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Deca-Dence
Episode 3

by Christopher Farris,

How would you rate episode 3 of
Deca-Dence ?
Community score: 4.4

One question I had after picking my jaw up from the floor last week was exactly what motivation the fine folks behind Deca-Dence had behind dropping such a major revelation so quickly, so casually. Surely there was dramatic impact that could be mined from saving it for later deployment, perhaps at least leaving it as a third-episode twist? I'd already guessed that, jarring presentation aside, Hiroshi Seko and all the people he has drawing his story genuinely wanted the gamer-verse reveal to feel like an essential, integrated part of its world. That impression comes through even stronger in this episode, which runs entirely on the momentum that everything we got in those first two episodes was meant to be clearly established as the premise. There likely still will be plenty more surprises as Deca-Dence goes on, but where it is now, the gaming gimmick is clearly here for more than just shock value.

The most obvious boon is in spicing up some of the stock proceedings of this style of story with some knowing mechanical nods. Kaburagi taking Natsume out for some on-site training is neat enough on its own, but caps off with a hilarious punchline revealing they were in a literal tutorial area. Finally getting into the nitty-gritty of how Gears fight Gadoll, with what we know, lets us be attentive to the now-obvious gamified mechanics behind the exercise. In fact it actually makes the whole thing seem pretty entertaining, an impressive feat to sell to the audience who only three weeks ago believed this was an actual life-or-death struggle. They designed a fictitious combat system that's both mechanically sound and functionally exciting to watch, an amazing multi-medium feat, and it's stuff that would only come through because they revealed the truth of the setting as early as they did. It's fun because it stands apart from the previous surprise and makes it feel like Deca-Dence wants us to properly understand its world now.

It's also good to have the show's stylistic divide out in the open because of how much artistic fun it's having with them. The attention to detail is clear just in that beginning tutorial segment, taking place entirely on the ‘human’ side: Check out how Kaburagi's movements are all carefully animated and solidly on-model, while Natsume gets jerked around with exaggerated smear frames. Obviously we already understand the difference in their experience levels, but this is a playful way to illustrate that further, letting the animators in on some of the same fun as the writing and directing. That demonstration of personality crosses contexts: Kaburagi is the only Gear we spend any meaningful time with in adorable cyborg form this week, and he's every bit as stiff and stoic in that form as he is in his digitally-designed dad-bod. Him being the focal point of our viewing of the Gear area helps it speak to the cold corporate fortress it is, as all the chunky linework and bold colors in the world can't cover up how horribly hollow the whole place feels.

That's in service of one of the emerging key themes of Deca-Dence, of course, and if you got just a whiff of the reliable “Capitalism is Bad” subtext from that second episode, then hoo boy will this one affirm your suspicions. Contrary to my previous assumption, the Gears aren't aliens, but in fact cyborgs produced by the controlling corporation who also bought the rights to humanity on the verge of their extinction. At this stage every single thing we learn about the system controlled by the Solid Quake corporation is another corner of capitalist criticism. Aside details reveal that just looking up historical records costs money, and Kaburagi is admonished for not simply doing his job as told, since he needs to be proactive to be recognized as a good employee. The fact that company workers who earn resources for the corporation are then encouraged to turn around and give more of their own earnings to their employer for goods both necessary and cosmetic is a searing indictment of cyclical spending systems. It's cleverly rooted in demonstrating how far gone things would be if an exploitive online-game economy was also the real economy. That's another advantage to giving the game away so early, since the violent existential theft of this system and Kaburagi's apparent desire to use Natsume to dismantly it was something they wanted us to grock as quickly as possible.

And what of Natsume? She's still lovable daughter to both us and Kaburagi. Her range of facial expressions alone is an incredibly endearing trick in the show's visual arsenal; I would happily sit through several more training montages just to see more of her face game. Her part of the plot is developing well enough as well, not as steeped in systemic real-world commentary as Kaburagi's adventures in the Tamagotchi dystopia, but hardly lacking in that kind of bite either. The question of Natsume's disability, her prosthetic arm, was brought up in the first episode as a focal reason joining the ranks of the Gears was such an out-of-reach dream for her, but seemed to fall by the wayside in the second as we learned the real reason was her own purely human existence. But that personally-held limitation comes back in a big way this week, and leans on my inquiry about Natsume's motivation for joining The Power.

Natsume's prosthetic isn't just a hurdle for her to overcome, it's the symbol of something she has to prove in accomplishing that goal, and it's not limited to those smug bullies from the first episode. Her own friend Fei begrudgingly brings up her own doubts that Natsume can achieve her dream as she is now, worrying about her capabilities. It's ableism in the guise of benevolent concern, but almeism nonetheless, a poorly-considered pity that Natsume has every right to reject. The show pointedly superimposes Fei and the bully Linmei against each other in Natsume's mind, both unconscious avatars of the system driving this world that would deny her ‘usefulness’. It marks Natsume as a ‘bug’ not just on account of the unique faux-dead status Kaburagi discovers the system has assigned to her- She's a mess of unconventional glitches just waiting to be exploited in service of breaking the system wide-open.

That makes Kaburagi's bestowing of her with an upgraded prosthetic (all that armor repair has really upped his familiarity with this game's crafting system!) that much more heartwarming as the major progressive payoff of this episode. Despite Natsume's grateful attachment to her original artificial limb, neither it nor this new one is her real strength. It's her existence as herself, in what she became and grew towards in losing her father and her arm, that made it possible for her to sway Kaburagi and receive this gift. It's her adaptability, and it's why in spite of Kaburagi's now-obvious status as the depressed-dad hero we've become so familiar with in video games in recent years, Natsume is the clear heart of this story. This third episode of Deca-Dence codifies that, then sends us down a rabbit-hole with these heroes on a new adventure. It's confident use of a setting that, in spite of its bizarreness, is already becoming lived-in and familiar to us, and I certainly can't question its motives in putting that forward now.

Rating:

Deca-Dence is currently streaming on FUNimation Entertainment.


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