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While most of the episodes of the Dan Da Dan anime have had memorable moments, Episode 7 has been the most unforgettable so far. The exploration of the Acrobatic Silky’s backstory, with all the trauma and tragedy that came with it, is a beautiful and haunting sequence. According to one of the show’s producers, it was also the one that they spent the most time trying to get it just right.

If you haven’t been keeping up with season one of Dan Da Dan, Episode 7 spends nearly a quarter of its runtime on a dialogue-free exploration of a villain’s backstory. Without any words, you get to feel the love that the mother has for her daughter and the desperation to keep her child safe. As Dan DA Dan producer Hiroshi Kamei explained to Popverse, it was the one scene the studio knew they had to get just right.

“Episode 7 is where the layout and movements are meticulously refined,” Kamei told us. “Showcasing a high level of detail in the animation. I believe the studio underwent a great deal of trial and error during the production process.”

What is remarkable about the scene in question is that most of it had to be developed by Science Seru for the anime. The manga scene is only two or three pages long. With the anime, they were able to tell more of the story and really hit us in the feels at the same time. It has become one of our favorite anime episodes for the past few years.

Each week, Popverse's resident anime expert Trent Cannon runs down the latest and, dare we say "greatest," in anime and manga in Popverse Jump. Some recent columns have included... 

• Why the finales of My Hero Academia, Jujutsu Kaisen, and One Piece feel like the end of an era in manga
• Why is One Piece more popular now that the anime is 25 years old? We asked around and found out
• Dan Da Dan is weird, profoundly inappropriate, and the perfect anime this season
• Why One Piece's Monkey D. Luffy is the perfect anime hero for the dark times ahead
• 40 years after its debut, Dragon Ball is a pop culture force like few others
• Dan Da Dan's most emotionally devastating sequence proves that sometimes words aren't necessary
• Gnosia, the "Among Us meets Everything Everywhere All at Once" visual novel is getting an anime adaptation that needs to be as weird as possible
• Assassination Classroom is a Shonen anime well worth revisiting, ten years on
• Sony is making big moves to own the anime industry by buying Kadokawa, publisher of Oshi no Ko, Sword Art Online, and Konosuba