Episode 23 – Dead Mount Death Play

This episode is mostly a setup for the big action climax in the next episode. Each of the characters is paired off—Polka >< Civil, Misaki >< Lulu, Xiaoyu >< Soara, and Cops >< Fire-Breathing Bug. Everyone has their enemy and goal. We even get a tease for several of these fights—keeping things tense and exciting. However, the most important thing to set up is a final confirmation of motivations—to make sure we all understand the stakes behind this fight and why there are no other options.

Simply put, Civil is looking for a place to belong. He was supposed to become Arius—yet, Arius’s soul never came. He was rejected and abandoned for reasons unknown to him. And so he got the idea that he didn’t belong in this world but in the fantasy one—and was willing to help (and use) the cult to achieve his goal of getting there.

Of course, there was always a second option: turn this world into a fantasy world. Until meeting Polka, Civil couldn’t use external magic and was thus unable to change the world on his own. However, now that he’s awakened, he can do so. That said, a necromancer’s powers would be far more effective than his own. After all, what could change the world more fundamentally than the promise of eternal life? If Polka wanted to, he could instantly conquer the world by offering that gift to those who followed him.

But what Civil doesn’t understand is that Polka doesn’t want any of that. He has no desire to rule and no reason to return to the fantasy world where he is hunted and persecuted. At the start of the series, Polka was an undead being who wanted nothing more than to be left alone in peace. As the series went on, he added to that, wanting to live happily with those he cared about. However, this season, he was forced to go on the offensive—forgoing peace to ensure the safety of those he cared about.

In this episode, Polka takes one more step along his journey. Regardless of his wants and dreams, his very existence in our world has made him a lightning rod for the dangerous and the power-hungry. Now, the streets of Shinjuku are literally on fire, and magical monsters and mages are battling it out. There’s no covering it up this time.

Polka has to choose: either fight endlessly (and likely futilely) to protect himself and his friends or defeat the immediate threat and disappear. And so he chooses the latter. With this, we are nearing the end of Polka’s character arc. He’s gone from selfish to selfless—now caring far more for the happiness and safety of others than his own. And while he may be willing to play the villain to achieve his victory, it’s not hard to see who the hero truly is.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• So not only are Polka and the Real Polka brothers but their mother is an elf woman who somehow came to our world in body rather than spirit? I have so many questions.

• I’m confused about how Civil’s magic works. I thought you needed to draw on spirits to do magic—be that elemental spirits or spirits of the deceased (unless you had a supply of jewels as Polka does). But aren’t there far fewer of them in our world than in the fantasy world?

• I’m happy Misaki is tasked with saving the Real Polka. She starts the story by killing him and ends it by saving him.

• List of unaccounted wildcards: Phantom Solitaire, Bao, and Majiri.

Dead Mount Death Play is currently streaming on
Crunchyroll.