Yurei Deco impressions: A candy-colored coming-of-age mystery anime set in a surveillance state

There is love everywhere in this world. Yurei Deco, the latest anime from celebrated Japanese animation studio Science Saru — or at least that’s what the thought police would have you believe. “Love is approval. Love is value,” an elderly teacher tells an online classroom of animal-like avatars at the beginning of the series. “And so, with love approximated as a score, it serves as a currency required for public services.” In this world, “love” is not so much a feeling as it is a means to reward or punish those who uphold or oppose the authority of the state.

Tomohisa Shimoyama directs (Super Shiro() and is based upon a story by Masaaki Yuasa, former Science Saru president.Devilman Crybaby, Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!Dai Sato is the screenwriter.Eureka seven, Cowboy Bebop), Yurei Deco is a sci-fi coming-of-age mystery loosely inspired by Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The series follows Berry, a mischievous but average girl living in the utopian “data metropolis” of Tom Sawyer Island, a “benevolent” surveillance state where reality and cyberspace intersect.

Science Saru

After playing hooky from class, Berry unexpectedly crosses paths with Hack, a talented hacker and habitual prankster who lives between the margins of Tom Sawyer’s society as a “yurei” (aka undocumented citizen). After Hack is captured by the island’s police force and falsely implicated as a nefarious hacker known only as Phantom Zero, Berry teams up with Hack’s fellow yurei Finn to help Hack escape while uncovering the dark truth behind Tom Sawyer’s supposedly “perfect” world.

Dai Sato is no stranger to dystopian premises packed with allegory-laden imagery — see his work on 2006’s Ergo Proxy. What will immediately leap out at any viewer — and where Yurei DecoMost strikingly, it differs from Ergo —The visual design of the island is the most important. It is an odd and confusing world. Garishly augmented reality billboards hide crumbling concrete structures, and flesh-and blood humans co-exist with robot servants. The citizens of Tom Sawyer are required to adopt “Decos,” visual data devices which are either worn as visors or surgically implanted into their eyes by the age of 4, which flood their vision with a wash of euphoric colors and images that are exclusively purchased with “love” while stern-faced “content moderators” delete any sights or sensations that might cause them unease or distress.

Science Saru

Akira Honma’s character designs feel reminiscent of Naoyuki Asano’s work on Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!They are distinguished by their exaggerated expressions and simple outlines. There’s a range of fantastic designs in this series, from Jimi Hendrix lookalikes to pill-shaped robots to giant anthropomorphic cats in business suits. Beyond those eccentricities, most of the personalities of the cast come across as thin at the moment — though this doesn’t preclude the possibility of their characterizations becoming more fleshed out as the series progresses.

The idea of “love” being abstracted and commodified into a tool of oppression is a provocative and promising one. And the potential for the story to rise above “we live in a society” sophistry to tell an entertaining story about growing up in a world of information overload is apparent from the start. If it’s able to follow through on the potential (beyond the first three episodes, which Crunchyroll provided to Polygon ahead of the premiere), and stick the landing, Yurei Deco looks like it could be a solid contender for one of this season’s best anime. And even if it doesn’t, there’s still a lot to love.

Yurei DecoCrunchyroll has Sunday streams.