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]
Nenhum episódio encontrado.
Comentários
CaptainKenshiro
Disclaimer: This might contain some spoilers Dededede is a stand out title as far as anime goes, as there aren’t that many about alien invasions and the ones you can find are nothing like it. The closest thing to it that I can think of is Figure 17, as it also combines slice of life with sci-fi, and yet it’s very different to this series. Of course, if you step out of the medium, the show is no longer original really, Arrival, Contact, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Alien Nation, District 9, and more, are there to be compared to it, but for an anime,it’s a rather fresh premise.
It also stands out as a work from Inio Asano. His usual post-Solanin cynical and critical worldview is there but Dededede doesn’t suffer from the same issues as most of his other titles.
It has violent content but doesn’t overdo it with the edge to the point of becoming torture porn and it is dramatic but the characters don’t cry about their problems all the time, which are common complaints about Punpun.
Said characters share the same worldview as their author but are not know it all psychos that yell their lungs out to the whole world as in Hikari no Machi.
It has questionable romantic content but doesn’t include weird fetishes, as I came to know about Girl on the Shore.
The non-mundane elements are properly introduced and anticipated, unlike in Subarashii Sekai, and although it has timeskips, its narrative is nowhere near as non-linear and convoluted as it was in Nijigahara Holograph.
Unfortunately, it also lacks the psychological aspect of some of his previous works. There is some exploration of how messed up a lonely girl neglected by her parents and bullied by most of her class can become, alright, but the series still can’t be labeled within the genre. As most things are spelled out, the show doesn’t have the same introspection and inner monologues that were the most praised thing about Punpun and the best aspect in Solanin.
Despite that, it is not as if the characters are unexplored. Dededede is half a slice of life show and thus it follows its cast more than enough to flesh them out properly. The series does a good job in showing a kind of numerous cast, their interests, their families, their romances, the connection between all of them, and also for once it shows high school girls and builds a friendship with teen quirks without moe aspects nor yuri bait (not that much at least).
Is their actual teen behaviour and personalities that makes them stand out and be memorable. And yet, they have their own quirks, Kadode having childish crushes and yet being a bit pervy, also being a fan of the kind of dark parody of Doraemon that exists within this manga, which in turn is partially responsible of her dark past, and there is also some substance due to her complicated family situation.
Ontan presents herself as silly and childish saying nonsense all around all the time yet also has a dark past, and even two personalities or consciences of sorts, and it is clear that despite all her goofiness, she does care about the serious situation at hand, and that her weird behaviour is just a façade to avoid facing the big issue and her responsibilities.
The secondary cast is fine as well but not as looked into or as interesting as far as characterization goes. Rin is into yaoi but that’s it, the teacher is just sad because of a break up and is possibly pedophilic, Hiroshi is a good and interesting guy that cares for his sister and Kadode but remains in the background, Makoto stands out mostly for cross-dressing, Kiho works just as a plot device, Ai has a lot of stuff to deal with but is only looked into for one episode.
The most interesting characters besides the main ones end up being the supporting cast that, even though they don’t have the most elaborate characterization, are the ones that actually move the plot forward and are the plot devices to explore the themes and different perspectives. Thus you have Kohiruimaki (fuck his name btw) and Futaba being the exact opposite positions regarding the aliens.
He is paranoid about them, plus also depressed, and only feeds himself with information that confirms his bias, and becomes an alien hunter of sorts, especially after losing someone dear to him. She on the other hand, wanting to know the truth before judging, and after a somewhat shocking experience, becomes an activist in favor of coexistence and communication with the aliens, for they are beings equal to humans and thus deserve human rights.
And there’s also Hikari Sumaru, PR of a certain company developing technology for the government and military to fight off the aliens, and the freelance journalist Miura, that tries to expose the whole thing.
Oh, and how could I forget Keita, an actual alien that tries to befriend humans, sees the good in them, and tries to prevent the escalation of the whole thing.
The thing is that all of that happens mostly in the background, leaving the viewer watching the main girls doing silly stuff on the school. Thus the plot, although is not slow nor is left as an afterthought, might feel boring and undeveloped for a while for some, even more so if they are not fans of slice of life stories.
The people responsible for the anime must have thought something like that too, seeing how they sped up the pacing by cutting off content from the manga, and rearranged events and scenes to come earlier and in different order so they could have more exciting things happening on the background or as flashbacks.
