The animated series Dan Da Dan, from studio Science SARU, returns for a second season that immediately plunges its protagonists into a narrative defined by a darker, more horror-inflected tone. Picking up from the first season’s cliffhanger, the story shifts from its initial monster-of-the-week format to a more focused exploration of generational trauma and human cruelty. The series continues to follow high schoolers Momo Ayase, a spirit medium’s descendant, and Ken “Okarun” Takakura, an occult fanatic. Their lives, intertwined by a bet that proved both ghosts and aliens are real, have left Momo with awakened psychokinetic abilities and Okarun possessed by the spirit Turbo Granny, granting him supernatural powers at a price. They are joined by allies including Momo’s grandmother, Seiko, and Turbo Granny herself, now inhabiting a maneki-neko doll.
A Journey into a Cursed House
The season centers on a mission introduced late in the previous installment: saving Momo’s childhood friend, Jin “Jiji” Enjoji. His family home in the rural Daija Town is afflicted by a curse so powerful it has driven multiple exorcists to suicide and left his parents hospitalized. With Seiko’s spiritual powers confined to her home city, Momo is tasked with the exorcism, pulling her, Okarun, and Jiji into the town’s disturbing history. The story directly addresses the previous season’s dual cliffhangers. As Okarun and Jiji discover a hidden room covered in talismans within the cursed house, Momo is targeted by a group of men at a local hot spring. Her rescue comes not from her own powers, which are hampered by the heat, but from the unexpected intervention of Turbo Granny, who had stowed away for the trip.
New Adversaries and Ancient Secrets
This season introduces the Kito family, the landlords of Jiji’s house who hold a sinister authority over Daija Town. They are revealed to be the caretakers of a centuries-old ritual of human sacrifice, designed to appease a monstrous entity known as the Tsuchinoko, or Mongolian Death Worm. This ancient being resides in a nearby volcano, and the Kito family believes their offerings prevent a catastrophic eruption. The investigation leads the protagonists into the Tsuchinoko’s subterranean lair, where they face not only the physical threat of the beast but also its powerful psychic waves that induce suicidal despair in its victims.
The Tragedy of the Evil Eye
At the heart of the curse is the season’s primary antagonist, the Evil Eye, a powerful yokai whose origins are steeped in tragedy. Consistent with the series’ theme of humanizing its monsters, the Evil Eye is revealed to be the spirit of a child sacrificed to the Tsuchinoko hundreds of years ago. Twisted by centuries of loneliness, deprivation, and a profound hatred for humanity, the child’s spirit became a vengeful force. Jiji, whose charismatic personality masks his own deep trauma, shows the spirit compassion. This act of empathy allows the Evil Eye to possess him, seeking to use Jiji’s innate spiritual power and athletic body as a vessel for its revenge. This transforms Jiji into a formidable threat, blurring the lines between friend and foe and forcing his friends into a complex and dangerous conflict.
Evolving Characters and Relationships
The high-stakes “Cursed House” and “Evil Eye” arcs serve as a crucible for the main cast’s development. Okarun, once an insecure loner jealous of Jiji’s connection to Momo, is forced to become more heroic and proactive, with his rivalry with Jiji evolving into a genuine friendship. Momo, while maintaining her confident exterior, confronts deeper vulnerabilities. The season challenges her to navigate her growing feelings for Okarun, which she struggles to express verbally, relying more on physical gestures of affection. Jiji is established as the emotional core of the season, his empathetic nature leading to his possession and creating a complex internal conflict that makes him both a victim to be saved and an antagonist to be fought.
An Evolved Visual and Auditory Landscape
The production, led by returning director Fūga Yamashiro and new co-director Abel Góngora, reflects the narrative’s darker tone. The Science SARU animation team utilizes a more desaturated and unsettling color palette for the Daija Town setting, leaning into horror aesthetics to create an eerie atmosphere. The season also showcases new experimental animation techniques, including the use of 3D models and rougher pencil textures, particularly in visually complex and emotionally charged sequences like Jiji’s transformation into the Evil Eye. Composer Kensuke Ushio returns with a versatile score that shifts seamlessly from traditional Japanese motifs to unnerving horror soundscapes and high-energy action tracks, amplifying the series’ signature genre-blending style.
The second season of Dan Da Dan is available for streaming. The series premiered in July 2025 on Netflix.
