Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction

Episode 17

Welp, if you were wondering when episode 0 takes place, now you know the answer: just before this, the final episode. Picking up right where that episode left off, Makoto, Futaba, and Nobuo begin their trek to the parallel universe transfer machine that Ouran used (in another timeline) to send her memories into this world. This quest allows us to tie up all the loose ends of the story while also giving us something more akin to a happy ending.

In the ruined world, we see that, presumably, Kadode and Ouran used their video game skills to become mecha pilots. While the sudden shift from normal girls to Gundam protagonists seems a bit odd at first, it actually makes quite a bit of sense for their characters. We know that, deep down, Kadode wants to fight for justice, to help the helpless and downtrodden. And who is more downtrodden than the people in this world? Moreover, it grants her the ability to fulfill her childhood dream of flying through the skies. As for Ouran, she gets to be with Kadode and blow things up. I do not doubt that both were happy until their last moments.

Meanwhile, Kenichi finally gets his just deserts as his delusions of grandeur meet with an orbital green death laser. It's just too bad that Hikari dies along with him, meaning the AI robots will forever continue their genocide against mankind. But then again, when have the assholes in the government ever cared about anyone other than themselves? So in a story beat that seems painfully real, it's the rich and powerful who end up on top in the end.

As for Nobuo, he is a man without a reason to live in this world. His family is dead, and everything he knows and loves is gone. He's being given a chance to save his daughter—even if it's in another world—and so he takes it. While both Makoto and Futaba could have used the machine, neither did. Unlike Nobuo, they both still have things that matter to them in this world—people to love and causes to fight for.

The second half of the episode is all about introducing us to this new timeline. Rather than the pair coming together naturally or Ouran saving Kadode from bullies, Nobuo is able to convince Kadode to approach Ouran first. This results in a mixture of the two previous versions of the characters. Kadode is headstrong (though not to a dangerous degree) and Ouran is still shy but has enough self-confidence to live her own life.

Somehow, their early friendship manages to avoid both Kadode's murder spree and the alien invasion, and we see brief snippets of how the two grow up together. These scenes are filled with interesting little beats like them still befriending Kiho in high school but not encountering Rin and Ai until college (as without the alien attack, Ai and Rin had no reason to move schools). In the end, Ouran gets a job with S.E.S., working on their new AI-controlled robot buddies, and Kadode becomes a manga editor like her father.

This brings us to the core joke of the series—where Inio Asano plainly lays his cards on the table when it comes to the origin of this series. Kadode pitches an adult-aimed version of Zundacchi (this world's Isobayan) and is rejected because “sci-fi” doesn't sell. Then, after Ouran's press conference, she struggles to come up with a better name for Ouran's cute “Fujin” robots, who are supposed to befriend lonely people. Her brainstorming basically involves combining their names/nicknames in various ways, including one way that looks mighty familiar. By mixing “Demon” and “Ouran,” she comes up with “Doraemonn.” In other words, you've been watching has been a prequel to Doraemon this whole time.

Meta jokes aside, this ending does feel like a bit of a letdown. After all, these aren't our Kadode and Ouran. While their souls may be the same, they are not the girls we spent the past 16 episodes with. However, it at least wraps up on a hopeful note with the idea that no matter the timeline, as long as both exist, Kadode and Ouran are destined to be together. This one thing is truly “absolute.”

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• I think Oba lied to Nobuo about Kadode and Ouran being dead in the main timeline to make him save the new timeline. This would explain the final scene of the series. After all, Futaba says they've been working on improving the parallel world tech and then we get, what seems to be our Kadode and Ouran dropping off an Isobayan manga for their other world selves to read. Maybe I'm just fooling myself, but I like to believe our seasoned mecha pilots/sliders are still having fun in the ruined world.

• You know, I don't think I ever mentioned how much I love that the opening theme song was penned by the manga's original author, is written from the POV of Kadode and Ouran, and is sung by their voice actresses.

• Without going into spoilers, let me just say that the movie version not only ends before this episode (and episode 0) takes place, but it also contains an extra scene taking place shortly after the “end of the world.”

• Thanks for joining me on this wild ride, especially with all the rockiness with the subtitles of the early episodes. Now that everything's been fixed, be sure to recommend this show to everyone you know. The fact that it's flown largely under the radar in the West hurts me deep in my soul.

---

Dead Dead Demon's Dededededestruction is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.