Dandadan, by Tatsu Yukinobu, is a manga that wears many hats. Its sci-fi, supernatural comedy with mild horror elements and it manages to handle these genres amazingly well. Momo Ayase is a teenage girl who believes in the supernatural and Ken Takakura is a nerdy teenage boy who believes in aliens. They both meet and dare each other to prove that each other’s belief’s exist. This then leads to the start of an entertaining ride once they have their own close encounters with the bizarre kind.

Dandadan has an amazing art style. The way Yukinobu conveys movement and comedy is amazing and his drawings are remarkably consistent and detailed. I really like how the action scenes are shown here as well. Though there aren’t too many in this volume, what I’ve seen so far is good in terms of positioning and fluidity. I appreciate the different angles Yukinobu utilises for these scenes as well. When all of this is paired with double pages, you can really feel the impact.

Dandadan is fast paced for a manga. It’s the fastest paced manga I’ve reviewed so far on this website, and I found that I really appreciate this. The jokes are frequent, and the action is as quick as the pace, but it still has time to insert a lot of heart to the relationship between Momo and Takakura. Yukinobu really manages to balance these aspects amazingly well. I don’t think the story so far has massive depth yet, but everything else makes up for this.

I think the strongest point of this manga is the relationship between Momo and Takakura. The chemistry between the to and the comedic interplay between both is satisfying and entertaining. The strength of each’s character is also a strongpoint. I like that both manage to remain distinct. The only weakness is the lack of initial story depth, but this does not work that much against it. Also, as this is a longer story, I think that overtime this will be added to.

If I had to compare this to any manga, it would of course be Chainsaw man. Yukinobu being one of Fujimoto’s assistants really shines through, inheriting Fujimoto’s fast pace and humour, although Yukinobu is less raunchy. Anyone who liked Chainsaw man will love this. Fans of shounen action manga will like the action here a lot as well.

In conclusion, Dandadan is a very good manga. It starts strong and I look forward to reviewing the future volumes. Most of all its fun to read and I really appreciate that. I’d give it a 4.6/5.

You can check out Dandadan volume 1 on Amazon at my affiliate link here