English Dub Review: Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction “Episode 4”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

As the military continues to shoot down the smaller ships that break off from the mothership, the girls gather at Kiho’s house to help her grieve her lost relationship. When a larger ship is shot down later that night, Kiho is killed, and the friends must try to figure out how to mourn her.

OUR TAKE

Well, that isn’t exactly what I expected when I said I figured things were about to get serious, but now that I think about it, it’s pretty consistent with what the show has been doing so far. Kiho’s death definitely feels sudden, which plays into the tragedy of it all, but the way it’s portrayed feels pretty normal for a bunch of school kids finding out their friend died in a car accident or something like that. Not to put too fine a point on it, but even with all the alien stuff happening in the background, the primary focus is meant to be on Kadode, Ouran, and their friends managing to have normal life experiences while juxtaposed (I hope I’m using that right) against these weird sci-fi things happening in the background. Of course these weird teenagers aren’t going to know exactly what to do when their friend, who they were just helping get over a break up mere hours ago, is suddenly vanished from their lives, especially when exams are right around the corner. Even when a horrible event happens, life continues to go on, and sometimes it won’t wait for you to mourn those you lost, as cruel as that may seem.

Oddly enough though, that’s not the only thing happening in this episode. There’s an odd mini subplot about Ouran’s brother messing with some student with a fake social media account, but I guess getting a conscious and giving her some advice before deleting the account. I don’t mind little tidbits to better flesh out the supporting cast (not that this guy needs more flesh, haha, I can make that joke because I’m also overweight), but this seems almost like something that could’ve been cut out entirely with little lost. The other bit is that the boy band body snatcher (RIP Donald Sutherland) makes contact with Ouran, resulting in her having a flashback about what seems to be her first time meeting Kadode, back when SHE was the weird kid and Ouran was the seemingly normal one, and the first time the two of them saw something alien around them, much to the disbelief of their peers. Based on stuff happening in the OP and ED, Ouran is seemingly going to have some stronger connection to the ways that the aliens are contacting people, but we also know from Episode 0 that Kadode’s dad is out there having his own body used by an alien. So…basically there’s things that are definitely in motion as we continue with the story. Merry Christmas! Maybe we’ll get all the holiday specials in the next few episodes if we’re lucky. I totally see them doing a St. Patrick’s Day episode with the aliens as Leprechauns.