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When anime studios try to make changes to the source material, they need to make sure they do it right. As Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood showed, fans want faithful adaptations of their favorite manga, so any deviations from that need to make a clear addition or improvement to the original story. Fortunately, Science Saru seems to have become the masters of this as they have once again made a small improvement to the Dan Da Dan anime that massively improves the series’ pacing and tragedy in season two.

Here is the thing about Dan Da Dan season two: it starts with one of the best arcs from the manga. The Evil Eye arc is goofy and fun and adds just the right amount of tragedy into the mix. Its titular yokai is presented as evil and destructive, yes, but it is also a victim. He was brutally murdered as a human sacrifice while just a child. Then he watched the same tragedy befall other children at the hands of the Kito family while being helpless to stop it due to being a ghost.

The manga does a good job of showing how Evil Eye came to be without making it feel like you should forgive them for their violence and destruction. However, the anime does one better by fleshing out the time Evil Eye spent as a ghost, showing how family after family was brought to the site of his death only to die, again and again, generation after generation. Death after death, all before what is essentially an abused and neglected child.

See, the original manga only shows this happening once in a pseudo-modern era, with the implication being that history repeated itself. The anime, thanks to having a longer run time and being able to control the pacing a bit more, shows it with explicit detail. We see family after family succumb to the waves of depression emanating from below the house, resulting in repeated tragedy. Normally, I’m a big fan of subtlety in storytelling and trusting viewers to fill in the blanks, but this is an example of how doing the opposite can be effective.

The point of this sequence is to show just how cruel the world was to Evil Eye; even in death, they were forced to live with the pain and tragedy that the Kito family inflicted on others. Showing us how death has followed them through the ages just hammers home that fact and highlights how their descent into becoming a monster was almost inevitable. This is the writers and animators doubling down on what the original manga was trying to tell us.

Science Saru did the same thing in Dan Da Dan season one when they expanded the Acrobatic Silky’s backstory and it became one of the most memorable parts of the anime so far. The change to Evil Eye’s story is far more subtle but manages to accomplish the same thing. Where Silky is obsessed with protecting Aira because it remembers the daughter it lost in life, Evil Eye becomes obsessed with killing humans because it has known nothing but sorrow and pain throughout its existence.

Not to spoil things for fans, but that point becomes important later on in the Dan Da Dan manga; Evil Eye might not become a fully fledged ally, but the fact that the rest of the cast introduce something akin to family to it has a profound change in how it acts. Because even those who have endured pain can find joy again. Even though he hasn't gotten a full redemption arc, the glimmer of change is there.

Changes like this require precision and care, and Science Saru has proven once again that they know exactly when to deviate from the source material and how much. It is hard not to view them as an anime studio at the height of their powers, producing work that is both faithful and superior to the Dan Da Dan manga at the same time. As a fan of the manga, it is a relief to know that Dan Da Dan is in such good hands going forward. 

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