Review of Dan Da Dan
Color me impressed that something gives me enough enjoyment where I get out of my year-plus long slump of doing a review here on MAL. Dandadan mashes up various elements of the supernatural as our two leads, high schoolers Momo Ayase and Ken “Okarun” Takakura, get caught up in various predicaments involving aliens and spiritual phenomena as the former realizes she has powerful psychic abilities and the latter becomes possessed by and gains the powers of the demon, Turbo Granny, after finding his genitals have been stolen by her as part of a cursed pact between them. I remember Dandadan getting a good deal of hypeback in 2024 and as I’ve often been in the bad habit of doing due to being occupied elsewhere in my anime viewing, I’m late to the party on it. This series relishes in being pretty energetic, creative, and over-the-top with the quirks of its characters, the crazy action scenes, and the variety of paranormal foes that Momo and Okarun have to deal with. It maintains its manic pace throughout its 12-episode run and in spite of how over the top it gets, offers a good deal of storytelling and development with its characters to give the series some substance outside of relishing in its absurdity.
Let’s first focus on the style for the series. Dandadan features Momo, Okarun, and several others they align with dealing with various beings of the occult and supernatural coming in various forms and abilities, having their quirks that lend to creative and engaging animated sequences of action and suspense coming from the encounters. These sequences are pretty diverse depending on the intended tone and energy being expressed from key scenes, with animated highlights that include Momo and Okarun dealing with Turbo Granny and a later encounter with Serponian aliens where our duo has to battle them in an isolated realm immersed in water.
Moving on to the substance for this, Dandadan offers up a good amount of focus and development on its story and characters while retaining its trademark manic energy. Momo and Okarun each undergo their gradual developments as their friendship develops and elements of their characters are explored such as Momo’s strained relationship with her grandmother and Okarun dealing with bullying in school due to his strong interest in aliens. Other characters, both heroic and villainous, also get their moments of development and fleshing out, with the series offering some nuance with some of the encountered villains to suggest they’re not completely irredeemable based on details explored with their origins.
Praises aside, the series does come with a couple issues. Limiting spoilers, the series has a couple instances of attempted sexual assault that some may take offense to, especially with the series making light of it at one point by exaggerating certain elements of how the aggressors plan to force themselves on their unwilling victim. Also, the series chooses to end at an inopportune time during the middle of a story arc that appears to be ongoing into its second season that aired last year. The latter’s a minor issue, but something to note since I had bought the first season of the series on Blu-Ray to check it out and the second season has yet to be physically released here in the United States as far as I’m aware.
Overall, found myself quite entertained with what Dandadan had to offer up with embracing its creativity and absurdity with the various paranormal and occult encounters that Momo, Okarun, and their companions have to contend with and offering some nuanced developments with their characters. At some point, hoping to get around to watching the second season of this manic series.