English Dub Season Review: Deca Dence Season One

It’s rare to get a good original anime these days. Most of what gets made are Light Novels and manga adaptations which are not bad in their own right. Yet, Deca-Dence managed to arrive out of nowhere and gave us a compelling 12 episode run. From Nut, the same studio that brought us Attack on Titan and Youjo Senki, Deca-Dence is unlike anything I’ve personally ever seen, and the closest I could compare it to plot-wise would be Gurren Lagann mixed with Attack on Titan, and Mortal Engines, with a touch of MMORPG elements. The plot takes place in a dystopian future where whatever is left of humanity is in danger of extinction. This is caused by the presence of the mysteriously grotesque life-form known as the Gadoll. The first few episodes show us the lifestyle of two types of people, the Gears and the Tankers. (Or four if you count the second episode’s big twist).

Our two main characters, Natsume and Kaburagi, are well-developed characters with depth and kinda relatable in many ways. Natsume is a character with strong motivations as she tries to seek self-confidence in a world that only seeks to strip that away from her. Kaburagi is facing the reality of the choices that he made in the past and is constantly forced to make tough choices, he feels that he is stuck in a system of power that leaves him with little freedom and that gives him a pessimistic & indifferent world view and a sense of hopelessness at times. At least until they both meet each other when much to Natsume’s disappointment, she ends up becoming a maintenance worker serving under the tutelage of Kaburagi. She soon realizes what he’s really capable of and in a twist of fate, he offers to train her as the Gear warrior she desires to be. Talk about sheer dumb luck, right?

However, the plot twist will catch most viewers off guard as the tone and atmosphere progressively changes within the second episode with Deca-Dence almost feeling like a completely different show when it reveals its big twist a lot earlier than what we the audience expected. What first seemed like a simple enough post-apocalyptic world unravels into a more complex narrative that has the potential to explore a plethora of unusual ideas and concepts but unfortunately delving into these could lead to even bigger spoilers…

Director, Yuzuru Tachikawa was involved with this project and he has a decent track record with previous titles such as Death Parade, Mob Psycho 100, and even parts of Steins; Gate that have all become critically praised in recent years and compared to those previous aforementioned works, Deca-Dence stands out very differently with its subtle themes of survival, political order, sovereignty, mortality, ambition, and carving your path with a “fuck the haters” attitude. On the technical side, the art and quality seem top-notch. My only complaint would be the CG at the end of the series, particularly the final fight which managed to be pretty bad in places. Other than that, action sequences, music, and character models are consistently good. Finally, the Gadolls resemble monsters you’d picture from sci-fi movies like Starship Troopers or monsters with Kaiju-sized intimidation and a whole lot of otherworldly characteristics.

Lastly, the show manages to break the anime original curse by having a solid ending that is consistent with themes presented throughout. So often anime original shows will have a great start and fall off at the end, but thankfully that’s not the case here. Deca-Dence has definitely been one of the best shows of the year and despite other big shows at the time that may have overshadowed it due to its release time and date, but I can assure you it is worth a watch and you won’t be disappointed.