Mulliga's Myths and Folktales, Part 4 - Dandadan

This Halloween, I'm featuring freaky folklore from around the world...everything from the Mothman, to Bloody Mary, to the alligators in New York sewers. Today, let's look at a fun anime series that puts an extraterrestrial spin on both Japanese yōkai and classic cryptids:

Dandadan (also spelled Dan Da Dan) starts off when a UFO-obsessed high schooler who doesn't believe in the occult (Ken "Okarun" Takakura) makes a bet with his spiritualist classmate who doesn't believe in extraterrestrials (Momo Ayase): he'll visit a haunted tunnel and she'll visit an alien abduction hotspot, to settle who is correct about the paranormal once and for all.

Of course, this being anime, they both "win," and promptly get plunged into a world of genital-stealing aliens and wisecracking ghosts:

It's a lot to take in at first, but Dandadan smartly focuses on Momo and Okarun, whose odd-couple Mulder-and-Scully romantic tension does a lot of the heavy lifting early on, before they get joined by a host of wacky supporting characters.  The cast deals with typical high school drama while battling a menagerie of famous folkloric monsters, including a sumo-wrestling Flatwoods Monster and kaiju renditions of Nessie and the Mongolian Death Worm.

Dandadan is a fun, lighthearted romp with a unique animation style and some oddball humor (more so than the typical shōnen anime). I think most people will dig it, though there are some parts that seem a bit sus when taken out of context: