It is the kind of news that would send any normal human running for the hills, but Kadode and Ouran (voiced by J-pop starlets Lilas Ikuta and Ano, respectively) have more pressing matters.
High school is officially over, and they are now free to start university as strong, independent young adults. Disturbingly, that means that Kadode wastes no time in shacking up with her former teacher, Watarase, for a heated and relatively short-lived relationship.
Ouran gets together with Obu (Miyu Irino), a strange young man who resembles a boy- band idol who went missing on August 31 three years earlier – the day the aliens arrived.
He reveals he is actually an invader and, as romance blossoms between them, unveils to Ouran a number of shocking truths about her past, and the tempestuous events she and Kadode experienced in their childhood.
Condensing Inio Asano’s decade-long manga series into four hours of screen time was never going to be easy, so it comes as no surprise that the producers have been working simultaneously on a longer-format animated series.
The sheer scope and ambition of the narrative demands more time and attention, as military plots, alien infighting and vigilante clashes on both sides vie for attention with the adolescent escapades of a group of young women.
Inevitably, this second film stumbles somewhat in its efforts to fully realise the potential of what was proposed by its predecessor.
The introduction of alternate timelines, and characters who shift between them, feels like a layer of narrative convolution too far in an already dense story.
Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction is at its best when contemplating how ordinary citizens carry on with life in the face of conflict, prejudice and existential threat – things that have become an all-too-common backdrop to our daily trivialities.
Is it our responsibility to become actively involved, or do we try our best to keep calm and carry on? That these kinds of questions are being raised at all in a medium aimed at younger people is cause for celebration, even if what follows produces more chaos than clarity.
