Dead Dead Demons Dededede Destruction (ONA)

When you look up at the sky, what do you see? A blue sky? Freedom? A hopeful future? The people of Tokyo see none of these. Instead, an ominous alien mothership looms overhead, engulfing the city skyscape.

Three years ago, they came. The arrival of the "Invaders" sparked the greatest war humanity had ever faced—one that threatened to end the world. The Japanese government scrambled to fight the Invaders. Weapons were mass-produced, sparking controversy and pacifist movements.

That day, everything changed. And yet, nothing has changed. Kadode Koyama and Ouran Nakagawa live their final days like they always have: going to school, playing with friends, and doing what any carefree high school girl would do.

As they grow up, they come to learn what it truly means to be an adult, in a world where adults seem to be demons who only deceive and destroy. They come to learn the real threat to humanity is not the Invaders, but humanity itself.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Nakagawa, Ouran Main

ano Japanese

Koyama, Kadode Main

Ikuta, Lilas Japanese

Nakagawa, Hiroshi Supporting

Suwabe, Junichi Japanese

Ooba, Keita Supporting

Irino, Miyu Japanese

Tainuma, Makoto Supporting

Shiraishi, Ryouko Japanese

Isobeyan Supporting

Sugita, Tomokazu Japanese

Watarase, Naoki Supporting

Ban, Taito Japanese

Kurihara, Kiho Supporting

Tanezaki, Atsumi Japanese

Hirama, Rin Supporting

Ooki, Saeko Japanese

Takemoto, Futaba Supporting

Waki, Azumi Japanese

Beniya, Yoshikazu Producer

Okamoto, Junya Producer

Arai, Shuuhei Producer, Planning

Honda, Fuminori Producer

Reviews

Sep 27, 2025

bergars

Recommended

There's something so disturbingly beautiful about going to school with the end of the world on top of someone.

P.S. Don't watch episode 0 first, it's better to watch before the final little arc, it was placed at the beginning for cheap intrigue, when it doesn't belong there.

A spaceship floats atop of Japan, and while the world initially ponders in panic what the hell could happen, nothing does. Few deaths, some buildings hurt, but after that, the government says it's all good. Like always, it's all g, you guys carry on with life, and they do, since, what the hell will you do? We follow a ... group of high-school girls trying to enjoy their lives with all this going on.

“Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction” is by far the strangest manga to adapt from the original author, Inio Asano. A master of personal tragedy, of realistic trauma stemming from the truest of cycles portrayed in human life. He comes in with a Sci-fi story combining Evangelion, District 9, and a Slice of life atmosphere on top of it.

Imagine looking at the lives of those who just don't seem to be the protagonists of a world ending story. They positively wait for the world to let them go to college, to enjoy high-school romance, to eventually find work on their city. A slow burn, with government conspiracies, crazy alien high jinks…

A look into 9/11 and its consequences on moral conundrums. World War II's effects on Japanese culture, and their looks into immediate horrors. It combines the South Korean perspective of the looming threat on top of them. It uses big modern tragedies as a vehicle to explore how a normal, optimistic life can become so entranced with normalcy and obsessive with happiness, it forgets to accept the wrongs in the world.

Is life worth it when it could end at any moment? Is our friendship more important than the whole world? Can we really send everything to hell, and just enjoy the explosion while holding someone's shoulder for the last time? Is that worth more than a lonely, living existence?

16 episodes, packing so much heat, so many critiques on EVERY aspect of the world we live in. The story did cut many of the thematic links between how the world interprets certain events as a complicated and impossible set of conspiracies, instead of the government just being what it is. A conglomerate of dumbasses who just want to boost their country behind atrocities in the name of economic growth, and when someone in power decides they don't want that, they're tossed aside.

The world is a perpetual machine of power-hungry beings, all clashing against their ideals to get the number as high as possible, tossing aside their morals. Everyone underneath can only fill the hole with friendships, with the little moments, and whatever the world allows us to have for those small moments of happiness. We wait, and wait for a moment to change everything for the better, or hell, for something to JUST HAPPEN FOR ONCE. Will we enjoy it? Will the change be good? Get a friend, grab some popcorn, because if it ain't them, who'll be besides you when everything ends?

I'd love to give this greatly animated, amazingly performed, deep, and introspective piece of art a 10, however, I do feel the ending eliminated a bit of the nuance. The anime should've ended with “that” moment. It's such an ending when just cut there, but I get it, the story wants to be much more hopeful, and we can only allow it to be.

9/10. Two nickels, End of Evangelion, and now Dead Dead Demons Dededede Destruction. Won't say for what.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Aug 23, 2025

Duvie

Mixed Feelings

I think it was a solid anime overall. I mostly enjoyed the early-middle portion the vibe was great and the two main characters had a great relationship. I feel the show became a bit too crazy and confusing towards the end and not in like a “omg! This all makes sense now” but just like “ oh?? Okay”. Personally didn’t like the ending but if you’re in the mood for a half slice of life anime half scifi alien invasion anime it’s solid.

Idk maybe I’m just dumb but I felt the actual story with the invaders wasnt resolved in a satisfying way, and the ... ending was just kinda whatever.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jul 10, 2025

RadValentin

Not Recommended

DeDeDeDe is a story set in the midst of a soft apocalypse. The invaders have been on Earth for three years, but their nature remains a mystery. UFO crash sites, contaminated areas, and a giant mothership looming overhead are all evidence of their presence, yet no direct contact has been made. It's unclear what their intentions are or even if the mothership is inhabited. How should humanity deal with this situation? Can people go about their daily lives when danger is constantly looming above their heads?

