Here’s the thing. At this point, I know that I have slacked off in posting these weekly episodic reviews, you know, weekly. And it has happened so often that it’s basically become normalized. But I PROMISE that I’ll be better next season! So, let’s just pretend that everything’s fine and all is forgiven and bygones are bygones.
Can we do that? Yeah, we can do that.
So, with that public apology and acceptance of guilt out of the way, let’s jump into the review!
Episode 10: The episode begins with the cliffhanger of last week, with Kaburagi finally letting out the secrets of Deca-Dence and Natsume’s world quite literally shattering before her eyes. She reacts in the way that any other human being faced with the reality of their life having been a lie would: she is unable to process it and has a panic attack. Considering how over-the-top such moments can be in anime, I was able to appreciate how genuine what Natsume felt came off as. The stuttering voice; the tremors in her brain being felt through Natsume’s entire body, worsening by the second; the inability to process anything in that moment. Most stories after having a great lead-up to a pivotal narrative moment tend to mishandle the aftermath. So, I got to give props to Deca-Dence for avoiding that shortfall. The rest of the episode focuses on Natsume trying to come to terms with her new reality. She is so frustrated, so angry, at first that she even blames Kaburagi for telling her in the first place. In time, she comes to accept it all better but my only gripe being that it all happens a little too quickly. We get a few flashback montages and Natsume leaning against a railing, staring at the sky. And that’s it. While I understand that with a one-cour series you cannot have too much time for reflection and rumination, it does feel a little jarring nonetheless. She eventually makes up with Kaburagi and offers her help in whatever he intends to do next. But their reconciliation is cut short by a jab through the chest of Kaburagi as Hugin is there to show these bugs who’s the real boss. As this was happening, a cute little gadoll digs which had dug his antlers into one of the workers at the gadoll factory turns into the biggest baddest gadoll yet. And couldn’t be good news for anyone.
Episode 11: Natsume stands over the bloodied body of Kaburagi and fears for her own life but not for long as Hugin is given a taste of his own medicine. Natsume has collapsed during this time and wakes up to the long-haired redhead who she mistakes for Kaburagi and then deals a nice whacking when it turns out otherwise. Meanwhile, Deca-Dence engages the final gadoll in combat. A massive battle ensues but the gadoll turns out to be way stronger than anyone imagined. By the end, Deca-Dence is damaged beyond repair, leaving itself open for a killer blow by the gadoll but it luckily decides to stay put and recuperate itself first. Minato and Kaburagi discuss possible ways to get the better of the gadoll and Kaburagi suggests logging into Deca-Dence itself as an avatar. Which seems positively absurd but also possibly the only way to deal with the danger. So, they decide to go through with it. Kaburagi asks Jill for her help and she reluctantly agrees. He makes his way to Deca-Dence for one final mission. Kaburagi sees Natsume as he passes her by but she doesn’t recognize him in his alien form. At the login site, Minato shows up to talk him out of it but ends up getting talked into helping him instead. The two join forces and gear up for one last hurrah.
Episode 12: Even after successfully logging into Deca-Dence, Kaburagi and Minato aren’t able to get it functional. In that time, Jill realizes that they can make use of the fortress’s debris lying around as a weapon and gets the Minato to have all the gears fill them with oxytone. Kaburagi has a wordy confrontation with Hugin who tells him that his efforts would simply be wasted in the end. And at long last, the Kabu-dence vs Gadoll Boss fight begins but unfortunately, even an attack at full power isn’t sufficient to defeat it. Still, Kaburagi doesn’t give up. He remembers how stubborn and persistent Natsume was when he was training her to be a Gear and he remembers his promise to take this whole system apart. And thus, he takes his limiter off. He fires one final blow at the gadoll in hope that it’ll be enough and this time, thankfully, it is. A group of bugs, humans and their masters celebrate, breathing in the air of freedom while a solitary hero breathes his last. The coda after three years shows us how the inhabitants of Deca-Dence have turned it into a safe haven, with farming, tourism and the like. Natsume has grown out her hair and grown up herself. And at the end of it all, she gets a reunion: the happy ending she fought all her life for.
Concluding Thoughts: While the final three episodes were somewhat predictable and linear in their presentation, they did prove to be satisfying in their own right. I do believe that narratively, the show peaked at Episode 9th but that doesn’t mean what we got was a bad ending. It was a good ending to a show which was better than what these final episodes made it out to be. While a part of me wished for it pull off another ballsy move at the end by giving us an ending where nothing gets resolved and people just keep living on, I do understand that thematically this was the only way the show could have ended. Even though the turn of events in the epilogue still has me a little disappointed, I know it better not to judge a show solely by its final moments, no matter how good or bad they may be. As for what I think about Deca-Dence as a whole, stick around to find that out next week in Series Review!
