Synopsis: Manga is the source material for many anime movies, and Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction is no different. A movie will typically focus on one story arc out of the larger plot, giving the on-screen narrative a clear beginning, middle, and end. With regard to the first Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction movie, this isn’t the case. This 120-minute movie covers two storylines. It also feels like two loosely connected one-hour films rather than a single, unified one because of how drastically different the tone and plot of both arcs are from one another. Having said so, each of the film’s two storylines is outstanding on its own. Essentially, District 9 meets O Maidens in Your Savage Season in the opening part of the movie. Kadode and Ouran, two high school seniors who are about to graduate, are unconcerned about the UFO in the sky and the background events as the military becomes more aggressive toward the unseen aliens.
This narrative follows a group of young females as they prepare to become adults. Their current way of life is about to alter. Their regular school life will end in a few months, and they won’t see each other every day. At that point, they’ll either be in college or the workforce. They are concerned about the future on the one hand because of this. However, it also inspires students to seize every opportunity and stop letting their senior year pass them by.
This is a coming-of-age tale, yes, but it’s also a thesis on how individuals adapt to everything, how our narrow-minded issues still permeate our perception of the world. Kadode’s father passed away, and the military operations against the aliens continue to inflict collateral damage by frequently taking the lives of one or two innocent civilians. Kadode doesn’t seem to understand the broader picture, not even when her mother plans to leave Tokyo with a new man in order to get away from this existence. She views everything as “normal,” and she doesn’t see the need or want to make any additional changes to the way things are since growing up has already compelled her to do so.
The movie’s second half is radically different from the first. We get a flashback to Kadode and Ouran in elementary school instead of concentrating on them as high school students. Years before the UFO arrived, two odd friends—the meek but somewhat popular Ouran and the bullied but stubborn Kadode—find and befriend an alien.
As the alien hands the two girls gadget after gadget, from an invisibility cloak to a sonic screwdriver, this turns into a sinister dismantling of Doraemon. What, after all, does a girl who has been bullied and has a strong sense of justice do when she is suddenly granted superpowers without any adult supervision? Compared to the considerably lighter tone of the first arc, it is even more gloomy, distressing, and psychologically devastating, leaving you with a lingering impression for days thereafter.
There is a straightforward theme that unites the two storylines, even though they may easily be distinct, unconnected movies: humans are the real monsters. No extraterrestrial ever hurts a human in either of the two sections. Instead, human beings are always the ones that attack things unilaterally that they don’t understand and don’t even want to understand.
The military seeks the lift to its ego—a nationalistic one—that comes from driving out the “invaders.” The scientists who are developing new weapons anticipate the notoriety and wealth they will shortly acquire. For their own selfish ends, those in the media and on the internet never stop inciting fear and normalizing the notion that killing aliens is the “right thing” to do.
And it’s not just aliens who are the target of this. In the flashback tale, Kadode attacks anyone and everyone she believes to be “evil” without hesitation. Everybody is the protagonist in their own tale. Even the most heinous deeds might be justified in the absence of an objective good or evil.
It’s an all-too-realistic yet heartbreakingly negative view of human nature. However, Ouran provides us with a counter-example to it. She’s not flawless, nor is she a shining example of virtue. She does, however, make an effort to avoid doing direct harm to anyone, even though she occasionally fails. If the world were like Ouran, we wouldn’t be determined to exterminate an extraterrestrial race just because they parked their ship in an awkward place. We would still have difficulties, of course.
In terms of appearance, Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction stands out from other anime, particularly in terms of character designs. The traditional hourglass form and attractive anime face are absent from all of the primary characters. Some characters are always blushing, some have buck teeth, and some have wet eyes all the time. However, the entire tale feels much more grounded in spite of these exaggerated character designs that are more frequently seen in anime targeted towards young children (or maybe even because of them). Another factor that helps with this is how detailed the sci-fi technology and backdrops are.
The last theme song is the only piece of music that really sticks out. Like the movie to which it is related, it begins sweet and conventionally before turning harsh and dissonant in the end. It’s an excellent decision.
Overall, this is an absolutely amazing first Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction movie. Due to its two distinct, radically different stories, it doesn’t feel like a one film, although the stories are delivered incredibly well. Beneath them, though, lies a theme that is frequently explored: the darker side of our nature and our infatuation with the notion that we are always right. To be honest, I consider myself fortunate that the second movie won’t be out for another month.
