DanDaDan S2 Ep 11 Review
Japan may not have invented the concept of giant monsters, but it turned it into an art form, complete with its own name: Kaiju. Since 1954, Japan has cemented itself as the giant monster capital of the world, with names like Godzilla gaining international fame long before anime established a foothold in the West. With DanDaDan essentially being a love letter to all things supernatural and sci-fi, it was only a matter of time before we got ourselves a Kaiju. And just like how most humans are in the movies, Momo, Okarun, and that new guy Kinta are completely outclassed as they face down this terror from the stars! They’re going to need all hands on deck just to survive this fight!
Or maybe a giant robot.
Kaiju Approaching!
Just when Momo and Okarun thought they had a lead on the latter’s missing nut, not only did it turn out to be a dud, but it’s led them to be facing down some kind of alien Kaiju. The upside is that it doesn’t shoot atomic breath at them. The downside? It shoots bolts of lightning like it’s a thunder god. And with tagalong Kinta unable to defend himself, the pair are forced onto the backfoot until Aira and Jiji show up. While Jiji takes Kinta away, since neither of them can fight, Aira, Momo, and Okarun try to fight the Kaiju…with disastrous results.
There is a lot of unresolved tension between this growing group throughout the season, and a lot of it has to do with Aira. She’s kept insisting that she’s the leader of this “Family,” something that the others have either ignored, like Okarun, or flat-out rejected, like Momo. Thanks to that, their lack of team coordination means they’re not able to fight as effectively as they can. Not that that matters, since they’re fighting a Kaiju. You have to be as freakishly strong as a Saiyan, ninja, or a pirate with Conqueror’s Haki to take that down.
It also doesn’t help that there’s the tug of war that Aira and Momo are caught in over Okarun. Look at what Aira did this episode to one-up Momo!
Diabolical!
Meanwhile, Jiji fares no better with Kinta. Thanks to the latter’s stubbornness, Jiji winds up turning into the Evil Eye, and he doesn’t change back. For the rest of the episode, he’s serving as comic relief, complaining about wanting to fight someone, but he can’t. It’s not Tuesday! Admittedly, it is funny to see the Evil Eye acting all pouty because he can’t fight Okarun, but since he can’t fight the Kaiju (Takakura points out this is a bad idea), comic relief is all he’s good for. Which is fine in this case.
As entertaining as this, though, there’s still space-Godzilla headed straight for them. And with Turbo Granny nowhere to be found and Seiko a guest on some show, they’re on their own. Luckily for them, they have the means to fight back!
Even if I didn’t know the basics from the manga already, I would’ve guessed that rebuilding the Ayase house out of memory-shape nanomachines was an important plot device. Technology like that plus raw imagination means someone could think of anything, and the machines would make it a reality. And there’s only way to stop a Kaiju without getting another one to fight: giant robots. And this is when Kinta comes in clutch, using his otaku knowledge of all things mecha to create this!
This is Voltron meets Pacific Rim with the Buddha thrown in, for good measure! Some people may say that giant robots are a waste of time and money, but they’re probably just jealous they don’t get to use one. This could make for an amazing finale next week as the gang fights the giant Kaiju! I’m looking forward to seeing what happens! Assuming, that is, they can pilot it!
