With the final premiere of the season airing yesterday, Anime Summer 2020 has officially kicked into second gear. And with that, I have taken up the duty to bring you weekly coverage of one of its flagbearers: Deca-Dence!
Remember how last week when this show premiered, we got an anime episode equivalent of a head-scratch? Multiple plotlines were introduced one after the other with the bare minimum of possibility for coexistence and many viewers were skeptical as to whether the writing would be able to bring it all together in the coming weeks. Well ((dramatic buildup)) ladies and gentleman, let me present to you the anime episode equivalent of a ~moustache twirl~!
While some shows play it safe and others shoot for the fences, Deca-Dence takes the ball and leaves the ballpark altogether. I said last week that this show had ‘80%’ potential to turn out great. Now, I was being cautiously optimistic in my analysis but nothing – absolutely nothing – could have prepared me for this. This is bravely inventive, gutsy, assuredly ambitious storytelling. The kind of unable-to-take-your-eyes-off-the-screen stuff that keeps our love for this medium well and truly alive. After all, why do we scoff and roll our eyes every time some new garbage isekai show gets announced? Why do we bemoan studios not letting a show like Stars Align have the opportunity to be able to tell its entire story? Why do we keep saying that original ideas should be cultivated in the industry? Because this. Because Deca-Dence. This is the show you get when you give auteurs a blank canvas with the freedom to absolutely go to town on it. To make whatever insane ideas keep floating around in their heads into a painting. And that’s what Deca-Dence is. That and so much more.
But of course, before talking about what is, we must absolutely talk about what is not. When the premiere aired, a lot of viewers were concerned that this might turn into an Attack on Titan rip-off. To which the show’s creators allegedly gave an official response and I quote: “Pfft! Right”.
Oh, what’d you say? Yes, yes. I know I have been gushing about how good this episode was without actually getting into what it is that makes it so good. So, let’s get down to that, shall we? To put it in simple terms, this was an episode which not only improves upon the premiere in every single aspect but actually builds on it in breathtaking fashion.
Were you left confused by the many plot threads left dangling in front of you? Worry not. Got ya covered.
What was the deal with Kaburagi looking for bugs in the inhabitants of Deca-Dence? Explained here.
Why wasn’t Natsume selected to be a soldier? Explained here.
How did Kaburagi, a cleaning hand, get so good at fighting Gadolls? Explained here.
Liked the sakuga in the first episode? Hell of a lot more of that.
Wanted more world-building? How about we introduce a whole new world that operates separate from the one you know, complete with avatars and characters which look like they don’t even belong in the same anime?!
Oh, damn it. I’m gushing again, aren’t I? But I mean you saw it too. You know what you saw. Can you really blame me after that?
While the first episode mostly centered around Natsume and her motivations, here she is put not only to the side but she doesn’t even show up for 3/4ths of the episode. Our main focus is Kaburagi and how he got into the mess he finds himself in. Having been responsible for the ‘punishment’ of his comrades, he is forced to sell himself out and live a life doing the corporation’s bidding, finding bugs among people and eliminating them. It’s a joyless life and what makes it even more terrible is the fact that he still has 175 years left of it. You would understand why he would decide to end such a painful, hopeless existence. And he would have done just that if not for what he sees in Natsume. Or rather what he does not see. His scanners are unable to find a match for her at first but a more thorough search reveals that she is actually meant to be dead. Which makes her an anomaly in the system. A bug. What it entails in the grand scheme of things remains unclear but it surely opens up an endless sea of possibilities. And I can’t wait to find see it all unfold!
Now, since I have to be a neutral reviewer and try and also analyze this for faults and misfires. And let’s be honest, anything this ambitious cannot be devoid of those. The first and possibly the most obvious is the tonal shift. Not only does this episode not give you what you expect, it straight up flips the narrative on its head. Half of it looks as if it was drawn by the members of Trigger’s staff who oversee Chibi Robot designs. And it’s pretty much a given that quite a lot of the episodes to come will be drawn in the same style. So, if that’s a deal breaker for you, please go watch that Demon King crap instead. The second shortcoming can be the seemingly expository nature of the narrative. While the show does its best to make its concepts come across organically, if you’re not paying attention, stuff about ‘limiter releasing’ and all-controlling corporations and bugs would end up going right over your head. A casual watch this is not.
