DAN DA DAN

Episodes 1-3

Y'all are lucky to even be reading these reviews. This week, when I sat down to catch up on Episode 3 of DAN DA DAN, I made the unwise mistake of watching the OP in full for a third time. This, of course, invoked the Beetlejuice-esque curse that Creepy Nuts have so maliciously hidden within their bumpin' beats and absurdly infectious flows, and I ended up being compelled by supernatural forces to immediately rewatch the show's opening three-hundred times in a row. The only reason I could pry myself away from the screen to sit down and write this recap is because my wife had the good sense to take a sledgehammer to our 4K television and free me from Creepy Nuts' vice grip on my soul. However, there will be another episode of DAN DA DAN in just one week, another after that, and yet another the following week. Friends, I do not know if I have the strength to survive the onslaught of such sick-ass grooves…

Oh, right: The anime is pretty fucking radical, too. If you read my coverage of the premiere episode of the series, you would not be surprised by this fact, because the fine folks at Science SARU are cooking their asses off to deliver the most stylish, cinematic, heartfelt, and showstopping adaptation of Yukinobu Tatsu's manga that a crew of mortal men and women could produce. The colors, the animation, the storyboarding, the music, the tone — it's all perfect.

Just about the only complaint that I could see people having about DAN DA DAN's premiere is the way that the shlocky alien abduction sequence sees our heroine Momo getting threatened with alien insemination. While I'm not about to argue that this isn't an intentionally juvenile riff on classic pulp science-fiction tropes and Ufology lore, the show threads the needle of good taste about as deftly as expected. As DAN DA DAN will continue to prove time and again, Momo isn't the kind of female protagonist who is going to be pointlessly exploited and victimized for the same cheap titillation and or lazy character development for her male co-lead, Ken “Okarun” Takakura. Besides, our Boy-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named arguably gets the shorter end of the stick here, since Momo walks away from her experience with new psychic powers to boot when poor Okarun is possessed by a psychotic grandma ghost that has spirited away his cock-and-balls.

Yes, for those of you just joining us, DAN DA DAN does indeed have a penchant for potty humor and ridiculous anime shenanigans. Still, as someone who devoured dozens of chapters of the manga in one sitting back when he first read it, I can promise you that this manga is a bizarro pervert cartoon that is also one of the greatest romantic-comedy sci-fi/horror mashups that we've been blessed with since Edgar Wright finished his Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy.

If you needed more proof after that masterful premiere, I hope Episodes 2 and 3 were enough to convince you. “That's a Space Alien, Ain' It?!” is a wonderfully stylish microcosm of everything that DAN DA DAN does well, in that it uses the arrival of a Giant Sumo-Wresler Flatwoods Monster Thing From Beyond The Stars to allow our heroes to show off their skills while also expertly developing their growing relationship as friends, battle partners, and…maybe even something more? Dear readers, if you could only hear the embarrassing noises of glee that my wife so patiently endured when Momo did that little scootch-n'-poke with Okarun to try and get him to open up and start trusting her a little. I hope you all have a tolerance for enthusiastic relationship cheerleading because I have become a diehard Okarun and Momo shipper. My soul will never be at peace until these adorable kids fall in love, get married, and slaughter some dick-gobbling aliens for their honeymoon.

If the endearing character development and kickass action of Episode 2 weren't enough for you, though, then “It's a Granny vs. Granny Clash” continues to deliver the goods by fully introducing Momo's incredible grandmother, Seiko. Yes, I will fully admit that DAN DA DAN takes the coward's route by designing such a badass woman of experience to look like a smoking hot punk living eternally in her mid-20s. As a counterpoint, though, I would like to highlight the way that Seiko uses her combination baseball bat/giant pencil to draw spirit wards around Turbo Granny before enthusiastically beating the shit out of her. She's a hard-smoking, beer-guzzling spirit medium grandma with a penchant for lame comedies and the old ultraviolence. She deserves our respect, dammit.

Thankfully, despite her infinite wellspring of terrifying sass, even Momo recognizes this fundamental fact of the universe and our heroes have found themselves the perfect mentor. They'll need all of the help they can get because Turbo Granny is making moves and causing embolisms left and right. Momo and Okarun will have to up their game and hone their skills to get rid of the old crone for good. Not only will such a climactic battle be the perfect way for our protagonists to cement their bond even further, but it's the only hope Okarun has to ever again take a dump without forcing Momo to stare him in the face (and he also probably wants his junk back in its proper place, too).

On the one hand, I absolutely cannot wait to see how next week's episode turns out. On the other hand, though, if Momo and Okarun do win the day, then the Science SARU animators will never again get the chance to animate Okarun's “I Am Horrifyingly Close To Crapping My Pants!” dance. So, who is to say what the better outcome is?

Rating:

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.