In any other show, let alone anime, DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION Ep. 16 would be the end. It’s certainly the end of Tokyo and a good chunk of the cast, that’s for certain. However, we already know from Ep. 0 that there’s still more to the story after the end, so we can expect more to come. But for now though, it’s simply the end.

DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION Ep. 16: Details

DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION NA key art.
Everyone here is only very briefly smiling, and that’s before the actual end.

DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION Ep. 16 is the 17th episode (you can read my reviews of Ep. 0, Ep. 1, Ep. 2, Ep. 3, Ep. 4, Ep. 5, Ep. 6, Ep. 7, Ep. 8, Ep. 9, Ep. 10, Ep. 11, Ep. 12, Ep. 13, Ep. 14, and Ep. 15 here) of this science fiction slice-of-life anime series. Said anime is the anime adaptation of the manga of the same name by Inio Asano (Solanin, Goodnight Punpun). Said anime also originally premiered as a pair of anime films on March 22, 2024, and May 24, 2024. Production +h. (The Orbital Children) is the animation studio behind this anime. Crunchyroll is the company licensing this anime for its worldwide debut.

Production Cast

Kazumi Terada is the director and storyboarder behind DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION Ep. 16, with Reiko Yoshida as the writer. For the DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION anime as a whole, we do still know that Tomoyuki Kurokawa (PSYCHO-PASS) is the director. Reiko Yoshida (Violet Evergarden) is the writer. Takaaki Suzuki (Violet Evergarden series) did the world setting. Nobutake Ito (INU-OH) is the chief animation director and character designer. Satoshi Takezawa (Digimon Adventure) is the color designer. Mika Nishimura (Typhoon Noruda) is the art director. Satoi Inami is the CG director. Takuma Morooka (Moriarty the Patriot) is the cinematographer. Masayuki Kurosawa (Laid-Back Camp) is the editor. Takeshi Takadera ([Oshi no Ko]) is the sound director. Taro Umebayashi (Space Dandy) is the composer responsible for the music.

Voice Cast

DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION Ep. 16 features the voices of Lilas Ikuta (Elyse Maloway in English dub) as Kadode Koyama and (Britt McKillip in English dub) as Oran “Ontan” Nakagawa.

Other notable voices in this episode include Miyuri Shimabukuro (Meaghan Hommy in English dub) as Ai Demoto, Saeko Oki (Kazumi Evans in English dub) as Rin Hirama, Azumi Waki (Chelsea Miller in English dub) as Futaba Takemoto, Ryoko Shiraishi (Travis Turner in English dub) as Makoto Tainuma, Koki Uchiyama (Graham Hamilton in English dub) as Kenichi Kohiruimaki, Saori Ōnishi (Kazumi Evans in English dub) as Hikari Sumaru, Miyu Irino (Cole Howard in English dub) as Keita Ōba, and Masafumi Kobatake (Hiro Kanagawa in English dub) as Ogino.

When and Where to Watch

DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION Ep. 16 made its airing and streaming (aka. simulcast) debut on September 12, 2024. You can watch this episode of the anime only on Crunchyroll. In fact, you can watch this anime series as a whole only on Crunchyroll as well, due to it being an exclusive there.

DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION Ep. 16: Synopsis

He’s still the best big brother in the show.

Alas, DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION is an ongoing anime series. In fact, DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION Ep. 16 only made its debut a week ago as of this writing. Thus, you will all get the official synopsis of this episode from Crunchyroll in place of a spoiler-filled plot summary. You can read that synopsis below:

The world is on the brink of destruction. Kadode, Oran, and their friends head back to Tokyo. Meanwhile, Oba tries to use the password to shut down the reactor of the mothership before it explodes.

DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION Ep. 16: The Good

DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION Ep. 16 screenshot showing Keita hovering in midair over the mothership.
This kid is definitely the closest there is to a Big Good in the show.

Well, it’s not good for the cast of the anime, but what happens in DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION Ep. 16 results in the best episode of this entire amazing anime. There is just so much happening in the final 15 minutes of Tokyo’s existence. It basically marks the end of the slice of life fun, and goes full dramatic action-thriller in this episode. I’m not kidding. We have gunfights and suicide bombings on the surface of the mothership itself, and then the moment Tokyo itself meets its end along with a large chunk of the very likeable cast. All in all, Inio Asano shows that he’s fully capable of writing devastatingly heartwrenching stories in addition to slice of life fun. Truly, this is the darkest of dark chocolate anime series. All set to some cheery background music and even a surprise moment of yuri to boot.

Which reminds me: there is yuri in this episode. I take back all that I said about the lack of yuri in spite of the buildup. There. Is. Yuri. I won’t spoil it any further. You just have to trust me on the LGBQT+ nature of this episode.

Of course, that story would be nearly as great without the efforts of Production +h.: the studio behind the anime. It’s pretty clear that they poured their hearts and souls into this kinda-sorta finale episode, with magnificently crafted animation for every part of it. In particular: Tokyo’s destruction calls into mind the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Truly, this is feature-length anime film levels of animation, which is quite appropriate since the studio worked on the anime film duology this anime is based off of.

DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION Ep. 16: The Bad

DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION Ep. 16 screenshot showing Keita hovering over the ruins of Tokyo as helicopters approach.
And welp, you can see what happened to him in the end.

Honestly, if you enjoy the slice of life aspects of this anime, then DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION Ep. 16 may be just a bit too intense for you. To be honest, I need a cooldown after all that as well. With that in mind, may I suggest Spice and Wolf: MERCHANT MEETS THE WISE WOLF, Senpai is an Otokonoko, or My Deer Friend Nokotan? Those anime are indeed fluffy enough to help calm down after the intensity of this DDDD episode.