But yeah, that just about does it for the negatives. To wrap it up, this is not the kind of story which follows a template. It’s wholly original and not meant to be appealing to mainstream audiences. It’s not something the average anime viewer would even enjoy. It demands a lot from the viewer but the payoff for the investment is well and truly delivered. If you’re onboard with what it has to offer then Deca-Dence might just turn into something truly extraordinary by the end of its run.
And I, for one, am fully onboard.
See you next week!
The first episode felt like an okay way to just pass the time. This second episode I didn’t expect and caught me off guard, as it stands I don’t really know what to say until I see what’s made of in the next few episodes.
This is a show I’m not sure about yet.
I too am not sure if this is just a one-off episode or if it is the beginning of a much larger, more ambitious story that’s about to enfold. And like you Kaiser, I was caught completely off-guard but my review is based solely on the sheer scope of possibilities this episode opens up granted that the writers just keep flexing on us like this.
Now obviously the later episodes will not be as jaw-dropping with the reveals but I [still] have total faith in this show. As soon as I saw the director of Mob Psycho Season one and two was directing this it was a done deal for me. And that was why I didn’t like that people were writing it off as an attack on titan clone. Probably the show I have the highest hopes for this season. Really a breath of fresh air.
speaking of attack on titan clones, are there really that many? Kabaneri, which I dropped, seemed like it was but for that show what hurt wasn’t its similarities to attack on titan but the completely incoherent plot. Long story short I don’t think its fair to write off shows just because they seem to take inspiration from something else, you know, since nothing is purely objective.
Apart from Kabaneri, I’d say there was Seraph of the End but they replaced the Titans with Vampires and made the concept crap with their execution.
Knights of Sidonia was basically AoT in Space. But I quite like the battles in that one.
So not that many
Yeah I loved knights of Sidnoia despite the CGI and season one being its peak for me. Tbh I didn’t even realize the similarities to AoT so make of that what you will…
On one hand I hate Sidonia because it isn’t Biomega or blame, but the battles are immersive and its the only mainstream manga I’ve read where the lead ends up with a tentacle monster.
I actually think the movie for Kabaneri, while being pointless, like the early parts of season one, reminds me of those old ovas no-one likes but I love.
Yeah. I think Nihei designed Sidonia to be more accessible than Biomenga and Blame! as the other two take the show-don’t-tell approach to its extremes. Also, hard agree on the tentacle romance 😛
As for Kabeneri, it was passable popcorn entertainment until f@#!ing Biba showed up. I just gave up on the show after that.
I’ve never seen an anime with so many random plotlines in the premiere get it together so well in episode 2 – bravo!
I know right!? I was lukewarm on the show after the premiere. I had hopes because of the reputation of its director, of course but I had my doubts too. Though, this episode has made me a firm believer in his talents. In Tachikawa we trust!
Also, it’s funny that we’re getting both Deca-Dence and GoH in the same season. One show that requires for us to process every strand of information presented on screen and another which expects us to simply turn our brains off. 😅
Okay this shit contains a lot of boxes I like to have checked. It fucked with me expectations first and foremost, this is already a thing that barely happens when you are an anime veteran. Secondly, it has a very creative idea for a setting I only came up with once during a joke telling a friend it would be “cool af” having non-human-looking aliens playing a VR that happens to be (like) our world. Another big plus for me are always dystopian settings, check. Again.
The mysterious company as the big bad (politics fuck yeah) gets an upvote from me too just as the general mystery surrounding the series now that we have learned about the real world.
Too many things to mention that I like, actually, Though another plus point I cannot skip is how aside from all of this new complexity and mindfuckery there is still a personal story with development being told in this one episode. I had to re-watch a few scenes to fully grasp the meaning of MC’s countdown and weird acting until I got it, as well as the importance of Natsume who actually saved this guy without even realizing she did it.
So far the only candidate for an aots I had (after Japan Sinks failing) was Pretender, now it could be this. I am surely intrigued and cannot wait to learn more about the game mechanics and the real world. Think this series proves again that world-building is like an MC to me. Making it great is already half of the rent.
Yeah, you gotta give the creators and the production staff huge props for keeping this a secret. Opening with a clichéd, overdone premise for a premiere was always going to be a risky move that could alienate potential viewers (and I am sure many did bail on it then and there) but the way the whole reveal was carried out did make the payoff that much sweeter.