Deca-Dence – Ep. 6

Halfway through Deca-Dence so now’s the time to make a final decision with this show. As underwhelming as this show has been for me personally, I plan on finishing it. At the very least, it’s not boring and the show is mildly interesting every now and then. Blogging however is a completely different arena. There have honestly been times where I had to convince myself to keep going and that’s never a good sign. But again, this show is mildly interesting every now and then so I’m also afraid of missing out. I’ll see about Episode 7 but if this ends up being my last episode review for Deca-Dence, don’t be too surprised.

Implying that Kaburagi might’ve died was certainly a good cliffhanger and it could’ve made for a thematically fitting exit. That said, it also sounded too risky to kill him off right then and there as that would leave us with Natsume and boy is she not interesting or likable enough to carry the story on her own. Maybe this episode could be where she comes around but we’ll never know as Deca-Dence promptly reveals that Kaburagi is alive. He simply got forcibly ejected from his Avatar (which is now in custody it seems). His superior does intend to execute him but Kaburagi is spared by that since it’d be a stupid writing decision to kill him off after revealing he’s still alive. The guy is instead sent to a labor camp intended to “correct” his buggy nature.

From there, Kaburagi endures the humiliating and grueling work though he soon learns from his inmate Sarkozy that no one has ever been released from the prison, making the work vain. One glimmer of hope does pop up however as Sarkozy reveals that some prisoners have smuggled tech that can log into Deca-Dence. This naturally piques Kaburagi’s interest though running the tech are some people bitter over his previous allegiance to the Solid Quake corporation. To prove his worth, he ends up fighting the leader, Donatello, in a duel. The whole sequence of events runs a bit too long for my liking but it does showcase Kaburagi’s newfound resolve after his time with Natsume. He does the work despite its vanity and he doesn’t pull any stops during his fight against Donatello by putting him in a situation where he could end his life. The latter seems more of a bluff, I doubt he’d actually go that far, but it goes to show that he’s determined.

Somewhat shocking is how little screen time Natsume is given. You get a short scene showing Natsume dealing with her mentor’s disappearance and the apparent peace perpetuating after the last battle and that’s it. I guess one scene is all you need to get the point across but you’d think that considering Natsume has effectively lost her teacher, this would make for a more sufficient B story. It would’ve at least kept the episode more varied. There’s also a scene where Kaburagi envisions everyone, including his pupil, getting massacred in a fight. It seems to be a premonition but how and why Kaburagi experiences it remains to be explained.

I know Kaburagi logs into Deca-Dence to see Natsume again but it’s really vague as to what he plans do beyond that. Will he tell his pupil the truth about Deca-Dence? Will he tell anyone else? It’s entirely possible he’ll just resume life as usual but that would just bring the story back to square one. It’s also mentioned that Kaburagi will need to assume a new Avatar to avoid detection from Solid Quake and I can’t help but imagine next episode a comedic routine of him convincing Natsume it’s him under the new face. I just hope it’ll be kept brief.

Thanks for reading!

Watch Deca-Dence on Funimation and Hulu

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