i wasn't expecting to enjoy a modern shonen so thoroughly as i have been with dandadan, it truly feels like a breath of fresh air.
from the jump i knew i'd be obsessed with dandadan, the conceit being a supernatural-battle-shonen-comedy-romance anime with supernatural elements. it follows momo ayase and ken takakura, who form a friendship around the occult, daring eachother to go to an alien and a spirit hotspot respectively, causing ken (dubbed "okarun" by momo) to get possessed by a horny granny ghost, while momo awakens her psychic abilities. the first arc culminates in a city-wide race against a thousand ghosts and the aformentioned horny granny, soundtracked to a techno version of the william tell overture. truly fucking inspired. and this is where i give a mention to the animation of science saru, who manage to make these scenes so fluid, impeccable, truly beautiful.
momo and okarun's romantic throughline is really sweet. i think it might be the first romance in a shonen that i've truly been fully invested in, every other has felt contrived, or forced, or non-existent until the end, when the protagonist needs a prize for his hard work and power scaling. while it most certainly gets complicated by the addition of new characters into the fold, momo and okarun feel like narrative equals, in some respects. we never see okarun's home life in the first season, it feels at times like momo is the protagonist, and okarun is her love interest, which is kick ass.
then come the notable supporting cast of aira and jiji, both electric and eccentric pieces of the cast from the jump, bringing their own special weirdness to what i can only imagine will be the principle cast of alien ass-kicking teens in future seasons. aira is a self-obsessed pretty girl who believes herself the chosen one to save the earth. jiji is momo's trendy and atheletic childhood friend, harboring a fat crush on her, much to okarun's dismay.
balancing a silly and comedic tone with periodically incredibly heavy moments is a difficult contrast to handle, but dandadan does it impeccably. episode seven is a masterclass in dire heavy topics being covered in a shonen story. i'll admit i was entirely blindsided by the beautiful way they expanded acro-silky's story in the anime, i genuinely needed to take a moment to gather myself, before sobbing for a few minutes at the weight of that episode. antics continued as usually in the next episode like we hadn't just watched a teen girl dying, followed by the tragic sacrifice of a downtrodden mother who lost it all. truly a show that can handle such pivots with acrobatic grace is going places.
overall, dandadan is a promising look at the future of shonen, a weird, delightful, at times heartwarming romp with intriguing world-building i could see myself quickly getting engrossed in. i don't think i'll be able to stop myself from reading ahead to catch up before season two even starts airing.
this is the first anime that's made me buy physical manga before i've seen a full first season, i'm in this one for the long haul. i'm absolutely hooked.
ranma 1/2 is one of those anime that was so deeply formative to my person that i don't exactly know how to try and be impartial about this review. turns out, i don't have to be, because you came to my blog. this is my home turf, motherfucker. ranma made me gay and trans when i was a kid, and it's here to do it to a whole new generation of dweebs.
with a new, more manga-faithful artstyle, a largely returning JP cast, and an all new EN cast, this adaptation quickly cemented itself as my go-to recommendation for people looking to get into ranma for the first time. no more filler (though don't get me wrong, i love some of the elements added in the original show), so it can get right into all the juicy character moments straight from the page of rumiko takahasi's classic manga.
the fights are so thoroughly well-animated and storyboarded in this version of the show, and the comedy beats are incredibly punch as well, it brings the whole project together in a way that makes it feel like you're watching the original, as it's so faithful to modernizing the aesthetics they'd been going for there. this isn't a bland, milquetoast and sauceless 1 to 1 adaptation that we see a lot in anime, this, and the recent urusei yatsura remake, are something special.
another fun thing of note that me and my partner realized while watching is that they make heavy use of the valve source SFX and the bethesda stock SFX packs, which doesn't factor into my thoughts pretty much at all, other than that it's a fun little observation.
an on-impact classic of the mech genre, this was my first introduction to little gay boys piloting robits.
this is what a review might look like.