English Dub Review: Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction 13

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Keita and Makoto notice Ouran acting strangely and follow her one night, where Keita reveals to Makoto that Ouran is actually from an alternate timeline.

OUR TAKE

Okay, here’s where things are taking a turn for the pretty strange, and potentially not in a fun way. We finally have a reveal for why those flashback episodes were so at odds with the present that we’ve seen: they didn’t happen in this timeline. Ouran witnessed her Kadode kill herself and was given the chance by the Invader they met to go to a different universe…or go back in time…or SOMETHING in order to change the pathway of events. In the current timeline, instead of Kadode being the weird and alienated one, Ouran decides to make herself into the weird one to force Kadode to act more normal. This manages to throw off things like them running into Isobeyan and avoiding dealing with his weird devices that led Kadode on her vigilante justice which would end in her death. But like all Faustian bargains, there was a catch: In the first timeline, Isobeyan tells Ouran that his people will likely not choose to arrive on Earth. But clearly those plans have changed, likely because of Ouran’s decision to change things. Maybe not even just indirectly, but perhaps because her actions attracted them here. Also kinda throws out my theory that the Invaders are actually humans from the future, so maybe they’re just a very similar looking species? I guess we’ll know for sure in a few weeks when the show’s over.

As for this twist reveal, having characters who made secret sacrifices for others isn’t exactly a new thing. In just the medium of anime, my first thought for comparison goes to Madoka Magica, where the climax of the series revealed that the seemingly aloof and secretive Homura had actually gone back in time repeatedly to save Madoka, whom she was friends with in the original timeline. Thankfully it looks like Ouran hasn’t need to do that and doesn’t feel the need to thanks to Keita’s encouragement, though they’ll still have to deal with the consequences in five days when “The End of Humanity” arrives”. But honestly, the weirdest thing about all of this…is that it was basically an exposition dump by KEITA to MAKOTO, the latter of whom is the least involved with any of this. Ouran herself is just not a part of the discussion, even though it’s ABOUT HER. So her finding resolve to not change things again feels a bit hollow when all of that decision making happened when we weren’t looking. And frankly, her relationship with Keita still feels kinda weak, even if I kinda get it a bit more now. Oh yeah, and there’s some more build up about whatever’s going on with the Futaba and that weird gun she got, but it’s kinda minor this time. But either way, we’re inching closer to the end, so we’ll see how tensions continue to build next week.