DAN DA DAN Ep. 12 “Let’s Go To The Cursed House”: Hot Springs Haunting [Review]

DAN DA DAN Ep. 12 “Let’s Go to the Cursed House” takes us right back to the anime’s roots as a horror anime. Complete with some very creepy stuff happening in this hot springs town, including some sexual assault. Too bad it all stops right in the middle before the story concludes anything. I guess we’ll just have to wait for that second season to find out what happens next.

DAN DA DAN Ep. 12 “Let’s Go to the Cursed House”: Details

DAN DA DAN Ep. 12 “Let’s Go to the Cursed House” is the 12th and final episode (you can read my reviews for Ep. 1-3, Ep. 4, Ep. 5, Ep. 6, Ep. 7, Ep. 8, Ep. 9, Ep. 10, and Ep. 11 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. GKIDS is the company licensing this anime for its global debut.

Production Cast

Tetsuya Wakano is the director behind DAN DA DAN Ep. 12 “Let’s Go to the Cursed House”, with Hiromi Nishiyama as the storyboarder. 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. 12 “Let’s Go to the Cursed House” features the voices of Shion Wakayama (Abby Trott in English dub) as Momo Ayase, Natsuki Hanae (A.J. Beckles in English dub) as Okarun, Ayane Sakura (Lisa Reimold in English dub) as Aira Shiratori, and Kaito Ishikawa (Aleks Le in English dub) as Jin “Jiji” Enjoji. Other notable voices in this episode include Mayumi Tanaka (Barbara Goodson in English dub) as Turbo Granny and Nana Mizuki (Kari Wahlgren in English dub) as Seiko Ayase.

The other notable voices in this episode are Tomokazu Sugita (Kaiji Tang in English dub) as Tarou, and Fumi Hirano (Allegra Clark in English dub) as Hana.

When and Where to Watch

DAN DA DAN Ep. 12 “Let’s Go to the Cursed House” made its airing and streaming (aka. simulcast) debut on December 19, 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. 12 “Let’s Go to the Cursed House”: Synopsis

Alas, DAN DA DAN only just recently ended its first season. In fact, DAN DA DAN Ep. 12 “Let’s Go to the Cursed House” only just made its premiere five 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:

Momo and Okarun head to Jiji’s house in a hot springs district to investigate the case of Jiji’s family. Okarun feels gloomy looking at how close Momo and Jiji are. Arriving at Jiji’s house, there are several shadows watching them as they enter…

DAN DA DAN Ep. 12 “Let’s Go to the Cursed House”: The Good

Yeah, there’s no question about it. It’s the story of DAN DA DAN Ep. 12 “Let’s Go to the Cursed House” that keeps my eyes glued to the screen all the way to the end of this season finale. All because this anime is returning to its horror roots in this finale. Yes, much of the episode is basically slice of life comedy with a bit of romantic dramedy at the beginning for flavor. However, the moments of unsettling creepiness that punctuate that slice of life comedy makes it all feel more like the calm before the storm than anything else. It makes the eventual horror segments feel like a gut punch. It’s pretty clear by now that Yukinobu Tatsu does an excellent job at writing horror stories. If that wasn’t abundantly clear already from the very first episode.

Of course, that story still wouldn’t nearly be as good without the efforts of Science SARU. Their animators continue to deliver a very good-looking anime. Alas, it’s not quite to the level of feature-length anime film levels of quality, but they make up for it with Science SARU’s signature style, including some hilariously stylized facial expressions for the comedic moments. Which of course, completely and nicely contrasts the freaky faces in the more horrific moments.

DAN DA DAN Ep. 12 “Let’s Go to the Cursed House”: The Bad

One of the complaints I have for DAN DA DAN Ep. 12 “Let’s Go to the Cursed House” in particular is the very fact that it ends on a major, major cliffhanger. I’m really not a fan when a season of something ends on such a cliffhanger. It feels almost like Science SARU is trolling their viewers with such a tactic. Yes, they want to keep people watching the next season, but I feel there are better ways to do this without ending on such a painful cliffhanger. Especially when the main characters get to the most horrific parts.

Speaking of which: I do want to address something here. Yes, DAN DA DAN infrequently depicts sexual assault, especially towards the main character Momo Ayase. Yes, it does feel…sketchy. However, I also feel like there are mitigating factors at work here. First, the sexual assault is always portrayed as evil on the assaulters’ part. Second, Momo is always depicted as rescuing herself from the sexual assault instead of needing someone to rescue her, at least thus far. These two combinations in mind makes me feel that the sexual assault is trying to send a positive message here. A message in which the victims of sexual assault shouldn’t be demonized, and that those who fight back against it should be celebrated. Your mileage may vary here, but that’s how I feel about how DAN DA DAN handles that particularly sensitive topic.

And on a side note: if you can’t wait for the action to start back up, then may I recommend watching Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Solo Leveling, Kaiju No. 8, DDDD, and/or Blue Box in the meantime? Those should have enough action to satisfy most action junkies until DAN DA DAN season 2 finally makes its debut sometime in July 2025.

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

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