Momo Ayase is the granddaughter of a Spirit Medium who
believes in Spirits but not Extraterrestrials.
Her classmate, Ken Takakura is the opposite, obsessed with UFOs but
refusing to believe in ghosts. A dare
between the two sends them spiraling into a bizarre adventure where both of
their beliefs become real and begin wrecking havoc on their daily lives. Thankfully, these encounters have given Momo
and Ken the abilities to fight back against the unknown, no matter how random
or dangerous it may be.
Welcome Dear Readers to the first First Impression Friday
of 2025 and the kick off of its historic Tenth Season.
And boy…have I picked a challenge for myself
by popular demand.
There are shows that are constantly recommended to me
that I kind of get but at the same time have my reasons for not jumping right
into them.
Frieren? Subject materials
kind of heavy for me.
Trigun Stampede?
Cant get past the animation and Vash’s new haircut.
DanDaDan?
Well this is something new even by my standards.
And as far as first impressions go, yeesh I
don’t even know where I stand.
It mostly
makes me wonder if my friends are ok cause theyre enjoying it and…you know what
I’m getting ahead of myself.
Why has
this sleeper hit of 2024 left me so perplexed after one episode?
You know those instances where, to quote Clerks II, “Were
we in the middle of a conversation I don’t remember leaving?”
That’s the very first few minutes of
DanDaDan.
Poor Momo getting the crap
rocked out of her just out of the blue without context it’s…rough to say the
least.
But then she suddenly pops in to
protect Occult-Kun before they hash out why their interests trump one another
and then they get attacked by ghosts and Aliens and there’s a lot of talk about
wanting “wieners”.
Hoo boy, the first episode
runs at a rapid fire pace it kind of reminds me of FLCL with all of its
randomness in imagery and dialogue.
Is
it because it just started running and it took me a second to catch up that’s
why I feel so thrown off?
Our poor tortured main pair of heroes get a helluva first
encounter to rival that of Yuji Itadori’s in Jujutsu Kaisen. Momo gets a super
close encounter with Aliens while Occult Kun is well…chased by a Grandma Demon
that wants something very particular.
Is
it weird that in all of that insanity some of the first episodes better moments
are the quieter ones where the two kind of get to know each other?
Honestly, seeing just how rough on an
upbringing both Momo and Occult Kun had to endure and how it brings them
together helped with the back half of the premiere.
It’s not that theyre unlikeable from the very
beginning, there’s just no easing into things, just taking the plunge. That
could sum up DanDaDan’s premiere in a nutshell.
While I’ll admit I don’t really care for the OP, the
animation is really good.
Visually it’s
way more unpredictable and crazy than anything in the later seasons of
FLCL.
Studio Saru, the guys behind the
amazing Scott Pilgrim Takes Off Anime, are handling this project and they are
proving once again that wasn’t a one hit wonder.
The bizarre designs of Turbo Granny (ok
that’s an awesome Demon Name) and the Aliens are out of the box thinking done
right in particular.
I especially love
the merging of Occult Kun and Turbo Granny, with one fighting for control over
the other.
If nothing else, DanDaDan is
letting its imagination run wild.
I’ll admit, it took me til well into the episode but I am
kind of curious to see where things go for our two leads.
DanDaDan’s got enough strange energy about it
to weird anyone out while still keeping things interesting.
This could end up being the successor to FLCL
I’ve been hoping to see for a long time.
But seriously, what is it with the obsession with reproductive organs by
both Aliens and Ghosts?
That I don’t
get.
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