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The following contains spoilers for Dandadan Season 2, Episode 1 «Like, This Is the Legend of the Giant Snake»
Dandadan made its Season 2 comeback on July 4, and showed, once again, why its undeniable charm and amazing action have set it apart from many of its contemporaries. The first season was such a smash hit when it came to streaming platforms, it can almost feel like Season 2 has an impossible hurdle to clear in terms of quality. However, the first episode of the second season manages to do more than just keep the momentum going. It places viewers’ favorite idiots facing down an entire town as the Cursed House opens its maw to devour them. The Science Saru animation studio continues to show off its chops at creating amazing set pieces and fight sequences that, while complex, are very easy to follow and allow for the audience to get invested in the action of the scenes. When compared to studios like Madhouse and Bones, Science Saru may be relatively young, but the creators are dominating the game when it comes to the sheer level of presentation they have shown themselves to be capable of.
Dandadan follows Momo Ayase and Ken Takakura, better known as Okarun, two teenagers who have been pulled into a world of supernatural conflict through an ill-fated bet. Momo’s psychic abilities were awakened by an alien abduction, and Okarun has become the vessel for the powers of a yokai known as Turbo Granny, giving him a Yami Yugi form with what appears to be clinical depression. Together, the two of them are faced with demons, aliens, and ghosts, who all seem to have the desire to put them into awkward and life-threatening situations. Throughout all of this, Momo and Okarun dance around their growing feelings for each other in a way that can make the audience want to bite into the couch for how much they want them to just get together already. As Season 1 added more layers of complication to the setting, the emotional heart of the anime stayed more than true, making it addictive to watch and stay on top of. Dandadan Season 1 set the stage for what is shaping up to be one of the best shōnen series of all time, and the second episode of Season 2, «The Evil Eye», is set to really drive that nail home.
When Does Dandadan Season 2, Episode 2 Come Out?
Dandadan Episodes Will Continue To Come To Streaming First
Dandadan Season 2, Episode 2 is set to push audiences into the next section of the Cursed House Arc. The series has been incredibly consistent with how it ups the ante and draws audiences in. For fans who are excited about the second episode dropping, there are plenty of streaming platforms that are set up to show off one of the best anime of the new generation. Dandadan Season 2, Episode 2, «The Evil Eye», will be released on Crunchyroll, Hulu and Netflix on July 10, 2025, at 12 pm EST/9 am PST. The era of streaming is perfect for a series like Dandadan, which is just as good being binged as it is watching it week-to-week. For the nostalgia-minded fans out there who miss the excitement and anticipation of waiting for a new episode of their favorite anime to premiere on Toonami after school, Dandadan offers that same rallying sensation.
This current era of streaming also offers audiences the ability to watch anime in the way they prefer, and Dandadan is great in both sub and dub. Both Shion Wakayama and Abby Trott bring Momo Ayase’s rougher edges and sweeter moments all the weight they deserve, giving the headstrong girl a lot of depth to her performance in both Japanese and English. Natsuki Hanae, fresh off of Tanjiro from Kimetsu no Yaiba: Demon Slayer, and AJ Beckles demonstrate the slowly building confidence and growth that Okarun is exhibiting as the team quests to find his missing anatomy. Dandadan’s constantly shifting tone and mix of comedy, drama, action, and slice-of-life requires the voice actors to be adaptable and just as quick as the animation they’re following. It’s a genuinely impressive thing that it all works so well in both Japanese and in English. The cast is just as good as the animation, giving a lot to work with for anime fans who have their very distinct preferences.
As the series continues, there are still so many questions that need answering. Where is Okarun’s other testicle? What is the real story behind Turbo Granny? Will Momo and Okarun ever manage to get themselves together enough to confront their feelings for each other and get it out of the way? While the second episode of Season 2 may not have all those answers, «The Evil Eye» is in the perfect place to get the new season well off the ground and ready to continue the conflict with the Kito clan and the supernatural horrors that live in the bowels of Jiji’s seemingly innocuous home.
