Well, at least Season 2 is already announced.
Because this episode decided to go ahead and leave us on a total cliffhanger. After resolving the situation with the anatomical dummies, wherein they have an agreement to keep meeting up, Momo, Okarun, and Jiji venture to Jiji’s haunted house
What we’re mostly concerned with along the way is Okarun’s jealousy regarding Jiji, despite finding himself becoming closer with his rival due to Jiji being a basically nice and approachable guy. When they arrive at the out of the way hot springs town (which seems to have a somewhat creepy local population, depicted with deliberately unsettling visages and rather gray skin), Momo seems to notice the affinity between the two guys, but not so much the rivalry. Thus, after confirming that the ghosts are not presently active, she ditches them to visit the hot springs in order ot let them bond.
Jiji and Okarun do kind of get along, but then the subject of Momo comes up and they get competitive about being in love with her. However, their fight is disrupted when Okarun notices that the outside of the house doesn’t match the inside, in a way that suggests there’s a secret room somewhere.
The two of them bust into the secret room with a sledgehammer, finding its interior walls absolutely plastered in paper seals, much to their shock and horror. Yet that might not be the worst place the show decides to leave us, since Momo is having her own problems: before she leaves the bath, a pack of creepy men enter (it is, as was unknown to Momo, evidently a mixed bath) and right as we cut it seems like she’s about to get raped unless she can summon her psychic powers and fight back.
And that’s the season cut. I’d say that I’ve seen worse, but I’m not actually sure about that: this would be a jerk episode cut if it were to be resolved next week. Even Dark Gathering had something that felt less like a mid-event cut. Instead, we’ve got to wait for summer. Well, at least to see it animated. I may have mentioned but this isn’t blind for me; the English release of the manga is significantly ahead of this point. So if you demand satisfaction in less than three months, that’s where you’ll want to look.
Of course, knowing that season 2 is on the way does make this somewhat more excusable. DanDaDan was probably sold as 2-cour (or more) right at the outset, so there was always going to be a resolution to this mess, just with a more substantial little break in the middle. It would be an astonishingly awful place to cut outright, but that’s not what they’re doing.
In turn, though, that’s enough to make me want to hold off on judging DanDaDan. If I were viewing the show as a finished thing, this sort of break would make me lump the two seasons together, that much is certain, since I can’t really put together what the ending is like when there is, fundamentally, no ending for the first season.
That said, we are at the end of my usual seasonal watch, so I have to say something to sum up the show. And, I think I’ll draw on my knowledge of the source material to say this: DanDaDan is, or nearly is, a perfect adaptation.
Why is this the case? On one side, DanDaDan is fairly faithful to its source material. It recreates the occasional panel as a shot, and doesn’t really take liberties with the plot and characters people already liked. On the other hand, it does bring new artistry to the table. When you create something for a particular form of media, you make choices that are informed by the media you’re working with. Whether it’s a show, a comic, or pure text, you make different choices. DanDaDan re-picks elements to make the material work better as a show. It brings new artistry to the table, and abandons slavish devotion to its source where that would get in the way of making it the best show it could be. The anime creators have been allowed liberty to use their art to communicate the story of DanDaDan, and that’s paid off in a huge way.
What makes DanDaDan, the comic, continually engaging are creative scenarios, likable characters, and a sense of fun with its material. What makes DanDaDan, the anime, engaging and fun is that plus elements of the pacing, color, and motion that the comic doesn’t have or can’t entirely control. The quality of the art in the show belongs to the show, it’s not just the panels in motion even if the characters are on model and so on when compared to their still versions.
From that respect… I can’t fail to recommend DanDaDan, even if those more sensitive to cliffhangers may want to put off watching the last episode until the next one becomes available.