Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction #4

デッドデッドデーモンズデデデデデストラクション [Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction] #4

by Inio Asano, Hana Rude (Translator)

Für Kadode und ihre Freunde beginnt das Studentenleben an der Universität in Tokyo. Erst mal ist Zurechtfinden angesagt! Genauso ergeht es Futaba, die aus einem Dorf extra nach Tokyo kommt, um zu studieren und um für die Eindringlinge zu demonstrieren. Doch auf ihrem Hinflug kommt es zu Turbulenzen, in die die kleinen Aliens verwickelt sind … Ob sie es heil nach Tokyo schafft? Hoffentlich! Kadode und On-tan brauchen schließlich einen neuen Diskussionspartner für ihre träumerischen Auswüchse!

Genres: Manga, Science Fiction, Comics, Seinen, Fiction, Japan, Comics Manga

168 pages, Paperback

First published February 29, 2016

About the author

Inio Asano (浅野いにお, Asano Inio) is a Japanese cartoonist. He is known for his character-driven stories and his detailed art-style, making him one of the most influential manga author of his generation.
Asano was born in 1980 and produced his first amateur comics as a teenager. His professional debut happened in 2000 in the pages of the magazine Big Comic Spirits. Since then, he has collaborated with most of the major Japanese magazines of seinen manga (comics for a mature audience). Among Asano's internationally acclaimed works are: the psychological horror Nijigahara Holograph (2003-2005); the drama Solanin (2005-2006); the existentialistic slice-of-life Goodnight Punpun (2007-2013); the erotic A Girl on the Shore (2009-2013); the sci-fi Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction (2014-2022).

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like how Artemy describes this series, a "quirky slice-of-life-during-alien-invasion." Early on I thought it was mainly a kind of dystopian social satire along the lines of the film Don't Look Up (about two scientists who can't get anyone to pay attention to the fact that an asteroid is heading to destroy the planet, by which they really men climate change): Look up! There's an alien mothership hovering over Tokyo that has already done a certain amount of damage, and looks to do more, but people go on with their lives. And maybe I thought of the teenagers as largely clueless, a dark satire on that kind of head-in-the-sand behavior.

And I do think this is an accurate if someone limited view of the series. But now, in the fourth volume, I am more sympathetic with the main characters, who with their friends begins university, choosing majors, choosing clubs to join, as doom seems to be impending. So I think it is this slice-of-life story where consciousness seems to be gaining of the world outside one's personal life as it does as one gets older. The girls sort of randomly meet a guy who invites them into the Occult Club, which just makes so much funny sense as you grow up, trying out new ideas.

As some of the invaders now come down to Earth, one girl joins a movement to welcome them and advocate them as opposed to the larger military option going on, one that would destroy them, of course. I like these girls as they struggle to live a "normal" life, facing a very complex future not unlike one we are in now, with climate change and pandemics. I don't laugh at them so much as I did in the beginning; I laugh more with them, with sympathy.

[Urbon Adamsson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the volume every reader of the series has been eagerly anticipating.

At long last, we’re introduced to the invaders—and they’re not what you'd expect.

The volume delivers intense, brutal, and graphic scenes that set a darker tone for the rest of the story.

Inio Asano proves once again that he's a master storyteller. For me, this series has truly taken off, and I don't see it losing momentum anytime soon.

[Artemy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inio Asano's quirky slice-of-life-during-alien-invasion series continues with yet another fantastic volume. A couple of new characters are introduced who fit perfectly into the existing narrative, and most storylines from previous volumes get more development. By this point, if you enjoy this world and its characters, the series really can't disappoint. The only thing that makes me worried is the constant foreshadowing that at some point, soon, there is a huge tragedy waiting to happen, and I don't think I can handle losing any of these characters. Damn you, Asano! Why must you toy with our feelings like this...

[Ignacio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hay en este tomo un capítulo dedicado (por fin) a los alienígenas que, no por esperado, deja de suponer un estupendo giro. Fuerza a reinterpretar lo ocurrido y profundiza en la faceta alegórica mientras se mantiene el agradable tono de manga postadolescente. Es el primer tebeo de Asano que no sólo me convence sino que, además, me atrapa.

[James DeSantis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This goes for more slice of life until some extreme murdering takes place.

So we get more characters meeting. All the girls are heading to college, and with college life you meet new friends. Meeting someone from outside of Tokyo and getting her perspective of moving there is pretty great. Then about half way through hanging out with the girls we get the perspective of the aliens stuck on the ground from falling out of their ships. It's kind of nice and then BAM mass murder. Really makes you question whos the monster in the end.

Really dug this volume and hope the series continues the blend of sci-fi/slice of life with a touch of horror and dread.

[Ami 乁⁠ ⁠˘⁠ ⁠o⁠ ⁠˘⁠ ⁠ㄏ (written by Jane Austen) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4 stars)

This volume is a bit more uplifting but also has a different kind of loneliness as we find Ouran suffering from confusion about her future while all her peers and friends seem to have it figured out. I could relate to that part sadly.

Another thing that I really enjoyed was that this volume shows us a different side of the invasion, a more darker side and though it was terribly sad to read, it finally feels like things are heading somewhere definite with the manga.

Also, the glimpse into Kadode and Ouran's past was really interesting. It's strange, the thing that they finally bonded over.

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Something Asano has always gotten right across all of his work is what I like to call hopeful ennui. In this series, that ennui as well as a good portion of society's hope is owed to the college girls at the heart of his story trying to find direction in a directionless world. At this point, most of them have settled into the rhythm of college life in spite of their misgivings about the world crashing and burning around them. They're pursuing their dreams, however modest, and still finding time to care about things large and small, with the looming specter of the very real alien spaceships ever on the horizon and the world descending into slow chaos around them–with or without the aliens' help. I look forward to seeing how they cope and journeying with them to the end.

[micha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Höhepunkt des 4. Bandes ist sicherlich das Kapitel, in dem die Perspektive plötzlich zu den (ziemlich verletzlichen und verzweifelten) Außerirdischen wechselt. Da wechselt dann auch die Sprache: sie reden miteinander und der Leser versteht es. Aber was die Menschen um sie herum sprechen, ist nun nur noch unverständliches Gekrächze. Toll, dass Asano das auch auf dieser Ebene so konsequent umgesetzt hat.

Ach ja, und als Fazit bleibt einmal mehr: um diese Menschheit ist es nicht schade, wenn sie, durchdrungen von Nationalstolz, Gewinnstreben und Großmannssucht, den Bach runter geht. Ich bin jetzt, am Ende von Band 4, schon auf das Finale gespannt. Vermutlich wird sich der Erdball in eine große, schwarze und stinkende Staubwolke auflösen.

[Ypres]

El que más me ha gustado hasta ahora, la serie me ha terminado de enganchar. Nuevos personajes y muchísimo más desarrollo a la historia (desde nuevos y curiosos puntos de vista). Se empiezan a dejar ver los movimientos sociales y como se desarrollan, mientras que algo horrible parece cernirse sobre Tokio.

[Maria Ella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lakas maka-Pilipinas na social-media intensive ang mga tao kahit andaming nangyayari sa paligid.

[DonutKnow · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel like a hopeless filter is placed over my eyes when I read this series… Doom from the invaders plus the angst of growing up 😭

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seeing the invaders side finally. The girls are in college now.

"I can't handle you! Tonight, I will weep lonely tears!!"

[Marco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok, inizia a essere intrigante.

[Flow Pouet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Toujours au-dessus du précédent, cette série ne cessera jamais de me surprendre par l'efficacité narrative de son auteur ! Le duo Ôran-Kadode est toujours aussi fantastique, adolescentes attachantes, lucides et dont la sensibilité fait tellement de bien. J'adore cette amitié, ces personnages dans lesquels je retrouver un peu de mes bizarreries. L'histoire continue d'évoluer brillamment, métaphore du Japon après Fukushima oui, mais aussi reflet de la société agrémentée d'un regard aiguisé et critique qui fait extrêmement plaisir et du bien !
Si seulement la série pouvait ne jamais s'arrêter...

[Jasmine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really wish more people had continued on with this series. I'm really enjoying the storyline, and I like that they always leave you on a cliffhanger. The characters are very fleshed out and you become so connected to their fate's. I'm really hoping he doesn't kill off my favorite characters. On to #5!

[Mateen Mahboubi · Rating 4 out of 5]

While continuing the "life goes on during an alien invasion" story, we do get a bit more movement on the overall tragedy in the making. Asano is an adept storyteller and you never feel like you aren't in good hands.

[Jon Ureña · Rating 4 out of 5]

We get to follow some of the aliens as they try to make their way into their hideout on Earth; for the last three years they've been living in the contaminated zone, which the humans avoid. Although we never get to see their forms under their gear and helmets, they are the size of children, they are intelligent and form meaninful relationships with each other. They speak of having been sent to Earth by their motherland, but that they were "set up". Now they are trapped here and hunted by a far superior and ruthless enemy. The alien group we were following gets ambushed by a bunch of human hunters, who destroy them as easily as if the invaders were actual children. Only two aliens survive, and end up reaching their hideout. For them, the intelligent beings who live on this planet are monsters that they have no hope of being able to communicate with.



