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The highly anticipated Platinum End anime’s premiere episode introduces Nesse the angel, but she thinks more like a devil in Mirai’s eyes.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Platinum End Episode 1, “Gift From an Angel,” now streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation, as well as discussion of suicide and self-harm.
The fall 2021 anime season has begun, and Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata of Death Note fame have an exciting new series: Platinum End. This supernatural story stars Mirai Kakehashi as a miserable junior high graduate who sees no hope in his life — until Nesse the mischievous angel swoops in.
Mirai tries to take his own life in Platinum End‘s first episode, but Nesse rescues him and grants him the powers of an angel. She may look angelic, but Nesse has the mind of a devil, and even Mirai knows it. Eventually though, Mirai may need to become a devil himself to complete his new mission.
Nesse grants Mirai the wings and the divine arrows of an angel. Mirai can fly at incredible speeds with these wings, and can shoot other humans to great effect with the arrows. With the red arrows of love, Mirai can order people around and take advantage of their intense love for him, and with the white arrows, he can kill someone with a single shot. Mirai accepts the powers of his wings, but hesitates to take full advantage of the red and white arrows — he already fears what he is capable of.
Happily explaining the function of these arrows to her new human client, Nesse watches calmly as Mirai shoots his aunt with a red arrow to control her. Then, overwhelmed with guilt after admitting her part in Mirai’s family’s murder, his aunt takes her own life. Mirai and his uncle watch in horror, while Nesse merely comments on her fellow angel, who arrives to take the aunt’s soul to Heaven. To Nesse, one human is only as good as another, and she never flinches from gruesome human deaths, contrasting sharply with Mirai.
As Platinum End‘s premiere continues, Nesse also flippantly encourages Mirai to use his wings and arrows to steal food and control people at will, thereby sustaining himself as an angelic criminal. He can hardly believe Nesse’s brutal attitude and refuses to abuse his gifts, vowing instead to find ordinary human happiness through ordinary means. This disappoints Nesse, who clearly wants a show. She is no ordinary angel — rather, she’s a proactive and excitable being who wants to watch humans do cool things with their powers. In that way, she is similar to Ryuk the Shinigami in Death Note, who finds Light Yagami’s killing spree entertaining rather than concerning.
Nesse has no serious objections to Mirai’s humble goal to find human happiness, but she also has a bloody new mission for him that may interfere with his own desires. Nesse explains that God is absent, and thirteen human candidates have been chosen to compete and see who is worthy to replace God. Mirai stands as one of those thirteen, and must face the other twelve candidates with his angelic powers and prove his worth. Given his position, he cannot easily back out of this, and his pacifistic attitude may sabotage him in the upcoming competition.
Mirai finds Nesse’s brutal and flippant attitude about death troubling, but he may need to start seeing things her way if he intends to survive. He can handle ordinary life without his brutal angelic powers, but when the other God candidates cross paths with him, he’ll have to fight and can’t be squeamish about his abilities or the consequences of his actions. Mirai is a peaceful boy who must embrace war, and no doubt Nesse will egg him on as the competition heats up. If Mirai intends to win this divine game, he must learn to accept Nesse’s devil side and become a devil himself. As Platinum End continues, he’ll have to shed more blood — and learn to like it.
For more information on the warning signs and prevention of suicide, click here. If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or considering suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). If you live outside the U.S., click here for a list of international hotlines.
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