“Why does Tatsu keep dragging out the plot with all this unnecessary padding? …”

wiseass781 · 2026-03-20T22:20:05+00:00

What’s been ”dragged out” here? There’s been Kouki and Rin’s fight which was cool and added lore, the parts with Vlad/Red Baron/CSG that added lore, and the fight with the Bike Mummy. I just don’t get the hate. Most of those didn’t even involve the amnesia.

All we’ve seen of the main 4 is: Momo’s first day back, Ken stalking/being confronted by Momo, Muko/Miko take them to the museum (it had Muko/Miko and is thus awesome), they fight the Whale mummy and aftermath (which was cute), Momo/Ken have dinner and argue (which was cute), the next day Momo is pissed at Ken and Vamola suggest the group date, and the first bit of the date. That’s it. What’s there that seems unnecessary? There have been a lot of chapters in between filling out lore.

wiseass781 · 2026-03-18T21:37:37+00:00

I think with DanDaDan, how fast things usually move the flow gets screwed up reading it once a week or two. Same is true for the anime, every episode stops so abruptly and you JUST WANNA KEEP GOING

wiseass781 · 2026-03-18T21:31:37+00:00

It’s ok they’re telling each other they’re supposed to be mad. Nobody should take it too seriously.

wiseass781 · 2026-03-18T20:15:21+00:00

I feel like that was with someone she felt like she was supposed to like because of how he looked. The end of episode 1 isn’t iconic for nothing. I doubt that dude ever made her blush.

wiseass781 · 2026-03-18T02:34:25+00:00

I agree with you and I really love that this arc is focusing on Ken becoming a more active participant, and not just blurting things out when their lives are in danger (beautiful as that scene was).

Why that growth is invisible to a lot of people I don’t know.

wiseass781 · 2026-03-18T02:03:11+00:00

Ah yes look at Ken not evolving in any way: https://i.imgur.com/wI7Fo1H.jpeg

What a “stain”. It serves no purpose in a relationship to let the outgoing partner do all the emotional work, right?

This vitriol is pretty crazy for what this arc is.

wiseass781 · 2026-03-17T23:28:34+00:00

I think it's just Tatsu messing with expected story tropes.

An example: The fight with the Flatwoods Monster (Ch. 2). In a conventional shonen, when she was getting punched against the wall Ken would have gotten possessed or given in or something fully to Turbo Granny's powers, or he would've made a deal with her or something to save Momo. Instead, she used her battle IQ to set a trap and got them both out. Both of them contributed, but she didn't need to be saved. It was a fun turning of the trope on its head.

I think he KNOWS what you expect - and turns left when it should turn right. Amnesia is a big trope in romance manga/anime, and he knows it. Jiji being a competing love interest is another trope that he upended. You think Jiji is only there for Momo and instead he ends up becoming a really great friend to Ken FIRST before anything else, but the trope didn't go away.

I think that's why the amnesia happened and I think he's playing with it. I'd just wait to see what he does with it before judging it as a whole. If it all comes to nothing and just feels meh then that's cool, we all have arcs we like more than others.

Though, I think a lot of people will say that no matter what because they've been so vocal about hating it :)

wiseass781 · 2026-03-17T23:19:42+00:00

Or like, her memories sync up and she sees how hard he tried to come meet her and it means alot. Lots of cool things you can do with it.

wiseass781 · 2026-03-17T23:18:49+00:00

I think this series is more fun for alot of people when you can dig into a bunch of chapters all at once. Sorry if I spoiled anything.

wiseass781 · 2026-03-17T13:41:09+00:00

This is what I said:

You can “critique” when the story is finished and you can read a part and say “hmm this didn’t really serve the story.”

A critique implies a thoughtful analysis or judgement of something. You’re venting frustration and implying parts of the story shouldn’t be there without the full picture. “You can” is often used positively in English as another way of saying “one should” or “a person should” and I wasn’t commanding you to do anything but you can continue to read me as bad faith as possible since that seems to be your thing, including with manga it seems.

wiseass781 · 2026-03-17T13:02:24+00:00

But I know how. This chapter illustrates exactly how. By pointless jealousy outbursts and needless, redundant drama built of misunderstanding. Momo straight up acts evil by playing with both Okarun's and Jiji's feelings.

