With Evil Eye mostly handled, it’s time to introduce a new character. Da da da da, it’s Kinta! And boy has he been hyped up by the fanbase.
10-ton pervert
I don’t think the episode actually gives us the new kid’s name. If it does, I missed it (on rewatching the episode, he drops his name during the “ten gallon wiener” scene). But it doesn’t matter, because the internet is happy to spoil it for us. Going into the second season, everyone was hyped for the upcoming battles and the small but adorable moments between Momo and Okarun. But at the same time, people just could not shut up about Kinta this, Kinta that. For two whole months, I had no idea who they were talking about. Finally, we get to meet the guy properly and not just in the OP. To start, Science Saru takes us on a bit of a field trip — a field trip to the past, that is. We time travel all the way back to the fifth overall episode of the series, because that’s how long Kinta has been spying on Okarun. Son, are you okay? Clearly not as he was utterly gobsmacked to see someone like Momo even associate with Okarun. But seriously, this is actually a really clever way to introduce this character, and you even get to give your animators a break by reusing animation from that episode. But as the scene kept rolling, I eventually got to the point where I couldn’t help but think, “Alright, you made your point.” I mean, hell, we even get the accidental kiss scene again! Bro was mere feet away when it happened; Kinta was so invisible back then, nobody noticed him both standing there and eventually slipping away.
Unfortunately, Kinta’s written to be somewhat obnoxious — for now and maybe forever. Our new “buddy” approaches Okarun simply because he wants to up his game with beautiful women — “beautiful” being the operative word. After all, it’s not hard to notice our quiet alien otaku suddenly having two gyarus hanging around him all the time. Here’s thing the thing with Kinta, though… hm, how to put it? You know how some people tend to vomit nonsense like how attractive men and women can’t be platonic friends? It’s a belief I hate hearing. I absolutely hate it. I’d say my friend group skews 70-30 in favor of women, and yet I honestly have no desire to date any of my female friends. But back to my original point… I’m not saying that Kinta is one of those people, but he gives me those same vibes, y’know? He even has the gall to call Okarun his pal when Momo shows up with important news about the golden ball. Poor girl doesn’t suspect a thing; she’s just happy that her crush is making friends.
Right from the get go, Kinta questions Okarun’s friendship with Momo and Aira, because, in his eyes, how can a dull, short, and unattractive kid like Okarun even deign to have female friends? Don’t you know girls are shallow?! But that’s the thing, right? Kinta isn’t talking about any girl. He’s confused about our buddy being friends with beautiful girls. If Okarun had been hanging around… I don’t want to say ugly girls, but y’know, if Dandadan wasn’t wish fulfillment for young boys and thus surround our protagonist with hot gyarus, then would someone like Kinta even give a shit? As they often say, every accusation is a form of projection. Fans have been hyping this guy up immensely, but… ah, I dunno, man. There’s a good chance I’ll be in the 1% that does not and will never get Kinta’s appeal. At the very least, the well has been poisoned, and it’s going to take considerable effort to clean the mess up.
Slow and steady rehabilitation
In classic Dandadan fashion, the story will of course try its best to endear Kinta to us over the course of the next few episodes (or arcs even). For instance, Aira was pretty annoying at the beginning, but she’s gotten a lot more tolerable recently. Hell, her dynamic with Turbo Granny is an riot each and every single time they’re onscreen together. I’d keep Aira around just for that. Of course, she’s still narcissistic and delusional, but not in a malignant way. She’s more like a benign tumor that you can live. One day, she’ll have to accept that she has no chance with Okarun, but we don’t have to shatter her reality just yet. I’m actually looking forward to it, because in a way, Aira deserves better. She deserves to be her own character and not just the the girl who is obsessed with Okarun. Sure, it’s kinda funny to see her personality flip on a dime around him, but I want to see her step out of his shadow. Right now, it feels like Aira’s personality revolves too much around him.
On the other hand, Jiji still annoys the piss out of me. To be fair, he was introduced a bit later than Aira, so he deserves to get the same amount of screentime to improve as a character. It’s just funny that, for the moment, I’d rather have Evil Eye around. Now that the mountain spirit isn’t hellbent on murdering everyone, his antics are actually funny to me as opposed to Jiji’s. More innocent too, ’cause he’s a kid; he doesn’t know better. Again, to be fair, people who act goofy all the time often do it to hide their true feelings or their true selves. If this is the case with Jiji, I’m not quite sure what he’s hiding, but there’s potential here. It’s something we can slowly explore over future arcs and future foes. But unless he mellows out dramatically, people like Jiji still grate on my nerves. Just ’cause I understand where you’re coming from doesn’t mean you’re still not super annoying in this very moment.
