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I'm watching Death Parade right now and I just heard about Death Billiards, which seems to be a predecessor work for Death Parade. A one-shot of sorts, or so it seems. I'd like to know without spoiling the rest of D.P. how the two works are related, and if it's recommended to watch D.B. before D.P.

Update: After seeing Death Billiards, I'd say it's best to watch it after episode 2 of Death Parade, but before episode 7. D.B. is pretty much like the first episode of D.P., but with different bar customers.

Cattua
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Hakase
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    If you have watched Death Parade, then it will spoil Death Billiards for you. – nhahtdh Feb 22 '15 at 21:44
  • @nhahtdh On the contrary, it won't spoil Death Billards as stated in the answer below. Even if you've watched all the current episodes of Death Parade and then watched Death Billards, it'd really be no different than from thinking that Death Billards was another episode of Death Parade. – FatalSleep Feb 24 '15 at 14:26
  • @FatalSleep: Not really. The answer below says that it is just another game episode, and some of the surprises have been revealed in Death Parade. If you have watched Death Billiards first, then you would need to rewatch it several times to get all the small details. All of them (for better or worse) are explained outright in Death Parade. – nhahtdh Feb 24 '15 at 14:50
  • That's true, however it wouldn't necessarily change the value of the show any. I watched Parade then Billards as well and found it to still be quite interesting. While the trick overall is spoiled, it doesn't necessarily mean that that takes everything away from the characters and the situation. – FatalSleep Feb 24 '15 at 15:25

2 Answers2

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Death Billiards was an OVA, and indeed a 'once-off' type of show. It's very similar to the current series and you could probably drop it in as a longer episode.

Some of the surprises will have already been revealed in Death Parade, but it should still be entertaining as it's mostly focusing on the billiards, rather than what goes on behind the bar.

It's the same location and such, just billiards instead of darts or another game. It's not necessary viewing for Death Parade either as there aren't any plot points that haven't been covered by the first few episodes.

Toshinou Kyouko
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It probably makes the most sense to watch Death Billiards before Death Parade because it is a pilot episode and the TV series makes a passing reference to the bar customers from the movie. Chronologically speaking, the story of Death Billiards takes place sometime after episode 5 and before episode 10 of Death Parade.

If you take note of the roulette board in Death Billiards, it actually featured Chavvot. This roulette board was only switched in from the beginning of episode 5 of Death Parade at Nona's request. In the first four episodes of Death Parade (and in episode 6 at Ginti's bar), the roulette board only had a generic symbol on it.

The old woman who died and arrived at Quindecim in episode 10 of Death Parade was revealed to be the wife of the old man in Death Billiards, as shown on her set of cards and in her flashback. Also, during a flashback of the old man in Death Billiards, it was hinted that he passed away before his wife. Therefore, Death Billiards should occur before episode 10 of Death Parade.

@nhahtdh made a good argument that we could further restrict the occurrence of the events in Death Billiards to that before episode 8

if we take Chiyuki's mentality into consideration. She couldn't have been as relaxed as was shown at the end of Death Billiards if she had just sat through the trial of the two killers in episodes 8 and 9.

If you want to watch Death Billiards in between the Death Parade episodes, you should watch it after episode 6 and before episode 7 (or 8, the next best choice) because the only billiards game in Death Parade is played in episode 7, which lasted only about 90 seconds and commenced without any explanation to the rules of the game, so it would be a nice continuity to finish the movie first and then jump back to watch episode 7.

TL;DR: Watch Death Billiards either before episode 1 or in-between episodes 6 and 7 of Death Parade.

Gao
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