Okarun's Turbo Granny form, explained

Key insights

• The Yokai and aliens give the main characters unique powers, which contradicts their original beliefs.
• Okarun's Turbo Granny Curse grants him tremendous speed and power, but comes with a major limitation.
• “Turbo Granny” has unexpected depth, showing both compassion and deception, and sparking conflict in the anime.

Dandandan is a shounen anime about two teenagers, Takakura Ken, also known as Okarun, and Momo Ayase, who, after spending so much time believing in aliens and ghosts, discover that their world is full of aliens and ghosts. These two unlikely friends bonded over their curiosity about the bizarre and unreal, discussing their opposing beliefs and disbelief in each other's hobbies, alien life and ghosts. Shortly after their first encounter, they come across two of the most popular UAT and ghost haunting sightings in their area, where both suddenly gain special abilities. After Takakura Ken's first encounter with the Yokai Turbo Granny, she curses him.

Turbo Granny's curse is the crucial factor that drives the plot of the rest of the anime. In a harmless competition of ideals between the two main protagonists, they each gain powers that contradict their initial unshakable beliefs. Momo gains special psychic powers from aliens who abducted her, while Ken gains access to superhuman speed through his suffering from Turbo Grandma. While it initially represents a source of inconvenience and danger for the protagonists due to Ken's lack of control, it becomes an important source of energy as he interacts with the Yokai and the aliens he discovers.

The following contains spoilers from the first part of the series.

The collision of the supernatural and the ordinary

The first encounter with the turbo grandma

After Takakura Ken and Momo Ayase first met through their discussion of the occult and space, they challenged each other to go to the most popular Yokai and UAT sightings around their home. After they come to their respective areas for their test of courage, both of them come across things that they didn't believe existed. Momo Ayase soon discovers some male humanoid-robot hybrid aliens who kidnap her, and Takakura Ken discovers the evil 100km/h Turbo Granny who curses him. This surprising encounter with the bizarre puts both protagonists in danger from beings they have not yet understood.

Okarun was dared to go into a tunnel where Turbo Grandma was supposedly located. When he gets there, he soon discovers that the legends about her are true and is cursed by her. Meanwhile, at the same time, Momo Ayase was dealing with aliens called Serpo who wanted to use her body to obtain human genitals. In an incredible turn of events, Okarun teleports to the spaceship where Momo is being held and helps her. Through sheer willpower and luck, Okarun manages to use Turbo Granny's abilities to help Momo escape the spaceship, setting the tone for how Okarun's power will be used for the rest of the anime.

The Turbo Grandma Transformation

How it works

The full extent of the Turbo Granny Curse's power is not yet fully understood, but it is immensely powerful and capable of defeating the Evil Eye Yokai, a Mountain-class Yokai that represents the strongest class of Yokai. Okarun now possesses Turbo Granny's abilities as a borrowed power, after only her consciousness was excluded from Okarun and her powers still reside within him. This arrangement gives Okarun tremendous speed, much greater durability, and remarkable biting force with his teeth when using this form. This arrangement is limited as Okarun forcibly switches back after going all out at his 100km/h speed twice.

Okarun's powerful powers make him a type of blast tank, capable of repelling aliens and yokai and dealing a significant amount of blast damage with his speed. Many of Okarun and Momo's adventures fighting aliens in the world of Dandadan Push him to test the limits of his transformation and become stronger through training. The Turbo Granny form he is given serves as a last resort to change the situation rather than as a permanent measure, as Okarun must use his powers carefully to avoid being helpless against the Yokai and aliens he faces.

The blatant setback of the turbo grandma curse

A power that must be used intelligently

The Turbo Granny Curse grants Okarun powers that allow him to combat even the most powerful threats on the Yokai and alien fronts. During his transformation, he exceeds the limits of his humanity and is many times faster and more durable than the average human, but this comes at a price. The transformation causes him to tire very quickly, and shortly after discovering his powers, he learns that he can only reach his top speed twice before becoming completely immobile and essentially a sitting duck. Because of this weakness, he relies heavily on the support that Momo Ayase offers him.

This weakness serves as motivation for Okarun to be a very intelligent fighter, knowing that his ability is essentially a coin toss. By relying on Momo to overcome the multitude of threats they constantly face, Okarun realizes the extent of his powers and learns to use risk-averse behavior to avoid putting himself or Momo in danger. Okarun's ability to deal with dangerous situations and his ability to assess risk make him a popular shounen protagonist and his adventures worth watching.

Consequences beyond the arc: Setting the stage for future conflict

Turbo Grandma, an unlikely source of power and just another person

The villainous Turbo Granny was the first yokai to display a tragic past and unexpected motives, portraying her not as something inherently evil as most yokai assume, but as someone who was also human. Although Turbo Granny has a dishonest and negative side, which fans see as she twists and turns the rules of the game with Okarun, she also has a compassionate side. Towards the end of her turbulent arc, she was shown to have compassion for young girls and often sought out their dead spirits to comfort them. This personality trait turned out to be the reason why she joined forces with the Yokai Earthbound Spirit Crab.

The conclusion of the Turbo Granny arc set the pace for the anime and gave fans a glimpse into the kind of trials and setbacks Okarun would face as a result of his limited but powerful cursed transformation. Beyond this transformation, the anime tells deeper stories of yokai who have different goals and motivations for their actions due to their aggressive nature in their inevitable battles with Okarun. The Turbo Granny transformation is a power source that brilliantly showcases Okarun's chivalrous and idealistic personality through a striking design and an array of supernatural abilities.

Dandadan will premiere on October 4, 2024 and continue streaming Crunchyroll And Netflix.