Reviews for Dead Dead Demons Dededede Destruction

Disclaimer: This might contain some spoilers Dededede is a stand out title as far as anime goes, as there aren’t that many about alien invasions and the ones you can find are nothing like it. The closest thing to it that I can think of is Figure 17, as it also combines slice of life with sci-fi, and yet it’s very different to this series. Of course, if you step out of the medium, the show is no longer original really, Arrival, Contact, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Alien Nation, District 9, and more, are there to be compared to it, but for an anime,it’s a rather fresh premise.

It also stands out as a work from Inio Asano. His usual post-Solanin cynical and critical worldview is there but Dededede doesn’t suffer from the same issues as most of his other titles.

It has violent content but doesn’t overdo it with the edge to the point of becoming torture porn and it is dramatic but the characters don’t cry about their problems all the time, which are common complaints about Punpun.

Said characters share the same worldview as their author but are not know it all psychos that yell their lungs out to the whole world as in Hikari no Machi.

It has questionable romantic content but doesn’t include weird fetishes, as I came to know about Girl on the Shore.

The non-mundane elements are properly introduced and anticipated, unlike in Subarashii Sekai, and although it has timeskips, its narrative is nowhere near as non-linear and convoluted as it was in Nijigahara Holograph.

Unfortunately, it also lacks the psychological aspect of some of his previous works. There is some exploration of how messed up a lonely girl neglected by her parents and bullied by most of her class can become, alright, but the series still can’t be labeled within the genre. As most things are spelled out, the show doesn’t have the same introspection and inner monologues that were the most praised thing about Punpun and the best aspect in Solanin.

Despite that, it is not as if the characters are unexplored. Dededede is half a slice of life show and thus it follows its cast more than enough to flesh them out properly. The series does a good job in showing a kind of numerous cast, their interests, their families, their romances, the connection between all of them, and also for once it shows high school girls and builds a friendship with teen quirks without moe aspects nor yuri bait (not that much at least).

Is their actual teen behaviour and personalities that makes them stand out and be memorable. And yet, they have their own quirks, Kadode having childish crushes and yet being a bit pervy, also being a fan of the kind of dark parody of Doraemon that exists within this manga, which in turn is partially responsible of her dark past, and there is also some substance due to her complicated family situation.

Ontan presents herself as silly and childish saying nonsense all around all the time yet also has a dark past, and even two personalities or consciences of sorts, and it is clear that despite all her goofiness, she does care about the serious situation at hand, and that her weird behaviour is just a façade to avoid facing the big issue and her responsibilities.

The secondary cast is fine as well but not as looked into or as interesting as far as characterization goes. Rin is into yaoi but that’s it, the teacher is just sad because of a break up and is possibly pedophilic, Hiroshi is a good and interesting guy that cares for his sister and Kadode but remains in the background, Makoto stands out mostly for cross-dressing, Kiho works just as a plot device, Ai has a lot of stuff to deal with but is only looked into for one episode.

The most interesting characters besides the main ones end up being the supporting cast that, even though they don’t have the most elaborate characterization, are the ones that actually move the plot forward and are the plot devices to explore the themes and different perspectives. Thus you have Kohiruimaki (fuck his name btw) and Futaba being the exact opposite positions regarding the aliens.

He is paranoid about them, plus also depressed, and only feeds himself with information that confirms his bias, and becomes an alien hunter of sorts, especially after losing someone dear to him. She on the other hand, wanting to know the truth before judging, and after a somewhat shocking experience, becomes an activist in favor of coexistence and communication with the aliens, for they are beings equal to humans and thus deserve human rights.

And there’s also Hikari Sumaru, PR of a certain company developing technology for the government and military to fight off the aliens, and the freelance journalist Miura, that tries to expose the whole thing.

Oh, and how could I forget Keita, an actual alien that tries to befriend humans, sees the good in them, and tries to prevent the escalation of the whole thing.

The thing is that all of that happens mostly in the background, leaving the viewer watching the main girls doing silly stuff on the school. Thus the plot, although is not slow nor is left as an afterthought, might feel boring and undeveloped for a while for some, even more so if they are not fans of slice of life stories.

The people responsible for the anime must have thought something like that too, seeing how they sped up the pacing by cutting off content from the manga, and rearranged events and scenes to come earlier and in different order so they could have more exciting things happening on the background or as flashbacks.

Perfect examples of this are half the flashbacks of the protagonists shown earlier, differently, and in just one episode, when they amount to at least two volumes of the manga, and the infamous episode 0.

I don’t know how it was received in Japan, but at least the opinion online about it on anime databases and sites wasn’t very good, as it shows stuff from some of the last chapters from the manga, in a media res flash forward way in order to make it seem that more exciting things are coming, and possibly ruining the element of surprise for some I guess.

Plus the episode itself wasn’t that good, it had too much action without a proper introduction of the characters first, and the information provided made it to be full of exposition, thus coming off as boring for some.

And the thing is that there wasn’t really a good reason to do this, the world building from the beginning of the manga is good, the plot is still happening in the background, the final showdown is built upon throughout the whole series, so why did they feel like they needed to anticipate stuff is beyond my comprehension.

And it is not as if there wasn’t any reason for the slice of life portion to have more focus than the alien invasion, as it is part of the themes. Here you have these girls unaware of the crisis or refusing to acknowledge it and playing dumb to keep living a normal, simple and more or less happy life for the little time it has left.

There are also background characters that, whenever new information about the aliens or human victims come out, they keep looking elsewhere, acting as if nothing happened, or choosing to ignore the situation through consumerism, of a dark Doraemon parody, gacha games, or pop idol bands.

