Tag: Science Saru

While the end is near for Dan Da Dan season two, animation studio Science Saru isn’t repeating what it did last season with the show concluding on a crushing mid-arc cliffhanger. Instead, the lovey-dovey raucous sci-fi-meets-yokai anime is going out with a bang, with its penultimate episode setting up a cataclysmic giant robot versus space kaiju battle to send anime fans home happy. In Dan Da Dan episode 11, “Hey, It’s a Kaiju,” the gang battles a kaiju. While Momo, Okarun, and their new friend, Kenta Sakata, are on the hunt for what they believe to be Okarun’s missing golden testicle (at this point, don’t ask), they discover the glowing ball they’d been chasing around an apartment complex was actually emanating from the inside of a human-sized kaiju. Thinking they cinched an easy victory, the crew quickly reckon with an even bigger threat as the kaiju grows into a full-sized threat, towering over them and chasing them throughout the city.

Momo, Okarun, and Kenta wind up running into Aira and Jiji, rounding out their weirdo superpowered squad, but their feeble attempts at teamwork don’t seem to slow the big lizard down. Okarun, referring to his occult knowledge, surmises that the giant kaiju isn’t a normal kaiju but a space kaiju, because of course it is. Despite Aira taking charge with her Bayonetta-esque hair yokai powers from Acrosilky, she’s overwhelmed by the space kaiju’s ability to not only shoot lightning from its horns but also to cloak itself in an invisibility field. Thinking better of their first giant team-up odds, the gang makes a tactical retreat back to the Ayase house with the kaiju in pursuit, treating the city like a giant diorama for it to trample over.

Back at the house, the gang has a little bit of infighting, with Evil Eye repossessing Jiji and hankering for a fight, Momo and Aira fighting over Okarun, and Okarun simply wigging out over how they’re gonna deal with the giant green discount Gamera kaiju sauntering their way.

Ever the smart egg, Okarun remembers the nanoskin they used to rebuild Ayase’s house and hatches a plan to create something big enough to battle the kaiju. The only problem is that Okarun doesn’t have a big enough imagination to come up with anything. Enter Kinta Sakata.

As well-established in the previous episode, Kinta is a huge otaku for sci-fi, specifically, mecha anime of Mobile Suit Gundam ilk. Hilariously, Science Saru went to great lengths to hype up Kinta’s arrival like a goddamn Marvel superhero by showing off his dedication to the medium in his singing of classic mecha anime theme songs and showing off his freshly painted knock-off Gundam gunpla with the paint still staining his fingers. Seizing his moment, Kinta triggers a transformation of the Ayase house, turning it into a chimera of mecha anime references along the way.

It’s Neon Genesis Evangelion, Gurren Lagann, Power Rangers, and all Dan Da Dan with Momo, to the dismay of Kinta, making its design look like a Buddha simply because she panicked thinking of something big to fight the kaiju. With everyone hilariously conveyed to their makeshift battle stations, they’re ready to face the kaiju. The only problem is that they don’t quite know how to make it move.

One interesting detail about the long-awaited arrival of the space kaiju is that Science Saru cleverly hid this moment in plain sight. In the anime’s opening theme, there is a quick frame showing a green shadow of the space kaiju along the walls of the hallway that Okarun and Momo are rushing through. This subtle Easter egg reference also cleverly hints at the creature’s ability to mask its presence.

Seeing as how next week’s episode will mark the end of the season, manga fans likely have an inkling of the exact beat the story will end on, and it’s a big one that’ll probably leave anime-onlys in agony over whether or not they want to read ahead in the manga to figure out where Okarun and Momo’s shonen romance takes them next in the indescribable world of Dan Da Dan. Hopefully, fans won’t have to wait long to get that answer should the show get renewed as swiftly as it did the last time for a third season.

Dan Da Dan is streaming on Crunchyroll, Netflix, and Hulu.

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The ninth episode of Dan Da Dan hit the ground running with an explosive rematch between Okarun and Evil Eye. But in an episode that otherwise was pretty chill and low-key, Science Saru set up the building blocks for the show’s big showdown that manga readers have been waiting for with bated breath to see adapted in all its glory.

As noted up top, Okarun and Evil Eye fought in a cold open that we won’t even attempt to give the play-by-play for. The only thing that matters is that it nailed manga creator Yukinobu Tatsu‘s ink-splotch-esque outline of an enraged Okarun putting the Evil Eye on the back foot, adding to the show’s already stellar adaptation of the manga.

The end of their battle saw Okarun rage-bait Evil Eye into promising to only fight him every week instead of putting humanity on notice for his purple-tinted onslaught. With Evil Eye surrendering control of Jiji Enjoji’s body, the gang calls it quits for their impromptu sleepover at Momo Ayase’s house, which was left in rubble after Okarun and Evil Eye’s battle.

Setting aside their problems for later, Momo, Seiko, Turbo Granny, and Hana decided to use the remainder of their funds for a much-needed spa day. Although Momo suggested asking Jiji, Aira, and Okarun to contribute towards the repairs, they ultimately chose to ignore that idea.

Upon returning home, they were met with a peculiar sight: a blocky alien at their doorstep. Unlike everyone else, who are animated in 2D, Ludris, the blocky alien, is animated in 3D, giving him an off-brand Minecraft Steve look. Thankfully, Science Saru didn’t have to issue an apology for paying homage to video game developer Mojang Studios like it had to last week for another pop culture reference. However, instead of being a new foe, it turns out that the alien is a friend of their boxing ally, Peeny-Weeny.

It’s here where Ludris, via Peeny-Weeny, explains the rules of nanoskin, a new alien element they’ll use to fix the Ayase house. Essentially, just as gamers can use Minecraft blocks to create whatever their imagination can conceive, nanoskin is an alloy that molds into whatever the user’s memory envisions it to become. After some experimentation with the alloy, Okarun, Momo, and the crew restore the Ayase house. The rest of the episode follows Momo as she tries, in vain, to wrangle Evil Eye at school without causing too much of a ruckus in the rest of the episode.

In an after-credits stinger, Dan Da Dan teased the long-awaited, social media-hyped arrival of a new member of their Scooby-Doo-esque gang of weirdos, Kinta Sakata. Daichi Fujiwara voices Kinta in Japanese and Bryce Papenbrook (Eren Jaeger in Attack on Titan and Inosuke in Demon Slayer) in English. Science Saru’s social media has been heavily promoting Kinta’s arrival, releasing his own character trailer and a painted poster to hype his arrival.

While manga fans love to hate him, they all owe their loyalty to the otaku’s arrival for being responsible for one of the hardest double-page spreads in the manga to date, with a big kaiju mecha showdown. However, today’s humble episode laid the groundwork for understanding the mechanics of one side of its Godzilla versus Gundam battle.

Kinta, like Okarun and crew, will use his own vivid imagination for everything mecha to construct a giant robot to do battle with a towering kaiju. We love a modest episode explaining lore mechanics so a show can get busy delivering the action. Plus, it’s looking like this climactic battle is the note that Dan Da Dan‘s second season will send viewers home with. Anything beats that painful mid-arc cliffhanger from its first season, so hopefully Science Saru will keep doing Science Saru things, adapting the manga’s fight and elevating it to new heights only achievable in animation.

New episodes of Dan Da Dan release every Thursday on Crunchyroll, Netflix, and Hulu.

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