It had already been leaked that Dandadan was a split cour long before the official announcement today. And it would have been in zero doubt anyway – this series is a big enough hit that it seems likely to get a full adaptation. Nevertheless it’s nice to have a confirmed date (Summer 2025). For my purposes this also confirms that the series is ineligible for the 2024 top 10 list, though I can tell you it would have cracked it if it had been. I’d also put the odds that 2025 is a weaker anime year than ’24 at about 95% based on series announcements to date, and given what I know of what the second cour will cover it’ll be a pretty huge shock if it’s not on next year’s list.
I glomped onto Dandadan as a breakout hit pretty much from the first chapter. It was clear this series had it, whatever that quality that makes series huge is. So that we’re here now, with it ending 2024 as one of the year’s biggest properties, is in no way surprising. But it’s notable that the anime is, for me, clearly better than the manga. At least I enjoy it more. I felt like the manga started getting repetitive pretty quickly, though I always enjoy it. But the anime is so clever and highlights the best elements of the manga so brilliantly that I find it never takes that turn (at least not yet).
Choosing to end the season this way is a bit cruel, even with the second cour set. It’s quite a cliffhanger, but this series is pretty much nothing but cliffhangers. It’s one burst of insanity after another, interspersed with surprisingly deep character moments. While Jiji and his problem are definitely the heart of the matter, we do tidy things up with Taro and Hana first. The kids beg Seiko to allow Hana to stay at the house (she’s predictably irritated), while Taro promises to go back to being a chemistry room teacher’s aide as long as he can sneak out at night for some red-hot mannequin-to-womannequin action. He has a bit of an issue on the way to say the least, but in the end the pair of them are happily snogging as Momo snoozes away.
Okarun is seriously stressing out about Jiji and Momo, and you can’t blame him. Jiji – while he’s definitely bonkers – is much better-endowed than Ken with the qualities prized by the superficial female teen. Fortunately for Ken Momo is anything but such a teen, but it’s hard to see the pair of them so free and easy together and believe that. It’s obvious to an outside observer that Ken has absolutely nothing to worry about, but he can’t see the forest for the trees. His insecurity is extremely deep-seated, and his attempts to distract Momo from the new boy toy (“Lint!”) are pretty hilarious.
Seiko sends Momo to Jiji’s house for the weekend to try and exorcise whatever it is that’s occupying his family house. But it’s obvious that Jiji’s tormentor is not bound by the limits of that location. Momo assures Okarun that she always intended to invite him along, and the three of them cut loose on the train as Okarun grows more and more desperate. But in the end he and Jiji bond over UMAs, and Okarun is forced to admit that Jiji is actually not a bad guy. He just doesn’t have an off-switch.
At the house Momo freaks out Ken by turning on the TV, but senses absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. But she’s not calling Jiji a liar – she concludes that whatever is haunting the place is hiding, and will show up along with the night. With that she happily heads off to the onsen, promising to be back in time for any uninvited guests requiring intervention. She also intends to give the two boys time to bond, which for Jiji means kicking the soccer ball around (not Okarun’s strongest suit). These two yearling bucks are definitely in rutting season where Momo is concerned (if there were any doubts about Jiji’s feelings this dispels them). But you always get the feeling the pair of them are too nice for things to ever really get ugly.
Ugly is exactly how things get for Momo, though. Turns out the bath she’s chosen is a konyoku, a mixed-gender bath (they’re still common way up in the mountains). Soon enough she’s descended upon by a group of middle-aged men, which would be terrifying enough for a 16 year-old girl in such a situation even if it wasn’t obviously that there was something seriously off with these “crocodiles” (wani – yes, that’s what they call them). And a new wing has mysteriously appeared on Jiji’s house, clearly not the work of any contractor.
