Yurei Deco First Impressions

“The things we must value as citizens of the island city of Tom Sawyer are empathy, cooperation, and respect for another’s personal space.”

Yurei Deco is the first show of the season that I can confidently say I will be following on a weekly basis. This marks the first series I’ve watched, which was produced by Science SARU, but wasn’t helmed by Yuasa Masaaki. Despite Yuasa’s departure from the company, his creative influence can still be felt in this series, and I mean that in the best way possible. Despite its confusing elements, this premiere was a delight to watch, with stunning visuals and a creative concept at its core. This does come with a tentative disclaimer, though, which serves to temper the ultimate review score. When a show presents itself with a striking mixture of style and mystery, it can be a potent mixture, but the ultimate success of the formula is dependent on how well the series goes about explaining its world as it proceeds. In other words, I truly loved this opening to Yurei Deco, and I’m hoping it will continue to meet the expectations it has set. However, with so much of its premise still unexplored and unexplained, I can’t help but curb my otherwise wholehearted endorsement.

The show follows a teenage girl named Berry, who lives in an island city named Tom Sawyer, where everyone is linked in with the network, allowing for Den-noh Coil-style projections and avatars. The primary currency of Tom Sawyer is “Love,” which blends social media-style credits with the more traditional elements of legal tender. Berry is interested in rumors of an entity called Phantom Zero, though no one has successfully found lasting traces of the individual. However, this changes when Berry’s ocular implant begins acting up. She finds that the eye suffering from the glitch can see an individual who’s invisible to her networked eye. As she begins looking more and more into this mysterious individual and the secrets of Phantom Zero, Berry is pulled into a strange aspect of Tom Sawyer’s network. Going further into the plot of this episode would call for speculation on my part, but there is a lot to like here. Berry is an enjoyable lead to follow as she approaches the mysteries with sheer enthusiasm, and is reminiscent of Tsubame from Keep Your Hands off Eizouken! both in terms of design and personality. If there is an issue I have with this first episode, it would be that the individual Berry encounters is a bit annoying. They tend to ramble a bit, and will often throw out gibberish phrases to the confusion of both Berry and the viewer.

When I spoke before about how a mysterious premise can be difficult to offer a wholehearted recommendation, I had a specific anime in mind, and it turns out to be more relevant than I’d guessed. The writer for Yurei Deco is Sato Dai, and while he is an accomplished screenwriter of many classics, he was also the writer for 2020’s Listeners, which had an intriguing premise, but failed to capitalize upon it in any compelling way. Hopefully, Yurei Deco won’t follow that same progression, but the potential is certainly there. When it comes to Science SARU, I greatly enjoyed Ping Pong the Animation and Eizouken, but both of those works had Yuasa Masaaki at the helm. The director for Yurei Deco, Shimoyama Tomohisa, is an industry veteran, but this appears to be the first time he’s taken the lead, so in that regard, he’s an unknown quantity. The stylings of this series are instantly memorable, which the peculiar digital overlays and avatars offering a surrealistic edge, accenting that feeling that something is subtly off about the world being presented. The OP is a delight that blends the studio’s often simple but striking aesthetic with a bright poppy song that complements it well. Overall, there are many promising factors at play with this staff, material and production, but it’s hard not to think back to the meandering slog that was Listeners. Here’s hoping we’re in for a better ride than that comparison may imply.

Before I wrap up, a few Notes and Nitpicks:

• Much like with Summer Wars, it looks like we’re in for some AI puns. For those who aren’t aware, the Japanese word for love is あい or ai. This is why, in the movie Summer Wars, the artificial intelligence was called Love Machine.
• I’ve suddenly been hit by a decent amount of nostalgia for Den-noh Coil. That’s not a series I think back on often, but it certainly had a style of its own and some memorable moments.
• I’ve had Rush’s Tom Sawyer running through my head since the episode first referred to the name of the city. Frankly, given the themes of the show, I legitimately can’t tell if the name of the city is a tribute to the original work by Twain or to the song. Let’s just say it would probably be REALLY easy for someone to make an AMV using the Rush song without it feeling even remotely forced. Oh wait, this is from the writer of Listeners… Of course, it’s a Rush reference!
• I think I might start writing Japanese names in the English format. I’ve mostly been writing them in the Japanese format for ages, but articles that I refer to tend to use the English format with the family name being listed second, so it can get really confusing.