Dandadan

Momo Ayase is a high school girl who believes in ghosts but not aliens, while her fellow high schooler, Ken Takakura, whom Momo nicknames "Okarun", believes in aliens but not ghosts. In a bet to determine who is correct, the two decide to separately visit locations associated with both the extraterrestrial and the occult—Momo visiting the former, and Okarun the latter. Momo is abducted by a group of aliens who accidentally unblock her chakras, enabling latent psychic abilities. Meanwhile, Okarun becomes possessed by a spirit, and together with Momo's abilities, they use his possessed form to defeat the aliens.

The rest of the story follows Momo and Okarun as they ally with fellow students, friends, family, and new acquaintances to combat supernatural entities, including spirits and extraterrestrial beings, while also navigating the evolving romantic tension between Momo and Okarun. Initially, a central plot focuses on Okarun's quest to retrieve his missing testicles (kintama). After succeeding, the story then shifts to Momo when she becomes afflicted by a mysterious curse that gradually diminishes her physical size and erases her presence to those around her. This development drives the latter half of the plot, as the other characters work to undo the curse and restore Momo to her original state. Although Momo's curse is eventually lifted, she loses most of her memories in the process — including those of her time with Okarun and the others.

Prior to creating Dandadan, Yukinobu Tatsu worked as an assistant on Tatsuki Fujimoto's Chainsaw Man and Yuji Kaku's Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku.^[3] The series was approved for serialization on Shōnen Jump+ during a meeting in Q2 2020. Tatsu delayed starting Dandadan until after both Chainsaw Man and Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku concluded, as he wished to fulfill his assistant duties completely.^[4]

Tatsu frequently incorporates meal scenes following major events, a stylistic choice inspired by multiple sources. He cites the conviction that hard work merits good food, a sentiment echoed in the manga Jarinko Chie which states that being hungry and alone is a terrible state. He also draws inspiration from the familial warmth of shared meals in Hayao Miyazaki films such as My Neighbor Totoro and Porco Rosso. This focus was further influenced by his own experiences as a struggling assistant, recalling a time his mentor gave him 1000 yen to buy stir-fried pork and a coffee after work. Tatsu stated that he includes these scenes to provide readers with a sense of hope, in keeping with the series' entertainment purpose.^[5]