Dan Da Dan‘s third episode is out now, marking the conclusion of GKids’ limited theatrical compilation release, Evil Eye. While this means more new moments to come for anime fans to obsess over, Science Saru didn’t leave fans empty-handed, finally showcasing Okarun and Evil Eye’s long-awaited clash and a clever reference to popular long-running shonen anime, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, to add to its cool factor.
Much of the marketing leading up to the second season of Dan Da Dan emphasized the intense showdown between Okarun and his new friend, Jiji Enjoji. In the previous episode, Jiji, the class clown of the anime’s expanding group of friends, spent a lot of time trying to prevent Okarun and Momo from harming each other. This chaos was triggered by a giant snake lurking beneath Jiji’s family home—a snake that possesses the power to emit psychic waves, causing people to attempt to take their lives.
During his perilous endeavor to save his friends, Jiji encounters a yokai known as Evil Eye. Much like season one’s standout episode featuring Acrobat Silky, viewers see that Evil Eye is more than just a menacing adversary. After learning Evil Eye’s tragically moving backstory, Jiji befriends the yokai, but things quickly take a turn for the worse. Similar to how Turbo Granny possessed Okarun, Jiji finds himself being body-snatched by Evil Eye. As a result, Jiji now sees Momo as an enemy. Just in time for the climax of episode two, Okarun makes a cool return, setting the stage for their battle in episode three.
We’ll spare you the blow-by-blow play-by-play of their battle because there’s absolutely no way we can do it justice. However, one climactic moment in their battle sees Okarun dig in deep and lay Evil Eye Jiji on his generous underwear-clad ass. After spending the majority of their fight on the back foot, Okarun manages to eke out a victory with a volley of double-fist uppercuts propelled very awkwardly by a series of lightning-fast leg crunches. While Okarun isn’t wont to deliver one-liners, he rises to the triumphant occasion with one referencing JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders protagonist Jotaro Kujo’s climactic battle with DIO.
Similar to Jotaro, Okarun tells his adversary—and ostensibly the audience—how he was able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. It’s all because Evil Eye made a grave mistake; he put his hands on Momo and pissed Okarun off. The line close to Jotaro’s quote to DIO after his terror nearly killed his own grandfather. Given Okarun’s Turbo Granny mode sees the teenager act not dissimilar to the stoic JJBA protagonist (down to his catchphrase, “Good grief”), it’s no wonder Okarun would tap into that cool guy persona to emphasize his decisive win over Evil Eye. The moment is made all the funnier when you take into account that Okarun, who at this point in the anime is roughly 17 years old, is somehow the same age as the towering JJBA protagonist. Guess they fed anime protagonists nothing but red meat and cigarettes back in the day.
In an interview with AJ Beckles and Aleks Le, the English voice actors of Okarun and Jiji told io9 that their characters’ clash was significant to them as it represented Okarun’s first genuine battle.
“[Okarun] has to dodge and punch, or whatever else, which he doesn’t really know how to do. You get to see that bit of awkwardness, too, that he clearly doesn’t know what he’s doing versus Evil Eye, who seems so experienced in comparison,” Beckles told io9. “It’s interesting, and [Science Saru] did a great job of showing that.”
This isn’t the first time Jiji and Okarun’s butting of heads (ostensibly over Momo) has yielded a deep-cut anime reference. Back in season one, an innocuous scene where the two boys sang and chanted at each other after vying for Momo’s attention featured the pair singing the opening and ending theme song to the ’90s-era basketball anime, Slam Dunk. Serendipitously, despite the love triangle leads in the Toei Animation series, Hanamichi Sakuragi and Kaede Rukawa are not direct one-to-one spiritual predecessors to Okarun and Jiji in terms of personality; the basketball rivals do share similar hair colors, making their comparison somewhat apt.
So glad they didn’t skip nor change Okarun and Jiji singing the Slam Dunk ending and opening pic.twitter.com/BwPfgEhJHo
— Mobu☄️ (@Captain_Atomsk) December 19, 2024
Given Dan Da Dan‘s propensity for referencing pop culture touchstones like Shin Godzilla and Ultraman, Science Saru’s breakout hit anime is likely to have more kitschy Easter eggs in store for fans to appreciate the series all the more. For the time being, we can all take pride in witnessing its bully-whip-armed occult nerd, Okarun, delivering a cool guy line straight out of one of anime’s most prolific cool guy series.
New episodes of Dan Da Dan season two air every Thursday on Netflix, Crunchyroll, and Hulu.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
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