Yurei Deco

In the cyber city Tom Sawyer, society revolves around earning "Love," akin to receiving likes on social media. Citizens of this augmented reality exchange Love for public services and appearance-changing avatars via the Decoration Customizer, also known as "Deco," a hologram device implanted in an individual's eyes from early childhood. Under the government's careful management, the people of Tom Sawyer live a peaceful existence, outside the occasional appearance of Phantom Zero, a mysterious criminal who brings all Love to zero within their vicinity.

Berry, a mischievous girl fascinated by Phantom Zero, lives comfortably in the system of Tom Sawyer until her Deco malfunctions, enabling her to see a camouflaged prankster named Hack. Believing Hack to be Phantom Zero, Berry chases after the suspect and, in the process, begins to uncover society's most well-kept secrets. As it turns out, Hack is not the only person living outside the system's rules—and the vibrant colors of Tom Sawyer hide a darker nature.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Characters & Voice Actors

Hack

Main

Nagase, Anna
Japanese

Berry

Main

Kawakatsu, Mira
Japanese

Finn

Main

Irino, Miyu
Japanese

Hank

Main

Satou, Setsuji
Japanese

Smiley

Main

Kugimiya, Rie
Japanese

Madam 44

Main

Sadaoka, Sayuri
Japanese

Doron

Supporting

Ochiai, Kouji
Japanese

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Staff

Cao, Cong

Producer

Shimoyama, Tomohisa

Director

Kubo, Souichirou

Sound Director

Satou, Dai

Script, Series Composition, Original Creator

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Opening Theme

"1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 LOVE" by Clammbon

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Ending Theme

"I'm in Love (あいむいんらぶ)" by Hack'nBerry

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Sep 18, 2022

AnimeEnjoyer420

Not Recommended

Recommendation: Skip it.

Yurei Deco is the kind of anime that cultivates an image of being intelligent social commentary, but ultimately is only interested in the trappings of that and has nothing interesting to say. The first thing you'd think upon being introduced to this series is that it's some sort of satire of the metaverse or social media, but this is instead simply a setting for a generic adventure story. It would have been better even with some ham-handed "social media is like a drug, man" Adbusters bullshit, but doesn't even attempt that. The closest thing there is to social commentary is the Orwellian "Customer ... Care Center" censoring inconvenient and harmful information, but the show doesn't even try to engage with the few questions it raises about this and whether or not it's justified. They're never really thematically relevant, just a villain to put our heroes, the Yurei Detective Club, on the run. Likewise, the series extensively references Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but to no apparent end. It's not a retelling of the story in any way and the references appear to be random and pointless. It gestures at a few interesting ideas but has no intention of following through on any of them.

The lack of any message or point to any of this could be forgiven if Berry and Hack's adventures to discover who is behind Phantom Zero were fun and interesting, but this is actually where it falls the shortest. Phantom Zero is not a compelling villain, she mainly just appears and makes everyone's Love (a kind of internet currency) disappear. Most of the series is just aimless, low stakes "mystery of the week" investigations that are even less interesting than Phantom Zero, until they randomly stumble upon the answers to everything while looking for a ramen stand (not joking) during one of them. The reveal of Zero's identity is underwhelming to say the least after being built up as the central mystery of the series. When it's over, all I could think was "what was the point of all this?" Nothing was different, everyone went back to their lives, and the characters didn't even grow.

The characters are consistently a weak point of the series, rarely rising above cardboard cutout status, and tossing out catchphrases like "Love-y!" and "I Love Ai" in lieu of real personalities. They feel artificial and pointlessly quirky. The needless quirkiness extends to the character designs, which are certainly very unique, but not in a good way. To be blunt about it, they look terrible, and the animation is poor overall, which takes the air out of the very few action scenes that threaten to make this adventure entertaining. The result is an overall visual style that's something like neon VFX vomit over misshapen Blue Reflection Ray characters. Whatever Science SARU was going for here, they missed badly.

If I'm looking for positive things to say about it, I'd say the music is pretty good and the OP is very catchy, and there are a handful of individually compelling scenes, like the scene where Berry contemplates deleting her personal data to get her parents released from custody. But these are few and far between, and a few decent points doesn't add enough to this series to even bring it up to average. Overall, it's a forgettable and disappointing sci fi "adventure" with an uninteresting destination and no reason to exist beyond being a failed experiment in developing a unique visual identity.

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Sep 18, 2022

Mcsuper

Mixed Feelings

Well-written

If I were to describe this series, I’d describe it as a mixture of Ernest Cline’s “Ready Player One”, and George Orwell’s “1984”, but in a very kid-friendly sense. It tackles themes of a futuristic world of augmented reality and information control, and in a sense, it almost has me fearing if this kind of world is what we’ll see in the future.

In a nutshell, Yurei Deco is set in a world filled with advanced technology where people see the world through “Deco”, which is a compulsory piece of equipment for citizens that allows them to see things in augmented reality. The other function of ...