There are even people living on contaminated places faking being sick so the government gives them a pension, heck even places where tragedies happened are used as tourist attractions so the whole slice of life part is actually a social critique from the author.

The pop idol bands in turn get into scandals, used to get the full attention of coverage of the news and thus distract the public from the scandals and actions of the technological companies and the government, so it is criticizing the mass media as well.

As it is also a criticism on both the Japanese government and self-defense forces, and later on the super powers, the United States, China, partially France on the source material but the anime changed that for some reason.

So here you have the alien situation going on, and the government pass them as dangerous enemies even though they are not exactly hostile, there is a lot of discussion between the different parties regarding what to do, not really that much about the aliens themselves, but with other countries instead.

Meanwhile the government builds up this image of a public enemy, and exploits their technology and uses it as a source of energy, while taxes the people to build a huge spaceship reserved only for the elite, with the Prime Minister being just a scapegoat for the politicians that actually move the strings.

And as for the United States, they interfere in other countries’ problems, through militaristic intervention of course, and they make things worse in the long run and even elevate the whole thing to a war. Does that remind you of something?

I don’t know if the Primer Minister is a satire of Abe, but on the other hand President Padron is very clearly a satire of Trump on the manga but the anime changed his hair colour so it is not as obvious, and he is even more of a puppet than the Japanese.

Whether if this vision is accurate or not is up to discussion and debate, and exceeds the objective and purpose of this review, but for the political criticism that the author was going for, it was well presented in-story, even more if you happen to dislike the international politics of the States and how they constantly meddle with other countries.

And since the self-defense forces kill the non-hostile aliens, even the children, and people celebrate the killings, all the while the lives of people get ruined because of the battles, and even one soldier gets traumatized by the whole thing, you can even count the show as a critique on militarism. And since this character has a change of perspective here, he is better than the one dimensional bad guys from District 9.

And of course, as it is always the case for stories with this premise, you can see is a metaphor for discrimination against immigrants, and in this particular series, since the aliens claim to be the original habitants of the planet, as occupation and ethnic cleansing, and I am sure that will remind you of things that actually has happened and are happening right now.

Another thing about this show is that it is one of those “humans are the real monsters/bad guys” of the story, which is a fine premise but a bit overdone these days in my opinion. Thankfully this series showed that the aliens WERE actually planning an invasion, slave the humans, and they even form a suicidal resistance, so the conflict isn’t one sided with clear victimized and demonized sides of it as it happens a lot of the times.

It seemed that the author was going to ruin all of his good stuff with the inclusion with an ever problematic plot device that is time travel/different timelines/parallel worlds, in a Madoka Magica like fashion, but for a while it was underplayed and used just for fleshing out the cast through flashbacks, and even presented the possibility of the whole conflict being the result of one of the main characters escaping reality, so it seemed like it was going to be good.

And as you can always expect from Asano from a point, what followed was what was anticipated throughout the whole story, shit gets real and a lot of characters start dying one after another and everything goes to shit, in a horrifying sequence that will likely remind you of Barefoot Gen, Akira, Godzilla, or even Watchmen, or any other nuclear explosion allegory you can think of.

That was the highlight of the story as far as I am concerned, and I really wanted to see what the author was going to do with it, and what I got was one of the most disappointing finales I have seen recently. Turns out he goes for a coward’s easy way out of the conflict, and it is not even one of the main characters that “finishes” the story, it was a secondary character with barely any focus throughout the whole show that did it.

Thus the story and the themes you followed for the whole show don’t get a real conclusion, the characters have a catharsis but it feels shallow, hollow, even unreal, and one you don’t care about, the supporting cast gets forgotten with no resolution whatsoever as if they were never there, despite being the ones actually moving the plot the whole time, and you are left wondering what the point of the last mini arc and time skip even was. So yeah, it was truly really undoubtedly bad.

Visually, the series goes for character designs that strike as childish and reminiscent of the ‘60s and ‘70s, as you would expect from a show that partially parodies Doraemon, but because of so-so animation, and inconsistent character models, they didn’t translate that well to the adaptation, and even took a bit of seriousness from it.

The actual animation isn’t that good either to be honest. The artwork, backgrounds and special effects for everything that isn’t smoke, which is always done with CGI these days for whatever reason, are otherwise very good.

So yeah the visuals are overall very good, it’s just that could have been better, and are not as good as the ones from the manga, which to be fair was kind of impossible, as the manga is one of the best looking I have seen in my life.

What was a neat detail, however, was showing the backdrop of the main characters with a 4:3 resolution, to differentiate it from the current events, simple but very effective trick.

As for the sound, the effects are very good and immersive, the voice acting is kind of atypical for anime, very fitting for the show, but it lacks impact somewhat, and the music is pretty good. The opening and endings don’t sound like much, but they reflect the innocence or fake ignorance of the main characters well, especially with those lyrics.

Oh, and other aspects that could be said about the anime that were kind of an issue were the poor marketing it had, since it is an alternative version of the movies, with actual footage that isn’t in them, and Crunchyroll messed up the subtitles as they infamously tend to do with the liberties they take and how they did not translate any text on screen, for at least 7 episodes. I don’t think these things are that much of an issue, but I thought it was worth mentioning them for some people.

