Dandadan – Episode 01 Review

OP Sequence

OP: 「オトノケ」 (Otonoke) by (Creepy Nuts)

「れって恋のはじまりじゃんよ」 (Sorette Koi no Hajimari jan yo)
“That’s How Love Starts, Ya Know!”

To call this a roller coaster ride would be an understatement. And this is hardly even scratching the surface of what’s to come.

We start off with a bang, or rather, a kick. Meet Ayase Momo (Wakayama Shion), a teen with eyes only for Takakura Ken (who, for those who don’t know, was a famous actor, renowned for a brooding disposition) and doesn’t put up with shit, rightly kicking her (ex) boyfriend when he pressures her for services (who she only dated because he reminded her of Takakura Ken ROFL).

While busy mourning for a type of guy who went the way of the dinosaurs (or so she believes), she runs into a loner boy (Hanae Natsuki) being picked on by classmates. Being the girl she is, she can’t let such assholery slide and steps in, but then can’t shake the paranormal obsessed guy off her tail afterwards. These two are oddballs for sure, and total opposites- a girl who doesn’t believe in aliens but believes in ghost and a boy who holds the opposite to be true. If ever a pair…

After fighting like cats and dogs in the hallway, they end up betting each other to find the other’s pet interest or else become their servant. Which brings Momo to a hospital rumored to be an alien hotspot where one can summon a kidnapping and “Occult-kun” to a haunted tunnel. It’s clear they’ve both lost their marbles (if they ever had them in the first place) to go charging into places like that, alone. You wouldn’t get me to go within a mile of those places. Though Occult-kun does show some reasonable fear with his “Too shy, shy boy” (which cracked me up).

This all begs the question- if they’re each so into their niche interests, why haven’t they explored those places themselves? Almost as if the belief is more important than the thing itself. Well, Occult-kun has a valid excuse that he could have had his memories erased. I loved the pure glee in his voice as he tells her about the possibilities of being experimented on and then having one’s memories wiped.

It turns out these are not any ordinary ghosts or aliens they run into- but sex crazed ones who want to your genitalia. Occult-kun is the first to find his (Momo’s) evidence, coming face to face with a literal speed demon aka Turbo Granny who curses him by possessing his “banana”. Momo meets her aliens, but things get way more horrific than expected. Did Occult-kun know of these aliens reproductive obsession or did that part not get into the magazines he reads? And by that extent, did Momo know about the true nature of Turbo Granny’s curse?

The aliens who abducted Momo and are about to assault her are interrupted by Turbo Granny who teleports through the phone to castrate their metallic extraterrestrial bananas. This all turns into a bizarre silver linings scenario. Occult-kun gets cursed, but it somehow turns out for the best when he uses it to rescue Momo. Despite appearances, he is one brave, loyal kid. Maybe just the kind of boy Momo is looking for… That weird chi that Momo’s granny kept on her case about turns out to be real too, saving both kids from the aliens and subduing Occult-kun’s curse.

Lo and behold, we do get our UFO at the end- disguised as the moon, as it turns out. The upside of all the craziness is that they can come to a common understanding now of their quirky interests. Seeing is believing for sure. And to top it all off, Momo gets to meet her dream boy Ken Takakura in the flesh, when Occult-kun’s actual name turns out to be Takakura Ken after uttering the actor’s famous line. What a perfect way to end these 24 minutes of non-stop wildness.

I am impressed with how the team pulled off the utter craziness. This really is a work that you have to go big or go home for and they certainly went outsize on it. I noticed they leaned in heavily on the physical humor- the facial expressions, body language. The art, even down to the OP and ED, was bold- a perfect match for the tone of this series. This is a series that would never work with just a tame, standard adaptation and the team delivers in fine form here.

I will say, there were a lot of gratuitous shots (consistent with the manga). All of those scenes of her in her undergarments? I know, I know, it’s par for the course in ani-manga. However, I appreciate that she’s tough as nails with killer fight moves and not just there as a hood ornament. Though I suppose she exists as a fantasy on the opposite end of the damsel in distress spectrum- the dominating girl who subdues the guy and gives him a reason to tap into his inner strength, the whole “girl as a giant robot” syndrome.

I reveled in how the anime built up the atmosphere- the shadows contrasted with the glowing phone light, the quiet eeriness contrasted with our two goofballs yelling their heads off at each other. The slow build up to the jump scare moment, they cleverly lead you up to it- the lurking shadows in the hospital and the bloody footprints in the tunnel. It creeped me out quite a bit, even when I knew what was coming, as a manga reader.

An interesting undercurrent that is running beneath this is the nature of belief- what is important is sometimes the who more than the what. Believing because of the people who passed it on to you, believing in the hope of finding friends. Beliefs that run back to childhood and the environment one grew up in, whether that be with a spiritual medium granny who makes you do weird rituals or that of a lonely outcast. Of course, none of this is to be taken too seriously- I mean, the team, mangaka are clearly having fun with this outlandish creation and so am I.

ED Sequence

ED: 「TAIDADA」 by (ZUTOMAYO)

Preview