One of the human beings who ambushed and killed those aliens was the former boyfriend of the main girl of the protagonists' group who got killed by a falling alien ship some time ago. He, along with many other humans, can't have anything but bloodthirsty revenge on their minds.

Meanwhile our girls are exploring their first month in their college campus.



They are joined by a new girl introduced in this volume: someone from the countryside where some of the gigantic laser shooting robots are being built, and therefore the economy there is going to boom. The girl intends to attend college in Tokyo because she wants to see the invasion by herself, as she believes that the human response to the aliens, who have shown little ability to defend themselves, is monstrous. Her folks from the countryside think that anyone going to Tokyo has lost his mind, as eventually some huge deflagration or an all out war is going to kill everyone there. Along the way this new girl meets with a former middle school classmate who's also going to study in Tokyo. The male kid is a crossdresser, and intends to pass as a girl in the big city. He'll presumably end up becoming another member of the main group. The author seems to address the genre of the story, often referenced by the public as "cute girls doing things", when the guy states that he wants to be consired cute and worshipped as well.

The new girl from the country drags our main girls into a protest, where they clash with the growing subplot. The tension between those who want some human rights for the aliens and most of the others, who want to annihilate them, and have dead family members to avenge, gets nasty.

Regarding my favorite conspiracy theorist character, she finds herself separated from her friends; the others are attempting to get part time jobs or in general improve towards the kind of adults they want to become, while this pigtailed girl has more than enough with tending to her K/D ratio in Western online shooters all night. Nearing the end of this volume, to find some way out of her boredom and general loneliness she approaches the president of the local occult club. They've spent their last 15 years researching UFOs, that often amounted to little more than bringing attention to blurry videos of moving lights on YouTube. The girl points out that they live right next to a gigantic alien mothership, but the guy seems disheartened and disappointed by the current situation. It doesn't have the charm and mystique of those niche YouTube videos, conferences full of weird people and online rumors. The girl is charmed by this guy's delusion, and proceeds to follow him home to see some of his research. Turns out a recurrent disguised alien character had decided to temporarily use that guy's house as a hideout, and the conspiracy theorist girl gets to meet him and realize what he is.

That disguised alien, passing as a young male kid, had been popping around for the last couple of volumes. He seemed to have learned the language through the internet, as suggested by his non-chalant use of internet slang, and for some reason often talks through a puppet. In the previous volume he had given the conspiracy theorist girl a scare by appearing on the same roof when the girl was yelling at the mothership to cease hostilities, that if each side wanted an enemy, they had her as the most threatening target, and that she would end them in seconds.

All in all, very entertaining as usual.

[Dani Wladdimiro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Considero que los dos nuevos personajes que entran en escena mejoran considerablemente el manga, tanto por sus motivaciones como por su trasfondo. No se trata solo de introducir a alguien que participe en las manifestaciones a favor de los derechos de los invasores, sino también de ver cómo las protagonistas la conocen y comienzan a entender mejor lo que ocurre en este contexto, teniendo en cuenta que perdieron a una amiga debido a este conflicto.

Además, se nos proporciona más contexto sobre los extraterrestres, quienes probablemente estén ahí simplemente para sobrevivir, incapaces de subsistir en su planeta de origen por alguna razón desconocida. Esto nos lleva de nuevo a un dilema moral clásico: ¿qué significa realmente la guerra?

Lo menciono porque nadie parece ser capaz de comunicarse con los invasores. Por lo que vemos, parecen ser solo pequeños seres que buscan sobrevivir en condiciones paupérrimas. Entonces, ¿es realmente necesario usar armas contra ellos? Probablemente no. Al final, todo apunta a ser un pretexto para reavivar la industria armamentística y tecnológica de Japón, utilizando el conflicto como una excusa para aumentar la producción bélica.

Finalmente, todo gira en torno al dinero, y en ese sentido, los militares cumplen con órdenes claras y frías: disparar sin compasión, independientemente de lo que vean. Este enfoque despiadado refleja una de las críticas más inquietantes de la obra y deja al lector o lectora reflexionando sobre las verdaderas motivaciones detrás de la guerra.

