WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Platinum End Episode 4, "Time to Assemble," now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Mirai Kakehashi's humble quest to find happiness in Platinum End must wait. He has been thrust into a heavenly but deadly battle royale with 12 other God candidates, and now he and Saki must face their greatest rival yet: the armored Metropoliman, who has been dominating the scene so far. And as Episode 4 reveals, he's not alone.
Metropoliman has the advantage in the battle royale by hiding his face with his suit, so he can swap places with body doubles and trick his enemies -- which he does at the Jinbo Baseball Stadium, where he's invited the other God candidates to meet him. Two armored extras have also been recruited to the cause, and even he uses the red arrow on a tween girl with angel wings. This is not unlike Light and L's tricks in Death Note.
At the stadium, two new God candidates named Metro Yellow and Metro Blue believe they have Metropoliman outnumbered -- but in reality, he has them outnumbered instead. To begin with, Metropoliman has already used his red arrow on an ordinary man and given him an identical armored suit, and the sinister warrior and his double often switch places in the stadium and on the jumbotron's screen. This tricks Metro Blue and Yellow into lowering their guard around what they think is Metropoliman's harmless double, only for the "double" to be the real thing, fully armed.
This may be the main reason why Metropoliman has been wearing a superhero-style suit of armor so far: to hide his face, and make it easier for stunt doubles to take his place during clashes with other God candidates. This is one of Platinum End's many borrowed ideas from the creators' older series, Death Note, where characters such as Light and especially L regularly used other people to take their place or lure out their enemies. An early example is the Lind L. Tailor trick on TV, when L fooled Light into killing a false L and thus proving Kira's existence. Now, in Platinum End, Metropoliman is willing to use not just the media, such as Sakura TV, but innocent people to keep his enemies guessing.
Thanks to his stunt double, Metropoliman can trip up his enemies, but his Death Note-style tricks don't end there. He uses more people to fool Metro Yellow and Blue, and even Mirai and his new ally Saki cannot predict his next move. During Episode 4, a tween girl with angel wings and no arrows arrives, and Metropoliman hits her with the red arrow to control her. The winged girl swoops down on the stadium to swap his stunt double with the real one while Metro Yellow and Blue are preoccupied, proving her worth to Metropoliman's cause. Metro Blue and Yellow don't catch on until it's too late, proving they are already underestimating their deadly opponent's allies.
Metropoliman has two more allies on his side -- Metro Pink and Metro Green, neither of whom are actually God candidates. He allows them to approach Metro Yellow and Blue as potential allies, but they are merely bait to allow Metropoliman to strike. Metro Pink and Green are revealed as regular humans in armored suits who haven't even been struck with Metropoliman's red arrows ahead of time. This allows Metro Yellow and Blue to hit them with their own arrows and think they are in control of the situation.
Metro Pink and Green were not recruited with red arrows but with monetary bribes, which is something a Death Note character might do. Metropoliman will use any means necessary to get ahead, including treating real people like chess pieces and putting their lives at risk for his sake. In this sense, Platinum End continues a grim Death Note tradition where ambitions are realized at the price of innocent lives, and people don't realize they are being used until it's too late. And this is just the beginning -- many more God candidates are still out there, and Metropoliman will use however many people he must to take those rivals down.