With that, we settle in for a six month wait for the second cour. There’s plenty of material for that and more so I imagine this is a concession to Science SARU’s production schedules more than anything. If they can maintain this level of quality that’s certainly fine with me. I haven’t been the biggest fan of SARU’s TV work, but this is an order of magnitude better than any that’s come before it. It’s an outstanding adaptation on every level, brilliantly communicating the charms of the manga in ways completely different than the manga does it. Sometimes a hit deserves to be a hit, and Dandadan is clearly one such time.
sonicsenryaku
December 20, 2024 at 10:32 pm|| “There’s plenty of material for that and more so I imagine this is a concession to Science SARU’s production schedules more than anything” ||
THIS!……. Feels less like an intentional wrap up to a cour and more like your typical end-of-episode type deal. I get the impression this season of dandadan was produced as a 24 episode run but due to it’s ambition, the shorter than preferred production cycle, and the smaller-in house production team, ended up getting split into two cours later down the road. It comes off as a decision that was made somewhere down the line during production rather than having always been planned like that; the first ep of the second cour will literally just be episode 13.
All that being said, what a ride this first half of season 1 has been. Its genuinely been a treat to have a show that knows exactly how to be like vintage Gainax (not that it’s necessarily trying to but it’s sure succeeding at it as if it were) without coming off as a cheap knock off. Usually, I’ll hear the average anime fan compare any zany, chaotic anime they coming across as “reminding them of FLCL” (the go-to Gainax vibe; understandably so) simply because it’s cuuuh-rrraaaaazy. However, that tendency by those fans to connect ANY spastic, loud and hyperactive anime to FLCL without any other consideration, ostensibly demonstrates a flanderized perspective of what makes an anime vintage gainax; and to be fair to those anime viewers making the comparison, it also doesn’t help when some of those examples aping off Gainax traits don’t understand the very alchemy it’s trying to transmute.
On the other hand, the DanDaDan team intuitively get what it means to be a Gainax anime (ep 9 is especially a great example of this) even if they’re not trying to; that and the genuinely good source material already on hand has made this such a winning adaptation; July 2025 can’t come soon enough
Guardian Enzo
December 21, 2024 at 12:46 amOh, they’re trying to.
Nadavu
December 20, 2024 at 11:07 pmI had no idea this was a season finale until I saw your headline. Damn.
Other than the drop in animation quality that one time when were fighting the Serponians in school, I can’t think of anything I didn’t like about this show. But if I had to pick my favorite thing, I’d say it’s Wakayama’s portrayal of Momo
sonicsenryaku
December 21, 2024 at 6:17 amAbsolutely agree on Wakayama nailing Momo and even elevating the character with her performance. I’ve said it before but the variance in her acting range with any one line is insane and it’s a talent that extends out to her other performances; hell, even when she’s playing the same character archetypes, she handles that very performance differently, which isn’t really the norm amongst seiyuus not named Aoi Yuuki or Tomatsu Haruka or Megumi Hayashibara or Miyu Irino. A self-evident example of this would be to compare Takina from “Lycoris Recoil” and Mie from “The girl I like forgot her glasses:” Both soft spoken archetypes with some arguably similar temperaments, and yet she does not act them out in the same way at all. I always appreciate that kind of talent
Guardian Enzo
December 21, 2024 at 8:10 amYeah, it’s an excellent performance. I have to admit this is as much as I’ve liked Hanae in anything for ages, too.
sonicsenryaku
December 21, 2024 at 8:41 amYeah; as someone who is kind of neutral on Hanae, I found myself not being distracted by his Okarun. I think Dandadan’s voice direction definitely helped with making his voice work feel true to who the character is, resulting in me having a more positive perception of his performance
Guardian Enzo
December 21, 2024 at 9:01 amIn effect he’s doing a Yamashita Daiki impression but at least it’s a very good one.
ruicarlov
December 20, 2024 at 11:53 pmLooks like these kinds of “finales” are getting more common nowadays. Recently I remember MHA and Quality Assurance in Another World pulling some very odd final episodes. Must the the Geass return influence. Back in the day, that season ending was a total “WHAT?! THEY CAN’T DO THIS!”