As a whole, I thought of Dededede as a great critique on society, militarism, politics, mass media, consumerism and war, and a very interesting slice of life series and mix of two very different genres. I was going to rate the manga with an 8 out of 10, and since the anime is a bit more messy with its pacing and explanations than the source material, I was going to give it a 7 out of 10, but because of the really bad ending that renders practically every important aspect basically pointless, I had to go with the latter for each one. Meaning, I consider both versions to be worth consuming for at least one time, but not as good as they could have been if the author didn’t chicken out at the end.

"What would you do if tomorrow was the end of the world?" Honestly, this review will be the hardest for me to write, Dead Dead Demons Dededede Destruction(DDDDD) requires me to do a detailed review, otherwise everything would just be vague; considering that the person who will read this will have in mind the possibility of watching it, I will try to be as logical as possible. At first, Dead Dead Demons Dededede Destruction(DDDDD), is an anime that explores several layers that make up the world around us, such as: The media, the government, supernatural beings, terrorist and anti-terrorist groups, and mainly, the human being. The animetries to approach such themes in a realistic way, whether exploring their actions or lack of action (negligence) in a certain problem by human beings, such problems that, initially, arise after one alien invasion, this invasion would later become known in history as "the 31/8 incident", what triggered several problems in the story.

The story begins by following the routine of some girls who live their lives in a carefree and fleeting way. Among this group, two girls stand out, with whom the anime would develop their relationship and their dilemmas (Kadode and Ouran). Kadode and Ouran have been friends since childhood, without great expectations for the future, the two just follow their lives in a relaxed way. Even Kadode's sense of justice or Ouran's fun paranoia are something no that serve as a life goal for them,because they both have only each other and together they are complete. While the story shows the life of Kadode and Ouran, the anime also shows the alien invasion and its consequences,the government tries to move to prevent a greater disaster, the population is apprehensive, the media speculates with its conspiracies, and when you least expect it...Not even the peaceful lives of teenagers like Kadode and Ouran are safe from the chaos that is emerging in the world.

Dead Dead Demons Dededede Destruction it's not a story that just focuses on one story. At some points the anime will show the reality of people from different realities, some with a sense of justice, who later form a group against the government, some in a radical way and others in a more peaceful way. The story tries to explore human beings in general, their limitations and their sins, their cruelty and their sweetness, everything as it really is, that "raw reality" in its most complete form and cruel, without fantasies or metaphors, and the aliens are there just as an effect, because they are simply not really the danger, but rather the human mind and its distortions with stereotypes and misinformation.

The story follows this line of reasoning, while showing Kadode and Ouran living their peaceful lives, the anime will try to show at what point that chaos that precedes the end of the world will reach these girls. Not only to them, but to all human beings,Kadode and Ouran is just an pretext from the author to develop the "end of the world" for humans chaos that he wanted to establish in this anime, which in my opinion, was done in a phenomenal way.

Dead Dead Demons Dededede Destruction raises the profile of social problems such as poverty, prostitution, corruption, terrorism, media manipulation, prejudice... among other issues that you will see during the episodes.

The pace is slow and prolonged, everything is done in a detailed and logical way. Both the development of specific subjects, as well as central subjects (Kadode and Ouran), everything is done in full but in stages.

The animation is good, it's not "godlike" level, but it's quite solid, even the 3D.

The soundtrack is great during the episodes, most of them show more tension or drama to the story. The opening is beautiful, it literally sums up the anime perfectly, both the lyrics of the song, as the visuals. The endings are also good and the voice acting fits the characters perfectly.

The characters themselves are representative of human beings. They are basically realistic, some evolve and others regress. They evolve towards an achievement with friends, family, work, school, maturity or in relationships with other people. While others retreat into crime, terrorism, hatred, corruption, depression... I think it's clear what I meant. There is no way I can talk separately about what each character is like, because for me, they are all simply human beings in the real world. Some you will like and others you will simply hate/dislike. In terms of plot, all were essential to the history and development of society, whether for good or for bad.

I wanted to write more, but if I did, I would probably give spoilers. In view of this, I prefer to end here.

Final conclusion: It's a good anime for someone who likes social themes about the world as it is. With flawed, imperfect human beings, driven by money, lust or friendships like the two girls (Kadode and Ouran), Even imperfections, when done in detail, become interesting enough to learn about human nature in its most cruel and docile point of view depending on the situation...

Remember aliens are just a future danger, the real terror is ignorance and human cruelty.

Dedo Dedo Dede Dede... One hell of a name, isn't it? This show is a lot of things, it is so many things that the most elaborate review of it on this website is incredibly long. But in short; it is cute (almost chibi) girls living their cute slice of life lives juxtaposed against a gritty, realistic first contact scenario in which everything goes wrong. It is this contrast that I found surprisingly real. Life changes incredibly slowly, it takes years for one to notice but it's always dynamic. One day, aliens arrive. Three years later, people who were 14 when the massive mothership appeared over Tokyoare graduating high school, enrolling in college, looking for jobs and getting into relationships. But the UFO is still there, seemingly unchanged, part of the scenery, almost. All the while the country slowly shifts into militarism, the more radical members of society begin forming groups of opposing views, tension grows and people die.

Another thing that was a very pleasant surprise to me is how modern it is. Anime tends to be old-fashioned, eschewing phones as devices to call or text others and that's it. Here you have the girls play first-person shooter games, browse SNS, one of the characters makes a living through the internet, an AI is present who's largely reminiscent of modern language models rather than the classic sci-fi 'basically a human with a voicebox'. This is perhaps the first SOL anime I have seen that made me feel like it's actually set in the year I'm watching it in (in more ways than one).

