Dedede: Comin' at Ya! (Hoshi no Dedede in Japanese, meaning Dedede of the Stars) is an animated series sponsored by NightMare Enterprises. The show stars King Dedede As Himself fighting a monster named Kirby that threatens Cappy Town. The first episode, "He's Here! The Plump Visitor!", is Very Loosely Based on a True Story from an incident in Cappy Town where a monster called Octacon attacked. Despite an audience rating of 0.001% after the first episode aired, at least one more episode was produced. Most of the show is currently Lost Media, so an exact episode count is unknown, but twenty more episodes were promised to the producers at NightMare Enterprises.
Well, not really. This series does not exist; it's actually a Show Within a Show from the Kirby: Right Back at Ya! episode 'Cartoon Buffoon'. However, while the series may not be real, the tropes it uses are...
Dedede: Comin' at Ya! provides examples of the following tropes:
- As Himself: Everyone, except the sheep and Kabu, is played by the Cappy Town resident they represent.
- Adaptational Badass:
- Dedede has Power Copying that the real Cappy Town resident does not.
- Zigzagged by Kirby, while he doesn’t have his Power Copying in this show’s version of events, he has been sized up, shows greater physical strength by smashing parts of Castle Dedede with no effort, and can breathe fire without needing to copy it from an outside source.
- Adaptational Heroism: Dedede is hated by most of Cappy Town's residents for purchasing monsters, but here he is the savior of the town.
- Adaptational Villainy: Kirby goes from the hero of Cappy Town to a horrible monster that threatens to destroy it.
- Animation Bump:
- The opening's animation is much more professional than any of the actual episodes, with fans theorizing it's "live-action" footage from various adventures the real life cast had been through.
- The amateur animation changes to a realistic and detailed style in the first episode during Dedede and Escargoon's meeting in the castle, and many fans have speculated that Meta Knight animated that scene.
- While it's just sketches, the shot of Fire Dedede riding the Warp Star has significantly better animation.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The giant monster Kirby attacks Cappy Town.
- Character Shilling: Dedede stops running from Kirby at one point so that he and Escargoon can praise each other.
- Death by Adaptation: The mayor and police chief of Cappy Town, who survived the Octacon incident, are stepped on and crushed by Kirby in this version.
- Demoted to Extra: Meta Knight is only given one line, not even providing exposition on The Hero Dededeman.
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: King Dedede, who voices King Dedede, sings the theme song.
- Gainax Ending: The first episode ends with a bunch of poorly-drawn pictures of Kirby before a Melting-Film Effect on a frame of Dedede's face.
- Large Ham: Dedede's performance is this in its entirety, making many of his lines achieve meme status.
- Limited Animation: Several scenes have the characters stand around with only their mouths and the camera moving.
- Melting-Film Effect: The first episode ends with the film melting on a drawing of Dedede.
- Off-Model: The animation is amateurish and keeps changing the character designs all the time. The last half of the first episode lacks color in many scenes and often uses storyboards instead of actual animations.
- Playing with Fire: Kirby attacks the residents of Cappy Town with fire breath, and Dedede inhales the breath to become Fire Dedede.
- Plot Hole: The first episode shows King Dedede arriving in Cappy Town for the first time in his spaceship, yet everyone immediately addresses him as their king, he and Escargoon have a strong friendship, and Dedede even says that Kirby has been terrorizing them for "too long". It's never explained how Dedede has such a long-standing history with Dream Land when he's lived there for less than a day.
- Stock Footage: Dedede jump roping at the start of the second episode is recycled from a test animation staff member Escargoon made as a proof-of-concept.
- Talking Is a Free Action: At one point, Kirby chases Dedede around the throne room, but stops for a moment so Dedede and Escargon can greet each other and discuss how amazing they are. One of the voice actors can even be heard questioning how they can casually drone on in the middle of combat.
- The Tape Knew You Would Say That: The staff members go off-script to criticize the show in the middle of the episode, which just so happens to sync up with the cartoon characters' lip flaps perfectly.
