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Dandadan

Author: Yukinobu Tatsu

Volumes: 5 English & 12 Japanese (Ongoing at 132 Chapters)

Publisher: Shonen Jump [click HERE for digital chapters]

Momo Ayase believes in ghosts but not aliens, and Okarun (full name Ken Takakura) believes in the absolute opposite to be the case. Of course there’s only one way to resolve this! They dare each other to go to the biggest alien site, and haunted location respectively to prove the other person wrong!

What instead happens is they’re both proven right/ wrong; turns out both ghosts and aliens are a thing and they are very much an impending threat to humanity, and in the case of Okarun’s encounter he loses his balls (yes those) and is now on a quest to get them back. It’s possibly THE comic of this decade, and depending on where it goes from this point on I can honestly see it being even higher on the list.

So far the plot is mainly full of hijinks, after the first few chapters display Momo and Okarun’s powers, they’re confronted with various supernatural and extraterrestrial encounters, some will even expand the crew into a right motley bunch of teenage hormones and awkwardness!

It manages to be a little bit of everything; wacky, heartfelt, tragic, over the top etc. with the main cast exhibiting the kind of chemistry we haven’t really seen done this well since pre-timeskip One Piece.

What impresses me even more (considering it’s a weekly release schedule) is just how amazing the artwork is from page to page, even if we consider that panel to panel details may sometimes be enhanced with some kind of digital workflow, it doesn’t for a second subtract from just how masterful the layouts on any given page are. Similar to One Punch Man, Yukinobu Tatsu makes Dandadan look hyper detailed while never losing details within the noise of all the moving parts.

At the very least if you aren’t a comic book person, I hope you’ll give the animated adaptation a go when it releases if nothing else.