DAN DA DAN Ep. 9 “Merge! Serpo Dover Demon Nessie!” is a peculiarly entertaining episode in more ways than one. It’s not only a love triangle dynamic in action, but also a nod to old tokusatsu series like Power Rangers. It’s such an odd mix of genres and references that you can’t help but laugh the whole time your eyes are glued to the screen.

DAN DA DAN Ep. 9 “Merge! Serpo Dover Demon Nessie!”: Details

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This episode is just as insane as this key art makes it out to be.

DAN DA DAN Ep. 9 “Merge! Serpo Dover Demon Nessie!” is the ninth episode (you can read my reviews for Ep. 1-3, Ep. 4, Ep. 5, Ep. 6, Ep. 7, and Ep. 8 here) of the first season of this action, romantic comedy, and supernatural thriller shonen anime series. Said anime series is the anime adaptation of the Shonen Jump manga of the same name by Yukinobu Tatsu. Science SARU (Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, Star Wars: Visions, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off) is the animation studio behind this anime.

Production Cast

Maeba Kenji is the director and storyboarder behind DAN DA DAN Ep. 9 “Merge! Serpo Dover Demon Nessie!”. As for the DAN DA DAN anime as a whole: Fuga Yamashiro is the director, with Hiroshi Seko is responsible for series composition and screenplay, and kensuke ushio composing the music. Naoyuki Onda is responsible for character design, while Yoshimichi Kameda is responsible for alien and monster design. Satoshi Hashimoto is responsible for color design, while Junichi Higashi is responsible for art direction. Kazuto Izumita is the cinematographer, while Kiyoshi Hirose is the editor, and Eriko Kimura is the sound director.

As for the music: the opening theme song of this anime is “Otonoke” by Creepy Nuts. Meanwhile, “TAIDADA” by ZUTOMAYO is the ending theme song.

Voice Cast

DAN DA DAN Ep. 9 “Merge! Serpo Dover Demon Nessie!” features the voices of Shion Wakayama (Abby Trott in English dub) as Momo Ayase, Natsuki Hanae (A.J. Beckles in English dub) as Okarun, and Ayane Sakura (Lisa Reimold in English dub) as Aira Shiratori.

On the antagonists’ side, we have Kazuya Nakai (Ben Diskin in English dub) as the Serpoians.

When and Where to Watch

DAN DA DAN Ep. 9 “Merge! Serpo Dover Demon Nessie!” made its airing and streaming (aka. simulcast) debut on November 28, 2024. You can watch this episode on Crunchyroll. In fact, you can watch this entire anime on either Crunchyroll, Netflix, or Hulu.

DAN DA DAN Ep. 9 “Merge! Serpo Dover Demon Nessie!”: Synopsis

Okarun is missing something below the mask in this episode. A whole lot of somethings.

Alas, DAN DA DAN is still an ongoing anime. In fact, DAN DA DAN Ep. 9 “Merge! Serpo Dover Demon Nessie!” only just made its debut four days ago as of this writing. Thus, here’s the official synopsis from Crunchyroll instead of a spoiler-filled plot summary. You can check out that synopsis below:

Aira has awakened the powers of Acrobatic Silky within her and proceeds to have a seesaw battle against the Serpoians and the Dover Demon. Momo and Okarun join the fray, intensifying the battle.

DAN DA DAN Ep. 9 “Merge! Serpo Dover Demon Nessie!”: The Good

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Now this is a beautiful fight scene.

Without a doubt, it’s the story of DAN DA DAN Ep. 9 “Merge! Serpo Dover Demon Nessie!” that makes it such a delight to watch. It’s that combination of supernatural thriller, romantic comedy, just plain comedy, and horror elements mashing together into an action-packed fun fest of an episode. Oh, and with hints of a bizarre sex comedy and numerous Super Sentai/Power Rangers references to boot, given how everyone in this episode somehow ends up nude or mostly nude for reasons that made perfect sense at the time. Truly, Yukinobu Tatsu is a bizarre mangaka. You might even notice a bit of Chainsaw Man‘s Tatsuki Fujimoto in the style, albeit in a more light-heart and comedic way, but with less blood and guts.

That doesn’t meant that there’s no blood and guts in DAN DA DAN. In fact, this episode contains the most blood and gore out of all the episodes released thus far. You can literally see alien organs spilling out of decapitated heads and split bodies. Honestly, if you’re an action junkie, then this episode is for you.

All helped by the wonderful animation from Science SARU, of course. As you can see in the screenshots, the animation is of superb, top-notch quality. All with the animation studio’s signature zany animation style to boot. That eye candy is what gives the story superb flavor, making it one of the best anime of this season so far.

DAN DA DAN Ep. 9 “Merge! Serpo Dover Demon Nessie!”: The Bad

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Even their silly faces are of exceptional quality to the point of hilarity.

Honestly, it feels like DAN DA DAN Ep. 9 “Merge! Serpo Dover Demon Nessie!” is a near-perfect balance of action, comedy, horror, and romance. The one thing I might criticize is that it’s not as heartfelt as the episode with Acrobatic Silky. It might be building up to it though, like how the fight with said Silky suddenly took a turn for the tearjerker.

If you want more bloody anime though, then might I suggest watching Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Solo Leveling, Kaiju No. 8, and/or DDDD? Those particular anime are even bloodier than this episode, and so you might find them a treat as well if you’re into that.

Tune back in to THS to find out more about DAN DA DAN and other anime when we do.