Dead Mount Death Play

Episode 24

So here we are at the end of this season of Dead Mount Death Play. In a lot of ways, it is a decent way to wrap up the story so far. In others, however, it falls a bit short of the mark.

On the positive side of things, Polka finally reaches the end of his arc. The last episode ended with him giving up on his dreams for a peaceful life if it meant gaining said life for those he cares about. Alone, it was the most selfless choice he could make—however, he had forgotten (or was unable to accept) that he was not alone. He has Misaki and Takumi—and the numerous other people in Shinjuku who have come to accept him.

Ever since the fall of the empire, Polka has struggled alone—failing to protect those he loved. But now, seeing his friends work together to protect all of them from the threat of Civil and his party, he finally sees that, while he cannot protect them alone, they can protect each other. All he has to do is let it happen. And so he asks the souls of his old friends from the empire for their help—souls he has kept hidden for over a hundred years out of a misplaced sense of guilt.

As the Emperor puts it, “living” is not simply a biological state. It is about accepting the past and moving forward. For the first time since the fall of the empire, Polka is truly doing that. While he may never fully forgive himself for being controlled and killing his friend, he is, at the very least, willing to put it aside and strive for a better future where such a tragedy won't happen again.

Where the episode comes up short, however, is the other side of the fight. Civil's motivations were strong and clear. He felt that he was an abandoned child and had two possible ways to fix this. The first would be to go to a world where he belongs—i.e., the fantasy world. The second would be to force our world to be more like the fantasy world. Yet, when defeated by Polka, Civil simply gives up on both possibilities with little explanation as to why.

I suspect this is just the most glaring example of the episode's real problem: too much story being stuffed into a single episode. Much of what we see in this episode feels like abridged versions of longer scenes—e.g., Soara and the tiger, Bao and Majiri's unlikely team-up, Lemmings just showing up out of nowhere, Phantom Solitaire making some sort of deal with Polka. In the end, what Dead Mount Death Play needed was another episode to give all the little stories and characters the amount of breathing room they needed.

That said, while rushed, this isn't a terrible episode. Pretty much every character is, at the very least, addressed and things end on a hopeful note for Polka and his friends (even if someone out there still wants Polka dead enough to hire a sniper to try and take him out). And as for the series as a whole, while it certainly has had its ups and downs, it was a decently fun ride—enough that I may just pick up the manga to see what further adventures await Polka and crew.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• Good to see Misaki is getting over her guilt and accepting how much her life has changed for the better since her encounter with the Real Polka.

• Are we supposed to think that Polka has contracted the souls of literally everyone in the fallen empire? Because that's what Civil seems to think.

• It's good to see Xiaoyu recognize that if the Real Polka were to die, it'd hurt Rozan more than anything else—and that his love for Rozan is far greater than his jealousy for the Real Polka.

• I think the show implied that Majiri made the bus turn into a cloud of bats. I guess that means Majiri is a vampire, too? If so, that's got to be one heck of a story.

Dead Mount Death Play is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.