Dandadan (2021)
[ダンダダン]
Volume 3
Author/Artist: Yokinobu Tatsu
Publisher: Jump Comics+
Synopsis:
Having extracted Aira, Momo and Okarun launch their counterattack against Acrobatic Silky.
Story/Characters:
The second phase of the Acrobatic Silky fight once again demonstrates Momo's ability to outthink her opponents and the aftermath gives us an even more tragic backstory than the last one. (Imagine the challenge for me as an uncle to explain to my then-11-year-old niece who's a fan of the anime what was going on with a prostitute whose pimp turns on her without specifying things.) Tatsu is fairly artful at portraying the whole thing. After the battle, we have a meal in what's getting established as the standard pattern for the series. Beat the Monster of the Week, have a thematic meal afterwards. (Crab for the last battle and soba for this one, with the noodles being representative of Silky's hair.) Aira hasn't been cured of her delusions, but the way Okarun rescued her has convinced her to save him from the devil woman's clutches.
Our school interlude introduces Okarun going on his training arc, trying to build up his natural physicality so that he can make better use of his powers, while Aira is looking to save Okarun through the power of love, only her conception of love mostly comes from using her father's porn stash for reference. Yes, my friends, you may have thought that we were just going to have an awkward little love story with two odd ducks learning to love each other, but this is a Japanese love story, so we have to have rivals and with rivals, we have misunderstandings and miscommunications to complicate what's honestly already complicated enough.
However, we've got Jump editors breathing down Tatsu's neck to deliver the next battle sequence and Momo finds herself in a pocket dimension version of the school that's not only flooded but also features frickin' Nessie (or Kamissie as this is Kamikoshi City and not Loch Ness). Who could be behind this? Why, it's our good friends the Serpos, who are after Okarun's banana after he bested them last time. (They're scared to go after Momo's banana for the moment.) To help out, they've hired a boxing alien that gets dubbed the Dover Demon as we need a tie-in to more cryptids and such. But that's not all. It turns out that Aira's been empowered by Silky much as Okarun was from Turbo Granny, so now we have two ghost channelers for our action scenes. The Serpos reveal that they have the ability to power up other species with an injection from their bananas (hybridizing them, I guess), which is bad enough when they do it for the Dover Demon, but there's another critter lurking about too, isn't there? Uh-oh...
Art:
I like how in this universe exposure to fire guarantees a granny perm. The flashback to Silky's human life is rather harrowing, particularly her death scene. The after-battle meal with Momo and Aira scrapping while refusing to stop even a moment from stuffing their faces with soba is pretty funny. The flooded school fight is impressive as you'd expect and I quite like Aira's empowered form. A kick-based fighter in a short skirt has certain concerns and though the laws of physics work against her, she puts up a valiant effort because she's a lady, goshdarnit. (If you're a leg person, Tatsu's got you covered.)
Other:
Under the dust cover, we get profiles for Silky and the Dover Demon as well as color illustration of Momo and Okarun together and then one of Momo in a yukata with Neko Granny. There are two bonus comics, a four-pager where Seiko challenges Momo and a 4-koma like last time that has Granny plotting revenge on Seiko, only to be appeased by her.
Conclusion:
The handling of Silky's story packs a lot of punch. You may be on the fence about Aira getting a permanent slot in the cast as Momo's rival, but I'm going to go ahead and tell you that we start to build up to Ranma levels as the story progresses, so if you intend to continue on this ride, you might as well make peace of it. We also get more empowered individuals as this is a proper Shounen Jump battle series, so we need to get our big ensemble fights in. If Jump tropes are a draw for you, great. If not, I'd say don't count this one out. There's a lot more depth to the character writing than a lot of battle series and the fact that we get big luscious action and really good character work should be more than enough reason to not just keep reading but also to keep adding these volumes to your collection.
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