The Summer 2025 anime season is one of the strongest summer seasons the anime fandom has seen in years. Several returning anime titles like Sakamoto Days and Kaiju No. 8 are doing better than ever, and new titles like Gachiakuta are commanding fans’ respect, too. If anime fans were to name just one anime as summer’s strongest as a 10/10 hit, there are a handful of nominees, but Dandadan rises to the top

Dandadan made a powerful impression when it first aired, not even a full year ago in the Fall 2024 anime season, and now, the anime’s newest episodes help cement its place as one of the best anime series of the 2020s. The Dandadan anime excels at everything it does, and it does all this with remarkable balance and care. It’s little wonder the Dandadan anime is a 10/10 hit, even if it’s far from finished with releasing new content.

Dandadan Uses Subversive Elements With Restraint and Good Taste

Subversive satire and/or deconstructions are fairly popular in the anime industry, since the industry is loaded with familiar tropes and cliches to make fun of. That’s how Konosuba did for isekai, and anime like Oshi no Ko, Zom 100, and Chainsaw Man did something roughly similar for other genres. Meanwhile, the industry also needs anime like Dandadan, which handles subversion in a gentler and less meta sort of way.

The Dandadan anime derives much of its comedy and appeal from its subversive and satirical elements, but most importantly, Dandadan doesn’t base itself entirely on genre deconstruction or satire, with that being only part of what the anime is doing. The Dandadan anime smartly taps into the appeal of comedic subversion without being only that, which is part of how Dandadan juggles all of its genres so well. These genres overlap neatly and draw strength from one another, without any of them being too dominant.

Some anime series benefit from focusing primarily on a singular genre while making light use of a few genres. Meanwhile, the Dandadan anime knows how to make satire its main genre while allowing the other genres to be almost as strong, which is a nifty way to subvert the shonen action tropes it regularly utilizes. Dandadan Season 1 leaned a little harder on the satire and action, but now, Season 2 is making it clear that Dandadan is several genres at once, with equal representation for each.

Dandadan Has Robust Character Arcs and Emotional Impact to Humanize the Action

While it’s nothing new for shonen action anime to add an emotional layer to the various battles seen on-screen, Dandadan is remarkably good at playing up the characters’ vulnerable emotions in the context of a fast-moving, zany anime. Longer, more deliberate series like My Hero Academia and Naruto find ample time for heartbreaking scenes for the heroes and give them rich arcs over dozens or even hundreds of episodes, such as scenes with Naruto’s “talk no jutsu” or Bakugo’s long-awaited redemption when apologizing to Dark Deku.

As for the Dandadan anime, its most emotionally resonant scenes can rival anything found in those anime even in a tight time frame, and even in the context of silly nonsense. It’s not easy to make the drama hit hard when goofiness dominates the tone, yet Dandadan can make it work with all its main characters.

Examples are many, such as Momo Ayase’s fast-moving arc from being a vulnerable victim to a tough, confident girl who can handle any threats and save the day all on her own. In Episode 1, Momo was hit by her ex-boyfriend and was almost victimized by the Serpo aliens, only for Momo to power up and take command of her life as a high schooler with special powers. Already, fans can take this version of Momo for granted, even if she still has moments of vulnerability now and then. This also applies to Aira Shiratori and her brief yet profound arc with the Acrobatic Silky monster, the highlight of Season 1. Aira is also enjoying a quick-moving arc as a haughty popular girl who is getting in touch with her feelings and actually pursuing true love, not just reveling in the boys’ attention. It’s remarkable how quickly Aira went from an obnoxious classmate to a lovable heroine worth cheering for in Season 2.

Dandadan Knows When to Shift From Shock Value to Serious Action

One potential complaint about the Dandadan anime so far is that Season 2 is seemingly scaling back what made Season 1 such a hit. The contents of Season 1 may have tempted viewers to think that outrageous comedy, subversions, and sheer shock value are what define this anime, but that is only part of the picture. Dandadan is far more than a shonen parody that relies on sudden bursts of gross comedy or bizarre villain designs to function, and it would be rather shallow and repetitive if Dandadan continued to rely entirely on shock value and goofy nonsense to drive every single scene. Thankfully, the anime is smart enough not to take that route.

Dandadan used shock value and wacky shenanigans to help hook viewers and set the tone, but an initial hook is never the complete story, and Dandadan knows it as a goofy yet smart 10/10 anime. Season 2 is even more substantial than the first, since the anime is wisely scaling back the off-the-wall nonsense just enough for Dandadan to feel and function like a halfway normal shonen anime.

Here again, Dandadan is not entirely one thing. It’s not entirely reliant on subversion, nor does it carry itself solely with shock value like the Serpo assault or Turbo Granny’s crude antagonism. By dressing itself up as a silly anime with more than enough room to be serious when it needs to be, Dandadan has proven itself a master of its own genres, maximizing its strong appeal across the board, rather than going all in on the subversion crowd or the comedy crowd. Dandadan is still the shocking and outlandish anime it was in the first few episodes — but now it’s a lot more, too.