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When 2024 comes to an end, Dan Da Dan it became the talk of the shonen town. From the chemistry of their two leads to his opening banger and unusual styleScience Saru’s adaptation of Yukinobu Tatsu’s supernatural romcom captured the hearts and minds of anime fans, who tuned in every week to see what madness Momo Ayase and Okarun will be caught in the next.
Earlier in December, io9 spoke with Momo and Okarun’s respective dub actors, Abby Trott and AJ Beckles, who came to the material through different avenues. Beckles was already reading the manga before the audition, while Trott only knew about it through the audition. Both became captivated, and were shocked enough that they reserved the parts – and how the dub is specifically noted as great in its own right.
“Seeing some of the comments about how some people like the dub, and they’ve switched to it, that’s been really cool,” Beckles said. The “sub v. dub” war has existed since the dawn of time, but he said Dan Da Dan it avoided looping thanks to heavy marketing for its dub, and the actors have proper time to record. It’s not always the case with anime, and according to him, the show is better for it: without preconceived notions surrounding either the Japanese or English voice, the viewers were free to like the version they wanted.
While audiences have been singing the show’s praises for months, some viewers were thrown off by the second half of the first episode, where Momo and Okarun find themselves in danger from otherworldly beings. While Okarun is being chased and possessed by the demonic Turbo Granny, Momo ends up in a more harrowing situation where she is kidnapped by aliens called Serpo, who strip her to her panties and prepare to steal her reproductive organs. It’s a fairly abrupt tonal change, not helped by the fact that there are still traces of comedy as Serpo called the organs “bananas”.
When asked, both actors acknowledged how “unpleasant” the scene could be to freeze, and neither blamed anyone for leaving the show because of it . For Trott, the scene is a key moment for her character, as it is when Momo’s psychokinetic powers emerge. Once she realizes what she can do, she immediately goes on the offensive, and many of the big action beats of the season involved Momo getting a better handle on her. their abilities– to have her step into that power and immediately use it to “kick Serpos’s asses” was satisfying.
“In that scene, we’re not saying the Serpoians are good, it’s the opposite. There’s a lot of dynamics in this anime, and definitely some hard parts to get through,” said Trott. “But the good outweighs those hard to watch moments.”
Beckles shared a similar sentiment, and pointed to how Momo uses her grandmother’s advice and receives surprise assistance from Turbo Granny as examples of how women support each other throughout the story. As a manga reader, he indicated that things will improve going forward, saying that viewers “will see, as the show continues, that it takes those moments more seriously.” The two actors also highlighted the presence of Okarun and the “healthy perspective” on women, which allows the show to contrast with the more invasive Serpoians.
After its fourth episode, Momo and Okarun’s slow-burn romance really starts to take shape. Their burgeoning relationship is much more notable since other shonen often have romance as an add-on to their stories rather than the core. Tatsu famously revealed that while pitching Dan Da Dan, her editor Shihei Lin recommended reading shoujo (or “girl”) manga, which emphasizes personal and romantic relationships. If Lin hadn’t given the advice, the series might not be what it is now, and probably lack the same impact and excitement around it. The audience loves a good one love storyand they know when it’s not hitting. But because they are so well written and clearly defined – and they can never be normal around each other, especially in public – it’s hard not to root for Momo and Okarun.
Even when the pair is taken in some wild things, their feelings for each other inform almost everything they do. Learning it was a love story didn’t change the actor’s handling of the material, but Trott said the scene where Okarun and Momo fight for the first time made it clear where things were going. For Beckles, some of his favorite scenes for his character are when Okarun is “just trying to figure out how to talk to a girl for the first time,” or telling Momo how much he loves her. it matters what you think.
The dynamic between the drivers is so important in the cabin. When it comes time to record, the two actors said they prefer when the other has already arrived first, as it allows them to feed off each other. Trott said she gets “so much” from her co-lead, especially since Okarun often “provokes a certain response” from Momo that makes her adjust her responses accordingly. The same is very true for Beckles, who admitted that the more intimate and romantic scenes turned him off as Okarun tends to speak from his heart.
Where Momo’s encounter with the Serpo helps activate his psychic powers, Okarun’s experience with Turbo Granny leaves him with a partial essence of the spirit’s powers, allowing him to transform into a faster, smoother and more. relaxed emo version of yourself As Beckles explained, finding a default voice for Okarun – which he would later use when the character is more expressive or in his Turbo mode – took several recording sessions. In those early episodes, Okarun was “always yelling or whispering, and there was so much going on back-to-back-to-back” to establish a baseline. Beckles credited voice director Alex von David for guiding him towards moments to make his voice “more nerdy or more endearing”. Alex has the big picture, and he knows where Okarun is going. I really leaned on him on the points where it was difficult, but it’s good when it’s a challenge to try to do something the right way.”
One specific challenge he mentioned was episode four “goodbye” scene. between Okarun and Momo, which he called one of his “infuriating moments” to record. Since he arrived in the booth earlier that day, it was difficult to consider Okarun’s thought process, as Trott would have performed during his recording time, and the meaning behind every “goodbye” uttered. “Once (Abby) recorded first the next day,” he said, “the pieces of the puzzle started to connect. I could play with her emotions, and I could build that way. I think we couldn’t have gotten that affectionate, childlike reading without her “See you later!”
During our conversation, Beckles and Trott shouted out several others who did by Dan From Dan adaptation a success Along with fans and von David, they praised their dub partners Lisa Reimold (Aira) and Barbara Goodson (Turbo Granny), and the respective Japanese interpreters of their characters, Natuski Hanae and Shion Wakayama. (Trott called Wakayama’s Momo one of his all-time favorite anime shows, and a “perfect embodiment” of Japan’s gyaru subculture.) Going on this trip was a blast for both of them, so it’s good that they we will hear again on Netflix and Crunchyroll with the second season in July 2025.
And while they couldn’t say anything about what’s to come, Beckles said that where things left off “is tame compared to where the show is going next.”
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