the illustrator and the Mystery Woman are the only other ones that don't have a full connection to each other um like they don't know each other however the old woman who's voiced by Linda Leonard um she's an illustrator and she happens to have seen the childhood book that the mysterious woman is familiar with so there's a small connection there but it's not a major Aman what do you think of uh Ian and Monica the illustrator is more fun because she's an Easter egg for all the people who saw the like short this is based on that's right because the because in the short it's it's Grandpa yeah that that's his wife

40:16 clearly yeah I forgot about that it's been I've only seen death Billiards once and I completely forgot that her husband was one of the folks in that that game I forgot yeah yeah but that's also fun that's a that's a fun little Easter egg I forgot about that yes anyways on to people who are actually in something that was dubbed because death billons wasn't dubbed they weren't going to spend money on that that makes me so sad and I'm depressed still about that to this day it is what it is what are you gonna do um Ian and Monica I I I agree that like this is a wonderful Showcase of their acting like there part of the reason I brought up the Twilight Zone earlier is I feel like a lot of the one-off characters they they they feel a lot

41:02 like a lot of TV used to just be kind of like televised plays like that's kind of what it was in like the 50s before like kind of what TV genres were supposed to be it kind of set in and this there you had a lot of things were like okay you're a working actor you're going to show up you have about maybe 20 to 40 minutes of screen time and that is how long you have to leave an impression are you going to [ __ ] it up and this a lot of this show very much feels like for all the the one-off characters kind of like here is your time to shine I'm going to we're cuz I feel like for some of like some of these are more obvious than others but I think especially for Ian and Monica these are these very much feel like these are very against type for what I would usually cast them in yep like I cast anybody but you know what I mean um and this very

41:47 much feels like no this would be an interesting character that would be let you stretch a little let's let's let's go for that let's let's take the risk uh they're great I I didn't even register that was Monica to be honest like uh just I not that I ever look up who's in half these things anyways unless I'm like hosting the episode but if you if you ask me to guess I don't think Monica would even been on my radar this is an amazing performance for I didn't think it registered that was Ian frankly like this is so out of character for what I'm used to him getting playing as which are usually way more bombastic characters yeah I I I agree like for would like if you if I don't know why you would only watch one episode of death prey but it was kind of like hey I want to like see if I like this series what would be like what would be a good

42:32 introduction other than just the first episode I think this this would be a great one just it kind of gives you everything you need and the performances are just really strong throughout no I agree 100% um also the fighting game is hilarious it's so stupid looking it's so dumb so the fighting game with the summary I said earlier so so each of the games have like their or usually the typical versions um but they always have some sort of little twist to them for the arcade yoske and misaki can only select one character each and it is themselves mhm so they are arcade ver video game versions of themselves and each of their

43:18 like Combos and even special like finishing moves are based on the characters and their personality which is very interesting which means of course Ian and Monica had to voice those as well so it's a fun little touch I think um yeah like I forgot so it's been at least five six years I think since I've last rewatched death parade right so this is I think like the third time third or fourth time I've watched it um and I forgot how hard the arcade episode hits like I remembered how hard um death rally and death counter hit I remember how hard the end of the show hit I forgot how hard this one hit

44:08 and I I have to give kudos to Ian and Monica because that's they're the reason why it hit so hard this episode I think was the first one where I started like tearing up a little bit because of the emotionality that went behind it and especially because so you're when you come come to be judged whether it's at Quin deham or another to another Arbiter you don't remember anything you Bas you maybe know your name you maybe know like tiny things here and there you don't remember how you got there you don't know that you died you don't remember how you died you remember none of that you don't remember any of the things that could have led up to your death all that stuff is just kind of a eras from your mind and the

44:53 idea is that you're supposed to um as you continue to play this game and be judged those memories kind of like slly come back to you at different moments but by the end of it you realize that you're dead by the when they finish playing the arcade game and the two of them I think Gigi mentioned it for a second when the two of them are just like crying and sad and upset and want to go home Monica wants to go back to her kids Ian wants to go back to his stepmom and be like I am so sorry that I didn't treat you well as a mom cuz for him in