What follows is a slow and, at times, frustrating meditation or contemplation, the subject of which remains elusive. There's a ... sense that you're supposed to "feel" something, but it's not clear what that is. We see snippets of news reports, government officials debating what should be done, protests, and online arguments. It's a rough caricature of the modern world, but the author doesn't add anything meaningful to make the commentary worthwhile. It merely exists, echoing reality without critique or insight.

This aimlessness bleeds into the main cast. This is an emotionally driven story told through characters that often mask or suppress their feelings. While there are narrative reasons for this, it still makes it hard to empathize with them. The show doesn't spend enough time showing society's gradual descent into numbness, which would have justified their muted reactions. Instead, when conflict or tragedy strikes, it passes by quickly, with little emotional weight. This may be intentional, but intention alone doesn't create impact. As a viewer, you want to connect, at least sometimes.

Asano expects a lot from his audience. To understand the characters, you're often left to interpret minute details: glances, posture, mismatches between speech and emotion. If you're willing to invest that effort, it can elevate the experience. But it can also be exhausting. It made me appreciate how even B-tier shows like Terra Formars manage to quickly introduce a character, convey emotional backstory, and tie it into a theme, all within one or two episodes. DeDeDeDe often refuses to offer that clarity.

The initial cast features Ai and Rin, who fade into the background, Kiho who gets a brief arc, and the main duo: Kadode and Ouran. Kadode's story centers on her obsession with a teacher while Ouran, who speaks exclusively in memes, remains a mystery for half the show. Their stories feel stagnant early on. There's a good chance you'll want to drop the show by episode 3 or 4 because it's unclear what the actual story is, or if there even is one.

Episodes 5 and 6 change everything. Backstories are revealed, the tone darkens, and the show briefly finds its footing. The storytelling improves dramatically when the focus narrows. Asano's strength lies in personal stories, not sweeping societal commentary, and this shift proves it.

As the story progressed it gradually began to focus on Keita. Initially a quiet observer, his brief scenes show small glimpses of emotion which serve to underline the brutality of the events taking place. As he enters into contact with the cast, he befriends the group's resident meme-girl, Ouran. Superficially they click because they're both outsiders but as things progress we start to understand that there are deeper elements at play. Their friendship is the catalyst for her backstory being fully revealed as well as understanding that her role in the story is anything but superficial. Scenes from previous episodes will start making a lot more sense, details that seemed random suddenly feel important.

Keita is written to embody humanity's better traits: compassion, self-sacrifice, and the desire for connection. His arc acts as a mirror to the cast's apathy, showing that a better outcome wasn't out of reach. And because he is, in some sense, an outsider trying to become human, it ties beautifully into the show's theme: that humanity is not just about surviving-it's about caring.

The first half of DeDeDeDe builds toward a meaningful climax. But as the second half unfolds, the story loses steam. With so many themes in play: war, identity, emotional repression, time travel, the narrative starts to collapse under its own weight. Characters like Ouran and Kadode fade into the background. Keita's development halts. After everything that had been built, their stories simply fizzle out. Even when final plot reveals come, they feel empty.

One major frustration is that for all the time spent on Ouran's shifting arc, the show never articulates why it mattered. There's no memory regained, no guilt confronted, no catharsis. Her actions earlier on are never acknowledged or emotionally resolved. The same goes for Keita. He disappears from the narrative without real closure, and no one seems to miss him. For a story that once emphasized emotional connection, this absence is glaring.

In the end, DeDeDeDe feels like a story that wanted to mean something but didn't know how to say it. It's mired by an inconsistent pacing, it doesn't know what type of story it is and doesn't deliver anything at the end. I'm not interested in a happy ending but one that's feels consistent with the rest of the story.

Note: The anime adaptation is very faithful to the manga. Having experienced both, I didn't feel that anything crucial was left out. Quite the opposite, certain flashback scenes are presented earlier in the story in order to foreshadow a major plot point that would've otherwise seemed to come out of thin air. If things feel odd at times, it's not the adaptation, is Asano's strange storytelling style.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Crunchyroll announced that they acquired the television version of the Dead Dead Demons Dededede Destruction anime movie on Monday. The television re-edit will span ...read more

May 20, 2024 4:29 PM by DatRandomDude | Discuss (20 comments)

	Poll: Dead Dead Demons Dededede Destruction (ONA) Episode 11 Discussion ( 1 2 ) IzanaSolos - Aug 8, 2024	50 replies	by UglyBastardNTR »» Aug 24, 4:58 PM
	Poll: Dead Dead Demons Dededede Destruction (ONA) Episode 8 Discussion ( 1 2 ) IzanaSolos - Jul 18, 2024	52 replies	by Alinto »» Aug 15, 2:28 PM
	Poll: Dead Dead Demons Dededede Destruction (ONA) Episode 10 Discussion IzanaSolos - Aug 1, 2024	39 replies	by R0ary »» Aug 13, 8:06 AM
	Poll: Dead Dead Demons Dededede Destruction (ONA) Episode 17 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) IzanaSolos - Sep 19, 2024	142 replies	by Phobossus »» Jul 17, 2:48 PM
	Poll: Dead Dead Demons Dededede Destruction (ONA) Episode 14 Discussion IzanaSolos - Aug 29, 2024	27 replies	by Deathko »» Jun 1, 8:09 PM