I can barely withhold a real life comparison that is relevant to the current situation in the world (at the time of writing this review), but I feel like it is no place to bring up politics. Even if that would help explain why I feel the way I do about this anime. It is one of best releases of 2024 that you will never hear about.

PS. Unlike many others, I will say that the ending impressed me greatly, it is both unexpected and draws a fine line under everything that happened. I would call it most literally, a wrap-up.

PPS. Don't make the Haruhi mistake, watch it in the broadcast order, episode 0 is there for a reason.

Watch this show. This is one of those rare series we only get every few years. This is also one of those rare series that has an underrated instead of overrated MAL score. That’s all I’m going to say. Just watch it. Don’t complain because it’s “slow” or there’s no action at first. The dialogue, world building, and characters are enough to carry you through the beginning. Grow up and watch it. Don’t watch episode 0 until the end. or Watch it right away. I don’t care. but watch this show. Well because of character requirements I’ll add: The dialogue is great, the characters arereal, the art is creative and funny, the humor is funny and creative, the opening is great, the pacing is great if you’re not a child. It can be a little melodramatic every anime is.

Have you ever felt as if the world is crumbling into destruction? The looming sense of doom appears to be an inevitable fate, a chain reaction of human nature that we can only observe and experience. Nothing we could do other than living our everyday life. Dead Dead Demons Dededede Destruction capture this sense wonderfully. So many things happen in the world that it can seem bleak, but they are just natural and realistic, and often beyond our control. Everyone is focused on their own things, and we should be too. Be there for each other. As you might expect, this animeis slow burn. The story doesn't point to anything clear, the events are interesting, but they are just "Well, it happens". Some people might be put off by the story. But the focus of this anime are it's characters and the overall condition of the world. If you love strong characters and 'vibe' of the show, you'll likely find it very satisfying.

The production quality is decent—though not the best, it effectively adapts the manga and falls within the good range of quality. There were some translation issues at the beginning, but that's a problem with the distributor.

If you're a fan of ano or Ikuta (YOASOBI) you'll be pleased to know they voice the two main characters duo and perform all the opening and ending songs specifically created for this anime.

Main takeaway: If you are planning on watching ddddd, I want to recommend to wait until all the episodes are out and then watch them in a timely fashion. The show is slow and it is easy to miss details. I previously wrote a review saying that the show was essentially too slow and confusing. However, something about my review bothered me, even if no one has seen it. I felt as though the story was better than I had originally thought, but I was not sure whether I wanted to put in the effort to resolve this nagging suspicion. So I went back andrewatched some of it upon finally catching up with episode 14 as of today. I have since deleted that review and instead decided to create an advisory message for all potential new viewers. Though I still think that the story develops really slowly and I would not recommend it to the average viewer for this reason, I think that is enjoyable for a different reason.

If you have not already been exposed to the story through the novel (like me), then your viewing experience may be confusing and leave you wondering "where is this going?" Upon rewatching, I noticed I was enjoying the small details and hints scattered throughout the establishing episodes. As I am no longer splitting my focus between deciding whether I should keep waiting for something exciting to happen, I am now appreciating the characters and the jokes more. The thing about ddddd is that it takes a little more effort to appreciate. I like to watch shows when I come back from work or to take a break from college work, so I started this show hoping to be able to turn off my brain and get excited. This is not the case for ddddd. This is also a reason why I think it might not work for the average viewer.

In the expert analysis of someone who has never taking a storyboarding class, a show that is exciting from the get-go tends to have a hook. The story plays off and explores this hook with all the tools in the story-telling toolkit (humor, twists, unique characters, difficult decisions, etc.), which makes it interesting. However, ddddd is not a show that is exciting from the get-go. At first it seems like the alien ship is the hook, but it's just the source of different storylines that later come together. More characters are introduced, setting the stage for them to collide, but this too is not very exciting. It reminds me of Odd Taxi, but instead of things coming together around episode 4, ddddd starts doing this around episode 14...with just 4 more episodes to go. As of now, I cannot say whether I recommend watching the show or not, I will likely post a review when it completes.

It pains me to leave a negative review, as after the first few episodes I thought it would be a 10/10 anime of the year. But closer to the end, I regretted the time I spent on this mess. It starts very strong as a slice-of-life story coupled with sci-fi elements, somewhat similar to NieA Under 7 or Zettai Shounen, but with more focus on the main character's connection to the UFO that has been floating over Tokyo for a few years by the time the story begins. The two protagonists, Ontan and Kadode, are fun to watch. They feel alive—eccentric, but realistic in many ways.Then there’s an alien roaming around in human form, then we get a flashback about their childhood, a meeting with the alien, and how Kadode decided to become Kira but ended up killing herself—yet she’s alive in the present... All of it is explained in the most underwhelming reveal in all of anime. But at first, it seems like a perfect mystery is being set up, and we’ll have a great time watching it.

Nah, not really. DDDDD tries to be everything and fails at all of it. I could talk about each aspect, because they don’t really come together into a single narrative.

Slice of Life

The slice-of-life aspect is very chaotic. Aside from the backstory, Ontan and Kadode aren’t even involved with the global plot about the UFO—they just live their lives, and it goes nowhere. There are only 17 episodes, yet the anime introduces a bucket of one-line characters that we never see again or care about. Then it spends an entire episode on a side character who is irrelevant for the rest of the show...

Politics

DDDDD isn’t just sci-fi—it’s also social commentary. You can draw parallels to contemporary politics if you want, but the main message is: humanity is evil, the military is comically evil, politicians are comically stupid and evil. Aliens are also comically stupid, but good. There’s no nuance or depth—most humans are just bad because they’re bad. It feels like it was written by a burned-out, nihilistic individual who, however, didn’t have guts to end the story the way it should’ve ended. But more on that later.

