DanDaDan

I watched the zoomercore anime of the season... Hmmmm. I actually didn't pay much attention to the prehype, all I saw was that Science Saru was behind it so I figured why not. Science Saru and me have a love-hate relationship, they animated some of my favourite stuff out there (I like Masaaki Yuasa, ok, not exactly an original opinion), but also some of the worst... I hated their Devilman Crybaby adaptation and still do, and Nihon Chonbotsu 2020 is probably one of the worst things I've ever watched but here we are... I still like that most of their projects are more out there than compared to some other studios. As for Dandadan, besides hearing about the manga once or twice, I really had 0 idea of what I was getting into.

Anyway, let's start with the obvious praise, the animation. Yes, it's really as good as you hear. It definitely lived up to the hype. The animation and visual gags tend to be very Gainax/Trigger-like. I was too lazy to cross reference if this is actually because of specific names working on the anime or if it's just inspired, either way the first episode reminded me of early Trigger stuff a lot. Alongside the Gainax inspiration, the animation was mixed with this new approach that I can only compare to idk, Chainsaw Man? Jujutsu Kaisen? Where they do those weird stylistic zoom-ins on the characters, it's not really a MAPPA exclusive thing, it's like... Tiktok core, idk how else to explain it. The specific type of cuts, framings etc that I mostly see in new stuff that appeals to teens I guess lmao. Watch the opening and you'll get what I mean.

Let's move on to the second thing this anime gets praised for, the wholesome kawiwi romance between the two main characters. Despite this anime being centered around dick and ball jokes, and the constant weird rape-y moments between the main female character and the various enemies, the romance part is very not horny and sterile, very typical shonen in the sense that... it feels juvenile. What this romance gets applauded for is that the main leads are persistent about one another, they overcome all of the typical misunderstandings pretty fast without dwelling on it too long, they have good chemistry together as a couple of friends. While all of this is kinda true, what annoys me is the fact that these misunderstandings are even there. Okraun unintentionally almost kisses another girl and awkwardly falls down to the ground with her and Momo sees it... Love triangle... Childhood friend.. It's like all of these tropes are self awarely being put into the story only for Momo and Okarun to go through this more or less unscathed and for the audiences to clap and go "ah yes great subversion of these typical tropes that usually drag for whole seasons!!! clap clap clap". Not to mention Okarun being the loser archetype that suddenly gets multiple women to fall in love with him in the span of a week lmao. And I really dislike his voice actor, he's just doing the Tanjirou voice again and it's so eugh. He's one of the rare male voice actors with a really high squeaky voice and I feel like his roles would go to female voice actors in the past, so I do like that he exists to fill that role (because tbh I never liked it when women voiced teenage boys, they just don't sound like that sorry), but on the other hand there's just something annoying about his voice that I can't get past.

Right so, as for the criticism. The character design, you already know who I'll be talking about. The grandma... Her design is probably one of the stupidest things I've seen in anime lately, it's just so fucking dumb. If she's keeping her body young with the use of her powers, why is she wearing all of the waist/arm/leg compressors? I get that it kind of comically signifies that she's a grandma, but it makes no sense... Her hair is also really... confusing. I think her overall color scheme looked a lot cooler in the manga art, and it made the silliness seem a bit more sensical, but I still can't get past it. Also her looking young doesn't seem to be just a her thing, the school nurse also looks incredibly young and over sexualized for no good reason. The anime in general lacks consistency, the characters either look incredibly normal or boring, or totally out of place with 0 explanation. It really kills your suspension of disbelief. If the grandma and the nurse look like weird ass pornified caricatures... why does nobody else look weird? It's just such a weird choice. It's not even goofy like that one extremely pornified character in Prison School, they're just.. like that. Idk!!

As for the story, the pacing etc. I feel like the story moves incredibly fast, and the enemies of the week lack substance. I'm also tad annoyed at the lack of any type of parental presence for Okarun. Dude is coming home naked, not coming home for days, going to a trip into the mountains and we have 0 idea about his family and what's going on. I feel like we're too deep into the story to not know anything about it, at this point Momo herself should be asking questions about wtf is going on lol... Anyway the story is definitely not a strong point in this anime, but also we're only 1 cour in basically. I feel like the pacing was a bit too adhd, with characters coming and going fast.

All in all, I'm not sure if I would call this total slop. It's just modern shonen with a bit of effort put into it, which does place it higher than most actual slop that gets released. It is however, pretty generic in some aspects, and a bit outdated even. The trendy animation manages to mask it, but frankly if this anime came out 20 years ago it would hardly be any different. It's less edgy and more juvenile than say, CSM, which I gave a lot of shit but it does project this edgy doomer zoomer vibe that the kids love. Either way, I felt too old watching this.