Initially a manga series that was written and illustrated by Inio Asano, which won won the 66th Shogakukan Manga Award in the general category, as well as the Excellence Award of the 25th Japan Media Arts Festival in 2022, “Dead Dead Demon`s Dededededestruction” was eventually adapted into two movies, before streaming as an 18-episode series on Crunchyroll.
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Starting with episode 0, the series shows a Tokyo almost completely destroyed, as a man, Nobuo Koyama, who seems to be taken over by an alien but still retains his memories and mindset, is trying to find his daughter, among a rather devastated setting. Episode 1, on the other hand, brings us three years before, when on August 31, an alien spaceship appeared over Tokyo. Although it has not attacked, the Japanese government, seeing it as a potential threat, unsuccessfully tries to destroy it. The situation leads to a cold war between the humans on Earth and the invaders in the mothership above the Tokyo skyline, in a fight, though, that is quite one-sided as the ‘invaders’ do not seem particularly eager to attack.
There is further conflict between political groups who want to eliminate the aliens, called “warctopuses,” and those who want to negotiate peace, called “peacesquids.” Despite the tense and precarious state of the world, high school students Koyama Kadode and Nakagawa Ouran live their lives with some semblance of normalcy, along with a group of rather eccentric individuals.
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There are two things that will immediately strike any viewer of the series (apart from the title that is). For starters, considering that the anime was initially aimed to screen as two movies, it has the quality of a cinema production, which extends to all the technical aspects here. Particularly the drawing and the amount of detail in the backgrounds is astonishing, a true feat considering the abundance of settings the story is set in. The character design by Nobutake Ito is also top-notch, and quite unique for that matter, with a number of characters looking purposefully absurd, occasionally with animal, doll or toy-like characteristics. The design of the aliens is equally impressive, with the same applying to the various weapons, spaceships, and even mechas after a fashion.
Furthermore, the animation by Production +h is movie standard too, with both the movement in the normal scenes and the battles that take place being impressive. The brutality in particular that seems to be present whenever the story gets out of the girls’ storyline is rather elaborate, with the filmmakers also taking care of not going overboard in that regard, with the blue blood definitely helping. Add to that the many scenes of destruction and the last episodes that become utterly extravagant in terms of action, and you have a series whose visuals are definitely among the best we have seen lately.
The second element is how the whole alien invasion concept is implemented here. Instead of having the usual ultra action approach of shonen anime with similar stories, the creators of the series instead opted to use it in order to make a number of sociopolitical comments and actually analyze their main characters more. In that regard, the context here is rather rich and multileveled.
The relationship of the two protagonists in particular, Kadode and Ouran, is quite layered, additionally in the way it also involves the rest of the main characters. The issues both face with neglectful parents, the fact that they are both rather eccentric, rather smart, and also normally adolescent on a number of levels creates a very appealing basis, which carries the series from beginning to end, with the additional, subtle sapphic elements adding even more in that regard. Particularly the dialogues (and the monologues for that matter), are all exquisite in their absurdness and intelligence, in one of the most entertaining aspects of the anime. Teachers who strike relationships with students, hikikomoris, the impact of the internet in the shaping of public and individual opinion, obsession, cults, politicians and corporates are all themes explored here, in a way, nevertheless, that is organically implemented in the series.
Probably the most interesting aspect in terms of context, though, is the way the alien invasion is presented. The aliens never actually attack, and although their purposes are unknown, the government and military corporations immediately proceed on attacking them and developing weapons to do so, with their practices actually having rather dire consequences for the population. The massacre of the aliens, who seem unable to retaliate, by both the military and paramilitary groups, and the whole immigrant mentality the ‘invaders’ have add another level here, which takes a metaphorical path that also works quite well for the narrative.
At the same time, though, and somewhere among all the context, the most significant issue of the series arises, as the whole thing becomes too complicated and convoluted after one point, not to mention that the closing of the series does seem somewhat rushed considering how many open ends appear throughout. Furthermore, the different dimensions/time travel adds an unnecessary element that is frequently used as an ‘easy way out’ in terms of story, in a style that does not fit the rest of the narrative.
This, however, is the only flaw of a series that is definitely top notch, extremely rich contextually and rather entertaining, with “Dead Dead Demon`s Dededededestruction” definitely being among the best of the year.