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Sep 18, 2022

KANLen09

Mixed Feelings

In the world of anime, the sky's the limit for creativity, for the ones that are created in its original structure with no source backing it up. But focusing on this season alone, while at most times with originals like the A-1 Pictures Saturday shows of Lycoris Recoil and Engage Kiss beckoning both form and function, together with style over substance (one good, one bad), where then should we draw the line between the two? And that my friends, is how Yurei Deco is constructed to be just that: a somewhat "style over substance" show that has a unique take on advanced technology.

Through the watchful ... eyes of director Tomohisa Shimoyama and creator-cum-scriptwriter Dai Sato that involves little to none of either Masaaki Yuasa nor Choi Eunyoung's planning stages, Yurei Deco tells the audience about a world so far-fetched into the future, where VR and AR a.k.a Virtual and Augmented Reality plays a huge part into ordinary people's lives. The gimmick about this Tom Sawyer Island (which I think it's ingenious incorporating the "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" novel for a fascinating story plot) is that everything is done transactionally, by that which I mean that "Love" is the currency, and they are able to exchange it via this "Deco" device which allows free reign over their personalized avatars, governed by a strict system to ensure its safe use. But just like any well-oiled system, nothing is perfect, and the people that fall outside of this specification are labelled as "Yurei", people-defect within the cracks of a well-governed system. And to make matters worse, the Trojan Horse comes in the form of Phantom Zero, which robs people of their Love, allowing it to garner to a status of a game called the "Phantom Zero Nation" to lure normal, typical citizens into a wild goose chase of getting their own money stolen.

Yurei Deco's focus stems on Berry, whom has a glitch in the Deco accessory installed in her right eye, and she's able to see things that normal citizens can't, which makes her more of an anomaly within her social settings. And that same anomaly is how she met Hack, a fuzzy-looking gargle-looking kid who is able to hack and traverse the Hyperverse looking for the next prank to bait. With Phantom Zero's appearance, things go heinously wrong for the duo, and with the team of rag-tag unusuals, this is the expedition of the Yurei Detective Club and their quest to subdue Phantom Zero and save the Tom Sawyer Island from further disintegration.

For a start, Yurei Deco inches in on its fantasy and mystery elements well just like another Science SARU show (that's "Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!"), and though the tingling bears on my tongue to say that this show is not for everyone, it certainly was that to take a grain of salt to believe that anime could be anything the creators desired it to be. And that message certainly wasn't an afterthought, for it purposefully takes its time building up notes to create a cohesive story plot, even when it feels like watching episodes that are partial disconnects to the wonky direction of where the plot was going at times. But if there's one bad thing to point out of the entirety of this original anime, is that it can feel like it's a "style over substance" show that's a nod to Science SARU's unique visuals.

And for a story to connect, it must have compelling characters to boot, and most certainly each of them has SWOTs in their own regard. The Chinese-looking Finn as the head of the Yurei Detective Club is smart and intelligent, but while his words are few and concise, he often works like a lonewolf, putting his trust on himself alone and looking at the others like they are tools for his greater purpose. The African afro-looking Hank is there just for show, though he keeps the Detective Club together as his motive. Smiley and Madam 44 aren't just members guiding Finn, Berry and Hack along, but they're family too that occasionally helps in times of trouble. And last but not least, there's Mr. Watson, though peculiarly dressed in a suit and donning a large cat mask that is a being of few words, that is unless he needs to talk through his notepad. A few fair chances of charismatic characters like Finn, Berry and Hack which allows for more of the childlikeness to come about, though it can feel flat at times. But aside from Hack being the most animated out of everyone who's unafraid of showing his likes and dislikes, a rag-tag team of misfits with an aim to expose the greatest danger that threatens theirs and everybody's home, it's a Tom Sawyer adventure that's worth the ride, both in and out of the Hyperverse.

It's not surprising that for Masaaki Yuasa's own studio that is Science SARU, anime tends to go ham and wild, because it's a very distinct style that you would not find anywhere else. It feels animated and surreal of a world being guided by both VR and AR, so much so that it feels like a peak into the near "future of the past" like richness that can be made a reality. Yurei Deco definitely portrays itself as like Western-made cartoons, shows made to appeal to the younger audience, that it goes underappreciated at times. What can I tell you, it's Science SARU, so expect the unexpected and let the world just vibrate in all of its glow and wonder, which the show did good on that promise.

The OST could've been better for Yurei Deco being a very imaginative, whimsical, yet down-to-earth, fantasy-like show. You don't always feel the effect of background music a.k.a BGM in many shows, but some take it to a more prudent level of priorities, and unfortunately in this case is where the anime suffers from retaining its uniqueness. While the ED that's a duo collab between Hack'nBerry's VAs are just decent, it's Clammbon's OP that really shouts creativity in the most psychedelic way (aside from sounding good) of engagement, popping out at where it matters most. It's unironically one of the better OPs of the season in my humble opinion, and I would gladly stand by it.

All in all, Yurei Deco could've been a standout show with the likes of Science SARU's influence, but it's the storytelling that really matters, and this is kinda of a mixed bag between decent to good in spots. It definitely feels like a Dai Sato conceptualized anime that's just as bonkers coming from someone that's a creative madman, but here's some advice: Being complicated and being complex, doesn't mean the same thing.

Recommended or not, just give this a try and see whether it does for you.

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