REVIEW: ‘Dead Mount Death Play,’ Episode 4 – “The Mad Dog”

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Between the rescue at the burning building and his reducing a group of hitmen into a human knot, Polka has landed on the radar of a special police task force dedicated to solving bizarre crimes. But when one of their members runs into Polka and Misaki, he comes close to biting off more than he can chew. To make matters worse, something lurking in the shadows may be able to put fear into even The Corpse God in Dead Mount Death Play Episode 4.

The biggest element of this week’s episode is the introduction of Materials Compiling Group #3, Comps-3 for short, who are investigating cases that will never be made public and are too bizarre for anyone to believe if they did. Their team leader, Tsubaki Iwanome, projects the aura of a determined leader who pursues his targets doggedly. While their leader owns their initial introduction, one of their other officers, Kouzaburou Arase, holds center stage for a good portion of the episode.

Through a random encounter between Arase, Misaki, Polka, and Takumi, this episode can do a lot of work. While it, first and foremost, does a fantastic job of establishing Arase’s character and what he is willing to do, he may be on the law enforcement side. Still, he doesn’t feel like a “good guy,” the episode also uses the encounter to flesh out more of Takumi and Polka’s personalities.

Dead Mount Death Play Episode 4 reveals some of Takumi’s past, his history with Arase, and where he stands with his allies. I appreciated how uncompromising the show is with how it builds Takumi’s character here. The man behind the drones gives nothing but honesty in his accounting of the parts of his past that are exposed through Arase’s appearance.

While Takumi’s moment is heartfelt and wonderfully crafted, Polka again steals the scene. His response to Takumi’s confessions about himself and what he is willing to do are so great I can’t believe I’ve never heard someone say it before. While the concept of introducing someone as a bad guy only for it to turn out they are good isn’t new, I can’t think of a time it has been implemented as well as this show is doing for Polka.

While much of Dead Mount Death Play Episode 4 focuses on character, it ends with introducing a threat that looks powerful enough even to give Polka pause. The first hint that some measure of a magic user existing in the modern world outside of our reincarnated necromancer, how the show introduces this new threat is a chilling moment thanks to the awesomely delivered visuals. While I wouldn’t call the series a horror show overall, when it decides to deliver on those themes, it does.

Dead Mount Death Play Episode 4 continues to build up the cast while still keeping the plot moving in an engaging and fun way. With next week’s episode ripe for a real battle, it will be interesting to see just how much power Polka can still wield now that he is trapped in our world.

Dead Mount Death Play Episode 4 is streaming on Crunchyroll.