Okarun, Host of the Turbo-Granny
Dandadan was created by Yukinobu Tatsu it can be read on MANGA Plus or Viz
Welcome back to the blog! It's been a while since I've covered a webmanga, hasn't it? I should mention that it's been rumored that Dandadan may receive an adaptation soon. So why do the blog so soon? Since starting these blogs, I've gotten into the habit of making blogs on particularly extensive VS viable series after reading them so they're fresh in my mind while I make them. I actually highly considered making a blog on the partner character Momo, as she has more feats to show and a matchup for her I'd like to shill, along with her being a really compelling character. However, I feel like Okarun doesn't have a solid matchup yet, and I wanted to explore potential options in the blog. If Dandadan does receive an anime, I will update the blog accordingly. Regardless, let's dive into the chaos that is Dandadan!!
UPDATE
As of November of 2023, Dandadan officially has anime adaptation in the works. Once episodes are released, the blog will be updated accordingly
Background
"I am an awkward fellow after all."
What do you suppose happens an alien enthusiast that's skeptical of the existence of ghosts meets an eidolist who doesn't believe in aliens? Probably a lot of arguments and shouting. This very niche meetup proved to be a lifechanging event for the reserved boy Ken Takakura.
Unlike the renowned Japanese actor he's named after, Ken - AKA Okarun - comes across as a typical shy nerd. He's smart, unconfident, and constantly pushing up his glasses, but what sets him apart from others is that he's a huge conspiracy theory nut. He's passionate about his belief in aliens, cryptids, and other supernatural phenomena. His love for the occult drew from how little friends he had, hoping that one day he'd be able to befriend an alien.
Disappointingly, his first friend turned out to be his human peer Momo Ayase. She stood up for him when he was bullied, and he took her actions to heart. He pursued her to try and befriend her, but they couldn't be any more different. While Okarun was a firm believer in aliens, Momo rejected their existence entirely despite admitting to believing in ghosts - which Okarun found stupid. To put an end to their feud, they made a bet to find out who is right. That night, both would go to locations known for their strange activity and see if they can find any ghosts or aliens.
He should've turned back while he still could, because it was there he met the infamous yokai Turbo-Granny. Better known as the 100 km/h Granny, she used to terrorize Japan with her blinding speeds. And now, she wants his DICK.
… No, I'm dead serious.
M-Moving on, Okarun tried to flee, but Turbo-Granny easily caught up to him and cursed him, fusing with him and taking over his body. Right before he got cursed, he called Momo for assistance, but wound up traveling to her through her phone to reach her. The now partially possessed Okarun witnessed a group of aliens attempting to extract her genitals (this is gonna be a recurring theme, isn't it?). He tried interfering with them, but they were too strong. That's when Momo awakened psychic powers and saves both of their asses.
By the time they escaped, Momo attempted to cure Okarun of his curse. That's when he realized that Turbo-Granny literally stole his dick. Balls and all. As long as she possesseed his junk, they can't lift the curse. Oddly enough, this balls-to-the-wall event caused Okarun and Momo to grow closer.
The two would seek Momo's unusually youthful grandmother Seiko for help, who happened to be a powerful spirit medium. She shed light on the yokai he's stuck with, providing him the advice of drawing out the spirit bound to where he found her in a game of tag. She began training both youngsters to the bone so they can get a grip of their powers. During this, Momo learned how to suppress Okarun's curse enough so that he can use Granny's powers—but in doing so alters his personality to that of a moody shonen protagonist.
Eventually the two would confront Turbo-Granny and challenge her to a race. It was tough, but Okarun and Momo came on top after tricking her into getting destroyed. Life seemed to finally calm down for a bit. Momo was embarrassed to be around him, but she still stuck up for him when was bullied and wasn't embarrassed to be his friend. In turn, Okarun stood up against anyone that spread rumors about her. They formed a genuine connection that they acknowledged over time, slowly developing into a mutual crush.
