Dandadan (DAN DA DAN) review: Scully and Mulder wannabes take on aliens, ghosts, and highschool

Ah, young love! Boy meets girl, girl meets aliens, boy meets vengeful spirit. It’s a tale as old as time. Well, only if you’re in The X-Files … or, in this case, new anime series Dandadan (DAN DA DAN).

Wearing its X-Files influence proudly on its sleeve, the Science Saru-made series follows two highschoolers, Momo Ayase and Ken Takakura, as they investigate paranormal beings of both undead and extraterrestrial varieties.

Ken is a shy, friendless nerd whose special interest is aliens and UFOs (sorry, I mean ‘UAPs‘), and Momo is a bored gyaru who happens to be the granddaughter of a powerful spirit medium. During their meetcute, Momo reveals she believes in ghosts, but not aliens. Ken scoffs at this, insisting he can prove the opposite is true.

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The two set out on a dare to investigate an abandoned hospital and a disused tunnel in an effort to prove the other wrong. But, the question of whether aliens, ghosts and cryptids are real is answered with a firm ‘yes!’ in mere minutes – so here be no government cover-ups or conspiracies.

As Ken faces off against a vengeful yōkai named Turbo Granny (which I was delighted to discover is a genuine urban legend from Japan), Momo deals with a hostile group of aliens called the Serpoians, who are intent on diversifying their gene pool to ensure their evolution. Or, in their words: ‘we want your banana organs’.

I’ve watched the first handful of episodes in both Japanese (with English subtitles) and English, and in both versions these Serpoian guys are aptly terrifying, speaking in very calm, deliberate tones that are completely at odds with the heinous things they are saying.

Meanwhile, Turbo Granny both horrifies and delights with her crude lines like ‘suckle my teet, and I’ll gobble your weiner!’ My, granny, what big swears you have!

As far as anime goes, Dandadan really surprised me for how original and modern it is – not just in its aesthetic and narrative style, but in its social values and gags, too. Comparing it to older anime will demonstrate those points of difference so starkly – particularly when it comes to the realm of fan service.

To put it briefly: it doesn’t take any cheap shots when it comes to its (great, funny, interesting!) female characters. The near-assault of Momo in episode one isn’t played for laughs or sexual gratification (which, if you’re not familiar, is INCREDIBLY common in anime, particularly the shonen ouvre), it’s just plain terrifying.

There’s also a really neat mix of genuinely frightening moments, genuinely funny ones, and genuinely lovely ones. After all, Momo and Ken are simply teenagers trying to live normal lives – and gradually fall in love, live happily ever after, yadda yadda – but since Turbo Granny emerged from her tunnel and stole Ken’s penis, achieving that is difficult.

Yes, you read that correctly. The retrieval of Ken Takakura’s penis, and [SPOILER ALERT] a few episodes later, his testicles, is a primary plot point of the series.

Given its origins in Shonen Jump manga (where manga artist Yukinobu Tatsu has been developing it since 2021), there is also plenty of time dedicated to the protags powering up and beating the everloving crap out of hostile beings.

When Momo is put under pressure, her latent psychic abilities emerge for the first time, and she will come to use them against all manner of evil creature as the series goes on. Ken also comes to find out that he’s a spiritually potent person, but his power emerges when [SPOILER AGAIN] Turbo Granny possesses his body and causes him to transform.

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The action scenes are animated so fluidly, with a wonderful use of hyper-bright colours and a serious dedication to bringing Yukinobu Tatsu’s original drawings to life. The faithful realisation of Ken’s evolution into his Turbo Granny form is made all the more visceral by the 3D animation and some really wicked sound design.

And while the lighting of each frame is generally pretty arbitrary, it’s also used to great effect to emphasise character’s emotions and the general mood of a scene. Science Saru has done a great job with this adaptation.

I’ve watched three episodes of Dandadan and have become so enamoured with the characters, the creatures, and the wacky storyline that I’ve decided to also read the manga. That decision lead to a weekend binge read, and I’m now about 70 chapters ahead of the anime … oops. Look, all I’m saying is, it’s very good. The perfect spooky tale to sink your teeth into as Halloween approaches.

Also, the theme song, made by a band appropriately called Creepy Nuts, is such a bop.

Dandadan (DAN DA DAN) drops new episodes weekly on Fridays (Australian time), and is streaming on both Crunchyroll and Netflix.