This review is mostly spoiler free. The one spoiler is covered by the spoiler feature. I am going to try and not sound like a pretentious asshat, but there is a lot to say for this series and it really hit for me.
I will preface this by saying that I'm not an Inio Asano superfan by any stretch of the imagination. I hated Downfall, couldn't get into Goodnight Punpun, and haven't had much motivation to try any of his other stuff after that pair came off as the mangaka needing to find some happiness rather than trying to commentate on unhappiness.
Then I was told oh, read Dead Dead Demon's. It's different from his other stuff, even if you didn't like his other stuff it's great, just give it a shot.
And man, I'm glad I did.
The art is incredible, some of the best in the industry. Normally I discuss art at the end of reviews, but I've got a lot I want to say about Dead Dead's. So about the art... yeah, amazing backgrounds and objects, and I really appreciate how goofy the characters are drawn and how some characters are borderline cartoons.
Just flip through chapter one, since images aren't embedding correctly. The art is overwhlemingly fantastic.
Art put to a very beautiful aside, what about the story?
Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction is set in a world where aliens have invaded, but they failed. Their mothership is just hovering over Japan, sending out the occasional burst of ships full of fresh invaders. Brave soldiers of Japan are doing their best to exterminate them, and they're winning, or so you know because that's what the talking heads say on TV. Still, everything about the invasion mostly stays out of people's lives, and this group of girls who are just getting ready to go into college are more worried about hanging out, the boys they like, and committing mass murder in online fps games. Life continues mostly as normal, as long as you aren't a fanatical warctopus (pro murdering all of the invaders) or peacesquid (hellbent on coexistence). People laugh, work, go out on the town, spread rumors online, or, in the case of one character who I don't believe is ever shown onscreen, just obsess over what SSR is being buffed, cause now is time to buy. It's just people, living out their lives, all while- unbeknownst to them- a countdown to the end of humanity has begun, delivered to the reader in oversized print, just so you can't miss it. It'd be a shame to have the show catch you unaware, after all.
End of the world be damned, life goes on. There's political machinations going on in the background, as the power elite (yes, C. Wright Mills style) attempt to secure the ruins after the world falls to pieces. There's horrific, bloody battles between human and invader happening all the time, leaving piles of corpses behind. And then there's plenty of chapters of... people. There's plenty of humor to be found in these girls living their sometimes strange, sometimes mundane day-to-day. There's Kadode, our "main character", crushing on her teacher (yes, it was unnecessary, no, it doesn't get nasty on-page), Ouran, who is charitably described as a bit insane, Makoto, reinventing themselves in Tokyo, Hiroshi, a former genius who is now the stereotypical overweight moocher who gets flame wars going online for kicks, Mirua, a sociologist trying to unravel the truth behind everything, and a bunch more where I just say read the manga. They're wonderful, sometimes hilarious (Asano has parody politicians that are spot-on), and despite Dead Dead's not being a slice of life, you get to really know them through their everyday. Their struggles are as normal as trying to find a meaningful way to spend their time, trying to get out of their parent's shadow, living in a world that demands picking a side when you don't really care.
In the meantime, there's some major issues from the real world being interwoven with this horrific conflict. The power of media, politicians prioritizing their own interests, corporate greed, global unrest, social media ripping open divides, and several more. It's not subtle. It doesn't need to be. It's enough to unsettle, combined with the story of the aliens- and how they tie into the girls' own stories- all leading to the end of the world. There's some moments that make you laugh, some to make you cry, some that'll stay with you, and "I KNOW!" that for sure. It's a great mix, and then you hit the final stretch, as we close in on the world ending.
And things get messy. Both in the story and plot wise.
I won't go over the events in the story, but suffice it to say that a lot of backstory hits, and it isn't the best pacing. You're cutting in and out of events that are happening and events that happened in the past, different viewpoints, it's all messy as the end of the world should be, but that isn't really the greatest as a reader. There's a few points that are incredibly impactful, and you get to realize along with the characters just how everything has been so important to individuals and so pointless to the universe all along.
And then, as the manga has been promising all along, humanity is destroyed, all in moments. The manga takes a few chapters to show you the world ending in all of its glory, with a few pages that will stick with me forever. The spoilered bit is a major spoiler, so if you haven't finished the series, don't click it!
In the end, Dead Dead Demon's is haunting. Not because it's trying to make all these "hey look at what I have to say!" points, not because of shock value or any of the other reasons I normally don't care for this flavor of "philosophical" seinen. It's haunting because it's just showing people in an extreme world, and at the risk of sounding pretentious, I think it does an incredible job.
If you have any interest in this series, try it out. It has pacing flaws and an odd ending, but I think that no matter who you are, there's a lot the series can leave you to think about, to wonder about, to be happy and sad and angry and everything in between about. It may be imperfect, but what isn't? There's still plenty of beauty in those imperfect things.
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