And then Okarun realized his balls were still missing.
Since then, Okarun and Momo went on many misadventures to find Okarun's testicles. They'd encounter all sorts of spirits, cryptids, and aliens that get in their way. Thankfully, they have new and awesome powers to fight on equal footing. He'd soon learn that Turbo-Granny wasn't successfully exorcised from him. Her consciousness was ejected from him and possessed a cat doll, so Okarun had total control over her powers now. Turbo-Granny would unwittingly hang around the Ayase household in her more harmless state. Even so, she took it upon herself to help Okarun have a grasp over her powers.
Despite his speedy Turbo-Granny powers, he and Momo would come across foes that were too much to handle by themselves. Thankfully their friendship would blossom into a versatile and chaotic friend group full of people with spiritual and sci-fi powers. Their group is so large now, that they had to form a school club to guise their efforts. While they've been enough help for Okarun to reclaim one of his golden balls, some of these new faces would test the budding relationship between him and Momo. Take the carefree Jiji for example, Momo's childhood friend and first crush. At first Okarun butted heads with him, but he came around after really bonding with him. And then there's Vamola, an alien girl Okarun bested in a fight, which in her culture means they ought to be soulmates. This made Momo extremely jealous, but over time she'd really warm up to her as well.
Together they'd face against famous cryptids like the loch ness monster, yokai like Acrobatic Silky, and their biggest challenge yet: the uber powerful globalist alien invaders known as the kur. Okarun's been through a lot, but he's ultimately changed for the better. He's still sensible and nerdy, but he's a lot more dedicated to helping his friends and doing what's right.
And yet… he still can't bring himself to confess his love to Momo.
Equipment
N/A
Abilities
Turbo-Granny's Power
At first, Okarun had no control over his curse. Momo could suppress it to the point where he could utilize Turbo-Granny's power on his own, but it wasn't a permanent solution. Eventually Seiko would attempt to dispel Turbo-Granny herself. While she was able to eject Turbo-Granny's consciousness form his body, her energy remains. Now, he can fully wield her power without Momo's help or worrying about going feral. In Turbo-Granny form, Okarun's personality is a lot cooler and distant than how he usually acts. This form an extra set of teeth surrounding his fae like a scarf, which has great bite power. The transformation also bestows him with sharp claws to rip through his foes. Turbo-Granny has a lot of freaky powers that Okarun hasn't learned how to use yet. Currently, he knows the following:
At first, Okarun had no control over his curse. Momo could suppress it to the point where he could utilize Turbo-Granny's power on his own, but it wasn't a permanent solution. Eventually Seiko would attempt to dispel Turbo-Granny herself. While she was able to eject Turbo-Granny's consciousness form his body, her energy remains. Now, he can fully wield her power without Momo's help or worrying about going feral. In Turbo-Granny form, Okarun's personality is a lot cooler and distant than how he usually acts. This form an extra set of teeth surrounding his fae like a scarf, which has great bite power. The transformation also bestows him with sharp claws to rip through his foes. Turbo-Granny has a lot of freaky powers that Okarun hasn't learned how to use yet. Currently, he knows the following:
Enhanced Speed
They don't call her the 100 km/h Granny for nothing. In this form, Okarun is a speedster who dashes all over the place. His inhuman speeds make for a frantic fighting style. It also really comes in handy when he has to swoop in to rescue his friends.
They don't call her the 100 km/h Granny for nothing. In this form, Okarun is a speedster who dashes all over the place. His inhuman speeds make for a frantic fighting style. It also really comes in handy when he has to swoop in to rescue his friends.
Non-Physical Interaction, Enhanced Senses, and Spiritual Awareness
After both encountered Turbo-Granny, they've been able to see and interact with spiritual happenings since—which are completely invisible to the public eye. This goes in hand with how he can enter voids, desolate alternate spaces created by aliens to fight spiritually-attuned humans. He's also able to sense spirits even if they're using other means of cloaking their visibility like camouflage.
