
Welcome to Manga Unmasked! In this series, we'll be taking a deep dive into the various manga series available in our collection. So, whether you're already a fan of manga or just a curious reader, we hope you might learn a little about your next potential reading obsession. In this edition, Ayase and Okarun are butting heads over what is real: aliens or ghosts? They could have never imagined the trouble they'd find when they went looking to disprove each other.
Check out the previous manga explored with the Manga Unmasked series—My Hero Academia, Spy x Family, Sailor Moon, Wolf Children: Ame & Yuki, One-Punch Man, One Piece, Delicious in Dungeon, Apothecary Diaries, Witch Hat Atelier, Kaiju No. 8, Mob Psycho 100, Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, MHA: Vigilantes, and Ranma 1/2.
Download the Libby App to access eBooks and digital audiobooks on your Apple or Android smart device. If you prefer to read on a larger device, go to www.aclib.us/LibbyApp for the browser option.
Don't see your favorite manga, anime, or author in this list or our collection? Suggest materials to add to our catalog.
Background

Dandadan is a shounen* coming-of-age, action, romantic comedy, and supernatural thriller genre-blending manga series written and illustrated by Yukinobu Tatsu. It was first serialized in April 2021 in Shuesha's Shōnen Jump+ app, and the chapters have been collected into 19 volumes at the time of writing this blog.
* Shounen means "young man/boy." For manga/anime, shounen is the term used for stories generally marketed to a younger male audience but is a genre anyone can enjoy.
Prior to Dandadan, Yukinobu Tatsu wrote Fire Ball! (2013-2014). He also worked as an assistant for Tatsuki Fujimoto's Chainsaw Man and Yuji Kaku's Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku.
Dandadan debuted in an early theatrical release as Dan Da Dan: First Encounter of its first three episodes on August 24, 2024, at Anime NYC and outside Japan starting on August 31, 2024. The first season was available for streaming on Netflix, Crunchyroll, Hulu, and other streaming services globally. The second season kicked off with a theatrical release as Dan Da Dan: Evil Eye in early June 2025 and will be available on streaming services starting July 3, 2025.
Dandadan won the Abema Anime Trend Awards' "Japan Anima Trend Award" and the "Opening Animation Award" in 2024. During the 9th Crunchyroll Anime Awards in 2025, the series won "Best Character Design," "Best Opening Sequence," and "Best Anime Song."
So Wait, They're Both Real?

Momo Ayase and Okarun are on opposite sides of the paranormal spectrum regarding what they’ll believe in and what they won’t. Their quest to prove each other wrong leads them down a path of secret crushes and paranormal battles they’ll have to participate in to believe!
Momo Ayase strikes up an unusual friendship with her school's UFO fanatic, whom she nicknames "Okarun" because he has a name that is not to be said aloud due to her thoughts on a classical manly actor.
While Momo believes in spirits, she thinks aliens are nothing but nonsense. Her new friend, meanwhile, thinks the exact opposite. To settle matters, the two set out to prove each other wrong—Momo to a UFO hotspot and Okarun to a haunted tunnel! What unfolds next is a beautiful story of young love… and very odd aliens and spirits?
With an eccentric cast of characters, both mundane and supernatural, this genre-bending series will make readers and viewers laugh, cry, gasp, and sit on the edge of their seats.
The Odd Couple


Momo Ayase
Momo has struck out on love... again. Not like the guy she was dating was a good guy, like at all, but he looked like her celebrity crush. Despite her rough day, she stands up for a kid getting bullied in another class... but now he's following her and trying to talk about aliens and cryptids. Things she doesn't believe in. She believes in the spiritual side of supernatural things though.
Momo is bold, fashion-forward, and a little temperamental.


