Deca-Dence

Attack on Titan meets Gurren Lagann with a side of Nausicaä-styled monster-bugs in an MMORPG format to produce a… mediocre-to-bad anime. Actually, it’s more awful than anything else.

The post-apocalyptic motif is the flavor of the year, given all the calamitous events of 2020 (COVID-19 pandemic; crap anime; raging, uncontrollable fires; more crap anime; locust swarms in Africa and India; and then there’s Gibiate, which is too horrifying to put words to). But in the universe of Deca-Dence, the dystopian society in which the characters find themselves in is not frightful or nightmarish; rather, it’s just bland and sweepingly devoid of any essence of ... ‘life.’ The problem derives from the characters’ cliched personalities that serve as superficial representations of how humans respond to these situations. Frankly speaking, the hollowness of Deca-Dence’s characters was reminiscent of the mechanical, unthinking first-person protagonist in any video game; someone who spouts humdrum dialogue and is controlled to act in a formulaic manner. In essence, I couldn’t empathize with them; which becomes a hindrance when certain death (cop-outs) occur.

Natsume’s aspiration of becoming a ‘Gear’ falls in line with every disenchanted Shōnen protagonist who gets told, “no,” at first, but continues nonetheless because they’ve got unsurpassed determination (and special “blah, blah, blah” that makes them… well, special). Kaburagi, Natsume’s reluctant teacher, offers no interesting nuances to the mentor archetype in the hero’s journey. Even Kaburagi’s Vegeta-esque, rage outburst was a cheap mimicry that did nothing to add to the story or his growth as a character; he is as straightforward as a ruler, which makes him all to predictable and beyond boring.

Now, while the plot did throw the viewer for an early loop — via concealing its true intention — it wasn’t the type of surprise that instilled optimism or a state of shock; on the contrary, it lacked the necessary impact that its predecessor (AoT) pulled off with style and conviction. This disappointment was compounded further with the pedestrian animation that offered no signs of splendor, making it a tepid affair from beginning to end. Additionally, the omega type Gadoll in episode 11 — i.e., the armored (Red) Lobster of doom — was far from ‘buttery-smooth’… i-in aesthetics (could you imagine the seafood cracker you’d need to eat this behemoth!). Furthermore, the fortress city of Deca-dence, itself, was just a mishmash of mundane protuberances that left little-to-no impression in this viewer’s mind.

All in all, the passionless messaging and vacuous thematic elements, made Deca-dence the perfect symbol of the declining state of anime in the modern age — making its name, ‘decadence’ (i.e. a state of decline), quite appropriate.

Firstly, this show has fanatics. I think mainly because of a plot twist in episode 2. Fanatics ignoring all the criticism by accusing them to not comprehending little simple plot twist in ep 2.

Art is good except chibi part which is very annoying style because of how less info it gives about charecters to the viewer.

So why show is bad (contains small amount of spoiler),
humans with cyborg bodies act like too childish and except MC. Cyborgs don't act like human at all.

World building has a lot of flaws, its dystopian with mass surveillance, but time to time that surveillance became useless in ... most critical places like debugging center.

Also viewer needs more info about how all the humanity being okay with playing deca dence as their only hobby and job. As i said cyborgs in show supposed to be human and they are far away from being a human with their motivations, actions and desires.

*Spoilers Ahead*


Deca-Dence is best described as an ambitious amalgamation of Gurren Lagann, Attack on Titan, and The Matrix, that still falls quite short of the quality, impact, and timelessness those stories have. The story is, on the face of it, an adventurous and creative concept. Giant robots fighting giant monsters is a tried-and-true formula, and not just in the Mecha genre. The world that is constructed here is engaging and lore-filled, which often distracts from some of the drawbacks the show has on display. However, despite the dynamic nature of the story, I only found myself enjoying half the show, and that is this anime's ... major sin; Deca-Dence is split down the middle in every category. In the story, I found the parts focusing on the Humans, or 'Tankers', the most engaging. Their struggle against the monstrous Gadoll is epic and classic, populated by a smooth combat system and believable characters with real struggles and motivations. Natsume's struggle to become a stronger person is set perfectly in this world which challenges her to do exactly that, and this complex society of post-apocalyptic humans living in a moving city with a dedicated racial caste of warriors called 'Gears', absolutely sucks the viewer right in. However, despite my general reluctance do so so, I must discuss a spoiler here in order to fully cover where this anime really falls apart. When the reveal comes about it all just being a game, about the Cyborgs manufacturing the Gadoll in order to hunt them for sport in a weird MMORPG/VR experience, it is not only boring but also cheapens the whole appeal of what makes the initial plot great. If the story didn't take this direction with the Cyborgs the anime as a whole would have received a much better score. The art faces a similar issue. The backgrounds, interiors, characters of varying importance, and even down to the final detail, the Human storyline is beautiful. Studio NUT made something that looks effortlessly beautiful in every single shot of the Human story. The split here comes with the Cyborgs and their world. I understand where they were going with the Cyborgs, but they end up looking stupid and as a result I am unable to take them seriously. Their world is all bright colors, soft shapes, and empty rooms, and that is dreadfully unappealing. I hated having to look at them so much, and wished that they at least look cool for all the screentime they get. CG is also used here, mostly for the Gadoll, and it is glaringly obvious every time. I find it hard to believe that this CG work was done in 2020. There are also obvious moments where the characters are just not animated, perhaps to save time or money, but it makes them look insane at points. The sound is ok, nothing less than I expect from a modern anime, but it just meets the requirement. The soundtrack is a good choice for its hype fuel aspect, but the sounds of life are only present at certain moments, drowned out most of the time by the competent voice acting. Of course, the way the Cyborgs sound is also strange and cheap, and their whole sound profile is rough and unfinished by comparison. The characters were amazing in the Human storyline, especially in terms of Kaburagi in his avatar and Natsume striking out to live her own life on her own terms. The Cyborgs, save for Kubaragi, fell flat for me. Even the former commander Minato was one note. Only the most important people in the Cyborg story, like Kaburagi and the iconic villain Hugin, are fully realized characters at all. Everybody else in the Cyborg storyline feels like NPCs. At the end of the day, the Human storyline in terms of overall quality and enjoyment gets a 7, but the Cyborg storyline which is present around every corner by episode 6, gets a 4. At the end of the day, Deca-Dence is not a particularly good anime, and though it did have the potential to be great, it smothered itself trying to be about a dozen things it's not. Mainly; It is not the masterpiece it presents itself to be. The Gurren Lagann references are fun, though.

This show had a reasonably strong opening. It was a bit generic, with the classic young naïve protagonist and the old mentor destined to get killed off at the end of act one. That is until instead of killing off the old mentor, they instead decided to make him the main character. Turns out the old staples are tropes for a reason. It went form a mildly interesting rip off of Gurren Lagann, to an incompressible mess.

Our new MC spends the majority of the second arc in a single room, where he and his fellows are tasked with shovelings monster poop from where it ... falls out of a hole in the ceiling, into a hole in the ground. They also eat it. I can not make this up.

The op and ed soundtracks are alright. The story kinda started promisingly but its also keep confusing me back and forth. I sort of couldn't keep up with its story progression and pacing especially. I decided to be patient and judge it after a few episodes. After episode 4, I totally gave up on this anime big time and dropped it. It felt like i am just bearing with the anime for the sake of completing this anime. It was quite hard for to understand the story between the two races. I just couldn't understand which world is real and which one is virtual.

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 their ... surface 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.