(Atuhor's Nose: I slacked off a bit, so it's a twofer day!)


Ghosts have inhabited the internet, following the tradition that ghosts linger in places where they have strong attachments. Soji Enishiro, a 15-year-old who streams under the handle "Aoringo", deliberately creates violent, clickbaity and provocative content to elicit reactions and earn money, but it's all for the cause of paying his younger sister's medical bills. In real life, he's a simple boy who loves to eat pudding and is devoted to his sister, whom he'd go to great lengths for. One day, he's attacked by a ghost that resides in the online world, and the attack leaves him spiritually awakened. He's recruited by Miden Academy, a school that specializes in training exorcists to tackle the digital realm.

2026 has barely begun, and Dead Account's first two episodes have already given us what may be one of the most unlikeable characters of the year. Soji Enihiro does everything to make him worthy of our contempt while still managing to be just another indiscernible shonen protagonist. When Dead Account isn't trying to make a hero out of someone who really shouldn't be, it does everything else to barely leave an impression.

Is it a good quality or not when a show like Dead Account tells a story that could only exist in our modern, technology-poisoned hellworld? On the one hand, I feel like I should commend it for its attempts to satirize the enshittifying effects that the algorithm demons of modern social media have had on society's collective ability to function at a basic human level. On the other hand, every day we all have to experience a reality that's honestly not far removed from this "exaggerated" cartoon one, which depresses me. Of course, in our world, it's not spooky ghosts we have to worry about, but rather the exploitation of the digital legacies of our dearly departed loved ones. There are already plenty of delusional, amoral AI bros willing to do that evil work.

I really like the concept here, the idea that like mirrors, empty classrooms and stuff in traditional ghost stories, the online accounts of the deceased act as a portal between the worlds of the living and the dead. These are all things or places that are very much tied to living humans and have no purpose without them. And as anyone who's ever walked down a usually busy street past midnight can tell you, there's nothing quite as creepy as a place devoid of human life that should have tons of it. I also like the idea that digital ghosts require digital tools to combat them. It's both fitting and hilarious that the weapons we see in this episode are basically a ban hammer and literal flames. It brings just the right amount of visual puns to the table. I even like the idea that Soji was basically a nuisance streamer who's well aware that he's doing is shitty and unable to resist the money.

Unfortunately, the execution of these ideas is where the show suffers. It takes a genuinely well-realized idea and turns it into a basic Jujutsu Kaisen wannabe.

Soji is essentially a Logan Paul type of guy, collecting ad revenue from making online flamebait videos (filming himself laughing at dead bodies is one of the first things we see him do, making the inspiration clear and illustrating what a lasting impression Logan Paul's antics had on the Japanese). The plan is that said revenue is supposed to go towards his sick sister Akari's hospital bills. It's an asinine concept. Beyond Soji just being a troll a lot of people would block in seconds flat, the narrative does everything it can to force us into thinking he truly cares about Akari, while so many of his actions contradict this. A plot twist halfway through the first episode reveals that Akari has been dead the entire time and Soji actually skipped going to her funeral. To say that was a dick move on Soji's part is to immensely understate things.

But wait, it turns out this is only because Soji thought Akari was still alive somehow, since he received weird messages from her social media accounts. How did this not raise any suspicion? Did Soji try to investigate the cause behind this? Did he ever think of asking the funeral parlour or the hospital about what actually went on? Or maybe (and more realistically) it was as simple as her account being hacked? The show then reveals that the "Akari" Soji thought was still texting him was actually a demonic spirit, and I'm still not clear on whether it killed her and then took over her online accounts for some reason or it actually IS her.

A boring fight between Soji, the spirit and an exorcist named Kasubata ensues to conclude the first episode, resulting in Soji getting knocked unconscious. After Kasubata wakes him up in the next episode to relay what happened to Akari's accounts, Soji kinda just shrugs it all off, chalking up his sister's death as just another chapter of the cycle of life, all with such a shit-eating grin that it makes you wonder if he's even phased by it.

The show tries again and again to make us believe that he cared about her by having him get all riled up when Kasubata insults him for being a weak, pathetic punk who made flamebait for clout when there were other ways to make money. Is Kasubata even wrong though? The show is trying to him seem like this passive-aggressive douchecanoe rival, but his ability to see right through Soji makes him the more likeable character. When Kasubata had to fight Soji at the end of the episode, I found myself rooting for Kasubata.

Even Soji's whole deal as a character before the phone ghosts and exorcist buddies start running amok in his life is that he's an online nuisance who intentionally harasses and upsets people for money. Everything about his tragic backstory involving his chronically ill sister who gets turned into a monster-of-the-week and destroyed in the very first episode of the show rubs me the wrong way. If Soji had been more genuinely self-absorbed or damaged in his own right, Dead Account might've found something more substantial to say about the way that people get "possessed" by technology in ways that are by no means supernatural, which could've made for some nice complex parallels to the ghost-hunting business that'll clearly be taking center stage in this story.

But no, instead we get the old "temporarily driven insane by grief over losing my improbably perfect little sister to Anime Wasting Disease" routine, which feels like a cheap shortcut to creating a generic shonen protagonist who has the barest minimum amount of backstory to function as a main character.

As far as I know, Dead Account's manga didn't warrant enough hype to have a better budget, and does it ever show in this here anime. The fight between Soji, Kasubata and the Akari demon is very flat. The fight in the second episode is slightly better since there's more action and animation thrown about, but it's better only by default. A tour of the exorcist academy is shown in the hopes of setting up an exam arc, but all it does so far is waste time. Admittedly, the music here is good, and I can appreciate the hip-hop vibes, but the score alone can't force any intensity or emotion in a series that doesn't have much going for it at this point.

To be fair, it's not like the show fails spectacularly at anything in particular. It just doesn't really succeed at much either. The horror trappings are always welcome, and maybe I'll put on another episode when I feel up to it, but I can't help but predict that Dead Account is destined to sit in the watchlists of folks who've already gone through their backlogs and checked off all the truly noteworthy shonen action titles, which means now they just need something to kill time inbetween the new episodes of the shows they're actually interested in.