Dandadan is undoubtedly the hit anime of the season. Based on the manga by Yukino Tatsu with animation by Science SARU, Dandadan‘s plot is absolutely wild. After losing his family jewels to the evil spirit Turbo Granny, Okarun and his new psychic friend Momo must track down his Kintama, facing evil aliens and creepy spirits along the way. Casual audiences never expected a show that effectively boils down to “teenager loses his testicles” to hit so hard, but Dandadan is peak 2024 anime.
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Thankfully, Dandadan lives up to its wild plot with some incredible scenes. Season 1 didn’t include a single bad episode — even its worst episode is still great by most standards. To narrow down the best moments in Dandadan is an almost impossible task. But, Turbo Granny help us, we’re going to try.
10. Turbo Granny Enjoys Campus Life
Turbo Granny’s decline in power should be studied at universities. After tricking Momo and Okarun, the latter accidentally absorbs all of her power, allowing him to transform at will while she is left powerless. Desperate to escape from Seiko, she infuses her soul with a beckoning cat.
Audiences see more of Turbo Granny in her unfortunate cat form than her spirit form, as she helps Okarun find his missing Kintama in return for her powers back. Cat Turbo Granny is even more mischievous in Episode 6 when she sneaks into Okarun’s backpack and explores his school while he runs away (literally) from his feelings for Momo.
9. Jiji Joins the Fight
While Dandadan follows Momo and Okarun as their friendship slowly transforms into something more, we are introduced to some hilarious secondary allies. While the self-obsessed Aira is a welcome addition, Jiji takes our prize as the best supporting character.
Jiji is fully introduced in Episode 11. As a lifelong friend of Momo (and her first crush), Okarun immediately feels threatened by him. But, in a moment of dramatic irony, he’s revealed to be an absolute idiot. Jiji is narcissistic, childish, and energetically animated. While he only gets two full episodes in Season 1, we know how much of a major player he will become in future seasons.
8. The Flatwoods Monster
Dandadan‘s second episode is by far the darkest in the show (literally). When Momo takes Okarun to meet her granny, Seiko, the two are stopped by a gigantic, sumo-loving alien.
The Flatwoods monster threatens to end Okarun and Momo’s journey before it even begins. Shrouded in black and white, the Flatwoods Monster forces Momo and Okarun to embrace their powers to survive. The fight scene is stunning and pushes Momo and Okarun to their limits.
7. Jiji’s Evil Eye Flashback
Despite centering around evil yokai spirits and aliens obsessed with human anatomy, Dandadan is rarely “scary.” However, a flashback scene from Episode 11 comes damn close. After introducing Jiji as Momo’s idiotic lifelong friend, the character briefly steps back from his over-the-top antics to explain why he came to stay with Momo and Seiko.
After moving house, Jiji began noticing strange goings on in their new home. Shortly before his parents were hospitalized, Jiji came face to face with the spirit Evil Eye in the hallway. Unlike the bright and colorful episodes that came before, the flashback is dark, ominous, and feels like it was ripped straight out of a Junji Ito manga.
6. Earthbound Spirit Crab Chase
For a 12-episode Shonen anime about aliens and yokai spirits, Dandadan isn’t packed full of action. But the action sequences audiences are treated to are absolutely gorgeous.
The Earthbound Spirit Crab chase from Episode 4 is one of the best action sequences of 2024. Turbo Granny sets the Earthbound Spirit Crab on Momo and Okarun when they return to her tunnel to trick her. Using Okarun’s new powers, the pair flee across the highway away from the giant crab into the city. With a beautiful score, the scene is an adrenaline-fueled thrill ride.
5. Momo and Okarun’s First “Kiss”
In between the evil spirits, creepy aliens, and missing family jewels, Dandadan is about the blossoming romance between Okarun and Momo. For 12 episodes, viewers watch painfully as neither one can confess their growing feelings.
But, in Episode 5, the chemistry collides as the pair share their first kiss… kind of. After spending the entire episode looking for each other, they accidentally bump heads, and their lips touch. That’s as close as the pair have come to a romantic interaction in Season 1, but Episode 12 revealed that Okarun still held it close to his heart.
4. Dandadan X Shin Godzilla
As previously mentioned, when Dandadan has a fight scene, it goes all out. In Episode 9, Momo, Okarun, and Aira have been held hostage by the Serpo Aliens and their hired fighter, Mr. Mantis Shrimp. If that wasn’t bad enough, they must face down Dandadan‘s version of Shin Godzilla.
Named Nessie in the anime, the creature is based on the popular Scottish cryptid. But its design in the anime is less Loch Ness Monster, more atomic-breath-shooting Godzilla. Like the Earthbound Spirit Crab chase, Episode 9’s fight is gorgeous, as the trio must navigate their flooded school and deal with the mutated Nessie.
3. Creepy Nuts’ “Otonoke” OP
Is including an anime’s OP in the Top 10 Best Moments list cheating? When it comes to Dandadan, we don’t care. Creepy Nuts created unprecedented fire with the new track, “Otonoke,” which fans online are obsessed with.
If the catchy song wasn’t enough to earn a place on the list, the pop-culture-filled opening credits are gorgeous. The credits introduce the core characters while perfectly capturing the silly tone of the show and its four idiotic protagonists.
2. Turbo Granny’s Introduction
Where would Dandadan be without Turbo Granny? The character begins as a major antagonist, stealing Okarun’s jewels and scattering them across the country. But, she later becomes a “trusted” ally after being trapped in a beckoning cat figurine.
Several Turbo Granny moments could make the list, but her introduction from Episode 1 has to be the most iconic. Attempting to prove Momo wrong about spirits, Okarun enters an abandoned tunnel. The scene is suspenseful, the animation is gorgeous, and the line “I’ll let you suckle my teats, so lemme gobble that weenie” will go down in anime history — bonus points for being voiced by Mayumi Tanaka (Monkey D. Luffy in One Piece).
1. Acrobatic Silky’s Backstory
Who knew Dandadan would reduce grown men to tears with its heartbreaking seventh episode? Episode 6 introduced the spirit named Acrobatic Silky, who became obsessed with Aira and saw her as a daughter figure. Episode 7 transformed the spirit from a major antagonist to the most sympathetic anime villain of the year.
Between the fight sequences, we see flashbacks of Acrobatic Silky’s human life. As a young woman, she worked many jobs to provide for her daughter. But, when gangsters broke into her home, beat her up, and stole her daughter, she walked for days to get her back. Succumbing to her wounds, she turned into Acrobatic Silky, forever searching for her missing daughter. It created a sublime experience that catapulted Episode 7 to the best installment Dandadan Season 1 has to offer.
