Dandadan brings its first arc to a stunning conclusion

Key things

• Dandadan Episode 4 delivers an action-packed thrill with a strong music selection and incredible animation.
• Momo and Okarun's teamwork shines as Momo's clever planning complements Okarun's desperate heroism.
• The heartwarming ending stands out thanks to the romantic elements and leaves fans wanting more.

Warning: The following contains minor spoilers for Dandadan Episode 4, “Kicking Turbo Granny's Ass,” now streaming on Crunchyroll.

You've got to love a series that delivers exactly what it says on the tin, and this episode was certainly aptly named, even if a big part of it was our two heroes on the run. Dandadan concludes its opening arc by painting the town red with a display of incredible action design and powerful musical possibilities, all thrown at the viewer at the speed of a bullet train.

Last week, Momo's grandmother Seiko seemed to fend off the possessed Okarun before securing him in the main shrine where he and Momo could be reunited after one hellish day. But after Turbo Grandma threatened to use Okarun to curse everyone around them, they had to quickly formulate a plan to lure her out of town so she could be properly exorcised.

The titular “ass-kicking” is just the beginning

Almost everything that could go wrong does when Okarun and Momo arrive at the dreaded tunnel where Turbo Granny resides. It's only Momo's quick thinking and confident aura that keeps this from being a very short series as she offers the ghost a challenge they can't refuse; race. Even that isn't enough to keep the old hag from bending the rules in her favor, which again almost crushes their plan before they can leave the tunnel.

Much of this episode is about Okarun making up for feeling so useless before. Even though he made grand gestures in her defense, their battles ended with her saving the day, and he doesn't want to be anything but a burden to her, even if she doesn't see him as such. Without spoiling it completely, Momo saves the day again in this episode, but neither would be alive if it weren't for the other – a fact that was revealed this week.

Momo and Okaruna's teamwork is a delight

She's clearly the smarter of the two, which is why her heroic moments always pay off, but when Okarun fights back, it's nothing more than sheer desperation and force of will. He's got that dog in him; his heroic moments are just chaos, no better demonstrated than when he turns the tables on Turbo Grandma, who is… at least creative. By the time the opener hits, it's a bit of a shock to the system that only 6 minutes have passed, but that's just the beginning.

Momo and Okarun have to run like hell from a giant crab-shaped ghost that has been chained to a tunnel, and Okarun's Turbo form can only take them so far, even with his superhuman speed. It takes his speed and Momo's brain – not to mention her psychic powers – to give them the edge. This synergy between the two is what the whole arc has been building up to, and it doesn't disappoint, especially when Momo starts using her psychic arms to swing like Spider-man.

Blood red, bombastic spectacle

Dandadan continues to enhance each piece with consistently impressive artwork and direction that tries to frame it from the most interesting angles, but the audio could be even stronger. This isn't just a reference to Kensuke Ushio's soundtrack either, though his remix of William Tell's overture is by far the episode's crowning achievement. The sound design in general lends a lot to this series on both a technical and emotional level.

This especially caught my eye when Okarun smashed through the railing on the side of the hill and sent the pair of them flying through the air over the city. Is it Momo's way of saying “Really!?” it fades away, and the sound effects and music rise noticeably with it, as if the viewer is not so much pleased by the sound, but rather collided with it at high speed. Sound director Eriko Kimura (Devilman Crybaby, Heavenly delusion) did an incredible job.

The truth about turbo grandma and goodbye

When the non-stop train that is Episode 4 finally slows down, it does so with a lot of heart, mixed in with even more unusual comedy. The defeat of Granny Turbo brings with it a brief revelation about the nature of the ghost that is thought-provoking over the last three episodes and might make one rethink what they knew about her. In the end, the most exciting scene of this week is not the battle in the literal sense of the word, but the metaphorical one (more precisely, to the heart).

Fans of the series are quick to point out how the romantic parts of this story are just as compelling as the supernatural nonsense that pervades its conception. For the first time, the characters can relax with what they assume will be the continuation of their normal lives, but this comes with a unique, unexpected fear. It's the fear that they won't speak again without the supernatural pulling them together, all compounded by a single word: “Goodbye”.

Sometimes it's the simplest things that have the biggest impact and Dandadan it gets a lot of mileage out of the easy and the extreme in equal measure. While it's hard to top the excellent first episode, the first arc was strong, and beyond that the show is well poised to expand its scope and explore new characters and many more paranormal oddities.