Dandadan – Episode 09 Review

「合体！セルポドーバーデーモンネッシー！」 (Gattai! Serupo Dōbā Dēmon Nesshī!)
“Merge! Serpo Dover Demon Nessie!”

I appreciate how the art staff on this have been giving every episode a theme color. The Acrobatic Silky arc was red, and the Serpoian shrimp Nessie weirdo aliens are green. It definitely lent a more eerie vibe to the whole underwater school setting.

While Okarun’s powered up persona takes on a gloomy attitude that’s a marked contrast to his usual self, Aira’s is the blushing, innocent maiden in the throes of a first love- so pretty consistent with her normal self. She’s got some pretty good kicks on her, though it doesn’t make much of a dent in the enemy. I honestly find Aira and her Silky powered alter ego to be extremely irritating. Enough already with the “Oh my, he saw me in my lingerie, it’s wedding bells for us”.

Just when things look grim for our Aira and Okarun trapped in the Serpoian’s awesome zone, Momo steps in and saves the day. Except she can’t hold it consistently enough, pissed as she is at Aira and Okarun.

The aliens have a very literal way of naming things, like “woman person” and “gig worker” cracks me up. Although, I don’t know that I entirely agree with that translation of the aliens’ speech- they say “Onna no hito” which is one of the Japanese words for woman, though it’s not the term that Japanese people typically use. But, hey, that English does sound more alien like.

When the mantis shrimp has his candle burnt out at both ends, the boss guys pump him up with an energy boost, turning him from a shrimp singing ABBA to a shrimp singing the commercial jingle for a Japanese energy drink. This whole scene takes parodic jab at overworked salarymen fueled by energy drinks and low pay. Every time the poor shrimp messes up, he gets threatened with another pay cut, while the alien bosses sit back on their lazy asses.

In true Dandadan fashion, things keep getting weirder and weirder. I like the element that everything, including the walls was water. Nessie returns, turning the razor sharp lazer breath on the head Serpoieans. Okarun fanboys in adorable fashion over Nessie, Aira following suit, while Momo sees “danger” stamped all over and (wisely) makes a swim for it. Aira and Okarun’s delayed reaction and ensuing panic was hilarious. Equally funny was the fact that despite the powers that come with the spirit, Turbo Granny can’t swim. Necessity is the mother of invention and never more so than when being chased by banana aliens Gattai’d with a mantis shrimp and a Nessie. Momo yet again uses her malleable spirit powers as a propeller, making for an entertainingly bizarre scene of a buck naked Okarun ridden (and steered) by a lingeried Momo, shooting through the air and water. A picture truly is worth a thousand words.

The best part of the episode was when Aira was knocked out by the mantis shrimp and nowhere to be seen. It allowed the oh so good dynamic between Momo and Okarun to have front and center stage with no interruptions. Those two do what they do best- fight like cats and dogs then make up and form a power duo. Okarun never gets the chance to fully explain himself, but his earnest appeal wins Momo over again (I mean, who could say no to that). In the end, they save the day, save Aira, and Okarun gets an experience with close encounters beyond any high school boy’s dreams. I laughed so hard that despite all appearances in the other world, no time at all passed in the real world, landing a naked Okarun and Momo hugging each other smack in the middle of their classmates. They’re going to have a lot of explaining to do there- I wish I could be a fly on the wall for that one. How do you even begin to explain that to a teacher?

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