45:39 particular his stepmom all she wanted was to like be recognized as his mom because if I remember correctly his actual mother like walked out on him and his dad when he was younger um so that moment you have Ian just like in tears and crying and regretting like not being better to his mom you have Monica in tears and crying like please let me go back I need to see my kids like all of that just hits so freaking hard and it hurts you it really pains you and hurts you to like see this happen and I think what makes it

46:27 elevates it a bit more and even more interesting is also how particularly deham sees the situation because Arbiters are dummies who don't have emotion who do not share human emotion none of that it's actually one of their Cardinal rules but for him to actually attempt to reach out and comfort them in his way I guess is the right way to put it like that just adds to that sense of like pain and sorrow that these two characters are feeling and I just loved every second that Ian and Monica were on screen also can I just point out Monica got to beat the living [ __ ] out of Ian

47:14 smashing his head on the goddamn arcade cabinet like oh boy she was angry that's the the power of the the game I guess mhm yep yep yep all because uh deam tried to uh sabotage it a little bit and bring out Bring Out The Darkness in the human soul is how they refer to it I guess and she just went full rage mode and just like smack smack smack oh my such a good performance like can I want to give these people emmies like let's go yeah like for sure um do we want to move

48:01 on to do we want to move on to episode 6 or do we want to move on to episodes 8 and nine OCD says chronological order yeah okay all right we'll go all right let's move on to cross heart attack so that's going to be Leah is Mayu and Jesse is harda so guess who sorry go ahead no you go can we give Leia award to yes Le I love Leah she's so good so CUA so remember she's in more than just this episode because she kind of gets stuck in guy's bar because gy for some reason can't [ __ ] make a judgment call on her G's an idiot G's a dumbass love him gy is a rage fi dumbass but we love ginty anyway when we get to him I'm going to have my little shiel about the Virgin ginty and the Chad uh Chad

48:51 deham oh no I love this already oh no anyway um yes 100% Leah deserves her flowers 100% why is her character me like when I watched it the first time I was like holy [ __ ] is this how I'm going to die like slipping on soap after a Backstreet Boys concert cuz like that would be a dumbass way to die but it sure seems like something I would do but but but will you meet a guy in your in your afterlife I better her you got I'll be honest in a weird way I feel like her death is the most tragic because a lot of other people it's all

49:37 wrapped up and whatever's bothering them it's like no she just spped up some [ __ ] soap she do a goddamn thing right like where's her mom call 911 yep God which I feel like might have a little bit of something to do with why ginty can't freaking judge her properly exact it might be on something there oh my God it might have something to do with it but I think like I think Leah's I think Mayu also as a character just kind of um she has a different outlook on things that guy just can't understand oh yeah I can't figure out I think a lot of people can't get into the mind of somebody who spends their life being a professional fan girl yeah but as a professional fan

50:24 girl uh she WR on I will say that it did take me a little while to get into Leah's performance probably because I just heard you know I Mary sued myself into that character and I was like oh she doesn't sound like me but no like I know when I first watched death parade like I cried a lot um but actually re-watching it this time when I watched um Mayu and harda in the elevator at the very end like that that was that was my cry moment I I was like oh God why like why are they doing this um but cuz kin's a dick let's not well yes and no but I

51:11 think that Leah you know once I I got out of my own head like she definitely did um a really good job I think that what might have benefited this more would have been a writing style that that was a little more to my taste as opposed to like being exact to the source material cuz there were so many like jokes like this these this couple like and definitely it was like the fanservicey jokey episode cuz there's a lot of panty shots in here and like they're playing twister you make your own jokes you know like make your jokes they probably did it but um and just the fact that Hara was such like a little womanizer pop star like

