Dead Dead Demons Dededede Destruction

Edit

What would you like to edit?

SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links  

I would imagine creating a successful follow-up to your most critically acclaimed work is a very unnerving thing to do. Goodnight Punpun is what many manga readers believe is Inio Asano’s masterpiece. The series is not only masterful in its writing, but dreadfully awe-inspiring in its delivery. Believe me, I am not here to echo the praises of Goodnight Punpun; others have made the case for its genius in more convincing ways than I ever could. The reason I am mentioning this manga is because I believe its existence directly affects Dead Dead Demon’s Dededededestruction (for the sake of this review I’ll abbreviate it to ... Dededede). As the successor to Goodnight Punpun in Asano's catalog, Dededede is unfortunately aggressed with a subconscious mindset of constant comparison. Many believe Goodnight Punpun is on a different level of manga entirely. Going into Dededede with that behavior will do you no good. Even long-time fans of Asano’s manga will be surprised by the ideas put forth on this manga, whether it be subtle changes in artistic choices or making more debatable narrative choices. While Goodnight Punpun is Asano cohering to his strengths, Dededede is a veteran mangaka experimenting with unfamiliarity.

This is a manga about the human reaction and general anxiety to the uncertain future. It's about the coping mechanisms that humans utilize when faced with more thoughts than they can handle at one time. The story follows a group of soon-to-graduate highschool students who are living their regular lives during an alien invasion. The main two characters, Kadode and Oran, are enjoyable personalities who offer an interesting perspective on the world. An elderly or middle-aged perspective on the impending doom would be similar to that of a reflection; looking back on memories and proudly accepting the life that they have lived. Kadode and Oran, on the other hand, are just graduating high school. Their lives are arguably just beginning. These characters may seem like they are always fun-loving and cheery but they are really just coping in the only way they know how. Dededede is a manga filled with joyful moments, but these same moments can also be rather melancholic.

Dededede plays with comedy, slice-of-life, sci-fi, and drama, which are fused together beautifully in this melting pot of a manga. I love how Asano is never afraid of writing political humor in this manga either. I’m sure he had a plethora of ideas given the manga’s serialization occurred throughout the entire Trump administration (which is mocked more than a few times here). Asano isn’t totally foreign with the concepts in this manga though. Humanity, death, and depression are all themes we’ve seen before, but this time he approaches this from a socio-political lens. That isn’t to say that this manga lacks an 'Asano-personalized touch'. The Isobeyan comics at the beginning of each volume is delivered with a subdued tone I could only attribute to Asano. And, the vivid page-to-page paneling that Asano has mastered at this point is nothing short of breathtaking.

This manga is a slice of life, and not exactly a euphoric one. The 'slice' of this particular 'life' is quite believable. I would describe Dededede as a modern dystopia. It does have the sci-fi tag, and there are some far-fetched ideas that you either accept or dismiss, but Asano doesn't totally abandon realism here. I imagine this is how society would actually act if this situation occurred. The world and characters are established nicely while themes of existentialism and social panic are simultaneously constructed. The plot develops at a relatively slow pace in the beginning, but there is much to uncover regarding the world-building and dialogue. It's just extremely well planned, and every scene serves to build the world or develop the plot and characters.

Speaking of the characters, they are well written and fit into the story well. I wish more development was given to characters such as Rin, but every relevant character is given enough characterization to be serviceable in their respective roles. Oran and Kadode are brilliant, as well as Oran's brother, who proves to be more than just a gag character. Every appearance he makes has me bursting in tears of both kinds, and I'm surprised with something new about him each time. Futaba and Ooba are also nice additions to the cast as well. Kadode can feel like an Asano self insert at times, but as the manga develops, her personality develops too, and she proves to be a multifaceted character in a later arc. Every character is believable. Even Oran, who seems to be the most contrived in personality, is developed in a clever way, negating her character of any criticism I could give.

I normally dislike when writers insert ‘gamer’ slang into their works. It’s normally dated by a couple years and there’s always some mention of something like “Leroy Jenkins'', “get pwned”, or maybe some inaccurate ‘1337speak’ tossed in there that makes me want to blow my brains out every time I see it. Rather than trying to appeal to the demographic, Asano approaches this, and most of the comedy in this manga, with a caustic and exaggerated tone. Comedy is something we rarely see in an Inio Asano manga, and I would say he has full control of it here from the very first chapter. This manga knows how to be brutally honest, hilarious, and heart-wrenching all in one scene.

