Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction

Episode 5

With this episode, we might as well be watching a different anime. Instead of an anime about a pair of ride-or-die friends doing their best to live a normal life with a giant UFO parked above Tokyo, we have the story of two elementary school girls who find an alien, decide to hide him, and use his sci-fi technology to help those in need. What comes from this is a story that's part E.T. and part Doraemon—something the show is quite clear about with the Fujiko F. Fujio-style manga, Isobeyan, that Kadode takes inspiration from throughout the episode.

Simply put, this episode is the honeymoon portion of the story where everything keeps turning out well for our heroes. Kadode and Ouran are able to form a friendship, save an alien's life, and turn the bully boys in the class into a group that has fun by helping others. Sure, Ouran's former friend group, the bully girls of the class are still at large but for now, Kadode and Ouran feel confident that they are teaching their new alien friend about the goodness inside humans—which will totally stop his people from invading the Earth.

Of course, as smart as Kadode is for her age, she is unable to see the fact that the aliens might be more willing to invade a peaceful, kind world—i.e., one that is more easily pacified—over a world full of violent, self-centered assholes. However, be that as it may, The message of the episode is that humanity is on both ends of the spectrum at the same time. On a societal level, there are programs to help the less fortunate but there are also systems that, by their very nature, keep other people down. On a personal level, we have people who bully others and people who go out of their way to be considerate of strangers—and sometimes these are even the same. Humans are highly complex, flawed beings, capable of great good and great evil.

Beyond the social commentary, this episode is also a deeper look at Kadode and Ouran than ever before. Kadode is a young girl with an absentee mother and a workaholic father. She has had to learn to be self-sufficient—both physically and emotionally. She has grown up much faster than other kids—which gives her a sense of moral and intellectual superiority. She looks down on her bullies and believes she knows more about life than they do. But on the inside, she's just as lonely as you'd expect her to be.

Meanwhile, Ouran is a shy people-pleaser. She is in the in-group of girls in her class but only barely. All it takes is one wrong move for her to be the target of their bullying. She knows what's right and what's wrong but struggles to have the self-confidence to do what she believes in. However, that said, once she befriends Kadode, she can make herself do the right thing—even though Kadode tells her that it's okay to ignore her at school. Yet, what's truly interesting is that Ouran is given an easy way out—a pill that will magically give her self-confidence. However, she refuses to take it. She knows deep down that personal growth—overcoming your shortcomings—is something important. To skip the growth and go straight to the results… something vital would be lost.

In the end, it's clear that the pair's friendship has made each of them better, happier kids. However, there's clearly a looming feeling of waiting for the other shoe to drop throughout the episode—which I'm sure it will next week.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• Whatever we're seeing here is either A) not what happened to modern-day Kadode or B) is not what modern-day Kadode remembers.

• I love the idea of using a 4:3 format to denote this all being a flashback.

• Elementary schoolers using SNS to coordinate their bullying… what a horrible thought.

• Ouran's brother's advice about saving just one person since you can't save the world sure feels prophetic, doesn't it?

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Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.