Deca-Dence is currently streaming on Funimation.
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There’s something that immediately pops out within the first ten minutes of Deca-Dence, the first original anime production from studio Nut (Saga of Tanya the Evil, FLCL: Alternative): it’s unassailably cool.
Set in a post-apocalyptic future, humanity has been pushed to the brink of extinction by a race of mysterious giant alien life forms known as the Gadoll. With no other recourse, the remnants of humanity band together to create “Deca-dence,” a gigantic mobile fortress city tearing mammoth tread marks across the now-blighted landscape left in the Gadoll’s wake, hunting the very creatures who brought the world to ruin and siphoning their lifeblood (“Oxyone”) for fuel.
It’s not what one would call the most original of premises, especially when it comes to anime, but what sets Deca-Dence apart as one of the most intriguing new anime to premiere this summer is its already stellar presentation and world-building.
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Deca-Dence marks director Yuzuru Tachikawa’s long-awaited return to helming an original project since his breakout success with 2013’s Death Parade. Tachikawa’s profile has only continued to grow in the time since, what with him not only going on to direct both seasons of studio Bones’ wildly well-received Mob Psycho 100 which won IGN’s 2019 Anime of the Year, but also the highest grossing Detective Conan film in the series’ history with 2018’s Detective Conan: Zero the Enforcer. Needless to say then that Tachikawa’s return to the director’s seat is cause for excitement, to say nothing of the scores of talented animators he’s assembled for this production.
The world screenwriter Hiroshi Seko, a previous collaborator of Tachikawa on Mob Psycho 100, has created for Deca-Dence is larger than life and already bursting at the seams with personality and potential just in the first episode alone. The denizens of Deca-dence are split between two separate and unequal castes: the infantry warrior class of the “Gears,” who battle the Gadoll and harvest their Oxyone with pneumatic harpoon weaponry, and the Tankers, the lower caste of engineers, craftsmen, and cleaners who support the Gears and keep the treads moving. The tank fortress of Deca-dence itself is a sight to behold, a gnarly mish-mash of corrugated metal plates and sinuous pipes that vaguely resemble enormous metal palms clasping one another. In a word, it’s sick.
Deca-Dence follows the story of Natsume, a Tanker who dreams of one day becoming a Gear herself in order to avenge the death of her father. This dream, however, is complicated by her missing right arm, which was lost in the same battle that claimed her father’s life when she was a child. Fitted with a mechanical prosthesis, Natsume’s ambitions are derided by her instructor and peers, who belittle her for lacking both “sound mind” and body necessary to enlist as one of the Gears. Defeated but undeterred, Natsume is instead assigned to apprentice as an armor repairman under Kaburagi, a taciturn and fiercely private man with his own mysterious agenda. For all of its expositional excess, there are several enticing mysteries hidden in plain sight throughout Deca-Dence’s first episode that gesture at a whole other world, or even possible universe, far larger in scope than even the one we just barely catch glimpses of here.
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There’s a lot to love about “Ignition,” from the mechanical design of Deca-dence itself, which looks like a fortified version of Howl’s Moving Castle, its clever approach to editing and scene transitions, or its awesome character designs courtesy of designer pomodrosa (Listeners) and animator Shinichi Kurita (Death Parade, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood). But the biggest highlight by far is the climactic showdown between the mobile fortress in action against a charging horde of Gadoll, which can only be adequately described as a mash-up between 2018’s Mortal Engines, Attack on Titan, and a jet engine-powered game of Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots.
This is where Deca-Dence shows its hand as an action show, with a dizzying display of characters bobbing and weaving with balletic grace and propulsive force amidst an onslaught of thrashing tentacles and gnashing teeth. This is where the look of the Gadoll themselves really shine, with distinct and creative designs that sell these creatures as a clear and present threat to the show’s protagonists. The action is fast and loose, with dizzying perspective shots and impact frames that grant the carnage on-screen an almost euphoric rush of adrenaline. And that’s not even mentioning how the tank fortress of Deca-dence itself gets involved in the action in a way that’s sure to make any fan of elaborate transformation sequences sit up and pay attention.
It’s wise to never judge a show of the strength of just one episode alone, let alone a premiere, but Deca-Dence does so much well within its first episode it’s hard not to be excited for what else it might have in store for the rest of its season. If Tachikawa and Seko’s respective track records are any indication, we’re due for more than a few surprises in the weeks ahead, and the series as a whole could easily shape up to be one of the most promising new anime to premiere this summer.
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Source: IGN.com New Anime Deca-Dence Is Mortal Engines Meets Attack on Titan