Genre-bending anime series DAN DA DAN, known for its flashy art style, unique storyline, and lovable characters, is set to return with a second season this summer. The release of season two is preluded by an exclusive theatrical release of DAN DA DAN: EVIL EYE, a movie combining the last part of season one with a first look into the first part of season two. Ahead of the season two premiere, Asia Blooming spoke with Director Abel Gongora and English voice actors Abby Trott (Momo), A.J. Beckles (Okarun), and Aleks Le (Jiji) about the show and what fans can expect next.
Even before the first season of the anime was announced, many people already knew about DAN DA DAN from its original manga by Yukinobu Tatsu, and two of the voice actors were no different. “I actually have a little separate social media account that I made a while ago that I no longer use, and the profile picture is of Turbo Granny from the manga panel,” Beckles, voice of Okarun, began. “What really drew me into the story was the golden balls. I thought it was fantastic, and I needed to see more.” Also familiar with the story was Le, the voice actor for Jiji. “I had a friend who was really into it, and they drew a lot of fan art. I didn’t start reading it until like a couple years back, but I got really into it. At the time, the publication wasn’t caught up enough, so I stopped when I reached the end of wherever that was, but I knew that it was going to be a pretty big deal right away. I was curious to see how they would adapt it because the story is wild, and the art is also insane.”
In contrast, Trott, the voice of Momo, and Director Gongora were actually less well-versed on the manga and show than the others. “When [the creation of] season one started, I was not involved,” Gongora said. “I started reading the manga then because I knew it was being made in our studio, but it was a really easy to read manga, and it had a very cool story and concept.” Sharing her story, Trott revealed she hadn’t known anything about DAN DA DAN even up until her audition. “I’m always late to the game when it comes to new, popular manga and anime, but the first I had heard of it was when I got my audition,” she started. “I was immediately enthralled with the animation style and the characters themselves, so once I learned of it, I started reading the manga.”
Right off the bat, season one of the show skyrocketed in popularity in part due to the opening sequence featuring Creepy Nuts’ catchy song “オトノケ(Otonoke).” Though season two director Gongora was not the director for season one, he did create the opening sequence specifically. “I spoke to the director first to hear what they wanted, and Director Fûga Yamashiro mostly gave me [creative] freedom,” he began. “He asked me to somehow use the Ultraman opening aesthetics or to do something similar to that, so I put together some ideas and showed him. I made a storyboard while listening to the song, and I tried to fit all my ideas in with the music. After we made some changes, we started animating, finding the colors, working on compositing, and trying some aesthetics that were a little different from the overall show. We agreed from the beginning that we didn’t want the characters to look too normal, so you see a big contrast when the show starts versus while you’re watching the opening.”
Whether it was working on season one’s opening or season two, Director Gongora shared that the detail in the manga panels impacted the animation process. “The panels are really detailed, and that takes a lot of work and effort from the animator. It’s hard, but they’re so cool and so well done. Sometimes, we’d even use the manga panels for the storyboard, so they were very helpful to the storytelling. Sometimes, we didn’t even need to think much about certain scenes because it was already done in the manga.”
While adapting the artistic style was the challenge for the animators and director, the storyline and dialogue posed a different set of challenges for the voice actors. “For dubbing, we usually record one person at a time,” Trott revealed. “There were also certain scenes that were definitely uncomfortable to record and uncomfortable to watch, such as Momo’s abduction scene. But, I think they’re supposed to be uncomfortable. It was interesting having read the manga going into that and mentally bracing myself for what it would look like when it’s animated. It was hard to get through some of those scenes.” Beckles and his strong knowledge of the manga meant that there were no major surprises for him during the recording process. “I was just really excited to get to certain points, and it made me feel like I was just going back to being a teenager,” he shared. While nodding in agreement, Le admitted that there was one thing that was surprising about his role. “I knew that Jiji had a lot of jingles, but I didn’t realize that they were gonna animate all of it. He does so much random stuff in the background in the manga, and I thought there was no way they’d waste time animating that in the actual show. But, sure enough, every time Jiji is in the background, he’s super expressive and super fun. And also, he sings a lot of songs [that actually exist]. I was really surprised that we got to sing the song from Slam Dunk, and he also sings a lot of actual songs from old Japanese commercials. That was super fun.”
For dub actors specifically, they’re given recordings from the original Japanese cast to listen to prior to their own recording sessions, which, like the detailed manga panels, can be simultaneously helpful and challenging. “I think it can almost dull your abilities in some way. We already know they did such an amazing job, so if I even get close to that, I’ll do an amazing job,” Beckles said. “I guess the challenge is hearing what the Japanese voice actors did, and taking it as a framework without fully relying on it. We want to be able to do our own spin on these characters. That’s why we hold auditions for English voice actors as well. If they wanted just a perfect voice match, they wouldn’t need to bring us in, so it’s important for us to bring ourselves into our characters as much as possible.” In agreement, Trott added that there are also some challenges that come from fan reception of the different language voicing. “There’s definitely the luxury of being able to pull aspects from the performance that we really like or think are essential to the character or property, but we also need to do what makes the most sense for the context of the English version. In some of the early trailers, one of my Momo lines was compared to the Japanese version as not being as loud, but I distinctly remembered that we pulled it back for a reason while recording because it fit the scene better for us.”
Thinking ahead to what’s to come in the upcoming releases, each actor also believes their characters will show fans brand new sides of themselves. “You’ll get to see a lot more of Jiji in his element, which is really cool. He kind of joined season one to put Okarun into a situation to come to terms with his own feelings, like a kind of a foil, but now, I feel like the spotlight is on him,” Le shared. “We get to see and find out a lot more about Jiji and who he is as a person [in season two].” While fans will enjoy seeing more of Jiji, they’ll also see more of Momo and Okarun, too. “He’s a little bit more confident now,” Beckles shared on Okarun. “He’s a little happier, he has people around him, and he has friends. He’s struggling with the conflicting feelings of jealousy, but he’s also grateful to Jiji for sharing his interests and being interested in him as a person, so it’s going to be interesting going through all these emotions throughout season two.”
When trying to come up with the perfect words to describe DAN DA DAN and the upcoming season, Beckles began with a single word: better. “Science SARU, the studio, and the rest of the team already did such an amazing job on the first part, so I was hesitant to think they could somehow make it better. But, I really think they’re going to. As a manga reader, I know what’s coming in this next part is going to be even bigger, so [fans can expect everything to be] crazier and wackier.”
DAN DA DAN: EVIL EYE will begin playing in select theaters on June 6, 2025, and DAN DA DAN season two is set to premiere on July 3, 2025.
