Dandadan Season 2 evaluation: Science SARUs madhouse menagerie is an unhinged masterpiece

Pitch Dandadan to somebody who’s by no means seen it and also you’ll seemingly sound like a candidate for psychiatric commentary. “So, there’s this teenager, whose testicles had been pilfered by the spirit of a vengeful granny…” — and proper about there’s when most sane listeners will excuse themselves from the dialog. Season 2 of Science SARU’s adaptation of Yokinobu Tatsu’s hit manga doubles down on its oddities, that includes demonic babysitting shifts, the sandworm from Dune, perverse landlords straight out of a foreclosures nightmare, an exorcism carried out by Slipknot at a shrine pageant, a cavalcade of homicidal classical composers, and only for good measure, Godzilla. Try explaining that at dinner and see how lengthy it takes earlier than somebody suggests skilled assist.

That none of that is parody, is the key to Dandadan’s unusual magnetism. It is lifeless severe in its unseriousness, and makes a meal out of those outlandish garnishes. Its sophomore outing proves as soon as once more that Science SARU is the uncommon studio that may spin artwork from the insane.

Picking up from final yr’s cliffhanger, we rejoin Momo Ayase and Ken “Okarun” Takakura, whose awkward flirtations function ballast in opposition to the chaos swirling round them. Around this unlikely romance, the present erects a corridor of mirrors the place Japanese yokai folklore, pulp sci-fi, and shounen bravado conflict in more and more outrageous methods. To watch Dandadan is to be consistently reminded that there is no such thing as a style boundary Science SARU is not going to violate with abandon.

The studio has constructed its repute on that elasticity, with its characters and frames stretching, snapping, and recombining with rubbery logic. Directors Fuga Yamashiro and Abel Gongora commerce off episodes like relay runners racing throughout a Möbius strip — one leaning towards gothic depth, and the opposite towards slapstick neon irreverence. But what’s exceptional is how cohesive the pandemonium feels. This isn’t random weirdness thrown on the wall, however a rigorously orchestrated carnival.

The Evil Eye arc dominates this season. Jiji, the as soon as brash interloper within the Momo–Okarun dynamic, emerges as a personality of real pathos. His possession by the Evil Eye yokai is staged as a tragedy, and the animation itself breaks down into jagged, anxious linework that recollects Masaaki Yuasa at his most expressive.

Of course, Dandadan not often lingers in solemnity for lengthy. Within minutes, we’re hurled into sequences that stretch the boundaries of what TV animation can do, and the sheer velocity of concepts is intoxicating. Each battle is drenched in its personal chromatic identification, with alien encounters seeping into swampy greens, yokai hauntings throbbing in reds and blacks, and the Evil Eye emanating a regal, electrical purple. Even the climactic kaiju battle is delivered with the maximalist zeal of Gurren Lagann and Pacific Rim, crossed with the visible gags of Kung Fu Hustle.

And if Dandadan’s visuals really feel like they’re perpetually folding in on themselves, its soundscape isn’t any much less mercurial. Kensuke Ushio scores the season with the eclectic precision of a DJ who delights in holding the ground off stability, with sugar-rush electronica for adolescent jitters, buzzsaw guitar riffs when fists begin flying, and sudden silences when heartbreak intrudes. He additionally salts the combo with more and more intelligent leitmotifs — bells tolling like a funereal joke at any time when the Evil Eye slithers in, a subterranean drone heralding the Mongolian Death Worm — that reward you when you begin listening for them.

What many have dismissed as Dandadan’s fan-pleasing pandering to the male gaze is in reality a pointy satire of Japan’s gender politics. Its aliens and yokai aren’t simply freaks of creativeness however stand-ins for incel rage, company predation, and the on a regular basis harassment younger girls are pressured to navigate. Beneath its technicolour lunacy, Dandadan levels a duel between custom and modernity, exposing how each can curdle into violence, and daring its teenage heroine to rewrite the principles with aplomb.

But amid the bedlam of horrors, the present additionally cultivates shocking intimacy. Whether its ghoulish battles, or hormonal awkwardness, Science SARU treats each register with equal reverence. A yokai duel is given the identical weight as a automotive trip the place two youngsters can’t fairly determine the place to relaxation their palms. Both are crises; each matter.

The season additionally sharpens its fondness for the found-family motif. Seiko Ayase’s eating desk, at first a lonely expanse, turns into a visible chorus: regularly crowded with strays, rivals, and cursed houseguests till it thrums with unlikely kinship. Against backdrops of interdimensional horror, the sight of adolescents consuming curry collectively is improbably shifting. Dandadan understands the worth of this gradual filling of chairs.

Perhaps that’s the reason the collection feels so defiantly alive. At a second when the business nervously scans for the chilly fingerprints of automation, Dandadan wears its humanity brazenly. Its artists publish storyboards on Twitter like love letters and its social media teases mimic tabloid headlines. Every body appears to declare, nearly petulantly: this was made by individuals.

Season 2 closes on yet one more cliffhanger, although Science SARU has instantly dangled the promise of a 3rd. Yet even when this had been the swan music for Momo, Okarun and their ever-expanding menagerie, it might already stand as a masterclass in adaptation. 

How far are you able to drag nonsense earlier than it falls aside? Dandadan proves the reply is someplace between “too far” and “please name an exorcist.” To watch it’s to give up to a rhythm the place sincerity and silliness are indistinguishable, and it feels perversely excellent that probably the most artistic anime on tv immediately begins with a lacking pair of testicles.

Dandadan is out there to stream on Crunchyroll