Dead Mount Death Play

Episodes 1-2

Dead Mount Death Play is built around two twists on the usual isekai formula. First, a person from a fantasy world is reincarnated in our own—making it a reverse-isekai. The second is that it's not the hero that is reincarnated but the villain.

The first episode is centered around these twists—introducing us to this world and our reincarnated protagonist, who takes the body and identity of the recently-assassinated young man, “Polka.” Of course, this leads to equal parts comedy and action as school-girl assassin Misaki returns to finish the job. Of course, she never expected he could use magic—and he never expected to be in a world where potions that can heal being run through by a giant skeletal hand don't exist.

The second episode, on the other hand, is all about character development for our odd couple. Despite being the big bad of a fantasy world, Polka's far from unsympathetic. Long ago, he was a hero. However, his country eventually fell, and he, being immortal, lived a simple life with a group of orphans. Yet, being a lich comes with its own baggage, and soon all those he cared for were killed by overzealous religious types because of their association with him. After that, things went about as badly as you would expect—for the world at large, anyway.

But more than just telling us Polka's back story, this episode also shows us that his instinct to protect children hasn't changed for centuries. Seeing kids in danger and having the power to save them compels him to act—even when facing a small army of gun-wielding criminals. He may be an inhuman monster responsible for the deaths of countless people, but that doesn't mean he's all that bad.

On the other hand, Misaki was an ordinary girl until her parents were brutally murdered in front of her. From there, she fell into the criminal underworld—becoming an assassin who killed any assassin that stepped out of line. While this was partly done for revenge (as the person who killed her parents has been an assassin), it was also done for the love of the kill. Once she got her revenge, she wanted to know if she felt joy from killing murderers or just killing in general. Finding out it was the latter, she decided to kill herself—only to be distracted when she learned the innocent she killed was alive again (leading to her encounter with Polka in episode 1).

All this makes Misaki just as sympathetic as Polka and highlights their link. Both of them watched their families be brutally murdered and turned to a life of blood and retribution in response. They are both victims and villains. But perhaps together, they can become something closer to heroes in a world that's suddenly got much weirder.

Episode 1 Rating:
Episode 2 Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• Polka's embarrassment at realizing he was trash-talking a corpse is peak comedy.

• Misaki seems pretty cool with the whole “being a zombie” thing. So does Clarissa, for that matter.

• Takumi does a fine job at being the straight man, but right now he's more of a plot/comedy device than a character

• So we're just going to ignore that drone flying without using its propellers? Okay then.

Dead Mount Death Play is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.