- Transformation Sequence: After inhaling Kirby's fire, Dedede spins around before being engulfed in a bright yellow light and becoming Fire Dedede.
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: The first episode's plot is based on an incident from Cappy Town with Dedede replacing Kirby's role and Kirby replacing the role of Octacon.
The production of Dedede: Comin' at Ya! provides examples of the following:
- Amateur Cast: Just about everyone in the voice cast hasn't done any roles in voice acting before. Behind the scenes, Meta Knight in particular expressed nervousness over not having done any acting prior to this.
- Christmas Rushed: The animators were so behind schedule that some of the later scenes lacked color and backgrounds and the voice actors had no rehearsal session.
- Creator Backlash: Various cast members found themselves criticizing the final product while it was in the process of airing. Some examples:
- Escargoon complained about the show's Off-Model artwork.
- Tiff and Tuff were upset with the change of the main character from Kirby to Dedede, especially because Kirby was the villain. They were displeased with the quality of the final product on its own merits too.
- Meta Knight complained about his only line, saying that his line would be something he would never say. In Japanese, he instead states that he couldn't make his line sound cool.
- Dedede ends up attacking Escargoon during the recording as a result of learning the script wasn't finished and they had to adlib. In Japanese, he ends up getting angry when Escargoon calls him out for not adlibbing any lines as Fire Dedede leapt onto the Warp Star.
- DVD Commentary: An extremely bizarre example where it happened as the show was airing. Production was so fast-paced that an audio track for the cartoon wasn't recorded ahead of time, so instead, the actors dubbed it live, often interjecting their own thoughts on the finished episode in the process. As you can tell by the rest of the above, they didn't exactly give it a glowing review.
- Executive Meddling: King Dedede hated how the show was supposed to be about Kirby, so the project's storyboards and script were changed last-minute to make him the star instead. According to show staff, this apparently happened the day before the episode aired, and none of the voice actors were aware of what happened before the episode actually aired.
- Throw It In!: Apparently, the cast decided to improvise to make up for the increasingly-Off-Model animation, and it turned out the script wasn't finished for the episode's final scenes.
- Troubled Production: Played for Laughs. The animators for the first episode were running behind schedule and could not finish everything by the release date. After the disastrous production of the first episode, almost the entire show staff left the project, leaving the rest of the show to be finished entirely by Escargoon and some Waddle Dees. Things ended up being so far behind schedule that they had to recycle pencil tests as early as the second episode just to pad out the runtime, with some scenes being drawn and colored as they ran into the film projector, and even then some scenes were completely blank!
- Voices in One Room: The voices were recorded this way, which unfortunately gave the cast members the opportunity to criticize the final product together while it was airing, and in Dedede and Escargoon's case, allowed the former to attack the latter during the recording.
- What Could Have Been: The show was originally supposed to focus on Kirby, but disagreements behind the scenes made Kirby the villain and Dedede the hero instead.
- Who Writes This Crap?!: The voice actors can be heard commenting on how corny the dialogue is and questioning cases where the characters talk at rather inappropriate times. After Meta-Knight announces Fire Dedede, he says he can’t make the line sound cool.
The audience response to Dedede: Comin' at Ya! provides examples of the following:
- So Bad, It's Good: How the citizens of Cappy Town reacted to the second episode.
- So Bad, It's Horrible: After the first episode aired, the real King Dedede was told that the final product was so terrible that the audience rating was 0.001%.
- They Copied It, So It Sucks!: Behind the scenes, Tiff sarcastically claims that Escargoon saying "suck it up!" to Dedede was something original. In Japanese, she instead complained about the show giving her Catchphrase to Escargoon.
- Took the Bad Film Seriously: The show was widely panned. King Dedede, Escargoon, and Kirby are clearly the only ones who wanted to be involved in production.
- Vindicated by History: The first episode was so poorly-received that the audience rating was 0.001%. After the second episode, the audience decided that it was So Bad, It's Good.
