Review of Dan Da Dan
Dandadan was... okay. My main problem with it is that it was clearly supposed to be an anime that would break from the "established" rules of the genres it is set in, shounen, mystery, fantasy, romance, and comedy, but in my opinion it failed in doing so, and very obviously. Instead of the traditional shy, black-haired, and collected main heroine, we got a more "gyaru" one who is more extroverted, more open about her feelings, and usually the one to take action. Instead of the average Japanese guy who catches the attention of a bunch of girls, we got a nerdy, shy, weary, and passive guy.And instead of the typical old wise man who guides the heroes through the trials, we got an older lady who is lazy and does not care that much about helping the main characters. Now, obviously I have nothing against this format. I am just pointing this out to show that there is clearly an intent to break from the traditional shounen/romance format.
The show follows a simple format. We get short arcs where the characters end up in a fight with an alien or a spirit that is supposed to make the characters grow in some way. This format is not particularly new, there are a lot of anime out there that have done very similar things. In Dandadan, however, I found the creatures to be very uninteresting. Their designs are cool, and some of them are even inspired by real-life sightings or urban legends. However, despite the conflict shown visually through the fighting scenes, most of the time it is not clear what the spirit or alien in particular is trying to teach the characters (directly or indirectly), and it is hard to tell what exactly changed in each character by the end of every arc, if anything changed at all.
The exception here is the arc that takes place in episodes 5–7. I am not going to spoil it, but this arc is the only reason I would recommend Dandadan to someone. It is surprisingly well-written, emotional, deep, and sad. The creature that drives this arc is very interesting and brings a more serious and profound perspective to the show. After the arc is done, though, everything good I said about it is thrown out the window. The characters do not seem to learn anything from it, and it is basically never mentioned again. What is even more infuriating is that this whole amazing arc basically just serves to give a certain character powers, and that is it.
The comedy was not funny to me. Most of the time it is just the characters talking about penis or balls, though I have to admit that is probably because I am not a teenager, which is the target audience of this anime.
As for the fan service, my problem with it is not exactly the fan service itself, but the same thing I mentioned at the beginning of this review. Dandadan is clearly trying to break from the established rules of the average romance anime, but the fan service is basically the same as any other school romance out there. The female characters often appear in suggestive positions, especially Seiko, and they also end up only in their underwear's several times. Again, I do not have a problem with fan service, i just dislike that in this case they are trying to pretend this is "different," or that it is not fan service at all, it is.
Overall, I get why some people would love this anime. And although my review was mostly criticizing it, I mean no disrespect to the fandom. These were just the thoughts going through my head while watching it. I think the arc from episodes 5–7 is the main reason you should watch it, but the rest of the show was pretty boring to me, despite the unique and original ideas in it.