Sci-fi

Easily the worst part. No explanation is better than a bad explanation—and boy, this is bad. Nothing makes any sense. The aliens have advanced technology, but they sit inside the UFO and make no attempt to fight back, establish contact, or just fly away from Japan. It’s openly stated that the only problem is the language barrier, but they have auto-translator devices in abundance. They can overtake human bodies, but don’t. They say they’re from Earth, but it’s never explained. There’s time travel, but you lose your memory... but not really. Whatever. What are the pink doom spheres? What are the hands of God? This anime is a bowl of spaghetti made of loose ends and unexplained plot twists. Maybe some of it is explained in the manga, but I’m only rating the anime.

Love Story

Yes, there’s a love story—because why not? Like everything else, it starts out of nowhere and leads nowhere. Nothing else to say about it, really.

Ending

The cherry on top. So the main message of the show, formulated by Ontan’s brother, is: if there’s one person you love, you should do everything to protect them, ignore everyone else, and even if the world ends as a result—it’s not a big deal. Considering the author sees the world as a rather bad place and most humans as garbage, it makes sense. And in episode 16, it seems like it happens: Ontan destroys most of the world but saves her friend. Now it’s time to conclude this philosophy—whatever the conclusion might be.

Nah, we don’t have the balls to do that. Instead, we get the laziest Deus Ex Machina I’ve ever seen. Kadode’s dad, who was absent the entire show, comes back, finds a time machine, goes to the past, and saves the day. No death, no invasion, and everyone is happy. How does he do it? Well, write that part in your head—just like many other parts.

TL;DR

A disappointing anime with a great premise but poor execution. It has some likable characters and nice art but fails as sci-fi and as a story, with a multitude of loose plot lines and a lazy, cowardly conclusion.

Oh yeah, there are also Gundams. Why the hell not?

Goofy Sci-Fi with a Knife Behind Its Back At first glance, DedededeDestruction plays like a quirky slice-of-life sci-fi, full of eccentric energy, playful banter, and vibrant characters. But beneath the surface, it hides something sharper, a darker, more introspective story that gradually reveals itself as the episodes unfold. Set in a version of Tokyo overshadowed by a mysterious alien ship, the plot follows the daily lives of two close friends navigating this bizarre reality. While the tone is often humorous and surreal, the series slowly peels back its layers to explore heavier themes like trauma, war, and the unsettling tension between justice and destruction. The emotional core ofthe story rests in the friendship between its two protagonists. Their bond feels authentic, at times even moving and serves as the anchor that keeps the narrative grounded when it leans into the absurd. It’s a quiet strength that elevates the entire series.

Inio Asano’s influence is unmistakable. The characters are emotionally rich and often painfully human, revealing contradictions and vulnerabilities that feel lived-in rather than scripted. The visual direction mirrors this duality, balancing bright, expressive scenes with moments of haunting stillness or emotional dissonance.

This isn’t a typical alien invasion story. The sci-fi backdrop serves more as a mirror than a spectacle, reflecting questions about connection, identity, and the fragile boundaries of human empathy. Beneath the wild aesthetics and comedic tone is a philosophical undercurrent that lingers long after the laughter fades.

It’s a strange, stylish experience that blends the ridiculous with the profound, and for those drawn to character-driven narratives with hidden depth, it leaves a strong impression.

DO NOT WATCH EPISODE 0 FIRST. Episode 0 is the second-last episode (between episodes 16 and 17) and is basically necessary viewing for the finale, so watching it first or skipping it entirely will absolutely have a negative effect on your viewing experience. No idea why it was released like this. While this is not my favourite of his works, that only speaks to how high a bar Inio Asano has set for himself. Asano is running on all cylinders here, and if you are a fan of Asano's other works, you will love this. I wasn't sure at first how I'd feel about finally seeingsomething by Asano animated, but this series did not disappoint in that regard. The art, animation, style, and overall direction is wonderfully unique and interesting.

SEMI-SPOILERS (nothing specific):

In my opinion, this anime (and the manga) both drop the ball right at the end. DDDDdddD is absolutely astonishing it is about normal people and how they interact as insignificant members within the multiple sociological and political systems responding to a massive catastrophe. Luckily, that's about 90% of the show, but that other 10% stops being any of those things, and that is unfortunately the last tenth of the story. Regardless of where it ends, the ride is well worth it.

After watching ep.0, I was very intrigued and had high hopes that this anime could be something great. But by the time I finished the last episode, I was crying inside because I knew I would never get back the time I wasted on this utterly horrible anime. Spoilers ahead (obviously). Note: I did not read the manga, so this is purely a rant about the anime. MCs will be referred as K (Kadode) and O (Oran). The genre bait-and-switch From the beginning, it’s clear that we’ll have aliens, a post apocalyptic world, some sci-fi, and cute girls who will probably die horrible deaths. However, ep.1 decides that actually, thisis a slice of life anime now! Oh well, I figured with 17 episodes total, not all of it would be action packed. But episode, after episode, aaaafter episooooode, we get 15 minutes of mundane schoolgirl life/activities, followed by 3–5 minutes of actual interesting content regarding the alien invasion. And next episode we are back to the daily life of schoolgirls!

For example, ep.8 ends with literally hundreds of aliens falling from the sky (broadcasted on the news), with people in shock. But then ep.9 starts with O preparing for her college entrance ceremony! And this constant pacing whiplash isn’t even the biggest issue here.

