First Impressions - Uzumaki and Dandadan

Fall anime is here, and it’s shaping up to be a memorable 2024 season. So far, I’ve seen the first episodes of two highly anticipated titles: Uzumaki, produced by Adult Swim for the revitalization of Toonami, and Dandadan, produced by Science Saru. I’m excited to watch these shows as they release weekly, as both fandom spaces are buzzing with life and anticipation for more. These shows showcase amazing technical animation abilities and hard work.

Starting with my impressions of the first episode of Uzumaki, I was getting antsy waiting for it. I loved the manga and was thrilled when the anime made my skin crawl and sent the perfect shiver down my spine. The atmosphere was unsettling and spooky from the very first frame shown on screen. The wait was well worth it, with Uzumaki originally being announced at Crunchyroll Expo 2019. The anime looked as if they had magically pulled the still manga images from the page and brought them to life, which is very on-brand for Junji Ito. The entire anime is in black and white, and the backgrounds have cross-hatching that gives them a real drawn-on-paper feeling. The close-up shots were unsettling in all the right ways, with incredible detail. I feel like they must have spent hours studying the Uzumaki manga itself to get the right look.

The best scenes from the episode were pretty iconic, with Azami Kurotani and the spiral-eyed grill being as show-stopping as she deserved to be. After years of seeing the image, it made me shudder to watch the eyeball floating around finally get sucked into Kurotani's head—along with some other boys. Another iconic illustration brought to life was Shuichi’s dad scrunching himself up and dying in the old wooden tub to become a spiral. Actual nightmares at the thought of him twisting and turning his body to impossible proportions! I will say, if there’s anything I’m concerned about, it’s the pacing. The anime is a miniseries and will only be four episodes long, but I feel like we went through some big story beats very quickly. I’m interested to see how they condense Uzumaki and retell the story. Uzumaki is off to a great start, and it feels like Junji Ito’s work is finally getting the adaptation it deserves.

I feel like Dandadan found me thanks to the hype, particularly from other anime blogs counting down to the release. The launch of Dandadan was significant, premiering the first three episodes in theaters. This makes me happy, as anime is coming more regularly to theaters for special events. Are we in need of an Akira Fathom event yet? Dandadan is not something I would typically watch, but I was influenced and wanted to be a part of the excitement.

There seems to be a romance subplot that’s already been turned on its head a bit, so I’m interested to see where that goes. We have the trope of a man becoming a monster to save someone he cares about, to sacrifice himself; but even after a stunning first-episode speech, our Casanova, Ken Takakura, was defeated. It’s okay, though, because our leading lady, Momo Ayase, is able to save herself by believing in herself and unlocking some psychic powers. I already feel like Ayase is going to be a fantastically strong female lead, even with her motivations in the introduction being to find love. She’s kind of finding love for herself and her family already.

I like Dandadan's setup of a boy who believes in aliens but not ghosts, and a girl who believes in ghosts but not aliens, daring each other to scary places to prove each other wrong. It’s the start of a beautifully competitive friendship. While I enjoyed Dandadan, I need to address the elephant in the room: I could not recommend this to everyone. The first episode does have a sexual assault scene that should have been made more prevalent. It goes pretty far and tries not to take itself too seriously, but it’s a serious topic, and people should be made aware of it. I’d like to see where Dandadan takes itself moving forward.

Looking back, both of these shows are perfect for the start of October—something spooky and sort of spooky—though I imagine Dandadan will devolve into mostly action. If nothing else, you should listen to the opening of Dandadan, performed by Creepy Nuts; it’s at the top of my wake-up playlist. We’ll have to see if both shows can keep the hype up and stick the landing.