“DAN DA DAN” took the 2024 fall anime season by storm with its out-of-this-world storytelling, beautiful world-building and visuals, and outstanding voice acting. High schooler Momo believes in ghosts but denies aliens. Meanwhile, her classmate Okarun believes in aliens but denies ghosts. When both turn out to be real, the two must work together to challenge the paranormal entities threatening their world. Based on the popular manga by Yukinobu Tatsu, this anime is an electrifying, action-packed love letter to sci-fi and horror with the heart of a high school romantic comedy.

We spoke with Abby Trott and AJ Beckles, the English dub voice actors of the main characters, Momo and Okarun, respectively.

What It Was Like Being Cast as Momo and Okarun

Abby Trott and AJ Beckles have such a fondness for their characters in “DAN DA DAN.” We asked how they reacted when finding out they were cast as the English dub voices for Momo and Okarun.  Abby was not familiar with the manga beforehand, but AJ was. He says:

I was familiar with the manga beforehand. I’ve been a fan of the manga for a couple years, before we got the auditions for it. So, I was incredibly excited. I remember when I got the phone call, you know, telling me that I was like, the top choice, I almost cried I was so happy. So yeah, it was all excitement.

Abby may not have known about “DAN DA DAN” before auditioning, but she still felt an immediate connection with Momo.

It was not on my radar until I got the audition. From the moment that I saw the animation, because we were given two scenes to watch for the audition, I fell in love with this show before I had even seen any more than just these two scenes. Because the animation, as you’ve seen, is insane. And also just the character of Momo immediately was super relatable, super fun, very dynamic, just something like, every actor’s dream. You know?

She explains, “I was very surprised when I did get that call and I was cast as Momo. And I was super excited to see the rest of the show and immediately started reading the manga.”

Abby Trott and AJ Beckles Discuss the Duality and Relatability of Their Characters

Okarun has a caring and sweet side as well as a more intense powerful side when he transforms. AJ Beckles explains that the challenge behind a more “cool” sound was making sure that transformed Okarun did not sound so monotone. He discusses how he approached voicing these two different aspects of Okarun’s personality:

So when I first saw the scene that I was given for the audition, which was, like you know, normal Okarun. I kind of already felt comfortable in that area. I do like to do deeper voices, but I don’t often get the opportunity. So when I had seen the second scene, which was, you know, for his transformed mode, that one took me a little bit more time in thinking. I just wanted to make sure that… he was still cool. But I feel like the transformation is kind of like a subversion of the expectations of anime transformations, you know, where he just becomes ultra cool. Like he’s still cool, but he’s like, I don’t even want to be here. Like that’s his whole vibe. So I wanted to make sure that came across.

Momo, like Okarun, also has this duality of her character. She’s strong and independent, but she’s also vulnerable and sometimes a little insecure. Abby Trott talks about exploring this honest duality of Momo in her performance:

[The duality] is one of the things that I really love about the character. We see in– I think the very first episode –a bunch of different sides of Momo. She is very outspoken, generally. She’ll stand up for the things she believes in, but when it comes to her feelings…I think she has a harder time processing those emotions. And, you know…she knows when she’s messed up but has a hard time apologizing as we’ve seen. She’ll still kind of mumble her way through it. So I tried to capture that kind of external versus internalization of those emotions.

Both Momo and Okarun are relatable characters. “DAN DA DAN” does a phenomenal job of giving these characters very real feelings. Abby goes on to talk about the way she was able to tap into feelings of jealousy and frustration that make Momo so believable.

I think those are all those are all human emotions that we can hopefully all relate to. This character, too, really brings me back to the high school days when um I guess like as far as jealousy goes, I’m not one to have an outburst…Everyone has jealous feelings, I think, but mine manifests themselves more as self-doubt and like I’m not good enough, as opposed to like anger towards the other person. So it was re-channeling those things.

Also, Okarun experiences intense emotions that he finds himself working through as the series progresses. AJ finds that Okarun is incredibly relatable to a specific type of person.

I was that person growing up when I was in like middle school or whatever. I struggled with talking to girls the same way Okarundid. And I was not very cool and everything like that. So there’s a scene like, in the first episode where Okarun is kind of pouring his heart out and that took, you know, a take or two, I believe just for flaps and everything, but I was already right there in it because I related heavily to the idea of feeling that like loneliness. But also, there’s the sense of appreciation that he has for Momo and Aira and now Jiji. He’s like oh wait, ‘I actually have people.’ And now he has to learn how to have friends or how to interact with friends and what’s okay and what’s not okay. And that’s an interesting thing to explore in general, but…I think a lot of teenagers can relate to that sense of just discovering who they are and their place in the world.

“DAN DA DAN” Does a Phenomenal Job Blending Romance and Battle Shonen Genres

“DAN DA DAN” contains many elements of a romantic comedy, and the relationship between
Momo and Okarun is carefully portrayed. While the series is a Shonen, Abby and AJ talk about how the battles and Shonen aspects are tools used to carry the main story. It does not follow a typical formula for other types of action-type anime, which is pleasant and refreshing.

Abby says:

I think a lot of time with typical Shonen, you have your Shonen protagonist and the characters surrounding them. And that Shonen protagonist is generally a very naive. A little, you know, they want to do their best. They’re fighting for their friends. They are not always aware when a female is interested in them and will express their interest, it usually will go over their head or they’re kind of, you know, it kind of has to be knocked into them. This show has so far, kind of, bypassed a lot of those tropes in that Momo is very much a central character…They’re exploring these feelings. Okarun is very much aware of his feelings and is trying to be aware of Momo’s feelings for him. And so it’s it’s a different dynamic right off the bat…it’s been interesting and refreshing to see something a little different from your typical Shonen.

AJ says:

I feel like the main story really is about the romance and being a kid. But those things um show how larger than life being a kid can feel and be. So I think [Yukinobu Tatsu] does an amazing job blending all those things together because you kind of, as the viewer, I feel like just accept that the golden balls make sense. And all this other stuff is like, okay. Because in those small moments when they’re in school…it’s very real stuff. It’s like, ‘Oh, yeah it just feels so relatable.’ So…I think he does an amazing job of putting all this stuff together and having it not be a mushy mess.

“DAN DA DAN” is a “Wild, Sentimental, and Unexpected” Ride

We asked Abby and AJ to explain the series in just three words. AJ jokes and says, “DAN DA DAN.” Then, he goes into a more real answer that people can use to tell others:

What I tell people: Just watch it. Some people are like, ‘What is it? What’s it about? What is it?’ Just watch it. Just watch the first episode, decide for yourself, because I feel like it’s so crazy that if you try to explain it to anybody, I think it could be intriguing, but for some people, they’ll be like, what the heck? So I think it’s better to just throw them into the deep end and have them discover what the heck it is themselves because I feel like most people that do end up falling in love with it pretty quick.

Abby chooses three words. She says, “I’m going to choose three words. I’m going to say wild, sentimental, and unexpected.” 

Those three words are fantastic descriptors of the show without giving anything away. “DAN DA DAN” is a wonderfully weird and epic series with clever storytelling.

“DAN DA DAN” is streaming on Crunchyroll, Hulu, and Netflix. The manga is ongoing and available through VIZ Media and Shonen Jump. Fans can expect season two in July of this year.