Anime Sunday

I was looking forward to this all week, and it 1,000% did not disappoint.

I saw DanDaDan at my local AMC theater with my wife who knew very little going in, and she too was impressed and is looking forward to watching the show this October.

I was a bit bummed that there were no DanDaDan “goodies” as part of the experience. There were a couple things handed out during the Spy X Family movie premiere so I was optimistic. No luck this time around, but not the end of the world!

We had great seats in the theater, surrounded by fellow DanDaDan enthusiasts that made the experience shared, and special, with a feeling of high anticipation palpably charging the air. I could hear different side conversations about DanDaDan, and I could tell, this group, including myself, were ready for a treat!

After some previews, including anime movie “LOOK BACK” based on “Chainsaw Man” creator Tatsuki Fujimoto’s manga one shot (which I am 100% watching in October), the reason we were there illuminated the silver screen. Everyone immediately shut up and were drawn into the screen like moths…

Then we kicked off with an interview, which I forgot would serve as a kind of preamble before DanDaDan started the first episode. The interview with the director, voice actors, and the creator Yukinobu Tatsu (whose face was obscured and shadowed for privacy but also helped set the mood) was very insightful. Hearing the motivations of the voice actors, the director’s artistic decisions, how the creator Tatsu crafted DanDaDan with his editor after experiencing numerous challenges and cancelled serializations leading up to his masterpiece, was compelling and helped “set the table” while whetting our appetite that much more… of particular note was Tatsu being given 100 romance manga by his editor as a kind of homework and he used the experience to develop, what is at the core of it, DanDaDan’s romantic comedy. The voice actors just seemed fun, like good folks to shoot the shit with and seemed perfect for Momo and Okarun.

Then we kicked off with the OP after saying good-bye to the interview.

The OP uses the song “Otonoke” by Creepy Nuts.

The OP… is an absolute certified club banger, and it LITERALLY pains me that I am too incompetent and lacking in the technical knowledge of music theory to articulate what is happening throughout the song to elicit the feelings it does, but also why it is so genius. It pains me that I have to wait another month until I can see the OP in a clean, 4k, official capacity. The song isn’t out on iTunes yet either! I am addicted after a first viewing…

I will now awkwardly flounder through this with brute force anyway 😀

The OP starts with a rapid repeating of the phrase “DanDaDan” to set up the baseline beat as HYPER skillfully drawn, possibly CG enhanced faces of the show’s characters flash by while forming exaggerated expressions. The shading is 11/10, and vibrant, neon, bright colors frame the characters and other flashing effects provide flavor and style. It gets your heart going. The song transitions after a brief pause into an upbeat, high tempo rap. The imagery is cosmic, with aliens, and it just… IS SICK and pairs to the music so well. Even the lyrics, flow and delivery, and intonations of the singer feel “alien”. Genius.

The visuals play with motion and stills, changing the fluidity in tandem with the music. Brightly colored, stylistic silhouettes will be stationary, and then explode into movement, then slow down to a stop again. Momo Ayase throwing kicks, the camera zooming in on Turbo Granny from afar. It is reminiscent of Cowboy Bebop’s OP, competently playing with silhouettes and rapid transitions between stillness, to motion, and back to freeze framing when the character looks awesome and is in peak motion. This ends with Okarun being possessed by Turbo Granny and transforming into a feral monstrosity before there is a quick cut.

This is where the song does something I love, we switch from the rap sung in a lower register, and rapid tempo, to a quarter note baseline? We slow down to an energetic yet introspective beat with time to think and process the less frenetic imagery. The singing transitions into a higher pitched falsetto, set to imagery of stairs winding up a tall forested mountain. Next, as the falsetto continues, we see a dirt road extending into the horizon with rice paddies and reflections of water on either side of the road. The scene is gloomy, with gray stormy clouds gathering above, and lightning flashing in the distance. It is surreal, with something feeling “off” even though it presents itself as mundane imagery of a tranquil country side outside of the busy city. However, there is the faint impression of an unnatural spherical shapes obscured by the clouds, on the verge of breaching. If I had to put it into words “the calm before the storm”.

