©Ino Asano/Shogakukan/DeDeDeDe Committee
This is another episode where we step away from our core duo to get a better sense of what's going on as a whole. So we focus on three people: Ikeda, Tsutomu, and Futaba.
Ikeda is the soldier we saw struggling with his job in previous episodes. He was one of the first to kill an alien, and also one of the few to acknowledge that aliens seem to have human emotions—and seem to be trying to communicate in their final moments. In this episode, we see him return to his childhood home after leaving the JSDF.
To say Ikeda was struggling would be an understatement. To some extent, he felt the need to defend himself by attacking the view of those who wanted peace as naïve do-nothings. But this was a distraction. The real problem was that he could not admit to himself that what he had done was wrong because the moment he admitted it, he was no longer a soldier but a murderer. Yet deep down, he knew this was true. This was why he did not want others to regard his sins as nothing more than the extermination of insects, and did not want people who did not know what it meant to take a life to make fun of the genocide he was participating in. He was on the verge of a complete breakdown and had no one in his professional or personal life to support him.
On the other side of things is Tsutomu, the alien who reunited with his lover a few episodes ago only to be brutally murdered right in front of him. Despite this, however, he still wants peace and believes that there is some way to communicate with humans. Unfortunately, the Japanese government has decided to completely eliminate the human element and instead send in AI-controlled killing machines. So Tsutomu, surrounded by the bodies of dozens of alien children who admired him, is faced with the question, can you really be a pacifist when your people are suffering a genocide?
Finally, we have Futaba. When she came to Tokyo, it was to test her ideals. Of course, she immediately joined the first group to support them and from then on became a true believer in the cause. However, she now realizes that very few others share her enthusiasm. Most of her friends, including her boyfriend, have left the group—revealing that it was a fad for idealistic young people who wanted to change the world more than anything else. Once the novelty wore off, they were ready to move on.
With their numbers dwindling, the group begins to wonder if protests and flyers are enough—so they begin to change their ideals. The once peaceful organization is becoming radicalized, using violence to express its views. This makes Futaba question her place in the whole thing. Does she need to compromise her beliefs for the greater good? Is violence necessary to demonstrate commitment to one's ideals?
There are no answers in this episode—not for Ikeda, Tsutomu, or Futaba. Everyone is trapped in their own moral quagmire with no way out. In the end, only one group seems truly happy: Kadode, Ouran, and friends. And that’s the episode’s truly pessimistic message: maybe the best way to live is to willfully ignore the world as it burns around you.
Rating:
Random thoughts:
→ This episode is made up almost entirely of new footage never seen in the film version of the story.
© It's interesting to note that the aliens see humans as invaders. That sounds like it's going to make more sense as things go on.
Is there anything more remarkable about Kenichi's character than the fact that he's annoyed that the government is killing so many aliens and ruining his fun? It shows that he cares more about personal revenge than any real ideals.
→ Also, today is Ouran's birthday—and she was not looking forward to that party at all.
Dead Demon's Destruction is now streaming on Crunchyroll.
