DAN DA DAN

Dandadan is a supernatural action comedy anime from Science SARU, first broadcast in October 2024 and adapted from Yukinobu Tatsu's manga, running on Shueisha's Shonen Jump+ since April 2021. It starts as a dare: Momo Ayase, whose grandmother Seiko is a spirit medium, thinks aliens are a joke, while her UFO-mad classmate Ken Takakura thinks the same of ghosts, so each visits the other's hotspot. She gets abducted, he gets cursed: both were right. Momo calls him Okarun, from the word occult, because his real name belongs to a film star she adores. Turbo Granny, the yokai who cursed him, sets a pattern for Dandadan characters: one arc's threat, the next arc's ally.

Debut director Fuga Yamashiro lets the tone lurch on purpose: a hunt for Okarun's stolen testicles, body horror and sincere first-crush scenes can share an episode, while Kensuke Ushio's sample-heavy electronic score keeps the scares unsettling rather than campy. The proof is episode 7, "To a Kinder World", where Acrobatic Silky's attack on Aira Shiratori gives way to a near-wordless flashback expanded well beyond the manga; Anime News Network's reviewer called it perfect. Abel Góngora storyboarded the opening for Creepy Nuts' "Otonoke", which topped the Billboard Japan Hot 100 and won Best Anime Song and Best Opening Sequence at the 2025 Crunchyroll Anime Awards.

The crude humour loses some viewers, and Season 2 splits fans more: the cursed-house and Evil Eye storyline fills most of its 12 episodes, and several MyAnimeList reviews say it drags. Anime News Network's editors still voted it 2025's best anime; it is fourth in our best anime of 2025 list.

Two 12-episode seasons (autumn 2024, summer 2025) have aired as of October 2026, stopping around chapter 71, partway into volume 9 of the 25 volumes out in Japan. The films First Encounter (2024) and Evil Eye (2025) are cinema cuts of each season's first three episodes, so neither is required viewing. Season 3 is confirmed for 2027 with Science SARU returning, but no month has been announced; a January date posted by French streamer ADN in July 2026 was retracted. Our Dandadan explainer recaps both seasons.

It suits viewers who want horror, raunchy comedy and a slow-burn romance at once. Tatsu assisted Tatsuki Fujimoto on Chainsaw Man, and it shows, so our anime like Chainsaw Man list is the next stop.