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aharris00britney · 5 years

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ASKS 16

haha remember in July when I said I was gonna answer stuff every month... yeah me neither 🙈🙈 anyways lots of stuff under the cut

Anonymous said: You should get along with other Simblrs and start a new cc group now that PTS is disbanded, your hairs and clothes are always amazing! :D

Firstly thank you! Most of the clothing in AxA is 99% ayoshi with me going in after and cleaning/adding some stuff. So I give him props for the clothes :P As far as a ‘new PTS’ style group idk, there are a lot of amazing creators on simblr but I think the reason PTS was such a special thing is because the bond they all had. I feel that when working on collabs with some of my really close friends (such as the one coming out this month with @dogsill and @ayoshi) because we have known each other for over 2 years now. A group of friends built only for collabing purposes would be more of a hassle than an enjoyment imo. <3

Anonymous said: HELLLOOOO! just curious bc why not but what is your favorite creation that you have made??

It varies every month to be honest lmao. If you asked me to pick a favorite hair from each month? Easy, always the last release of the month. But favorite hair ever? Awwww shucks 🤠 lmao I would say my Madison Hair is one of my favorite hair releases, I am planning to revamp it soon to work with my Mia ombre accessories and tidy the mesh up some.

Anonymous said: hello, when will this collection be free for public download please? /post/186706149526/patreon-08-19

That came out in August luv, go to my downloads page and click AxA 2019

Anonymous said: Hi! Idk if you do wcif!!!! But if you do, wcif the freckles on the girl with the short hair on the BOP AHOOB collab?? If you know! Thank you much in advance!!!!!

Hey! You’ll need to send Bowl-Of-Plumbobs a message for that WCIF, that was his Sim otherwise I would link you. Sorry hun

@lumalinrose-sims said: Not a question, but you are like so cool I can't even--

thank you lmao I appreciate it, your profile pic it pretty cool :P

@ang3lba3 said: sarah is so pretty!!! is there a way to download how she looks in its entirety, or no? (sorry if this is a silly question im pretty new to the sims)

not silly don’t worry :P the Sarah hair is for download on the post, the sim can be downloaded here but she is a bit outdated as I have changed her somewhat since then.

Anonymous said: Hihi just stopping by to tell you how much I love your hairs!!

thank you so much! I appreciate the love<3

Anonymous said: hi! i just wanted to say that i love your cc so much i and always look forward to your posts! you make the cutest cc ever and honestly you're probably my favorite cc maker. you also seem like such a chill and genuine person we truly stan.

fgvhbjn thank you lmao I am literally TOO CHILL irl lmao I let people run over me so much but it’s whatever. Thank you again for the super sweet message. Have a great day if you’re reading this :)

Anonymous said: Heeeey we have the same name

Austin club :P great name til you’re trying to sign something and it looks awful (at least for me I can’t do my signature for shit)

Anonymous said: the collab with bop is so boring and dull it’s drier than a cracker it’s a no from me

well not everything is going to be someones cup of tea lmao I’m sure there is someone that enjoys it which counters you’re negative view <3

Anonymous said: Hi I love your cc! I have almost all of it in my game and I love your tropical punch palette so much I was wondering if you would ever consider releasing the palette.

If I ever make an ombre accessory tutorial video I will release a set of actions for the palette. If you wanna use the palette feel free to grab the hex codes from S4S.

Anonymous said: How did you become a ea game changer? Was it through Tumblr or youtube?

About a year ago SimGuruKate was the community manager and had applications for Tumblr Game Changers, I applied and got accepted. Follow SimGuruFrost on Twitter to stay up to date on when new applications are open.

Anonymous said: Are you going to upload the hair you made on your livestream? I literally love your work and am a Patreon subscriber!!!

Hey! The hair will be in my October voting (I think) and if it wins, release will be November. If it doesn’t win I will put it in November voting and so forth til it wins. Also thank you for watching the stream and supporting me on Patreon

Anonymous said: hello!! i just wanted to see if knew is there’s anyway i can save my cc and save files somehow where i can download them again if my computer breaks so i don’t have to download it all again.?

zip your Sims 4 folder and upload it to Google Drive/SimsFileShare/OneDrive. Then when you install Sims 4 again you just replace the folder made in Electronic Arts in your Documents.

