The Fall 2023 Anime Preview Guide

Dead Mount Death Play

As a legendary hero nears victory against a necromancer known as The Corpse God, things take an unexpected turn with the dark sorcerer's final gambit—reincarnation magic. This last-ditch effort catches the brave fighter off guard, and now he's a boy named Polka Shinoyama in a whole new world! The showdown between good and evil just got epic.

Dead Mount Death Play is based on a manga series of the same name by Ryohgo Narita and Shinta Fujimoto. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Mondays.

This episode of Dead Mount Death Play is almost entirely plot-focused. It's concerned with looking at the immediate fallout of the first cour and setting up where things go from here.

In our last episode, the convergence of Shinjuku's superpowered population upon Polka's apartment building has led to some unintended consequences: namely, proof of the supernatural with Polka's ghostly hands recorded and photographed from several different sources. So it's no surprise the media, cops, and simple gawkers alike have descended upon Polka's home. Luckily, many are willing to chalk everything up to another of Phantom Solitaire's illusions but those with a knowledge of Shinjuku's underworld seem to suspect something more is going on.

Better still, the events of the previous night seem to have acted as a pressure valve of sorts. Lemmings is going on vacation, the Fire-breathing Bug and Phantom Solitaire seem to be laying low, and Clarissa is keeping the police in check. All this means that it is the perfect chance for a new character to enter the story—i.e., Kochou the reporter.

While she works for a tabloid, Kochou is a natural-born reporter. She can both read people and make connections—making her a highly skilled detective. Of course, the joke of the whole situation is that, no matter how good she is, there's no way to piece together something as unbelievable as Polka coming from another world with the Real Polka's soul being trapped in a stuffed animal. Still, having her buzzing around the group—especially when she has dirt on Takumi—is enough to make everyone nervous (except for Misaki, of course, who is just enjoying the whole situation as usual).

But Kochou is not the only new threat lurking on the horizon. The Slender Man-esque Momoya and his clan of assassins have a job in Shinjuku. Worse still, he seems to be one of the people who cut off Xaioyu's arms and legs—almost ending with him becoming a living seedbed for cultivating poisonous bacteria. And as we've seen how strong Xaioyu is, it's questionable that anyone aside from Polka himself would have a chance against him.

So, with two new threats for our heroes to deal with—not to mention the mystery surrounding the cult's ties to Polka's original world—Dead Mount Death Play's second part seems off to a decent start.