Perfect examples of this are half the flashbacks of the protagonists shown earlier, differently, and in just one episode, when they amount to at least two volumes of the manga, and the infamous episode 0.
I don’t know how it was received in Japan, but at least the opinion online about it on anime databases and sites wasn’t very good, as it shows stuff from some of the last chapters from the manga, in a media res flash forward way in order to make it seem that more exciting things are coming, and possibly ruining the element of surprise for some I guess.
Plus the episode itself wasn’t that good, it had too much action without a proper introduction of the characters first, and the information provided made it to be full of exposition, thus coming off as boring for some.
And the thing is that there wasn’t really a good reason to do this, the world building from the beginning of the manga is good, the plot is still happening in the background, the final showdown is built upon throughout the whole series, so why did they feel like they needed to anticipate stuff is beyond my comprehension.
And it is not as if there wasn’t any reason for the slice of life portion to have more focus than the alien invasion, as it is part of the themes. Here you have these girls unaware of the crisis or refusing to acknowledge it and playing dumb to keep living a normal, simple and more or less happy life for the little time it has left.
There are also background characters that, whenever new information about the aliens or human victims come out, they keep looking elsewhere, acting as if nothing happened, or choosing to ignore the situation through consumerism, of a dark Doraemon parody, gacha games, or pop idol bands.
There are even people living on contaminated places faking being sick so the government gives them a pension, heck even places where tragedies happened are used as tourist attractions so the whole slice of life part is actually a social critique from the author.
The pop idol bands in turn get into scandals, used to get the full attention of coverage of the news and thus distract the public from the scandals and actions of the technological companies and the government, so it is criticizing the mass media as well.
As it is also a criticism on both the Japanese government and self-defense forces, and later on the super powers, the United States, China, partially France on the source material but the anime changed that for some reason.
So here you have the alien situation going on, and the government pass them as dangerous enemies even though they are not exactly hostile, there is a lot of discussion between the different parties regarding what to do, not really that much about the aliens themselves, but with other countries instead.
Meanwhile the government builds up this image of a public enemy, and exploits their technology and uses it as a source of energy, while taxes the people to build a huge spaceship reserved only for the elite, with the Prime Minister being just a scapegoat for the politicians that actually move the strings.
And as for the United States, they interfere in other countries’ problems, through militaristic intervention of course, and they make things worse in the long run and even elevate the whole thing to a war. Does that remind you of something?
I don’t know if the Primer Minister is a satire of Abe, but on the other hand President Padron is very clearly a satire of Trump on the manga but the anime changed his hair colour so it is not as obvious, and he is even more of a puppet than the Japanese.
Whether if this vision is accurate or not is up to discussion and debate, and exceeds the objective and purpose of this review, but for the political criticism that the author was going for, it was well presented in-story, even more if you happen to dislike the international politics of the States and how they constantly meddle with other countries.
And since the self-defense forces kill the non-hostile aliens, even the children, and people celebrate the killings, all the while the lives of people get ruined because of the battles, and even one soldier gets traumatized by the whole thing, you can even count the show as a critique on militarism. And since this character has a change of perspective here, he is better than the one dimensional bad guys from District 9.
And of course, as it is always the case for stories with this premise, you can see is a metaphor for discrimination against immigrants, and in this particular series, since the aliens claim to be the original habitants of the planet, as occupation and ethnic cleansing, and I am sure that will remind you of things that actually has happened and are happening right now.
Another thing about this show is that it is one of those “humans are the real monsters/bad guys” of the story, which is a fine premise but a bit overdone these days in my opinion. Thankfully this series showed that the aliens WERE actually planning an invasion, slave the humans, and they even form a suicidal resistance, so the conflict isn’t one sided with clear victimized and demonized sides of it as it happens a lot of the times.
It seemed that the author was going to ruin all of his good stuff with the inclusion with an ever problematic plot device that is time travel/different timelines/parallel worlds, in a Madoka Magica like fashion, but for a while it was underplayed and used just for fleshing out the cast through flashbacks, and even presented the possibility of the whole conflict being the result of one of the main characters escaping reality, so it seemed like it was going to be good.