The "protect just one person" nonsense

The main theme (as far as I can tell) is voiced in ep.5 by O’s brother: "Protect one person. You can’t worry about everyone. Just one is enough." And boy, does the anime commit to this idea in the worst way possible!

We get a backstory episode where the girls first find the alien few years ago. Then, in an attempt to prove that humans are good, K (using alien technology thingy) goes full Light Yagami (but with a much lower IQ and a childish approach). When things inevitably go south, she acts like some tragic heroine, and by the end of ep.6, this barely likable character becomes completely unbearable. And then she just jumps out of a balcony! Buuuut here’s the thing - ep.6 ends before we know what happens to her. Then ep.7 starts in the present day, with everyone alive and happy. Some side character goes on a date with another insignificant character who never appears again..

For a few episodes, we don’t get an answer about what happened to K. Since we didn’t hear a sound of her actually falling on the ground, maybe she survived? But her personality seems too cheerful... so was her memory tampered with? Or is she dead and possessed by an alien? (We already knew that was possible from the start.) But nope! Turns out, time travel exists!

The anime explains (sort of) that your mind can go back in time and change stuff. But how much of the previous timeline do you remember? Who knows! So, O uses this machine, "travels" (transports part of her mind?) back, and intentionally avoids meeting the alien. Because of this, a few years later, an entire alien ship appears, Tokyo gets destroyed, and almost everyone dies (including MC's friends and family members). But hey, it’s fine because O and K survive the explosion and still have each other!

On the same episode O asks K, "what would you do if the world ended and it was my fault?" And K responds, "even if everyone in the world became your enemy, I will still be on your side." So, basically, the MCs are both selfish lowlifes with zero regard for anyone but each other. Sad.

Actually, based on how most of the characters are drawn, and how they act, maybe it was the author's intention to make the viewer hate the entire human race?

If the story had ended here, I might have been somewhat content. At least they’d have to live in this harsh world and deal with their loss. But just when you think you can’t be more disappointed, the anime says, "hold my beer - here comes the last episode!"

The ultimate deus ex machina

In the final episode, K’s father, a cold and useless man who died on the day the alien ship arrived, was actually possessed by an alien for eight years before regaining his consciousness (don’t ask me how. The anime tries to explain that it’s his strong will, even though nothing in his screen time suggested he was strong in any way, shape, or form).

Anyway, this re-awakened man, with the help of some side characters, finds the "time machine" again and goes back 12 years. But even before he does anything, things are already different: K have a different color glasses, K’s favorite manga has different characters, etc. (Why? Who knows! Maybe we’re already in a multiple-times-altered timeline?)

He tells K to befriend O, and boom! Time skip! Everything is fine, no alien invasion, nobody dies, they grow up, find jobs, and are all friends. Happy ending! Hip hip-hooray!

Final thoughts

Loved the random Trump (a.k.a. Patron) appearance.

Hated the government spaceship plotline.

So many plot points were introduced and then completely abandoned.

*O was given a pill (cube) to suppress her fear but she never takes it, and it’s never mentioned again.

*The aliens casually drop the fact that they were actually the first ones to live on Earth, but no further explanation, no backstory, nothing!

*What do the aliens actually look like??? And how come with such an advanced technology they are so helpless??

*If they have the ability to transfer themselves into dead people, why don’t they use it more?

*Add what was that giant finger from space that pressed the "destruction button"?!

*The weird white space where the D's father went through, is it the same place where the little aliens went after they died? and it had the little earth and these four hands with pointing fingers, what was that? What was the purpose of this anime? I guess we'll never know.

Conclusion

If you introduce multiple plot points only to barely hint at them and never explore them again, maybe... just don’t? Maybe just pick one and actually develop it??

I suspect a lot of these plot holes are explained in the manga, but as an anime-only viewer, this was beyond frustrating.

(Note: I watched "Episode 0" between the last 2 episodes [16 and 17], I strongly suggest you do the same for reasons I'll elaborate on) A great show with an ending that stuck in my craw I thought it started out with a strong hook. What do those aliens be doing up there? You follow a couple of high school besties and I can see them being off-putting but I found them really fun. Oran is just a weirdo and a delightful one at that. I thought Rin was kinda underutilized but Ai gets some good characterization and so does Kiho. Obviously Kadode also gets some good things asone half of the main duo. Overall, I liked the friend group. If it wasn't Dededede and it was just some CGDCT show, I'd watch.

I think a lot of the characters no matter how small or big get lots to work with. There are a few characters who you just assume are there to fill out the cast (or at least who could have feasibly just been bit parts) but end up being big parts.

It's intriguing seeing how humanity might meet its dededededestruction and it's got a lot of cool thriller elements, I was like "omigah" a bunch during it, try to go in as blind as possible

...speaking of which, I don't know what crack rocks they were smoking but do NOT watch Episode 0 first. It heavily spoils the plot of the show and you're better off watching it it chronological order, so to speak. I think E0 is kinda clunky in chrono order (between E16 and 17) because it kind of assumes you're watching it first so you get info you already know spoonfed to you.

It's still a good episode but don't watch it first.

As for the aliens, I felt really bad for the little dudes. Won't say much else for fear of spoilers but yeah, he totally succeeded for me in making them sympathetic.

I watched the sub and Oran's voiced by ano and Kadode's voiced by the vocalist from YOASOBI. I'm obviously not an expert on Japanese voice acting but if I didn't know who voiced them, I would have just assumed it was someone who VAs for a living. Similar to Monogatari or something, Kadode and Oran sing the opening and the endings (good songs btw) so it was cool to see them act too.

