DanDaDan: First Encounter

Creator: Yukinobu Tatsu

Writer: Hiroshi Seko

Director: Fûga Yamashiro

As anime series go, new multi-part sci-fi horror thriller DanDaDan comes with a ready-made audience, fans of the manga eager to see how their favourite creations has been brought to the screen by animator Naoyuki Onda and director Fûga Yamashiro. With the first three episodes available to view in cinemas for one night only, those unfamiliar with the source material may find the extreme visual impact and emphatic interactions a little hard to navigate as two unlikely friends bond over discovering that the aliens that Miss Ayase refuses to believes in and the ghosts Okarun cannot fathom, both co-exist and come to destroy them.

Meeting in school when the introverted Okarun is bullied by his classmates, the confident Miss Ayase agrees to test his obsession with UFOs and her belief in the spirit world. But a curse unleashes Turbo Granny into the world manifested through Okarun who physically transforms, unleashing psychic powers in Miss Aygase who holds the metamorphosis back until the curse can be lifted, finding friendship and self-discovery along the way.

The first three episodes of DanDaDan are a really mixed experience depending on the degree of knowledge you have about the manga original and its concept. Each 20-minute episode is certainly action packed with some kind of ghost-alien-psychic force hybrid confrontation that Miss Ayase and Okarun must use their combined powers to solve, leading them to the next chapter in their story and presumably closer to the end goal. Overlaying this are some longer narratives about teenage anxiety, social expectations and the effects of upbringing and inheritance on belief systems even across this early section of episodes which are beginning to formulate.

Yet there are other aspects of DanDaDan that sit less comfortably with viewers who may be unfamiliar with the material, not lease the overt sexualisation of the female characters shown in seductive poses, acres of visible flesh and often deep cleavage. Episode One should carry a trigger warning as the teenage female lead is stripped to her underwear and threatened with rape while Onda’s animation focuses repeatedly on her pant-covered crotch. Likewise, the three episodes show anger issues and use of derogatory language that are seen as normalised behaviours in which characters inexplicably scream at each other with little provocation. The term ‘hag’ is used often against women and by women. Too little attention to these issues undermines the shows heroic and more positive empowerment narratives.

Onda’s animation applies different techniques to achieve a screen intensity that proves both macabre and abstract, a combination that may be odd but is often compelling as the demands of action and narrative drivers for each episode interact with longer trajectories and innovative approaches to storytelling. A strange but often compelling watch, this may be difficult to sustain for another unknown number of episodes but there may be sufficient intrigue to keep you watching.

DanDaDan released in cinemas across the UK and Ireland in a special preview event for one-night only on Friday 13th September.