Look, we’ve all been there—trying to balance high school drama while simultaneously dealing with ancient curses and malevolent spirits. Okay, maybe not all of us, but Dan Da Dan: Evil Eye sells this premise so convincingly that you’ll wonder if you missed out on some seriously wild extracurricular activities during your teen years. Directors Fuga Yamashiro and Abel Gongora’s supernatural romp, based on the manga by Yukinobu Tatsu, takes the “teenagers-with-powers” trope and injects it with such manic energy and genuine heart that it feels like Shonen and Shojo fell asleep on date night and had a fever dream after binge-watching Japanese horror classics. The result? A delightfully bananas adventure that somehow manages to make spirit mediumship, hot springs tourism, and first love feel equally terrifying (and fun).
Dan Da Dan: Evil Eye—a theatrical release combining the first three episodes of Season 2 (hitting Crunchyroll this July 2025)—delivers with the kick of Turbo Granny on a rampage (quick, check your private bits to make sure they’re still intact). Picking up right where Season 1 left off, it throws us back into the chaotic lives of Momo, Okarun, and Jiji as they face curses, spirits, and their own messy relationships. The stakes are higher, the dangers are more surreal, and the emotional punches hit harder than ever before, reminding us why this series continues to dominate anime and manga.
Jiji (Kaito Ishikawa/Aleks Le) takes Momo (Shion Wakayama/Abby Trott) and Okarun (Natsuki Hanae/AJ Beckles) to his family home to figure out what’s haunting the house and making his parents sick. If Momo can see the problem, maybe they can figure out how to purify the home. But from the moment they arrive, something feels off—not just with the house, but with the entire town and its people. Could it be that the townsfolk take the legend of a giant snake that must be appeased by sacrifice a little too seriously? And what—or who—is the Evil Eye, and why has it been by Jiji’s side? As Jiji’s mysterious connection to the Evil Eye comes to light, the group is pushed to their limits in a battle that’s as emotionally devastating as it is visually spectacular.
At the center of this supernatural storm Momo and Okarun’s chemistry continues to crackle with the awkward energy of two teens more comfortable discussing ancient curses than their feelings. But it’s the relationship between Okarun and Jiji that really sneaks up on you this time. I love how their bond develops through shared interests that don’t include Momo, giving Jiji more depth and shading. And then there’s the connection between Jiji and the Evil Eye, which will shatter your feelings like a hollow candy heart. This is where we learn what happens when an ardent search for connection curdles. It’s an emotional gut punch that stays with you long after the movie ends.
Meanwhile, the townies are genuinely terrifying, and you’ll spend the entire runtime rooting for our trio—Momo, Okarun, and Jiji—to mud-stomp them into quicksand. Oh, and Turbo Granny in her Cat form (Mayumi Tanaka/Barbara Goodson) is the true GOAT. If you don’t love her, have you even achieved sentience? No, no you have not.
Abel Gongora now joins Fuga Yamashiro in the directors’ chairs, and this team did a thing. Yamashiro directed the first season while Gongora led the opening animation for season one. I don’t know whose idea it was to bring these two together, but the combination is on Voltron levels. The pivotal transformations and backstory scenes are candy-coated in high-octane deliciousness countered by utter heartbreak. Oh, and Momo at the hot springs? That will legitimately mess you up. And it’s all so good. When it ended I felt betrayed by GKIDS even though I already read the manga, I still needed more.
Dan Da Dan remains one of the top feats of anime/manga because of its freefalling ability to slide through genres while holding you transfixed. I understand why Blue Box won the Best Romance Anime award at the 2025 Crunchyroll Anime Awards, and yet in a world where Dan Da Dan refuses to do one thing but instead does love, ghosts, and aliens with kiss-blowing magnificence, I really don’t understand.
Season 2 of Dan Da Dan barrel rolls into the fallout from the cliffhanger of the first season and the visuals set the tone perfectly, with deep purple hues, ominous tension, and the Evil Eye’s unsettling rainbow-colored gaze fixated on Jiji at the center. It’s a clear warning of the brutal, merciless battles to come for Momo, Okarun, Jiji, and Turbo Granny. The creators even sneak in some Easter eggs, like soccer posters and real-life Japanese occult folklore, teasing the wonderfully unpredictable chaos that awaits. This series continues to spin as a remix of sci-fi, horror, and coming-of-age stories, all wrapped in a ruthlessly funny package. If you thought Season 1 was ambitious, Season 2 is here to blow the roof off your expectations. And I mean that literally. For those of you who thought Big Worm from Friday was a problem, brace yourselves.
Rating: B+
Level of Enthusiasm: 110%
