Dandadan Anime Review: Why Science SARU Created the Most Wildly Creative Shonen Debut of the Year

The Dandadan anime is Science SARU’s visual masterpiece: a supernatural shonen that feels like nothing else airing right now, adapting Yukinobu Tatsu’s collision of extraterrestrial conspiracies, folk occult horror and sincere adolescent romance. Standard adaptation methods were never going to survive that sensory overload, so the studio treated eccentricity as an art form and refused to sit still for a single second. Yet the reason it lands isn’t the madness; it’s the romantic core beating quietly beneath it.

1. What Is Dandadan About?

Dandadan is an occult comedy about two high schoolers who each believe in exactly half of the unexplained. Momo Ayase is sure ghosts are real but laughs off aliens, while her classmate Ken Takakura, nicknamed Okarun, swears by UFOs and scoffs at spirits. A bet to prove each other wrong sends them to a haunted tunnel and an alien hotspot on the same night, and both discover they were right. From there, aliens and ghosts keep crashing into their lives, and the pair team up to fight them off. The tone swings just as hard: one scene is a slapstick chase with a yokai granny hitting highway speeds, the next is genuine horror or a quiet teenage heartbreak, and the show never apologizes for the whiplash.

The story comes from the Dandadan manga by Yukinobu Tatsu, serialized on Shueisha's Shonen Jump+ app since 2021. The core Dandadan characters are Momo, a psychic granddaughter of a spirit medium, and Okarun, a shy occult nerd possessed by a yokai's power, with a growing cast of allies orbiting them. For a full character and chapter reference, the Wikipedia entry and the Dandadan page on MyAnimeList are good starting points.

2. Ghosts Meet Aliens: The Clash of Two Improbable Beliefs

The foundational charm of the narrative rests on a delightful ideological stalemate. Momo Ayase believes wholeheartedly in ghosts while vehemently rejecting the existence of extraterrestrials. Ken Takakura, affectionately dubbed Okarun, obsesses over alien conspiracies while dismissing spirit stories as ridiculous folklore.

Their wager to prove each other wrong spiraled into sheer comedic terror. Momo encounters horrific alien abductors with bizarre anatomy, while Okarun stumbles into the clutches of the terrifying Turbo Granny spirit. The resulting partnership forces two polar opposites to depend on one another, igniting one of the most endearing romantic partnerships modern anime has to offer.

3. Science SARU’s Limitless Animation Freedom

Science SARU has always maintained a legendary reputation for expressive character animation and fluid distortion, but this production pushes their experimental boundaries even further. Rather than leaning on stiff modern digital sheen, the animators treat every frame with kinetic energy and deliberate caricature.

Psychedelic Color and Dynamic Pacing

Color palettes mutate dynamically depending on the current threat level. Ghostly encounters burst with haunting crimson shades and deep psychological shadows, while alien confrontations pulse with neon greens, fluorescent pinks, and dizzying geometric warp effects.

Turbo Charged Choreography

Combat encounters move at blistering speeds. The transformation sequences avoid generic power escalation tropes, choosing instead to emphasize body horror, raw momentum, and hilarious physical comedy that keeps the audience glued to the screen.

4. A Genuine Romantic Core Beneath the Madness

While the spectacle features cursed golden orbs, subterranean cryptids, and acrobatic spirit battles, the true heart of the production remains touchingly human. Beneath the chaotic exterior, both Momo and Okarun are lonely young people seeking validation and belonging.

The dialogue between the two leads crackles with natural chemistry. Their awkward teenage bickering, shared vulnerabilities, and mutual protective instincts ground the supernatural lunacy in real emotional truth, making viewers care deeply about their survival.

That warmth spreads to the wider cast, too. The supporting Dandadan characters, from former enemies turned housemates to Momo's no-nonsense grandmother Seiko, each get a moment where the jokes stop and their loneliness shows, which is why the found-family scenes land as hard as the fights.