After both encountered Turbo-Granny, they've been able to see and interact with spiritual happenings since—which are completely invisible to the public eye. This goes in hand with how he can enter voids, desolate alternate spaces created by aliens to fight spiritually-attuned humans. He's also able to sense spirits even if they're using other means of cloaking their visibility like camouflage.
Resistances
- Energy and aura manipulation resistance (Anyone with spiritual powers like Okarun would be able to survive being eaten by a yokai, which is an immediate death via aura consumption. Aura is "the battery needed to sustain life" for all beings.)
- Heat and fire manipulation (Before Turbo-Granny's consciousness was ejected from him, he'd painfully burn up when passing charms that ward evil spirits. Now that she's separate from him, they don't seem to affect him. Later on, he withstood the heat burns of the yokai Acrobatic Silky's hair)
- Energy and aura manipulation resistance (Anyone with spiritual powers like Okarun would be able to survive being eaten by a yokai, which is an immediate death via aura consumption. Aura is "the battery needed to sustain life" for all beings.)
- Heat and fire manipulation (Before Turbo-Granny's consciousness was ejected from him, he'd painfully burn up when passing charms that ward evil spirits. Now that she's separate from him, they don't seem to affect him. Later on, he withstood the heat burns of the yokai Acrobatic Silky's hair)
CQC
Okarun's fighting style can best be described as frenzied. His attacks are swift and his great speed allows him put distance between him and his opponent, or swiftly close the gap between them. Later on, he received training from Turbo-Granny to improve his combat rhythm. Now, he switches up his attacks more and keeps a steady tempo in his head to follow in conflict. Some of his notable attacks involve a lot of squatting and headbutting.
Okarun's fighting style can best be described as frenzied. His attacks are swift and his great speed allows him put distance between him and his opponent, or swiftly close the gap between them. Later on, he received training from Turbo-Granny to improve his combat rhythm. Now, he switches up his attacks more and keeps a steady tempo in his head to follow in conflict. Some of his notable attacks involve a lot of squatting and headbutting.
Astral Body
Okarun can turn into an astral projection, which is completely invisible and incorporeal. Unless their skills are refined like Seiko's, not even his spiritually attuned teammates would be able to see him. The longer he stays this way, the thinner the cord connecting to his physical body becomes before it detaches.
Okarun can turn into an astral projection, which is completely invisible and incorporeal. Unless their skills are refined like Seiko's, not even his spiritually attuned teammates would be able to see him. The longer he stays this way, the thinner the cord connecting to his physical body becomes before it detaches.
Instant Transportation
In this power, he integrates a spiral technique taught by Seiko. Many talented martial artists have applied spiral motions into their fighting styles, so for Okarun it's best used against stronger opponents. Okarun can use this spiral technique to warp into technology like phones or telephone wires and instantly travel to another location through the technology. He'd then spiral out of them as a beam of electricity, and either completely reform, or zip into another wire.
In this power, he integrates a spiral technique taught by Seiko. Many talented martial artists have applied spiral motions into their fighting styles, so for Okarun it's best used against stronger opponents. Okarun can use this spiral technique to warp into technology like phones or telephone wires and instantly travel to another location through the technology. He'd then spiral out of them as a beam of electricity, and either completely reform, or zip into another wire.
Techniques
Full Throttle
Okarun refers to running at max-speed as Full Throttle. He is only able to perform Full Throttle twice before the speed strains his body enough to force him to transform into his human form.
Feats
Overall
- Had a training regimen of five sets of 100 pushups, situps, rows, and squats
- Overpowered Turbo Granny by gnawing on her tit
- Defeated the giant nimble and motherly yokai Acrobatic Silky
- Launched Momo out of an underground enclosure by kicking the chair she was on up to the ceiling
- Beat a possessed Jiji with twenty rapid-fire punches
- Defeated a bunch of tulpas of famous composers that came to life from pictures, firing a barrage of music notes at him and Aira with their musical performances
- Beat the Evil Eye in a fight, and convinced him to make him his only target so that he wouldn’t be able to kill any other humans in the foreseeable future. Now, they spar every week after school.