Anonymous said: what face do you make when your in love with a bee?

this is an old anon so I doubt they’re gonna check for this, and I can’t find the joke on Google so.... anybody know it?

Anonymous said: i love these collab sets they are honestly gifts from above

mhmm gifts from above for every collab except those in October... those are from below 👹 😳

Anonymous said: the pack is sooooo cute i love everything omg!!!! The male stuff is so adorable i can’t wait to download

Anonymous said: you guys are the only ones i go to for packs i would love to see build buy items in the future we don’t get a lot mm stuff like that

Anonymous said:i just want to say thank you for putting in so much time and hard work and dedication to creating cc for us. i hope there's never a moment when you feel unappreciated, and i want you to know we all love you!

@primadonnaliferiseandfall said: all hail you and ayoshi for the cc pack its so pretty omg!!!!

Anonymous said: omg the kings have delivered!!

Anonymous said: since we got axa 2019 and 2018 will there be an axa 2020? 👀

Anonymous said: Great job on the pack! Everyone's items look gorgeous! Thank you for making this, you talented human being.

Anonymous said: ilysm! that’s all 💓💫

Anonymous said: just wanted to let you know that your content is absolutely amazing and i love it all :) sending love from the uk👍

Anonymous said: would you and ayoshi consider sharing the psds for some of the stuff in your collab? please?

thank you guys so much! Me and Ayoshi were super super happy with the AxA 2019 release and we are so happy with how many people have liked it. AxA 2020 will be a thing, yes. Also I have been working on PSDs that are super easy to navigate. I will get those up soon hopefully.

@graphicpickles said: Hey um, I dont know if you were aware of this but your discord link is broken ^^"

hey! this is super late sorry, discord link should be working now. If not: https://discord.gg/CtQR9tb

Anonymous said: Why would you include a cc hair in a preview for a cas review

because I liked the hair and wanted to use it 😗

@goddesssimmerina said: I just stopped by to tell you how much I LOVE your content. *_* I just went through and downloaded soooo much! xD I actually just switched to using MM hair and i'm so glad I did because I'm finding so many of you amazing creators and I thank you all sm! :*

awe thank you!! I appreciate it. Welcome to MM hair world :P

@moonbrightsims said: whats ur origin id?

AHarris00Britney

Anonymous said: how are your photos/screenshots so high quality? seriously, do you use a mod for it or idk editing? or maybe your settings?

Ultra Settings, and I use SRWE for HQ pics.

Anonymous said: if you don’t answer this ask you’re straight

It has been answered. I am no longer straight. Was a hard two months not answering this 😔😔😔

Anonymous said: Hi, would you mind teaching us how you make the LoDs of your hairs? I opened one of them in S4S and found out your LoDs are great looking. I use decimate tool in blender and they look really bad.

I edge split everything before I decimate in Blender, I also delete the hairline and extrude the mesh inside the head before decimating as well. Really confusing to explain in words sorry. Might make a tutorial.

Anonymous said: omg ur cc finds blog has apink namjoo as icon and header. i'm.. sCREAMING. austin knows royalty

yes ma’am now where is the comeback

- it was at this point I realized I have caught up with my last asks post and have answered 4 things over again from Asks 15. Well... I guess that’s it folks

see yall in asks 17 in 2 months.... maybe the end of October idk

#asks #nonsims #saviorhide #i dont even know why i decided to answer stuff tonight it is 1:32AM now and i started an hour ago #let me go be productive and do something like lay in bed playing Animal Crossing Pocket Camp for 2 hours til I pass out #actually let me post a teaser idgaf its 2am but when else am i gonna post it

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humansoulsarg · 4 years

Text

Blast from the Past Garfield Comics Solve

On March 28, 2017 - Pangent dropped several modified Garfield comics on the tumblr. Frantic work happened by the team in the discord. You can go find it if you want to relive the chaos. For some reason, it appears this solve was never posted to the humansoulsarg.tumblr.com blog. Today, we aim to remedy that situation. Enjoy! Pangent comics: FEED ME: https://pangenttechnologies.tumblr.com/post/158944128617