51:58 that and then he regretted it at the end all the the horrible things that he thought he put these women through which by the way this is when I had to turn the sub on cuz I saw the credits and uh mamor Miano plays him in Japanese of course he does oh of course he does perfect casting is perfect and I was like of course he does like this is great um but no Jesse didn't really good Dr you I didn't I didn't get Jesse at first like that was the one where I couldn't figure out who it was and I who did I say who did I say I said um I said Aaron dismuke and Chris was like No it's it's not I was like but he has that little raspy thing going um in hard's

52:43 voice and he's like it's not and then I saw it at the end and I was like oh Jesse wow I didn't get that at all huh but interes you know um loved this the episode loved the two of them together love ginty Ammon has impeccable taste for choosing it and everybody hope I don't slip on the soap so after a backst street voice concert just don't don't shower after back concert it'll be like the time that I caught AJ's towel and I was like H like I'm going to like not rub it all over my body but it is still to this day years years later in a Ziploc bag preserved for all

53:29 eternity oh my God I love that that's great it's got a sweat on it it's got like he signed it he signed the he signed it and he he chucked it far cuz we were not close that concept okay he signed it before throwing it yes yes he he signed it before throwing it and I opened it up and I was like holy crap he signed it everybody's like screaming I'm like beating up [ __ ] next to me and I was like that's mine [ __ ] it's just mine so worth worth slipping on the shower for okay Aman what do you think of Leah and Jesse this is magical I just they're so funny yeah this this this I feel like

54:16 this this this episode comes at a good point in the sh part of the reason I like this is it comes to a good point in the show because the show by and large is pretty bleak it's not you know there's there's there's comedy but this is not a fun time for the most part and then you get this one where you have guy who does not take this nearly as seriously as deham does right um and you have these two who are what beautiful knuckle heads like I'm kind of sad they don't get to spend the rest of eternity together they're perfect for each other um great and it's so good cuz like at the end it does lead a little towards tragic and it turns out you know gy is sitting there trying to gloat about the fact that the spikes of the bottom were all made of rubber and Le is just like I peed myself get me clean clothing shut

55:03 up yeah I couldn't hold it in anymore yeah like I I I Jesse does a wonderful job like I I don't want to take that away from her she is amazing is this just delightful just I don't call him a dumbass but it's just like you're you're so high on your own success and you so you know how to turn the charm on so well he's he's she's very funny in that um but like the main reason I picked this is Leia just cuz like this is such a perfect version of this character like I can't think of a better version of this garu like you they're not Valley girls per se but that's kind of roughly the equivalent of I you know if you're going to pick an American stereotype that's kind of roughly where it is and like it is it is that like this this I

55:50 can't think of a more perfect version of this character type than the performance Leia gives here she is so she's so funny but also so so human like like she she manages to get the laughs but also really bring up like the actual drama of like her character and what she's going through like it's great I love it like 10 out of 10 was very was very excited to learn that she was going to show up for at least a few more episodes yes me too awesome it's like hell yeah cuz gy can't figure out [ __ ] but if you notice at like the very end of the show like even though Mayu is gone he draws her onto that little doll he has um is a keshi doll is that what it is I

56:37 don't know what they're called but she'll be in his bar that's a Russian that's a Russian nesting doll I think I don't remember but no yeah no 100% like he's it seems like this is probably going to more lean into like ginty when we get to him but it feels like ginty up until this point has just been like humans are stupid we can we can judge them however they want but Mayu ends up having a bit of an impact on him cuz we with all the other dolls he has in the bar you don't necessar they're all the same unlike deham with his hobby with the mannequins and recreating any of the patrons that come to visit him right so

57:23 it it's it feels like it's a subtle way for guy it's a it's a sign subtly that guy could potentially start like wanting to understand a bit more even though he's reluctant to do so in myu's case it could event like kind of open the door for him a little bit that's that's what I kind of got from that but um anyway what what is there to say about these two goobers oh my god um both of them are a delight Like Jesse portrayed like the pop Prince like so well with with hara's [ __ ] um like

