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EP. REVIEW: DAN DA DAN

Wow I've enjoyed the series up to now but that cliffhanger left a bad taste in my mouth. I gave the first attempted rape scene a pass because it was so fantastical, but this one both felt more real and cutting it like that was just plain gross. So we have to spend like six months wondering if Momo is going to be raped??? Apparently in the manga it's resolved almost immediately as well, so that makes me lose a lot of trust in the people adapting this show.

I'll be back for the second season, but that definitely cooled my enthusiasm.

Wow I've enjoyed the series up to now but that cliffhanger left a bad taste in my mouth. I gave the first attempted rape scene a pass because it was so fantastical, but this one both felt more real and cutting it like that was just plain gross. So we have to spend like six months wondering if Momo is going to be raped??? Apparently in the manga it's resolved almost immediately as well, so that makes me lose a lot of trust in the people adapting this show.

I'll be back for the second season, but that definitely cooled my enthusiasm.

I don't think it's bad that it felt real or dangerous; and, while there were 100%, absolutely fan-service shots and angles in the episode 1 scene, there weren't any here (though the scene's only really just begun, of course), which was a welcome change.

But, I think what rubs me the wrong way about this one is specifically that it is being used as a cliffhanger, which feels like a superficial reason to throw another sexual assault at Momo (or any of the cast). The Episode 1 instance had some nice re-contextualization later that helped -- learning about Turbo Baba's concern for sexually abused and murdered women really tied together nicely her behavior in the spaceship, as someone pointed out earlier, and that narrative tie-in really strengthened the use of it in a way that made it feel more meaningful, for me.

I guess it's possible we'll get something like that here, 7+ months from now, which may ease my apprehension about it, but it'll be hard to get over the feeling that sexual assault is starting to feel like it is being used pretty frivolously. Which is a bit frustrating, because literally everything else about Dan da Dan is pretty much perfect. Distantly reminds me of the weird, unexpected sexualization of kids in Made in Abyss, another show that felt almost-perfect-except-for-this-one-thing-that-oh-god-now-I-have-to-mention-every-time-I-want-to-recommend-it-to-someone.

I don't mind fanservice pandering. I like the assault scenes myself. But it makes me wonder where cour 2 will end off. There's a number of places I could see them doing a similar thing if they're fine with cliffhanger endings.

I honestly never realized until I watched the anime how much sexual assault situations happen in this series or how often Momo ends up without clothes on for one reason or another.

I binged the whole series this week and I haven't been a part of the discussion around SA or fanservice, so I hope I'm not repeating anything already said. I also couldn't wait to see the end of the cliffhanger, so I read a bit further, past the spoiler[mirror youkai] bit.

So, for one, Dandadan is a shounen... right? It feels like one. But also, I'm actually impressed with the fact that it treats Momo like a central cast member, if not the star. Shounen not made by women have bad track records with putting female characters truly in the spotlight, even when they are major characters.

On the flip side, I'm not "bothered" by fan service and fictional depictions of SA, and I am generally fine and sometimes indulgant when a series markets itself as a fanservice series, going in with expectations and appropriate age ratings. But something about its use in Dandadan feels... off? Like, is the series trying to take SA seriously? Or is it just being used for shock value + excuses to draw the guys and girls in their underwear? I can see the Turbo Granny situation as looooose commentary, but a lot of the rest of it just feels exploitative. It's a shame because I do like the anime so far, and its female characters are otherwise fun and relatable. It just feels like too much of the show's sexuality exists on a surface level of fan service, despite the show seeming more than capable of deeper, more critical engagement with the topic.

On the cliffhanger, I read ahead. I still don't get the point of the scene with the men attacking Momo in the bath as anything other than spoiler[these men are unsettling and thus do unsettling things, like target a teenage girl when she's naked.] Like, sure, I know why they attacked Momo now. But that could have been done in so many other ways. The scene seems overtly set up to insinuate SA for the sake of exploiting Momo. I don't like it.

I'm mean someone who dropped GS anime because it does exactly thing people hate about SA being in stories, being excuse to indulgent in the author's rape fantasies with flimsy excuse.

DDD use of SA on the otherhand is extremely rare and use no more as plot and theme device.

I get that SA uncomfortable even with context, but that's why and how its done matters more becasue it still valid narrative tool use. Plus Momo is only comparmized for like barely a minute nor is framed in a sexual manner, just a matter of fact of kind of people who our trio is dealing with... But as I said before, as someone who grew up on classical stories and novels dealt with things made me uncomfortable sometimes that didn't necessary make them bad.