A necromancer called The Corpse God is fighting against the Church, that is trying to subjugate him. Using his last ounce of power against the Calamity Crusher, he gets defeated but his reincarnation magic activates. Suddenly, he got transported into a world of modern society and in the body of kid Polka Shinoyama. What is gonna happen to him in this world? What will he do?
Dead Mount Death Play is a seinen manga, written by Ryohgo Narita (of Baccano! and Durarara!! fame) and illustrated by Shinta Fujimoto. It began serialization in Square Enix's Young Gangan magazine in 2017, and is licensed for English distribution by Yen Press.
On November 15, 2022, an anime adaptation by Geek Toys was announced for release, and set for two cours, with the first cour premiering on April 10, 2023.
Tropes:
- The Ace: Calamity Crusher, The Corpse God's final enemy in his world.
- Aerith and Bob: 'Polka' seems to be an out-of-place name amongst the mostly Japanese-named Shinoyama clan. Justified since his mother, Kanon Redrazalf, is a traveler from the other world and has different naming sensibilities.
- Badass Pacifist: The Emperor of the Byandy Empire was this according to Corpse God, taking on all the wetworks and horrible acts of the empire in pursuit of peace and so that others didn't have to.
- Bait-and-Switch: A very brief one in the first chapter/episode. The reader is led to believe the Calamity Crusher got reincarnated when he attacked the Corpse God since Polka shares his desire for peace. Of course, it turns out it's the Corpse God instead.
- Corrupt Church: The Geldwood Church is willing to do unsavory things to promote its faith, from slaughtering necromancers and anyone who associates with them to outright magic brainwashing.
- Cute and Psycho: Zaki.
- The Conspiracy: The Bastard Children of Sabramond are this on earth, but it seems that they are just one part of the true conspiracy surrounding the downfall of the empire, the rank one wizard Arius Sabramond, and his sister of the Geldwood church.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Necromancers are treated as inherently evil by the Church due to their control of the dead. However, necromancy is a neutral magic which can be used for both evil and good. Making deals with the souls of the deceased and helping them move on to the afterlife are far better practices than simply enslaving souls.
- Decoy Protagonist: Calamity Crusher, who was The Hero in the previous world. It's made to look like he's the focus character after the reincarnation. Then we find out he's still alive in the previous world and the character who reincarnated is actually The Corpse God.
- Eskimos Aren't Real: Polka states that whales are creatures of myth and legend in his world.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The Corpse God is really more an appellation, and he admits he's not using his name because there is a curse on it and it does reveal some of his abilities just from his family name, he does apologize to Takumi and Misaki later on. His name is Rizdilusia Redrazalf, it's important because the Redrazalf clan sometimes possesses the Elemental Eye, which allows them to both speak with and see elementals, which he has. It's also significant because he shares that last name with Polka's mother Kanon Redrazalf, revealing them to be half-brothers.
- First-Episode Twist: The main character, the spirit who reincarnated as Polka, is not the Calamity Crusher, but The Corpse God.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: While Polka's scar looks wicked, he is more of a neutral character.
- Invisible Writing: The Corpse God wrote a series of journals and essays during his life using an ink that can only be seen by those with the Evil Eye. Calamity Crusher was able to read his books, which led to him losing faith in Geldwood.
- I See Dead People: Necromancers are born with the ability to see souls that linger on the mortal plane. The Evil Eye which allows this is a congenital trait of the soul.
- Knight Templar: The Geldwood Church abhors necromancy such that they'll kill not only any necromancer they encounter, but anyone who willingly associates with necromancers as well, even children.
- Made a Slave: The Corpse God was sold by his father early in life, but somehow worked his way out of slavery.
- Marshmallow Hell: Misaki pulls Polka's head into her chest so she can check his heartbeat and temperature, confirming he's alive. Lisa later pulls the same move on Misaki, confirming she's dead due to no heartbeat or body heat.
- MegaCorp: The Shinoyama family is at the heart of a business empire worth trillions.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: One can't get much more menacing than The Corpse God.
- Offing the Offspring: Corpse God's father assassinated him after being paid by an enemy nation.
- The Paragon: From what was shown of the emperor, he was this. The Byandy empire under him increased in wealth and power to the point Corpse God casually mentions that items such as precious gems, and other such rare materials could be bought by children with pocket money. His assassination was one of the most prominent causes of the empire's decline, as it was his personal connections to most of the sorcerers and great warriors of the empire that kept a lot of things running—without him to lead the helm things fell apart in a day.
- Possessing a Dead Body: The Corpse God is inhabiting the freshly-killed body of a boy named Polka Shinoyama.
- Reincarnation: The Corpse God spent a significant part of her hermitage developing a spell that caused his soul to reincarnate in a different world after he died.
- Thanatos Gambit: The Corpse God was incapable of dying a normal death, so he used Calamity Crusher's attack as an opportunity to die and activate his reincarnation spell.
- Time Dissonance: Corpse God's master warns him that his supernaturally long life will eventually lead to him perceiving the passage of time differently than mortals.
- Tragic Bromance: This is what happened to the Emperor, Corpse God's friend who he looked up to, it is reciprocated on the Emperor's part, as he tells corpse god that they were truly friends, even though there were other necromancers he could have gone to he still stuck with Corpse God and tells his friend that he'll take on his revenge as he did for him many years ago.
- Trapped in Another World: A given, since the Corpse God was reincarnated to Earth from his homeworld. Notably, he has no desire to go home and very much prefers staying in Shinjuku since it's much more peaceful than his war torn homeworld. It turns out that the Bastard Children of Sabramond, remnants of the Byandy empire he used to serve, have been also been trapped on Earth for at least a hundred years. Unlike him they are very interested in going back and are willing to manipulate governments to do so.
- Unfinished Business: Necromancers will often help souls with their unfinished business as this encourages them to pass into the afterlife while the necromancer receives their energy.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: A boy walks out of an alley with his throat cut and blood all over him, but no one in a heavily populated street seems to notice or care for quite some time until a couple cops take notice.
- Your Soul Is Mine!: A variant of Drained After Deathnote is used by The Corpse god to fuel his spells, especially since the world below the sky has little in the way of 'free-floating' mana due to the fact that the world beyond the sky (Corpse God's original world) hogs it all