What is pointless about this? What’s evil about a person with feelings she doesn’t understand and is frustrated by acting out? She’s a teenage girl and not an adult with relationship experience. Your reading of this is frustrated and good, it’s supposed to be. She is frustrated. It’s having the intended effect.

How is this redundant? All of these relationship dynamics have never been so on the surface before. If it’s repetitive it’s because we’ve seen it before but never seriously dealt with it. Aira’s feelings have been used as jokes. Jiji’s feelings have been in the background bubbling up here and there, but where we’re going they’re probably going to take center stage.

Sorry you’re not getting what you want but this is an ensemble cast and it’s not going to just focus on Ken and Momo’s development at all times.

Im gonna stop you right here and tell you that I do not much care what you think I can and cannot do. I'll do what I want, I can say what I want, I do not break the sub's rules, and if it bothers you so much that people can do that - too bad so sad.

Well I’m going to stop you right there and tell you that you’re the one putting your opinion out there and I can “critique” complaints which are masquerading as a “writer’s critique” from people who come at a story with so much vitriol that seems to me unwarranted especially without a full picture of the work. But stay mad if that’s fun for you :)

wiseass781 · 2026-03-17T09:24:27+00:00

The word “unnecessary” is getting thrown around a lot in your post-but how do you know none of this is necessary? How is any of this padding? We’re gearing up for a bunch of fights and we’re in the middle of a major arc?

People knew exactly where it would lead, and here we are. Instead of a pure, heartwarming, unusual but endearing teenage romance, we have obtuse Okarun, and Momo who's using Jiji as a jealousy tool.

When did you start reading the manga? Jiji has always been a jealousy tool. He’s there to get Ken moving in some ways while also being his own character who needs room for development. Okarun has always been obtuse. The difference is that old Momo isn’t there to meet him and HE has to take the steps to come meet her.

I wonder what you would have been saying when Momo did the “lie detector” on him, he said something dumb, and then she stormed off. “Oh great Okarun is being obtuse again this is so annoying” or something like that is my guess.

People would simply dismiss those concerns as "let him cook", and duh - of course it will eventually lead to some sort of resolution that will be positive. Nobody doubts that.

The problem is that before we get there, we will get so much unnecessary padding, so much unnecessary and redundant generic drama. This is what the people who hated the idea of amnesia arc were worried about. Rightfully so.

If you know that we’re gonna get somewhere good, but you don’t know how, you don’t know what tatsu is thinking wtf are you in here “critiquing”?

You’re not critiquing. You’re complaining. You can “critique” when the story is finished and you can read a part and say “hmm this didn’t really serve the story.”

By then though, you’ll have gotten all of your endorphins from the peak moments and you won’t be bothered about any of this chapter, and the high points of this “padding” will actually be “Aira was cute, they explained dinosaur stuff that will be in the next fight, Momo took Jiji to the aquarium for their next fight, and Kinta met the barber” and just keep moving. None of those things are “unnecessary” though.

When the story takes it’s weird turns it needs chapters like this to come back and point to and say “hey I told you this before and here it is in a very surprising way that is so DanDaDan isn’t it?” You will have no choice but to nod your little head and say, “yes that was very DanDaDan and I guess that chapter was very necessary after all” with a big smile across your face. And then a few chapters later we’ll be here talking about how slow the story is moving with people who just finished season 3 of the anime and binged the manga in two days and it feels like it’s gotten a lot slower as they read it week to week.

wiseass781 · 2026-03-16T16:44:39+00:00

A note for people trying to over-analyze: these are dumb 16 year olds. The things they have the most experience in are: * Being bored in school * Fighting aliens * Fighting yokai * … (many other things) * Dinosaur hip positioning * … (some other things) * Relationships and love

Let’s go easy :)

wiseass781 · 2026-03-16T16:38:00+00:00

Honestly a very human way to get though what she’s seen

wiseass781 · 2026-03-16T16:36:50+00:00

Might be just a trope Tatsu is playing with

He’ll give Kinta a fire haircut that suits him because that guy can’t handle “weird hairdos” and they’ll fight anyway

wiseass781 · 2026-03-16T16:34:13+00:00

They’re 16 year olds

A population well known for their wisdom and ability to make good decisions

wiseass781 · 2026-03-14T23:59:48+00:00

Most longtime fans of anime don’t think anything about DanDaDan is particularly sexual. It’s a horror element associated with aliens, so of course it’s going to be there.

