After what’s felt like a year of anticipation and rumours, a Dandadan anime has finally been announced. With the announcement, creator Yukinobu Tatsu is likely to get the widespread, international attention many have thought he long since deserved.
The mangaka’s journey to this point is a fascinating one. While not quite rags-to-riches, Tatsu’s rise from being Tatsuki Fujimoto’s lesser-known assistant to having a work that could challenge the hype of Chainsaw Man’s anime is something for all fans to get excited about!
Yukinobu Tatsu’s Involvement in Chainsaw Man
Fujimoto’s assistants have taken on a slightly mythical air given their enormous successes. Tatsuya Endo (Spy x Family) and Yuji Kaku (Hell’s Paradise) are the brains behind some of the biggest anime of the last few years.
However, Yukinobu Tatsu, then and now, has struggled to reach into the mainstream in quite the same way.
Yukinobu Tatsu was Fujimoto’s assistant during Fire Punch, alongside Endo and Kaku, and stayed with the managaka until near the end of Chainsaw Man Part 1 in late 2020.
He was also an assistant to Yuji Kaku at the same time after he left Fujimoto to launch Hell’s Paradise, which ran from 2018 to 2021.
How Yukinobu Tatsu’s Rocky Beginnings Influenced Dandadan
Many successful manga creators have something of a run-up before achieving their breakout hit. Fujimoto had Fire Punch before Chainsaw Man, while Tatsuya Endo had Tista and Blade of the Moon Princess before Spy x Family.
On the other hand, Yukinobu Tatsu had very little in the way of success before Dandadan.
While Yukinobu Tatsu was working on Chainsaw Man and Fire Punch, he was also trying to get his own work published with Shonen Jump. According to a long-ranging interview between Tatsu and Jump’s hit-maker Shihei Lin, this was proving to be a struggle.
Despite industry recognition for his incredible drawings, none of Tatsu’s early submissions to Jump were serialised, and much of his early work is no longer available online.
At the end of 2019, while working as an assistant, Tatsu considered quitting entirely. Out of that state of mind came a last-resort idea that would eventually become Dandadan.
After trying and failing to land a serialisation by attaching to popular themes, such as robots, beasts and many more, Tatsu used the meaningless word Dandadan as a prompt to draw whatever and however he wanted.
The first chapter of Dandadan was drawn without any plot or planning, and Shihei Lin knew it would be a hit immediately. However, it wasn’t released until a year later, in 2021, allowing Tatsu to finish his work on Chainsaw Man and Jigokuraku first.
Discover: Meet Endo’s Witch-Filled One-Shot that Inspired Spy x Family
How is Dandadan Different?
There are a lot of features in Dandadan that can be traced to Tatsu’s work with both Tatsuki Fujimoto and Yuji Kaku.
Kaku has spoken about Fujimoto’s work and inspirations previously, particularly how they both enjoy comedic, grotesque characters and the use of strangeness in a realist world. All those traits are apparent in the trio’s works in different quantities.
However, at a time when so many mangaka are referred to as ‘breaths of fresh air’, what makes Tatsu and Dandadan genuinely different?
For many, the quality and scope of the artwork are what set Dandadan apart. As mentioned, while Tatsu struggled to get work serialised, his artwork has never been questioned, hence his work as an assistant on some of manga’s most successful new series.
Dandadan’s style has a way of adding incredible scope to any action situation, with fish-eye lens shots and extreme points of focus adding a level of geography to many of the scenes that you don’t see in most other manga.
Of course, there is also the aforementioned lack of restraint in Dandadan that gives the series an eclectic feel. Some of the characters are comedically basic: the alien-rejecting Momo has giant alien earrings and her old aunt has the body of a teenager.
The plot feels flakey at the start – there’s no shadowy organisation or great mission as with the other works mentioned, just teenagers coming to grips with the supernatural.
That lack of plot is a key part of the series’ charm, though, like the kid who’s cool because he doesn’t try to be.
Will the Dandadan Anime Succeed?
Comparing Dandadan to the other works by Fujimoto and his assistants, where could a Dandadan anime sit?
In terms of awards and readership, the manga isn’t quite as big as things like Chainsaw Man and Spy x Family, but it’s not far off, either.
Dandadan has been a darling of the manga world for the last few years, so there’s a lot of hype going into this adaptation.
However, the strange nature of the story means it relies heavily on its art style to keep readers hooked, and how well can that realistically translate into anime? After all, that's cited as one of the reasons why the Chainsaw Man anime underperformed.
That’s what makes the announcement of Science SARU as the anime studio so interesting. The studio has a track record of unconventional stories, including Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken and the recent Scott Pilgrim Takes Off.
Overall, it would be a surprise if this series ended up hitting the heights that shows like Chainsaw Man, Spy x Family and Hell’s Paradise have managed.
However, after having to prove so many people wrong to even make it as a manga, if there’s one show that can surprise us, it’s probably Dandadan!
Read Next: Dandadan Release Schedule: What Dates are New Chapters Released?