Dead Account 1×06 and 1×07 Review

Dead Account anime season 1 episode 6 and episode 7 were about properly introducing Soji (and the viewers) to his rival classmates while also pitting the characters against each other to determine their next mission.

It was only a matter of time before Soji’s class would be fighting it out with a bunch of rival classmates because that’s just how such storylines go. However, before that could happen, I appreciated episode 6, titled ‘Encounter in the Back Woods’, taking the time to have Soji interact more with his peers. We have seen him spend quite a lot of time with Kasubata and Urusugawa, with the trio recently surviving a very dangerous mission. So, now it was time for Soji to form some bonds with the rest of Class B.

The trio’s encounter with Sad Boy K had motivated them to focus more on their physical stats, as doing so helped with having more stamina for Cyberkinesis as well as for melee attacks. That’s why Soji wanted to train his martial arts skills. However, due to Kasubata being busy with leaving angry comments online, Soji got sent to Haijima.

I liked how the episode continued to cement the lore about how a person’s Cyberkinesis was linked to their online activity. Kasubata’s Cyberkinesis manifested as a giant hammer because his digital footprint was about “hammering” his opinion online on other users and content creators. Not only that, but Kasubata used to be part of a gang before he enrolled at Miden Academy. I hope we get to learn more about his past soon.

As for Haijima, Soji was unaware that the e-sports champion was actually a girl. All he knew was that Haijima preferred staying in their room and used one of the many dolls of the school’s mascot to roam around and socialize with others. Having a girl be an expert in hand-to-hand combat while linking to her prowess as an e-sports champion was a nice creative decision. We don’t get to see a lot of female characters being passionate about e-sports, especially in the fighting video game genre.

While still using one of the mascot dolls, Haijima brawled with Soji by unveiling her battle mode doll. The visual of a cute doll’s head on top of a muscular robot was quite comedic. Granted, we had already seen that in the anime’s opening sequence; it was more hilarious in action. Also, kudos to the animation team for depicting the skirmish as if it were a traditional 2D video game battle. Realizing that Haijima was the one who could help him get better at martial arts, Soji decided to refer to Haijima as his Master.

Points to Soji to still respect Haijima as his Master even when he accidentally found out that Haijima was actually a girl by bumping into her in the hallway. Of course, he was surprised, having initially imagined Haijima as your typical male video game recluse, but as far as Soji was concerned, his Master’s gender didn’t matter at all. I appreciated seeing the two continue to interact with each other with respect akin to a typical Student and Master dynamic, even though they were classmates, and with no unnecessary romantic tension thrown in, even though Haijima was very cute.

As for the rest of the classmates, there’s Naruhiko Emoto, who could create powerful sound barriers to block attacks while he’s listening to music. Emoto was prone to getting flustered and losing focus, making him unreliable in the field and resulting in his barriers becoming weaker.

The final member of the team was Renri Hasumi. He knew Kasubata during his gang years. Hasumi’s Cyberkinesis allowed him to take pictures of locations and then use said pictures as camera feeds. He was very useful for surveillance during battle, capable of sharing information to help his team land sneak attacks or to avoid enemy traps.

Due to Sad Boy K continuing to be a threat to humanity, the instructors at Miden Academy had been working on a plan to confront such a foe in about two months. However, first-year students like Class B weren’t allowed to participate. The fact that Soji, Kasubata, and Urusugawa had already encountered Sad Boy K was a mistake (or a nefarious plan!) that could have turned fatal for the trio. With Soji wanting revenge for the death of his sister, Azaki shared that if Class B won against Class A in an upcoming test, Soji and the rest could be deemed skilled enough to go on high-rank missions, leading to fighting Sad Boy K down the line.

I have no idea where the two-month wait came from. There’s been no explanation in episode 6 and even episode 7 about Sad Boy K needing to recoup his energy for two months or needing to wait for certain pieces of his strategy to fall into place to make his next move. The entire thing came across as the narrative needing an excuse to throw in the expected training and testing arcs. It’s not as if I didn’t enjoy both episodes. It’s just that I would have liked more details about Sad Boy K deciding to take such a break.

Anyway, back to the students, the scenes in the training grounds allowed Soji to see Emoto and Hasumi’s powers in action while battling faxu-ghosts. And then one of the most surprising moments occurred as episode 6 neared its end.

Soji walked into Surugi, a Class A student. To be honest, I felt played by Surugi the same way Soji was. He was able to make Soji drop his guard when talking about Akari’s death, leading to Surugi burning up Akari’s hairpin that Soji kept with him. Like, damn! That was completely uncalled for, and I fully supported Soji wanting to beat Surugi into a pulp. Surugi was the perfect example of why the other students weren’t fans of flamebaiters. Surugi was all about ragebaiting. He was practically an online troll. Making people angry, more or less, turned him on.

Possessing a similar power to Soji, episode 7 had the two fight for a bit, even though their respective classmates arrived on the scene to stop things from escalating. It’s revealed that Class A had defeated Class B before and were confident of repeating their success in the upcoming test. Surugi’s Red Flames were a nuisance to deal with. However, with Soji being with Class B this time around, and him being capable of touching the Red Flames without feeling immense pain, Class B was certain they would win.

While we have seen Class B try to call each other out about who was more unhinged in the previous episodes, Class A was on a whole other level. I get that Soji and the rest were the protagonists, but I’m kind of worried about their chances against Class A. Even Azaki had to mention to Class B, before the start of the test, that winning didn’t matter to him. All he wanted was for his students to give it their all. To Azaki, the test was about Class B demonstrating their newfound teamwork because of Soji’s inclusion.

I enjoyed how said teamwork took Class A by surprise. Assuming that Class B would act the same as before and break away to take on Class A in 1-on-1 battles, Class A’s leader Wagari was caught off guard when Soji and the rest decided to gang up on him by using Haijima as bait. This was not the Class B that Wagari was used to fighting.

It made sense for Soji’s crew to work together to defeat Wagari first while keeping an eye on the rest of the Class A students. However, their plan didn’t play out in their favor. It made for a nice learning moment about how ganging up on a single opponent wasn’t always effective when said opponent was OP as heck.

Having the Cyberkinetic ability to use his sword to cut through almost anything, Wagari survived the sneak attack with ease, understandably, worrying Class B. It was a good thing that killing resulted in automatic disqualification because it was made quite clear that Wagari would have otherwise unleashed an attack sharp enough to slice through Soji and his crew.

With the test escalating, I’m looking forward to seeing how Class B will manage to secure a win. Also, with Surugi being shown to summon Red Flames without holding his cellphone, I wouldn’t be surprised if Soji’s able to do the same during their confrontation. He did ask Azaki about it.

Apparently, someone’s working with Sad Boy K. So, there’s a chance the powerful digital ghost might appear to cut the test short.

Did you watch Dead Account anime season one episodes 6 and 7? What did you think of them?

Let us know.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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