Late in Dead Dead Demons’ first volume, its boisterous heroine Ontan stares out over the city of Tokyo, a vast alien mothership hanging silently above. In spite of the imminent threat, the city is quiet. After months of frantic news reports, the mothership has become just another feature of the skyline, an accepted feature of the modern age. Ontan has news for her complacent city. “Everyone seems to have forgotten what happened that day, and are living their peaceful lives as if it’s a given. But I have something I’d like to tell them: there’s no such thing as an endless summer break!”
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Dead Dead Demon’s DeDeDeDe Destruction, Volume 1 – Review
Today I reviewed the first volume of Inio Asano’s latest, which is so far looking to be another genuine masterpiece. Not only is Dead Dead Demon’s an incredibly well-observed and poignant character drama, it also feels like one of the most searingly accurate articulations of growing up in the current era that I’ve seen. Kadode and Ontan’s combination of societal fatalism and fierce personal loyalty is an attitude I’ve seen again and again among my peers, and certainly sympathize with. This book really spoke to me, and I hope I captured that in my review.
Dead Dead Demon’s DeDeDeDe Destruction
Dead Dead Demon’s Dededededestruction – Volume 1
Dead Dead Demon’s Dededededestruction opens with a kooky children’s comic, clearly reminiscent of Doraemon. A child protagonist has a problem, their mushroom-shaped friend has just the invention to solve it, and trouble ensues. The camera then pulls back to reveal this text as an in-universe comic, one of countless objects strewn across a teenage girl’s messy, cluttered bedroom. It’s a fair enough metaphor for Asano’s work, which consistently transposes the purity of tiny emotional fragments against the inescapable messiness of everyday living. And it’s perhaps even more appropriate for this story, given Asano has outright admitted that Demon’s more cutesy character designs are intended to trick young people into reading his work. Dead Dead Demon isn’t exactly Doraemon, but it could well be intended as his version of a story for children.