After death, there is no heaven or hell, but there is a bar where some souls go that decides whether you reincarnate or disappear into oblivion.
Pairs of the recently deceased must play a random game which decides their fate while an arbiter looks on in silent judgement.
While it could have just been really intense games of people breaking and showing their worst sides, Death Parade is a surprisingly ponderous series about life, death and the actions we took or didn’t take. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Death Parade, then head on down below.
Anime Like Death Parade
For Fans of What Happens After We Die
Angel Beats
One evening, Otonashi wakes up in a strange place and a strange girl with a gun tells him he is dead.
Trying to recruit him to her organization that rebels against God, Otonashi decides to talk to her enemy, a mysterious girl named Angel. After she kills him for being too literal, he finds himself siding with the SSS Battlefront and the oddballs within.
What happens after you die? In both series the characters end up in a form of purgatory.
While Death Parade has a driving goal for those that visits, Angel Beats essentially just invites the visitors to enjoy some youthful adventures.
While both have surprisingly emotional moments, Angel Beats has them in greater bulk, but also has some amazing comedy as well to break things up. Death Parade, by comparison, is more serious and melancholy, often made only cheerful by its opening credits.
Haibane Renmei
Rakka is an amnesiac who only remembers emerging from her cocoon. She is born into the world as a Haibane, a group of young people who have small gray wings and halos.
While she tries to live a normal life, there is much that the Haibane don’t know and must figure out.
Both are about what happens to a person after death in a certain type of purgatory.
Of course, Haibane Renmei never says as much, as it is a series that revels in metaphor and symbolism as more artistic anime is want to do.
While Death Parade can be emotional, Haibane Renmei is more about an overall tone of oppressive melancholy and mystery. It can be a heavy watch, but interesting for those ponderous about the afterlife.
Hell Girl
It is said that those who hold a powerful grudge can access a particular website at midnight. By entering a name here, that person can be ferried straight to hell.
This is the tale of Ai Enma, the Hell Girl that carries out those orders.
Both shows are episodic in which you watch distinctly contemplative tales come to life and go on a ponderous journey in your own head. Both shows also deal with the worthiness of one’s soul.
However, whereas Death Parade is about judgement, Hell Girl is more about allowing the audience to make their own judgements. Decim judges, Ai just carries out requests.
For Fans of Judgement
Shigofumi
When someone dies, their last words – words that couldn’t be said while alive – are sent in letters called shigofumi.
Fumika is a mail carrier for these letters. A mail carrier is supposed to be a deceased human that looks the same as they did when they died, but despite this, Fumika is still aging.
Both of these shows are episodic in nature, meaning that each episode is a new tale.
However, you also have the overarching story of the main characters as the tales they watch unfold influence them and their beliefs.
Bartender
Ryuu Sasakura is a genius bartender and famous for his incredible cocktails.
Seeking his Glass of God, individuals from all walks of life visit his bar to drink his cocktails, bend his ear, and, most of all, get help for their problems.
Both series take place in a bar in which the visitors tend to pour out their soul in front the the bartender.
Bartender isn’t strictly about judgement, but like Death Parade, it is heavy on self reflection.
Psycho-Pass
In the 22nd century, the justice system has changed. The Sibyl System now determines the threat level of each citizen by examining their mental state for criminal intent. This has become known as their Psycho-Pass.
Once criminal intent has been identified, Inspectors like Akane Tsunemori are in charge of subjugating them.
However, this tough job is not without dangers. This is why Inspectors are paired with Enforcers, like Shinya Kougami, latent criminals with just the right amount of psychopathy to keep other criminals in their place.
While both shows are of distinctly different genres, they explore many of the same aspects of judgement.
Is it wrong to pass judgement on people who haven’t committed crimes yet? Are the games that bring out the true nature of a person actually just crafting that nature? They are both highly contemplative like that.
Death Note
Light Yagami is a high school prodigy and genius. However, he has an ever-increasing boredom and disdain for the rotten violent world.
