With the commencement of the new summer anime season, I have decided to start blogging episode reviews again. So for the first anime I will be covering for this season, I will be covering the latest original anime, “Deca-Dence.”
Episode Recap
So Deca-Dence starts with a team of explorers searching the ruins of a desolate abandoned city. Suddenly, a young girl runs up to the group startling the girl’s father who calls her, Natsume (CV: Tomori Kusunoki). All of a sudden, the group is attacked by a bird-like monster. Fleeing away in a car, the group run into a group of monsters and crash the car. Regaining consciousness, Natsume finds herself in a ambulance vehicle with her right-arm amputated. Reassuring her that he will be back soon, Natsume watches as her father heads back out to fight the monsters as she is driven away.
8 years later, Natsume is a young student who has finished school. Hoping to become a Gear warrior like her father, Natsume is disappointed to discover that her application to join The Patrol has not arrived (meaning that she’s been rejected). Forced to pick another career, Natsume reluctantly becomes an armor repairer. On the first day of the job, Natsume meets her strict boss, Kaburagi (CV: Katsuyuki Konishi).
After a few days, Natsume gradually gets used to the work, but has trouble dealing with her boss. One night, she imposes herself on him into having a welcome party for herself. During the party, Natsume is discouraged from following her dreams by her boss. Suddenly, the pair hear a banging noise. Looking around, Natsume discovers one of Kaburagi’s secrets, his baby pet Gadoll. Getting attached to the cute creature, Natsume calls it, “Pipe.” Later that night, Kaburagi removes a bug/chip from a deceased man. Reporting to his boss, Kaburagi is told by his boss that he is disappointed by his lack of drive in doing his job.
The next day, Natsume comes up to Kaburagi and admits that she thinks he is wrong about her dreams. However, their talk is suddenly interrupted by a Gadoll attack. Panicking, one of Natsume’s co-workers, Fennel knocks Kaburagi’s team down onto the battlefield. Swept up into the battle, Natsume is about to be attacked by a Gadoll when Kaburagi rescues her. Kaburagi then proceeds to decimate the smaller Gadoll, while the Deca-Dence destroys the gigantic one with its laser cannon. The scene then shows a race of alien-like creatures walking about a city.
Impressions
Okay, so overall, this was a great first episode. It had a lot of action and explained a lot of the world-building and themes. Both Natsume and Kaburagi are likeable protagonists with Natsume being the passionate vivacious one, while Kaburagi comes off as cool loner like Wolverine from the X-Men. Kaburagi is also voiced by Katsuyuki Konishi, who also did Leo from Arte. So if he sounds familiar, that’s why.
The art and character designs are incredibly intriguing. Especially with the Gadoll designs, like Pipe, who is kind of a mix of puppy and a seal or worm. There wasn’t a lot of deep, heavy instrumental music, but the action music really stands out and drives in the seriousness of battle. Though it is too bad that we didn’t hear the ending song. The opening theme song “Theater of Life”, by Konomi Suzuki was heart-pumping and edgy and really made that final scene with the cannon really amazing!
