DAN DA DAN
a review by sunwabluum
a review by sunwabluum
Disclaimers | Some things you need to know before reading this review
①I have not read the manga so it may or may not affect my review about the anime ②Please read through the review if you think it meets your standards and that it's somewhat similar to what you think about the anime ③Point out mistakes on my review that you think is erroneous + way too narrative ④ You can ask questions or ideas by going to my profile and discuss things about the anime and other things from there. •=• Enjoy reading my review on Dandadan
Ⅰ ⋯ My First Impressions : Some Things to Know About the Anime
◟ⅰ ⋯ How I found this anime
◟ⅱ ⋯ What intrigues me to watch DAN DA DAN?
◟ⅲ ⋯ What am I sharing this?
Ⅱ ⋯ DAN DA DAN OP ⁘ It is So Addictive; It Delivered
Ⅲ ⋯ Episode recap ∺ character analysis ∺ short themes for each episode
◟ⅰ ⋯ Episode ① ⟨ That’s How Love Starts, Ya Know ⟩
◟a. ⁙ Episode recap (only for the first episode)
◟b. ⁙ Character analysis
◟c. ⁙ Review
◟d. ⁙ A theme to discuss
◟ⅱ ⋯ Episode ② ⟨That’s A Space Alien, Ain’t It⟩
▭ My First Impressions : How I Found this Anime & What Intrigues Me to Watch it ▭
⒈ How I found this anime — I remember hearing this anime somewhere else on the internet. It could have been Kito Senpai yapping in YouTube Shorts or a news source talking about the release of DAN DA DAN. But then I first saw the opening of DAN DA DAN on YouTube and from what I can tell about this anime without reading the source material, it looks like a sci-fi and occult-based anime. And what got me to watch DAN DA DAN was the opening because I was so astonished with all the visuals and music that it allured me, and it deserves a score out of 100/100 just from the opening in my book. The anime should be watched a billion times with how Science SARU use their artistry to plan and edit the opening and I would like to see their skills in action throughout the entirety of the anime, hence what made them unique compared to other studios.
⒉ What intrigues me to watch DAN DA DAN? — First of all, I never heard of Science SARU before until I read comments on TikTok talking about how Science SARU is always flexing with their animation, and after seeing the scene where
I would say: When it comes to science fiction in anime, Science SARU is there to make it happen.
i’m just playing with my words lol
⒊ Why am I sharing this? — Well since this is my first review, I like to experiment with writing ideas while also providing insight on what the anime is about! So given that I shared my lack of knowledge with anime studios, that could indicate that I’m not prepared to give my genuine input about the anime. It would take tremendous time to sort out information, understand it, and really get into detail of how an anime should stand out. I mean it’s not necessary to know anime studios to get a grasp of their work and follow suit to create a compelling, thought-provoking, and riveting anime review - something like that ⋰ but I wanted to dive deeper, get into a strong intellectual side of anime reviews that are fun for you to read.
⏖⏖⏖⏖
So sit back and relax, and enjoy a textbook review of DAN DA DAN.
Science SARU’s visually-striking and electrifying animation and Creepy Nut’s psychedelic performance turns DAN DA DAN opening into a masterpiece¹ and we love it! I may not have the words to describe it but all we can do is appreciate the beauty and amount of work they put into making it. I think I will try my best to talk about it because it is amazing but also might gives us clues on what the future episodes would look like.=-
The opening is great, amazing, flawless, and simply a masterpiece. It’s so addictive and safely hypnotic that we can literally see how Science SARU uses everything at their disposal. Every color and shape in each frame accentuates every bit of information you see in the opening: the characters have cooler entrances where they pose with exuberance like they are in camera, the primary and secondary colors combined with texture in each color and image background, effects are used to create clean and seamless shots and darker tones to make images look otherworldly. It really is an addictive opening. What makes this opening so special is how they gave enough screen time for the characters to really showcase their distinctive character. And we can see it by this opening alone that it smears artistic freedom, no set of rules can make this anime superior; it’s just perfect as it is.
| ? Score: 12/10 | There is a YouTube video² that touches on the deepening message of the DAN DA DAN Opening, and it’s a great video that may have described why we love the opening so much. Go check it out!
So let's continue onward and talk about the first episode of DAN DA DAN
⊷
⊶
Quick disclaimer : There’s going to be a lot of spoiler tags in this section. They are mostly just recaps, but may not be useful if you recognize the first 3 episodes of the anime. I misunderstood the idea of an episode review, but no need to worry because this time I am going to provide key parts/scenes of the anime that may be important in future episodes ≽ ≽ ≽
⟬ The spoilers are there to help you jog your memory if you forgot what the episodes look like ⟭
⩦ Already in the first 20 seconds of the episode, things were definitely happening momentarily. I was confused about what's going on, but quickly caught on when the scene ended. I had to admit that this kind of pacing absolutely makes the anime a lot more fun to watch.
