DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION Captures the Uncertainty of Life in 2024

The aliens descend on Earth. It’s here, as the movies predicted: the end of the world. Surely it’s only a matter of time until all these aliens come down and destroy us all. But nothing happens. Three years pass. For a few young girls on the cusp of adulthood, they have more important things to worry about: university entrance exams. DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION , based on the Inio Asano manga of the same name, is far more than a standard alien invasion. Indeed, we barely even see these so-called aliens, although their large spacecraft is an unavoidable landmark on the Tokyo skyline. You’d expect an impending invasion and ongoing military operation to send a nation into a panic, but when every day feels like a never-ending series of end-of-the-world crises, even impending disaster and the end of the world becomes the background hum of society. In any case, it certainly messes with your psyche. RELATED: Coming-of-Age Seinen Manga Flower and Ashura Gets TV Anime Adaptation in 2025 Although the manga from which this series was adapted began its serialization all the way back in 2014, perhaps no series is better suited for capturing the uncertainty of our 2024 reality. Ontan and Kadode, played by popular J-pop stars ano and ikuta (of YOASOBI) respectively, alongside the rest of their female friend group, barely even think about the spaceship hovering overhead. Perhaps, more accurately, they feel numb to its existence, disillusioned by the way the so-called adults in the room have lost their heads and refuse to face the issue beyond the theater of acting like they have it under control. For them, it’s irrelevant: Just because the world has gone crazy doesn’t mean homework isn’t due, tests aren’t coming, they’re worried about their first love and have no clue where to go next. For much of the early runtime of this series, the moment-to-moment action is along the lines of your typical slice-of-life, albeit twinged with a sense of genuine worry for the future that grounds the events on screen in very real anxieties of being a teenager in our modern world. Indeed, if you tune into the series during its opening episodes (aside from the prologue Episode 0), you’re more likely to see these girls engaging in mild hooliganism and rebellion, shenanigans so standard you’d be forgiven for thinking you tuned into the wrong show. That is, until you see Kadode’s mother, the picture of a person who has been succumbed by conspiracy theories circulated online. Worried about the unsubstantiated claims of “A-rays” since the invasion, she rarely leaves the home and refuses to remove her complete set of protective gear and masks to protect from the radiation. This juxtaposition of the everyday with the surreal and shocking is everywhere. We’ll celebrate Christmas with friends as though nothing is wrong, until we cut to an alien baby being indiscriminately murdered without provocation by the Japanese Self Defense Force. We fear the unknown but refuse to understand it. RELATED: How Company 8 Takes on Political Corruption Constantly fluttering between deep friendships and the innocent concerns of teenage coming-of-age and the brutal attacks against unarmed children and the adults succumbing to conspiracies and division, all driven by governments refusing to address their concerns and finding scapegoats over solutions. It soon becomes clear that we’re watching not just a set of young girls, but staring into the mirror. It’s uncomfortable, but it’s all so real it’s impossible to look away. For those coming-of-age in our modern world, looking out on the polarization that defines our current discourse, it’s no wonder many feel like the world has only become more hateful and divisive than the one their parent’s grew up in. Those in their teens and 20s don’t see a future that can even hope to compare to that of their parents, they have lived their lives with the omnipresent low-level ever-present crisis that defines the 21st century. Governments no longer listen to the people they represent, making mass social movements feel ineffective. Nothing from voting to direct action seems to change the ongoing slide into a world where human selfishness and climate change look set to consume us all. In the form of a TV series it’s harsh tonal whiplash, yet somehow it works. DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION is hyperactive chaos combined with a growing ennui at a world falling apart from all sides. Go on, flirt with your crush, then contemplate the downfall of civilization and watch the adults act more immature than the younger generation forced to somehow find ways to move forward when everything is falling apart around them. We’re often so shortsighted and selfish we can’t actually look beyond ourselves and find another path. Many will be familiar with Inio Asano’s uniquely nihilistic writing style from manga like Oyasumi Punpun . Punpun shocked and enthralled audiences with its young male protagonist, depicted as a bird primarily, mostly for the depravity in which it depicts the spiraling mental state of its main character and the depths of reality, tackling depression, love, trauma, social isolation, and the worst of the human condition. Even the way it looks, particularly Asano’s far-from-the-norm visual style distorting certain character designs, set it apart and created a real sense of unease. RELATED: A Messy Break-Up Turns Political in "Revenge Girl" While it would be fair to say that Dead Dead Demons DeDeDeDe Destruction doesn’t reach the same dark places that Punpun reaches across its seven-volume run, you can certainly find a throughline between the two works. Both acknowledge a disconnect between the expected human experience and reality, honing in on the human experience through the absurd, visually and conceptually. Yet there is one distinct difference between the two works: hope. Or at least, a celebration of humanity. To say much more would risk spoiling the adventure in store, it would be fair to say that this is a story that recognizes what makes us human even in uncertain times and champions that. Even as times get darker, struggles seem insurmountable and the threat continues to mess with any semblance of a sane and stable world, the smaller acts that are uniquely human are often given the grandest moments to shine. The second episode of the series sees Kadode pursue her first crush: her teacher. Should we condone this? Perhaps not, but the series isn’t necessarily suggesting it’s the right thing, just that it’s very human as the confusion of self-discovery and respect for the role-models around us flirts with the boundary of respect and romance. It’s a pursuit taking up most of the episode, and it’s messy. Oran is angry at being left behind and Kadode comes to understand herself better and struggles to communicate how much their friendship and relationship means to her. Being able to truly communicate your feelings to another person is hard, especially if you care about them, and this half-hearted pursuit of morally ambiguous love isn’t helping things. Yet despite the disarray it puts into their relationship, it’s given the emotional weight in the episode as though nothing else matters. The world is going mad, nothing makes sense, and spending time to understand yourself is perhaps the only way to avoid going insane. It matters because it’s real, unlike the silly conflicts of the adults in the room. By clinging onto those silly-yet-important emotions no matter how clumsy they feel, it grounds you. It’s the most important thing in the world. RELATED: DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION Anime Film Beams Down Part 2 Main Trailer No anime captures what it means to come of age in 2024 like DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTON , which means there is no anime more essential for understanding the world around us. When the world keeps jumping from crisis to crisis, from economic disaster to war to pandemic to government crisis, it can be hard to remember what normal is, where we stand, who we are. We may not have aliens to contend with like Ontan and Kadode (or do we?), but we share the same uncertainty of watching the world burn yet being expected to make the next deadline on an assignment as though nothing is wrong. Does it matter? The series certainly wants you to ask the question, before unfurling the state of the world before you in expert style to put everything into perspective. Maybe you won’t find that answer watching this series, but it can at least take you down the path to finding direction in a directionless present. That’s important, right? Watch DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION on Crunchyroll!

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