Review of Dan Da Dan

Dandadan has made me fall in love with anime once again. If you're jaded with formulaic stories - in all genres - the protagonists shouting "aaaarrggghh" and fighting till the end - or some sort of basic misunderstanding between the romance leads that ends up with you screaming at the screen and saying "JUST TALK YOU STUPID WOOLHEADS". Well, we've got all that, and aliens, and ghosts. Yes, it's fantastic. You've got all the classic tropes played out to their maximum limits. And just like the fantastic opening that this show comes with, something will connect with your soul, stirring it up, breaking it apart, and makingyou fall in love with anime again.

Dandadan is just that kind of show. In a way this exemplifies all the great things about modern anime - a fast paced storyline, beautiful animation, amazing soundscapes. This has EVERYTHING. But it's wrapped in something that I feel has been lost to a large number of anime coming out these days - care for the characters' reality.

You see, anime from the last decade have a lot of emotional moments, but they often feel shallow. They are shoehorned, they are performative, as if true emotion can come out of some sort of a formula, like a chemistry set of tropes, added and subtracted, and measured by drips, that hopes to set off certain neural pathways in our mind. This is true especially of what a lot of people consider great anime (not talking about Vinland Saga or Frieren here), because they seem to have discovered an emotional rhythm that can deliver.

But by definition you can't - emotion arises deep within - they arise from the reality of the characters being shown. It's why we have drama in the first place; it's why the ancient greeks had theatre, and it was considered one of the highest forms of art evolved.

Pathos comes from embodiment. It's why you feel the pain of Nami when she cries in her village. It's why you can feel the "Pain" of Nagato in Naruto. It's why Shinji's sadness resonates with you - because truly great anime can create real emotions within their characters that then find recognition with the audience.

And that's what Dandadan does so well. It spends time with the characters - not showing you action after action - but spending time at the conclusion of it all. It spends frames up close and personal with the emotions of the characters. It's going to make you see their feelings. It's explosive, it's bashful, it's carefree, it's happy, it's concerned, and it's going to touch your heartstrings as the pop-art filled visuals flood the screen in beautiful colours, and the soundscapes transport you away into their fantastic world.

At the heart of this story is a Shojo romance. Yes. And it does it better than most shojos.

At the heart of this story is a Shounen battle anime. Yes. And it does better than most. Absolutely mindblowing animation, accented with colours coming straight out of an Andy Warhol print, that really does Science Saru proud.

At the heart of this story is a Horror anime - and holy cow is it scary.

And if you're now thinking what the hell this story is about, the answer is All of the Above.

And I feel Dandadan has done "All of the Above" better than most anime could ever hope to do.

This is truly a modern masterpiece, and I will keep this season in my heart for a long time.