While Controversial, Momo's Opening Scenes In Season 2 Establish A Change From Season 1
Dandadan's Facing Some Very Real Themes Head-On
Dandadan Season 2, Episode 1, «Like, This Is the Legend of the Giant Snake», picks up right where Season 1 left off, with Momo, Okarun, and Jiji separated after arriving at Jiji’s haunted home. Momo herself went to the hot springs nearby, only to be beset by «alligators», or men who gawk at and abuse women in co-ed hot springs. Jiji and Okarun, meanwhile, have found a sealed room inside the titular haunted house and are cornered by the women of the Kito clan. Momo escapes her attackers to go to the Tsuchinoko Shrine, ending up disappointed before returning to the house to find the boys beaten up and getting involved in the fray herself. This ends up with everyone, including the Kito clan, getting sucked into what is described as quicksand and ending up beneath the house, standing on the corpses of the houses that had come before and facing down the «great serpent», which looks more like a baby sarlacc than anything else. The episode ends with Okarun mysteriously losing control of Turbo Granny’s curse, seemingly about to devour Jiji.
The opening of this episode offers the same controversial energy that the alien abduction of Momo did in the beginning of Season 1. There are a lot of distinct themes in Dandadan about the sexualization and predation of children, and how many threats are actually treated as mundane by victims. The anime also offers a clear line between victimization and being a victim. Momo is certainly victimized, but the story never treats her as lesser or broken by her experiences with the many truly messed-up things that happen to her as the narrative empowers her. As opposed to Momo’s abduction by the aliens in Season 1, the scene where she fights off her attackers and runs is framed differently. Momo is not as helpless as she felt in the original, despite her attackers coming at her so aggressively. She also doesn’t treat these events as particularly traumatizing, more as inconveniences, which shines a light on how many young women are forced to deal with survival.
Meanwhile, Okarun is often the one being treated as a victim of circumstance for losing the physiological symbol of his manhood, his genitals, but that loss does not make him less of a person. These scenes can be deeply uncomfortable, but they are supposed to be uncomfortable. Season 1 made no secret of the themes of how victimization and predation change and alter a person, and Momo is at the core of this as someone who takes power from a moment of victimization and refuses to allow the actions of others to affect her self-perception.
Dandadan, while being goofy and over-the-top in places, is very grounded in how it treats the younger cast of characters. Momo is a tough girl who is unafraid to be herself, but has been victimized by the world around her in multiple ways. Okarun was a friendless nerd who finally found someone who got him, but he loses parts of his anatomy and autonomy to a curse. Much of what makes the anime resonate so brilliantly is the fact that it centers on themes of connection and how those connections are what make the difference for so many people. Ultimately, it’s Momo and Okarun’s unlikely connection that makes the core of the anime resonate so much for so many people. Season 2, Episode 2, «The Evil Eye», references the idea of a malevolent curse being placed on a person by a glare, and the episode has a great opportunity to continue with many of these themes of internal possession versus external judgment.
What Is A Tsuchinoko?
As A Part Of The Beginning Of The Second Season, This Japanese Cryptid Is A Fun Inclusion
Momo spends part of the first episode of Season 2 looking for the Tsuchinoko Shrine. A tsuchinoko is a Japanese cryptid of some renown, appearing as a snake with a central girth much wider than its head or the tip of its tail, almost as if you hit a snake with a hammer and made it flat in the middle. According to legend, they have a habit of lying and love to indulge in alcohol, also biting their own tails and using that to roll around rather than slither slowly. The 1980s saw a wave of tsuchinoko sightings across Japan, with a bounty of one million yen for capturing one and bringing it alive. While the existence of the tsuchinoko is highly debatable, the positioning of snakes and snake-like creatures in Japanese mythology and folklore is something that cannot be overlooked when looking at this arc of Dandadan.
The caretaker of the Tsuchinoko Shrine goes on to tell Momo about the legend of the great serpent and how a sacrifice was made so that their local volcano had remained dormant, along with gifting them hot springs. Snakes, due to the shedding of their skin, often became a symbol of rebirth in Japanese mythology and folklore, as well as the darker forces of nature that needed to be overcome. Stories of brave heroes slaying serpent-like monsters abound in the early mythology of Japan, and the Mongolian Death Worm shown in Dandadan Season 2, Episode 1 would be a very familiar sight for people familiar with the folklore of Japan, a serpentine creature with human features that poses a massive threat.
Dandadan takes a lot of cues from local mythology in Japan as well as the wider network of supernatural conspiracy theories that have spread across the world, twisting and teasing them into something narratively fun and functional for exploration. While the second season has only just started, there are already plenty of amazing places for the story to go and for the characters to grow into. This is a series that revels in its themeing and is more than happy to bring its audience along for the ride. Fans of the franchise and the genre as a whole won’t be disappointed as they delve deeper into the story of Jiji’s house and see how Dandadan‘s stalwart heroes get themselves out of the clutches of the Kito clan.
Dandadan Season 2 Is Currently Streaming on Crunchyroll, Hulu and Netflix