So it's a good show with solid production and all that, why did I give it a 9?

...the ending kinda sucks?

I can't really go into detail as to why without spoiler tagging this review but it feels like he wanted to wash his hands of the series and get it over with.

How he ends it feels kinda cheap imo, don't go in expecting a good ending

My other big gripe is the teacher/student relationship.

I was a high schooler too, I get wanting to fuck your teacher, so I was fine with it as a plot element.

I was even willing to go with the teacher reciprocating because she's about to graduate, it's just a high school crush-

Oh. Well, she'll find someone else at college and it seems like they aren't gonna work out-

Just... like, it never really goes away and he's not going "yippee! Hooray for teacher/student sex!" but he just keeps pushing it in (heh heh, nice)

Really, this whole show is littered with the most casual sex scenarios which this isn't me tut tutting casual sex but there is a startling lack of love, so to speak. It's not even "oh no, sex before marriage!" but like one guy cares so little about his sex friend, he just leaves her to die. There's like maybe 2 actually romantic relationships and one is very quickly sent to the shadow realm for most of the show.

I think there's a lot to like about this show. I liked the characters, the plot was engaging, the production didn't detract from the show, it's just a shame about that ending.

Wow...just. Wow. I will start this out frankly: I have not read the manga, so I have no point of comparison for this. i went into this ONA not knowing anything about it. It certainly starts off a bit on the slow side, which oddly works in its favour. If the idea of a slice of life anime in which there is a mammoth-sized (or I guess, UFO sized) sword of Damocles dangling overhead, yet every character goes about their life almost entirely ignoring it, this is the anime for you. The overall odd feeling of the first few episodes, with the characters and Tokyo asa whole only somewhat acknowledging the danger around them as they continue their daily lives, really sets an interesting tone. I couldn't help but think that it's worryingly accurate to what a real life alien invasion scenario would look like...actually, on second thought, it's exactly how it would play out in real life. (spoiler alert): Especially the USA bombing the UFO part.

After the first few episodes, the story REALLY takes off. Episode 16, for me, was a masterpiece. I finished the episode and stared blankly at my screen for a few minutes. Episode 17 unfortunately pales in comparison, and while its function is necessary to end the story on a bittersweet but hopeful note, it honestly could have concluded with episode 16.

I was blown away with the character design overall. Every character is incredibly distinct while retaining a coherent art style. The way different facial features are drawn adds a ton of personality to the show. There is also a great diversity in body shapes, which helps make the character design feel realistic.

The animation is consistently good and interesting to watch. It has a polished feeling you usually only get in one-shot movie anime. Even if you aren't interested in the plot, it's at the very least a feast for the eyes.

I really think this is an anime that everyone should give a shot. It has just the right amount of horror, slice-of-life, comedy, drama, and hopefulness. I don't know how this isn't one of the top shows of the season.

First thing I would say about this show is that I highly recommend to before read the graphic novel DDDD by Inio Asano which is way slower but is deeper than the adaptation. The manga explains a lot more things about its entire world and picture more ourself in it. What about the show ? Animation is amazing to be honest, the art is beautiful as the manga is. I am a little bit disappointed of how rushed the show is, there are elements lacking compared to the original work. However the major good point here is that it is not another adaptation copied and pasted fromthe novel as we can see recently, it explores a whole different aspect of the manga, making it worth to watch it.

Artistic direction is different though, I didn't really like of how non-linear the anime was; what was the point of DDDD Episode 0 ? The manga follows a totally linear direction leading to a better comprehension of the environment, while the anime can give us the feel of being lost because of it and, as I wrote, how rushed it is.

I still enjoyed the show and think the anime is pretty good, not excellent though and overall I would recommend but only if you read the manga before, this is a very cool show and complementary to the manga.

Whether or not you'll enjoy this show heavily depends on how negative your worldview is. Most People are shown as immoral, illogical or brain dead. Politicians are uncaring and stupid, exhibiting psychopathic tendencies. Soldiers are pawns that only listen to orders even in the face of extreme violence etc. Mind you, I don't exactly disagree with this representation. I myself am a misanthrope and to put it bluntly I hate most people. But even for me this worldview is overexaggerated. Sure, politicians bad but there's a reason why humanity wasn't wiped out during cold war. The people at the top care too much about theirmoney and their own safety to just wage war on an alien species they don't know ANYTHING about. Plus even if they do, the other countries won't let japan have all the fun unlike what is shown here.

Now it can be argued that asano intentionally made an overexaggerated version of society in his book to really get the main theme of the story across. And I have to admit this is probably the best interpretation of that theme "I don't care about the world as long as you're by my side" I've ever seen due to how likeable the characters are and how realistic they act. But if that's the case he probably should have finished dead dead demons dededededestruction on episode 16 cuz personally I wasn't satisfied with the direction of the conclusion.

Story: 9 Animation: 9 Sound: 9 Characters: 9 Enjoyment: 10 Total: 9 There isn't that much to talk about Dead Dead Demons Dededede Destruction. It's great. This mainly stems from the core theme of how power corrupts. Being stronger over the weaker, often with the help of tools or by nature. And with the frame of an alien invasion, one can easily draw parallels to existing problems. And this is what the show does best. Setting the ordinary problems into the fantastical. But there is one major nitpick I have, because of how clumsily it feels. And that is the Stein's Gate-esque time machine. The one where only your consciousness is transferred.The whole fact that it exists already is like a literal Deus Ex Machina. It doesn't feel earned and in both cases it is more like given out of pity by a higher force.

