English Dub Review: Deca Dence ”Engine”

Overview

A giant crustacean-type Gadoll creature, with no control chip or identification number of any kind is causing havoc and approaches the Deca-Dence mobile fortress. Just as Hugin, prepares to terminate Natsume, Kaburagi makes a save in an unexpected way. Jill later discovers that the very same Kaiji-sized Gadoll is an omega type and offers a potential solution to stop it once and for all…

Our Take

Honestly, for how dire the situation progressively was, parts of the episode itself were surprisingly wholesome. Kaburagi and Natsume working together was easily one of the big highlights of this episode. I also really like seeing Jill and Kaburagi banter, as well as Kaburagi with Minato having a great character moment in the end. Lots of great dialogue-heavy and at times philosophical scenes in combination with the suspenseful moments with that Giant Gadoll monster that was established in the previous episode.

The mutated Bug Gadoll itself is crazy as a legitimate threat. This thing isn’t just Kaiju-sized, but also highly intelligent and crazy to witness. I also loved the interactions with the cyborgs and Natsume, I didn’t think that would happen at all. Getting them all individually was funny, but I’m glad she wasn’t spooked by them, finding them cute. Which design-wise they are, to be honest.

Overall, this was a pretty entertaining episode. The pacing was really well handled, making the events feel a lot more exciting and at times quite meaningful, though I’m kinda disappointed about the fact that it seems to easily deal with Hugin as a threat so damn quickly as he was built up as a large portion of the show’s conflict, yet it felt like this was resolved too damn fast. But now I wish for the upcoming final episode, that Natsume can meet the Cyborg version of Kaburagi in person. But for now, it seems like Kaburagi might make an incredibly unthinkable decision which remains to be seen in next week’s big finale.