58:08 the idol SM like yeah this goes out to you like it was such it was such cheesy like boy bands Idol stuff and it worked very well for Jesse and I love it um as a side note the post credit scene for episode 6 is a delight oh the one word of advice where he does the little concert yes never skip never like you can skip the and like the theme song Sometimes except for I think one or two instances but never skip the post credit scene never cuz they are so fun well this was this was the credits where I was crying because before like Mayu and Leah they were just kind of like you know listening to this song listen to harda makes me so happy

58:56 like you don't understand like the joy that you bring into people's lives and I was just like my heart my life and then you watch her in the credits and she's just like listening on her little iPod or whatever and like looking up at the sky like oh I'm I'm at I'm in my happy place right now and I was like yeah yeah girl and then you have harda putting out a little private concert for for Mayu mostly but you have guiny there and then you have deam and the Mystery Woman there yeah everybody's there they're all chilling they all want to see it who wouldn't they're like yay I love how how um Mayu obviously is enthused by this but you have de with

59:42 the mystery one they're like so excited about two like yeah and G's just like why the [ __ ] am I here what is happening it's like I just want to go home that's gy is a mood right right now but um I think obviously the stand up between the two is definitely Leah as Mayu mostly because she gets to stay around a lot longer um but Mayu has again kind of like what I was thinking like Mayu starts to make ginty kind of question his methods a little bit he's stubborn about it um and he's always again he thinks that human humanity is stupid they're freaking dummies and idiots but Mayu kind of brings in a

1:00:27 different perspective that like they're not we're not as complex as you think we are sometimes or you are simple-minded but we can be selfless we can put others above ourselves we can um have these just easy simple motivations that make us happy like Mayu kind of throws a wrench into what ginty's beliefs have been until this point so Leah Leah is a fun little contrast to ginty it is I just find very fascinating um and I enjoyed her a lot honestly in this and I was also sad I completely forgot so for I remember so I

1:01:13 remembered that guiny made her choose between sending Hara back to the void surprised he ends up in the void little womanizing pain in the ass uh thanks gy or sending this Light Yagami freaking look alike into the void G's like here you need to pick one that go into the void is it harda or is it this guy and legit it looks like light Yakami from Death Note wamp wamp whoops she and she chooses I think I I don't think it's ever really fully confirmed what Mayu actually decided and I say this because the like you

1:01:58 first assume that guy is sending her and harida to reincarnation but he kind of flips it at the last second and they both go to the void instead so it's hard to figure out what Mayu decided on to be honest um and we'll probably never know because there's no subsequent Seasons or nothing which kind of sucks she decided to be together did you get to be together though I I do kind of like the show does not like try to explain too much of what's going on or what's happening outside of this world like I do I do appreciate that right it it does leave moments like this up for more of an open interpretation as to what she went and did like I'm of the opinion that ginty

1:02:48 was potentially going to send her to be reincarnated but there was something that she said to him before she he sent him on their way that pissed him off and and made him question again what his thoughts on the whole thing was so at the last second he's like you know what [ __ ] you void for both of you that's my interpretation of it like he like she made him question start questioning things not to a serious deep level but it was enough to piss him off without the whole course of her being there um but anyway oh oh God so years ago when we had I want to say

1:03:36 it was the either the first I think it was the first W Awards or it was a future episode after the death parade one happened right there was this thing we always said about th this next set of characters in particularly one of them and it is and I quote [ __ ] you detective man [ __ ] you detective man um so Todd and Kent Todd hoorn Kent Williams in this this this two-parter of of of a of an arc essentially oh

1:04:24 god um I I remember that this also went super hard I remember this going hard but I forgot how hard it went cuz oh sweet baby Jus both so both characters for Todd and Kent they start out as as they normally would if you arrive they don't remember anything um they seem like they're normal selves but again as they continue to play the game and some of their memories start coming back to them it starts to unlock what's going on with them mentally and emotionally and as they cuz they played air hockey I think it wasn't this as

