Shonen is Changing With No Damsels in Distress After Last Week’s Heartbreak

Watching Dandadan Episode 8 would almost make fans forget just how devastating the previous episode had been. It was as if I hadn’t been crying my heart out just a week ago. Suddenly I find myself in the midst of a romance anime waiting to happen, a love triangle keeping me on the edge of my seat and an alien invasion that is making me laugh. Am I team Aira or team Momo? (Obviously, I am team Momo.)

The episode takes things up a notch by subtly breaking the fourth wall as well. Aira and Momo’s arguments while slurping ramen aren’t just something that would have me rolling over the floor laughing, but also it was their pushing away text that brought a new element into the picture. The series is taking the opportunity to introduce new techniques as it progresses and the method has been working rather flawlessly.

It’s not difficult to make strong female leads and Yukinobu Tatsu is perhaps the best to justify that cause. In many cases for media, two strong female characters are a bigger problem than the overall story, but that wouldn’t be the case for this anime. Okarun, Aira, and Momo; no one is a useless character in the series and they can all hold their own.

Dandadan is Taking Fans for a Ride

The previous Dandadan episode was rated amongst the highest in the year with Demon Slayer’s season finale being the only other episode with a 9.8 rating on IMDb in 2024. What that episode did would be talked about for a long time. So imagine my surprise when I see Aira accusing Momo of being a demon while eating ramen in her house. Her deluded view of the world is so amusing to me, especially because she has accepted herself to be the main character of the story when it is further from the truth.

Okarun’s mission to get stronger for the sake of Momo backfires horribly after Aira’s obsession with him turns into a rather uncomfortable encounter. The episode takes an opportunity to better explore both of their feelings for the male lead, understanding while they both feel similarly for him, their ways of expression and understanding differ greatly. What I personally liked by this depiction is just how drastically realistic much of it is.

The first half runs like a romance anime that is heavily inclined toward comedy while the latter half brings up not only the animation quality but also the thrill. If you managed to love Aira in the previous episode, those thoughts might very quickly change with this one. The central couple getting a third wheel is never fun, more so if she’s all over Okarun. Momo’s jealousy was fun to watch and justified through and through.

While Okarun’s intentions may have been clean, things did not end well due to happenstance. It was only when the aliens attacked that I took a sigh of relief. With bigger fish to fry, Aira couldn’t go after Momo. The episode even managed to add a Shin Godzilla reference with Nessie’s beam firing right above the protagonist’s head. Nonetheless, the highlight of the episode would definitely have to be at the end with Aira transforming into Acrobatic Silky right as the Serpo charges to take Okarun’s ‘banana organ.’

Aira’s savior complex makes it impossible for her to see herself as anything but the chosen one. Her need to save Okarun and also the belief that she would be the one to rid the world of evil brings forth her iconic transformation as Acrobatic Silky.

Utilizing the Ripple Effect

Momo and Nessie’s interactions weren’t the only place where the ripple effect was utilized in the episode. As it suggests, the ripple effect is caused when an unexpected disturbance causes an even bigger problem in turn. As ripples work, one small movement can lead to a much bigger ripple to form. Inadvertently, Aira’s obsession with kissing Okarun as a form of confessing her feelings leads to a series of events that sabotage his relationship with Momo.

Whether or not Aira had any intention to do so, the damage was done simply because she thought her forbidden love for a ‘demon’ like Okarun was meant to be. Okarun, whose primary goal was to get stronger so as to fight next to and protect Momo; got stuck in a pickle he couldn’t even understand. His blatant rejection of Aira’s feelings wasn’t enough to break her deluded world and that leads to Momo witnessing what looks like the initiation of a kiss.

This misunderstanding not only impacts his friendship and Momo’s feelings for him, but it also leads them to be separated when an increasingly bigger problem is looming over them. Adding comedy to the seriousness of the second half, the Serpo race talks about the quality of Okarun’s ‘banana organ’ and how his powers as Turbo Granny make him a better candidate for reproduction than searching for female reproductive organs. Well, at least he got half of his family jewels back, right?

I wouldn’t go so far as to compare it to the previous episode but the animation, especially with Nessie, Mr. Mantis Shrimp, and the Serpo coming into the picture, was captivating. While the first half lacked that quality, the second half simply made up for it. However, not every episode can be of premium quality and that’s okay as long as another incident like that of Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 can be avoided.

Rating: 8/10

Dandadan is available to watch on Crunchyroll.

Dandadan Episode 8 Review: Shonen is Changing With No Damsels in Distress After Last Week’s Heartbreak

Dandadan episodes are switching genres faster than the speed of light.