Dandadan Characters

Dandadan Main Characters

Dandadan begins when Momo Ayase, a high school girl whose grandmother is a spirit medium, steps in to protect Ken Takakura, an alien-obsessed loner from the class next door, from his bullies. She believes in ghosts but not aliens, and he believes the reverse, so they make a bet: Momo visits an abandoned hospital known for UFO sightings, and Ken heads into a tunnel said to be haunted. Both turn out to be right. The Serpoians abduct Momo, which awakens her psychic powers, while Turbo Granny curses Ken and steals his kintama, his family jewels. Momo refuses to say his real name, which matches that of her favorite actor, and calls him Okarun instead. Winning them back becomes their shared quest.

Okarun's Transformation and Turbo Granny

On the night of the bet, Turbo Granny curses Okarun, and when Seiko later exorcises her, the yokai hides inside his body. Only her mind can be drawn out into a maneki-neko, a beckoning lucky cat doll, so her powers stay sealed in Okarun, ready for him to use at will. Transformed, his hair flares up and turns white, two thick vertical stripes cross his eyes, a black mask lined with teeth covers his jaw and his nails grow sharp and black. He runs at 100 km/h (about 62 mph), travels through telephone wires and turns gloomy, ending his sentences with "yo." He hands the powers back once both kintama are found, but in the latest chapters the Oni Club he receives afterward transforms him into a horned, furious oni.

Momo and Okarun

What starts as an unlikely friendship slowly grows into the romance at the heart of Dandadan. Holding hands becomes a quiet habit between them. Momo realizes she has fallen for Okarun, and when he is badly hurt, she leaves him curry with a note that reads "love ya!" She waits for him to speak first, and he finally confesses inside a cursed trunk's world, just before flying off to defeat the yokai that holds her captive. Momo puts off her answer until her shrinking curse is lifted, but the cure in Shimane wipes her memories of him. In the latest chapters, Okarun asks her on a date and tells Aira that he loves Momo, yet the two are still not officially a couple.

Momo's Family: Seiko Ayase

Momo lives with her grandmother, Seiko Ayase, at Kumamori Shrine on the outskirts of Kamikoshi City, along with their boarder Vamola. Her parents remain a mystery: Momo only says she has none, while the English dub has her say they died. Seiko is a renowned spirit medium who also goes by the masked alias Santa Dodoria, and her long white hair, red glasses and youthful face often get her mistaken for Momo's mother. She fights yokai with a metal bat named Nessie, talismans and barriers, yet refuses to believe in aliens and insists the Mantis Shrimp Alien is a kappa. Seiko took Momo in as a little girl and taught her the daily ritual that later unlocked her psychic powers.

Dandadan Aliens and Yokai

Momo and Okarun's bet over whether aliens or ghosts exist ends with both of them proven right. The aliens range from the Serpoians, all-male clones who abduct humans, and the octopus-like Kur, who conquer planets from inside exosuits, to friendlier visitors such as Vamola, a Sumerian girl who ends up as Momo's housemate. Yokai are spirits hostile to the living, and the resentful or desperate way a person died decides what kind of yokai they become, as with Acrobatic Silky and the Evil Eye. Cryptids such as Nessie and the Flatwoods Monster turn up as well, usually working for the Serpoians. The best-known aliens, yokai and cryptids of the story:

Kami High Students and Friends

Kami High in Kamikoshi City is where Momo, Okarun and most of their friends spend their school days. Momo sits in Class 2-B with Jiji and her best friends Miko and Muko, while Okarun shares Class 2-C with Kinta Sakata, class representative Rin Sawaki, Vamola and Hase, the boy who used to bully him. To have a base for tracking down Okarun's missing second kintama, the group starts the History and Culture Research Club, an occult club in disguise, with the deputy head teacher Sanjome as its advisor, though he is secretly Count Saint-Germain. The school is also crawling with spirits and urban legends such as Taro, the anatomical model in the science room. Who is who at Kami High:

Dandadan Voice Cast

The anime is made by Science SARU and directed by Fuga Yamashiro, and its English dub comes from Bang Zoom! Entertainment. Okarun is voiced by Natsuki Hanae in Japanese and A.J. Beckles in English, and Momo by Shion Wakayama and Abby Trott. Mayumi Tanaka and Barbara Goodson voice Turbo Granny, while Nana Mizuki and Kari Wahlgren play Seiko. Jiji is played by Kaito Ishikawa and Aleks Le. Natsuki Hanae also voiced Ken Kaneki in Tokyo Ghoul, the character that Okarun's first name, white hair and black mouth mask nod to. Manga-only characters such as Unji Zuma and Saint-Germain have no voice cast yet.

How Old Are the Dandadan Characters?

The ages in the table come from the school year each character is in. Momo, Okarun and the rest of their Kami High circle are all in second-year classes, so they are 16 or 17. Vamola only sits in that grade because Seiko enrolled her there, and since nobody knows how her warp to Earth or the length of a Sumerian year affects the count, her true age is anyone's guess. Unji Zuma is a first-year at Renjaku High School, so 15 or 16. Seiko has no known age, fitting for a grandmother who could pass for Momo's mother, and yokai such as Turbo Granny keep theirs a mystery too.

Most Popular Dandadan Characters

The cards follow our popularity ranking, and your votes move it: right now Okarun holds first place, ahead of Momo Ayase and Turbo Granny.

How We Rank the Characters

Our popularity ranking combines two things: how often people search for each character and your votes. The ranking is updated every month, and the Fan Favorites list changes every day. The first-seen line on each card shows the episode where the character first appears.

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