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Year: 2020
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Episodes: 12
Rating: 3 out of 5
What do you think will bring humanity to the brink of destruction? Will it be a nuclear fallout? Will be aliens that come and rule the world? How about climate change that will raise Earth’s temperature or not? There are so many possibilities. Since we are a pollution type of species, how about pollution? What if, through that pollution, a new life form comes? It could be a possibility. Deca-Dence is an anime where life forms arrive when Earth’s pollution levels become out of control. In this new world, many people must fight and protect their homes.
Overview
In the years of the 2400s, the world was in decline. Air pollution reached lethal levels. As a result, humanity was on the brink of extinction as a new threat called Gadoll emerged. These new life forms eradicated more than 90% of the population. From the ashes, large corporations emerged and developed cyborgs to carry out human functions. Life seemed stable until the number of cyborgs vastly outgrew the number of humans. The Solid Quake corporation quickly moved in and obtained the rights to manage humanity. In return, Solid Quake built a giant dome structure and installed a colossal entertainment facility called Deca-Dence. Within this new world, Deca-Dence became the all-governing system to make all decisions. The cyborg citizens could experience adventure as human avatars at Deca-Dence without the risk of real injury.
Deca-Dence revolves around Natsume. Natsume is a tanker girl who has big dreams of becoming a Gear warrior. She dreams of this as her late father was a Gear warrior. When the day comes to see where she will be assigned, she is disappointed to learn that she will join the maintenance team led by Kaburagi. Kaburagi seems content with his life as he never seems excited by anything. Behind the scenes, Kaburagi has a secret role in eliminating “bugs,” humans who threaten Solid Quake’s operations. When Kaburagi discovers that Natsume is listed as dead in the system, he decides to keep her under watch and train her to be a gear warrior.
Review:
I am torn about this anime. I felt it had a lot of potential to be decent, but it fell somewhere in the middle. It’s not like I didn’t get into the story. I thought it was thought-provoking, but in the end, it was meh. After watching this anime, I felt like it was a waste of time, or shall I say it was a good distraction or background sound.
As stated in the Overview, the story beings in the latter part of the 2400s, with air pollution reaching lethal levels. Like almost all anime series where pollution or some global catastrophe happens, humanity is on the brink of destruction, and somehow there is always some type of alien creature that takes destroys 90% of the population. I feel like the premise is the same because, in turn, some major corporation comes from the ashes. This time several corporations developed cyborgs to carry out human functions, but the cyborgs eventually outnumbered humans. Once again, a new corporation rises; this time, it’s the Solid Quake corporation, and they obtain the rights to manage humanity. The company creates a giant dome-like moving fortress in which they installed an entertainment facility called Deca-Dence, with its own independent all-governing system to make all decisions.
I don’t know about you, but this premise sounds like so many other anime series, and it is starting to get repetitive. Somehow, we are always getting a young character who wants to overcome the odds. This time we have a lowly Tanker girl, Natsume, who dreams of becoming a Gear warrior following her father’s death. She is assigned to a maintenance team led by Kaburagi. Kaburagi is assigned two jobs but also an expert fighter and a robot. For some reason, all the robots can play games and go beyond what they are supposed to. The robots have the ability to be in an avatar-like world where they gain points for killing monsters. It’s fascinating but strange and a little off.
I jumped off the wagon when it was discovered that everything was a complete lie. The main reason for all the fighting and games was for population control. The system repeats itself repeatedly, making it seem like people were in danger. When the humans accidentally progress, then shit really gets real as the system falls and the monsters are not controlled anymore.
One of the positives was the animation. I want to say that this anime tried to have elements of seriousness but also comedy. The animators decided to use bright and funky styles to show that maybe you shouldn’t take this anime too seriously. Now, is it on the level of great animation like Demon Slayer or Attack on Titan? Nope, but it is crisp and appealing to the eye. There are a lot of scenes to laugh at because of the animation.
The characters are okay, but nothing that will make you want to cosplay as. Natsume is the typical teenager who wants to be like one of her parents or someone she was inspired by. She lost her right arm due to an attack, but this doesn’t stop her from reaching her goal. When she becomes a fighter, she shows that she has some great talent. Then there is Kaburagi. He is a veteran Deca-Dence armor repairer with a straightforward attitude. He was a great warrior but lost his passion for fighting and spends his time now supervising maintenance. He was strict initially, but being around Natsume really lightened him up.
Deca-Dence is one of those anime that I believe is after a popular video game but fails to make the leap to a great anime. It has the standard plot as many other anime series, along with standard characters. I would say watch this, but you can put it on as background sound and move on with your life.
