Natsume gets her first taste of battle… but will the final mission be too much to handle?
What They Say:
Natsume’s first skirmish with the Gadoll goes surprisingly well, earning her the respect of the other Gears. But time and time again, the people around Natsume have told her to give up on her ambitions of being a soldier.
The ‘final mission’ is set, as the Deca-Dence approaches the Gadoll nest. Despite training her, Kaburagi refuses to let Natsume face-off against impossible odds. Will Natsume give up on the fight, or will she step up to the challenge?
The Review
Content (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
It seems like Natsume’s training montage really paid off! I half expected her to receive a ‘wake-up call’ after seeing all the brutality, but on the contrary, she ended up kicking Gadoll ass! Episode Four opens with an animation spectacle, as Studio NUT continue to flex their chops with some wonderful battle set-pieces. But it isn’t just me and my fellow viewers that were impressed. Natsume’s skills were noticed by the other Gears, namely the top Tanker soldier and Natsume’s idol, Kurenai. Right then and there, Natsume is offered a spot in The Power. The plot is moving at a blistering pace – I didn’t expect her to become a respected fighter after just one battle. But it seems that Deca-Dence is setting up even greater challenges for Natsume to overcome.
Back on the Solid Quake Corporation ship, a new Event quest is announced for Deca-Dence. The mobile fortress has located the Gadoll nest and so they set out to slay the Gadoll threat once and for all. Referred to as the ‘final mission’, players will experience the largest battle in Deca-Dence history!! While players get hyped up for the next big adventure, the human warriors below, including Natsume, prepare for the deadly battle. Meanwhile, Kaburagi has a private meeting with Deca-Dence Commander Minato. After his surprise showing in the previous Gadoll fight, Kaburagi has started to regain traction among the other Gears. Minato offers him a chance to regain his former glory and fight the Gadoll… but there’s a catch. This new Event is destined for failure. The alpha Gadoll is nearly impossible to kill, even for S-class Gears. It’s expected that most of the Gears will be killed in this battle. But it’s all part of the game’s story-line – while Deca-Dence faces its darkest hour, legendary heroes will return to fight the Gadoll threat (that’s where Kaburagi comes in). Obviously, this revelation doesn’t sit well with Kaburagi.
We return to the Deca-Dence where Natsume just finished her mission briefing. She runs into her friend Fei and tries to catch up with her, but Fei is reluctant to speak with her. All Fei wants is for Natsume to live a normal life, but Natsume continues to go against the grain. At this point, Fei has given up on her, or at least is doing her best to disassociate. She’s seen the amount of death that comes with fighting the Gadoll, and distancing herself from Natsume is her way of lessening the pain of that inevitability. The anti-Natsume train continues when Kaburagi visits her, pleading for her not to fight in the final mission. Kaburagi is in a precarious spot – he’s grown fond of Natsume and doesn’t want to see her life thrown away for the sake of entertainment, but he’s responsible for giving her the ability to fight in the first place. Their argument intensifies to the point where Kaburagi sabotage’s her gear in order to stop her. At this point, even Natsume’s unbreakable spirit begins to waver.
Natsume approaches Kurenai with the intent to withdraw from the battle. Kurenai says she can’t blame her; she’s thought about quitting a million times herself. But she always finds a reason to continue the fight. For Kurenai, living within Deca-Dence is suffocating. Going outside and fighting to reclaim the world for humanity is what keeps her living. So why does Natsume fight? We flashback to a scene from her youth. Natsume and her dad are looking at pictures of the ruins of human civilization. He says that when the world is finally at peace, they’ll be able to live outside in the beauty of the real world. That’s when Natsume decided to be a soldier – to end the Gadoll fight and live happily with her dad. But there have always been roadblocks… the people around Natsume have always looked down on her, as Kaburagi described it, she was just a ‘bug’. To overcome all of those who doubt her and to prove that she can make change in this world and in herself – that’s Natsume’s reason for fighting. Now there was no turning back – Natsume, Kurenai and the other Gears head out for the final battle.
In Summary:
Another great episode of Deca-Dence, this time with more focus on character development than world-building. The plot does seem to be moving at an alarming rate, but I think there’s more to be dissected about the world of Deca-Dence that we have yet to see. Natsume and the other Gears have no idea they’re headed on a suicide mission. Will they be able to overcome the odds? Or is the Deca-Dence fated to repeat another game cycle?
Grade: A-
Streamed By: Funimation