Original:

Use a Vigenere cipher to decode the comic. Ciphertext is shown in the Pangent version, the Key is the Original text Panel 1: MR TQIAE MVP WWG ZKBKTQIRO ELE A TRXNOBTIQMA HIZ LBSC LB VP GZO MNLM QITQ EZNI. Hi, there… I’m Jon Arbuckle. I’m a cartoonist, and this is my cat, Garfield. Panel 2: OR TPHAFI MNI AHMNNMIUA CAXJ SDTM MBJ TMFK JU CO WWIATJ PPQOBQIA ERVG AAFQNL. Hi, there. I’m Garfield. I’m a cat, and this is my cartoonist, Jon. Panel 3: XDR QRUY XQQYPQC IB CO ERCHATFMW YSDO. NEJV EPU. Our only thought is to entertain you. Feed me.

Results: panel 1: FJ AJEJA EJG IJG IJHIJFEJC EJE J ADJAGJAIDJH AAH DJGE JB CJ GIJ EJAJ JAAJ AIJA panel 2: HJ AIDJBA AHI JCEJCJAIA AAEJ FAAF EJB BAHI JD JA IJAIAA BCJGIJEJ AJJA AJAIJA panel 3: JJA CEJA EJCEJJJ AJ JA AEJDJAFEJ AEJJ. JAGJ ABA A1-PF convert (set A=1, B=2, C=3, …, J=0, K=A, … P=F) and reverse, recombine into 3-character groups, decode as decimal ASCII: panel 1: 109 101 100 105 097 032 057 048 118 049 107 104 105 053 056 098 097 097 051 050 106 media 90v1khi58baa32j http://mediafire.com/?90v1khi58baa32j unlockering.zip panel 2: 109 101 100 105 097 032 119 109 104 098 122 056 116 051 119 103 053 098 112 049 108 media wmhbz8t3wg5bp1l https://mediafire.com/?wmhbz8t3wg5bp1l breathless.zip panel 3: 12 107 100 051 056 104 051 100 100 053 051 053 100 ?kd38h3dd535d Unsure what to do with this at the moment, let’s look at those ZIPs… unlockering.zip contains unlockering.wav A Kansas City Standard encoded audio file.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_City_standard

Decoding yields a text file with some Vigenere text at the beginning and an ASCII art picture Vigenere with key ‘guineapix’:

The ginger one is called Daisy. She is a special needs pig. She has cataracts in both eyes and is blind. The little one with black nose ears and feet is called Lucy. The big ball of fluff is Annabel. Her breed is Swiss. The one with funky fur on the back end and ginger round the eyes is Boris. A neutered boar who lives with the girls.

breathless.zip contains breathless.wav A Kansas City Standard encoded audio file. Decoding yields a text file with some Vigenere text, decoded with key 'guineapix’:

Lottie, you’d like this. I was reading a book the other day. We’re in the information age, right? All of us, we’re just bombarded by too much information, all the time. Spam emails and social media. Doing really simple things becomes difficult, or complicated, or distracting. We’re all looking for a way to cut through all the noise. It’s easy to blend in and get ignored. It’s an atmosphere which rewards people who really stand out. You have to be bold and spicy and delicious. You’ve got to be a spirit. Can’t be a ghost. Dick Tracy’s on, I’m gonna shut the TV off. There are days when I think we could take over Pangent. The three of us. Take it over and make it right. Maybe that’s just a dream. Maybe that’s the thought that keeps me here. Our mutual friend Alex Schreyer has created a culture of secrecy and fear. He learned that from his dad. So we’re scared. Hiding behind layers of security. We don’t talk to each other. That’s not the way to make a scientific breakthrough. We need to share information. We need to talk to each other, brainstorm with each other. Care about one another. We could fix Pangent. Change everything about it. We could accomplish great things. But we’re scared. Scared of what we could actually do. Lottie, there’s something you wrote for the personality test. Technology. Information wants to be free. And progress belongs to the people. Companies will keep their secrets. They’ll copyright anything they can. But they’ll market it and sell it and blow it up all over the place. Well, information gets out, one way or another. Once you invent something, you can’t uninvent it. Sometimes you have to be real careful with what you put out into the world.

