Review of Dan Da Dan

I really liked this. I was all set to give it an A- grade. Then came the finale, and it fell flat on its face. It was such a trainwreck I'll be knocking the grade back. Overall though, this series is well put together if a bit frenetic. The artwork ran appropriate gamuts from bright and cheery to dismal and creepy. Very good background work. I found the animation was above average, with a nice, mostly undetectable, blend of cel and CGI. I especially liked the character designs. Momo is the bomb. Okarun is a dweeb, but at least he tries hard. The secondary characters arenot just cardboard cutouts. The villians are well thought out and creepy as hell.

The narrative felt a little underdeveloped. Mostly episodic, with some short arcs lending a wisp of overarcing plot. But certainly nothing deep, unless you like dick jokes. I get the feeling the producers spent the whole first season introducing characters, and doing set ups, for what hopefully will be a 2nd season one might be able to sink their teeth into deeply. But let's address the elephant in the room. That ending was simply a trainwreck. It left me grinding my teeth. It was some seriously lazy writing to have not found a smoother way to end this season, and be able to segue into season 2.

I have been impressed with the VAs across the board. Protags and antags are done with a nice touch. The direction does a nice job of leading them through drama, action, silliness, and comedy. The director does a nice job with the soundtrack, too, although I found the OP grating, especially as the season went on.

This started out in the 90th percentile for me, and I'd probably have graded this about 92/100 for an A-, at least until the final episode. But that was so badly done, I have to ding this hard. Drop the grade to 86/100 for a flat B. Still, looking forward to a much better 2nd season.