And as you can always expect from Asano from a point, what followed was what was anticipated throughout the whole story, shit gets real and a lot of characters start dying one after another and everything goes to shit, in a horrifying sequence that will likely remind you of Barefoot Gen, Akira, Godzilla, or even Watchmen, or any other nuclear explosion allegory you can think of.
That was the highlight of the story as far as I am concerned, and I really wanted to see what the author was going to do with it, and what I got was one of the most disappointing finales I have seen recently. Turns out he goes for a coward’s easy way out of the conflict, and it is not even one of the main characters that “finishes” the story, it was a secondary character with barely any focus throughout the whole show that did it.
Thus the story and the themes you followed for the whole show don’t get a real conclusion, the characters have a catharsis but it feels shallow, hollow, even unreal, and one you don’t care about, the supporting cast gets forgotten with no resolution whatsoever as if they were never there, despite being the ones actually moving the plot the whole time, and you are left wondering what the point of the last mini arc and time skip even was. So yeah, it was truly really undoubtedly bad.
Visually, the series goes for character designs that strike as childish and reminiscent of the ‘60s and ‘70s, as you would expect from a show that partially parodies Doraemon, but because of so-so animation, and inconsistent character models, they didn’t translate that well to the adaptation, and even took a bit of seriousness from it.
The actual animation isn’t that good either to be honest. The artwork, backgrounds and special effects for everything that isn’t smoke, which is always done with CGI these days for whatever reason, are otherwise very good.
So yeah the visuals are overall very good, it’s just that could have been better, and are not as good as the ones from the manga, which to be fair was kind of impossible, as the manga is one of the best looking I have seen in my life.
What was a neat detail, however, was showing the backdrop of the main characters with a 4:3 resolution, to differentiate it from the current events, simple but very effective trick.
As for the sound, the effects are very good and immersive, the voice acting is kind of atypical for anime, very fitting for the show, but it lacks impact somewhat, and the music is pretty good. The opening and endings don’t sound like much, but they reflect the innocence or fake ignorance of the main characters well, especially with those lyrics.
Oh, and other aspects that could be said about the anime that were kind of an issue were the poor marketing it had, since it is an alternative version of the movies, with actual footage that isn’t in them, and Crunchyroll messed up the subtitles as they infamously tend to do with the liberties they take and how they did not translate any text on screen, for at least 7 episodes. I don’t think these things are that much of an issue, but I thought it was worth mentioning them for some people.
As a whole, I thought of Dededede as a great critique on society, militarism, politics, mass media, consumerism and war, and a very interesting slice of life series and mix of two very different genres. I was going to rate the manga with an 8 out of 10, and since the anime is a bit more messy with its pacing and explanations than the source material, I was going to give it a 7 out of 10, but because of the really bad ending that renders practically every important aspect basically pointless, I had to go with the latter for each one. Meaning, I consider both versions to be worth consuming for at least one time, but not as good as they could have been if the author didn’t chicken out at the end.
sanander
Dedo Dedo Dede Dede... One hell of a name, isn't it? This show is a lot of things, it is so many things that the most elaborate review of it on this website is incredibly long. But in short; it is cute (almost chibi) girls living their cute slice of life lives juxtaposed against a gritty, realistic first contact scenario in which everything goes wrong. It is this contrast that I found surprisingly real. Life changes incredibly slowly, it takes years for one to notice but it's always dynamic. One day, aliens arrive. Three years later, people who were 14 when the massive mothership appeared over Tokyoare graduating high school, enrolling in college, looking for jobs and getting into relationships. But the UFO is still there, seemingly unchanged, part of the scenery, almost. All the while the country slowly shifts into militarism, the more radical members of society begin forming groups of opposing views, tension grows and people die.
Another thing that was a very pleasant surprise to me is how modern it is. Anime tends to be old-fashioned, eschewing phones as devices to call or text others and that's it. Here you have the girls play first-person shooter games, browse SNS, one of the characters makes a living through the internet, an AI is present who's largely reminiscent of modern language models rather than the classic sci-fi 'basically a human with a voicebox'. This is perhaps the first SOL anime I have seen that made me feel like it's actually set in the year I'm watching it in (in more ways than one).
I can barely withhold a real life comparison that is relevant to the current situation in the world (at the time of writing this review), but I feel like it is no place to bring up politics. Even if that would help explain why I feel the way I do about this anime. It is one of best releases of 2024 that you will never hear about.
