Editor's Sidebar: Where we hear directly from VIZ editors about series they're working on.

What happens when a mass tragedy hits, but nothing really seems to change?

On 8/31 the aliens invaded Tokyo. There was no warning. Alien saucers crashed in multiple areas, causing massive destruction, and the ensuing public panic just added to the damage. Over five thousand people died, and many more went missing. On 9/1, the A-ray bombs dropped. It felt like the world was ending. And it was…boring?

Now three years have passed. The Invaders have become a trending hashtag on social media and the people of Tokyo have gotten used to living with the mother ship always overhead. It floats around the city like some sort of extraterrestrial moving castle, blocking out the sun but not much else. You can get a daily prediction of where it will be with your morning weather report. Even the occasional sortie by the small vessels have become blasé, now that the anti-Invader weapon Hujin Type 6 is up and working. Plus, the sudden surge in weapons development and manufacturing has resurrected the failing Japanese economy. The Invaders have become just another part of city life.

For Kadode and her friends, life remains gratingly predictable, even though they were all touched by 8/31. And despite living in ground zero of an alien apocalypse, the only true threat they seem to face is getting into college. But while Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction is an exploration of all the ways in which life doesn’t change in the face of a slow-burn disaster like the invasion, it also presents the ways a seemingly mundane and boring catastrophe can creep into daily life and upend things when you least expect it.

And as an added bonus, each volume starts and ends with a chapter of Isobeyan, a spoof of the classic gag manga Doraemon. Isobeyan is a Mushroomian from the future who has an endless supply of interesting gadgets that he deploys to help Debeko, his slacker human friend, find happiness. Isobeyan is Kadode’s favorite manga, and it gives her hope as she faces the dual existential crises of aliens and adulthood.