Dead Account

Episode 7

I am eating my own words here. As low as my expectations were, I might have given last week's episode too much of the benefit of the doubt. I wrote that I was expecting a stand-off between Soji and Dei would—get this, folks—“explode” into an all-out brawl. I should have known better. What was I supposed to expect from a show that couldn't (and I can't emphasize this enough) animate pouring tea into a cup properly? If you thought that was bad, wait until you see a scene where trees fall in the forest. And yes, you do hear them, but do you even care? With it so drenched in Dead Account's dull brand of animation a la PowerPoint presentation, you're left to wonder why the animators even bothered here.

And so we arrive at the latest entry of the shonen anime that pulls all of the old shonen tricks with none of the shonen rizz. What I guessed was going to be a quasi-exciting clash between Soji's class and that of rival flamebaiter Dei Surugi ends up being something that fizzles out quickly. The characters from Dei's class are profiled, and then the two classes lay down some smack talk to each other. Naturally, since both parties have flamebaiters. It's hinted that Dei's fire powers might not be cybernetic, and then after everyone's run their mouths and show off a few moves a bit, they just...bail. Rude; I wanted something a bit more. I guess that just wasn't on today's agenda. All right. Anyway, as if the frozen animation of the first few minutes weren't enough for you, we later get a montage of even more stills of Azaki preparing Soji's class for the brawl against Dei's class, which happens afterwards. They add nothing and waste time.

The cell phone concept gets increasingly ridiculous with each and every passing moment. Apparently, now it can recreate entire towns through a type of “copy-paste” cyberkinesis. It's the type of simulacra that would make Jean Baudrillard spin in his grave, serving as a playground where both classes can duke it out like they were in the worst round of Fortnite ever played. Beyond it being the type of thing that seems made up as the story went along, I have to ask: if someone from this exorcist academy had cyberkinesis powerful enough to recreate entire towns, can they recreate other things that might help bring down Sad Boy K? Multiple cell phones that increase a user's cybernetic energy? Maybe a projectile missile? How about a top-of-the-line hacking program that could pinpoint and exploit Sad Boy K's cybernetic weaknesses? Something, anything?

The battle between the two classes makes its way after a few instances of cringe powermaxxing and lame jokes concerning selfies and video calls. I've already spent enough time going on about the still animation, so to go about it again here is pointless. No one involved in the battle is allowed to kill each other, so they instead lackadaisically pelt each other with attacks until the episode ends with a member of Dei's class breaking through Soji's crew's defenses. This is the part where I'm supposed to say that the brawl will continue next episode. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. I haven't read the manga. Still, I am hesitant to believe that the ante (or lack thereof) will be upped anytime soon.

I left this episode feeling so disenchanted by everything. But then again, after sitting through seven episodes of this series, was I supposed to expect anything else?

Rating:

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Dead Account is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.