Pangent comic: Pipe https://pangenttechnologies.tumblr.com/post/158944279592

Original:

panel 2: NTA FJIAF EXATM QHPR YEBN NWFW Now Where could my pipe be? panel 3: MRFSAJPOJ!! Garfield panel 2: AFE JCEJB CJGIJ EJAJ JAAJ AIJA panel 3: GRONSFELD!! A1-PF on Panel 2, reverse, and group by 3’s: 109 101 100 105 097 032 053 056 1 media 58? Aha! Combine comic 2 panel 2 + comic 1 panel 3: 109 101 100 105 097 032 053 056 112 107 100 051 056 104 051 100 100 053 051 053 100 media 58pkd38h3dd535d https://mediafire.com/?58pkd38h3dd535d withourterrors.zip withourterrors.zip contains withouterrors.wav A Kansas City Standard encoded audio file. Decoding yields a text file with some Vigenere text, decoded with key 'argentinamayorsassenheim’: (ooh! a combination password)

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% C: Drinking Bird update. Thirteen months without any significant incident. Lucky. I’ll raise a glass to that. The Cube has stabilized to a degree I wouldn’t have thought possible when we began studying it at the beginning of 2017. Reluctant as I am to admit it, Leslie Walsh (aka MayorSassenheim) is responsible for most of that. She’s written code that keeps the Cube stable without real peaks and valleys, and it seems the Cube is capable of learning from that. If I trusted her, I’d leave her to her work and be done with it. I wish I could do that. The situation would be simpler. Officially, I left Project 555 a long time ago. L: you pinged me why did you ping me C: I didn’t. I was talking about you. It must have pinged you automatically L: “Drinking Bird update” jesus lottie C: What? L: you shouldn’t even be doing this who is that even an update for C: For myself. L: of course C: talking to myself thinking about myself it’s what I’m good at. L: i didn’t say that. turn your mic on i’m switching to voice. C: Over a year without any kind of disaster. Leave me alone, I’m celebrating. L: You’re lurking. In the shadows of a project you were fired from how long ago? C: I can do what I want. L: Yeah, I think that’s actually your job title at this point right? Like we don’t know what to do with Lottie and we don’t want any trouble, so I guess Lottie does what she wants. C: Leslie, I’ve been avoiding this conversation for awhile, and I’ve thought long and hard about what to say. So, here it is. Fuck off and die, Leslie, and also fuck you. L: How’s the kid? C: Beautiful. She’s the sun and the moon and the sky and the stars. She’s about six full time jobs, but Eric helps. He’s not bad at the whole father thing. L: Good. I’m glad. I’d like to see her. C: I don’t think that’s a good idea. L: I wish you’d let me be a part of your life again. C: Well, shit happens. L: What was I supposed to do? C: The four of you stole the project out from under me. L: Is that what you think happened? C: And now he’s in charge of all of it. L: Officially, he always was. None of that changed. C: You took control of my work. L: And nobody died. Nobody got hurt. Like you said, nothing happened for thirteen months. What should I have done? Leave it all to him? Dammit Lottie, I did this for you. I worked myself to death on this project, just to make sure it wouldn’t kill anybody. C: It wasn’t your responsibility. It wasn’t your burden to take on. It’s mine. L: Well, shit happens. C: This project, it drains you, it changes you. You shouldn’t have had to deal with that. It’s wrong what you did, and it’s wrong what it did to you. To both of us. L: Lottie, I did my best. Under the circumstances I tried to do what you would do. In my head it’s like I was you. C: That’s ridiculous. For one thing you’re smarter than me. L: No, I’m not. My god, I’m not. C: You are. L: This is a weird thing to say, but like … do you ever feel like you’re in the wrong timeline? Like you’re in a science fiction book about, what if the Nazis won World War II or something? Sometimes it feels like, this wasn’t supposed to happen. Like everything is wrong. C: Yes. I do feel that way sometimes. I think it’s called depression. L: Why do you hate me? C: I don’t hate you. I don’t want to hate you. We were friends and I love you. L: Lottie. C: But we can’t even be friends now and it’s bullshit. It’s him. Alex. And