Ken Takakura a.k.a. Okarun
Okarun would really like a friend... and to finally see aliens or a cryptid. When a girl from another class stands up for him, he has to take the chance to talk to her... about aliens! But she doesn't believe in aliens. She believes in ghosts. Which... definitely aren't real.
Okarun is nerdy and a little shy, that is until you get him talking about aliens and cryptids. He knows all there is to know about them! Probably.
- Dandadan Volumes
**This list includes a brief summary of the events in each book. Here there be spoilers, so read the later summaries at your own risk.
ImageDandadan: Volume 1 by Yukinobu Tatsu
A nerd must fight powerful spirits and aliens all vying for the secret power of his “family jewel,” so who better to fight alongside him than his high school crush and a spirit granny?!
Momo Ayase and Okarun are on opposite sides of the paranormal spectrum regarding what they’ll believe in and what they won’t. Their quest to prove each other wrong leads them down a path of secret crushes and paranormal battles they’ll have to participate in to believe!Momo Ayase strikes up an unusual friendship with her school's UFO fanatic, whom she nicknames "Okarun" because he has a name that is not to be said aloud. While Momo believes in spirits, she thinks aliens are nothing but nonsense. Her new friend, meanwhile, thinks the exact opposite. To settle matters, the two set out to prove each other wrong—Momo to a UFO hotspot and Okarun to a haunted tunnel! What unfolds next is a beautiful story of young love…and oddly horny aliens and spirits?
ImageDandadan: Volume 2 by Yukinobu Tatsu
Okarun, a high school boy obsessed with supernatural phenomena, is cursed by Turbo Granny! To break the curse, Okarun and his classmate Momo Ayase challenge Turbo Granny to a high-stakes race. But Turbo Granny’s assassin, a bound spirit in the form of a giant crab, has other plans!ImageDandadan: Volume 3 by Yukinobu Tatsu
Okarun, a high school boy obsessed with supernatural phenomena, has lost his precious family jewels in a battle with Turbo Granny! His classmate Aira ends up finding one, and it awakens spiritual powers within her. Around this same time, a strange woman in a red dress appears at the school and attacks Aira, Okarun, and Momo! Who is she, and what’s with her obsession with Aira?ImageDandadan: Volume 4 by Yukinobu Tatsu
The banana-stealing Serpoians are back! And they’ve trapped Okarun, Momo, and Aira in a void to have another go at stealing their reproductive organs. The subsequent battle causes the powers of the Acrobatic Silky dwelling within Aira to awaken, and she temporarily joins forces with Momo and Okarun. But will they be any match for their opponents after the aliens merge with their minions to form an even greater being?!
ImageDandadan: Volume 5 by Yukinobu Tatsu
ImageDandadan: Volume 6 by Yukinobu Tatsu
The Kito clan tosses Okarun and the gang into an alternate-reality version of Jiji’s family home as an offering to the serpent god! There they encounter another of the clan’s sacrifices, a child who goes on to possess the softhearted Jiji. The two of them become the Evil Eye, who then attacks Okarun and Momo. Okarun decides to take him on alone and sends Momo back aboveground to get help. There she comes up with an ingenious plan to get rid of the giant serpent god…but can she pull it off on her own in time to save Jiji?
ImageDandadan: Volume 7 by Yukinobu Tatsu
Okarun and the others emerge victorious in their fight against the serpent god, but one lingering threat remains—the Evil Eye’s possession of Jiji. Even Grandma Seiko’s exorcism is of no use. To complicate matters further, whenever Jiji comes into contact with cold water, the Evil Eye regains control and attacks! Out of options, the group decides their best course of action is to watch over Jiji together until a proper exorcism can be performed—whenever that may be!
ImageDandadan: Volume 8 by Yukinobu Tatsu
Having looked on helplessly as Momo fought the Evil , Okarun resolves to become stronger. To help with his training, Turbo Granny takes him, with Aira in tow, to the school’s music room, where they’re attacked by the portraits of composers hanging on the walls! But with some tips from Turbo Granny, Okarun is able to beat them, and he decides then and there to take on the Evil Eye!
ImageDandadan: Volume 9 by Yukinobu Tatsu
A seemingly unbeatable kaiju is on the attack! Okarun hits on the idea of revisualizing the nanoskin that repaired Momo’s house into a form they can use to fight back, but he lacks the imagination needed, so it’s Kinta Sakata—a.k.a. Erosuke—to the rescue! The nerd uses his vast knowledge of sci-fi to transform Momo’s house into…a giant Buddha robot?!
ImageDandadan: Volume 10 by Yukinobu Tatsu
To avoid being late for school on Vamola’s first day, Momo takes the mysterious kaiju girl on a shortcut through some off-limits ruins. But the protection spell they perform doesn’t work, and she runs into the slit-mouthed woman who resides there! The two narrowly escape, and it’s only later that Momo realizes the real danger they were in. So why is it that for Momo’s own safety, Seiko is now forbidding her from leaving her room after 10 p.m. for the next week?!
ImageDandadan: Volume 11 by Yukinobu Tatsu
Momo struggles to counter a sudden attack by alien clones, but through a temporary truce with her sworn enemy, the alien Serpo, she is able to persevere. However, her troubles are far from over—it’s now after 10 p.m.! In order to avoid the slit-faced woman Reiko Kashima, who is still very much on the hunt for her, Momo and Serpo must hide out overnight in a manga cafe. And when Momo finally returns home in the morning, she finds her friends are gravely injured and being treated by none other than Mr. Shrimp!
ImageDandadan: Volume 12 by Yukinobu Tatsu
A gravely injured Okarun wakes up to an out-of-body experience! And when he answers Momo’s phone, he’s sucked through the telephone wires to where Seiko and Turbo Granny are in the middle of a battle. Thankfully, Turbo Granny is able to teach Okarun a technique for returning to his body that will also help in the impending alien invasion. Elsewhere, Momo and the others are undergoing their own training, but when they return home on the predicted date of the invasion, they find it’s already begun!
More to come!
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The Dandadan anime is produced by Science Saru and directed by Fuga Yamashiro. Season One has 12 episodes, and Season Two is unknown at the time of this writing.
Season One's opening song was performed by the band Creepy Nuts.
Available on Netflix and Crunchyroll