Last time, Kaburagi resolved to take on the system, through the Gadoll Factory above their heads. However, that’s a hell of a tall order for a guy in the robot gulag. Even with Donatello and his gang on board with making an epic-level mess, there are a lot of barriers in their way as we spend this week setting up the daring mission.
It wouldn’t be possible, it seems, to
physically attack the factory from the correctional facility
positioned deep underneath it. The surface should be impossible as
well, but has a weakness that can be exploited; what’s protecting the
factory from Deca-dence itself is an invisible barrier that detects
the microchips implanted in both avatars and tankers: an avatar
crossing that line will be forcibly logged out, a tanker will be
killed outright. Immediately, this suggests Natsume should play a
part, as we know her chip is missing/disabled, but it turns out that
there’s one additional option: Kaburagi. Banned as he is, the chip
should be removed from his avatar and the avatar destroyed, but his
commander friend, Minato, would be likely to save the body instead of
disposing of it, something that all his old teammates agree is
probable.
The robots pull a bit of a shell game to find out where Kaburagi’s avatar body is being kept, but when the go to get it, they aren’t alone: Kamina Shades Boss (he has a name, but I’ve been calling him that so far and it fits) has gotten wind of Minato’s possible illegal behavior, and is determined to investigate. The heist sequence in the storage room where the Avatars are kept is well-executed, with just the right snags, hitches, and scary moments to keep things going. Ultimately, Kaburagi’s body is recovered and Kaiba Shades Boss opens the casket that’s supposed to contain “something illegal” to find an embarrassing but allowable pleasure ray, much to Minato’s worried confusion. Thus, Kaburagi’s original avatar body is free again, and without the tracking chip that would allow the System to monitor and control him. Once he meets up with Natsume and Kurenai, since he does need help for the final raid against the Gadoll Factory, everything is in place to start attempting to topple the System.
Of course, in addition to the plan
being a long shot to begin with, there’s another hitch: Turkey,
Kaburagi and Donatello’s wormy former teammate, both doesn’t believe
in their chances and thinks he stands to profit if they’re caught in
the right way, and starts making his play to sell the would-be rebels
out. What happens for the decisive mission awaits us in further
episodes.
Thinking about how this episode ran, it
does feel like Deca-dence has slowed down somewhat from the first
arc. In the “Imprisoned Kaburagi” arc we are having more of
those required beats and complications. But, in a sense, the prize
was already won by moving through them the way the show did before.
If the story the writers wanted to tell, rather than being the story
of the survival of the human fortress of Deca-dence, was the story of
a rebellion of free will against the omnipotent ruling System, what
we did was get through the first story we had to be told so we could
start the story the writers wanted to tell. In a sense, it wasn’t
that it was fast, it was that it was groundwork, rather than a plot
on its own.
Of note in this episode is one of the
last conversations between Kaburagi and Minato, who after the
incident at the vault comes to visit him in prison. They’re friends,
but stand on opposite sides when it comes to what should be done
about the world. Minato’s not a bad guy, but he values order, while
Kaburagi has come to strongly value freedom. Their debate is a
strong one that shows them to be powerfully connected even as long as
they’re unable to coexist in the same framework.
If I did have one issue with the show
right now, it’s that Natsume has been a little too out of focus.
We’ve largely been switching off between Robot episodes and Tanker
episodes, but even in the Tanker episodes we see her more from
outside perspectives than on her own like we did in episode 1. And,
true, she’s still got quite a number of good scenes, but I’m really
hoping that as we head into the mission and whatever comes after
(Slowed down somewhat or no, we are almost certainly making it to
after with as many episodes left as we have) Natsume steps up, and we
get a little more of her view on the world, dramatic irony or no.
Deca-dence is at its best when it’s a story with two sides, not just
the robot story.