It’s time for a new general discussion thread! Hot takes, recommendations, questions, cautionary tales, all of it is welcome here.
As always, remember to be mindful of spoilers. If you want to know more about how to handle spoilers in this community, check the guide here (also linked in the sidebar).
So, I’ll preface this by saying supernatural ‘horror’ is not my thing. I only watched Jujutso Kaisen because it got such rave reviews but TBH I didn’t get much out of it. Felt to me like a bunch of nonsense being yelled at opponents until some cool anime action happened which was good enough to get to the end of S2. Still, I don’t want to repeat that experience.
That said: What about Dan Da Dan is giving it such high ratings? Do you think I’d find this series worth it? What is the expected age group for the show? I haven’t checked it out simply because the series description gave me a hard pass for the aforementioned reason.
Dan Da Dan and JJK are completely different types of shows.
JJK’s main selling point is the quality of its combat animation. The fight scenes are really well-executed, so it gets high ratings from people who like that kind of thing. Plot and characters are bog-standard shounen fighter types whose names and backstories I forget half the time because they’re not all that memorable. If you swapped everyone but the MC out with characters from, say, Chainsaw Man, I doubt I would even notice.
Dan Da Dan, on the other hand, is character-driven. The interaction and budding romance between the main characters is the point of the show, and the fighting has so far been subservient to that. It also doesn’t take itself at all seriously, unlike JJK.
Dandadan’s main charm points for me are the chemistry between the 2 MCs and its style. On the surface, I guess JJK and Dandadan are somewhat comparable, but in execution totally not. I dropped JJK at S2, similar reasons to you but I couldn’t get to the end, but am enjoying the hell out of this one.
People like it. Personally, I like the story-telling, the characters and the execution.
Hard to tell without knowing what you like. Based on what I’ve seen so far, I guess you’d like it if you enjoy a romcom filled with action and a pinch of emotional moments.
It feels like the target demographic is shounen / boys. I’m older (i.e. seinen), but I still enjoy it. I believe ladies (both shoujo / girls and josei / women) would like it too. IMO when it’s good, the demographic matters less; everyone would like it.
I haven’t (and don’t intend to) watch JJK for the same reason: it sounds like a typical battle shounen anime that is boring as hell. That’s not what is happening in Dan Da Dan.