Liam. On their own they’d be almost harmless. The two of them together, they amplify each other’s worst qualities. L: Oh believe me, I know. Multiplying and dividing by a pair of zeroes. C: God, them and every other asshole I had to deal with and still stay halfway sane. L: Project Four. C: Project fuckin Four! Working at Pangent, it’s poison. It poisoned you and it poisoned me. Maybe I do hate you, Leslie. I hate what you did. I hate that you did it better than I could have. L: I miss you. C: Don’t be dramatic. We were only friends to get back at him. L: We were friends because we were friends. C: You know what he said to me, a couple weeks before he took control of 555? He said, I know that you and Leslie will always be friends. Didn’t sound great, coming from him. I think somewhere inside me, I made my mind up to prove him wrong. L: We could have talked this out. Dammit, we were friends. We were supposed to protect each other. C: Whatever that was, that was a moment in time, and times change. You’re stuck in a moment and you think that moment will last forever. But really a moment only comes once. L: I saw you, poking around in the code. Like the whole entire time. You weren’t super subtle about it. Were you trying to get my attention? C: Probably. Yes. L: Alex saw it too, I’m sure he did. C: I don’t care. L: I mean like I kept him from seeing the last build you did. Well, the second to last build. You should really have hidden that better. C: I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about. L: He isn’t spying on this chatroom. C: You don’t know that. You fucked me over so many times. You let him in through every backdoor. L: I let him play. Like, I let the baby have his bottle. It was gonna be a fucked up situation either way. C: That doesn’t mean I can ever feel safe again. L: I get that. I’m sorry. C: You should be. I should be. There’s a lot of sorry to go around. L: You finished it, didn’t you? 555. That was supposed to be a final build. Then you erased it. C: I stopped it before it finished uploading. L: It was a finished build. C: Compiled without errors. L: I thought so. What would happen if we ran that code? C: I don’t know. It’s gone. Deleted. Forever. L: I have the partial upload. C: Of course you do. L: I saw you uploading. I mean I started downloading the minute the transfer started. And yeah, so it cuts off at a certain point. So I found the matching point in your previous build and put two and four together. C: See, this is why I can’t trust you. L: I mean I don’t know everything you changed in that build but like I figure it was all pretty top level stuff and bug fixes, whatever was left. My copy is spliced together, but do you think it’s identical to the build you deleted? C: I don’t know. L: It compiled without errors. C: Leslie, no. Oh, I can’t breathe. L: I’ll ask you again. What would happen if we ran that code? C: I don’t know. I don’t know if I want to know. It’s dangerous. L: Of course it is. I mean that’s been the whole problem from the start. C: Yes. L: You finished the code. All of it. And then you deleted it. C: Yes. L: Are you glad I kept the data? C: Yes. God, I’m actually shaking. I hope he’s not listening to this. L: So, what do we do from here? C: I don’t know. Leslie, I’m sorry for not talking to you like a human being for so long. I didn’t know what to say and after awhile, it was just … I put it off too long. L: Not too proud of any of this myself. For reals we’ve both got a lot to pologize for. C: There’s a lot of sorry to go around. L: Yeah but like, I’d like to see you. You, with Eric, and Rachel, and Sharon too. C: Who is Sharon? %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

WTF??!!?! Wowzers.

Comic 3: Odie Pangent Version: https://pangenttechnologies.tumblr.com/post/158944845847

Original:

Randomiser transcribed/vigenered/A1-PF’d comics 3 & 4, I don’t have copies of the intermediate steps, just the finales: 640114011114754011541010018015017823795018115018019723201111231019017901123101401611230115012301111141148231218923001101811411101511101411231594234111017019911167 Comic 4: Lasagna Pangent Version: https://pangenttechnologies.tumblr.com/post/158945180237

Original:

