Otherwise known as DeDeDeDe (or even better, DDDD to make it even shorter), takes place during a particular time in life of a group of girls— the aliens have invaded the earth. But not quite the way you might perceive it or how Hollywood’s productions made it look like most of the time. In this story, the huge aliens’ mothership floats right above everyone’s head. If you think it’s gonna be an all-out fight between humans against aliens, I’m glad to tell you are wrong. Asano takes an interesting and perhaps even realistic approach to an alien invasion. The girls keep being girls, trying to live their lives to fullest while having to deal with heartbreaks, studying but also enjoying their adolescence doing whatever they want. It’s a story about the everyday’s life of these girls, while struggling to cope with the way their reality suddenly changed one day and could do nothing about it. I mean, what are you even supposed to do with aliens coming from a civilization thousands of years ahead in technology? Everyone in their own way tries to accomodate to the new lifestyle, and I promise you, it’s gonna be an interesting journey. It’s like mixing genres that has got nothing to do with each other and yet flow into each other so well.
Let’s talk about the characters first. Every single character is perfect for this manga. We have gag characters, politicians (which are made fun of in the most satirical way), idols, NEETs, rebels, activists, aliens, mangakas and three masterfully crafted and written main characters— Ouran, Kadode and Ooba. Kadode is the first character you meet in the manga. She struggles with two things, love and family. A teenager having to deal with struggles typical of a teenager. She wants control over her life and emotions but just doesn’t seem to ever happen. It’s not about the aliens, her life is just about her struggles. To comfort her, we have her childhood’s friend Ouran. Ouran is a seemingly happy-go-lucky character which copes to the aliens’ invasion by making absurd internet jokes, and she always deliver them in the most weird way. She’s personally the “life” of the story, without her, DeDeDeDe wouldn’t have been the same. Lastly we have Ooba. Ooba is an idol, or maybe an alien, or perhaps both? Who knows, “lol”. He’s the most absurd character in the story, and is also the one I appreciated the most. I recognize he was not an easy character to write considering who he is. But did the author know how to deal with his character? Absolutely. He wants to learn about everything and everyone around him. Can’t say much about him cause there’s nothing to say. Or maybe there is? Who knows, “lol”. Of course there are many other characters in the group, and each one of them had an interesting development. Do I wish we expanded more on the group? Yes. Although the only possible way would have been to stretch the story out some more, but unfortunately the manga is relatively short, so there wasn’t much time.
Do I even have to praise Asano’s art. It’s mesmerizing, aggressively detailed, stylistic, complex, deep and realistically beautiful the art in this manga. From the photo-realistic backgrounds to the weirdly designed side characters. It’s like mixing the unrealistic with the realistic. It’s not surprising how well everyone still fits in the picture despite being so absurdly designed considering Asano’s other big serialization— Oyasumi Punpun. I believed he had already mastered the complexity of mixing absurd with reality with Punpun, and he probably did, but with Dededede it’s obvious the growth as an artist since his previous work. I have really not much to say, I’ll be honest. The manga’s art speaks for itself and gives life to the world, characters, humour and everything.
Now, get out of your bed, take your car, ask a friend or two to come with you and start driving. It’s not important where, just keep driving wherever you feel like to go. Go visit places you’ve never been to, cities you’ve never seen and take roads with some beautiful sights when looking at the window. Can you feel some excitement? I do. This is pretty much what Dededede feels like to me. Impossible to predict because you never know what could happen next. This is where the enjoyment from this manga comes from— the unknown. Of course, there are some aspects of this “unexpected” that at first could come off as nonsense, which is understandable, the second half of the manga is pretty much a whole different thing from the first fifty chapters, but fear not, the author knows how to handle even what at first makes no sense. Again, it’s not an easy manga to enjoy. The whole lot of dialogue a lot of times can turn you off, but don’t worry, a lot of it is skippable. You could decide to read half of what they say and still able to understand almost everything. And that’s what I did a lot of times, specifically when the politicians spoke.
Overall Dead Dead Demon’s Dededededestruction is a manga that mixes absurd with reality while delivering one of the best slice of life ever in a very exceptional way. Everything this manga does is an achievement for most story writers. It’s a memorable journey from start to finish, which again I recommend to everyone willing to read a slow paced story out of the ordinary with charismatic characters, sudden turns of events, shocking reveals, heartwrenching moments, internet comedy, heavy tension and of course, with an amazing group of characters. It’s a story that by all means shouldn’t make sense, and yet it does.
Read this manga when you have time. For any weird phrasing order or grammar mistakes, I apologize in advance as I’m not a native speaker.
