DAN DA DAN

Episode 5

It has gotten to the point where I have to put on my Exceptionally Nitpicky Critic's HAT every week to find flaws in DAN DA DAN that can help balance out all of the praise I've been lavishing on each episode. To my chagrin, Science SARU has once again stymied my efforts to engage in more constructive criticism by putting out the fifth episode in a row that is, essentially, flawless. In the end, I only found one element of the episode that didn't work for me: The cut-to-end credits in the final seconds felt abrupt. It's not the series' strongest edit.

Yes, I know full well that a minor gripe with a couple of transitional frames is hardly compelling criticism, but what the hell am I supposed to do at this point? The entirety of “Like, Where Are Your Balls!?” is just so funny, cute, well-animated, and expertly paced; it is a chapter of the DAN DA DAN story that is directed with such weapons-grade craftsmanship that, even if there were larger elements in the script or production that didn't work, it would be impossible to notice them. It does what all great entertainment does, making your heart so busy pumping fists and cheering at what's on screen that it short-circuits your brain's capacity to spot and evaluate flaws. It may be the personal Kryptonite of a critic like me, but it makes for a damned fine episode of television.

From the very beginning, this episode demonstrates one of DAN DA DAN's greatest strengths, which is how effectively it can balance Momo and Okarun's roles as dual protagonists in this weird and wacky hybrid sci-fi/action/romance mashup. The current crisis in the plot is the Case of Okarun's Purloined Profiteroles, which means that our unfortunate hero might get a bit of an edge in focus and screen time. Still, you never get the sense that we are experiencing the story only through his eyes. During the almost dreamy montage of Okarun and Momo searching for each other during their lunch break, a sequence that feels ripped straight out of the Great Romantic Comedy Playbook, we tap into the melancholy yearning of both protagonists thanks to the smart combination of editing and voice-over. When the pair are briefly on the outs after their incredibly awkward first almost-kiss, the episode lingers on Momo's ambivalent guilt over her bullying of Okarun just as much as we hone in on his stumbling, forlorn confusion.

This is the kind of writing that a good romance demands because it allows us to see our leads as their own flawed, relatable individuals, even as we celebrate just how adorable they are as a unit. They are stronger together than they are apart, even when that "strength" has nothing to do with kicking alien and/or ghost ass. This episode is so masterfully done in establishing its authentic but still wistful approach to young love that you could almost forget that one of our leads got his nuts nabbed by a nefarious nana from the netherworld and that we're bound to get into all sorts of spooky shenanigans in the efforts to recover them.

That leads us to the more plot-heavy action of the final third of the episode, which sees Okarun and the Ayase clan transferring the lingering Turbo Granny spirit into a maneki-neko so they can interrogate the ghost and discover where Okarun's juevos have been hidden. Again, the pacing here is just phenomenal, and the episode never gets so bogged down in all of the necessary exposition that it forgets to be fun. The entire thing is probably worth the price of admission alone just to marvel at the excellent Momo Faces as she writhes on the floor and laughs at Okarun's devastating humiliation.

We've got another five-star banger of an episode on our hands. Go figure that Science SARU would be able to take an already excellent manga and make everything great about it even better. Between this, Blue Box, The Elusive Samurai, and Kaiju No. 8, 2024 has been a hell of a year for Shonen Jump adaptations.

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DAN DA DAN is currently streaming on Crunchyroll and Netflix.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on Twitter, his blog, and his podcast.