Review of Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody

Death March is a pretty typical type of isekai anime in the sense that the narrative isn't extremely boring but it doesn't stand out much either. It is pretty average as far as Isekai-themed anime goes. And here is why the first episode tries to build in some random slice of life which typically most titles tend to do and then suddenly the protagonist is warped or transferred into a different dimension. We have seen many of its kind and every one of them felt weird or simply out of place. If that was the direction the author intended, they should have started from afantasy narrative at the get-go instead of a round-about method to avoid the simple intricacies of world-building and proper character developments. But enough with the negatives, let us discuss what makes Death March worthy of your time.

The narrative isn't anything amazing but it works, the slow pace and easy-going environment certainly deviate from most titles offered but it is suitable in this particular narrative. The art is not fantastic but that is not the main highlight, what really carried this anime was simply the overly-cute characters in them. The cute theme is very dominant in the narrative as it always revolves around the MC's companions. These are the main highlights to attract the attention of potential viewers or at least retain some of its existing ones.

The musical score used is not very obvious, in fact, it is easily dismissed. In terms of the Op and Ed, I wouldn't say that they left an impression either. It is pretty meh.

That being said, I actually enjoyed Death March mainly because of its characters. (You actually have Aoi Yuki stating the obvious Moe-ness) Although the characters are cute, there are some quality scenes with a decent amount of comedy. In an anime that isn't focused on fighting one can only focus on character interactions and the occasional situational response.

Death March does not have many annoying characters maybe a few, but almost every main character does help to make the story a little more entertaining and enjoyable. When placed in a totally unknown and ambiguous situation, we cannot expect to suddenly get a grasp of what is happening and this anime certainly does not use the likes of time skips to make the MC learn about the world or any nonsense relating to that. Like the audience, the protagonist is learning as well, which is a huge plus in terms of being realistic and shows good character writing. Additionally, his companions are not totally useless there are times where they actually contribute meaningfully which is actually really impressive given that most anime tend to rely on just the MC.

Although the voice acting could use more inspiration, it was still pretty decent. Unfortunately with a tag of adventure one might have expected at least some exciting fight scenes but most of the combat scenes were lacklustre at best. This title really relied on its character interactions to stand out.

A decent 7 I suppose.