Dandadan
Alternative titles: Dan Da Dan
Genre: Action, Comedy, Supernatural
Number of episodes: 12
Ratings: 8.66 / 10 (myanimelist), 8.6 / 10 (IMDb)
Streaming providers: Crunchyroll
I’ll be honest: For me, Dandadan came more or less “out of nowhere.” I had never heard of the source material and only learned about an anime adaptation when it was only a few weeks away. This was probably because the whole description of the series sounded way too bizarre to me.
The first episode is already packed with events that could easily fill an entire movie: High school student Momo Ayase is recovering from a breakup and protects her classmate Ken Takakura from bullying. The two strike up a conversation – and learn about their differing views. Momo believes in ghosts and supernatural events, while Ken believes in aliens and grand conspiracies. Both find the other’s perspective ridiculous and now try to prove to each other the existence of such events.
On the same night, exactly that happens – Ken is cursed by a ghost and loses parts of his body, while Momo is abducted by aliens for research and reproduction purposes. Both come into contact with entirely new powers that they will use to help each other.
In summary, this sounded to me like “clichéd anime nonsense” – but you couldn’t be more wrong. Dandadan creates an almost perfect mix of action, comedy and emotional moments that are sometimes even really oppressive or downright uncomfortable.
Nevertheless, this is one of those series where you absolutely want to know what happens next after each episode, and for me, the absolute surprise success of the year – which will fortunately continue in 2025 with a second season.
Another anime highlight is on page 3.
