Inio Asano’s “Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction” is a coming of age amidst an interplanetary crisis.

Kadode Koyama tried to keep her head grounded on Earth while everyone had their eyes to the sky. Life turned upside down over three years ago when aliens arrived to Tokyo on their gigantic motherships. While the region no longer was in an official state of emergency, many struggle to get back to normal life. Kadode with her best friend Oran “Ontan” Nakagawa continued their studies but instead of focusing on potential colleges, they went through the news threads on what’s going on with the aliens. The girls kept up with their online games and meetups with friends but things felt off since the arrival. The ships may be up in the clouds but the real threat might be already within the city.

“Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction” has many signature elements of an Asano story but unlike one of his multi-volume series like “Goodnight Punpun”, the surreal parts actually have a physically recognized presence. Readers will still find it as a journey of Kadode finding her place in this world even though she probably thinks it won’t last that long. Its first volume packs a lot of information so it may take a couple of rereads to comprehend the full situation. “Destruction” seems to follow a mostly linear narrative in this introductions but sets up to explore certain viewpoints of this sci-fi problem. Like the rest of Asano’s works, it has a “Mature” rating. Volume One is quite tame with some discussion of sexual content and death but readers will have to take caution and discretion when proceeding further with “Destruction”.

Volume Two of “Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction”will hit shelves in July 2018. VIZ Media has online previews available but interested folks will have to create an account and login due to its age restriction. To check it out, stop by VIZ’s series webpage. VIZ Signature also has his stories: “What a Wonderful World!”, “Solarin” and “Goodnight Punpun”. Vertical Comics has “A Girl on the Shore” and Fantagraphics has “Nijigahara Holograph”.