Episode Air Date
09-05-2025
Warning: The following contains minor spoilers for Dandadan, Episode 4, “Kicking Turbo Granny’s Ass”, now streaming onCrunchyroll.
You’ve got to love a series that delivers exactly what is written on the tin, and this episode was certainly aptly named, even if a large chunk of it was our two heroes running away.Dandadanconcludes its introductory arc by painting the town red with a showcase of incredible action design and powerful music choices, all thrown at the viewer at the speed of a bullet train.
Last week, Momo’s grandmother, Seiko, appeared to fend off a possessed Okarun before securing him in the main shrine, where he and Momo could be reunited after one hell of a day. But after Turbo Granny threatened to use Okarun to curse everyone around him, they had to quickly formulate a plan to lure her out of the town so she could be properly exorcised.
The Titular “Ass-Kicking” Is Only the Beginning
Just about everything that could go wrong goes wrong the moment Okarun and Momo arrive at the dreaded tunnel where Turbo Granny resides. It’s only Momo’s quick thinking and confident aura that keeps this from being a very short series, as she offers the spirit a challenge they can’t refuse; a race. Yet even that isn’t enough to stop the old hag from warping the rules in her favor, which almost crushes their plan once again before they can leave the tunnel.
A big part of this episode is about Okarunmaking up for feeling so useless before. Even when he’s made grand gestures in her defense, their battles have ended with her saving the day, and he doesn’t want to only be a burden on her, even if she doesn’t see him as one. Without spoiling it entirely, Momo does sorta save the day once again in this episode too, but neither would be alive if it weren’t for the other person - a fact made apparent this week.
Momo and Okarun’s Teamwork Is A Delight
She is clearly the smarter one of the two and thus, her heroic moments always feel like a clever gamble paying off, but when Okarun fights back, it is nothing but sheer desperation and willpower. He’s got that dog in him; his heroic moments are just chaos, demonstrated no better thanhow he turns the table on Turbo Granny, which is… creative, to say the least. By the time the opening hits, it’s a bit of a shock to the system that only 6 minutes have transpired, but that’s just the start.
Momo and Okarun have to run like hell from the giant, crab-shaped spirit that was bound to the tunnel, and Okarun’s Turbo form can only take them so far, even with his superhuman speed. It takes his speed and Momo’s brains - to say nothing of her psychic powers - to give them the edge. This synergy between them is what the whole arc has been building up to, and it doesn’t disappoint, least of all when Momo starts using her psychic arms to swing around like Spider-man.
A Blood-Red, Bombastic Spectacle
Dandadancontinues to nail every setpiece with consistently striking artwork and directing that seeks to frame it from the most interesting angles, but the sound might be even stronger. That’snot even just referring to Kensuke Ushio’s soundtrack, though his remixing of the William Tell Overture is by far the episode’s crowning achievement. The sound design in general lends a lot to this series on a technical and emotional level.
This clicked with me, in particular, when Okarun barreled through the railing on the side of the hill and sent the pair of them flying through the air above the city. It’s the way Momo’s “For real!?” trails off, and with it, the sound effects and the music noticeably rise, as if the viewer isn’t so much being graced with sound as much as they are coming into collision with it at high speed. Sound director Eriko Kimura (Devilman Crybaby,Heavenly Delusion) did an incredible job.
The Truth About Turbo Granny, and Saying Goodbye
When the non-stop train that is Episode 4 finally slows down, it does so with a lot of heart, intermixed with even more unusual comedy.Turbo Granny’s defeat brings with itsome brief revelation about the spirit’s nature that invites reflection on the past three episodes and might make one reconsider what they knew about her. Then, at the end, the most thrilling scene this week isn’t a battle in the literal sense, but the figurative (relating to the heart, to be exact).
Fans of this series are quick to point out how the romantic parts of this story are just as engaging as the supernatural nonsense that permeates its conception. For the first time, the characters can relax with what they assume will be the continuation of their normal lives, but that comes with a unique, unexpected fear. It’s the fear that they won’t speak again without the supernatural pulling them together, all exacerbated by a single word: “Goodbye”.
Sometimes it’s the simplest things that hit the hardest andDandadangets a lot of mileage out of the simple and the extreme in equal measure.While it’s hard to top the excellent first episode, the first arc was a strong one, beyond which the show is well-poised to widen its scope to explore new characters and many more paranormal oddities.