[Philip McCarty · Rating 5 out of 5]

We get two new characters added to our core crew, Futaba and Makoto, from a rural town where they felt they didn't fit in and have as many opportunities to engage with the world. So far, Futaba has been the one adding the most to the story, because she aims to be socially conscious and involved with the protests against the government. She make a socially conscious foil to the girls who are focusing on their daily lives and just surviving. I can't get over the way that this story feels so socially aware of the lives of people today, even against the sci-fi backdrop. The occult club guy (broccoli head) is another fun character that I think does a nice job of grounding the absurdity while also being just as much a part of it. The standout chapter in this volume was definitely the one from the alien's point of view, where they are brutally slaughtered by civilians, including Kihara's ex. It's a bit absurd that we are four volumes in and there is so much being juggled in the air narratively. The ambition of this work is really exciting. Unfortunately, we also get a date between Kadode and the gross teacher that I wish they would just leave behind.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hya hya foowaah!! The mass alien-fall splash page is... Wow! Please, Viz, get that colored by Asano sensei and posterize it. Please. Please. Pretty please!

I don’t know if it was the fact that I was coming down from a donut sugar high while reading this, but it is a very depressing volume. My heart sank by the last chapter. First, there’s the dire foreshadowing from both reporter Miura and Sumaru at SES. Then, we find the horrid alien graveyard and the appalling violence that follows. It almost made me forget the great new additions (though I feel I probably shouldn’t get too attached) to our motley cast of characters. It is hard to suggest that Inio Asano sensei’s formidable art is improved over previous volumes, but the abundance of alien architecture and designs is very eye-catching. This is my favorite volume so far. If you have been on the fence with the deliberate pacing of this series so far, the payoff is here!

[Matisse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Smart move on Asano's part: after three volumes of slice-of-life character bits, we've got some plot development.

In a weird way, I feel like this series is more emotionally devastating than Goodnight Punpun. Punpun was depressing and disturbing for the sake of depression and disturbing things; Dead Dead Demon is about trying to live your life when the world is already depressing and disturbing, and nothing you can do can change it. The adult characters themselves are asking, if the world is coming to an end, what's the point?

(There's also some good reflection to be had in Kadode and Ontan seeing themselves still as kids, whereas the average college freshman in the US sees themselves as an adult, but that's beside the point.)

Nothing too horrible has happened to the cast--whereas Punpun by this point has some morbid stuff, to be sure--but I feel more dread and worry for these characters than I ever did for Punpun's gang.

[shereadsmanga · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this volume so much!! It seems as the series goes it and develops, it just keeps getting better and better! We don’t get a lot of manga where we see the transition from High-school to college so seeing that was very refreshing. We got a deeper look on the aliens and how they feeling about their situation as well as seeing the politics of the world grow more and more fierce with doom looming in the horizon. And all of that juxtaposed with the teenage girls just trying to find hope in tomorrow and how they wanna carry out their lives as regular college students. We see a little bit of the age gap romance growing but I can see how others may not like it. Overall very great volume that ended off on the best cliffhanger. Can’t wait to read more from Inio Asano!

[Nate]

A lot happening in this volume. We learn more about the invaders, even seeing a group of them who were shot down wandering the contamination zone before encountering soldiers. I appreciate tat Asano isn’t shy about his commentary here. New characters are also introduced, who meet the girls in their new college. I think the storytelling is better in this volume. Asano seems to be settling into the series, and I can tell he has big plans for where to take the story. I still want to know what happens next.

[Cecilia Carolina Vicario · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mi favorito por ahora de la serie. Me gustó mucho que se introdujeron nuevos personajes y pudimos saber un poco más sobre otros que fueron presentados en anteriores tomos.
Otra cosa que me gustó mucho del volumen 4 fue saber más de los aliens y la opinión de la gente sobre ellos. Sostengo que lo interesante de este manga es conocer la hisotria de una invasión alienigena desde la perspectiva de las personas (supongo porque es un slice of life distopico) y eso da mucho material para explorar una crítica social.

[Estibaliz · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25

Even though we don't get to see the big evens anticipated at the end of the previous volume yet, we do finally get a better approach to the aliens living in hide in Earth, and the slice of life part of the story, which is strong in this instalment, felt quite wholesome, with the girls starting their college life.

Over all, a very good addition to the series, cute, sad, slightly disturbing, promising... but just enjoyable in all its small details and with that great art, anyway.

[David Doel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story travels back and forth between a coming-of-age story and a satire of society. In this case the society is Japan, but it could equally well be Europe or the United States. The satire is on the mark!

[Chris Orme · Rating 5 out of 5]

Soo good just loving all of Inio Asano’s work. He’s shot up to one of my favourite manga authors as fast as Tatsuki Fujimoto did.
I love Onran especially she’s just a great character.
& the aliens are so cute. … & we’re massacring them. Oh god, were the bad guys aren’t we.

[Yv · Rating 2 out of 5]

4/10

[Hafsa Errabboun · Rating 3 out of 5]

now I can give this 3/5 stars cuz it's not boring anymore
ugh it took me 4 volumes to finally love it

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love these girls!