Dead Mount Death Play

Episodes 13-14

I think much of what makes these first two episodes of Dead Mount Death Play's second part so enjoyable is what they don't do—namely double down on all the troublemakers. So easily, this could become a retread of the first part. We could have had more antics with Phantom Solitaire—more appearances of Lemmings and the Fire-Breathing Bug. Instead, all these characters are almost completely absent from the first few episodes. This in turn allows the story to go in a new direction, even while recognizing the fallout of the big superpower battle that capped off the first part.

The new threat to our heroes comes in two directions. The first is the media. Kochou, a reporter with an instinct for a good story, is interested in Polka and his potential connection to all the weird stuff happening around his place of work. This causes the police to back off but puts Polka and the crew in an unwanted spotlight—with Kochou wanting to use a test of the validity of Polka's powers as a way to dig deeper into what's going on. All this adds a good amount of tension. Of course, no matter her skill as a reporter, she'll never be able to guess Polka is a necromancer from another world. However, her attention on them limits what they can do. One small slip-up could mean the end of Polka's peaceful life.

At the same time, the group is also under attack from another source. Someone has hired the Agakura Clan (the same group that dismembered Xiaoyu) to kill one of Clarissa's bartenders, put the body in Polka's building, and alert the cops. This raises an interesting mystery about who is behind it and who the target is.

We know from the attempted assassination of Phantom Solitaire that some of the cops are members of the other world cult. Seeing the cult's reaction to Polka's ghost hands in the last arc would imply that Polka is the target of what's going on. However, this murder setup is the same as what happened to cop-turned-pencil Hosorogi—and in the same place as well. Then there is the fact that Clarissa owns the building and the dead man is one of her employees—perhaps making her the true target of the frame job.

All this makes for a great mystery—not due to a lack of clues but rather the opposite. We know so much it's hard to determine which facts are important and which are extraneous. Add into this the personal side of things—i.e., Momoya's interest in Xiaoyu, Tsubaki's fixation on Hosorogi's death, and Takumi's past with Kuon—and we have a powder keg set to go off at the slightest wrong move. In other words, it's a good start to the new arc.

Episode 13 Rating:

Episode 14 Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• Misaki's conversation with Taipei is an important one. She wants it to be known that she doesn't view the Heilei as allies regardless of their service to the Shinomiya clan. Her only goal is to protect Polka—likely both the Corpse God and the Real Polka—and it doesn't matter to her who she has to kill to keep them safe.

• I like that, despite her often stern attitude, Clarissa truly cares for her people—and will go out of her way to keep them both happy and safe.

• I love the little anticlimax of the body discovery scene—that Polka just reanimated two skeletons who moved the corpse into the same secret passage that was used to put it there in the first place. No big deal.

• Huh, so Xiaoyu has a sister named Imbi who is either tapped into Taipei's communications or is spying on Xiaoyu from somewhere nearby.

Dead Mount Death Play is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.