Ok, so Deca-Dence episode 2 was really fucking weird. However, I’m not the type to be turned off to a show because it’s unusual or unclear. Not knowing what the hell is going on but slowly piecing all the weirdness together is actually pretty fun. Anyway, here are a few of my thoughts.

From what I can tell throughout the episode, it seems within Deca-Dance there is a city of small, sentient robots. However, they are property of the Organization that created Deca-Dance, and can be stripped of their hearts and scrapped, essentially dying, if the authorities wish. These robots run on Oxyone (Gollad blood), the amount and frequency of which determines their lifespans. The robots use avatars which are physical beings, fighting the Gollad for thrills and to earn rankings to be the best of the robots.

So, Kabuagi is actually not a human, but a robot down in that robot town thing, controlling a human-like avatar to interact with the world above. I wasn’t quite clear on this next point, but it seems that all or most of the Gears are actually the same way. The real humans, or most of them, are the Tankers, which the narration referred to at one point as “endangered species.” This gives us lots of room to speculate about what has really happened to humanity and who is really in charge of Deca-Dence.

That’s a lot to take in, but that’s just the beginning. All humans are controlled and monitored by a chips in their bodies. The system can pull up and process data at any time such as an individual’s history, face, name, and more. Any humans and Gears who are deemed dangerous to society are called “bugs,” and eliminated. In the case of the Gear, his robot body would be scrapped. In the case of a human, they would be killed and have their chip removed. One way a Gear can get in trouble is by lifting the physical limitations on its Avatar body. This is what happened to Mikey.

I think that after Mikey got scrapped and the rest of the team were imprisoned, Kaburagi began to change. He saw that it was useless to fight the system on his own, but he resented it. He was on the verge of purposeful death by denying himself the gollad blood (oxyone) needed for survival. However, a peculiar event “saved” Kubaragi and made him interested in life again.

It turns out that Natsume is not recognized by the system. According to databases, Natsume died when she was young, and since she is considered dead, there is presumably no chip in her body. I bet that her father somehow managed to remove her chip in the hopes that she could be independent from control. Kaburagi is intrigued by the idea of watching “a bug” try to live in the world of Deca-Dence. So he humors Natsume, and even agrees to start giving her battle training.

As I mentioned, this episode was weird, unexpected, and kind of a brain-fuck. But I like it! I look forward to seeing this bug in society, as well. On other notes, I absolutely love the ending song. Thank you so much reading! See you next time at Anime Rants!

---