The season is finally over, and this was a great Dan Da Dan episode, but was absolutely unsatisfying as a season finale. Fortunately, season two is going to air in July of next year, making the wait far less bad than the shonen series with three-four year waits between seasons. Without further ado, let’s recap how this season ended.
Our episode begins with the female anatomical model from last episode at Momo’s house. It appears that she will also be a guest. Jiji removes some lint out of Momo’s hair, and she thanks him. Okarun gets really jealous and tries to emulate what he just did. Momo find this awkward. Then another weird scene happens where Okarun and Jiji start having what appears to be a sing-off competition. Momo decides to keep the female anatomical model company until her boyfriend arrives. They wait until dawn and the male anatomical model arrives. They act all lovey dovey and Okarun is jealous of their love.
Our heroes head on a bus to Gigi’s haunted house and Okarun is
upset that Momo is enjoying the company of his romantic rival. He tries to get her attention by talking about cryptids. It turns out Jiji is also interested in cryptids and they end up really enjoying conversing. Jiji then calls Okarun a friend, which causes mixed emotions in Okarun considering their romantic rivalry.
When they arrive at the haunted house, it appears that there is nothing out of the ordinary with the house. Except for the creepy grinning ghosts who are hiding outside it, which our heroes apparently didn’t notice. They go inside the house and Okarun is terrified when the television turns on. He thought it turned itself on, but actually Momo turned it on. They decide to have fun and Momo goes to a hot spring while Okarun and Jiji play soccer.
Okarun struggles with soccer, but tries his best to master the sport in order to impress Momo. Jiji asks Okarun if he loves Momo and Okarun admits that is the case. Jiji also has the same goal and they get into a scrap over her.
Meanwhile, Momo is at the hot spring and creepy men arrive at the hot spring. They say that the sign says that the hot spring is co-ed. The camera cuts to the rusted off sign that is difficult to read. Despite her immense discomfort, they ignore her signals and continue to head towards the hot spring. They use threatening language implying they intend to violate her boundaries in some way. She ponders if she has the ability to ward them off with her psychic powers.
Meanwhile, Okarun and Jiji notice something they didn’t see before. Jiji’s house somehow has a section they didn’t see before. They go in the house and investigate and find that there is no doorway to this mysterious section of the house. Jiji finds a mallet and hacks a hole into the wall. They peer into the hole to see what lies beyond it. They peer into it to see what mysteries lie beyond and the episode, and the season, abruptly ends.
This episode provided great character development exploring the dynamics of Okarun and Jiji’s frenemy relationship, but there was no climactic action set piece to end the season, merely a setup for the next big arc. Is whatever’s in that hole interesting enough to give a worthwhile payoff. We’ll find out in about half a year. Dan Da Dan season one would probably be the best anime of 2024 if Frieren didn’t exist, and I guess it did its job of having fans wanting more by ending on a cliffhanger and giving fans something to speculate on for six months. What is beyond that hole?