PS. Unlike many others, I will say that the ending impressed me greatly, it is both unexpected and draws a fine line under everything that happened. I would call it most literally, a wrap-up.
PPS. Don't make the Haruhi mistake, watch it in the broadcast order, episode 0 is there for a reason.
Supersonic_Pain
(Note: I watched "Episode 0" between the last 2 episodes [16 and 17], I strongly suggest you do the same for reasons I'll elaborate on) A great show with an ending that stuck in my craw I thought it started out with a strong hook. What do those aliens be doing up there? You follow a couple of high school besties and I can see them being off-putting but I found them really fun. Oran is just a weirdo and a delightful one at that. I thought Rin was kinda underutilized but Ai gets some good characterization and so does Kiho. Obviously Kadode also gets some good things asone half of the main duo. Overall, I liked the friend group. If it wasn't Dededede and it was just some CGDCT show, I'd watch.
I think a lot of the characters no matter how small or big get lots to work with. There are a few characters who you just assume are there to fill out the cast (or at least who could have feasibly just been bit parts) but end up being big parts.
It's intriguing seeing how humanity might meet its dededededestruction and it's got a lot of cool thriller elements, I was like "omigah" a bunch during it, try to go in as blind as possible
...speaking of which, I don't know what crack rocks they were smoking but do NOT watch Episode 0 first. It heavily spoils the plot of the show and you're better off watching it it chronological order, so to speak. I think E0 is kinda clunky in chrono order (between E16 and 17) because it kind of assumes you're watching it first so you get info you already know spoonfed to you.
It's still a good episode but don't watch it first.
As for the aliens, I felt really bad for the little dudes. Won't say much else for fear of spoilers but yeah, he totally succeeded for me in making them sympathetic.
I watched the sub and Oran's voiced by ano and Kadode's voiced by the vocalist from YOASOBI. I'm obviously not an expert on Japanese voice acting but if I didn't know who voiced them, I would have just assumed it was someone who VAs for a living. Similar to Monogatari or something, Kadode and Oran sing the opening and the endings (good songs btw) so it was cool to see them act too.
So it's a good show with solid production and all that, why did I give it a 9?
...the ending kinda sucks?
I can't really go into detail as to why without spoiler tagging this review but it feels like he wanted to wash his hands of the series and get it over with.
How he ends it feels kinda cheap imo, don't go in expecting a good ending
My other big gripe is the teacher/student relationship.
I was a high schooler too, I get wanting to fuck your teacher, so I was fine with it as a plot element.
I was even willing to go with the teacher reciprocating because she's about to graduate, it's just a high school crush-
Oh. Well, she'll find someone else at college and it seems like they aren't gonna work out-
Just... like, it never really goes away and he's not going "yippee! Hooray for teacher/student sex!" but he just keeps pushing it in (heh heh, nice)
Really, this whole show is littered with the most casual sex scenarios which this isn't me tut tutting casual sex but there is a startling lack of love, so to speak. It's not even "oh no, sex before marriage!" but like one guy cares so little about his sex friend, he just leaves her to die. There's like maybe 2 actually romantic relationships and one is very quickly sent to the shadow realm for most of the show.
I think there's a lot to like about this show. I liked the characters, the plot was engaging, the production didn't detract from the show, it's just a shame about that ending.
HellYeBoi
DO NOT WATCH EPISODE 0 FIRST. Episode 0 is the second-last episode (between episodes 16 and 17) and is basically necessary viewing for the finale, so watching it first or skipping it entirely will absolutely have a negative effect on your viewing experience. No idea why it was released like this. While this is not my favourite of his works, that only speaks to how high a bar Inio Asano has set for himself. Asano is running on all cylinders here, and if you are a fan of Asano's other works, you will love this. I wasn't sure at first how I'd feel about finally seeingsomething by Asano animated, but this series did not disappoint in that regard. The art, animation, style, and overall direction is wonderfully unique and interesting.
