Saagar Kote
The anime series ‘Dandadan’ follows the fantastical lives of Momo and Okarun, who feel drawn to each other despite their differences in beliefs about Aliens and Ghosts. The show explores themes such as the occult, the supernatural, love, trust, and folklore. The strange, yet powerful bond between the two leads is the story’s emotional core that keeps the viewers intrigued. The previous episode ended with the Kito family being destroyed by the Mongolian Death Worm beneath their house of horror, after which Okarun, Momo, and Jiji find themselves trapped several storeys below the house with the Death Worm coming for their lives. As the three, who also have the spirit of Turbo Granny stuck with them, wonder how to escape, Okarun starts turning into the Yokai form of Turbo Granny, waiting to attack Jiji. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Psychic Waves of Destruction
The episode begins with Okarun turning into his Turbo Granny form and attacking Jiji. Blood starts dripping on the floor, and Jiji shows worry. Okarun starts exhibiting violent tendencies and shockingly tries to take his own life by stabbing himself in the mouth. However, Jiji saves him with a lot of struggle against the might of Turbo Granny. The possessed boy starts to attack Momo as well, which leads to her screaming. While the situation unfolds, Jiji realizes that the Mongolian Death Worm is sensitive to sound. Okarun (as Turbo Granny) pleads with Jiji to let him die, which leads Jiji to remember flashes of his own parents trying to kill themselves in the past and him saving them. As the chaos continues, Momo tries to kill herself, too, making the situation even more dangerous. As Momo tries to stab herself, she ends up stabbing the cat figurine containing Turbo Granny’s consciousness instead.
To control the two violent individuals, Jiji ties them up, and the cat figurine tells him that they are trying to take their own lives due to the psychic waves sent out by the Mongolian Death Worm. Jiji realizes that his parents also tried to kill themselves due to the psychic interference of the beast. However, to Jiji’s surprise, the waves don’t seem to work on him. Momo starts using her powers to attack Jiji, which makes him use his athletic running abilities to drag everyone out of the danger area. Following this, Okarun and Momo come back to their senses. A strange entity with scary eyes, looking like a man, appears in front of the group. Turbo Granny says that it is the entity known as the ‘Evil Eye,’ which can make people kill themselves when they look into its eye. The magical Granny asks the three to avoid making eye contact at any cost.
The Tragic Eye of Death and Vengeance
As the Death Worm reappears, Evil Eye’s aura manages to neutralize the psychic waves sent out by the Mongolian beast. Okarun uses the opportunity to let Turbo Granny take over him, and proceeds to cut off the beast’s head, but to his shock, it grows back. In a moment of fatal error, Jiji, while running, ends up looking at the eyes of the Evil Eye. This establishes a strange connection between him and the soul behind the entity. His mind travels to the past and sees a young boy locked up in a room, looking at other children playing outside, happily. The boy wants to play too, but has no liberty to do so. The child is then brutally sacrificed by the Kito family to please the supposedly Giant Serpent, who they believe is godly. The soul of the kid survives in the sacrifice and remembers that he just wanted to play with the other kids happily. The surviving soul becomes the entity known as the Evil Eye.
The eye causes several innocent people to kill themselves just by staring at it. The Evil Eye never wanted to kill anyone, but somehow his abilities led to the deaths of innocent people. The eye unsuccessfully tries to save a kid from being sacrificed by the Kito family. Looking at the continued violence from the Kitos, he vows to end their lives and destroy the whole family. Learning things from the past changes Jiji’s mind, and he tells Momo that the Evil Eye is not a bad person. Despite being warned by Turbo Granny and Momo, he starts running several levels below the house with the entity on his shoulder. It is revealed that there are innumerable old houses placed on top of each other, signifying the number of sacrificial deaths that have taken place over the years.
Jiji runs to one of the lowest floors and opens the door to a familiar-looking room, the same place where the little kid was locked up. Momo, with the cat figurine on her back, follows Jiji all the way to the tragic room, where Jiji finds the aged skeleton of the murdered child whose soul tuned into the Evil Eye, locked away since his death for many decades. Turbo Granny tells Jiji not to go any closer to the skeleton as the Evil Eye is a Yokai spirit, capable of attaching itself to others. Jiji ignores the advice of the old woman and says that despite looking different, the Evil Eye is just like any of them, who also experience pain and tragedy like they do. As the mystery deepens, the vengeful Mongolian Death Worm starts to attack the group again viciously, dropping sticky goop from its mouth to trap the group inside the room. Meanwhile, Okarun is still on the top floors trying to get down below.
The Desolation of The Mongolian Death Worm
Momo uses her powers to try to break them out of the trap, but Jiji once again enters the soul and space of the Evil Eye when he was just a child. In an emotional scene, Jiji goes up to the locked child and offers to play with him, as the child always wanted to. He plays with the child, giving him a feeling of belonging and friendship, something he never had. As Jiji deepens his connection with the soul of the Evil Eye, he starts appearing dangerous. The Mongolian Death Worm continues to attack the group by spilling goop on the floor. Jiji transforms into an extremely powerful being when the Evil Eye enters his body and strikes down the worm. The entity takes complete control of Jiji’s body and vows to kill all human beings. The possessed individual begins to attack Momo and Turbo Granny, driving them towards a wall, almost crushing them.
The entity promises to end all of humanity as the Death Worm stands back up again, regrowing its head. The thousands of raging and vengeful souls killed in the house begin to converge into a giant ball of aura being controlled by the entity via Jiji, who hurls it at the worm and causes it to run for cover. The worm escapes into the dirt with its life still intact. The cat figurine containing the consciousness of Turbo Granny explains that the Evil Eye always wanted someone like Jiji to possess, as he has spiritual powers and is also athletic. She tells Momo that he is no longer her friend, but a force beyond her powers. Momo picks up courage and starts to fight against the Evil Eye, who still has the powerful aura ball of the souls with him. As Momo and Jiji fight, Okarun, who has transformed into his Turbo Granny self, joins in to protect Momo and strikes the Evil Eye with all his power.
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