Based on a short film, the Death Parade anime gave an incredibly inventive and downright intoxicating look at what happens between life and death. Featuring a bartender of souls and an ageless battle to determine the afterlife, the anime is the work of the acclaimed studio Madhouse.
It's been six years since Season 1's release, however, making the series now fairly forgotten in the grand scheme of things. With its lack of potential story threads going forward and the growing period of silence from Madhouse, Death Parade may in fact be deceased itself. Here's what the anime is about, along with what we know about a potential second season.
The Plot of Death Parade
Death Parade was spawned from the plot of an earlier Madhouse short film called Death Billiards, in which two deceased men, one younger and one older, play a game of billiards at a bar for their lives -- before realizing they're already dead. This movie came out in 2013, with the Death Parade anime adaptation releasing two years later. The relationship between the bartender Decim and his assistant Chiyuki is explored throughout the show, and it becomes integral in the latter's final fate.
Decim's bar is the last place a deceased person is sent to before their afterlife fate is decided. In the bar, they proceed to play a Death Game that determines whether or not they'll be reincarnated into another life or simply erased in the void of nothingness. The episodes were somewhat self-contained while also feeding into each other, making the story's unique premise stand out even more.
Will There Be a Season 2 of Death Parade?
As mentioned, the show released in 2015, and there has been no news regarding a sequel or follow-up since. The lack of a continuation isn't exactly out of the norm for a Madhouse anime, however. The studio is known for producing shows that only last one season -- especially if it's an original series not based on a preceding manga or light novel.
Although there was the short film that came before it, Death Parade already expanded on that movie's concepts quite a bit considering its 12-episode length. Thus, continuing from there would take a lot more effort than adapting a pre-existing intellectual property. When combined with the immense span of time since Season 1, the most likely circumstance is that Madhouse has simply moved on with no plans on making future seasons.