Our first main character is ?Momo Ayase, a high schooler who is convinced that ghosts exist. From what we can tell about her is that she has an attitude. She has somewhat of a strong and confident demeanor by the looks of it. But on the inside, she can be quite compassionate and protective. ?Note: She's not really confident but rather brave or bold so keep that in mind when we discuss things in Episode 2.
Momo is seen with her friends—whose names I still haven’t heard just yet —might add some charm and humor to Momo’s interactions. They may not be flat characters, but could develop into supporting characters if they add some depth to Momo’s story (until I read the #manga that’s for sure)
That classmate is our second main character Ken Takakura (not the Japanese actor but a student sharing the same name.) He is an UFO-obsessed student who believes that aliens are real.
At this moment, it is very clear that Momo is well-known in her high school.
That walk that Momo did was so funny to me. I heard it is a reference to a One Piece character’s gait. Don't know what his name is. Maybe I have seen or heard the name before but couldn't recall the name, but it does reference a One Piece character’s manner of walking.
I don’t want to spoil too much of the story so I’m gonna give my best to kinda hide most of Episode 1 and pointing out some things that could elicit reason behind the episode. As of right now, I may have stumbled into a very spoilt recap of the episode, so really it’s my fault for getting too ahead of myself. Now we got that out of the way, hopefully you remember everything about Episode 1 thanks to the “recap” that are pretty much spoilers that I provided for you. Continue reading and who knows, maybe you know some stuff better than I do lol
Ken Takakura doesn’t believe in ghosts but aliens instead. Momo doesn’t believe in aliens but was convinced that ghosts exist. So for both of them to realize that both ghosts and aliens both appear in their world, Momo decided to bet on a contest that allows her and Ken’s statements to be considered true. And that way, they will know which of their beliefs are right!
Okay, um, I’m sorry about this you guys but episode recaps are the worst mistake to put in an anime review. My bad. I might just not do recaps because I think it’s best if you're going to watch the episode and decide where to go from here in this review.
The characters in DAN DA DAN are phenomenally amazing. And what better way to describe every character is in a Character Analysis! I love to talk about anything that's happening in each frame of an anime. However, it’s not like I just mostly talk about the visuals and animation which does make for good entertainment - It’s the characters that can bring an anime to life. Their voices, their cadence, the way they interact with one another. It’s like they exist in their own world, just how we exist in our world. So first, let's talk about the first female main·character/protagonist in the story of DAN DA DAN: Momo Ayase! ^(•⩊•)^
In the first episode, ∆Momo Ayase∆ is seen as a high school girl who has to deal with the guy – who she said at the classroom talking with her friends about – looks like Ken Takakura, the famous Japanese actor who is based on the actual actor in real life. Momo Ayase is very bothered when it comes to relationships and even so having one .. after all, she did just get dumped so there's no way to go back and fix everything. Showing the scenes where we see her at school moping around and that her relationship with the dude was pretty much a big deal for her thus not receiving any sort of comfort to try to console her makes me feel bad for her.
I get it is just an anime, and it’s really hard to tell whether a character is actually alright with what just transpired in those small and serious life moments when they broke off a relationship with someone, but I admired a little sympathy for them even though they’re just a drawing of a human with emotion. But in my heart, anime characters do exist. They live in our minds rent-free so we won't forget their faces when we visualize them.
↓…↓
Okay enough of that`. Let's talk about Okarun now. I think we or mostly myself still haven't fully understood who Momo Ayase really is, but I heard she has a great sense of humor. We need more female characters like her throughout the anime, and I’m sure the pink-haired girl would promise the same level of humor that Dandadan has to offer. Also I don't want to talk about what the aliens did to Momo in Episode 1 -That in itself speaks horrors for other Dandadan fans out there.
⩗ ⩗ ⩗
⩘ ⩘ ⩘
Ken Takakura ○○ You know what! I have nothing to say to this guy ~ literally ? I have zero retainability when it comes to nervous people or maybe it’s just characters in general. It’s just a guy who lost his weenie and wears glasses lol. His name is based off of a real Japanese actor and that’s what I think this character is about to me. I know there’s more to this character because he is the main character of the story, but for now I’ll just talk about this character when I make a full character analysis on him. Well, one thing for certain is that he does get cursed by Turbo Granny and turns into a monster, but that’s about it for me.
[Synopsis] Momo believes in ghosts; Okarun (a.k.a. Ken Takakura) believes in aliens. Both of them deny each other's beliefs. Who among them will recognize that their beliefs are valid?