Momo’s hands reach into the sky and she makes an elegant, subtle twisting motion, as the camera fluidly pans over an abandoned shrine and a dark tunnel before the song picks up again to a higher tempo. Like the show itself, which can smoothly, and effortlessly shift between tones, romantic comedy, to action, to spooky paranormal situations, the song can do the same. The opposite of being “one note”.

The song has so much depth, a dynamic range, and command of both the frenetic panicked surreal elements, and beautiful subdued dissonant aspects in equal measure, creating a balanced and harmonious OP with imagery intertwined with the song. Truly, the themes and energy of DanDaDan made manifest. It is already one of my favorite anime OP I have ever seen. I will NOT be skipping this OP when the show comes out. It is “special”, dare I say inimitable. (no recency bias here!)

The rest of the song is getting different emphatic shots of characters, and some masterful choreography with aliens doing a boogie and slide to the music before giving the viewer some sinister and hypnotic “is your body warm yet?” aliens taking over your mind vibes… Our main cast of characters are seen getting down in the next shot, with Momo doing a shoulder shimmy and jumping at the camera as the boys serve as backup dancers. It just looked so cool!

I am obsessed with this OP, and while I was watching it for the first time I was smiling ear to ear, knowing this quality, and style, and art direction, was a prelude of the things to come.

The episodes themselves were so well edited for the theatrical release it was difficult to tell where one episode ended and the next began.

It has some of the most fluid animation I have ever seen in a show, it is movie quality, heck it was so smooth I enjoyed just watching the characters running LOL. The rom-com scenes gave me that warm “twitterpation” of the heart, very endearing and sweet, and felt genuine for a young, awkward, innocent romance. There is a lot of chemistry between the voice actors, and how Momo and Okarun get along, giving each other crap, playful and teasing, but with tinges of vulnerability, opening up about their lives, and their insecurities(the foundation of ANY budding relationship!). I love watching those two interact and evolve even this early on in the show. Especially when they fight, and bicker, it usually ends in laughs and both are so well written and characterized with distinct and strong personalities, constantly feeding off each other during jokes and dialogue. Extra special is how it reminds me so much of my wife and me, our antics and silliness, the play fighting, teasing, “opposites attract” vibes.

The comedy hits well nearly every time, and in several instances the whole theater erupted in laughter. One scene that killed me was Okarun entering the temple/home of Momo which had just burned him because of a seal warding off evil, and Momo yells “SAFE!” like a baseball umpire as Okarun gingerly tip toes into the area terrified of being burned alive. The way the grandma laughs too, it just hits LOL, I applaud the voice actress’s perfectly annoying chuckle. Everyone racing with Okarun to the bathroom, and not letting him take a crap was just as good and outlandish as I remembered from the manga.

Again, the subtlety of the comedy is demonstrated when the grandma says Okarun’s real name Ken Takakura and Momo who is sprinting along with them immediately falls away out of the shot presumably writhing on the ground with romantic pings of cognitive dissonance and denial (Ken Takakura is the same name of Momo’s celebrity crush. Her existing adoration of the celebrity, coupled with Okarun sharing not only the same name but some personality qualities and quirks with celebrity Takakura, makes Momo’s heart skip a beat and sends her into fits of “squee-ing” and rolling around on the ground). It is a fraction of a second, not at that forefront of the shot, but I just caught it and it was PERFECT.

It exemplifies how the show focuses on continuity across scenes and episodes/chapters with nothing being a “throw away” or filler scene/dialogue. What happens MATTERS to these characters, and impacts their lives and how they think and feel about the world. This gives the characters a lot of agency, allowing their unique weirdnesses to shine not only with the viewer but each other. It also instills in the viewer a sense that these characters are individuals who exist off screen, have a place to go, stuff to do, and remember the things that happen in the show. The characters will call back to events or react in an organic way, which elevates the meaningfulness, comedic value, or the drama, stakes, and emotions of a scene.

