[Androzani84]

Well, Decker is over and all I can say is… Good riddance to bad rubbish.

But I should probably elaborate, so here’s my full review.

The good:

The show starts off fairly strong with an invasion and the idea that the Ultra can call upon monsters to fight him.

The shared universe aspect gets some prominent focus, with Kengo and Marlulu getting to make comebacks (and Kengo actually gets to keep his own GUTS Sparklence rather than converting to the D Flasher), so there?s also that.

The Terraphaser. I just love that thing’s design and functionality.

Epsidoe 10, for the fact it introduces a tangible villain who actually makes a very good point about humanity’s relationship with monsters.

HANE2 and Asakage, mostly because they stand out among the cast not just for having actual personalities rather than archetypes and their believable relationship with Kanata (Kaizaki fits into the former, but not so much the latter, so she half-counts).

The acting. Not only is Asakage practically a completely different character from Agams, but the fact the rest of the cast spent half the season pretending they didn’t know what was going to happen (an odd choice, since most directors would just not tell them what?s going to happen until they?re actually filming).

The bad:

The characters. Aside from the aforementioned three, none of them have any real personalities and are basically left to fill some stock plots. And there’s a reason I specifically listed Asakage above…

Agams. He’s basically a completely unnecessary addition to the show, who is far less sympathetic than the writers are going for. And the actor is so over the top he idea that he could ever pretend to be normal is ludicrous. The lack of foreshadowing as to his existence really doesn’t help. By the time he died, I felt it was “too little, too late”.

The early episodes. Besides Hanejiro and Kanata buddying up, nothing happens at all until Trigger shows up. They were so boring that I almost quit the show after 5 epsidoes, while someone I know who seldom posts on this forum actually did quit the show after 3 episodes.

The Shield Caliber toy. It’s probably one of the cheapest functioning weapons I’ve seen, to the point it seems like a defect waiting to happen.

The inclusion of past monsters. A lot of them are massively shoehorned in, with Gregorl-Man, Pandon and Geomos feeling like their episodes were written by people who were unfamiliar with the monsters beyond thinking they looked cool.

The second half’s approach to exposition. Things revealed to one character (like the whole deal with Agams, the nature of the mysterious Yuzare and Kanata being Decker) or only to the audience (like Dyna actually being in the show inspired by him) are suddenly known by everyone, with nary an explanation.

The future Decker. Like Agams, he’s an unnecessary addition to the show who does nothing but rob Kanata of having a real goal in favour of railroading him to follow his own goal. And his lack of foreshadowing or later appearances make it clear he was only there for exposition Agams himself could’ve given.

The lack of characters in the know. I singled this out near the start of the show?s run, and my fears were founded. Kanata has no real chemistry with any of the cast as a result and no reason is given as to why he has to or wants to keep it a secret.

Episode 4’s attempts at comedy. They were massively out of place with the previous somber tone, and not at all funny.

The lack of any real connections to Dyna. Yeah, the Spheres are there, but they have a completely different design and MO (destroying planets rather than absorbing them). Yes, there’s a few monsters, but they’re limited to filler episodes (and like I said, other than Mons-Ahgar, come off like they were written by people who’d never seen their original episodes).

The fact that the Synthetic Beasts in this series are simply called Sphere (name of monster). Compared to Dyna’s more creative names for its Synthetic Beasts, it comes off as lazy and uninspired. (I mean, what sounds cooler. Neo-Darambia, or Sphere-Red King?)

The whole of episode 9. From the obnoxious teenage daughter, to the health problems that never get resolved in any meaningful way, to the returning alien feeling like name-slap rather than an attempt at a homage, it’s easily the worst episode of the series.

Basically, I?m going for a score of 5 over 1.8 out of 10. Not a recommendable series.