Fall 2024 is gaining back its reputation as the season with the biggest releases as Dandadan gets better and better as episodes drop by every week. It’s finally dawning upon fans that one shouldn’t judge studios solely based on their previous works. Studio Science Saru has gained confidence among fans that it is the perfect studio to animate such a huge and much-anticipated work. It perfectly encapsulates Dandadan’s wackiness through its art style and camera angles.
It’s no surprise that the story of Dandadan is unhinged in itself. After all, it’s written by Yukinobu Tatsu, who was assisting Chainsaw Man‘s creator, Tatsuki Fujimoto. So, fans should expect some over-the-top scenes and statements from characters. And going through different arcs just to retrieve one’s d*ck is just a teaser for what’s yet to come (no pun intended).
The key inspiration behind Dandadan anime’s animation style
Since the story is pretty versatile and unconventional, Science Saru has the biggest job of choosing a style of animation that matches the story. Series director Fuga Yamashiro explains the main inspiration behind Dandadan‘s animation style in an interview with Game Rant.
To take it back to Saru’s founder Yuasa, The Tatami Galaxy! When I saw it, I was amazed at how free the animators could really be to try anything, and that was something that I really admired when I was first getting into animation. Of course, Yuasa as director was able to combine the freedom of his creation with what the plot demanded, and his ability to balance that was something I greatly was impressed with.
The storyline by itself isn’t enough to bewitch, but what truly makes The Tatami Galaxy special is the art direction. Mixing in a vivid color palette, bits of foggy videos, cuts in time, and atypical angles, this anime is a kaleidoscopic jump into the ordinary as much as the anomalous. Emotions and time are communicated through the visuals, and despite being hard to keep up with the speedy dialogues, it is rather intuitive.
There’s a mix of photography and live-action films as well as some 3D but most if not all the animation seems to be hand-drawn. The animation process is basically the same as in any other production (Script/storyboards, then layouts, then rough animation and backgrounds, then final color and postproduction.). However, the stylization and art direction are probably what makes it so outstanding. Sticking mostly with one color for character and adding the colored paper textures to the backgrounds gives it part of the look it has.
While animation is pretty important to Dandadan, capturing its essence is even more so.
The essence of Dandadan as explained by the anime’s director
The anime adaptation’s biggest job is to successfully identify the spirit of the manga it’s trying to adapt and portray it with some changes without losing that spirit. And that’s the case with Dandadan itself. By reading what the director had said, it’s safe to say that the adaptation is in good hands.
According to the director, Fuga Yamashiro, he used the series’ essence as the base to create the style of animation it needs to have, which he explains as follows:
I really do think that comedy is the essence of Dan Da Dan. The roller coaster of how fast the emotions move is something I devoted so much attention to. And that so much of the comedy does come from the timing; it was really important for this kind of setting and world.
Comedy action series like these needs a unique style of animation, which the director was successful in creating.
We tried to really use the visual timing component to highlight the contrast between the serious character-driven moments and then the comedy, which was the serious part to us. That you and some others who have had a chance to see the opening episodes have brought up that visual aspect of the comedy, I’m really glad that it seems to validate what we were going for.
With just 4 episodes in as of writing this piece, Dandadan anime has already been given a significantly high rating on MyAnimeList of 8.6010. After hearing the staff members and watching the material itself, fans can expect more from the series than what has been delivered already as Science Saru adapts the arcs that manga fans have been keenly waiting for.
Dandadan is available to stream on Crunchyroll and Netflix.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