After Vigenering ciphertext with original text, and converting A1-PF: 645111118017970171111151148236456231115013014111115011723201111231019017901123101401611230115012322101110141111167230115018117917231218923001101811411101511101411232594234111017019911167 These final strings may not look like anything, but if you reverse them and manually space them, you get 76 111 99 107 101 114 32 49 51 32 114 101 115 101 114 118 101 100 32 98 121 32 84 114 111 110 32 105 110 32 116 104 101 32 110 97 109 101 32 111 102 32 79 108 105 118 105 97 32 87 105 108 100 101 45 110 45 74 111 104 110 46 76 111 99 107 101 114 32 49 52 32 114 101 115 101 114 118 101 100 32 98 121 32 71 97 118 105 110 32 76 111 114 101 110 122 32 105 110 32 116 104 101 32 110 97 109 101 32 111 102 32 71 105 111 114 103 105 111 32 65 46 32 84 115 111 117 107 97 108 111 115 46 which is of course decimal ASCII:

Locker 13 reserved by Tron in the name of Olivia Wilde-n-John.

Locker 14 reserved by Gavin Lorenz in the name of Giorgio A. Tsoukalos.

Comic 5: Alone Pangent: https://pangenttechnologies.tumblr.com/post/158946474637

Original: (with the 'rest of the story’ to trigger your existential crisis)

GU RAT HFR EBA LQI SUI NHE RK UJ RSM OAN LNG CP HCA TNE VRE ZK OU BCI ONT IK SMO MBN ZN NEL MK KNM BQO RET PD NCO RCI OW NH RR TW FRE AWY JXD GN PO EJM HT PP NHO UQA CEN RID EJH SWA LXN HYO VC TI OD SH LEL DKR XAT PM RES FI which becomes FD AJA ABA AJA JJA HJA AAA AG BC JAA AJA DAA GI HJA GJA EJA HG BC BJA AAA BC AJA IJA GI JAA BC AJA DJA FAA BC JAA EJA BC JE ID GI CJA AJA IJA IG BC ABA HI BC JJA AJA HAA DAA AJA EAA AJA DAA BC CE ID BC DAA AJA GJA II AAA FG 64 101 121 101 001 801 111 17 23 011 101 411 79 801 701 501 87 23 201 111 23 101 901 79 011 23 101 401 611 23 011 501 23 05 94 79 301 101 901 97 23 121 89 23 001 101 811 411 101 511 101 411 23 35 94 23 411 101 701 99 111 67

Locker 15 reserved by Omega12 in the name of Niklaren Goldeye.

—– So everyone’s favorite Orange cat gave us bigtime story drops, and three locker reservations. Nice to get those on the books.

#puzzle #puzzle solution #human souls arg #submission

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hawk-in-a-jazzy-hat · 7 years

Text

Anime Review: Death Parade

Under a certain set of circumstances, two people may find themselves in a lift, entering an eerie but beautiful bar. The bartender will greet them, introducing the place as Quindecim. The two will then play a game; a game which they cannot abandon, and where they cannot leave until the game is completed. And a game with their very lives at stake.

The game could be anything from darts to bowling to air hockey to an arcade game, and while it may seem innocuous at first, as the game moves on the real stakes become clear. Quindecim is the afterlife, and the game will determine whether the players will go to heaven or hell.

An unnamed woman watches the games with Decim, the bartender and an Arbiter of souls. She sees the depths of human darkness, and the extremes of human response when placed in a fight for their life. And all the while, she needs to figure out what she herself is doing there.

It’s been a while getting round to this show, partly due to the insane amount of work I’ve had over the past few weeks, and partly because...this is one of those awkward kinds of shows which is really difficult to review. I’ve watched it twice now and my opinion on it hasn’t changed much, but having watched it on my own as well as watching it with an audience, Death Parade really is one of those kinds of shows where opinions and reactions are going to differ wildly for perfectly valid reasons. I’ll be blunt; Death Parade is not a nice show. But that doesn’t necessarily make it a bad show. But I’ll get to that.