sonicsenryaku
December 21, 2024 at 3:55 amAt least with the Code Geass S1’s ending, it was so operatic and almost every character was at their lowest point that it possessed the impact necessary to feel like an appropriate mind-shattering cliffhanger. Everything crescendo-ed into what felt like an intentional end-of-season stopping point
Nicc
December 21, 2024 at 8:50 amThis episode wraps up the first cour, but it will be returning next summer. In the meantime, this episode also ends with a significant cliffhanger and it’s still going to be quite the wait for those who don’t want to touch the source material to spoil themselves.
We kick things off with the resolution to Taro and Hana. First, it turns out that Taro didn’t have one of Okarun’s jewels, after all. It’s just a Christmas ornament that got stuck there. We don’t get an explanation on why Taro was able to come to life like this besides the power of love. The three kids try to persuade Seiko to allow Hana to stay here, adding another guest to the home which already includes TG and Jiji. Oh yeah, and it seems that Taro still enjoys his dayjob enough to be at school and to do his part to help students learn about the human body. Good for him. Then, he’ll go see Hana once he clocks out. That first night out is a bit rough for him. If he wasn’t part of the school’s Seven Mysteries already, he certainly will be now as some students who shouldn’t have been there after school spot him running in the hallways and smashing through a window. I’m kind of impressed that he’s got his own Suica or Pasmo card to take public transport, but then he got run over by Truck-kun. This causes him to be really late and to be able to meet Hana only in the morning. All’s well that ends well, but now he’s got to head back to school for work and with the teacher wondering why the mannequin looks so rough.
Back to the main plot, it’s now time for the group to head to Jiji’s home and to see what’s going on there. Okarun’s insecurities are going overdrive here, starting with how he thought that he was going to be left out as Jiji and Momo will be together… alone. Of course he’s coming along. Okarun finds it difficult to dislike Jiji as he shows enthusiasm about the paranormal, the only besides Momo who has. Okarun doesn’t have any male friends either and we later see that Momo has been trying to get them to be friends.
The reach the town and it’s a remote place in the mountains. It’s also near a volcano which feeds the hot springs and so it’s also a hot springs town. We also get a glimpse at some of the townseople and they’re a bit… off. Jiji’s home is right at the top of a hill with many, many steps. They eventually make it up there and the home seems… normal? Momo doesn’t sense anything, leading her to conclude that what’s haunting the home are weak spirits who are hiding right now. She’ll take care of this problem in the evening. In the meantime, she’s going to soak in the hot springs and to leave Okarun and Jiji alone. There’s a budding rivalry between the both of them regarding Momo when Okarun notices something about the home that he didn’t spot earlier. Somehow, there’s this big section that just suddenly appeared. The two boys find the area where it should be as Jiji takes a sledgehammer to it. It seems that the entire wing is made out of talismans for some reason.
Elsewhere, Momo is relaxing at a hot springs and hoping that Jiji and Okarun are friends by now. She doesn’t realize that it’s a mixed bath as some men jump in, but they’re definitely creeping towards her. She realizes that she may have to use her powers to get out of this, but one of them gets the jump on her first… And, that’s it until next summer. By then, we’ll be watching this show wearing shirts instead of Christmas sweaters (Ugly is a matter of personal taste. I’m not going to judge ya for wearing a Christmas-themed Three-Wolf Moon sweater). It’s been a fun ride and that’s one heck of a cliffhanger to end at, but I’ll definitely be back next summer.
Marty
December 21, 2024 at 8:46 pmI ain’t gonna lie, despite the cast being stacked, Turbo Granny probably had my favorite voice acting performance of the lot.
She’s able to be menacing one second, and adorkably stubborn in her ceramic cat form. I love it.
Guardian Enzo
December 21, 2024 at 9:04 pmWell I mean Tanaka Mayumi, come on.