Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction

Episode 6

So, here's where things get dark—and I mean really dark. As in, “Boy, I hope this episode started with a disclaimer” dark.

*Content warning for discussion of child suicide.*

Ever since Maoka Magica, it seems as if each popular genre and/or famous series is fated to get its own psychological or ultra-violent deconstruction: a work where all the tropes within are played completely straight to showcase the disastrous results of such a story happening in the real world. With this arc of Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction, we get this for seminal children's anime Doraemon, whose family-friendly adventures have captivated kids' minds for generations.

While some of the details are different (because of, you know, copyright), the basic setup is the same. We have an elementary schooler gifted with advanced technology by a mascot character sidekick. The last episode focused on the beginning of the story: how the discovery of an alien and his technology improved not only Kadode and Ouran's lives but those of their schoolmates and community as well. However, in this episode, things go downhill quickly.

Given the equivalent of a sonic screwdriver, Kadode officially has the power of life or death in her hands; thus begins her descent into villainy. Kadode sees herself as mentally mature and morally superior to those around her. And, with the mind of a child, she divides everything she sees into good and evil, with evil being classified as anything that hurts her, Ouran, or society. So she starts trying to make the world a better place—with great power comes great responsibility, after all.

But once she accidentally kills a person, she doubles down on proving that she is good by doing away with “evil” rather than helping people in need. She escalates, beating up anyone she catches doing something wrong and torturing them to get the name of someone worse and working up the chain. Soon, she's killing corrupt politicians and causing accidents on anyone who doesn't live up to her moral standards.

It's Ouran who brings everything crashing down. Kadode views her only friend as pure and innocent: the only person who is truly good in this corrupt world. Kadode sees herself as sacrificing for Ouran's happiness, making things better for her (even if it ends with her as the only person left in the world). But, of course, Ouran is just a normal kid. She's done bad things, up to and including doing nothing as Kadode was being bullied. She doesn't want Kadode to kill people in her name—she just wants to do fun things with her friend.

It takes Ouran physically attacking Kadode to send that message home. If Ouran, the embodiment of good, sees Kadode as someone who must be stopped, then that shatters the barrier of justifications that Kadode has used to protect her heart. Suddenly, she has to confront what she has done.

While her family tries to give her the out that she is crazy—that it was all in her head—she knows in her heart that all that has happened was real. She's a murderer, the worst kind of person. And in the face of Ouran's kindness, she can't help but see that while she was lusting after power and justice, all she really wanted was a friend. While Ouran still wants to be her friend even after knowing everything, Kadode can't accept a happy ending after all she's done. Her guilt and sense of justice won't allow it. But as she leaps to her death, she does so remembering the happiest moment of her life: flying with Ouran, wondering if such a thing could ever happen again.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• While it is untranslated (as it's done with on-screen text), the closing moments of the episode end on a joke. Ouran hasn't remembered the flashback we just saw. Instead, she messages Kadode that she just saw a ghost (i.e., the boy on the roof).

• The big difference between the Kadode we see in this flashback and the modern one is that the past one sees herself as her “absolute” while the modern one sees Ouran as her “absolute.”

• “Isobeyan” gives off some real Kyubey vibes, doesn't he?

• Ouran's brother really is her guiding star morally. If Kadode had had a family half as supportive, I doubt things would have turned out as they did.