Dan Da Dan is a buffet for lovers of high strangeness. With its Japanized versions of Western cryptids and the deep-dive knowledge woven throughout, Dan Da Dan is a love note to cryptozoology and ufology. But to say it’s true to the stories it borrows from is a stretch. So if you’re curious about them, here’s a bit more on the lore of Dan Da Dan.
Dan Da Dan & Nessie
Some 65 million years ago, a big rock slammed into Earth, and the dinosaurs became a past tense. Then, a bit closer to our time, some 115,000 years ago, glaciers conquered Earth. And after those mountains of ice gouged and scared the landscape, they receded and melted, filling vast fjords and lakes across North America. Three years ago, Yukinobu Tatsu started working on Dan Da Dan. What do these three events have in common? A well-known Scottish cryptid.
How did the story of the Loch Ness Monster start? Picture this: you’re a Christian missionary named Columba. You’re in Scotland, sometime in 565, spreading the name of the Lord. It’s cold, and it’s damp. One day, you’re walking along the River Ness and notice that some dudes are burying another dude. You ask them what happened, and they tell you that the dead dude got mauled by a crustacean from the Paleolithic era. Seeing this as a teachable moment, you send another dude into the same part of the river. And as the offending being comes for him, you speed dial Jesus, make the sign of the cross, and tell it to sod off, which it does. If it can be trusted, that was the first recorded sighting of the Loch Ness Monster, even though it didn’t actually happen in Loch Ness.
Anyone who’s seen The Ancient Magus Bride or that has an interest in UK folklore knows that the British Isles are rife with mythology. From the Stoor Worm to kelpies, Scotland has as many cryptids as Love Live! has waifus. But a laser-breathing Nessie? Well, that’s artistic freedom at its finest.
Is Nessie a Threat? What Is Nessie?
While we all know that Nessie will take about three fiddy from us, will it also take our soul? Nah, unlike some of its oceanic and North American cohorts, Nessie is a chill guy. But that doesn’t mean you have to risk it. If you’re in Scotland, you can buy Loch Ness Monster insurance.
While Dan Da Dan’s description of Nessie is that of a Gojira-like predator hellbent on planting your tombstone. But what do the stories really describe? Mostly, they say that Nessie is just waddling around Loch Ness and the nearby areas. Occasionally, it comes ashore to eat sheep and livestock. This raises an important question: what exactly is this creature? Most people think that Nessie and her ilk are a remnant plesiosaur population. This would mean it’s a ‘Lazarus taxon.’ A Lazarus taxon refers to any animal that presumably went extinct and reappeared. These animals are the FLCL of the natural world. You might think it’s gone forever, but then it comes back. The best-known case of this is the coelacanth.
This dude went “extinct” some 66 million years ago, but no one told him that because two species are still happily living in the sea. However, it wouldn’t be as easy for a plesiosaur to do the same. And sadly all known “plesiosaur carcasses” have proved to be decomposed basking sharks. So the debate usually runs along the lines of sturgeon, walrus, seals, or other known marine life. As a former marine biologist, I would like to highlight that Jonathan Downes, the director of the Center for Fortean Zoology, provided a compelling explanation of what the creature might be during a Creepy Acres podcast. Be that as it may, there are over 50 well-known Nessie-like cryptids. When you include the lesser-known sightings, the total reaches into the hundreds. Japan has two of its own, with Kussie supposedly inhabiting Lake Kussharo in Hokkaido and Issie in Lake Ideka (Kyushu island).
Dan Da Dan’s Dover Demon vs Actual Dover Demon
While Nessie had a short cameo in Dan Da Dan, the Dover Demon played a more pronounced role in the series. Ironically, while Nessie has a long history, the Dover Demon is only canonically known from sightings spanning two days in 1977. In Dan Da Dan, the creators depict it as a kappa-like extraterrestrial crustacean that can evolve into a sleeker mantis shrimp-like creature. However, the original version was never believed to be an alien, and unsurprisingly, it doesn’t resemble the anime’s depiction at all.
Contrary to Dan Da Dan’s ultra-buff depiction, the real Dover Demon looks like a 4-chan user who hasn’t seen the sun in a few months. Small, spindly, sandpaper-like skin and a big, bulbous head were the main features of this random oddity. Unlike other humanoid sightings, no strange lights in the sky accompanied this sighting. Its identity has been highly contested; some claim it’s a supernatural being. Others say it resembles the beings in the Kelly–Hopkinsville encounter. Still others believe it’s part of Cree folklore, as it’s similarly eerie to the Mannegishi. But whatever it is, it has nothing to do with cattle mutilations, but I’ll be damned if I don’t mention that in the follow-up article.
Screenshots: Crunchyroll
©Yukinobu Tatsu/SHUEISHA, DANDADAN Production Committee
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