But to bring this back to Kinta, in order for him to join the gang, he’s going to need an in. He’s going to need to bring something new to the table that no one else on the team can currently provide. Well, maybe we’ve already seen what that is in this week’s episode. After taking quite a spill, Kinta’s face is all bloodied up. Nevertheless, he lets Momo boss him around. Dude appears to be a bit of a masochist, which is a trait that probably won’t win him too many favors either. Luckily for him, nerdy knowledge is power in this show. Okarun’s almost encyclopedic grasp on aliens have been super helpful before, and I guess Kinta is just as big of an expert on sci-fi technology. This allows him to suggest the possibility of our foe using some sort of cloaking tech. Somehow, this information is helpful to Momo and Okarun, and this gives Kinta a tiny in. God, he’s joining the gang, isn’t he? He’s going to be sitting across the table from them after every major battle at Granny’s place. That’s just fantastic. But if Momo is already treating Kinta like a punching bag, I can’t wait to see how Aira deals with this kid. Momo is actually the nice one.
Where were you when we needed you?
Did Momo really have to burst into Okarun’s classroom and scream at the top of her lungs about his golden ball? For the sake of humor, yes. But on a more practical level, it leads to one of his classmates — the class president in fact — stepping up in some misguided attempt to protect Okarun from Momo. We’ve seen this girl before, but only as a background character. I believe she was there when Momo’s besties dragged Okarun out of class a few episodes ago. This is the first time we’ve ever heard her speak, and on the surface, it seems like such a sweet move on her part to try and come to Okarun’s defense. Aw, she’s helping her fellow student out! But when you think about it, this whole situation is kinda fucked to me. In my mind, I’m thinking, “Where the hell have you been?” Up until recently, this poor kid had been either bullied relentlessly or cruelly ignored by his classmates. His situation only changed once he had a massive stroke of good luck in both meeting Momo. Why didn’t this girl protect him back then when he actually needed her help? Oh, she didn’t notice until now? Yeah? But all of a sudden, Momo calls for Okarun once or twice and now it’s a problem? Girl, please.
Seriously, what’s changed? It would be a shame if she ends up proving Kinta right in this very specific scenario. Again, like Kinta, she’ll probably become a regular fixture in the series, and as such, we’ll eventually find out that she’s actually a pretty cool person. But sheesh, talk about a bad first impression. And you know what? For the moment, I’m more suspicious of her intentions than Kinta’s. I wanna know why she’s only now trying help Okarun. Kinta’s a pervert, but at least you know what he’s all about.
Like poetry, it rhymes
Reflecting a bit on last week’s episode, It’s funny how around this same time the first season, Okarun snuck off to train on his own because he wanted to carry his own weight in battle. Unfortunately, Aira followed him, tried to kiss him, and this led to Okarun and Momo falling out for a short bit. She thought he was making out with Aira in secret, and he was partly at fault for lying in the first place. It was cringey teen relationship troubles that thankfully didn’t stick around for very long. Dandadan could’ve milked the melodrama for all its worth, but I’m glad the characters were mature enough to talk it out immediately after round two with the Serpoians.
Fast forward to the present, and once again, we see Okarun sneaking off to train. He technically didn’t lie to Momo about his whereabouts this time, so that’s one slight improvement. And once again, Aira tags along without him knowing. This time, however, Okarun actually succeeds in secretly getting stronger. Likewise, Aira also improves by, uh, simply not assaulting him. So when he beat Evil Eye pretty cleanly in last week’s episode, he must have looked pretty cool to Momo, huh? And even though the show could’ve played the misunderstanding card again — and the thought did briefly cross Momo’s mind when she asked what those two were up to late at night — Dandadan sidestepped the melodrama completely this time around. Okarun has grown a lot, but you can also say the same about Momo. These two kids haven’t defined what they have between them. Are they dating? No. But would she still be pissed as hell if he “cheated” on her? Hell yes. I guess you could say they’re stuck in a weird relationship limbo situation that neither of them are mentally equipped to acknowledge. But whatever it is that they share, Momo is a hell of a lot more secure now than she was in the first season.
On that same note, does it mean anything that Kinta is being introduced around the same time as Jiji? Well, he could be a foil for our class clown. In both his looks and his popularity with girls, Kinta’s basically the direct opposite of Jiji. But let’s go even further than that. Momo’s childhood crush immediately sent Okarun into a negative spiral until Taro showed up out of nowhere with his ultra romantic speech. As we discussed above, however, our boy has made significant strides since the first season; he’s not going to give up on Momo anytime soon. So what will we get instead? If you recall, the golden ball thing with Taro ended up being nothing more than a wild goose chase. I thus can’t help but wonder if, once again, this golden ball that they’re after is also a false lead. I mean, believe it or not, not everything golden is actually your disembodied nuts floating about. It could be something else altogether. Not only that, are we going to get a foil to Taro, i.e. someone who throws a wrench in the romance instead of boosting it up? I like the main couple, so I hope not. But we’ll see.
Speaking of parallels…
Momo has some interesting moments in quick succession in this week’s episode. She’s facing away from the audience when she tells Okarun that he’s pretty cool now, words that he’s always wanted to hear from her. We then get this almost embarrassed look on her face after just she’s just had a good laugh about Okarun’s personality. Not at his personality, just about. He’s still true to himself after all this time, and she likes that.