SEMI-SPOILERS (nothing specific):
In my opinion, this anime (and the manga) both drop the ball right at the end. DDDDdddD is absolutely astonishing it is about normal people and how they interact as insignificant members within the multiple sociological and political systems responding to a massive catastrophe. Luckily, that's about 90% of the show, but that other 10% stops being any of those things, and that is unfortunately the last tenth of the story. Regardless of where it ends, the ride is well worth it.
argokey
Whether or not you'll enjoy this show heavily depends on how negative your worldview is. Most People are shown as immoral, illogical or brain dead. Politicians are uncaring and stupid, exhibiting psychopathic tendencies. Soldiers are pawns that only listen to orders even in the face of extreme violence etc. Mind you, I don't exactly disagree with this representation. I myself am a misanthrope and to put it bluntly I hate most people. But even for me this worldview is overexaggerated. Sure, politicians bad but there's a reason why humanity wasn't wiped out during cold war. The people at the top care too much about theirmoney and their own safety to just wage war on an alien species they don't know ANYTHING about. Plus even if they do, the other countries won't let japan have all the fun unlike what is shown here.
Now it can be argued that asano intentionally made an overexaggerated version of society in his book to really get the main theme of the story across. And I have to admit this is probably the best interpretation of that theme "I don't care about the world as long as you're by my side" I've ever seen due to how likeable the characters are and how realistic they act. But if that's the case he probably should have finished dead dead demons dededededestruction on episode 16 cuz personally I wasn't satisfied with the direction of the conclusion.
apethykun
First thing I would say about this show is that I highly recommend to before read the graphic novel DDDD by Inio Asano which is way slower but is deeper than the adaptation. The manga explains a lot more things about its entire world and picture more ourself in it. What about the show ? Animation is amazing to be honest, the art is beautiful as the manga is. I am a little bit disappointed of how rushed the show is, there are elements lacking compared to the original work. However the major good point here is that it is not another adaptation copied and pasted fromthe novel as we can see recently, it explores a whole different aspect of the manga, making it worth to watch it.
Artistic direction is different though, I didn't really like of how non-linear the anime was; what was the point of DDDD Episode 0 ? The manga follows a totally linear direction leading to a better comprehension of the environment, while the anime can give us the feel of being lost because of it and, as I wrote, how rushed it is.
I still enjoyed the show and think the anime is pretty good, not excellent though and overall I would recommend but only if you read the manga before, this is a very cool show and complementary to the manga.
quentintarantado
Epic, goofy, with a story that whips back and forth in time (be ready for that). The animation is consistently very good. The people are uniquely (yes, I guess I can settle on "unique") drawn, unlike regular anime characters, but rarely realistic either. The story is quite puzzling but if you soldier on and try to relax, it will start to make sense. Definitely worth rewatching to figure out things you missed. I like me some apocalypse with dark humor. This one really goes to some places. Time will tell if this will stay with me for years after. It'll be in my nightmare thesenext few weeks.
Best of Summer 2024.
patkarunungan
'Dead Dead Demons Dededede Destruction', which I'll refer to as Dededede for short, has many elements to become great. After all, I find it to be an Evangelion wannabe. For some people, it's a masterpiece. This, however, felt dull. § Overview On August 31st, 2010, an alien mothership has arrived in Tokyo. But unlike the movie 'Independence Day,' there is no apparent invasion until that fateful event, which will be referred to as August 32nd. This anime follows the ordinary lives of Nakagawa Ouran and Koyama Kadode as they try to live normal lives amidst the threat of an alien invasion.§ Remarks
1. Ouran and Kadode are high school students, and they live dull lives. At first, we don't know their relevance to the alien invasion. But over time, we learn what they did years ago, and you can't help but be infuriated. It's up to you to find out, but their general indifference to what's happening around them makes this an unpleasant watch.
2. In Evangelion, the pilots, Shinji, Asuka, and Rei, are directly involved in trying to prevent the angels from initiating the Third Impact. In contrast, by trying to present the daily lives of Ouran and Kadode including their indifference to the alien invasion, we can't help but feel indifferent to what's happening, which is the same way they are feeling. Sadly, the events in the anime just happen, and there seems to be no compelling reason to stop something from happening.
3. This is an allegory but the anime doesn't commit to a particular interpretation. It's also like a Rorschach Test. Some right-wing conservatives will likely view the aliens as similar to how illegal immigrants are 'invading' the Western world. Centre-left / globalist types will likely view the anime as an allegory against genocide. Perhaps some Japanese (I don't know, I'm just guessing) might view this as an allegory against the increasing encroachment, either of white individuals fetishing Japan or perhaps geopolitical tensions against China.