1:05:09 these two continued to play air hockey and the more that their memories starting coming back to them and the things that made them turn into these vengeful people that they are now holy sweet baby Jus like poor Todd first of all poor Todd he's just trying to take care of his little sister she gets assaulted and now he's like I'm going to kill this bastard for hurting my sister and he does he does that but also come to find out there was a second person there that was watching the whole thing happen

1:05:57 and he's like I need to go kill this person like it's not over there's still one more person he does end up killing that person but little does he know um that person ended up being T to me [ __ ] you detective man because after the death of his wife and he goes full vigilante mode and after he avenges his wife and her murder he decides to go after all of the scum and Kent Kent's portrayal of tatsam me is so dark it is it's probably one of the darkest things I have ever seen or heard

1:06:43 him do even back then and even now like this man is evil this man while he had like you would think good intentions he is freaking evil down to the core and Kent Williams is just absolutely brilliant for this um again [ __ ] you detective man he he sees the world as like there a lot of scum in the world he thinks he's taking it upon himself to make the world a better place by getting rid of that scum but and here's the kicker with um shimata and Todd's character in order for him to do

1:07:31 that uh Mr uh Mr tat toi here wants to make sure that they're going their scum of the earth and he will watch them commit these acts so he watched shima's sister and he watched the as salent like assault his sister so yeah shimata did get the correct person um at the end and bro this I I there's there's not I don't feel like there's enough time or enough words to describe how hard these two episodes really

1:08:17 hit because both of them devolve so quickly into these dark evil characters and like just pain like like shimata is full of pain and Vengeance Tatsumi is just plain evil both of these portrayals by Todd and Kent are just I I don't even know man I don't even know it's what do you what do you guys think like I'm rambling at at this point cuz I don't even know how to express this at this point I think it hit a lot harder for you than it did for me cuz I was just kind of like all right

1:09:06 why is this two parts I I I I I I do this is these are Great Performances of both of I think the only thing that undercut it is I thought it was going to go in a slightly Bleaker Direction than it didn't here here's what I thought here's what I thought most of it's the same it's just I thought that they're reveal is that shimata figured out Tatsumi was involved earlier and that he goes into tatsumi's house looking to get revenge on him Tatsumi is not there but his wife is and they get in a struggle and he's ends up being the guy that kills his wife oh my God I thought that too I thought that which I think I think once it goes on like the timeline doesn't work for that to be true but I assume that's what it was going to be like they are like they're hunting each other basically and they have no idea yeah so because when

1:09:53 you when you get them in there they deham and the Mysterious woman at least know that at least know one is a murderer that someone is a murderer yeah but the twist at the end of episode 8 ends up being that they both are murderers um so after that it's like trying to Fig PE finally pieced together like okay what actually happened here how are these connected and then you figure out shimada's sister got assaulted you figure out tops me witnessed the assault occur like it's it's a whole whole thing it's it's insane um see and and sorry go oh sorry no like I I'm not taken away from the performances I just think that this episode was drawn out

1:10:38 too much like to the fact that uh every few minutes they would stop playing air hockey for like the one dude to go smoke a cigarette and I was like okay this is like detective Exposition and I was like I don't need that in my Twilight Zone episode and okay that that's fair honestly that's fair it was padded out a little bit yeah that's not a fault of the performances or anything cuz I think Ken Williams did a an amazing job like he is batshit crazy um we all know it Todd Todd was funny for me like it's been a hot minute since I've heard Todd act in anything and I I I

1:11:24 can't tell you other than like some Sailor Moon Parts in the new series like of him doing anything that I've listened to recently so it was just kind of weird to hear him cuz I thought it was somebody else at first and then I like got a little bit of the acting chops and I was like oh never mind um so I was like okay yeah no this is to it was Chris Chris is like this is Todd and and I was like okay now I get it so I was like all right all right all right all right let's let him let's let him cook I like I like to also point out there is a younger version of shimata in these episodes as well and it's not voiced by

