Review of Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody

Before actually deciding to watch this show called “Death March kara Hajimaru Isekai Kyousoukyoku”, I have to ask a question: do you really watch a show for enjoyment or do you watch a show to get the most out of it? When I sat down and decided to give this series a try, it felt like an anime that I would not have high expectations on. The premise, character visuals, and just overall idea of it sounds like a copy-paste story you can find in almost any light novel medium these days. But for Death March, this proved to be one of the blandest animeI’ve seen in recent years even compared to similar premises. It’s a literal slap to the face to anyone who expect this to be better than what it looks like.

Just for reference, I have read the light novel and keeping it up with took a lot of commitment. I’m actually close to dropping the LN series but this adaptation is on another level of trash. Taking place in a fantasy setting with RPG gimmicks, we got main protagonist Ichiro Suzuki (also known as “Satou” in the other world). His life changes one day after getting hit into an accident and wakes up in this unknown world. Sound familiar? I swear, you can literally pick up any light novel these days with a similar premise and the set up would be something similar. In the meantime, we follow Satou’s adventure as he begins to adapt with his new life.

I’m just going to throw it out here. This show is extremely blend in terms of storytelling. My initial impression of the first few episodes were pretty much me struggling to stay awake. Not only is Satou an uninteresting protagonist but the story itself is devoid of emotions. It’s actually a bit ironic since a show like this should have colorful world fiction to make the setting feel alive. What do we get instead? A group of one dimensional characters in a blend world that felt like it’s part of a video game. Or I should say, a broken video game. A polished game would have memorable characters but you’ll find none of that in this series. Main protagonist Satou is not only just overpowered but also exhibits some disturbing personality if you read between the lines. The way he speaks, behaves, and interacts with certain characters is never engaging to watch. It doesn’t help that his personality is dry to the bone and seemingly always acts the same with his harem. Oh, I did just say that word. Some people may not call this a harem but to me, this series is about as harem-esque as it can get. Consisting of mainly female characters, it doesn’t take long for viewers to find out that they are fond of Satou. Arisa, Pochi, Tama, Zena, Nana. There’s pretty much no character development for any of the main cast. Instead, most of them are there to interact with Satou in order to put him over. The only way to say there’s any development is Satou’s progress as a character as he acquires more skills. Bleh.

That being said, I guess there’s some hope for the main story? The series does take place in a fantasy world and that can have potential, right? Wrong. The world building in the series is incredibly underwhelming as most places look bare and feel almost identical. If you’ve seen one place, it feels like you’ve seen them all. Bear in mind that as the series progresses, the world of Death March never evolves just like the weak character cast. The story feels more like a slice of life with occasional fighting and drama thrown in. My main issue in the story is just how meekly it’s written. Story segments feel anticlimactic and lacks substance. It doesn’t connect with the characters and never makes an impact. Pacing issues also puts this show to shame from the start as it never manages to salvage itself. Also, keep in mind that the light novel series has hundreds of chapters and this is a 12-episode anime adaptation. Yes, you can guess it. This anime pretty much throws the big fat sign of “buy the light novel!” My advice is don’t. That money could be put into so much more value and it’s a waste to spend it on this. Nonetheless, Death March loves to showcase Satou like he’s some of saint in the show. And that gives me nothing more than a thumb down.

Silver Link adapts this anime and it’s sad to say but they dropped the ball. What could have been a beautiful world setting turned into mediocre junk. I’ll be honest here. It’s terrible. The CG is awkward along with the blend character designs. Even the main female protagonists all look like cheap cartoons made by amateurs. Most of them have the same face but with different color hair and body proportions. The fan service has incredibly cringe timings that I can’t help but laugh in the wrong way. Action in the series is also poorly animated in terms of choreography and key animation. The body movements feels flat and it seems to me that this anime project was not taken seriously from the beginning.

I’m not usually one to jump on a character for their voice but my goodness, Satou’s voice genuinely makes me wish they found a better VA. His voice sounds like it’s putting us to sleep and lacks any personality. Even when he shows emotions, it feels incredibly forced with cheesy dialogue delivery. There’s not one line in this show that I find memorable and that’s because of his voice mannerisms. Sometimes, I wish there’s a volume lower than mute. The theme songs aren’t much better as it’s incredibly generic made with lazy lyrics.

Watching Death March was a challenge for me. What could have been a chance to showcase a watchable fantasy series turned into an abomination. By the time I finished watching this show, I felt a sigh of relief that the series ended up only receiving 12 episodes. It should have just been left alone as a light novel instead. The adaptation has a dysfunctional story, uncharismatic character cast, and really gives isekai a bad name. In fact, I’d say Death March almost made a show like Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni look good.