I’ll start with the easy stuff; the animation. Madhouse is back, and they definitely had their quality shoes on for this show. It sounds weird because the actual animation is remarkably minimal; aside from a few choice scenes (including an ice skating scene that could put Yuri on Ice to shame) most of the show is talking heads. But it’s talking heads done right; the art style and the little animation details around the face really help sell the emotion and the character; subtle body language and especially facial expression is rare to see in anime, mostly due to the fact that TV anime is developed to be done on the cheap. Talking is usually relegated to a static head with a mouth flapping up and down, which is fair enough, but it means that when you do get something more visceral here it really stands out. On top of that the world looks beautiful; a mixture of spooky elevators with lavish and frankly gorgeous setpieces; Nona’s room, Oculus’s billiards room, and of course Quindecim itself, which is such a cool looking bar that I literally want to have a night out there, morbid reason for existing notwithstanding.

Most of the soundtrack you’re not really going to notice; it fits the mood, but honestly I was more focused on the actions of the characters than the soundtrack itself (which by the way is a good thing). There are a few exceptions; the ending is decent enough, as well as being LOUD, but the opening is truly amazing; a high-energy bouncing tune with adorable scenes of the main characters partying the night away. It’s a fantastic opening which, let’s be honest, does NOTHING to prepare you for the dour tone of the series. More of a standout however is a piece called Moonlit Night, played during the above-mentioned ice-skating scene. There’s no dialogue throughout its duration; it’s just a chance to let the music, the animation and the pure, raw emotion wash over you. It’s genuinely one of the most perfect scenes I’ve seen in any anime, and it so commands your attention that I just couldn’t spoil it with my ready-and-waiting WE WERE BORN TO MAKE HISTORY riff. You win this round Death Parade.

So from a production standpoint, Death Parade is a roaring success. But the story and characters? Eaeuehaucgh...hmm.

In all honesty, it’s not that difficult to follow. The early episodes are relatively episodic, introducing new characters each episode and showing little glimpses of the world, the Arbiters, and these people’s lives. In the latter half of the series we get more into the story of the unnamed woman and her relationship with Decim, who has some issues of his own. It’s all rather tight, aside from one absolutely hilarious episode with another Arbiter named Ginti, which has no real point in anything but is just so entertaining that I’m glad they left it in.

But here’s where we get to the real issue of the series, or at least, the real thing that’s going to turn off some people. Death Parade is a part of that great genre of speculative fiction, most notably the part that deals with ‘what-if’ scenarios. It’s not uncommon; Gunslinger Girl, Texhnolyze, Psycho-Pass, Wolf’s Rain, and outside of anime things like the Hunger Games, The Purge and pretty much every post-apocalyptic story out there. It’s a chance for writers to explore a question which could never happen in the real world, and explore the different human reactions to such a scenario, for better or for worse. In Death Parade’s case, that question is ‘what if human morality was judged solely on a binary scale’.

This is, of course, a deeply troubling and genuinely scary question, but the problem is not that Death Parade doesn’t explore it; it does, as we look into the minds of lovers, teenagers, the depressed, the abusive, and even killers. Death Parade explores the question and explores it well, but...at a distance. This is particularly notable in the early episodes, where the audience is put in the shoes of the unnamed woman and at Decim’s methods. We get some nice introspection from both of them on freedom to make mistakes, the argument of efficiency against personal interaction...but it’s all development to further Decim and the woman. The people who are brought in, despite being immensely relatable and, dare I say, human, are kept at a distance, making many of the games seem needlessly cruel. It’s not nfun seeing otherwise decent people being broken over the course of twenty minutes for the sake of data. After all, they’re human, and so am I (I think). Many of the games have very twisted endings which leave a sour note in the mouth.

But you know what? I actually don’t mind. See, the show is very well aware of this; that is the purpose of the unnamed woman, to explore the flaws of black-and-white judgement and the intricacies of human life. I would say there’s really no point in asking the question since we know it’s wrong, but at the same time...I’m not sure everyone does, particularly in the current political climate. Many people on social media (yes, including my good buddy Tumblr here) are so quick to judge and vilify a person on a few choice aspects; people are good (pure) or evil (problematic). I jest somewhat, but the fact is that some people are willing to denounce an entire group of people just for a political choice, despite the fact that such a choice, whatever it may be, is not necessarily going to be for the same reason. Like it or not, everybody on this planet is human, and human choices are not binary. You can like or dislike people as you wish; that’s your right as a human. But you are not the final say on how to judge them.

