Whether you’re a manga reader or an anime-only, it should be pretty obvious by now that this is not a typical mood for Dandadan. It’s most certainly a series that trades on irreverence and manic energy. Frankly, it doesn’t go for the heartstrings very often. That’s not to say it doesn’t make you care about the characters, because it certainly does. But it doesn’t embrace the heart of darkness like this. I wouldn’t want it to be the norm, but as a curveball it was certainly highly effective.

For a while at least, it’s usual service on the line. Acrobatic Silky is pissed, and she’s proving to be a very challenging foe. Momo has a bright idea (she gets a lot of those in combat, some a higher wattage than others). Have Okarun go into Granny mode and lead Silky a merry chase, in the process causing her singed hair to become entangled in the countless detritus in the abandoned factory. That puts a spanner in the works of Silky’s plan to be together with Aira by devouring her.

At this point Momo entreats Okarun to just “blow her away”. Mind you that’s a problem for him, as he’s never calmly and rationally blown anyone away. How exactly does one go about that? It seems that the key for Ken, even in turbo mode, is motivation. When things go ass over teakettle and the pressure is on, he just reacts. And Okarun going all out is enough to take Acrobatic Silky down any number of pegs. Turbo Granny is rather dismissive of the effort, but even she has to admit that it’s going to be a while before Silky can cause any more trouble.

Turbo Granny takes the opportunity to retrieve Ken’s golden ball. She also delivers the news that Aira is, in fact, dead. This is normal, she says, when a regular human gets eaten by a youkai. Alas, poor Aira, though Momo isn’t willing to give up on her. She dispatches Okarun to the breathing half of CPR while she uses her powers to massage Aira’s heart. Granny is convinced this will be ineffective, and she seems to be right. But Acrobatic Silky intervenes, offering her own aura to give the flickering Aira’s a jump. Momo doesn’t trust her a bit, but Turbo Granny asserts that she’s right – and that this is probably the only way to save Aira.

This is where the episode takes a real left turn. In the process of connecting Silky’s aura to Aira’s, Momo gets a first-person viewpoint of how the spirit came to her current state – and so do we. This is an extremely effective bit of direction, another example of the anime using the means at its disposal to elevate the Dandadan experience. And it’s part of a recurring theme, where supposedly evil beings are revealed to have a more nuanced story than it initially appears. Acrobatic Silky’s is certainly tragic – and it’s no wonder at all that she became so fixated on Aira after their brief encounter. The fact that Aira had just lost her own mother just makes it that much more heartbreaking.

This is really good stuff – both in terms of the original writing and the way it was brought to the screen. Silky’s ending was tragic, but also redemptive – and it changes our perspective on Aira’s character, too. It’s no surprise to me that Dandadanime and Ao no Hako are proving probably the biggest hits of the season. They’re both really good manga with a very distinctive air, and both are getting excellent adaptations (this one certainly even better, with no disrespect to Blue Box). Tonal versatility is not something I would have listed as one of this series’ outstanding qualities, but it’s impressive that it can pull something like this off just the same.