As far as libertarians like me are concerned, both the Japanese government and the aliens' government are at fault. Humans and aliens could have arrived at a compromise, but governments messed up and both parties have to suffer.
Regardless, the allegorical aspect is worth considering. It's just that, as far as I'm concerned, the execution leaves much to be desired that I won't rewatch this anime, and rewatching is necessary to give it a 'close reading' so to speak.
4. What made label this as an Evangelion wannabe is that the August 32nd event is clearly an homage to the Third Impact as shown in 'The End of Evangelion'. Both have bright lights accompanied by an upbeat musick. This is Dededede's insert song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz7mZSFdlJU
5. The ending is mixed. It felt like a deus ex machina because it's beneficial for the person transferring to a parallel timeline, but it doesn't solve anything in the original timeline. Still, it's consistent with the theme that it's about avoiding facing the issues.
§ Character Designs
It needs getting used to. In the usual slop of harem anime, girls are sexualised. But here, Kadode and Ouran are high schoolers who seem like grade schoolers. Why would you sexualise these kids?
There is no waifu to look forward to. There's no hot character like Misato.
It's by design as the mangaka would rather that we focus on the themes he is presenting. Fair enough, but he messes up elsewhere.
§ Conclusion
This is a potentially thought-provoking anime. The problem is that the execution leaves much to be desired. It doesn't help that the episode called Episode 0 shouldn't be watched first. (Watch Episode 0 after Episode 16 but before Episode 17.)
joaofernando
DDDDD is a work that speaks volumes about the way Asano constructs his stories. So far, he has been known for presenting narratives with characters who are surrounded by themes from our reality, but who are full of mannerisms and quirks that only a fictional character can have. In DDDDD this approach is not just a characteristic of the author, it is the central axis of the story. Living an eternal fantasy in a world that is collapsing around you. And it's interesting to think how science fiction, aliens, mechas and even time travel, are much more of an aesthetic field to give grace to this fantasyworld, rather than the point of the story. The comments about the media, the Internet, fake news, the liquidity of modernity, they're all there, but they seem much more like add-ons to add fun to the fantasy experienced by the characters.
***Spoilers****
I also love how the conclusion of living the eternal fantasy unconditionally results in the end of the world and Asano, in the cheesiest way possible, magically solves everything because, at the end of the day, it's fiction. What's fiction without fantasy?
***Spoilers over***
Anyway, a really nice anime (even if the production wasn't that impressive), but it's a shame that it seems to have gone unnoticed this season.
Portuguese version
DDDDD é uma obra que fala muito da forma como o Asano constroí suas histórias. Até aqui, ele ficou conhecido por apresentar narrativas com personagens cercados de temas da nossa realidade, mas que são cheios de maneirismos e trejeitos que só um personagem fictício pode ter.
Em DDDDD essa abordagem não é apenas uma característica do autor, é o eixo central da história. Viver uma eterna fantasiada num mundo que está colapsando a sua volta.
E é interessante pensar como a ficção científica, os aliens, mechas e até viajem no tempo, são muito mais um campo estético pra dar graça à esse mundo fantasioso, do que de fato o ponto da história. Os comentários sobre mídia, Internet, fake news, liquidez da modernidade, todos estão lá, mas eles parecem muito mais adendos pra dar graça a fantasia vivida pelos personagens.
***Spoilers****
Adoro também como a conclusão do viver a fantasia eterna resulta incondicionalmente no fim do mundo e o Asano, do jeito mais piegas possível, resolve tudo num passe de mágica porque, no fim das contas, é ficção. Qual a graça da ficção sem fantasia?
***Fim dos spoilers***
Enfim, anime bem legal (mesmo com a produção não sendo tão impressionante), pena que parece que passou despercebido na temporada.
toniroller
Note: my opinion is conditioned to the fact that I watched the episode 0 in the chronological order, that is: between episodes 16 and 17. This is one of the best short animes I've ever seen. An absolute masterpiece in 18 episodes. Plot: 8/10. Some things could have been done in a different way, specially the last episode. Some other will remain unknown as they are never explained. Topics: 9/10. this anime talks about politics, sci-fi, slice of life, social criticism and sexual inclusiveness. Characters: 9/10. Everything related to the characters is excellent: design, personality, originality, coherence and evolution through time. The Japaneses dubbing is also excellent. Sound: 7/10. Openingand ending music is excellent but the anime lacks the use of inmersive music (not only sound effects) during some scenes.
