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Dan Da Dan has the romance of the ages: Boy meets girl. Boy believes in aliens. Girl believes in ghosts. Boy goes to a haunted tunnel and has an occult encounter where he gets his penis stolen by a ghost named Turbo Granny.
This absurd premise is the inspiration for the upcoming anime from Science Saru, Dan Da Dan. The show, which is based on the manga of the same name by Yukinobu Tatsu, follows two young adults, Ken Takakura (called Okarun by his friends) and Momo Ayase, who suddenly find themselves in the middle of a supernatural adventure. The two work together to defeat aliens and yokai alike in battles in an attempt to find Okarun’s long-lost genitals.
[Ed. note: This interview talks about the events in the first episode of the anime Dan Da Dan.]
Dan Da Dan has a little of everything — frenetic action sequences, the occult, classic sci-fi elements, and even elements from romantic comedies. As central as action might be to this shonen series, the show balances its heavier moments with light rom-com elements that come with the awkward and budding relationship shared between Momo and Okarun. In the anime, viewers can see this as the camera lingers on the bashful, avoidant gaze of Okarun, or the Momo’s furrowed look when she screams about her obsession, the Japanese actor Ken Takakura.
Producer Aoi Hiroyuki told Polygon that the team calls these kinds of small interactions “everyday action” or “everyday direction,” and sees them as vital to capturing the tone of Dan Da Dan.
“We wanted to make sure that we put a focus on those, more than normal anime, so then you will see more movement in the animation compared to a normal anime,” Hiroyuki said via a video call. “That’s done on purpose, like we wanted to use action instead of words to depict those kinds of small interactions.”
In addition to these moments, the team had what Hiroyuki called “lead scenes,” with beats that relate to each other in style, but highlight differences in how the relationship between Momo and Okarun has shifted.
“There’s that scene where Momo hands the magazine to Okarun,” Hiroyuki said. “At the end of the episode, when Okarun hands his clothes back to Momo because he’s embarrassed. Those two scenes are very similar in how they’re shown, because it shows how their relationship changed from the time they were at school, from the time they experienced the whole supernatural stuff afterwards.”
At its heart, Dan Da Dan is a series that unabashedly takes inspiration from all kinds of genres, like horror, rom-coms, and more — a method Hiroyuki credits at least in part to Fuga Yamashiro’s distinct approach as a director.
“Working with, you know, director Yamashiro, he’s a very young director. This is his directorial debut. But he’s very passionate. He’s very interesting. [...] Working with him, even from the script phase, he has different notes, or he’ll bring up these different notes from watching various other media.”
With all the genres that influence the series, it would be easy for Dan Da Dan to be scattered or unfocused, but it’s not. Instead, it delivers a pulsing action series that’s just as interested in diving into the day-to-day life and relationships of its characters as it is showing off the next big baddie that its cast will fight. In the end, what we get is a world that feels lived-in and alive — no matter where Turbo Granny shows up next.
Dan Da Dan’s first three episodes are screening now as part of a theatrical release. The first episode will stream on Crunchyroll, Netflix, and Hulu on Oct. 3.
