Deca-Dence

[MFauli]

Many years have passed since humanity was driven to the brink of extinction by the sudden emergence of the unknown life forms Gadoll. Those humans that survived now dwell in a 3000 meter-high mobile fortress Deca-dence built to protect themselves from the Gadoll threat. Denizens of Deca-dence fall into two categories: Gears, warriors who fight the Gadoll daily, and Tankers, those without the skills to fight. One day, Natsume, a Tanker girl who dreams of becoming a Gear meets surly Kaburagi, an armor repairman of Deca-dence. This chance meeting between the seemingly two opposites, the girl with a positive attitude who never gives up on her dreams and the realist who has given up on his, will eventually shake the future course of this world.

[Munsu]

The promo has me intrigued and seems to have high production values, hope it's good. Other than sequels, this looks like the one I'm most looking forward to this season.

[Ryllharu]

Deca-dence feels like something between Gargantia and Regios

Not as carefree (or as detailed in design/style/background with the art) as Gargantia, and while it has mystery going on, it isn't as convoluted or incomprehensible as Regios', which is kind of a nice balance.

Main characters are both likeable.

[shinta|hikari]

Liking this so far.

[KrayZ33]

Me too.

pretty sweet.

[MFauli]

Episode 2:

Finally watched both episodes in a row. WOW. Didn'T see that twist coming, good job @trailer for not spoiling this.

not entirely sure how that world is set up, but it's more interesting than most anime already.

[KrayZ33]

Indeed. Didn't expect that and I would be lying if I said I did.
The only thing that was somewhat fishy was the ending scene of the first episode. But I did expect these tiny dudes to be some kind of high society that gets to roll in pleasure and money while the rest have to fight.

[MFauli]

episode 3:

Progressing nicely, although I find it a bit annoying that they missed the chance to portray the real world more realistic. It would have made for a better contrast to the virtual world and the reverse isekai theme. Seeing the girl fly dozens of meters through midair when the ground exploded was dumb. Also taking Pipe outside just introduces unnecessary risk.

Still ,I'm interested to find out how this ends, how "the system" can be overcome eventually, since that's what I expected to be the end game.

[Ryllharu]

I'm disappointed they gave away the entire backstory in summarized exposition. Seems like the stuff her dad was discovering in the prologue wasn't that big of a mystery after all...

I guess there's still some tension from the remainder of humanity finding out the truth, but ruining the history surprise for the audience really deflates things. I just think about how LAST EXILE or Scrapped Princess were handled differently and were stronger for it.

This is only a 12 eps series, so I don't really think this will go too far beyond the main two and Hugin.

[MFauli]

I'm disappointed they gave away the entire backstory in summarized exposition. Seems like the stuff her dad was discovering in the prologue wasn't that big of a mystery after all...

I guess there's still some tension from the remainder of humanity finding out the truth, but ruining the history surprise for the audience really deflates things. I just think about how LAST EXILE or Scrapped Princess were handled differently and were stronger for it.

This is only a 12 eps series, so I don't really think this will go too far beyond the main two and Hugin.

Gotta disagree. By having the exposition episode 2, the story can now focus on the interesting part: How to save mankind from these virtual slavers?

It would have been boring to have the backstory be a mystery, because then it would have taken the entire season to find that out, and we'd have to pray for a 2nd season to actually answer things.

[Ryllharu]

I wasn't talking about episode 2, that wasn't exposition. It was the "How we got here" in-series cartoon of the past right at the start of episode 3.

Undercut the entire mystery introduced in the intro of eps 1, with her father finding the prototype circuit plate.

[MFauli]

episode 4:

Great episode. I actually reached its end and wanted to keep watching. Rarely happens with new anime these days for me.

I'm really excited to see how the whole system is overthrown, because so far nothing hints at a believable option, considering this has been going on for centures. But even before that: So we know the upcoming battle is supposed to kill basically everyone (A rank and below) - how will Natsume manage to survive? Well, considering her very existence is a bug, she might be the unknown variable to bring about change. But how? Naruto-speech no jutus? We'll see

[shinta|hikari]

Help from S-rankers.

[Ryllharu]

It's a really well storyboarded episode.

We see the callous way that the staff is going to make an event "entertaining." The tankers really are just on board as a courtesy. The cyborgs just create a new body at level 1 and start over, death means nothing to them. Then we see the contrast of Kurenai and her team of tankers getting fleshed out at last from Natsume's perspective. She knows who they are, she's seem them from afar before. But through her, we're finally getting to know them.

Meanwhile their potential deaths, wrapped in the false hope that there was ever supposed to be an end to this, just looms for next episode.

[MFauli]

episode 5:

that was a fantastic episode. While I dislike how quickly Natsume became a full-fledged member of the group (she's a total beginner ffs), the rest was just great. Lots of action, consequences, great animation and ... drama. Did Kabu really die?! I'm in a bit of a denial.

Can't wait for next episode.

[shinta|hikari]

Wasn't that only his avatar? I think Kabu's true body is still alive, the square one.

[MFauli]

episode 6:

This anime is really great. Another exciting episode. I löve how the "childish" artystle clashes with the serious story.

Really excited to see Kaburagi's new avatar and how he'll interact with Natsume.

[Buffalobiian]

Episode 07

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I've been thinking about other anime to compare this to, and I keep coming back to "Row Row Fight the Power!" The main character here does resemble another orange haired girl from an anime in the last 5 years about escaping captivity as well.

[MFauli]

Hm, but I actually like Deca-Dence more than Guren Lagann, because it's more grounded (albeit not as grounded as I'd like it to have)

Anyway, so far this is my anime of the season, even above ReZero which is taken an awful long to get going.

[MFauli]

Episode 8:

I must say: there hasn't been a single bad episode so far. On one hand it's sad that this will only be 1-cour, on the other hand we might get one of those rare anime that have a perfect run with 12 good episodes. I remember when Boku dake ga inai Machi was having such a run, but then the twist at the end was so lame that it ruined everything.

Really nice story, likeable characters.