- Dealt the finishing blow to the suit of ringleader of the kurs that invaded Vamola’s planet and had their sights on Earth. Killed several invaders. With the combined efforts of their friends, they all stopped the invasion
Strength
- Dashed through the Flatwoods Monster's leg
- Fought the Flatwoods Monster, who could destroy small buildings
- Headbutted the giant yokai Acrobatic Silky through a wall, creating an imprint when flying into another wall
- Ran through the amalgam Nessie, who caused great water damage to a building and shot a hyper beam through a hallway
- Damaged the giant cryptid kuragari, which is longer than dozens of houses (large building)
- Kicked Momo from the bottom of an underground ravine all the way to its roof
- Scales to Jiji/The Evil Eye, who can greatly damage the kuragari, tears apart his clothes just by moving, and shooting MCB-sized energy blasts
- Caused a small explosion while fighting the Evil Eye
- Obliterated Seiko's house
- Destroyed several alien mech suits by bolting through them as electricity
- Scales to Momo, who kicked a serpo so hard it blew up part of a UFO, held down Turbo-Granny in her bound spirit form, has class M - G lifting strength by lifting the kuragari's remains, and blew a hole through an alien's back while stuck inside its pocket dimension
- Scales to Aira who fought four giants—using her agility and hair powers to take them down, and threw a car at Vamola's kaiju suit's face
Speed
- Ran so fast he sped through the Flatwood Monster's fingers
- Dashed through the Flatwood Monster's leg
- Can regularly move at 100 km/h (superhuman)
- Can spin his legs around like a helicopter to slow his fall
- Can keep up with a moving bus
- Scales to Jiji, who dodged a laser
- Dodged the Evil Eye's grudge ball, which can move like a blur
- Can make afterimages
- Moved faster than explosive music notes
- Dodges missiles (supersonic)
- Can instantly move across the city by moving through technology like phones and telephone wires. Electricity moving through wires is about 300 million meters per second, or 98-99% the speed of light
- When exiting telephone wires, his body becomes a streak of electricity before reforming
- Scales to Momo, who deflected cans that move so fast that they collectively destroyed the wall behind her
Durability
- Was thrown into a wall by a serpo, forming a small crater
- Survived a UFO crashing into a building
- Flung through a small building
- Survived falling from an elevated road all the way down to a town
- Endured having one of his 'family jewels' launched back into him
- Was punched through Seiko's house
- Endured explosive music notes
- Survived his body being compressed
- Scales to all his allies who survived an explosion within a massive buddha mecha
- Scales to Aira, who was shot through a city block
- Scales to Jiji, who endured a city block-leveling attack as the Evil Eye
Weaknesses
- He can't use Full Throttle more than two times before being forced to depower. Otherwise, the Turbo-Granny's speed could tear him to shreds. Thankfully, he has trained enough that he isn't worn out after going back to his previous body
- Okarun often makes negative assumptions about people and seals himself off from them. The reason he didn’t have a lot of friends was because he pushes them away. Thankfully after meeting people like Jiji and Momo, he has opened up quite a bit. It's even improved his social standing at school
- He can't swim with Turbo-Granny's powers. At least he's able to run underwater if he has a good surface
Matchup Potential
Okarun vs Ed Burger (Dandadan vs Paranatural)
(thumbnail by Vibe Check)
Vibe Check
Oh hey, I get to talk about Paranatural again! Last time I brought that up was way back in the Mr. Spender blog many months ago.