Anyway, remember when Jiji asked her last week if she was in love with anyone? The question stopped Momo dead in her tracks. It made her consciously aware of her feelings, and maybe the lingering after effects from that moment is still haunting her thoughts even now. Momo seems almost self-conscious when she has to think and talk about Okarun’s good traits. It’s similar to how Okarun was shocked to realize that Momo is actually cute. He was always attracted to her, but to be consciously aware of it is a different altogether. I think Momo’s going through the same thing. On a subconscious level, she was always crushing on him, but Jiji’s question has changed the game, i.e. “I thought I was just hanging around and teasing my friend, but do I actually like him?!” It sounds silly, but… kids, y’know?
New foe, new friend?
After all that training and even managing to beat Evil Eye, it should be pretty simple to catch a golden ball, right? We wouldn’t have a series if it were that easy, so the ball is actually surrounded by a body — an invisible body — that prevents Momo and Okarun from just snatching it out of thin air. Of course, it’s not actually invisible; rather, it’s using the magic of mirrors to look that way. Nevertheless, it’s time to tussle with our next villain. We just fought a mountain spirit, so it makes sense to cross paths with aliens and their technology again. The bigger question is whether or not they’ll also become a new addition to the team. As an antagonist in Dandadan, you’re likely to join the gang more often than not. We’ve got Turbo Granny, Acro Silky, the Mantissian, and Evil Eye. On the other hand, there’s the Serpoians and the Kido family. Both have been excluded from joining the gang, and it makes perfect sense: they both like to dabble in sexual assault. Huh, what a coincidence. What’s up with that?
Still, it’s kinda weird to see the seemingly invisible foe get the jump on Momo and Okarun. After the short but epic battle against Evil Eye last week, it almost feels like everyone is moving in slow motion now. Sure, not every battle has to be bigger than the last, and I get why Okarun wouldn’t go full throttle immediately. He’s not going to play his trump card until he knows what he’s truly up against. At the same time, however, I thought the two kids would put up a better fight from the start. They blame it on being unable to see their opponent, but eh… you can see the ball, can’t you?
Stray thoughts & observations:
- Huh, do you guys brush your teeth twice in the morning like Kinta over here? And why does he need four combs? I don’t carry even a single comb on me.
- This new kid is all about excess, because who the hell has that many pairs of glasses? I have two, and I barely use the second one.
- I guess it’s too much to ask Crunchyroll to do subtitles for songs these days.
- Is this his way of getting Okarun’s attention? He assumed they were kindred spirits so Okarun would have something to say about the toy mecha?
- It’s funny how the girls tend to come in trios. Momo has Miko and Muko. I don’t know their names, but Aira has her two followers. And I guess the new girl has two ride-or-die girlies with her as well. Women exist in powers of three, I guess.
- I wish Okarun had been a little more assertive and jumped to Momo’s defense. The new girl levies quite an accusation at Momo’s feet, and Okarun can barely say anything in response. If he had a little more balls in this situation (pun intended), it would’ve been a nice way to reinforce all the character development we’ve been seeing from him in the past few episodes. The fact that Okarun is back to being meek just because they’re at school is a little disappointing. C’mon, your friend is being attacked. You’ll risk your life against an evil mountain spirit, but you’re scared of your class president? Bro. Seriously, will Okarun be the type of guy who needs Momo to speak to the manager when they get his order wrong? Sure, he apologizes to her for his lack of action after the fact, but at some point, you gotta stop apologizing and start doing.
- I get that Kinta thinks “spicy talk” is how Okarun charmed Momo, but why would you scream out a non sequitur? Even if you’re going to talk dirty, it has to fit within the flow of the conversation. I can’t just scream “Dicks!” at the top of my lung and expect women to fawn over me, so what is wrong with this kid? Even assuming that he’s right — that “spicy talk” is the key to winning over girls — don’t you still think you need to get to know them first? People are a lot more receptive to you when they’re your friends.
- I also kinda hate that “skank” seems to be the default insult for all the women in this show. It’s like the only word they can think of when they’re pissed off.
- Okarun’s quiet “Yatta!” makes me think of that kid who won… I think it was the spelling bee? It’s not actually the same energy. That kid looks deadpan whereas Okarun is just being meek and bashful, but still…
- Kinta’s inane narration almost makes you think Okarun transformed in this very instant just to prevent someone from planting a kiss on Momo. Okarun was probably just jumping to her defense in general, but it’s funnier to think it’s more than that.
- Huh, it’s Okarun’s turn to ride on Momo’s back. Apparently, this is so Momo can swing around with her psychic powers like Spiderman. But can’t she already do this in their normal setup? I thought she did this exact same thing while riding him when playing tag with Turbo Granny. But I guess having him behind her this time lets Okarun break her fall. Even when he doesn’t intend to be a gentleman, he ends up being one.
- Oh, it’s a kaiju. And they’ve gone and made it mad and, well, the proper size.
- I know normies don’t get to see all the strange stuff happening around them, so it’ll likely be the same case with the kaiju. Like with other aliens, they’re already in some sort of enclosed space. This way, the show can wave off any massive property damage that’ll occur as a result of battling a massive freaking kaiju. But still, I hope the story doesn’t trot this excuse out every single time.
- Speaking of which, so many people was confused about Evil Eye not looking like Evil Eye to Jiji’s classmates. How can they watch this many episodes of Dandadan and still not understand how it works?
