Dan Da Dan Review: The Best Anime in Years

I’ve been keeping a close eye on anime studio Science Saru for a while now, with its work on Star Wars: Visions and Scott Pilgrim Takes Off being very impressive. Still, it’s always felt like the studio was holding back just a little bit — it’s clear that Science Saru is capable of incredible feats, if only it got the chance to flex its creative muscles. Dan Da Dan is exactly that, with a great story making way for some of the best animation I’ve ever seen.

Dan Da Dan doesn’t waste any time getting into its story. Most anime would spend an episode or two explaining the backstory or its characters motivations before getting to the good stuff. Not Dan Da Dan. Instead, it introduces its main protagonists with spectacularly animated scenes, then immediately throws them into the thick of the story.

Dan Da Dan follows the trials and tribulations of two high school kids, a girl called Momo and a boy called Okarun. Momo is the granddaughter of a spirit medium who believes in ghosts but not aliens, while Okarun is a social outcast who’s obsessed with aliens and UFOs but doesn’t believe in ghosts.

In a chance encounter, Momo helps Okarun stand up to some bullies, after which Okarun becomes obsessed with sharing his passions with her. The two clash, frustrated with each others’ disbelief, and enter into a mutual dare in which Momo has to go to an alien hotspot and Okarun has to enter a tunnel cursed by a ghost. Things don’t go to plan, and Okarun ends up possessed by a genital-obsessed ghost called Turbo Granny, while Momo gets abducted by horrific aliens before awakening psychokinetic powers.

It’s a quick, snappy setup that immediately gives our heroes a sense of personality, passion, and purpose. It takes less than five minutes for both protagonists to get deep into the meat of their stories, which is an absolutely blistering pace for an anime like this. It works thanks to some stellar animation that’s as stylish and speedy as the story it accompanies.

It’s also packed with some very intense scenes. Barely 10 seconds into the opening, Momo is faced with a dirtbag ex-boyfriend who demands she “puts out”, and the aliens she faces later are moments from sexually assaulting her when they’re interrupted. It’s not an anime for the faint of heart, and it doesn’t shy away from these topics or pull its punches in the slightest.

There’s also a decent amount of comedy, much of it leaning darker, with almost perfect comedic timing. Every single joke comes at exactly the right moment, cutting through a moment of darkness that’s milliseconds away from overstaying its welcome or punctuating a conversation with devastating precision.

And it’s all underscored by the most gorgeous animation and art direction you’ll ever see in an anime series. Science Saru is a master of movement and scene construction in all of its works, but its use of color – and the lack of color – is utterly breathtaking in Dan Da Dan. One episode in particular is almost entirely shown in greyscale, before the climax of the story sees a burst of red punching through the scene. There’s not a single anime on earth that comes close to capturing the stylishness and sense of aesthetics that Dan Da Dan pulls off in its first three episodes alone, and there’s no doubt that future episodes will deliver in this regard too.

Dan Da Dan is by far the best anime I’ve seen in years. Just three episodes in, it’s ticking every single box and exceeding every possible expectation that I had. Fantastic character work, a rock-solid storyline, and the most appealing art style in anime to date put Dan Da Dan in a league of its own, setting a new bar for everyone else in the industry to try and match. My one and only complaint is that I have to wait a month to see more.

Related: Dan Da Dan To Stream On Both Netflix and Crunchyroll This October