Deca-Dence – 04 [Transmission]

After being disappointed with the colossal crap-pile that was episode 4 of GoHS, I really really needed Deca-Dence to come up with the goods to keep alive any remaining hopes of the summer season not becoming a collective letdown.

And… did it?

Of course! Of course it did.

In what was the series’ most narratively straightforward episode (though I am almost certain that that’s not going to become the norm) Deca-Dence offered some sweet Gadoll-slaying action, creepy monster designs, badass fighter girls and a ridiculous amount of sakuga.

Like seriously, for the battle sequence in the first half of the episode, I can imagine the creative team’s meeting going something like this:

Animators: “So, we have our first major battle of the series coming up. Lots of aerial set-pieces, casualties left and right, all-‘round chaos. We need to make it all look absolutely cinematic.”

Studio Nut: “Hold My Balls.” (I had to make a pun on that name. I HAD TO!)

Last week, we saw Pipe slip into the underbelly of the Gadoll world, so Natsume, herself an inexperienced fighter with barely enough mastery of her newly-retrofitted arm decides that she will rescue the adorable boneless-mass-of-inhuman-flesh all on her own, even though Kaburagi warns her not to. But when has an anime protagonist listened to their wise and experienced mentor? As Kaburagi feared, she mostly just runs for her life and doesn’t kick any Gadoll ass. Because after all, in this world, most of the ass-kicking is done by the leader of the Gears, Kurenai. A fighter so skilled and OP, she takes down a seemingly unstoppable rampaging Gadoll by herself and looks absolutely flawless while doing it. Compared to her, everyone else just looks like the one kid who has played FIFA for a week and thinks he can compete in online multiplayer.

Though, something about Natsume catches Kurenai’s eye. Something that makes her stand out. Maybe it’s her bravery in the face of unsurmountable odds or her metal arm, or the way she effortlessly glides through a horde of rampant Gadolls or her metal arm, or her earnestness and sheer will to make a difference and fight for a cause or you know, her metal arm. Either way, Kurenai sees in her the potential to be a fighter and offers her a place among the Gears. Natsume readily accepts and gives a shout-out to Kaburagi for making it all happen. The moment Kurenai lays her eyes on him, she goes from inspirational leader to star-struck fangirl in the space of two seconds. Apparently, the legend of Kaburagi is still not quite as dead as he’d have imagined.

Later on, Kurenai uses a fancy power-point presentation to brief the Gears about the upcoming battle. She tells them that the Gadoll’s nest has been discovered and if they destroy it, Deca-Dence would finally become a safe haven for humanity. At long last, there’d be peace. Everyone gets pumped thinking about that possibility and Natsume too is excited to be part of a fight of such magnitude. But in the ‘real’ world, Kaburagi finds out that there is no such nest and this whole battle is nothing but a suicide mission for the Rankers to come and save the day. Just a new ‘game event’ to spice things up. The rankers get their points, the Gears’ numbers reduce to a meagre amount prompting for a possible rebuild, nothing changes and everybody has fun. It’s vile, cruel and nihilistic but Kaburagi isn’t concerned about any of that. All he’s concerned about is Natsume. He cannot save everyone who’s headed to their death but he can atleast save one person. He tries to talk her out of going to fight, tells her that it’s meaningless. That it won’t change anything. That nothing can ever be changed in the first place.

But of course, if you tell someone they cannot do something, all it does is strengthen their resolve to do it. Children don’t grow up to be what you tell them to be. They grow up to be what you tell them they are. All her life Natsume has been told that she isn’t good enough. That she cannot do something. That she’d just a burden. But now, she’s tired of hearing it. Now, she’s had enough. So, she decides to do what she thinks is right, to fight rather than stand by and do nothing like she always has. Because how can we stop believing that our actions don’t accomplish anything in life? How can we just give up?

She tells Kurenai that she is going to fight because she doesn’t like who she is. Because she wants to change and be a better version of herself. All this happens over a send-off for soldiers laughing and enjoying themselves before heading out to the battlefield the next day. And as is witnessed by history time and time again, those things do not bode for a happy ending.