”By the way, dad! Capitalism is gonna end soon!! I saw it online yesterday!!”
Creative Staff
Story & Art: Inio Asano
Translation: John Werry
What They Say
Three years ago the aliens invaded Tokyo. Nothing was ever the same again. But after a while, even impending doom starts to feel ordinary.
The defense business is BOOMING in Japan, and the amazing Hujin weapons are finally getting their chance to SHINE. But civilians are fed up with the inconvenience of being collateral damage, and their protest signs are starting to get really pointed! Meanwhile, Kadode has to face up to the realities of living in an apocalypse and not taking her college entrance exams seriously. At least high school is FINALLY OVER!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Inio Asano has always been a master of finely crafting characters in a safe, everyday-life haven of sorts only to thoroughly crush that haven in a massive “end of innocence” type of moment. When reading any of his manga, the question is never if the “end of innocence” moment is coming or not, but rather just how palatable the moment will be to readers once it arrives. Between his previous titles like Solanin and Goodnight Punpun, Asano’s moods when dropping this moment range from efficiently normie accessible to arthouse-levels of mentally scarring. In Dededededestruction’s case, I’d say the mood fits squarely between the two.
What makes Dededededestruction different from Asano’s previous notable works is that innocence was less of something immediately lost and more of something you finally admit to losing after playing dumb for so long. As Ontan and her merry band of misfit friends continue throughout their high school days, they make a point of ignoring the grown-up drama surrounding them. They’ve normalized the fact that their country has been invaded by aliens because it doesn’t immediately affect their day-to-day. Endless walls of text as delivered by both the internet and major news networks are easy to blur into the background as more pressing matters like college entrance exams take front and center focus.
That is, until it doesn’t.
Upon the death of one of Ontan and Kadode’s friends, the situation involving the alien landing has suddenly become that much more real. For once, current events have overlapped with their personal life, and ignoring the problem is an option we’d rather not take for once. As the remaining characters try to deal with the death of someone they spoke to literally days before, it’s interesting to note that Asano doesn’t immediately show the dead friend in question—rather than using the medium of manga for a dramatic flashback or something similar, we stay with Ontan and the others in the claustrophobic confines of the classroom. Whereas the doldrums of ordinary life were once used to escape politics and current events, they’ve now served as a cage preventing the characters from reaching a friend that’s since become a statistic used as leverage in protests and political debates.
Similar is done with Ai’s character this volume. Having previously been introduced as another of Ontan and Kadode’s friends, the most we’ve gotten from Ai in previous volumes is a gag about how all her younger brothers look the same with exception to the black sheep edgelord known as “The Black Knight.” Now having finally learned why Ai’s family living conditions are as such, we’re again brought into the situation of current events encroaching into personal life. Even something like a simple afternoon date can’t be enjoyed thoroughly because of curfews brought on by alien-related incidents. Every aspect of daily life is being pushed into the corner as news of the alien invaders is becoming more and more prominent.
On its own, this would already be a solid volume, but the final chapters offers an excellent reveal as we get our first clear look of what the invaders actually look like. It’s a nice bookend to the volume and “arc” that is the cast in high school. As the cast begins their first steps into the “real world,” it’s become painfully clear that they’ve been in it all along.
In Summary:
Dead Dead Demon’s Dededededestruction volume 3 marks the end of innocence for our cast of plucky high-schoolers. We’ve reached a breaking point where the “situation” between humans and invaders can no longer be ignored. The current events plastering headlines have become our ordinary life, and we’re left with very little in the way of tools to deal with it. For a manga originally released circa 2015, this entire volume is eerily relevant to today’s current events with malaise and reluctant involvement to spare.
Content Grade: A
Art Grade: A+
Packaging Grade: A
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: Mature
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: October 16, 2018
MSRP: $14.99
