A Thousand Miles

Dead Dead Demon

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Dead Dead Demon’s DeDeDeDeDestruction is a 2014 Sci-Fi Drama Slice of Life manga by Inio Asano. It began serialization in Big Comic Spirits magazine in April 2014. Viz Media started publishing it in English in April 2018 with Norma Editorial having done so in Spanish in October 2015, Tokyopop in Germany in May 2016 and by Planet Manga in Italian in March 2017.

Cover Appeal

Dead Dead Demon – So there’s a fair bit to unpack here. As the title of the work, it already holds some importance in the audience’s mind. But what exactly should we be taking from this one? Death, destruction and demons are rather serious topics but, as is oft the case, when paired with some good old alliteration it sounds ridiculous. Seriously, the title sounds like a jingle. And that’s kinda how Dead Dead Demon is. Much like the title, the weighty aspects can be seen and while they’re never treated with irreverence, the space around them (and boy is there a lot of space) is filled in with so much whimsy. Taking the title at face value we can assume someone’s getting knocked off, but who? It’s a bit difficult to put your finger on just who is in grave danger because so little in the manga revolves around such a conflict of that kind.

The Gist

Three years ago, the alien mother ship arrived and parked itself in the Tokyo skyline. Uncertainty and panic set in as UFOs flew over the city. The JSDF immediately took up arms to prevent a catastrophe in the best way they could. Everyone held their breath awaiting our impending doom. Three years later……not much has changed. The JSDF hasn’t made any strides in destroying the mother ship, but the aliens haven’t made any real effort in invading either. What happens when you’re expecting an apocalypse and you get an annoyance instead? Life as (relatively) normal happens, that’s what. So enjoy the riveting tale of Kadode and her friends growing up amidst the backdrop of the possible end of the world (but not really).

The Cast

Kadode Koyama – Third year high school student. Loves Isobeyan and is currently struggling with her feelings for her teacher.

*Oran Nakagawa – Kadode’s best friend. What some would call “random”. Seems to be enjoying the alien catastrophe the most.

NOTE: I’ve seen her name spelled as Ouran, Oran and Otan. Not sure if those are translation errors or just the whim of the different characters themselves.

The Rub

Slice of life was always one of those genres that was always just kinda…. “there”. I was aware of it but never felt any particular way about it and I certainly didn’t go out of my way to read it. But with Beastars, and now Dead Dead Demon, I can see the appeal. It allows you to focus on the human element by pushing to the margins the spectacle that would otherwise crowd it out .

Dead Dead Demon is like seeing a blizzard happening outside and having your mom walk up behind you and tell you that you’re still going to school. In this case, it’s less a blizzard and more a bunch of UFOs flying around in the sky. In a straight genre piece, we’d be seeing epic UFO battles, cities being destroyed, civilian resistance groups and whatnot. However, Dead Dead Demon is host to an “invasion” that’s not really much of an invasion at all. A potential apocalypse doesn’t shake society all that much. Thus, life doesn’t change much. So, sorry Kadode, you still have to go to school and study for entrance exams. And I think that may be the core of why reading this was a tad bit difficult at first. The alien invasion is the bait, but it’s not the hook if that makes much sense. Aliens are here, but life goes on. The alien occupation has physical presence, with the mother ship ever-present in the skyline, but very little narrative presence. What weighs the heaviest on the minds of the cast are the boring, standard challenges of growing up: figuring out what you want to do with the rest of your life, sorting out new feelings, questioning beliefs, etc. It ain’t world domination, but life isn’t easy to contend with either.

I have my suspicions about the nature of this “invasion”, but that’s not quite important. What is, though, are the things that inform our view of it. I love it when a property is willing to recontextualize parts of its premise the audience is bound to have taken for granted. While the main public perception of the aliens is negative, we are treated to periodic Isobeyan comics. They feature an anthropromorphic mushroom alien that’s friends with dead ringers for the main cast. Much more jovial in tone, Mr. Isobeyan shares his technology with them and tries to be a helpful presence despite his colleague’s mischief. The juxtaposition is interesting, especially since it seems to mirror the general attitudes of the young and the old regarding aliens.

The backbone of the work is our main duo. Kadode and Otan are foil characters. Kadode is the grounded, pragmatic one whereas Otan is the energetic, whimsical one. But it becomes obvious that they compliment each other. Kadode keeps Otan focused while Otan pushes Kadode to confront her feelings and desires. To that end we also come to see that the two want similar things in relation to the alien invasion, though they express it differently. Kadode laments the lack of monumental change in life since the appearance of the aliens while Otan seeks out what adventure there is in the present events by following reports on alien activity and even visiting UFO crash sites. It just makes sense that the two would be drawn to each other. I truly believe Otan has a sense of space; a sense of freedom that Kadode lacks and envies. Otan responds to inquiries about her future plans with tales of world domination and is rather expressive about her feelings with others, consequences be damned. Kadode doesn’t seem to be able to directly tell her teacher how she feels about him, though he likely already knows and it’s probably best left at that. But more to the point, Kadode points out that she thought the aliens would do something “kickass”, lamenting that she has nothing to lose so she wouldn’t care if the aliens destroyed everything. Obviously she’s wrong as she has friends, family and a future (all important things that can be lost) but if you feel trapped by your present life it makes sense that you’d see it that way. Something backed up by how apathetic she is about the small incremental changes that her life has taken, but also by her deciding to go to college instead of working directly out of high school like she said she would before seemingly on a whim so that she doesn’t have to stay with her mother and her new boyfriend at whatever community they want to move to. The two seem to understand each other and it’s rather sweet to see them support each other.

The Verdict

I’m a bit at a loss concerning how I should feel about Dead Dead Demon. I’m genuinely surprised that Inio Asano had the gall to take something as big a concept as an alien invasion and then cordon it off as a background event as if to say “Yeah, yeah…put that child’s toy off to side. We’ve got adult matters to deal with – life”. While I can definitely understand, and even came to like, that Dead Dead Demon isn’t really about the aliens, I do have to admit that giving something such prominent iconography and little narrative prominence may befuddle readers. The anticipation/anxiety surrounding the aliens that the audience feels mirrors that of the citizens in universe and I think that’s pretty genius. I worry that without out some payoff, that anticipation may sour in many a reader, but for now the enjoyment of watching everyone grow isn’t overpowered by it.

Continue?: Oh Yes, definitely