Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Remember the criminal cliffhanger ‘Dan Da Dan‘ Season One ended with? Momo and Okarun are at her friend Jin Enjoji’s hometown after he asks them for help dealing with his supposedly haunted house. Momo heads out alone to explore the town, finding herself surrounded by frightening predatory men when she goes to take a dip at a hot spring. As the men menacingly circle closer towards Momo, episode 12 of the anime series ends!
Well, thankfully, season 2 of ‘Dan Da Dan’ dives straight into the tense hot springs scene, where Momo fights off the sleazy old men trying to harass her. Titled “Like, This is the Legend of the Giant Snake,” episode 1 of the new season then follows Momo visiting a popular shrine in town, where she learns of a horrifying mythical snake which is both feared and revered by the locals. Meanwhile, some weird old ladies knock on Jin’s door, instantly creeping out Okarun, and their intentions are clearly sinister.
So the opening episode of ‘Dan Da Dan‘ Season 2 is all about legendary snakes, town folklore, and creepy old locals who seem more formidable than vile ghosts. As usual, Momo teams up with Okarun to fight new villains, this time with Jin on their side. Turns out, Turbo Granny also snuck into Momo’s bag to have herself a little vacation, so we get to see her usual amusing antics in her cute cat form while still being a pain in the ass.
While the crazy-wicked humor and psychedelic-level colorful animation styles are noticeably missing from this ‘Dan Da Dan’ episode, the art style is still engaging and the story entertaining. Instead of far-out alien antagonists, Jin’s haunted house introduces spine-tingling, eerie human character the teenagers must fight, if they don’t want to die in the sad little town. And despite being humans, these characters are drawn like exaggerated grey ghouls that serve as an entertaining contrast to the teens.
This might not be a killer opening for the new season of ‘Dan Da Dan’, but it promises a wild ride in the next few chapters, and there’s some Dune-inspired terrors awaiting the protagonists. Keeping it spoiler-free and cryptic you see. Besides, if the first season is to go by, nothing strengthens teen bonds like fighting crazy people, demons, and aliens together. So this might just turn out to be a great ‘bonding’ exercise for potential love-rivals Okarun and Jin too. In case you forgot: Momo used to have a huge crush on Jin, which Okarun is aware of, just as he is aware of his own romantic feelings for her.
“Like, This is the Legend of the Giant Snake” ends with teens literally falling into deep deadly trouble and they must strategize how to save themselves from what would’ve been certain death for ordinary teens. But well, Momo and Okarun have their supernatural spiritual powers to aide them, although, the ending scene suggests Okarun is going to cause more problems than solutions in his supernatural form!
If you’re a patient viewer, I’d suggest waiting for a few more episodes of ‘Dan Da Dan’ Season 2 to release before you start streaming. But if not, go ahead and enjoy it one week at a time, this way is fun too. And if you’re reading this much later, congratulations, you don’t have to wait like the rest of us did for all the episodes to drop.
Stream Dan Da Dan on Netflix and CrunchyRoll.
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