Right from the premiere of its first season, Dandadan was guaranteed to be a success. Yes, it is a Shonen series, but it never gives off your typical Shonen vibes that many fans have grown bored with. The manga already felt unique in every single way possible, and now Studio Science SARU’s masterclass anime adaptation catapulted its popularity to a whole new level.

It is one of those rare examples you’d get to see in modern anime, where creativity shines through the author’s imagination. After all, that’s how stories are meant to be written. However, the majority of the current anime and manga landscape is dominated by copy-paste content, with magazines often hiring editors and mangaka who only consume similar projects.

Anime is a medium known for its most diverse array of creative storytelling. From all sorts of genres to stories for all demographics, anime has everything to offer for the viewers. Or at least, that is how it used to be! The modern anime and manga landscape has gotten to the point where all new IPs often look and sound pretty same.

This is mainly because of the industry’s over-reliance on the same old working formula. For some reason, the Japanese studios and magazines believe that exploiting the similar tropes and genres that used to work before would do just fine for the modern anime fans. But that is not the case whatsoever.

Even the former editor for the iconic Dragon Ball manga, Kazuhiko Torishima, recently expressed the same sense of disappointment at a press conference at Japan Expo. He even added that most of these magazines only hire editors and mangaka who have only read manga in their all lives.

The same pattern can often be seen in some anime. The Beginning After the End‘s adaptation was supposed to be the next big thing, as many fans claimed, but the studio had no idea about its potential. Not being familiar with the work, Studio A-Cat made it look and sound just like your average, typical Isekai anime.

Under the dying light of anime/manga creativity, a series like Dandadan comes in and separates the great from the good. It breathed fresh air into the industry, especially through its anime adaptation, as the studio did it more than justice.

A part of the reason is that the director of the anime is a huge movie maniac. He has always been heavily obsessed with the movies and series he grew up watching. He even had notebooks full of his own analysis of all the stuff he used to watch as a kid.

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This fundamental obsession of his now reflects in the projects he takes in, including Dandadan. From animation to soundtracks, you can see all the subtle changes and enhancements in the anime that make it stand out from the rest. This is actually something that you cannot find in most modern anime.

Along with the director of Dandadan, another exemplary individual within the industry is Tatsuki Fujimoto, who shares the same kind of ideology. Being a massive fan of the Western media, his works not only tell a strong narrative storyline but also bring up the uniqueness that the industry desperately needs now.