The anime "Death Parade." A bar called "Queen Decem" acts as an arbiter, sorting human souls into heaven or hell after death. The bartender, Ginti, knows fragments of the deceased's memories from their lives for the sake of the judgment, but the humans who arrive here have had their memories of dying and the events surrounding it erased. His job is to make them undergo a life-or-death game under the illusion that they are still alive, thereby discerning their true nature. The people who visited Queen Decem that day were Harada, a popular idol (resembling Tegoshi-kun), and Mayu, a modern high school girl. The two play a life-or-death game, and Mayu, who is a huge fan of Harada, sacrifices herself, saying, "I'd die for him," ending the game. By sacrifice, I don't mean dying again; by the time Ginti explains to the two that this is a "game for judgment," both of them have remembered that they are already dead. Since Ginti is not human, he strongly despises selfish people. Because of this, he couldn't understand Mayu taking Harada's place, and even after deciding to send Harada to hell, he still couldn't make a judgment on her. As he spends time with Mayu at Queen Decem and grows more human, he finds himself unable to make a judgment. So he tells Mayu, "Harada is in hell right now, but if you send someone else's soul there instead, he can go to heaven." When Mayu immediately replies, "I will go to hell," Ginti tells her, "Heaven and hell are just terms used so humans can understand easily; the truth is reincarnation or the void. If you fall into the void, you fall forever through nothingness while holding onto negative emotions." "If you drop a third party into the void, both you and Harada can be reincarnated and born again." Mayu and Harada were riding the elevator bound for reincarnation together. However, the moment the doors closed, the destination changed to the void, and the two fell into a pitch-black pit. Ginti mutters, "This is fine..."
In the end, wasn't Mayu trying to let herself fall into the void instead of a third party just to get Harada reincarnated? After reuniting with Harada in the elevator to the void, he said, "This is fine..."
What choice Mayu actually made is never explicitly stated in the work, and while Ginti said things with a similar nuance, I don't think he said anything as direct as post 52. Since it's a multi-ending work whose interpretation changes depending on the viewer, I suppose there are various conclusions. Still, it was chilling to watch the silly yet cute Mayu fall into the void.
Comments (-)