Art: 9/10. Characters are well animated but the scenarios are top tier. Excellent overall.
Jyushimatsuno
Wow...just. Wow. I will start this out frankly: I have not read the manga, so I have no point of comparison for this. i went into this ONA not knowing anything about it. It certainly starts off a bit on the slow side, which oddly works in its favour. If the idea of a slice of life anime in which there is a mammoth-sized (or I guess, UFO sized) sword of Damocles dangling overhead, yet every character goes about their life almost entirely ignoring it, this is the anime for you. The overall odd feeling of the first few episodes, with the characters and Tokyo asa whole only somewhat acknowledging the danger around them as they continue their daily lives, really sets an interesting tone. I couldn't help but think that it's worryingly accurate to what a real life alien invasion scenario would look like...actually, on second thought, it's exactly how it would play out in real life. (spoiler alert): Especially the USA bombing the UFO part.
After the first few episodes, the story REALLY takes off. Episode 16, for me, was a masterpiece. I finished the episode and stared blankly at my screen for a few minutes. Episode 17 unfortunately pales in comparison, and while its function is necessary to end the story on a bittersweet but hopeful note, it honestly could have concluded with episode 16.
I was blown away with the character design overall. Every character is incredibly distinct while retaining a coherent art style. The way different facial features are drawn adds a ton of personality to the show. There is also a great diversity in body shapes, which helps make the character design feel realistic.
The animation is consistently good and interesting to watch. It has a polished feeling you usually only get in one-shot movie anime. Even if you aren't interested in the plot, it's at the very least a feast for the eyes.
I really think this is an anime that everyone should give a shot. It has just the right amount of horror, slice-of-life, comedy, drama, and hopefulness. I don't know how this isn't one of the top shows of the season.
Ramun_Flame
Aliens have invaded, and they regret it. I watched episode 0 before this, despite many saying to skip it since it spoils things(I read that after). Personally, knowing how things would turn out gave me motivation to keep watching in the slower moments of the show. This show is a bit of a slow burn. Episode 0 was very good, and I was kinda disappointed when I found out we would instead be focusing on the girl's story instead. Despite that, this show has a lot of great moments, and realistic drama. A lot of the story focuses on government and humanity. How we would reactto a sudden invasion. I felt it was all believable, if not very pessimistic. I enjoyed seeing the drama unfold. Despite the slow pace, I kept wanting to see how things would play out. After episode 7, I was fully on board.
There was some plot points I didn't like though. A few of the relationships just felt out of place in this type of story, and I wondered what the author's intention was including them other than that being something he was into. Also, the ending feels very abrupt, while not explaining so many things that the viewer would be wondering about. I can appreciate making the audience have to figure it out themselves though, and don't completely hate the ending. It's just a bit of a cop out in my opinion. Overall, it's real unique and I for sure recommend it.
BigChiffer
Not entirely sure how to feel on this one. There were some really interesting aspects to it and I quite enjoyed the slice-of-life elements tied in with the sci-fi plot HOWEVER i feel like a lot of this series was throwing interesting ideas at the wall, without properly fleshing them out, to see what would stick. Pairing that with pacing that gives you whiplash and main characters who's motives are a little too unbelievable and you're left with something that had serious potential but ultimately misses the mark and falls flat on a lot of occasions. Is it entertaining? Sure, at times. Don't go into thisseries expecting a perfectly tied together sci-fi epic though.
XOArama
I'd say this falls a bit short of the manga, not for any huge reasons (other than the whole episode 0 bs which was a stupid decision), mostly things like pacing and just presentation. It was a good watch and some of the rearranging of scenes were well done to keep pacing consistent, which was an improvement on the manga. But it also just felt off while watching, can't really put my finger on what but yea. I think it was a beautiful anime and it had great voice actors, for the first Asano anime, I think we got it pretty good. For a morefull review on the story check out my review for the manga.
