An American Writer's Thoughts on Japanese Animation

Seasonal Selection – Deca-dence Episode 5

“The world needs bugs.”

This episode is mostly concerned with the resolve of the situation that the previous episode established, which takes about the right amount of time. As various teams deal with the small fry on the mountain, the sacrificial teams challenge the fog-spewing Gadoll alpha, which is supposed to be unbeatable. Natsume has to face it down for her life and the lives of her squad, but of something manages to kill it, the game’s storyline will be thrown into disarray.

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Seasonal Selection – Deca-dence Episode 4

Our episode starts in a way that’s to formula, much like the last episode, but also much like the last episode, effective. Natsume enters live combat for the first time, and despite not being the best of the best just yet, she manages to hold on and put on a good show, dispatching Gadoll in her search for Pipe. During the fight, she catches the attention of her hero, Kurenai, the strongest fighting Tanker, and makes a good impression.

Aside from Kurenai seeming to have a long-time crush on Kaburagi, she also provides Natsume an introduction to The Power, letting her join the fight on an official basis. Everything seems about on track: at this point, we should have a series of minor battles, possibly in montage form, allowing Natsume to rise in rank and esteem before socking her with the next major turn; possibly the System finding out she’s a bug (she’s fairly free with the term after Kaburagi dropped it), perhaps something else, right? Wrong.

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Seasonal Selection – Deca-dence Episode 3

Last time on Deca-dence we changed our entire outlook on the state of the world. This time, we have a much more standard episode, but one that was also very needed for what’s ahead.

Specifically, this episode is mostly dedicated to a training montage. Natsume is learning how to fight the Gadoll from zero, or arguably less than zero, so spending time with Kaburagi in the “tutorial zone” grinding on the weak ones until she gets the hang of riding gravity waves, moving gracefully in the bubble fields, and killing her foes efficiently and effectively.

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