Digging Into Yurei Deco - Episode 3

Hello, and welcome back to my watchalong of Yurei Deco! Last episode saw the revelation that Tom Sawyer Island is, in fact, not so great of a place, with an authoritarian government that employs people around the clock to censor images that don't fit its "Everything is Awesome" narrative. It was also a bit of a barn-burner, spending a not insignificant amount of runtime on chases and action scenes. I'm personally hopeful that we get a little more time with the worldbuilding and thematic side of things in this episode since that's the Good Stuff that got me hooked, but no matter what, I'm sure it'll be fun. Let's find out what the third episode has in store!

Episode 3

We start out with Hack being interrogated by the Customer Center in a drab room. Looks like they were caught during last episode's chase sequence after all

The cops are using Hack's petty crimes and general location on the previous night as circumstantial evidence to frame them for the Zero Phenomenon. An unfortunately believable law enforcement tactic—both in framing innocents who juries are likely to convict or holding petty crimes over a person's head throughout their whole life, cops do not exist to protect the disadvantaged as much as they do to enforce power structures

As Berry talks with the traditionally-dressed Japanese person from last episode, Hack's robot Pup shows up to mention Hack was taken. Pup is just R2D2 with a messed-up LED face—same beep-boop sound effects and everything

Berry realizes that Hack may have been caught as a result of helping her get away and is upset by the news. A good narrative move—Berry now has intrinsic personal motivation to help Hack beyond simple curiosity

Yurei seems to be the Japanese word for "ghost." So now we have our two pillars of the show's name—the Decos that define society, and the Yurei that float through the world unseen

I wonder if this new character's long black hair and pale garments are meant to make them look like a ghost or yokai out of Japanese folklore? I'm almost certainly missing some cultural context here 

The three of them go to the sewers, where our new long-haired friend is living a very modest life. Also, their hat is removable—their garb is so anachronistic that I figured it might be some sort of Deco costume, but it seems real. I guess most of the AR outfits we've seen (like Berry's) have that holographic bloom lighting to them

Yurei are "people whose births aren't recognized, let alone their deaths." You must be a registered citizen to have a Deco, but if you were never registered or your registration got deleted, you're a Yurei. So the show is going for something like an illegal immigration metaphor—undocumented people who exist in great numbers on the fringes of the legal system

Yurei can go wherever they please without people recognizing them as Yurei—the general populace in the middle and upper class is so distracted by their shiny toys that they don't notice this separate class of people under their noses

"I never knew." "It isn't simply a case of not knowing. You were never told. They arrange it so there's no way to find out." Absolutely love this exchange—the people in charge of authoritarian systems will do everything in their power to paint a picture of the world that reflects their values, and will paint over what the world really looks like in the process. We can see that in the United States now with Republicans trying to ban LGBTQ+ books and criminalize education that acknowledges racial discrimination—it's conservatives trying to control the social and historical narrative in a way that erases "undesirables." But while changing the narrative alone may massively disenfranchise and hurt the people in question, it doesn't truly erase their existence, especially nowadays where online spaces make it easier than ever to disseminate information and connect with people like yourself 

Some unnatural direction for this conversation. One person will say a line, then we'll cut to the second person staring at them, and then we'll cut back to first person resuming their thought. I feel like it's supposed to be basic shot-reverse-shot, perhaps a way to visually break up these exposition dumps, but we linger too much on moments of silence in a way that makes them feel padded

Berry is getting ready to hand over Hack's device containing data from the glitchy-witchy, but she crams it back in her pocket when both Pup and the long-haired person say they don't believe Hack would truly help her. She is nothing if not petty

Hack is wheeled into a solitary jail cell with featureless steel plating. Tom Sawyer Island promises AR glitz and all the conveniences of a high-tech world, unless you're unregistered or cross the people in power, at which point it's stripped away completely in favor of subhuman conditions

The jailer says Hack will be given a private trail as a Yurei, but "even so, the jury will be made up of Center employees, and fairness is guaranteed." Yeah, sure