MozartDaniel
Something I highly enjoy from anime, or maybe even from Japanese media in general, is they don't let genres define their works. Or it may be more of a thing from us consumers, simplifying art to mere tags. More than many, DEDEDEDE truly defies these preconceptions. To simply call it a "science fiction" or a "slice of life" anime doesn't do it justice. It isn't one more than the other. But let's not get lost into meaningless definitions. There are constant, deep character explorations with meaningful dialogue, that's always made believable to fit each character, avoiding to feel shoehorned or unnecessarily philosophical for the situation. A conversation canbe as superfluous as discussing an everyday occurrence, but the delivery of the lines, the current setting, their expressions. It may feel as if everything is always at a boiling point, and for many of them, that's exactly the case.
We're shown many perspectives from different characters to really get a grasp of the current events happening in this world, and that makes it incredibly engaging.
Character designs are so out there, very peculiar and contrasting of the highly detailed, realistic-focused background, but they don't look out of place as they incorporate plenty of details themselves.
Some of the great works out there in any media may be defined as a mix of two different genres, and how that makes them great. For me, DEDEDE takes it further than that, and it feels more like a fully-fledged world because of it. It is an impressive execution for what was already an interesting concept from the beginning. I don't feel completely satisfied with the ending, but I may just need more time to digest it fully.
OPENING: Oh. My god. I can't take it out of my head. Apparently it was written by the mangaka, who also worked closely in this adaptation, that's amazing. It is very striking and I quite like the idea of mixing real-life shoots with animation. We got double the treat in 2024 with this and the first Too Many Losing Heroines! ending.
ENDING 1: This one makes such an impact. Music could only bang harder if it was fired from a missile launcher. An interesting visual concept of having a fixed perspective and having things move around which serves as an abstract interpretation of this whole anime's premise. Reminds me of the second ending of Komi-san, similar idea, different execution.
ENDING 2: Has the same visual foundation as the first, but it probably only represents a small part of Kadode, or probably more specifically, Ouran's journey, so it's just not as impactful. Music wise, it's pretty nostalgic for some reason.
R_2_R
So, Asano is known for writing some pretty disturbing manga, most notable being “Good Night PunPun." I read a few chapters of his "Solanin," and I remember feeling bitter seeing hopes being broken so naturally and the characters coping up with it. (God, I hope I pick it back again.) DDDD seems to be his more lighthearted story of all, as in cute girls living through the end of the world. The first few episodes are spent on world and character building. The grounded narrative offers for some realistic interactions, and the occasional callouts by Oran make fun of tropes and stereotypes, giving a reality checkthat despite the world literally ending, many people around us are still shit, and all of us are powerless in the face of a world waiting to end. And those that are in power are selfish, flawed, or worse, delusional.
Why this world? Why these characters?
One of the plot points in this show is infinity timelines, and there are potentially more emotional or thought-provoking stories that could’ve been told just by looking at some of these characters.
We have a government conspiracy between Japan and America, a genocidal maniac running in the wild, a solider shouldering the weight of green blood, a cult slowly brainwashing its followers, a journalist who only wants truth, an alien trapped in a human body, a big ass spaceship on top of Tokyo, and more tropes and characters that are waiting to spin their own tale, but Asano wanted us to see these two girls, Kadode and Oran.
Now why is that?
“As long as you are by my side”
Kadode is a normal girl. She has a father who’s too crooked in his work, a mother having an affair, her boyfriend ready to accept her, liked Isobeyan, and she wants to bang her teacher. Oran is an absurd girl. She is a gamer, has a protective keyboard warrior of a brother who only wishes good things for her, a normal father but no sign of mom, friends who accept her shenanigans, and some absurd past. It’s about these characters settling in a so-doomed world, accepting the not-so-great tragedies, enjoying the not-so-much remaining time, and spectating the oh-so-frightening end of the world. It is the feeling of belonging, something concrete to believe in such a fluid world, something absolute.
I cared more about their friendship than the end of the world. And Asano-san did his best, showing his optimism amidst a tragic world.
The animation and music are sufficiently well done—nothing exceptional, though. The voice acting is good; both new and pro VA’s gave their best. I had a good time going through an episode per week.
Conclusion
This is actually my first intro into Asano's works, and I guess I'm lucky that I wasn't traumatised lol. Anyway, give it a watch if you are interested in his work but too lazy or occupied to read a manga. And, don't worry about whether to watch episode 0 first or not. Thank You.
