DAN DA DAN Season 2

Episode 24

This image contains sexually suggestive themes.

Last week, Science SARU promised us a showstopping battle between a rubber-suited dinosaur kaiju and a giant Buddha mecha piloted by a gang of ridiculous idiots.

This week, DAN DA DAN's season finale delivered a showstopping battle between a rubber-suited dinosaur kaiju and a giant Buddha mecha piloted by a gang of ridiculous idiots. Also, it turns out that the rubber-suited dinosaur kaiju was being piloted by a cute-as-hell alien girl the whole time.

In other words, they did it. Those mad geniuses at Science SARU stuck the landing for a second time. I could go on and on about the superlative direction and animation featured throughout this finale, which at this point is simply par for the course so far as Science SARU's work is concerned. One of the easiest ways to measure the quality of any television anime is to count the number of difficult and complex shots that the show throws in just because it's having too much fun impressing its audience. We've got several great POV shots of characters scrambling through jam-packed sets, a handful of choice “handheld” and “mounted” shots that capture the pro-wrestling vibes of the Kaiju Vs. Mecha-Buddha Battle, and an all-time great tracking shot of Momo running to her ruined bedroom for dear life so she can vomit her guts out. Classic DAN DA DAN.

Speaking of all the vomiting, Kinta's scene-stealing turn as the central focus of this finale highlights how well DAN DA DAN handled incorporating the giant-scale action of classic tokusatsu and mecha action into its repertoire. The show gets to have its cake and eat it too by indulging in all of the classic action tropes and special fighting moves while also mining a bunch of comedy out of the fact that actually being inside of a mecha would be a horrible, stomach-churning experience. That is, of course, unless you spend years honing your body with a fanatical regime of plastic model building and theme-park attraction riding. It's this wisdom and foresight that make Kinta our king.

Overall, this second season had a very different pace and emotional throughline compared to the first run of episodes, which I think does a great job of showing off DAN DA DAN's single greatest strength: Its versatility. The Mongolian Death Worm arc got to carry out all of the horrifying and high-stakes battle manga action that Jiji's story began setting up last year. The middle chapters of the season let DAN DA DAN cut loose with equal doses of insane comedy, splashy one-off action spectacles, and some of the best and most genuine romantic development you can find on television. Sure, this final Kinta-focused arc might have been light on the legitimate drama and heavy on the Saturday Morning Cartoon Shenanigans, but DAN DA DAN has earned our trust to the point where it is virtually impossible for the show to jump the shark. So, instead of worrying that the series will somehow forget about its dangling plot threads or the emotional core of Momo and Okarun's relationship, we just get to sit back and munch on some proverbial popcorn. At the same time, Science SARU works its magic and makes the robot and the kaiju smash things up real good.

Another thing I love about DAN DA DAN being so willing to shake up its formula is that it allows for every character to get different ways to shine under the spotlight, depending on the circumstance. Okarun is mostly stuck playing babysitter to Evil Eye while Kinta and the Girls take care of the kaiju, but the pair's hijinks make for a good break between the relentless monster-on-mecha action, so it's all good. For a while, I was worried that all of the attention being paid to Kinta would leave Momo and Aira in the lurch, but the episode gets better when the two finally get over their motion sickness enough to combine their powers with Kinta's robot and take the fight to its final stage.

I can't let another season go by without singing the praises of everyone working on the English Dub, which might be my favorite localization of all time. In particular, every single sound that Aleks Le makes as Jiji is too hilarious to be legally permissible. I nearly shot sparkling lemon-juice water out of my nose when Jiji and Kinta's shticks began to merge in those final scenes.

With how supremely rotten the atmosphere has gotten in this part of the world as of late, I am glad that the universe decided to gift us at least some proof that goodness and righteousness can still win the day: DAN DA DAN has officially been renewed for Season 3. I'm sure it will take some time for Science SARU to craft even more chapters of this essentially perfect anime for us to enjoy, and I hope that everyone on the team gets some time to revel in their success and rest up before getting back to work. Whenever MomOkarun and Co. make their return, you can rest assured that I'll be back to continue raving about every blessed second of it.

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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.