While reading it, Dandadan reminded me a hell of a lot of Paranatural. Both focus on kids dealing with supernatural and paranormal shit, the primary power systems of both involve characters drawing power from spirits (some characters can even fuse with their spirits in Paranatural), and now the main characters in Dandadan are part of a club to mask their out of school activities hosted by a shady teacher that's also very involved in spooky happenings. Of course, both have really similar over-the-top and absurd styles of humor too.
I tried to think of which Paranatural character Okarun reminded me the most of as I read. Without a question, Ed. Ed is the nerd of the group, but like a cool nerd that a lot of people like. Like Okarun, they're close friends with another spiritually attuned girl who repeatedly has quarrels with their masterful grandparents they train under (Momo and Isabel) and they have a spirit that helps them practice their powers that constantly mocks them, but is genuinely invested in their growth (Turbo-Granny and Muse).
For those that didn't read the Mr. Spender blog, Ed is a spectral who can enter a state of heightened perception called spirit trance where everything is perceived super slowly—and can move around or talk to the spirit he's partnered with in slowed time. Ed wields an ink brush that lets them paint ink slashes, choose how the substance physically behaves, and erase things. These powers are completely invisible to those who can't see spirits… but Okarun can. This is where the fight dynamic comes to shine. I could see this fight taking place inside a classroom, which would make great usage for Okarun's frantic fighting style and Ed's interactions with the environment. Maybe the fight could transition to the school's fields, where Okarun can spiral into telephone wires to barrage Ed from many angles. The fight is ripe for all sorts of insane visual moments and hilarious visual gags, like hand-drawn portions to express how fast Okarun is moving, Okarun reacting to Ed moving in and out of spirit trance which makes it look like he moved extremely fast, or even reference Ed's fight with Mr. Starchman where they smack Okarun so far away that when he crashes, it causes an explosion of stock images of stars exploding.
Along with fast-paced action, the dialog has some really funny potential. Since both series' humor blend really well together, the fight is ripe for all sorts of funny exchanges. What interests me the most is how both would react to each other's powers and how they utilize the abilities of their spirits.
As for who wins, I'd likely side with Okarun. I don't think Ed fully scales to the likes of Spender, so Okarun should have higher AP. Although spirit trance gives Ed insanely fast reaction times, Okarun's electricity feats should reach a similar speed. That could probably be represented in the animation too, where at first spirit trance renders even the speedy 100 km/h Turbo-Granny as slow as a slug—but when Okarun starts zipping around like a bolt of lightning, Ed's caught off guard and has to defend themself in spirit trance, and may even enlist the assistance of Muse.
Okarun vs Mataro Tamada (Dandadan vs Yo-Kai Watch)
(thumbnail by Vibe Check)
Grantora
They're both stereotypical nerdy protagonists in a supernatural mystery series involving ghosts and aliens combined. Both are obsessed with certain topic (tokusatsu and the extraterrestrial) while doubting the existence of the supernatural, but once they were acquainted with the other main character in the series that's a polar opposite of them (Jinpei Jiba and Momo Ayase) they were immediately dragged into various mysteries around school/town. Also the series' main power system involved the user fusing with a yokai under their control and took on the attribute and behavior of said ghost.
It's a fun idea that I quote dig and with how humorous these two series are you can expect some comedy sprinkled inside the fight and dialog. While I was initially doubting if this matchup worked outside of a general idea (given that Mataro, for some reason, isn't given his own watch from the very beginning), but after digging deeper I found out that, yes he's able to fight down the line (though not a lot) which mean you can have a funny setup like;
'Mataro finds a peculiar golden ball lying on the street, picked it up and soon be yelled by Okarun to give it back. Thinking Okarun's going to mug him (because no way a four-eyed frizzy hair student not far from his age can afford gold) he quickly changes into his hero form before Okarun follow suit, yelling at him for copying his style'
It's an overall pretty good matchup elevated with the knowledge of the spin-off series of a ghost-collecting game (which you should watch btw points gun at the back of your head)
NEXT TIME ON WCAB… whenever I feel like it
