Review of Dan Da Dan

After watching Dandadan, I feel like it's a pretty straitghforward recommendation, and I think the hype it got during its release was justified. I think this show has 2 main strengths that make it a better show than the average : its animation and its story. The animation has an unique vibe, the quality is consistent throughout the whole season, and some episodes have some very well animated scenes that'll highlight the fights and their dynamics. The colors are nice too, and the character designs simply work. Furthermore, the story is fairly original. Now don't get me wrong, it remains a battle shonen andthe structure of this season is rather common, but I feel like Dandadan is more original than other popular shonens such as JJK or KnY for instance. There are still some common tropes here and there ( especially the relationships between the characters ) but the story as a whole is interesting enough and should keep you intrigued for what will happen next.

To qualify a bit, some of the tropes used are hurting the show. The story is going for a wtf/absurd vibe and that's a fine choice, but some jokes will still feel too childish or forced. The same goes for a few scenes/events in the show where the underaged characters will appear naked/in underwear, while the anime isn't going for cringe scenes, it remains questionnable and it's a bit of a shame because it feels like the story was original and good enough to be fan service free, but I guess the author saw it differently.

All in all, this shonen was interesting to watch and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes htis genre. The animation is amazing and is actually reason enough to give it a try, and the story delivers aswell with a pretty original plot that will talk about aliens and monsters. Unfortunately, there are some tiny flaws here and there, the biggest problem being that there are some fan service scenes that don't feel necessary, it's not hurting the show that much, but it would have probably been better without it. Some people are affraid this show is all about hype and will be forgotten in a year or two, but as someone who read parts of the manga, the originality of the story will shine even better in the next seasons and that's why we should be hopeful if they keep producing seasons with the same level of quality used for this first one.