One day, he happens upon a notebook, called a Death Note, which states that if you write a name in it, the person will die. To his surprise, the notebook’s claims turn out to be true.
This Death Note, the property of the Shinigami gods of death, gives Light the power to change this world and he decides to become its new God by executing all criminals.
While Death Note is mostly about a school-boy-turned-killer-subsequently-turned-twisted-god trying to outsmart the detectives trying to catch him, the series is all about judgement.
Light views himself as one that can judge people, worthy of it if only because he has the power to. He kills criminals with his death note because he believes that they deserve death for their crimes.
That power, given to a mortal teenager, gets a bit out of hand. Perhaps not giving arbiters human emotions was the right move when compared to Death Note.
Angels of Death
Rachel awakens to find herself trapped in the basement of an abandoned building. After wandering around – lost, dizzy, and without her memories – she happens across a man in full bandages named Zack.
While at first he tries to kill her, eventually they come to an agreement. Together, they try to find a way to escape from their bizarre circumstance. In return for his help, Rachel offers up her own life to him.
Both Death Parade and Angels of Death invite the audience to stew on the judgement of beings featuring varying degrees of morality.
Angels of Death has no “good guys,” unlike some of the visitors to Quindecim, but not all the killers are awful people either.
Furthermore, like Death Parade, in Angels of Death, the main female character has no memories and the overall plot is pretty focused in both shows on her recovering those memories.
For Fan of Intense Games That Bring Out The Darkness
Kakegurui
Hyakkaou Private Academy is an institution for the elite of society with a very special curriculum. These students are the children of the wealthiest people in the world, but they won’t need athletic prowess or book smarts for a successful life, they will need to know the art of the deal and how to read people.
So instead of traditional classes, this school features a curriculum of rigorous gambling where the winners live like kings and the losers suffer.
However, they haven’t seen anything yet until they meet new student Yumeko Jabami.
Both series are about playing simple games with high stakes.
However, while Death Parade is emotional and occasionally ponderous, Kakegurui is addictive in its energy and twisted facial expressions.
Regardless, both series can show you the worst side of humanity when humans are put under pressure.
No Game No Life
In the real world, siblings Shiro and Sora are NEET shut-ins. However, in the virtual world, they are a legendary gaming duo. One day, after a strange email, they find their reality taken away as they are transported to the realm of Tet, God of Games.
Here, Shiro and Sora must play games to defeat the sixteen races of this world as well as Tet in order to become the new gods.
While in Death Parade the game is just a catalyst and nothing is actually decided based on winning or losing, No Game No Life isn’t often about the outcome of a game either.
In No Game No Life, you can be almost completely sure the genius main characters will win whatever the play. Like in Death Parade, the interest comes from the clever twists and turns that happen while playing, not so much the outcome.
Kaiji
Kaiji Itou is a thug in the truest sense. With his days spent drinking and stealing hubcaps, his world is turned upside down when a co-worker tricks him into taking on a huge debt.
In order to pay it off, Kaiji takes up a shady offer to participate in illegal gambling on a cruise ship that is filled with even worse scumbags than him.
Both series offer similar high stakes game-playing, though not so much with your afterlife on the line in Kaiji. Both shows really highlight how ugly people can be when stressed.
Tomodachi Game
Although he suffers from financial hardship, Yuuichi Katagiri has always been kept positive by his friends. They even inspired him to furiously work in order to get the funds to go on the school trip with them. Unfortunately, when the gathered money goes missing, his friends are blamed.
Days later, the friends all get mysterious letters that end up with them being force to join a Tomodachi Game where each game they win together lowers a debt.
However, when betrayal and secrets start pouring out, these simple games become a malicious test of trust.
While Tomodachi Game is more about watching a friend group collapse in on itself from various lies and plots, like in Death Parade, that darkness comes out while they are playing rather simple games.
In fact, the purpose of Tomodachi Game often seems very akin to the purpose of the games in Death Parade – to break people with stress so they’ll show their real selves.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Death Parade? Let fans know in the comments section below.
