DAN DA DAN Ep. 20-22: Classical Music, Beatdowns, And Kaiju [Review]

DAN DA DAN Ep. 20-22 is a trio of episodes that span the genres, yet all involve beatdowns. We’ve got a beatdown from classical musicians, a beatdown from an evil spirit who turns out to be not so evil after all, and a beatdown from something that turns out to be a kaiju. All in all, while we get genre changes after genre changes, the one thing that will always remain the same is the potential for beatdowns.

DAN DA DAN Ep. 20-22: Details in Brief

DAN DA DAN Ep. 20-22 (titled Ep. 20 “You Can Do It, Okarun!”, Ep. 21 “I Want to Rebuild the House”, and Ep. 22 “The Secret Art of Being Attractive”) are the 8th, 9th, and 10th episodes (you can read my reviews of Ep. 13-14, Ep. 15, Ep. 16-18, and Ep. 19 here) of the second season of this action horror-comedy anime series, and the 20th, 21st, and 22nd overall. Said anime is the anime adaptation of the manga of the same name by Yukinobu Tatsu. Said anime also comes just seven months after the finale of the first season, which you can read about in my reviews of all 12 episodes of that first season here.

Science SARU (Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, Star Wars: Visions “Akakiri” and “TB-01”, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off) returns as the animation studio for this second season of the anime. Fūga Yamashiro returns as the director but is also now co-directing with Abel Góngora, with Hiroshi Seko also returning as the writer.

Synopsis

Alas, DAN DA DAN Season 2 is still ongoing as of this writing. In fact, Ep. 22 only just premiered on September 4, 2025 on Crunchyroll, Netflix, and Hulu. Thus, here are the synopses for:

Ep. 20 “You Can Do It, Okarun!”: “Okarun and Aira end up fighting against classical composers lurking in the school music room for training. Aira gradually gets the hang of it, but Okarun is unable to dodge the composers’ flying musical note bomb attacks. Turbo Granny gives Okarun some advice, telling him to move his body to the rhythm.”

Ep. 21 “I Want to Rebuild the House”: “The battle between Okarun and Evil Eye-fied Jiji has begun. Showing the results of his training, Okarun fights toe-to-toe against Evil Eye, going “full throttle.” However, he can’t fully defeat Evil Eye. And then, Okarun’s transformation is undone…”

Ep. 22 “The Secret Art of Being Attractive”: “Momo gets information about a “golden ball” from Miko and Muko. She immediately heads over to Okarun’s class to tell him and notices that he is talking to a slightly chubby male student. After school, Momo and Okarun head over to the apartment building rumored to be the site of the golden ball sightings. The chubby boy, Kinta, is following them…”

DAN DA DAN Ep. 20-22: The Good

Since DAN DA DAN Ep. 20-22 covers three episodes, I’m going to break them down individually:

Ep. 20 “You Can Do It, Okarun!”

Honestly, this DAN DA DAN episode is one of my favorites just purely due to the off-kilter animation sequences from Science SARU, made even more off-kilter by Yukinobu Tatsu’s story. When you have ghostly composers summoning giants singing “Ode to Joy” as they vomit out minions to swarm Okarun (voiced by Natsuki Hanae (JP) and A.J. Beckles (EN)) and Aira (voiced by Ayane Sakura (JP) and Lisa Reimold (EN)), you know that you’re having a very oddball battle. That portion of the battle is honestly my favorite because of that, and has forever associated Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with this episode because of it.

It’s not just animation that’s amazing about this episode though. Okarun and Aira both get quite a bit of characterization here, and even development in Okarun’s case. It’s not even that he’s getting physically stronger as the anime implies. Rather, he’s learning to use his head for once, and actually perform tactics with his attacks instead of rushing head-on into everything. It’s rather refreshing to see a shonen protagonist learn to use his head for something other than headbutting.

Ep. 21 “I Want to Rebuild the House”

Despite the point of that episode being ostensibly the fight between Okarun and Jiji (voiced by Kaito Ishikawa (JP) and Aleks Le (EN)),,,or more accurately: Evil Eye, I found that isn’t the best part of the episode. No, the best part is the realization that Evil Eye isn’t as evil as he seems to be. The descent from terrifying villain into petulant child who only wants to have fun and just has a questionable idea of fun is extremely rapid, and most amusing to watch. The cursed briefs joke was just the icing on this comedy cake. Honestly, Yukinobu Tatsu has quite the sense of humor here.

Leaving that aside though, I also found the actual rebuilding of the Ayase house to be just as hilarious for multiple reasons. Namely, the fact that their house isn’t a traditional house anymore. If anything, it’s basically a giant, multi-story tent that’s not even connected to the foundations anymore and is only holding together from its own weight and the strength of the “nanoskin” blocks. Very convenient and fun-looking building materials there, by the way, but I digress. It’s a hilarious construction method that will have construction workers and engineers alike either cackling in amused horror or baffled at how the setup is working.

Ep. 22 “The Secret Art of Being Attractive”

Now this is a peculiar episode. The start of this episode is basically a repeat of Ep. 5 “Like, Where Are Your Balls?!”, complete with Okarun having hang-ups about greeting Momo (voiced by Shion Wakayama (JP) and Abby Trott (EN)), and them missing each other by mere centimeters before at last kiss-crashing into each other at the last moment.

However, this time, there’s an onlooker: Kinta Sakata (voiced by Daichi Fujiwara (JP) and Bryce Papenbrook (EN)). He seems to be a new addition to the main cast. Honestly, at first, I wasn’t too sure about him. He initially seemed somewhat unlikeable, with his actions motivated by jealousy towards Okarun for getting attention from “pretty girls”, regardless of whether that attention was positive or negative. However, as the episode progressed, I ended up feeling more pity for him than anything else. He almost feels like he’s on the autistic spectrum with his complete inability to read social cues, and having to rely on external factors to judge that. It does make him a potentially fascinating character by the end of the episode, especially with his analytical skills. Now we just wait and see where Yukinobu Tatsu takes him in DAN DA DAN.

Oh, and don’t forget the surprise kaiju at the end. That bit looks like it will make the next episode of DAN DA DAN quite fun to watch indeed. Especially since it and the music are both clearly callbacks to the old Godzilla films.

DAN DA DAN Ep. 20-22: The Bad

Honestly, it felt a bit cringe for me to see that Okarun still keeps getting bullied so casually in his own classroom. Him ignoring it all only compounds the issue, because I feel that’s encouraging that sort of behavior. What’s worse: his class president Rin Sawaki (voiced by Manaka Iwami (JP) and Suzie Yeung (EN)) who seemingly cares about him has been watching all this bullying going on the entire time, and hasn’t done a thing about it. You can excuse Momo because she’s not in the same class and so likely isn’t aware that this bullying is still going on, but not the class president. Honestly, I would not vote for such a class president again if I’d been a student there.

Aside from that, these trio of episodes should contain enough action to satisfy most action junkies. If you want more, then you might want to check out Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Kaiju No. 8, DDDD, Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online II, Zenshu, Solo Leveling, Black Butler, and/or Nyaight of the Living Cat. However, if you want something relaxing to prepare for the next episode of DAN DA DAN with, then you might want to watch Senpai is an Otokonoko, Apocalypse Hotel, and/or Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf.

What did you think of these three most recent episodes of DAN DA DAN Season 2? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below.