Horror romcom Dan Da Dan and anime studio Science Saru go together like UAP and poltergeists

Dan Da Dan is easily one of this year’s most highly anticipated anime premieres, and for good reason. Yukinobu Tatsu’s supernatural sci-fi shonen manga has earned an enthusiastic cult following of readers since its debut in Shonen Jump Plus back in 2021, due in no small part to its beautiful artwork, raunchy humor, and outlandish premise. After all, it’s not every day you read a story about an alien-obsessed schoolboy whose genitals are stolen by a ghost and an occult-obsessed schoolgirl whose latent psychic abilities are awakened by an attempted alien abduction. With a setup like that, who better to produce the anime adaptation of the series than Science Saru, the acclaimed anime studio behind such colorful and eclectic hits as Devilman Crybaby, Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, and The Tatami Galaxy?

While the series doesn’t officially begin streaming on Crunchyroll and Netflix until Oct. 3, fans of Dan Da Dan (or Dan Da Dan-Fans) have the opportunity to see the first three episodes of the anime in theaters this Friday through a special event hosted by GKIDS, the independent U.S.-based animation distributor that holds the theatrical and home video release rights for the series. If these initial impressions are anything to go off of, Dan Da Dan is going above and beyond the routine approach to adaptation to push visual storytelling in ways audiences rarely see in modern anime.

Like the manga, the anime centers on Momo Ayase, a high school student and one of the two main protagonists of the series, who has just been dumped by her first boyfriend. Sullen and despondent, Momo crosses paths with Okarun, an introverted classmate who is regularly teased for his obsession with extraterrestrials. Momo mocks Okarun for his fixation on aliens, while Okarun in turn makes fun of Momo for her belief in the supernatural. After a brief back-and-forth argument, the two settle on a bet: If one of them can prove the existence of ghosts or aliens, the other will agree to be their gofer. Momo and Okarun quickly get more than they bargained for when the former is abducted by aliens and the latter is possessed by a lecherous spirit known as Turbo Granny. And it only gets weirder from there!

It goes without saying that the animation in the first three episodes of Dan Da Dan is gorgeous. In recent years, Science Saru has aggressively begun focusing more on producing anime based on existing properties, like Sumito Ōwara’s Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! and Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim graphic novel series, with each project demonstrating the studio’s knack for tapping into the idiosyncrasies of its source material while retaining Science Saru’s characteristic sense of zany and occasionally pitch-dark humor. That’s just as true in the case of Dan Da Dan, with the series’ already offbeat mishmash of supernatural action and slice-of-life rom-com elements being a perfect fit for Science Saru’s creative, oddball sensibilities.

Dan Da Dan does a fantastic job in translating Tatsu’s character designs to the medium of animation, especially in the case of Momo and Okarun. The dynamic poses and exaggerated facial expressions present in the original manga are fully intact, if not arguably amplified in the anime through the series’ impressive character animation. It’s as fun to simply watch these teenagers physically overreact and bicker with one another as it to follow along with their argument, with wide shots of the pair leaning toward each other smash-cutting into close-ups of Momo and Okarun gritting their teeth at one another in exasperation, their eyes transformed into solid white circles of aggravation. It’s terrific tone-setting for their odd-couple dynamic across the first three episodes.

It’s creative decisions like this in the early episodes of Dan Da Dan that not only meet the expectations set by its source material, but lean into the affordances of animation and arguably elevate them. And it’s not alone: There’s the use of reflective surfaces such as mirrors and glass plates in the background of shots to foreshadow movement and frame two subjects simultaneously, or CG-assisted establishing shots that emphasize the scale and atmosphere of particularly creepy locations. By far the most impressive — and most notable — choice that makes the visuals of the anime really pop is the series’ specific approach to color design in combination with its overall art direction, especially when it comes to the anime’s action sequences.

For those unfamiliar, art direction in anime production is split into two separate yet complementary disciplines: art direction, which refers to the design and layout of background and locations, and color design, or the planning of the overall color palette of an anime (though with a focus on the color scheme of characters). Art directors and color designers work hand in hand to ensure that the overall aesthetic is congruent across the whole production, adjusting elements to meet the specific mood and style of particular sequences and episodes without throwing the entire color scheme into disarray. And to be frank, color design often doesn’t get as much attention in anime discussion because it more often than not exists to not call too much attention to itself. Dan Da Dan throws that notion entirely out the window, and the results are spectacular to behold.

In an interview with Anime News Network, Dan Da Dan series director Fūga Yamashiro said that the production team’s approach to the anime’s color design was directly inspired by the manga’s unique mix of horror, comedy, and romance. “When the characters are thrown into unusual situations like fighting aliens or yokai, et cetera, I thought, ’What’s an easy way to see that they’re thrown into a completely unusual situation?’” For Yamashiro and his team, the answer was simple: Focus on a specific character or creature, assign them a color, and then flush the entire scene with that specific color when that character is the focus of that sequence.

We see this in the first episode when Okarun is chased through a haunted tunnel by Turbo Granny, a malicious spirit who radiates a red aura that quickly washes over the entire scene. The sequence shifts to feature her first-person perspective as she races along the walls and ceiling of the tunnel after him. Satoshi Hashimoto, the color designer for Dan Da Dan, previously worked on Devilman Crybaby, which features a similar approach to its color in the climax of its first episode, when protagonist Akira Fudo first transforms into Devilman and lays siege to a nightclub full of horrifying demons. In Dan Da Dan, that effect takes center stage as the anime’s defining visual element, with subsequent action sequences in the initial three episodes alternating between turquoise blue tones to black-and-white monochrome. Take that in combination with the anime’s energetic, genre-blending score and fast-paced action and the result is an experience that feels as bold, bizarre, and captivating to watch as the original manga itself is to read.

Dan Da Dan’s third episode ends roughly at the same point as the first four chapters of the manga. Anime audiences will have to wait a few more weeks to see what the rest of the series has in store for the duo, but what’s abundantly clear from this initial batch of episodes is that Fūga Yamashiro and co. aren’t just out to produce a solid adaptation of a beloved manga. They’re learning from what Science Saru has done in the past and pushing the boundaries of the studio’s house style even further to produce work based on popular series and franchises that avoid sacrificing creative freedom at the expense of fidelity to their source material. And by all accounts, they’re succeeding.

The first three episodes of Dan Da Dan premiere in theaters on Sept. 13. Dan Da Dan will stream on Crunchyroll and Netflix on Oct. 3.