Review of Deca-Dence

Though lacking in theme depth, the basic character driven narrative of freedom vs. order made watching the show worth it. A very lighthearted show that tends to not take a route that would develop the ideas it wants to show, but is still able to express the core conflict of doing the best you can in tough situations. There's a lot of ideas that fail to get elaborated on or poorly presented. In some ways it seems like it just took premises from other series and combined it into the setting. A highly authoritarian corporation that essentially drugs their citizens and gives them distractions toconsume their life. If you question their hold over the world you get re-educated. Due to a climate catastrophe the world is now purchased. Only some of these ideas are presented well and a part of that reason is because it's more focused on keeping the tone light and keeping focus on the character narrative. Points during Deca-dence, if they took a darker route it would've had more service to development of the character's personality. There's not a lot of time either to fully show everything they exposition about either due to the 12 episode structure. If they simplified some of their ideas and got rid of some of the exposition, maybe there'd be more time to develop the core developments.

As the show is wholly invested in the protagonist and deuteragonist, most if not all of the other characters are left as they are with undeveloped cliches/archetypes. And the same can be said about the antagonists of the show. With how obfuscated the motivations for the system, and the planned climax, it leaves the two lacking, and makes it difficult to contrast against the main character's ideals. Their investment into the two main character's narrative did succeed in expressing itself. While their personalities are a bit underdeveloped; the dynamic between them, contrasting each of their similar struggles and bouncing off from one another in a father-daughter/mentor-student sort of relationship, is what emphasizes each other's story. The setting and tone help contrast each other as-well, although to some, the light tone might fully disconnect you from what's going on.

I had no problems with the animation and the music was a nice listen, reminded me a bit of Go Shiina.

To me, this was a very enjoyable watch for the character narrative. I liked the contrast between the light-tone and the dystopian setting. Though it reached too far in the setting's ideas, it didn't make them the focal point of the show. If it was a show only about corporations Vs. consumers, I'd probably wouldn't give it the time of day with that weak explanation. But as a order Vs. freedom narrative it did a good job at showing the struggle against it. While a bit too light, it did a good job at utilizing it's time to tell the story of it's two characters. One of the few shows I've enjoyed watching that aired in the past 4 years.

If you're looking for something darker, I'd recommend Battle Angel Alita(Gunnm). Some parts reminded me of the manga, to the point where I wonder if he took inspiration from it.

If you're looking for something similar, After War Gundam X is another light-hearted show set in a dystopia, that deals with people trying to survive and live. Gurren Lagann does a supurb job at expressing the order Vs. freedom narrative. Other dystopia shows I'd recommend would include Blue Gender, Trigun and Shinsekai Yori.