Deca-Dence – Season 1 Episode 1 Recap & Review

Ignition

You’d be forgiven for thinking the latest post-apocalyptic anime, Deca-Dence, is an Attack On Titan clone. On the surface it certainly shares some similarities but the quirky cast and intriguing world building should be enough to stick with this one for a while to see how things develop.

The basic premise sees us sometime in Earth’s future and revolves around mysterious Gadoll rising out the ground and subsequently wiping out 90% of Earth’s population. With the surviving fragments of humanity huddled together inside a giant mobile fortress called Deca-Dence, human beings are separated into three distinct categories. You’ve got the Gears who are in charge of operations, Warriors (or The Power as they’re referred to here) battling the Gadoll threat on a daily basis and Tankers (those without any fighting power).

Our main protagonist here is a Tanker by the name of Natsumi, a spunky, inquisitive girl who happens to have one arm – the other is robotic. It’s her we follow across the episode and we begin with a brief prologue used to introduce us to the Gadoll threat and set up some familial drama to follow.

Inside Deca-Dence, Natsumi fails in her quest to become a Warrior but remains optimistic for the future. With best friend Fei there for comfort, a chance encounter with down-and out Gear Kaburagi sets the stage for the narrative to follow. The first half of the episode essentially sets up the relationship between the two through some quirky scenes and a nice montage as they begin working together.

Toward the end of the episode Deca-Dence is on the move, and it’s here this anime shows off some of the action between the various bug inhabitants now colonizing Earth. It also helps us see the acrobatic moves of these warriors – complete with grappling hooks (again, similarities to Attack On Titan here) and spears.

With one giant behemoth still to tackle, the episode ends with Deca-Dence launching its upper-armour and vanquishing its foe. As the various pockets of humanity celebrate, the battle may be done but the war is certainly far from over.

Episode 1 of new anime Deca-Dence essentially takes the best parts of Mortal Engines and Attack On Titan and blends them together. This post-apocalyptic wasteland feels empty on the surface but there’s actually a decent amount of world-building here, backed up by the visuals to make Deca-Dence look as authentic as possible.

Aesthetically the show blends in its CGI pretty well against the hand-drawn visuals and thankfully this is reserved predominantly for the exterior of this mobile base and the Gadoll threat.

This anime certainly looks like it could be quite interesting going forward, especially Kaburagi’s fighting at the end. There’s certainly more to his story than meets the eye. For now though, Deca-Dence bows out with an intriguing enough first episode that should see you tuning in next week to find out what happens next.