And now she really is a main character!
So, in the aftermath of the previous episode, Aira’s main character syndrome continues to color everything about the world. She identifies Momo, Okarun, and Momo’s grandmother as demons, but due to at least recognizing the part where Okarun has saved her repeatedly, seems insistent that he has a human heart and also that she’s madly in love with him (not that she really understands what love or relationships are, seeming to get all the worst ideas from glamor magazines and porn.)
Okarun, for his part, wants to train to get stronger. He decides to hide this from Momo and begs off meeting up at lunch so he can work out. This turns out badly for everyone when Aira decides to come on strong and Momo takes a walk, ultimately intersecting as Momo sees Aira and Okarun in what looks like a rather compromising position. This causes Momo to sulk for the rest of the day, and honestly you can’t really blame her even if her suffering is also played for comedy.
All that comes to an end, though, when everybody disappears and the outside turns black – the sure sign of an alien void space swallowing up the school. In it are Okarun, Aira, and Momo, but the first two are in one area while the latter is in another. What’s more, the school is partially flooded for this encounter.
On Momo’s side, she ends up playing a dangerous game of hide-and-seek with a thing that looks a good deal like the Loch Ness Monster. And it uses Hyper Beam, easily carving through walls with said water laser breath, so that’s fun. After Momo survives the first strafe by being low enough to the ground, we pretty much leave her there for the moment.
Okarun and Aira run into each other, and discuss what’s going on, with Okarun identifying it as an alien phenomenon… just before some aliens appear. We start with a mantis shrimp boxer alien, but shortly after Oakrun transforms to face it (once again wisking Aira out of danger in the process) it turns out that the Serpoians are once again behind this, using the mantis shrimp and presumably Nessie as hired goons.
The Serpoians neutralize Okarun, and then declare that they want his bananna, thinking that it will allow them to transfer his powers – powers they don’t properly understand – to themselves. Just as it seems like Okarun is pretty lost despite just getting his first ball back (earlier in the episode, via baseball game, which was pretty funny), Aira shows off that she didn’t just get a new lease on life from Acrobatic Silky, and has inherited a transformation state similar to Okarun’s that allows her to wield the Yokai’s powers and kick ass.
Thus, we’re set up for dealing with the alien incoming next time.
After last episode, this feels like the other side of the coin for DanDaDan. Episode 7 was brilliant, superbly executed both as its own thing and as an adaptation, fully utilizing the medium in order to tell a powerful story. Episode 8 is more standard, but also has more of the speed, humor, and irreverent attitude that DanDaDan prefers to invoke. It’s great – after Acrobatic Silky’s story, we needed some relief even if it comes in the form of killer genital-stealing aliens, but it’s also great that it’s able to do both to 100% competence.
At the risk of sounding both premature and like a broken record, if you’re just following along with these write-ups and haven’t watched the show… do yourself a favor and see if you can get look in at DanDaDan.