Dandadan Review: A Boy Who Believes in Aliens and a Girl Who Believes in Ghosts Both End Up Completely Wrong About Everything

Quick Take

• Momo believes in ghosts, Ken believes in aliens; they make a bet; both are immediately proven terrifyingly correct
• One of the most visually inventive ongoing manga — Tatsu's panel compositions and supernatural designs are extraordinary
• Ongoing; one of the most discussed new manga of the 2020s for good reason

Who Is This Manga For?

• Readers who want supernatural action with genuine visual ambition and comedy
• Fans of romance manga who want something genuinely different from the genre
• Anyone who wants a manga where the supernatural elements feel imaginative rather than generic
• Readers who appreciate art that takes real compositional risks

Content Warnings & Age Rating

Age Rating: T (Teen) Content Warnings: Supernatural violence, body horror in alien and ghost sequences, suggestive scenes (mostly played for comedy), some crude humor

More energetically weird than dark.

Yu's Rating

Category	Score
Story Depth	★★★★☆
Art Style	★★★★★
Character Development	★★★★☆
Accessibility for Non-Japanese Readers	★★★★★
Reread Value	★★★★☆

Story Overview

Momo Ayase is a girl from a family of spiritualists who believes in ghosts but thinks aliens are ridiculous. Ken Takakura is a boy with supernatural knowledge who believes in aliens and thinks ghosts are childish. They argue. They make a deal: each will go to a location associated with the other's belief to prove them wrong.

Ken goes to the haunted tunnel. He encounters a ghost. He survives, barely, but loses something precious. Momo goes to the abandoned area associated with alien sightings. She finds something real.

Both are immediately wrong about the world in one direction and vindicated in the other. The supernatural forces they encounter are not generic — each is drawn from folklore and urban legend with genuine specificity and then redesigned with Tatsu's visual imagination.

They fight supernatural beings together. A romance develops between people who started by arguing about what is real.

Characters

Momo Ayase — Competent, occasionally reckless, and dealing with a supernatural situation while being the most practically capable person in it. Her position in the romance is active and clear.

Ken Takakura — The alien believer who becomes possessed by an ancient spirit who gives him combat ability. His split personality between ordinary Ken and the powerful ancient spirit is the series' most creative character construction.

Turbo Granny — One of the supernatural entities; her ongoing presence as both antagonist and odd supporting character is the series' best tonal achievement.

Art Style

Tatsu's art is remarkable — the supernatural designs are each genuinely imaginative rather than generic, the action sequences have dynamic energy, and the panel composition during key sequences uses the page space in ways that most manga don't attempt. The color chapter covers are some of the most striking in contemporary manga publication.

Cultural Context

Dandadan draws from Japanese urban legends and yokai traditions but filters them through Tatsu's specific aesthetic — the results feel rooted in real Japanese folklore while being visually unlike anything that came before. The alien elements add a layer of cosmic horror that intersects with the yokai world in creative ways.

What I Love About It

Turbo Granny. She appears as an antagonist and stays as something the series doesn't fully categorize — she is a threat, she is occasionally useful, she is funny, and she is the character who most clearly embodies what Dandadan is doing. It refuses to let its supernatural elements stay in simple roles.

What English-Speaking Fans Say

Dandadan was adopted rapidly by Western readers when it began serialization and is now among the most discussed ongoing manga globally. The art generates consistent reaction — readers photograph individual panels to share because the compositions are so distinctive. The genre combination — supernatural action, romance, comedy, body horror — is cited as its most appealing quality.

Memorable Scene ⚠️ Spoiler Warning

The first time the spirit possessing Ken fully manifests — what it looks like, what it says, and how Momo responds to seeing it — is the series establishing that it will do whatever it wants with genre expectations. Tatsu drew the entire sequence as if it were a different kind of manga for those pages.

Similar Manga

• Blue Exorcist — Supernatural action with romance, similar tonal mix
• Noragami — Supernatural beings, human/divine relationship
• Jujutsu Kaisen — Supernatural combat, modern setting
• Chainsaw Man — Unconventional supernatural action, bold choices

Reading Order / Where to Start

Volume 1 — the premise and all key relationships are established in the first two chapters.

Official English Translation Status

VIZ Media is publishing the ongoing series. 14 volumes available.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Art is extraordinary — some of the best visual compositions in current manga
• Genre combination is genuinely original
• The supernatural designs are consistently inventive
• Character dynamics are established clearly and developed consistently

Cons

• The tonal range (from tender to grotesque) may be jarring for some readers
• Ongoing with no end in sight
• Some crude comedy may not land for all readers

Format Comparison

Format	Notes
Individual Volumes	VIZ Media; standard
Digital	Available; color covers are exceptional

Where to Buy

Get Dandadan Vol. 1 on Amazon →

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