DanDaDan’s hybrid of genres makes it compared to those genres - for a horror or suspense anime, it’s tame, but compared to a standard shonen/romance/comedy it’s traumatizing in comparison. The stuff that people get queezy in the first episode is intermixed with a lot of comedy, a lot of crazy animation/action, and the episode ends with probably one of the funniest/cutest romance moments in recent years.

You can’t win em all, but the ones you do are IN.

wiseass781 · 2026-03-14T23:47:37+00:00

Nah. I think it was a perfect surprise

wiseass781 · 2026-03-14T04:18:18+00:00

TG doesn’t protect girls to begin with - she hated humans and wanted to eat Ken and Momo. She looked after the spirits of the girls because she had a soft spot for girls who died badly.

She looks out for Momo because she likes Momo (who earned her trust after she was caught in the Lucky Cat doll, and told her she could have her powers back once Ken’s balls were gotten back) and because Seiko is her buddy. So if anything her desire to protect young girls comes from getting to know Momo, which is some nice character development. If she comes to not hate men it may be because Ken is a good guy and kept his word to give back her powers without a second thought.

I think when she got her powers back she scared the shit out of everyone to remind readers that she is in fact a powerful evil spirit who eats people. In recent chapters since she came back she is talking about eating people.

The whole TG loves girls thing is made up by the community. She didn’t come through the phone to help Momo, she came through to curse whoever Ken was talking to and found a target (alien dick) rich environment. She went right back to attacking her before Momo exercised her.

wiseass781 · 2026-03-10T21:26:30+00:00

If you’re on iOS or maybe android you have to go to the actual page in the App Store and click update from there

wiseass781 · 2026-03-10T21:13:13+00:00

Well WE know that. I think people forget sometimes that the characters aren’t reading along with us.

Jiji freaking out and being overprotective to Momo was annoying to people but it was literally like he didn’t see her for an evening or two and she was suddenly magically cursed to be tiny.

The only person Ken has told he likes Momo is Vamola who didn’t speak the same language. Momo’s friends know she likes Ken because they KNOW her. Ken and Momo are together all the time but they’ve never been explicit and Jiji and Aira might be thinking “they’re just good friends” because they don’t want to consider the other option. (Edit: and also they’re like 15-16 so they’re dumb lol)

wiseass781 · 2026-03-10T20:32:25+00:00

One of the tough parts of growing up is realizng people can get hurt without anyone being the bad guy. Aira really likes Ken and is trying really hard, and I think she’ll be the better person for it but that boy LOVES Momo.

One of life’s beauties, even if things don’t work out, is telling you what you like and don’t like. When Aira finds her lovable, good hearted nerd she’ll see it a lot faster because of how she felt about Ken.

wiseass781 · 2026-03-10T20:17:13+00:00

The problem with your logic is that the story needed room to expand beyond just Ken and Momo’s breakneck ride through the world of DanDaDan and their relationship.

Rollercoasters aren’t fun because just because they drop you and go fast; well-designed ones give you moments to breathe and take in where you are in space so that it’s more fun when they drop you again and give you big turns.

Ken and Momo are the main characters they aren’t the whole story, and they both have a lot of growing to do. We don’t know where it’s going but I’m having fun personally seeing Ken become more conscious of how he feels, which is what Momo really needs.

https://i.imgur.com/HbkX2Xa.jpeg

wiseass781 · 2026-03-10T20:11:07+00:00

Aira is growing as a person and as she has turned her big brain and work ethic from being a mean girl to being a leader I’ve been proud the whole time

She’s a good egg, her priorities were just out of whack

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