DAN DA DAN Season 2

Episode 22

Whoever once said that “Cellar Door” was the most beautiful combination of words in the English language was a hack and a charlatan. Obviously, that honor goes to the sentence, “Hey, It's a Kaiju.” DAN DA DAN understands this fundamental truth of the world, clearly, since that's the title of its penultimate episode, and it delivers on every single syllable. “Hey!” I cried out in glee, mere seconds after the episode began, “It is, indeed, a kaiju!” God is in his heaven. All is right with the world.

The best thing about kaiju is that they are so delightful and entertaining no matter the context. Do I love it when a kaiju gets to be a big ol' hero that protects mankind and fights other, eviler kaiju? You're goddamned right, I do. At the same time, I am perfectly fine when a lone monster appears as nothing more than a simple villain to be taken down, because it is just as fun to watch humans have to band together to put a stop to whatever kaiju menace has arrived to smash their buildings, stomp their powerlines, and chomp on their trains. When you're a kaiju fanatic, every possible scenario is a winner, so long as monsters in rubber suits are tromping around.

In the case of DAN DA DAN, we get the added bonus of having a team of goofy teenagers with weird ghost powers for our heroes, which makes the kaiju fight much more interesting than if all we had to work with was a bunch of tanks and jet-planes. This battle marks the first official team-up where Momo, Okarun, Aira, and JijiVil Eye are all working together towards a common goal, and the results are just as fun as you'd expect. Aira gets to do her Acro Silky thing while flaunting that arrogant streak of hers; Momo gets to champion her usual approach of utilizing strategy and teamwork; Okarun remains the reliable backbone that carries his friends to victory as they bicker and lose their shit; and Evil Eye makes his more-or-less heroic debut with a truly hilarious and accidental weaponization of Kinta's flopsweat.

This isn't Kinta's greatest contribution to this battle's wonderful opening act, though. For one, Evil Eye doesn't really do anything other than sit around and pout about not being able to do murders whenever he wants, which is funny, but of limited practical application in a kaiju battle. More importantly, Kinta's all-consuming embodiment of the Shameless Nerd Bushido means that he pulls a Ray Stantz and uses the power of his otaku imagination to transform the nanites that restored Momo's house into a Giant Goddamned Buddha Megazord. Yes, I realize that this is probably a reference to the lost pre-WWII kaiju movie, “The Great Buddha Arrival,” but you will have to forgive me as a diehard Power Rangers fanboy that grew up in the 90s. All combiner mecha are MegaZords, as far as I am concerned. And all MegaZords are sick as hell.

So, yes, you can imagine that this particular arc of DAN DA DAN is delivering basically everything I could ask for in a season-ending storyline. We've got all of our heroes working together and utilizing their strengths while overcoming their various character flaws, and all of it is in the name of indulging in some truly self-indulgent tokusatsu fanservice. Just about the only thing that could make this more perfectly suited to pander to my tastes would be if Miko and Muko suddenly showed up as a magical girl with makeup-themed powers and a badass motorcycle hero wearing an insectoid helmet, respectively.

A guy can dream, can't he?

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DAN DA DAN Season 2 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll and Netflix.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on BlueSky, his blog, and his podcast.