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Ever since the Dandadan (or Dan Da Dan) manga was first released in 2021, Momo Ayase and Okarun’s alien and ghost adventures have amused and inspired anime fans with its thrilling yet unpredictable plot, characters, art, and overall creativity; bringing a unique twist to the action shonen genre. On Friday, Dan Da Dan received a new badge of honor, the “Toonami verification badge” as one writer put it, as Toonami and G-Kids revealed that starting on July 26 at 12:30 a.m EDT, Dan Da Dan would make its way to the better cartoon show.
https://x.com/animeDANDADANen/status/1943705226415911079
With Lazarus completing its run on June 29th, and with Dan Da Dan needing an extra week before joining the Toonami lineup, Dragon Ball Daima in the interim will have a doubleheader of episodes 4-5 on July 19 at midnight-1 a.m. Lazarus will also begin an encore run at 2:30 a.m. On the flip side, Sailor Moon has been removed from the lineup mid-run (although season 1 did get a proper airing on the short-lived Toonami Rewind lineup last year). No official reason was given, though it is likely that Toonami’s contract with Viz to air Sailor Moon only lasted for a year and covered just the first season. No word yet on when and if Toonami plans on bringing back the sailor guardians at this time.
Based on the manga series written and illustrated by Yukinobu Tatsu and serialized in Shueisha’s Shōnen Jump+ since April 2021, Dan Da Dan has become one of the most popular and acclaimed anime and manga series in the 2020’s. With many of the show’s fans calling Dan Da Dan “peak anime” it’s perhaps no surprise that the show would be well requested and ultimately made its way to Toonami airwaves.
The show’s synopsis is as follows (via Crunchyroll):
This is a story about Momo, a high school girl who comes from a family of spirit mediums, and her classmate Okarun, an occult fanatic. After Momo rescues Okarun from being bullied, they begin talking. However, an argument ensues between them since Momo believes in ghosts but denies aliens exist, and Okarun believes in aliens but denies ghosts exist.
To prove to each other what they believe in is real, Momo goes to an abandoned hospital where a UFO has been spotted and Okarun goes to a tunnel rumored to be haunted. To their surprise, they each encounter overwhelming paranormal activities that transcend comprehension. Amid these predicaments, Momo awakens her hidden power and Okarun gains the power of a curse to overcome these new dangers! Their fateful love begins as well!?
The story of the occult battle and adolescence starts!
Season 1 of Dan Da Dan aired on the Japanese News Network (JNN) and its affiliates (including the Mainichi Broadcasting System (MBS) and the Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS)) in Japan and streaming internationally on Netflix, Crunchyroll, and Hulu from October 4 to December 20, 2024. Just this past week, season 2 made its premiere on the 4th of July. To commemorate the second season, the first three episodes of season 2 were made into a compilation feature film, titled Dan Da Dan: Evil Eye, which was released on May 30th in Japan and June 6, 2025 in North America. According to Box Office Mojo, Evil Eye grossed over $5.6 million in the United States and a total of $6.8 million globally. No word yet when Toonami will get to air the second season themselves at this time.
Fuga Yamashiro is the show’s director, with scripts by Hiroshi Seko, music by Kensuke Ushio, character designs by Naoyuki Onda, and alien / yokai creature designs by Yoshimichi Kameda. Dan Da Dan is animated by Science Saru, an animation studio established in 2013 by producer Eunyoung Choi and director Masaaki Yuasa. Besides Dan Da Dan, Science Saru is known for works including Devilman Crybaby, Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, Tatami Time Machine Blues, two films in the Star Wars: Visions anthology, and have assisted in creating episodes for Adventure Time, Space Dandy and promotional episodes for OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes. Studio Science SARU is also producing the newest Ghost in the Shell anime project set to premiere in 2026.
The English Voice Cast includes:
- Momo – Abby Trott
- Okarun – AJ Beckles
- Seiko – Kari Wahlgren
- Aira – Lisa Reimold
- Jiji – Aleks Le
- Turbo Granny – Barabara Goodson
- Serpoian – Benjamin Diskin
AJ Beckles, the voice of Okarun, posted his approval to the news, being among those very excited to see the show make Toonami airwaves.
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As was Kaylyn “MarzGurl” Saucedo, closed caption editor for Dan Da Dan.
