Dead Mount Death Play

“Dead Mount Death Play” is what happens when You homebrew your own D&D setting… “with black jack and hookers''. If You get that reference we can be friends. A powerful necromancer called the “Corpse God”, who transcended his humanity is defeated in combat. Before his demise he casts a spell that allows him to reincarnate to have a peaceful life. Well… didn’t work exactly as planned. He got thrusted into the freshly dead body of a 16 year old boy in today's japan. Thanks to a series of not so fortunate events he gets entangled with people from the underground. Despite being in a differentworld he still wants to find a way to live a peaceful life. Despite his goal, life has a strange way of keeping him on his toes. To be fair it is a part one of the seasons and it kinda feels like it. All the episodes function more like a prelude and world building than anything else. Unfortunately it works to the detriment of the 12 episodes. But let’s start with the main cast. Corpse God - our main protagonist. In his former life he was hunted as an evil calamity and slain as such. Despite that it does appear he had some pretty good reasons to be a dick the people he killed. To no one's surprise he has a tragic backstory because… of course he does. Tragic backstories to MCs nowadays are a dime a dozen in manga and anime so I’m not even gonna pretend it’s interesting because it’s not. It’s the same generic shit You saw a million times… but with a skeleton. So I guess You haven’t seen this iteration all that often. Still boring. Despite being in a new world he’s tragically passive. Yes, he has a goal and even starts a business but most of the things that happen to him happen “to him” and not “because of him” which leaves him as a reactionary hero. Something I truly despise. He has no personality to speak of and, to my surprise, the show acknowledges that in the last episode and even gives a half assed excuse for it. It is more that most shows give about the lack of personality so i guess it’s a plus. As he is now he is another nerfed but still pretty OP, boring protagonist with no personality. A pretty good premise turned lacklustre execution. Polka Shinoyama - the 16 year old boy who got killed and whose body is now inhabited by the Corpse God. Not much is known about him except he is an heir of a rich family, has more empathy than brain and is kind. His soul now inhabits a shark plushie, something he doesn’t seem to mind in the least. To be fair in the grand scheme of things he’s just a useless mascot who gets himself in ecchi situations once in a while. Misaki Sakimiya - The girl who killed Polka. She’s a hired gun with a reputation of putting down other killers. She seems to be emotionally unstable and detached from reality. To be fair in the beginning, both in her design and character she seemed to me like an amalgamation of Junko Enoshima and Toko Fukawa from Danganronpa. Not a bad place to start and her character does go in a bit of a different route than those two. After getting killed, mostly by accident, by the Corpse God, she gets resurrected as a zombie. Something she’s perfectly ok with and even has some fun with her new skills. She is tragically underutilised in this show as she’s the best part of the main coterie. Takumi Kuruya - an information broker who uses his drones and hacking skills to keep tabs on important things. Despite being suspicious of the Corpse God in the beginning he warms up to him rather quickly. He even helps with his fortune telling business venture. Not a very original character and as such is pretty much forgettable. Now that we have the coterie out of the way, let's talk about writing. It’s… well.. It’s everywhere and nowhere all at the same time. There is a plot somewhere there, hidden behind all the world building and characters introduction. It’s a shame that the plot isn’t run by the MC but everyone else. Let me explain. Our hero is stranded in a new world, has a goal in mind and even an idea on how to achieve it. But every dramatic thing that happens is a result of someone else's decisions and action. It’s more often than not that he gets involved by chance or because of the body he inhabits. He has little to no real power as a story catalyst. Like I said before: Things happen to him, not because of him. That changes a little in the last two episodes but before that he’s just there along for the ride. Apart from that the story is actually pretty interesting. It starts out as almost a dark comedy reverse isekai but the longer the show goes on the more it shifts into a pretty solid thriller with its very own secret organizations fighting for power, assassinations and even some supernatural elements for good measure. It’s a solid idea. The problem is that all that needed a set up. That’s what those 12 episodes are (I really hope so) - a setup to something more grand. Now don’t get me wrong, You can still have a good time watching them but at the end You will be left with blue balls and a WTF face. I honestly am a bit hyped for part two because I hope they will deliver on the type of thriller (maybe even a political one) that they set up. All in all I think that despite its flaws and being just a prelude to more things to come it’s a solid watch. If for nothing else the premise and Misaki are rather enjoyable.

Part 1 of Dead Mount Death Play serves no purpose as a story. The first episode hooks you in with this idea that something interesting might occur, but it never does. The antagonistic forces do not feel like threats. The Detectives that investigate supernatural situations and people? No more than a suggested inconvenience. The aforementioned supernatural people? Handwaved in story as not being supernatural at all despite them showing off clearly supernatural abilities.The person who originally ordered Polka's assassination in the first place? Don't worry about it. This show whispers fun and interesting ideas into your ear with no pay off or satisfying conclusion. It only hopes you'll stick around for its unnecessary fanservice randomly sprinkled in so you forget what it promised you narratively. It gets a 4 out of 10 from me because it had some interesting ideas, but if I'm being honest with myself it deserves a 1 out of 10 for wasting my time. Don't waste your time hoping for more out of this show outside of the first episode. This show is the generic store brand plain seltzer of anime.

This anime had probably very big potential at the start, it kinda throws old school anime vibe with proper story and character development. Well, that was bad assumption. It starts with great first episode, then it becomes dull. While main character is somewhat enjoyable and more or less is properly built into story, the rest is kinda meh. Characters 4/10 - Corpse God (MC) is enjoyable and in first half you can see some logic in that character. This fades away with more episodes. Regarding other characters I can't say much without spoilers, however it's important to remember: characters are not sticking to their role. Storyis trying to describe to you some character, who is then behaving in different way 2 episodes after. A lot of it actually doesn't make sense. Story 5/10 - The idea itself is great and world around MC too. However nobody took much care to properly develop it into some working status. Thus story becomes dull and boring. For me personally last 2 episodes were like "I have to survive those 2 episode to finish it." On top of that it looks like anime is trying to undermine itself, which is weird? It isn't proper comedy, it isn't proper action anime, it isn't proper isekai, it isn't proper fantasy. What it is then? Animation/art 8/10 - Not much I could complain about. It looks nice and effects are fancy. Animation isn't part of the problem here. Music/sound effects 6/10 - While I think OP and END are cool, it didn't blast me away and casual sound effects and music in anime itself are ok-ish. Nothing really special, nothing really bad. This anime is basically trying to lure you with its first episode and then provides nothing. There is already announced another part, now there is question whether it's worth to even try it or not. This anime wasn't something truly horrible, however I think many people will stick to idea promised in first episode, which just simply isn't delivered. Maybe another part will deliver it, who knows.