REVIEW: ‘DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION’ Brings Post-Apocalyptic Dread and Hope in Episode 0 (2024)

This is a mostly spoiler-free review of DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION. This review covers EPISODE 0 which premiered Thursday, May 23 at 8:00 PM PT. Thank you Crunchyroll for the advanced screener of the English Dub!

“I wish the world would end so I won’t have to deal with this”

Raise your hand if you thought that Inio Asano’s first animated work would be DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION? Was a manga with a premise of a world forever changed a little on the nose to watch right now? Are aliens ever off the table in pop culture and the media we consume? This is an Asano manga series I hadn’t got around to reading so I have been hyped that the anime adaptation was coming out. Episode 0 of DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION opens to perpetually tired and sleepy voiced Nobuo Koyama (Giles Panton) working away his life. For a moment, he sees his daughter, the unimpressed Kadode (Elyse Maloway) who not so gently tells him he stinks and that she’s home that day, August 31 because it is summer break. In a taxicab, Nobuo, looking out the window along with other Japanese people across the city witnesses the alien mother-ship touch down.

The first five minutes of DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION throws the audience for a ride and then a father wakes up—years later with a found family, a sea of exposition and history, and a need to find his family: his daughter Kadode. The world has changed, he himself has changed, and the place of refuge he’s been at is at first glance a safe place yet also a breeding ground for power struggles and inequality forcing some to seek other options on the outside–present with new dangers.

The longer he stays out in the outside world the more dangers present themselves, man-made and extra-terrestrial created. The closer Nobuo gets to the location where he is supposed to escort and see off his traveling companions–those younger than him that have been like family in a way, the more the audience is clued in that something is not quite right, after all. In this new world, DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION reminds the viewers that tragedies are still happening, new organizations and groups have risen up further dividing humanity’s survivors, and this one man’s journey is only starting…

Verdict

DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION does a great job in its outing in Episode 0 by setting up the world building of a ruined Japan and those affected. The first five minutes lures the audience in and sucker punches them square in the jaw with a time skip and a lot of backstory that eventually is fed to along the way. Seeing the trailer, I figured that the main protagonists and mainstays in the cast would be Kadode and friends–the students and young adults figuring out how aliens further complicate their adolescence. Seeing Kadode’s father Nobuo take center stage in this Episode 0 reveals not only a Japan much worse off but whatever organisms that have come to Earth much more advanced–my interest is piqued for sure.

DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION is filled with a general sense of unease throughout watching Episode 0.Nobuo waking up and having a new (found) family, a new place and way of living is startling as the minutes drag on. He’s determined to see his daughter again as well as look after the two companions, young adults he finds himself with who have told him he’s protected them as if they were his own. It is a haunting feeling to watch him embark on this journey back to home, back to his daughter knowing that something insidious is waiting for him, and there is no way any of us watching can warn him.

I love that in Episode 0 of DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION we, the audience, are treated to an post-apocalyptic world of a father trying to reunite with his remaining family. The world may be ending (or beginning again), but he’s going to find his kin and do all he canto be a family again, no matter what it takes. Earlier in the episode, we saw that Nobuo was not the most present father, being swamped with work and the doldrums of everyday life as an adult. Later, upon waking, he calls out for her and verbally tells his companions that he’s going looking for him, despite the odds. Episode 0 ends on a hopeful note with Nobuo being told even more depressing news but with a clue and a ride on where to go next. This gives the series some emotional weight that will carry with audiences for sure when we all get to see the alien mothership touch down from the point of view of the true protagonists of the series: Kadode and friends.

DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION

As the world is threatened by the sudden appearance of a mysterious alien mothership, best friends Kadode Koyama and Oran “Ontan” Nakagawa carry on about their high school life. But as they grow up, they face existential questions, learning adulthood’s complexities, and that the true threat may not be from above.

Premiering on Crunchyroll

Premieres Thursday, May 24 at 8:00 PM PT

PRODUCTION STAFF

Based on the Original Graphic Novel Created by

Inio Asano

Directed by

Tomoyuki Kurokawa

Series Composition and Screenplay Written by

Reiko Yoshida

World Setting by

Takaaki Suzuki

Character Design and Chief Animation Direction by