Otherwise DeDeDeDe is very constant. The animation is great for the more part, even when the CGI is clearly distinct from the rest. Which wouldn't be that bad since most of the CGI is not only reserved for the aliens, but also even for the godlike technology which is clearly magnitudes further ahead than what it was shown.

The sound doesn't move far to emphasize impact in important scenes and also doesn't distract from the story.

The characters have a great chemistry and work well for this story, even when I feel that Oran could be replaced by a completely different character. Her eccentric antics are necessary for the story, but still could be fulfilled by another eccentric character.

There is a clear juxtaposition in the story. The death of a single character we spend time with is more important than a genocide of an entire race. To us, at least, I suppose. But the sad reality is, that it also applies to the real world. If we can save the ones we care about, then other people don't matter. Even when the hypocrisy wears us down in the end. And for that, I can respect Dead Dead Demons Dededede Destruction.

Not entirely sure how to feel on this one. There were some really interesting aspects to it and I quite enjoyed the slice-of-life elements tied in with the sci-fi plot HOWEVER i feel like a lot of this series was throwing interesting ideas at the wall, without properly fleshing them out, to see what would stick. Pairing that with pacing that gives you whiplash and main characters who's motives are a little too unbelievable and you're left with something that had serious potential but ultimately misses the mark and falls flat on a lot of occasions. Is it entertaining? Sure, at times. Don't go into thisseries expecting a perfectly tied together sci-fi epic though.

Epic, goofy, with a story that whips back and forth in time (be ready for that). The animation is consistently very good. The people are uniquely (yes, I guess I can settle on "unique") drawn, unlike regular anime characters, but rarely realistic either. The story is quite puzzling but if you soldier on and try to relax, it will start to make sense. Definitely worth rewatching to figure out things you missed. I like me some apocalypse with dark humor. This one really goes to some places. Time will tell if this will stay with me for years after. It'll be in my nightmare thesenext few weeks.

Best of Summer 2024.

Something I highly enjoy from anime, or maybe even from Japanese media in general, is they don't let genres define their works. Or it may be more of a thing from us consumers, simplifying art to mere tags. More than many, DEDEDEDE truly defies these preconceptions. To simply call it a "science fiction" or a "slice of life" anime doesn't do it justice. It isn't one more than the other. But let's not get lost into meaningless definitions. There are constant, deep character explorations with meaningful dialogue, that's always made believable to fit each character, avoiding to feel shoehorned or unnecessarily philosophical for the situation. A conversation canbe as superfluous as discussing an everyday occurrence, but the delivery of the lines, the current setting, their expressions. It may feel as if everything is always at a boiling point, and for many of them, that's exactly the case.

We're shown many perspectives from different characters to really get a grasp of the current events happening in this world, and that makes it incredibly engaging.

Character designs are so out there, very peculiar and contrasting of the highly detailed, realistic-focused background, but they don't look out of place as they incorporate plenty of details themselves.

Some of the great works out there in any media may be defined as a mix of two different genres, and how that makes them great. For me, DEDEDE takes it further than that, and it feels more like a fully-fledged world because of it. It is an impressive execution for what was already an interesting concept from the beginning. I don't feel completely satisfied with the ending, but I may just need more time to digest it fully.

OPENING: Oh. My god. I can't take it out of my head. Apparently it was written by the mangaka, who also worked closely in this adaptation, that's amazing. It is very striking and I quite like the idea of mixing real-life shoots with animation. We got double the treat in 2024 with this and the first Too Many Losing Heroines! ending.

ENDING 1: This one makes such an impact. Music could only bang harder if it was fired from a missile launcher. An interesting visual concept of having a fixed perspective and having things move around which serves as an abstract interpretation of this whole anime's premise. Reminds me of the second ending of Komi-san, similar idea, different execution.

ENDING 2: Has the same visual foundation as the first, but it probably only represents a small part of Kadode, or probably more specifically, Ouran's journey, so it's just not as impactful. Music wise, it's pretty nostalgic for some reason.

This anime is unique and is probably not for everybody, so let's start with the negatives. The serie is boring and the characters are ugly. First, the serie do take it's time at the start to build the world by showing relationship between the main cast which might leave shonen watcher bored but the world building always opens many question on the future of said world which in turn makes for great cliffhanger. Second, The art style is very unique some like it some don't, it's the author of oyasumi punpun and it's art style make the storie feel way more REAL everyone is different and mostpeople are not beautiful and perfect in the everyday life.

Third, as mentioned previously this piece of art feels so real. It hit so close to home on so many point, characters relationship, human emotions, the world will never stops no matter what happens and so much more.

This review might as well be for the book this anime is a good adaptation of it.

Note: my opinion is conditioned to the fact that I watched the episode 0 in the chronological order, that is: between episodes 16 and 17. This is one of the best short animes I've ever seen. An absolute masterpiece in 18 episodes. Plot: 8/10. Some things could have been done in a different way, specially the last episode. Some other will remain unknown as they are never explained. Topics: 9/10. this anime talks about politics, sci-fi, slice of life, social criticism and sexual inclusiveness. Characters: 9/10. Everything related to the characters is excellent: design, personality, originality, coherence and evolution through time. The Japaneses dubbing is also excellent. Sound: 7/10. Openingand ending music is excellent but the anime lacks the use of inmersive music (not only sound effects) during some scenes.

Art: 9/10. Characters are well animated but the scenarios are top tier. Excellent overall.