Kaylyn Saucedo – MarzGurl (open for Closed Caption COMMISSIONS) (@marzgurl.com)
Hell yeah, baby! [contains quote post or other embedded content]
In a rarity in the modern day “streaming wars” and “streaming service bubble”, Hulu, Netflix, and Crunchyroll all got to simulcast the show stateside upon its premiere on October 4, 2024 (and simuldub not long after). So why did Toonami viewers have to wait until now? Alongside budgetary issues (Cartoon Network and Warner Bros Discovery as a whole is not in the best financial shape right now, to put it mildly), Toonami creator Jason DeMarco revealed in an interview with the Toonami Faithful Podacst that Japanese creators and distributors are increasing having more of a say into how their shows are being marketed. Meaning that for stuff Toonami produces to promote a show, such as promos, topicals, and music videos, Toonami needs to get final approval from the respective show’s producers, which of course takes additional time and money.
As noted by Jason: “The way the system works now is Japanese rights holders have way more rights for how their properties are marketed, what you’re allowed to do with it, what clips you’re allowed to use, what your promos look like. That all is fine when you’re Crunchyroll because you don’t have a television network, you don’t have to chop up lots of tiny clips and get approval for every single one. You don’t have to do a “next episode promo.” For something like Toonami, that’s a tv network, there are multiple promos and trailers to promote an anime. There’s a way that anime is marketed for the industry and the rights’ holders are all a part of those decisions. They want to be able to see it and that slows everything down.”
Despite wanting these extra steps in the distribution process, anime creators and distributors still do respect Toonami’s efforts in airing and promoting their titles, with Jason remarking, “They know Toonami and they respect Toonami for what it’s done, but they also don’t want to let weird stuff happen with their property that they’re not a part of.” And while Toonami has historically been very good at promoting anime titles, other anime broadcasters and streamers have not been as good in that regard, so it’s understandable that anime producers might want a bit more of a say.
On the other hand, it does seem a bit counterintuitive, at least to the eyes of a fan, given that overall promotion of anime to casual and more mainstream audiences is and has historically been a weak point for the industry overall. Hulu, Netflix, and to a lesser extent Crunchyroll are often criticized for not promoting their anime titles as often as fans and potential viewers would like to see; as with the exception of their biggest hits, said services largely rely on their show recommendations algorithm and word-of-mouth for shows to find their audience. And this revelation might explain in-part why those services mostly just leave the promotion to the show creators, especially given that those services are often time constrained by simulcast schedules.
As for Toonami itself, Jason Demarco remarked with the Toonami Faithful Podcast that “I think, again, it’s all to the good. It just makes it really challenging for our programming team, our marketing team, and our on-air team to get these shows, while everybody is like, ‘Why don’t they have Dandadan yet?!’ There are a lot of reasons.” Combined with the massive layoffs and overall upheaval at Warner Bros Discovery (meaning that there is less manpower to get these licensing deals done), to say nothing about the ongoing upheaval in the anime industry in general, the increasing costs to license a show, and exclusivity holds for a program (aka “Netflix jail” and the like) amidst the ongoing streaming wars, and you can see why Toonami is having a tough time trying to acquire and renew programming right now.
It’s not all hopeless, as we’ve seen with the likes of Bleach, Blue Exorcist, Dragon Ball Daima, and now Dan Da Dan in the present lineup. In that same interview with the Toonami Faithful Podcast, Jason also mentioned that Bleach eventually returned to Toonami thanks to persistence from the Toonami crew after it was stuck in “Disney/Hulu Jail” for the past two years, stating: ” You’ll be told something is a definite no, forever, and then five minutes later it’s like, ‘Oh, we changed our mind.’ The way the business works now, you just have to be really persistent and bug whoever you’re trying to get the thing from. The sands are shifting all the time now. It’s chaotic across all industries, but especially in media and anime.”
No doubt fans will need to stay patient and persistent like the Toonami crew themselves have, especially for fans of Black Clover, Demon Slayer, Dr. Stone, Fire Force, Made in Abyss, Mashle, My Hero Academia, One Punch Man, Sword Art Online, and other shows hoping to see a return to the better cartoon show at some point for successive seasons. As always, keep watching and showing your overall support to the block, not just to convince WBD executives to keep this institution going for years to come (like they have for Turner Classic Movies), but also to convince anime executives that Toonami is still a great outlet for the promotion and airing of anime titles, instead of just keeping them locked up in “Netflix/Hulu/Crunchyroll/whatever Jail”. And send your show requests to Toonami’s Facebook (as Jason DeMarco has recently closed all of his social media accounts) as well as letting the respective licensors (Viz, G-Kids, Crunchyroll, Sentai, et.al) know through their respective social media outlets. As we’ve seen time and again throughout Toonami’s history, nothing is impossible, persistence is key, and good things come to those who wait.
What are your thoughts on the news? Are you looking forward to seeing Dan Da Dan on Toonami? Let us know by commenting below or directly on our social media.