"We've got our hands full with the game cover story and staff cleaning up all traces of it." Yep, the Phantom Zero game is a way for the government to sweep an actual problem under the rug. Very Trumpian—lie, distract, and do anything except admit there's a real issue that might affect your approval ratings

Pup turns into a living Zoom call to broadcast Madame 44, the gossip queen, to the group. She tells a weird story about shooting people in a forest with a golden bow. Not sure what that's about, but I like her already

The long-haired person is named Finn. So we now have Hack, Berry, and Finn. All three pieces of the Punforce have been gathered

Berry is extra upset about the possibility of Hack being blamed for the Zero Phenomenon, especially since Hack will be sent to a correctional facility if they're found guilty. Her own guilt over the situation convinces her to hand over Hack's tracking device for analysis

Hank, a Black man with a massive afro, arrives to a Hammond organ-laden soundtrack and does a rock-'n-roll falsetto scream when he's finished setting up his machine. I... have some thoughts about his character design, but as a white guy, I don't feel like I'm the best person to comment on it. All I'll say is that making the (probably) one Black character in your show a Jimi Hendrix lookalike with dated soul mannerisms is not the best

On the other hand, it's interesting how most of the Yurei we've met so far have been distinctly racially coded, at least compared to the other Tom Sawyer Island character's we've met. Hank and Hack both have darker skin, Hack has the blonde hair and blue eyes of a foreigner, and Finn is clearly Asian

Finn's ponytail look is, uh, kind of hot

Berry enters the Hyperverse that Finn and Hank set up to look for the Zero Phenomenon's origin point. This one isn't connected to any other Hyperverse, which means the Customer Center can't easily surveil them 

Fun visuals as Berry pinch-zooms to leap across vast distances while standing still. As she flies around the Hyperverse, we also see her real body sitting peacefully on Finn's bed. I guess being in a Hyperverse is akin to lucid dreaming

Berry manipulates the timeline record of the area near her home and finds the Zero Phenomenon's origin point

She thinks it was a "natural occurrence," but Finn isn't so sure. Seems likely it's being caused by a particular person, or perhaps some sort of virus-like entity that's sprung to life in the programming

Court time—the judge sits in front of an absolutely massive peacock wall ornament. NBC too powerful

Between the incredibly abbreviated arguments by the prosecution and their silly powdered wigs, this trial scene is being played as quite farcical, but it represents a real societal ill. Pomp and circumstance that masks the wrongful imprisonment of underprivileged people

Berry shows up disguised as an attorney named Belle, who is just Berry but tall

Pretty sure you can't just barge into court and present evidence at random, but the prosecutor was already making shit up, so I guess this is fair

Tall Berry gets too excited talking about miscarriages of justice and makes her Deco disguise falter, causing her to revert back to Small Berry. Getting hit by a Goomba also has this effect

The judge freaks out about seeing a child lawyer, but he didn't care about the random unidentified stranger bursting into his courtroom in the first place, so I'm gonna say he needs to slow his roll 

The prosecutor seems to be a puppet that Phantom Zero possessed. So PZ wants to frame Hack... Either the government itself is behind this, or PZ would find it convenient to have a scapegoat

Jailbreak! Berry and Hack jump onto a light rail/cargo train, but the cops are in pursuit. Yurei Deco says ACAB

Hack gets an "I've got a plan" look on their face just before they pass through a waystation building. The freight cart explodes shortly after. Guess they're dead now!

Post-episode thoughts

Welp, Yurei Deco had a good run, but with Hack and Berry exploding, I'm not sure where the show can go from here. We'll find out next time!

...But seriously, obvious cliffhangers aside, this was another strong episode. I felt like this one did a good job balancing the worldbuilding-heavy mode of the first episode with the action-heavy mode of the second, synthesizing plenty of interesting thematic reveals with some nice character moments. Despite the light tone, it also feels blisteringly angry, laying bare the ways governments will condemn the innocent and conspire to keep certain segments of people out of sight, all so they can maintain an image of strength. We're building up to a pretty powerful and all-encompassing statement about how the world works here, and I'm really happy to see a show with this many Big Ideas executing them in such a creative way. Until next time!