Warning: SPOILERS for the first three episodes of Dan Da Dan Season 2 are ahead!
At the beginning of June, Dan Da Dan fans who headed to participating movie theaters could see the first three Season 2 episodes edited together as a feature-length entry on the 2025 movies schedule titled Dan Da Dan: Evil Eye. Now those of you who’ve been streaming the popular anime with your Netflix subscription, Hulu subscription or over on Crunchyroll are finally caught up to the same point on the 2025 TV schedule. But this is just the opening salvo of craziness that’s to come in Dan Da Dan Season 2, which the director and one of the series’ main stars opened up about while speaking with CinemaBlend.
What Director Abel Góngora Said About Dan Da Dan Season 2
The first three Season 2 episodes saw Momo, Okarun, Turbo Granny and Jiji dealing with both the Mongolian death worm, which had been thought to be a snake god inhabiting the town where Jiji and his parents were staying, and Evil Eye, a spirit intent on exacting vengeance on the Kitos, the affluent family that’d been sacrificing children to the worm. The latter entity possessed Jiji, and in fact, this is director Abel Góngora’s favorite sequence from Dan Da Dan Season 2 so far. He said the following when I inquired about what moment from Season 2 he was most proud of how it turned out:
We are in the middle of it, we are still doing it, but so far, I’d say the Evil Eye arc, there is the moment where Jiji gets possessed by the Evil Eye and then the mix of the flashbacks and cuts that are a little bit abstract or a little bit strange looking, I think that part is a little bit experimental, and I think with the music and the visual are really cool and I’m quite happy about it. I’m not sure people will understand what’s happening because it’s a little bit crazy, but it’s very interesting, I think.
The Evil Eye spirit was once a frail child used as one of the Kito family’s sacrifices and was subsequently bound to the house where the sacrificing was done. For years, this spirit witnessed the parents of children killing themselves because of the death worm’s influence, but when it learned that the Kitos were still sacrificing kids in the present day, it set out to kill them. The Evil Eye’s abilities made it a formidable threat to the death worm, although it was ultimately killed when Momo and Okarun lured it to the surface and it was exposed to direct sunlight.
What A.J. Beckles Said About Dan Da Dan Season 2
By the end of Dan Da Dan’s most recent episode, titled “You Won’t Get Away With This!,” the volcano near the town erupted upon the death worm dying. Jiji is still bonded to the Evil Eye, and Okarun and Turbo Granny remain trapped underground. So the protagonists far from out of danger, and as far as the rest of Season 2 goes, Jiji voice actor A.J. Beckles informed me that these upcoming episodes raise the bar from what was delivered in Season 1:
I’ve been telling people that come up to me, because I read the manga, I’ve said this first season is just the most tame that the story is ever gonna be. It’s very introductory, it’s introducing to the world characters, the general vibe, but from here on you just take everything, you turn up the knob.
If you’re a passionate Dan Da Dan fan who really can’t wait to learn what’s ahead for the main characters, you’re welcome to join Beckles in reading the manga to get caught up to speed on Yukinobu Tatsu’s fantastical saga. But for those of you who’re content to watch episodes week to week, Beckles also had this to say about how Season 2 improves upon Season 1:
I feel like the relationships are more important, the action is more action-y, the emotions are deeper and more serious. There’s a lot more like inner turmoil going on, and I’m interested to see how that’s adapted and what that looks like and the performances and everything. I think Dan Da Dan fans that just joined in when the first season came out are just going to see more of what they love done even better.
New episodes of Dan Da Dan are released on Fridays. I was impressed with how these opening Evil Eye episodes turned out, and I’m looking forward to seeing how things kick up a notch like A.J. Beckles teased, and perhaps even learn after Season 2 is over if there were any other moments/sequences that Abel Góngora was more pleased with than Jiji’s possession.