Review of Deca-Dence

Deca-Dence is a very bland version of Attack on Titan. The setting is an apocalyptical world full of monsters that try destroy humanity so people have erected a giant moving fortress that they live in to protect themselves similarly to AOT. They do introduce an overlord videogame system which could have been interesting had they put any real depth to it other than the surface details. The videogame could have been replaced with any hidden tyrannical power, whether it's a god or another country because it doesn't explore anything that is unique to videogames. None of the ideas in this anime are developed beyond theirsurface details and all of the characters are the most basic anime characters an anime could have. The main character while somewhat likable is completely devoid of any form of depth. She serves the purpose of having that iron will that is needed in a shounen anime and believing in her friends because for absolutely no reason. This anime is only enjoyable for some decent art because the animation is pretty good however that alone doesn't save this anime from the true mediocrity that it is. The fights do have a nice flow at times but they like any of the weight that AOT felt like they had in each of the titan encounters because none of the characters you are attached to die and the deaths or so boringly shown they lack any sort of impact. The fighting style itself reflects AOT as well showing people flying through the air with a weapon that is very similar to attack on titan season 3 part 2's weapons. This anime is tonally all over the place. On one hand it wants to be like AOT in that it wants to have darker moments like when it shows scenes of dead people after a battle, however, it can't commit which results in moments that feel like they should affect you because the content is supposed to be sad but they lack any sort of meaning because they are so poorly shown in their visual content and in their emotional content to the main characters. Deca-Dence also tries to echo the themes of freedom and about going against the system, which also very preeminent in AOT, except they barely reach any sort of greater meaning because they are only explored to the point where it would get the characters to do the thing to the plot moving. Even though I've been comparing this anime to AOT a lot I don't think AOT is a perfect anime, it's just that this anime is so derivative of AOT in its story, setting, and themes that it's hard not to compare them. I'd like to think that if this anime had more time to be fleshed out through writing or more episodes to develop the story, it could have been better. In the end, Deca-Dence is mediocre at best and feels like a kids bop version of Attack on Titan.