Review of Deca-Dence

This review will contain minor SPOILERS From the Studio that created of Youjo Senki, Studio Nut, and the director of Mob Psycho 100, Tachikawa Yuzuru, we have Deca-Dence. An anime set in a post-apocalyptic world, wherein humanity is in the brink of extinction and living under the threat of a “Kaiju” like life form called Gadoll. The humans left in the world resides now in Deca-Dence, a mobile combat fortress used to fight Gadoll. To fight Gadolls humans are engaged in aerial combat against mini-Gadolls and use the blood-sucking harpoons to gather its blood. Since it can used as a power source, used to power theirequipment used in aerial combat and Deca-Dence itself. The Deca-Dence then, once all powered up can launch a huge fist-like weapon to kill the Larger Gadoll.

Story: 9/10
I liked the fact that this is an OG anime, I had a spoiler-free experience watching it. I’ve been spoiled a lot recently in lots of LN and manga adapted anime. This anime is basically Howl’s Moving Castle meets Attack on Titan meets Godzilla with extra steps. And based on the synopsis and the 1st episode of the anime, I ended up with a “I’ve seen this before” expression. That is until the 2nd episode aired and dropped a huge plot twist. The world is actually ruled by the cyborgs and, the Deca-Dence and Gadoll are just manufactured for entertainment purposes. Deca-Dence ends up being a virtual game for cyborgs to play. Cyborgs uses a manufactured human-like avatars in order to play the game. And humanity is treated as NPC and they have no idea that this is happening. Ever since episode 2, lots of plot twist and turns are introduced, making the anime more interesting to watch.

Characters: 8/10
The main characters of this anime are Natsume, a human girl who dreams to fight Gadoll and wishes to end its threat against humanity, and Kaburagi, a cyborg who is a retired pro-gamer who actually was the best gamer in the Deca-Dence game. These two meets and one day Kaburagi decides to teach Natsume how to fight Gadolls. Their chemistry reminded me a lot of Joel and Ellie from Last of Us. Natsume is your fun and friendly little girl while Kaburagi is your grumpy uncle who doesn’t like talking with you. As Kaburagi teaches Natsume in combat, he gets interested and influenced by the way Natsume lives. Kaburagi cannot defy the system of the game and cyborgs since he is a cyborg himself. Unlike Natsume who is free to do whatever she wants and works her way to achieve her own dreams. Kaburagi envies this so he decides to, like Natsume, push himself to the limit even if he had to defy the system and get consequences from doing so. Throughout the anime we would see these two characters develop a lot plot wise.

Art: 7/10
The animation is spectacular specially in combat, and well-choreographed fighting scenes. They integrated CGI animation for the aerial combat and the massive fights of the Deca-Dence and Gadoll. Though, I can’t take the character design seriously since the cyborgs are cutely designed although unique in its own way.

Sound: 7/10
Another good intro song by Konomi Suzuki (she sang opening songs for NGNL and Re:zero). Although the soundtracks and sound effects were all mediocre.

Overall: 8/10
Anime gets interesting every episode, the plot twists were surprising, and a wholesome ending.