Review of Deca-Dence

The return of Yuzuru Tachikawa. Last year due to all the situations going on around the world the summer season was a little slow in producing the great amount of anime that we had become accustomed to in past years, it has not ceased to surprise us with some quality bets that manage to demonstrate the talent and passion behind their productions. Among the titles I saw during that particular period, one of the biggest surprises came from an original series whose ambition is to surprise its audience with a premise that shows that you should not judge a book by its cover or in thespecific case of Deca-Dence, you should not judge an anime by its trailers and initial appearance.

Produced and animated by NUT studio with a total of 12 episodes, Deca-Dence is an original project directed by Yuzuru Tachikawa who you may remember for his incredible career at Madhouse being the director of Death Parade and Mob Psycho 100, at the same time he participated in projects like Kobato, Chihayafuru or Bleach. I mention his past at Madhouse because the story of Deca-Dence or at least its beginnings go back to those years, with many of the participants of projects like Death Billiards coming back together for this new work even if their busy careers prevented for quite a while that they would meet again even if the project was already being talked about around 2016. Character design was by Shinichi Kurita, cyborg design belonged to Kiyotaka Oshiyama from DURIAN studio, enemy design by Satoshi Matsuura, art direction by Takashi Ichikura, cinematography by Masashi Uoyama and Masato Takahashi directing the 3DCG elements. The music was the work of Masahiro Tokuda while the supervision and editing of the story was in charge of Hiroshi Seko. Not to mention various guest artists in specific episodes.

Gadolls are beasts that destroyed the world, the few remnants of humanity are living in the mobile fortress Deca-Dence that despite depending on the Gadoll fluids to function is the greatest weapon available against them. The inhabitants of the fortress are divided between Tankers or civilians who are in charge of the maintenance and cleaning of Deca-Dence, along with the Gears who fight the threat of these beasts in a battle that seems to have no end. Natsume is a young Tanker who dreams of being able to fight, prove her worth and someday know the peace of the end of the conflict, but it is not until she meets an ex-Gear who will decide to teach her how to defend herself that her world will begin to change. Welcome to Deca-Dence, the most popular virtual reality game from Solid Quake Company. Developed as a controlled sanctuary for the dwindling human race, the company's cyborgs can descend into humanoid avatars to fight and protect the fortress that gives the game its title. Kaburagi was one of the best players, but seeing the heartlessness of the system where he is just one more replaceable gear among hundreds of other gears like him, he just waits for his eventual deactivation. But meeting a young Tanker will give him the hope and conviction he needs to try to change the system that rules the world.

Deca-Dence is a story of parallels and contrasts, which with enormous ambition is packed in simple twelve episodes where it has many ideas and little time to explore them but gives its best to do so. Under the initial appearance of being just another story where humanity is trapped in a desperate struggle for survival, soon this work shows us how everything is nothing more than part of a system that to preserve itself and the status quo maintains the constant conflict considering each individual as little more than replaceable parts. Thus a young human girl who is unaware of the true nature of the world but wishes to prove herself and obtain peace, will become the reason why a desperate Cyborg who only hoped to stop functioning in a small act of defiance, would take the will to break the cycle. Doing justice to its name of decadence this is a work about the will to fight against a complacent system, the reasons to move forward despite the adversities and to find within each individual the value of individuality. All wrapped in a web of mysteries, lies and eventual revelations that starting from the second episode do not give any rest to wanting to know what comes next. Perhaps not everyone likes how from the beginning the viewer is taken away the blindfold behind the truth of the events, but the complicity in waiting for the characters to discover the truth is a hook that easily captures the interest if you follow their game, especially when in a complacent industry like the anime industry original works like this are extremely few.

Although it does not reach exactly the same standards of Madhouse productions in which Yuzuru Tachikawa has participated, Deca-Dence is still an ambitious production not only at a narrative level but also at a technical level that shows off NUT's skills when it comes to work. Mixing more traditional animation with multiple digitally produced elements, this is a work with a sense of scale like few others, with huge sets and powerful framing of characters that give life to each of the scenes throughout the series. When this anime decides to stop for a moment it can be imposing using cameras, colors and the same scale of its scenes to present the ideas, all while the action scenes are frenetic with the strength and agility of their combats. However, if there is an element that contrasts like the story itself is in the character design, because although the humans are presented with the aesthetics of any other anime, the Cyborg are the ones who for better or worse steal the show. Their cartoonish appearance not only contrasts with the remnants of humanity that co-star in the series, but is also used as a distraction to demonstrate the darker and more brutal side of the series featuring lobotomies, slavery and other adorable situations. The only "but" with the production is that perhaps the mix of 2D and 3D at times leaves something to be desired, but this is one of those series that I want to see polished in the jump from TV to BD.

Regarding the musical aspect of this work, I must say that this series has one of those solid soundtracks that are overwhelmed by the rest of the aspects in its production. Masahiro Tokuda's work is not particularly recognized with a relatively recent career in the manga/anime world, but he manages to give life to each of the scenes in conjunction with the other elements in a more than effective work. Overall the soundtrack is one of those that are best enjoyed separately, without being obscured by the rest of the elements. As far as sound effects are concerned the series is fine, managing to give life to the movements even those where gravity is altered. In terms of opening and ending themes, we have the opening called "Theater of Life" performed by the singer Konomi Suzuki that full of energy invites to adventure, while the ending is "Kioku no Hakobune" performed by Kashitarō Itō that with a nostalgic tone makes us think about the adventure that has been witnessed so far.

It's far from perfect, but I'm not kidding when I say that it's easily the best I've seen in original proposals throughout last year's releases. With works like this the NUT studio proves that it is a place that offers quality works that even with the obvious CGI the brutality of putting details even in rubble in order to give life to their works ends up playing in their favor when it comes to immerse the viewer in their show and it is not the only one among its small details that earn the goodwill on my part. The only downside I can see is how with 12 episodes the series can not explore in depth its characters and some events seem to come out of nowhere, this to the point that reminds me a little of the comparisons between the films and the series of Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann where the first even if they contained the most iconic scenes lacked those times of calm where the viewer meditated the events and knew more facets of its huge list of characters. However, if there is one series that deserves to be given a chance, it is simply Deca-Dence.