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Turbo Granny Strikes Again! Unlocking Okarun's Awesome (and Slightly Terrifying) Powers in Dan Da Dan!
Dan Da Dan, that crazy anime, introduces a seriously unique power-up in episode #2, "That's a Space Alien, Ain't It?!"Okarun gets a major boost thanks to the incredibly bizarre yokai known only asTurbo Granny! Initially this was more of an inconvenience, and he transformed into this monster whenever his palMomowasn't around.
Turbo Granny, this crazy modern yokai urban legend—think super-speedy old lady, potentially inhabiting tunnels and highways. This particular urban legend involves her being even faster than cars; and causing some serious problems everywhere she might appear. She’s popular inJapanese folklore—appearing even in other anime likeMob Psycho 100! So yes,this isn’t a totally random, made-up villain.This particular creature appears unexpectedly within this incredibly clever urban myth, completely showing just how well these story arcs mesh into each other perfectly and demonstrate that the creators took advantage of pre-existing stories to greatly expand their own storytelling abilities.
WhenOkarunletsTurbo Grannytake over, he gets this totally awesome, bizarre upgrade; he gets enhanced abilities which allows him a level of physical empowerment that most shonen anime would require an entire character arc to achieve. He’s taller, a bit more hunched, a killer new jawline—theStudio Science Saruanimation makes this transformation awesome. He even becomes far stronger and ridiculously fast.
Okarun’snewly-acquired speed and strength are a massive boon; a major turning point; yet entirely unexpected as these are totally unplanned developments. He immediately usesTurbo Granny'spowers to take down that invading alien; expertly dodging attacks; he also chops off a few of its fingers. Amazing. This truly shows that this plot device has profound uses; allowing those intense action scenes that completely depend upon such unlikely power-ups, as those confrontations become increasingly memorable. It’s pretty awesome.
All this insane power isn’t exactly free; those changes are really risky. There is a downside to this whole transformation and the risks become far more clearer in future episodes. Okaruncan't maintain this for very long; withoutMomo’shelp! Turbo Grannytakes over! Even more importantly, the power drains him super quickly. It works incredibly well for that one initial battle, yet if they continue to fight with this style of fighting;Okarun’sbody takes severe strain, ultimately causing significant physical damage and consequences which limits its overall application! That amazing fight results in him getting sick to the point of total physical incapacitation— he basically ends up unable to use it as well because of the inherent difficulty to actually fully use this mystical power! It's incredibly unpredictable!
Turbo Granny'spower-up transformsOkaruncompletely! But that transformation, it also comes with its limitations—demonstrating that gaining those levels of physical power involves its own set of issues! This makes every fight, encounter, and unexpected challenge that much more critical; making this show an exciting prospect; creating additional intensity for an anime full of surprises!
What's amazing? The power's only going to get bigger.Okaruneventually learns to control it more and as manga readers know– he’ll completely get this totally crazy power under control, bringing many more amazingly memorable and surprising situations that every fan wants more of, given the sheer intensity already present within that relatively early part of this exciting, wildly successful anime.