An American Writer's Thoughts on Japanese Animation

Seasonal Selection – DanDaDan Episode 6

Main character syndrome is a… well, it rhymes with witch, dontcha know?

So, this week we begin the great ball hunt. And, shockingly, we learn immediately where one of the two is! This must be a short arc!

Yeah, just fill in the sitcom canned laughter on that line yourself and buckle up.

So, that golden ball is in the possession of Aira, the unpleasant pretty girl we met so conspicuously in the previous episode. In this one, we get a better look at Aira’s inner world and… she is a piece of work, really – being self-centered and conceited to a degree that conflates into a bad case of “main character syndrome” (that is, when a more realistically depicted character thinks that the universe really does revolve around them and acts like its main character. Usually in fiction, this has some extra layers of irony and Aira is no exception).

Aira believes that her beauty is people’s reason for living, and praises her kindness when really she clearly has no empathy for other people. After finding one of the golden balls by chance, she gained the ability to see the supernatural (due to all of the spiritual power bound up in those) and this convinced her that she was the chosen one, exalted to rid the world of evil. Because, ya know, that’s something that being pretty qualifies you to do. Her first target? Momo Ayase, whose psychic powers she caught a glimpse of, convincing that Aira that Momo is some kind of demon or witch and the first target that needs to be taken down. To this end, she gets a suspicious cross and dubious holy book.

Aira is, I will be entirely honest, a terrible person. But… I actually think she’s a great character. I don’t feel like DanDaDan, even in this episode, lets her get away with her arrogant delusions. We see the world from her point o view where everyone fawns over her, and also from neutral viewpoints where it’s clear that while she does have friends and the ability to make good impressions, she’s also not all that. While I can take issue with jerk and bully characters and have done so in the past, I think Aira’s in the bracket where she’s either the butt of the joke enough and/or an interesting enough study to be watchable despite being kind of horrid.

While this is going on, we deal with Momo, Okarun (who is having a hard time after realizing that Momo, yes, is very good-looking), and Turbo-Granny (who stowed away to school). They realize the basic nature of what’s going on with the missing ball thanks in part to the presence of another spirit. When Aira decides to attempt a rather violent exorcism of Momo after school, this comes to a head as the spirt – Acrobatic Silky – attacks. Its motivation, seemingly, is that Aira once saw it as a child and called it “mom”, which has caused the creature to become horribly obsessive.

In the first phase of the fight, everybody gets eaten, but rather than leaving us on the cliffhanger of the last of the lot, Momo, being swallowed whole, the show is kind enough to show us the turnabout: Turbo Granny attributes it to her good fortune abilities as a Maneki Neko doll, but Silky swallowed some of her hair along with Momo… and Aira’s “cross” (repeatedly said to stink of oil) was a lighter, letting the captured victims ignite Acrobatic Silky and be regurgitated for her second health bar.  That’s where we’ll pick up next week.


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