I’ve quipped before many times that while I am a prolific mecha and science-fiction nerd, I am not a huge supernatural or horror genre person, including what one might call “supernatural aliens”, which differ from the kind of methodical, normal sci-fi aliens you get on something like Star Trek or The Orville. However, anime has a penchant for coming up with a sort of weird hybrid of supernatural-sci-fi that mixes in a little modern coming-of-age characters and storytelling and manages to make it fun and interesting. Enter Dandadan, another Netflix-frontloaded series by Science SARU, also responsible for some work in Star Wars Visions, and who formed in 2013 as a result of doing work on Adventure Time.
Dandadan is a series that kind of meshes three genres together, the bizarre, nightmare-fuel monsters of Puella Magi Madoka Magica, characters from Kyoukai no Kanata, Noragami, or Bakemonogatari, and finished with some comedy and slice-of-life like Abenobashi Mahou☆Shoutengai or Hataraku Maou-sama!. Could probably dredge up some other more modern examples, but I’m old, so you get the oldies. Like Turbo Granny here. Starring Wakayama Shion (SSSS.Dynazenon, Lycoris Recoil) as Ayase Momo, Hanae Natsuki (Tokyo Ghoul, Aldnoah.Zero) as “Okarun”, as well as the venerable Mizuki Nana (Naruto, Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha, Senki Zesshou Symphogear) as Ayase Seiko, the basic premise is that Momo, the granddaughter of Seiko, a spirit medium, believes in ghosts despite not really believing in her grandmother’s abilities at all, while Orakun believes in aliens. Neither believe in the other’s beliefs, until a mutual dare causes both of them to experience a battery of both alien and ghost supernatural activity, thrusting them both into a world of classic myths and insane monsters. There, they begin to somewhat find themselves feeling like they are more than just friends, but having an awkward way of admitting it, or going about it.
I think what probably led me to taking a look at this, other than it appearing alongside Ranma 1/2 on Netflix, was seeing some of the social media chatter, and especially the above Turbo Granny quote about gobblin’ dat weenie. But I initially did not think to watch it because I was also seeing commercials for Uzumaki, which I hard-noped to because I like forgetting my dreams and nightmares the next morning. When I looked into it further and found it was not one and the same, I gave the first episode a spin, and was pleasantly surprised it was not bad.
Science SARU’s art style kind of reminds me of what Trigger has kind of toned itself down to after going hard in the paint for years on that Kill la Kill style. It still commands gravitas in the action and fight scenes with that cool vivid color, but when the show slows down into it’s regular-life segments, it just plods along like anything else. I’m sure Bleach fans feel right at home with Okarun’s transformation sequences, but I appreciate how they kind of do this tongue-in-cheek quip of him feeling depressed about having power where heroes normally BULK UP and wreck everything.
The first few episodes set the stage for what I presume will be a fairly standard “We need to collect all the Power Rangers” kind of arc, beginning with Momo and Okarun, having fought off the bulk of Turbo Granny’s power only for her to remain in a weakened state and moved to the cat you see in all of the ending shots. Shiratori Aira comes in at episode five to a hilarious pan-drop and presumably is the fifth ranger here, and I imagine there will be a sixth soon.
Speaking of Power Rangers, did anyone think of that toad that kept eating the rangers when this week’s monster appeared and vored our cast?
Six episodes in of what I assume will be a usual cour, I imagine this will be a show that probably gets another season or three because it seems like you could easily do a lot with this kind of simple premise. Two autistically-coded characters fight supernatural forces with the help of their extremely-young grandmother, apathetic greatest-generation spirit-cat, and pink-haired social media influencer. A motley crew indeed.
Update 11/18
I would be remiss not to mention episode seven’s trauma-dump on the character of Aira.
Why is this show hitting below every parent’s belt like this? We just wanted the funny monster-of-the-week show with jokes about Okarun’s golden balls.
I was glad I watched this after MF Ghost but before Ranma 1/2 though. The compliment sandwich.