1:12:10 T no no no which makes it even weirder cuz the younger shimata is Clifford chapen babby shiman is cliffer tape and and it's like wait how does does this guy go through puberty and get we get Todd how does this work how you doing Budd I don't see the how it equates but okay if you still listen to this show probably not probably not maybe I don't know maybe who still listens y'all if you still listen everybody put your hands up we we're still here and and I put your hands up please please leave a comment below I'm sure

1:12:56 busy I'm sure you're busy just say just say hi that's all we need I'm busy let me tell you let me tell you what a strain it was for me to watch a 13 episode anime in 4 days oh God and we have a two core to watch too sh we don't talk about that one that one's a surprise not yet I I didn't freaking say which one it was it could be anything oh that's true we we don't talk about two cores no no no anyways the acting the acting was great I do think Todd was a little overdoing it at points however okay if you're going to overdo it in a dramatic ass anime to quote Aman's Twilight Zone thing like this is the

1:13:42 place to do it like you're in the outer limits who remembers that show okay um man like let's let's talk about it this is the place to go ham and they both did um the episodes weren't my cup of tea but I'm you know if I'm going to watch a detective show it's going to be like [ __ ] criminal nines with a girl who looks like me so but I know this is right up your alley so I understand why you wanted to talk about it yep [ __ ] you detective man no but I can kind of agree that like it the episodes themselves were padded out a little bit too long but I think at the same time if if they couldn't rush it either it

1:14:30 just didn't seem like it could fit in one single episode but they also needed enough material to turn into two so it kind of like it was a double-edged sword on that front I feel like so I I I can agree with that being a little bit padded out too much um I'm on you did you have thoughts on these two horrifying what what a what aside from maybe the last episode probably the most upsetting part of the entire show yeah nothing nothing nothing good happens here it ends on such a d note it's like Jesus Christ mhm no there there I mean they're both they're both fantastic in this this is definitely like the heaviest episode on a certain level and I I feel like they

1:15:16 both really like they they they stepped up to the plate for it it was it was it was it was good but you know I I I stopped watching the show after episode 99 for the day I'm like yeah I need to I need to oh was that what was that when you popped into Discord you're like I think no actually I think I think actually for that one as I had watched I think up to episode 8 but I watched like four episodes over the course of like a few hours and I'm like this all at okay so you so so you got to the arcade episode and you're like I need to stop for the just like this is a lot it's like I could tell like all right something bad's going to happen I need to like watch I'm also watching like um is it U D4 DJ for for reasons and so like let's watch

1:16:02 that that's light I need a pet cleanse right now [ __ ] you be that works out nicely I need a p it's like I need A's like I need a pallet cleanse God damn D4 DJ watching watching cute girls talk about surprisingly accurate mixing techniques let's watch that instead oh my God what was my palette cleanser when I was watching oh we watched the new Rono one half there you go that's another good one in between it's it's it's stupid people kicking each other because they don't understand their feelings it's wonderful it's shampoo well I need I I didn't have time to pallet cleanse my P cleanse with sleep I guess cuz I started this on Sunday I

1:16:47 started watching the show on Sunday did did I start this on Saturday no no when did I start this I know but I took lots of breaks cuz I had to work a lot of overtime I I I I couldn't take breaks I didn't have the time so I just my breaks were sleep and work that was it I didn't get to have a p okay all right maybe okay I had a pallet cleanse on Monday and that was when I was streaming I think but I didn't watch any death parade that day so I don't know if that's technically a pallet cleanse or not anyway any other thoughts on uh Todd in Kent [ __ ] you detective man let's go to the next floor going next Flor okay are are there

1:17:34 any other thoughts in General on these sets of characters or even if you wanted if you had brief thoughts on any of the other episodic characters or anything like that I want to make a fun little mental like little note um cuz I remember this coming up as a thing Eric Vil in episodes one and two that man was sick for his recording session and he still managed to pull off the performance he did DN good for him man right I did like the little couple like they were very cute I was almost like in tears over them cuz I was like oh God that's so cute if they send one of them to the void I'm going to [ __ ]

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