Dan Da Dan: First Encounter Review – Like JJK, But Sillier, Madder
Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
If you’re looking to fill the Jujutsu Kaisen-sized hole in your heart, ‘Dan Da Dan’ is a great answer – an anime that just a wee bit sillier, lighter, with a dash of romance and fewer characters, so you don’t scratch your head over who is who. It’s a genre-bending anime, that mixes humor, horror, and the horrifying embarrassment of teen love.
Directed by Fūga Yamashiro and written by Hiroshi Seko, ‘Dan Da Dan: First Encounter’ (Dandadan: Fâsuto Enkauntâ) the movie follows high school student Momo Ayase who rescues a nerdy classmate from bullies, only to start a crazy new friendship which entails fighting aliens and grotesque ghosts. The movie is essentially the first three episodes of the anime series, which is available to stream on Netflix and CrunchyRoll.
Shion Wakayama voices the sassy Momo, a feisty teen with a soft spot for hunky boys, while Natsuki Hanae, known for voicing Tanjiro Kamado from ‘Demon Slayer’, lends his pipes to Momo’s new friend Ken ‘Okarun’ Tanakura, an otaku with a fierce passion for aliens. Momo doesn’t believe in aliens but thinks ghosts are real, as her beloved grandmother, Seiko Ayase, is a spirit medium. Seiko Ayase is very Satoru Gojo-coded—tall, confident, powerful, with white hair—though her way of dealing with spirits will remind viewers of Nobara Kugisaki. Not much is revealed about Okarun’s family in Dan Da Dan: First Encounter, although he is a lonely boy whose friendship with Momo completely changes his life. From a monstrous old ghost that consumes humans to unhinged aliens that want Momo’s banana (watch the anime to find out what that means—and yes, Momo’s banana, not the boy’s), these two teens face terrifying challenges together!
The animation style in ‘Dan Da Dan: First Encounter’ is colorful, dynamic, and two-dimensional in nature, and the creators often play with color, depending on the mood of a given scene. For instance, when Momo first encounters creepy aliens, the color palette shifts to become bright, neon, and is trippy in tone, as if you’re watching a cyber-punk or mecha anime. Or there’s a significant chunk where Momo and Okarun face-off a demonic, sumo-like alien entity, and those scenes are animated in black-and-white shades, adding a lot of theatrical effect to the violence, to convey the hopelessness and bleakness of their situation. Basically, the anime style is fun, and fittingly complemented by a spunky soundtrack, some sections of which are like remixed versions of retro arcade games music.
Between fighting each other, and fighting together against others, Momo and Okarun make a hilarious duo. Momo’s stunningly fit, ageless spirit-medium grandmother just adds to their mad dynamic. These two kids are the new ghost-busters in town, and can sometimes be scarier than demons. Just watch ‘Dan Da Dan’ if you’re looking for a new teen horror comedy.
‘Dan Da Dan’ is on Netflix and CrunchyRoll.
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