The first episode shows exactly what DAN DA DAN is about. Everything about it was so mesmerizing to watch and has tons of qualities that are enchanting that give the viewers a little bit of understanding on what the next episodes could have to elevate the story. It is just the first episode after all - a lot of anime use their first episode to introduce the first main character, and it is also a marketing tool to keep manga and anime fans hooked on what they want to see in an animated version of a manga. On Science SARU’s making of DAN DA DAN, my favorite part was between 3:33 and 6:35 – the interaction between Ken and Momo where they quarrel about whether their beliefs are real resembles an argument between couples, and that's what got me interested to see if their relationship starts to develop. Also even before the 3:33 mark, a lot of stuff happened that really made me enjoy Episode 1 a lot; I’m glad I got to see it happen. As someone who usually reads the source material or manga. Perhaps seeing the animation before hand-drawn on paper really shows more than meets the eye.
°This anime follows Momo Ayase & Ken Takakura navigating in a world where ghosts and aliens exist (but not really). There’s “more” in the world of Dandadan! And to describe what really is MORE in the story, we will be discussing the themes of Dandadan to better understand what the anime is truly about. I’ll borrow some tags on the Dandadan Anilist page; that will give me a brighter idea to discuss things from there.
One of the themes I notice in the first episode is Momo Ayase and Ken Takakura’s bonds with each other - this theme is known as Friendship. Between Momo and Ken, they have similar beliefs and shared experiences with one another. In the first episode, I really thought they knew each other when we saw them interact, but I was wrong - they completely don’t know each other. Few moments later, they don’t like each other that much, but during this episode they pretty much admire each other’s company. Each-other that, each-other this, they end up growing their relationship and suddenly they became buddies in their own way. They often go through a lot of trouble within the episode: they try to validate their beliefs by going to abandoned places: Momo goes to an abandoned hospital and Okarun enters a tunnel to figure out who is right after all. And when they encounter trouble through and through, their friendship eventually grows.
The 2nd episode of Dandadan reminds us how insane Episode 1 was and a lot has definitely happened in that 1st episode. Anime always has scenes that are way too crazy and that they become memorable experiences overtime. Which is why Episode 2 comes in with an eerie feeling, a feeling that is probably hard to make through manga panels because they don’t have sound effects but a play on words and stylized text and bubbles. But that transpired somewhere in the middle part of the episode and for that I must not spoiler-recap every episode I do and use spoilers spontaneously. In the beginning of episode 2,
They try to take refuge at Momo's house, but a giant alien appears before them.
◉⒈ I don’t read the manga; I watch the anime — I haven’t read the manga myself and wish I did so I understand what the story is actually about. But I didn’t because I wanted to immerse myself in Science SARU’s fantastic rendition of the anime DAN DA DAN. The manga technically spoils the anime, nonetheless it won’t hurt to read it once in a while. It really saddens me that I should have read the manga and discussed more themes around it. I’ll read the manga after the anime has finished airing or during when a new episode releases to compare the difference between the anime and manga.
◎⒉ DAN DA DAN is great! You should watch it — Based on the first episode, things were already getting hectic from the start. What I like about these types of anime is that a quick and impactful moment right off the bat can make everything more interesting to watch and see how everything unfolds. Throughout the anime, I really like the moments between Okarun and Momo. And as I’m writing this when Episode 3 aired, I would love to see more characters, more character development, on top of that some funny moments for each episode. It would really make DAN DA DAN a very memorable experience.
◉⒊ Why I wrote this anime review — The reason that I wrote this review is that I wanted to practice writing and learn new things about myself. Don’t get me wrong, I am really bad at finding important parts of a story particularly when some things are harder to decipher and turn it into words. It takes so much time to get to writing about each individual episode, character, or just about anything you can do in an anime review. That’s why I much rather do episode recaps although it feels like I broke a rule for sharing so much about the anime. I don’t mind using all my time to write this; all it matters is that you stick with me till the end.
◉4. Y’know, I tried my best — This anime review wasn’t really the best of explaining some key elements as there are no key elements that I could stick with. There were episodes that I really wanted to talk about, but never felt like there was something I could ramble on.
◎5. There’s a lot of DAN DA DAN content on the internet — There’s always a ton and a lot of DAN DA DAN content that I surf through to make this anime review that’s bound to happen, and I’m really glad there is such an amount of content to begin with. DAN DA DAN was one of those anime that helped me get through the days.
\\ Thank you for having the patience to read this review with me. I'm pretty bummed out for writing this long and I’m sorry this turned into a small-sized and incomplete review but I’m glad I've pursued further to make your thoughts heard. What are your thoughts on Dandadan? What are the pros & cons? What are the creative risks Science SARU have taken over their work? And what would you want to see in a review? Be sure to answer these questions in my Activity where I’ll be posting updates on my anime journey. I had a lot of fun! I’ll be sure to write thoughtful and engaging reviews in the future. See you next time, everyone! ?
⨁ ⨄ ⨝ ⨠
GOOGLE DOC ver.44 out of 55 users liked this review
