https://blacknerdproblems.com/dead-dead-demons-dededede-destruction-episode-0-review/

This is a mostly spoiler-free review of DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION. This review covers EPISODE 0 which premiered Thursday, May 23 at 8:00 PM PT. Thank you Crunchyroll for the advanced screener of the English Dub!

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“I wish the world would end so I won’t have to deal with this”

Raise your hand if you thought that Inio Asano’s first animated work would be DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION? Was a manga with a premise of a world forever changed a little on the nose to watch right now? Are aliens ever off the table in pop culture and the media we consume? This is an Asano manga series I hadn’t got around to reading so I have been hyped that the anime adaptation was coming out. Episode 0 of DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION opens to perpetually tired and sleepy voiced Nobuo Koyama (Giles Panton) working away his life. For a moment, he sees his daughter, the unimpressed Kadode (Elyse Maloway) who not so gently tells him he stinks and that she’s home that day, August 31 because it is summer break. In a taxicab, Nobuo, looking out the window along with other Japanese people across the city witnesses the alien mother-ship touch down.

The first five minutes of DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION throws the audience for a ride and then a father wakes up—years later with a found family, a sea of exposition and history, and a need to find his family: his daughter Kadode. The world has changed, he himself has changed, and the place of refuge he’s been at is at first glance a safe place yet also a breeding ground for power struggles and inequality forcing some to seek other options on the outside–present with new dangers.

The longer he stays out in the outside world the more dangers present themselves, man-made and extra-terrestrial created. The closer Nobuo gets to the location where he is supposed to escort and see off his traveling companions–those younger than him that have been like family in a way, the more the audience is clued in that something is not quite right, after all. In this new world, DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION reminds the viewers that tragedies are still happening, new organizations and groups have risen up further dividing humanity’s survivors, and this one man’s journey is only starting… 

Verdict

DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION does a great job in its outing in Episode 0 by setting up the world building of a ruined Japan and those affected. The first five minutes lures the audience in and sucker punches them square in the jaw with a time skip and a lot of backstory that eventually is fed to along the way. Seeing the trailer, I figured that the main protagonists and mainstays in the cast would be Kadode and friends–the students and young adults figuring out how aliens further complicate their adolescence. Seeing Kadode’s father Nobuo take center stage in this Episode 0 reveals not only a Japan much worse off but whatever organisms that have come to Earth much more advanced–my interest is piqued for sure.

DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION is filled with a general sense of unease throughout watching Episode 0. Nobuo waking up and having a new (found) family, a new place and way of living is startling as the minutes drag on. He’s determined to see his daughter again as well as look after the two companions, young adults he finds himself with who have told him he’s protected them as if they were his own. It is a haunting feeling to watch him embark on this journey back to home, back to his daughter knowing that something insidious is waiting for him, and there is no way any of us watching can warn him.

I love that in Episode 0 of DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION we, the audience, are treated to an post-apocalyptic world of a father trying to reunite with his remaining family. The world may be ending (or beginning again), but he’s going to find his kin and do all he can to be a family again, no matter what it takes. Earlier in the episode, we saw that Nobuo was not the most present father, being swamped with work and the doldrums of everyday life as an adult. Later, upon waking, he calls out for her and verbally tells his companions that he’s going looking for him, despite the odds. Episode 0 ends on a hopeful note with Nobuo being told even more depressing news but with a clue and a ride on where to go next. This gives the series some emotional weight that will carry with audiences for sure when we all get to see the alien mothership touch down from the point of view of the true protagonists of the series: Kadode and friends.

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DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION

As the world is threatened by the sudden appearance of a mysterious alien mothership, best friends Kadode Koyama and Oran “Ontan” Nakagawa carry on about their high school life. But as they grow up, they face existential questions, learning adulthood’s complexities, and that the true threat may not be from above.

Premiering on Crunchyroll

Premieres Thursday, May 24 at 8:00 PM PT

PRODUCTION STAFF

Based on the Original Graphic Novel Created by 

Inio Asano

Directed by 

Tomoyuki Kurokawa

Series Composition and Screenplay Written by 

Reiko Yoshida

World Setting by 

Takaaki Suzuki

Character Design and Chief Animation Direction by 

Nobutake Ito

Color Design by 

Satoshi Takezawa 

Art Direction by

Mika Nishimura

CG Direction by 

Satoi Inami

Cinematography by 

Takuma Morooka

Editing by 

Masayuki Kurosawa

Sound Direction by 

Takeshi Takadera

Music Composed by

Taro Umebayashi

Animation Production by 

Production +h.

SONGS

Opening Theme Song “Shinsekai Yori” Performed by 

ano and Lisa Ikuta

JAPANESE VOICE CAST

Lilas Ikuta as Kadode Koyama

ano as Oran “Ontan” Nakagawa

Atsumi Tanezaki as Kiho Kurihara

Miyuri Shimabukuro as Ai Demoto

Saeko Oki as Rin Hirama

Azumi Waki as Futaba Takemoto

Ryoko Shiraishi as Makoto Tainuma

Miyu Irino as Keita Oba

Koki Uchiyama as Kenichi Kohiruimaki

Taito Ban as Watarase

Junichi Suwabe as Hiroshi Nakagawa

Kenjiro Tsuda as Nobuo Koyama

Naoto Takenaka as Chairman

TARAKO as Debeko

Tomokazu Sugita as Isobeyan

ENGLISH DUB STAFF

English ADR Voice Direction by

Karl Willem

Scripts Adapted by

Jack Cox

English Translation by

Paul Baldwin

Recording Engineering by

Konrad Piaseczny

Dialogue editing by

Marc Matsumoto

Brian Gamblin

Joshua Stevenson

Taylor Gervais

Re-Recording Mixed by

Keith Goddard 

Derek Simpson

ENGLISH VOICE CAST EPISODE 0

Giles Panton as Nobuo Koyama

Michelle Creber as Kimika

Lexi Ly as Hako

Elyse Maloway as Kadode Koyama

Graham Hamilton as Kenichi Kohiruimaki

Chelsea Miller as Futaba Takemoto

Travis Turner as Makoto Tainuma

Bill Newton as Hanazawa

Michael Dobson as Editor

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Inio Asano began publishing DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION in Shogakukan’s Big Comic Spirits magazine from 2014-2022, for a total of 12 volumes. VIZ Media releases an English version of the manga. Read more about the series up on the Crunchyroll site here.

Cover image: © Inio Asano/Shogakukan/DeDeDeDe Committee

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The post REVIEW: ‘DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION’ Brings Post-Apocalyptic Dread and Hope in Episode 0 appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.