Friday 18th October 2024
Spoilers for Dandadan ep 1 & 2 and kekkai sensen season 1
Currently, im more of a manga girlie rn. But I have these periods in my life when I’ll go a few weeks without watching any anime, then getting completely obsessed with 1 or 2 really amazing shows. Then I’ll just start endlessly thinking, theorising and talking about them for weeks. Im currently in one of these ‘extremely huge obession with certain anime’ period right now, so youre going to hear about them in this blog post RIGHT NOW!!!
SO first thing ill talk about is one of my favourite currently airing animes of this season- DANDADAN!!!!
despite the strange name, Dandadan has (with only 2 episodes) already become an anime that i know will be one of my long-time favourites for years to come. Hell im already convinced ill read the manga after this anime’s done airing!
as you can probably tell I’m super thrilled about this anime. The biggest reason I’ve been loving dandadan so far is primarily because of Okarun and Ayase, these two amazingly written characters are what has kept me completely drawn to this anime for both episodes so far! Ayase and Okarun are both characters who bounce off of each other really well, have amazing chemistry and just make each scene a complete joy to watch when they’re together. I especially love a lot of the trope subversion we’ve gotten so far, since one of the things i love about this anime is how it subverts the stupid gender-based ‘men saving the delicate damsel in distress’ thing. In the first episode when Ayase gets kidnapped I felt myself going “oh god they’re really going this direction aren’t they...” but then Okarun gets his ass handed to him in 2 seconds and Ayase saves them both in the end. I also appreciate how not ‘in your face’ and natural it feels! Sometimes when media does subversions like this it feels like they point to it and go ‘HEYYYY LOOK WE SUPPORT WOMEN TO! NOW BUY OUR FUCKING MERCH!!’ But here i didn’t even notice this trope subversion till a bit after. Admittedly its not the most unique thing, however i thought it was cool because of how well they played this.
if i had to name one thing i loved about both characters, it would probably be just how ratshit insane the two of them are. their conflicting personalities are linked so well with the common ground of the two of them being off in the heads LMAO. Again this isnt really a completely original dynamic or concept, but the way this mangaka was able to do it so naturally and masterfully is what i think makes this dynamic shine.
At the end of the day i just love these characters and this anime and its unique charm so much, it reminds me of mob psycho 100 a bit. Its so engaging that each time i watch an episode and finish it i think ‘woah... its already been 25 minutes...’ Its amazing just how amazing this amazing anime and its characters are!
NOW ONTO THE OTHER ANIME IVE BEEN (RE)WATCHING RECENTLY! Im sure most of you are very familiar with this ending, some of may not know this but this is the ending of an anime called kekkai sensen (aka blood blockade battlefront)! Its an anime you’ve probably never heard of despite the ending being so recognisable (and the video having 11mil views). Its a bit of a shame that thats the case too because of how genuinely amazing this anime is, in my opinion.
Like dandadan, the thing that i liked the most about kekkai sensen was its compelling and fun cast who do a fantastic job making this show a joy to watch. While i wish some certain characters were fleshed out far more (Black, Chain, Etc.) i feel like the extremely immersive and fun characters we did get more then make up for it.
I also really enjoyed the power that the main character of this show has. Leonardo Watch doesn’t have some crazy fighting skills, or mind-blowing magic or something. He simply has these extremely powerful relics as his eyes known as ‘The All Seeing Eyes of the Gods.’ These all seeing eyes feel basically perfect for a character with the role of protagonist, and specifically for the character of Leonardo Watch. They’re extremely OP, but not in the way which would instantly get Leo out of any kind of situation that he’s in. The all seeing eyes act more like a tool then an insta-win card because it still forces Leo to think and utilise the eyes in a clever way, and I find that not only compelling in its own right but also a perfect way to characterise Leo as well. From the way he uses the eyes you can tell the kind of person he is, you can tell how he thinks, how he prepares, how he acts. You can even learn a lot from how he doesnt use it, how he uses it in moderation and a whole host of other things just from him using this tool he has.
unfortunately I do have some issues with kekkai sensen too. Although these issues don’t overshadow this amazing anime’s upsides for me, its still something i feel i should mention. Firstly (and this may be because shes my favourite character) but i honestly believe white deserved far more screentime then she got. Her and Leo’s dynamic was seriously amazing but i honestly wish we
a. Saw more of her alone.
b. Saw more of her with Leo in general.
it is understandable that they werent able to give her as much screentime though because of the limited episode count. However this isnt the only issue in terms of character screentime i have due to episode count, funnily enough. Two good examples of this for me where the characters of Chain and Black, honeslty, i wanted to like these two but i just couldnt bring myself to care. The villian’s whos names i cant remember, some of the other libra members who’s names (again) i just cannot remember all suffered from this 12 episode issue.
the characters weren’t the only thing that suffered as a result of the short episode count. Another thing i felt was really messed up by this short runtime was the plot itself. A lot of the episodes in this show are episodes which dont directly contribute to furthering the plot, and moreso focus on the characters and worldbuilding. While i personally enjoy these types of episodes, it made it so when all the plot stuff happened in episode 11 and 12 everything just felt really rushed and fast and ‘what the fu-’.
its kinda funny that my only real complaint about kekkai sensen season 1 is that it needed more episodes, and in a weird way it kinda does go to show just how interesting and compelling of a show it is, and i hope season 2 will be something i enjoy just as much, if not more then season 1.
okay i lowkey cannot be fucked to write an actual conclusion rn, i love dandadan and kekkai sensen and theyre so amazing and awesomesause and i cannot wait for the new episodes of ddd and to watch season 2 of bbb. So yeah bye.