I’m going off on a tangent again, but honestly that’s why I don’t mind Death Parade’s ‘hands-off’ approach, since it’s both exploratory in human behaviour while being completely aware that what it’s doing is wrong. That cold approach will understandably be a turn off for many, but I think it works.

So does that mean that Death Parade’s story is only flawed in concept? Well...no, there is another big problem which I cannot provide a defence for. We learn a lot about the couples who enter Decim, and we get some nice development for Decim and the woman, but as for the rest of the afterlife? The only people who really get any significant screentime are Ginti and Nona; Quin, Clavis and Oculus are pretty much just glance over despite being very interesting characters. And this leads to another problem; it’s all very well to introduce the binary judgement idea, but without having any real insight to how this world works, there’s really no purpose for the show since it really doesn’t provide any backing for the idea itself. The most we get is a few lines from Oculus on efficiency, and the creation of Arbiters to enable that efficiency. In fact Oculus really suffers the most from the lack of worldbuilding; we don’t know anything about his past, his motives, his rational, anything really. He’s just the boss, and things occur down to how he says because...he’s the boss, I guess? It’s even harder to defend the series’ very concept when the series itself gives no actual justification for it.

So for all my ranting, you may think I don’t like this show. And yeah, compared to other what-if shows it is deeply flawed; far too short, far too shallow in some aspects and just twisting the knife in others. But for all its problems, when the show gets it right, it gets everything so very very right. Decim and the woman are the stars here, and when the series is drawing to a close and the cards are (literally) being laid out on the table, it makes for one of the most gripping, most emotional, and frankly, one of the best endings I’ve ever seen. It’s rare that messy buildup leads to phenomenal payoff, but it certainly does here. The ice-skating scene above builds into that, but with the end to Ginti and Nona’s little arcs, as well as a truly brutal final twist, the whole thing is just an emotional ride which actually feels earned.

And here’s the thing about the ending; nothing much really changes. Which I know is another turn-off for some people, but I have to disagree. In many cases, I can’t get into endings where everything ends up perfectly, where there’s a single answer which solves everything and everybody gets what they deserve. I get it; it’s fiction, it’s supposed to be satisfying. But there are different levels to satisfying. It’s part of the reason why I do not like the ending to FullMetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, and think the 2003 ending surpasses it in so many ways. It’s so easy in fiction to write in a ‘let’s fix everything’ button, but it’s not how life works, and I can’t get into a show which does that. That doesn’t mean that all endings need to be depressing, but satisfaction can come just as effectively in little victories as it does in big ones. Even if a show ends in much the same way as it begins, there are often little things which add to the hope, and allow the viewer to cling to that hope. Psycho-Pass ends like that, as does WATAMOTE, and Seven Deadly Sins. Yeah, there are still big, systematic problems. But the characters are winning, slowly but surely. They’re not there yet, and they may not get there in their lifetimes, but there’s still no reason not to fight. I’ll admit, I’m biased. It’s how I see life. No matter how bad things get, it’s always worth fighting a little harder to try and make a better world. To quote that great oracle Belinda Carlisle; we’ll make heaven a place on earth.

I’m rambling again. Tl;dr; Death Parade has a phenomenal ending. Not much changes, aside from Decim who has become stronger than ever before. He’s not there yet. The system is still flawed. But it’s getting there. Sometimes, that’s enough.

Death Parade is a very divisive series and I can see why. It’s based on a twisted concept with no real reason for that concept, nor any true justification within the series itself. Self-awareness isn’t enough without any actual connection to either the world or the victims of that world. However, I’ll admit I still think it’s an interesting question, and even if the world is flawed, the story of the two central characters completely saves this show, creating one of the most emotionally gripping relationships I’ve yet seen, with one of the best endings. Add to that a stunning production design all round, and you’ve got yourself a show which honestly you owe yourself a watch, or at least a try. If you can get past the dodgy concept, you’ll find there are gems waiting at the end. It’s not for everyone, but for the few who do like it, I’m sure you’ll love it.

My score: 8/10

Next time, I take a break from gritty realism and moral quandaries as we focus on the adorable exploits of a cute little girl and her merry band of mages in Saga of Tanya the...

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#anime review #death parade #anime 2015 #studio madhouse

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