5. How Many Episodes Does Dandadan Have?

The Dandadan anime has 24 episodes so far, split across two seasons. Season 1 ran for 12 episodes from October to December 2024, and season 2 added another 12 from July to September 2025, picking up immediately from the season 1 cliffhanger. Both seasons were produced by Science SARU, so the look and energy stay consistent across all 24 Dandadan episodes, and there are no filler arcs to skip.

Season 1 premiered on October 4, 2024 and ended on December 20, 2024, stopping mid-arc on a cliffhanger inside the Evil Eye story. Season 2 premiered on July 3, 2025 and aired weekly through September 18, 2025.

6. Dandadan Season 3 — Release Date and Time

Yes, Dandadan season 3 is confirmed. The announcement came in December 2025 at Jump Festa 2026, where the Japanese voice cast revealed a new key visual and a 2027 premiere window, with Science SARU returning to animate it. The reveal took place on December 21, 2025 on the Jump Festa stage in Japan, and the new visual swaps the earlier seasons' palette for bold purple tones, with a wide-eyed Okarun and Turbo Granny front and center.

As for the exact Dandadan season 3 release date and time, there isn't one yet. As of September 2026, neither Science SARU nor the streaming partners have named a premiere month or broadcast time, so if you're wondering when Dandadan season 3 comes out, 2027 is the only confirmed answer. Treat any specific day you see elsewhere as speculation until an official trailer lands.

Story-wise, Dandadan season 3 will continue adapting the manga from where season 2 stopped, which means bigger alien threats and more of the Momo and Okarun push-and-pull that anchors the show. With the manga still running, there's plenty of source material left to adapt. Early coverage points to the Space Globalists arc as the next major story, though the studio hasn't confirmed an episode count.

7. Where to Watch the Dandadan Anime

You can stream the Dandadan anime on Crunchyroll, which carries both seasons with subtitles and an English dub, and on Netflix in most regions. Both services licensed the series for worldwide streaming, so they are also the most likely places to watch Dandadan season 3 when it premieres in 2027.

In the US, both seasons stream on Crunchyroll, Netflix and Hulu. Season 2 simulcast on all three every Thursday alongside the Japanese broadcast, with English dub episodes released the same day as the subtitled ones. Outside the US, availability varies by region, so check your local catalog.

8. Is Dandadan Suitable for All Ages?

No. The series is aimed at teens and adults, not young children. In the US it carries a TV-MA rating on streaming services, while MyAnimeList lists it as "R – 17+" for violence and profanity, which is why so many people ask why Dandadan is rated R. The show mixes gory body horror, frequent swearing, and a running thread of crude sexual humor, including an early plot built around aliens abducting Momo and a spirit stealing Okarun's, well, family jewels. None of it is explicit, but it's closer to Chainsaw Man than to family-friendly shonen, so parents should preview an episode first.

The heaviest moment comes early: in episode 1, the aliens strip Momo to her underwear and threaten to assault her, a scene played for horror rather than laughs. Later arcs add on-screen deaths, bloody yokai fights and tragic backstories, so the tone gets darker as the series goes on even while the comedy stays crude.

9. Final Verdict: Unfiltered Shonen Energy at Its Best

Dandadan succeeds because it refuses to play by the safe rules of traditional fantasy adventure. It embraces complete absurdity without ever sacrificing visual craftsmanship or heartfelt storytelling.

For audiences craving animation that bursts with personality, boundary pushing artistic flair, and genuine laughs, this series represents an exhilarating triumph that should not be missed.

If you haven't started yet, now is the perfect time to catch up: the Dandadan anime is one of the boldest shows Science SARU has ever made, and Dandadan season 3 is locked in for 2027. We'll update this page as soon as an exact release date is announced, and you can follow every new trailer and announcement in our anime hub.

If Dandadan's genre-mashing chaos is your speed, Kill Blue's hitman school comedy and our Witch Hat Atelier review offer two very different takes on genre-blending storytelling. For romance wrapped in mystery, see our preview of The Detective Is Already Dead Season 2, or explore the anime hub.