Review of Dan Da Dan

I'm sorry, I'm not as enamored with this show as I feel the general vibes are. It starts out decent but it quickly fizzles out. What did I like about the show? - Science Saru did their part. It's not, like, Devilman Crybaby amazing production, but for a TV anime, it looks good. - There's a fight about 3/4ths in that was really inventive - I initially liked the Okarun/Momo romance - Episode 7. I'll admit that one part was very good.However, the more I thought about the show, the more I realized... I don't really like this show?

First, the characters.

Okarun's fine. If I had to pick a "favorite", it'd be him. Okarun's alternate personality isn't funny though, although I like his design. Seiko (Momo's grandma) isn't good but she doesn't actively annoy me, so that's a plus.

The other 3?

Not so good.

Momo's fine on a conceptual level but (in the sub, can't speak to the English dub), she is SO annoying. It's one of my biggest issues with this series, it seems to think loudness = funny. By, like, episode 4, I was ready to stab out my eardrums because Momo's voice was grating on me.

Aira is probably the best of the three I'm mentioning here but idk, her delulu pure pretty pretty princess wasn't doing it for me. Part of it is that she was a total bitch in her introduction so I don't believe she's this uwu pretty Christian girl. Didn't pass the taste test imo. Even if that's supposed to be the point... okay, well, it didn't work for me, I didn't find her entertaining and her schtick kinda wore off.

Jiji, OH MY GOD, he was the absolute worst. He's only in the last couple episodes but I have no idea what they were going for but what it was giving was "obnoxious jackass". I at least get Momo and Aira but who finds this guy funny? He's okay when he's not doing his routine or when they're not talking about girls but, like, that's SO much of his character this season. There's probably, like, 10 minutes of "good" Jiji.

Speaking of Jiji, how about the comedy?

It's not funny.

I'm not going to be so bitter and jaded and cynical as to say it was never funny, but so much of it bombed, including entire characters. Jiji, the puncher mantis crab dude or whatever, gross. The time Momo had to put on some random impression, Okarun and Jiji poorly and loudly singing love songs, just no.

It's also kind of rapey? There are multiple scenes of groups of men holding down Momo, trying to rape her.

Not to mention the FuNnY scene of Okarun/Momo/Aira being almost nude because of plot and then everyone in class seeing and Aira being like "oh no, my perfect pure image!"

So, yeah.

It's not without its charms but it's an aggressively mediocre series because it has several fundamental issues. It's not even the best shonen anime involving romance from Shueisha in Fall 2024 that you can find on Netflix.