©Ryohgo Narita, Shinta Fujimoto/SQUARE ENIX, DEAD MOUNT DEATH PLAY Project
This week’s Dead Mount Death Play is one of the weakest episodes of the series so far. Now, that’s not to say the episode is objectively bad—it’s not. However, it is rather lacking in comparison to the series’ most notable episodes.
In general, the best aspect of Dead Mount Death Play is its characters. Each of them has their past and personal struggles they are attempting to overcome, and last week’s episode is a great example of this. Misaki is trying to find someone to punish her for killing the original Polka to alleviate her nagging guilt. However, all she finds is forgiveness from those she’s wronged, which undoubtedly makes the guilt even worse.
This episode, on the other hand, is nothing but set up for next week’s big action climax. It’s almost entirely plot-driven, jumping from character to character to ensure everyone ends up in Shinjuku on the same night. Sure, we get some character beats, but these aren’t character growth. Rather, they serve as reminders of things we already know. Polka feels guilty for letting his found family in the other world die. Tsubaki is driven to find out what happened to Hosorogi even more than catching the “troublemaker” criminals. Phantom Solitaire is willing to do anything it takes in his hunt for real magic. The Fire-Breathing Bug aims to erase any “errors” it finds in our world. The episode is just making sure we’re all on the same page for the season finale.
Luckily, we do get some funny gags and a touch of action to tide us over—most notably the encounter between Phantom Solitaire and Xiaoyu. These two characters have no idea what is going on. They know nothing of the other world empire or Polka’s true situation. They’re two people groping in the dark who somehow think they can see what’s going on. This makes for a fantastic misunderstanding as each tries to figure out how the other fits into everything—and the fight between them appears to be the match that will ignite the powder keg of supernatural forces converging on Polka’s home.
But other than that, this episode is just moving all the pieces to where they need to be. And while I expect it to pay off more next week, this one was pretty lackluster as a stand-alone episode.
Rating:
Dead Mount Death Play is currently streaming on
Crunchyroll.