We already know Asano has consistent fluidity from panel to panel with each drawing. Dededede is no exception. The one change I noticed from previous Asano manga is the change in character design. While the landscapes and textures are still photo-realistic, the character designs are goofy and exaggerated. This isn't a complaint though. I think it was a completely necessary decision, or else the manga would visually play like any other Asano manga. Besides, I think it's an artistic evolution that pays off. The designs compliment the backgrounds very well and they feel natural when facial comedy is used on a character. As always with Inio Asano, the art is amazing, but it should be the last reason you pick up this manga.

This is a must read. Even if you aren't a fan of Asano's previous works, give this one a shot. And if you are a fan of Asano, don't try to compare it to Punpun. This manga is currently more relevant than ever, and I believe everyone can take something away from it. There aren't that many other modern writers creating works like this with the amount of creativity and honesty Asano displays here. And just like his other works, everyone should read this at least once in their lifetime.

DDDD is a weird manga. Its on one hand a very lifeless manga with no sense of direction for almost half of it, but on the other hand almost all of that content has been quite enjoyable.

The problem is....I waited.
I waited for something to happen..
Nothing did.

The plot is weird, and very hard to explain, because, really there is no plot (for atleast half of it). Its just a manga portraying real life drama and how shit works. But the thing is, it doesn't know how shit works.

It shows how the government works and stuff but it overexaggerates almost everything about them. Its like ... the manga wants to be realistic with its premise but its so dead set on doing that, that it overdoes it.

For almost 20 chapters in the start, I was trying to figure out what the manga was trying to do, it felt so without any direction and life. It introduced its characters so out of nowhere that it all felt very unnatural.

For a manga with the premise about Aliens invading the world, it just didn't feel like one. Then, I tried to accept the manga and enjoyed what I could!

Enjoyment wise, this manga rocked!
I mean, seriously! It was very fun how the characters behaved so unrealistically and it was just bizarre! The wild nature of it made it so worth the read, I was already invested now that I had accepted its wild nature!

It really never had a twist that would be called as a turning point for it, it had twists related the Aliens and about them but it all felt like that it just happened. It happened and went away.

This was basically how DDDD worked for the first 50-60 chapters, then...the author decided to do something.

Character backstory arrive!
Character have been something special in the past!

It became overly ridiculous and unreal now that it was showing us such bullshit but honestly saying it was very enjoyable, despite it being so random, I enjoyed it!

The art for this manga is top tier! The author knows how to draw pretty buildings and overall the art is perfection...until you see how the characters look like..its very intentional but the author decides to make the characters look so weird and ugly, especially the women...eww man....

Overall
Its a decent manga with an enjoyable concept and characters but that's about what it really is, other than that its a lot of potential sent to the trash can, and the ending was pure garbage. Not garbage because of being incomplete or anything or leaving holes in the story but because it was so unsatisfactory, it puts everything that happened to a place, leaves it and just ends.

I have a lot more to appreciate and despise about the manga..but I will end my review here, I do recommend it to everyone but keep in mind, its not what it seems like!

At the beginning of the manga we have an interesting premise. Tokyo is "invaded" by aliens, but instead of dealing with a war, it is a slice of life of the characters.
This invasion causes a lot of problems in the world, people dying, constant fear, which causes an apathetic environment where everyone, fed up with problems, accepts it and lives with it.
All this means that the mundane is not boring. is to see how the characters manage to live in such a world and maybe get some hope. with misadventures and how they manage to overcome them, how they lock themselves in the world to ... avoid seeing reality. all good, at least at first.
Eventually, we focus more and more on the "invaders" and how governments and companies try to take advantage of the situation. The problem is that everything is disconnected from the experiences of the protagonists. These new characters are dedicated to giving us a mystery, ignoring them as individual beings, moving away from the approach that the manga had in the beginning.
This section is becoming more and more relevant displacing the slice of life. forgetting about the characters and concentrating only on the events. rendering the initial part as unimportant.
In the final stretch everything ends up going to shit, by introducing a character at the last minute to be the new protagonist, with a rushed arc, to end in a time reset where all the events of the manga never happened, and were replaced for happy story
No matter what the manga built in the end none of it mattered, making it a waste of time. if not for a few moments before the end this would be a 2/10.