The show is an ever building culmination of experiences, and though outlandish, not without purpose. Nothing is random. Watching how the social dynamics change and shift is a primary draw with all the characters being active participants in the story pushing their personal agendas along.

My favorite scene was when Momo explored the abandoned dilapidating hospital and Okarun investigated the dark tunnel which has been blocked off. Momo is searching for aliens (which she does not believe exist) in an alleged UFO hot spot, and Okarun is searching for spirits (which he does not believe exist) in an alleged haunting ground, as part of a competitive game of “dare” where the loser becomes a gofer (errand person ?) for the winner, and this youthful shenanigans sets up the rest of the story.

The ambiance of the scene, with both characters investigating their respective locale, Momo using her phone’s light and Okarun using a flashlight, is a delight for the senses. Shadows bounce around the area while the characters talk to each other over the phone, their personalities starting to click. It is classically spooky in a fun “haunted house with friends, boy/girl you like, and using it as an excuse to bond” way. The image of the bright yellow full moon framed against the night sky, it made my brain and soul happy. The vibe is going to be perfect for the cold, spooky months of October onward, with elements of supernatural, thriller, and spookiness, but tempered by hi-jinks, warmth, and laughter.

I was curious how the alien probe/sexual assault scene perpetrated by the aliens on Momo would go over with the crowd, and more importantly myself. It is decidedly very “anime”, with some genuinely funny lines as the aliens claim to be nice after attacking Momo and destroying her things. The banter goes back and forth but the comedy is juxtaposed by grim, dark subject matter. That is to say aliens about to probe Momo by taking her womb and “banana” as the aliens reveal huge mechanical “bananas” with a sharp pointed spear at the end which they are going to use to “make the sex”.

Like the manga they toe the line in being so over the top and surreal with comedic relief, it never becomes too traumatic, but they are rubbing shoulders with themes of sexual assault and exploitation which is unavoidable during the alien probe scene.

The stakes are serious enough that you can’t help but feel disturbed, and uncomfortable. Ultimately, this will be polarizing. DanDaDan is dark, no two ways about it, but I was compelled and ultimately appreciate the dark undertones, how they are handled, and how it is leveraged to drive the narrative, and character development. That was true in Berserk as well, which is a different monstrosity altogether, but I am happy to meet the creator, the character, and the story where it stands. It hit the mark in being surreal and comical with how absurd the situation is, while not being dismissive or fetishizing.

The anime was even more effective at having the aliens serve as a spiritual parallel for the dirt bag boyfriend at the beginning of the episode, trying to exploit Momo and pressure her for money and sex. She tries kicking the boyfriend but he blocks and hits Momo back and breaks up with her (good riddance), but this time with the aliens, Momo awakens her latent psychic powers and absolutely “handles” them, and rescues Okarun too. This scene ends on a feeling of empowerment, catharsis, and closure. The aliens also get their Banana organs ripped off in what can only be described as karma.

It was refreshing to have a bunch of strong female leads that are assertive, funny, with indomitable spirits, and embracing their own individual quirky weirdness, vulnerabilities, and brand of both femininity and masculinity. No one is fitting in the boxes, and it is all the better for it, with complex, nuanced characterization. The women of DanDaDan are not a husk of a plot device to serve a male protagonist’s story line. There is reciprocity, sometimes the lads step up and save the gals, have their heroic moment, but more often than not, the gals are saving the lads. They all cherish each other’s strengths, while rounding out the rough edges, and look after one another. It’s heartwarming!

The spirit of the manga has been adapted excellently so far, and I can’t wait to watch more of this adaptation, and meet the rest of the crew!

We are in for a treat, and I reckon this will end up in the S-tier favorites for many people. And I say HERE HERE! Well earned! I hope this brings even more love and popularity to DanDaDan which I discovered less than a month ago, and it has taken me by a storm.

Welp! Until next time!