After a great first season in bringing Yukinobu Tatsu’s Dandadan manga to life, animation studio Science Saru scores yet another home run with the science fiction and supernatural animated series’ second season.
Picking up directly from the previous season’s cliffhanger, Dandadan’s latest season primarily covers Jiji’s (Kaito Ishikawa) house, him being possessed by the Evil Eye entity, how the existing characters have to deal with the situation, before wrapping up by introducing the robot-obsessed Kinta (Daichi Fujiwara) and a new, unnamed female character.
Amid Dandadan’s usual ghosts, monsters and robot tomfoolery, Momo (Shion Wakayama) and Okarun’s (Natsuki Hanae) relationship continues to grow, with the young psychic and shy nerd learning more about themselves and each other.
Unlike other anime, Dandadan does not follow the typical storytelling approach of each season having an overarching plot. Every few episodes, the season shifts gear, introducing new characters and then propelling into a new plotline involving those characters.
Though in the first season, this tendency to jump from one plotline to another was slightly jarring, Science Saru handles it more naturally this time around, but the same pattern remains: how the season starts is radically different from how it ends.
It is also worth noting that while good English dubs for Japanese animation is a rarity, the voice work by Dandadan’s English cast remains stellar this season. In one instance, it was even better than the original Japanese, like how the vocalist for power metal band Dragonforce, Marc Hudson, was brought on board to play a minor character and perform a full-blown rock song during an important exorcism sequence.
In more ways than one, the season is a step up, from the humour, animation and action to its more human beats involving aspects such as Momo and Okarun’s relationship and Evil Eye’s sad backstory as a child. Given the cliffhanger, fans are in for a treat with Dandadan’s future third season involving the mysterious girl.