DAN DA DAN Ep. 11 “First Love” features a story of two dummies. One is a human dummy, while the other is a dummy dummy. However, what they both share is that they have a whole bunch of love coursing through them, which doesn’t care what kind of dummies they are.

DAN DA DAN Ep. 11 “First Love”: Details

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Now we find out just how much of a dummy the final main character is.

DAN DA DAN Ep. 11 “First Love” is the 11th episode (you can read my reviews for Ep. 1-3, Ep. 4, Ep. 5, Ep. 6, Ep. 7, Ep. 8, Ep. 9, and Ep. 10 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

Tooru Hasuya is the director behind DAN DA DAN Ep. 11 “First Love”, with Shinsaku Sasaki 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. 11 “First Love” 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. 11 “First Love” made its airing and streaming (aka. simulcast) debut on December 12, 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. 11 “First Love”: Synopsis

We even get to see Turbo Okarun for comedy here.

Alas, DAN DA DAN season 1 only just recently concluded. In fact, DAN DA DAN Ep. 11 “First Love” only just made its debut a week 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’s childhood friend, Jiji, appears and begins living in Momo’s house. Jiji has been worrying about apparitions in the house he moved into. Okarun is clearly disturbed hearing that Jiji is Momo’s first love and tries to distance himself from Momo.

DAN DA DAN Ep. 11 “First Love”: The Good

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He’s just a silly dummy, but I suspect he has hidden depths to him.

It’s definitely the story of DAN DA DAN Ep. 11 “First Love” that’s keeping me watching up to this second to last episode of the season. A lot of why that story is so good has to do with the emotional gut punches coming at me from out of nowhere. You’d think you’d expect it by now due to Yukinobu Tatsu clearly being into that sort of thing.

And yet, this episode’s emotional gut punch still ambushes you when you are least expecting it. Honestly, I think part of the reason why is because most of this episode is comedic in nature. You don’t expect emotional gut punches during light-hearted comedy. Thus, the moment of heartfelt and deep emotion somehow hits you all the harder. A bit like Hideaki Sorahi’s Gintama, really.

Of course, that gut punch wouldn’t hit nearly as hard without the efforts of Science SARU. Their high-quality animation just makes the scenes feel all that much harder. Especially that gorgeous sunset at the end. I can’t go into the scene due to spoilers, but viewers will know what I mean. Oh, and the food looks yummy as always. Possibly even yummier. Seriously, that hamburger steak with noodles, carrot, broccoli, miso soup, and pickles makes my mouth water just looking it. It’s not quite Black Butler -Public School Arc- levels of good, but it’s close.

DAN DA DAN Ep. 11 “First Love”: The Bad

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As much hidden depths as this dummy.

Honestly, I do have to admit: there’s not much in the way of action or horror in DAN DA DAN Ep. 11 “First Love”. Thus, if you only watch this anime for those bits, you might be a bit disappointed in this episode…even in spite of the moments of horror involving Jiji. If you do feel bored, then might I suggest watching Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Solo Leveling, Kaiju No. 8, and/or DDDD to tide you over? Those anime should have enough action to keep you entertained until DAN DA DAN returns to its regularly scheduled horror-centric action.

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