Secrets Unmasked: The Hidden Player in Dandadan’s Latest Chapter

Yukinobu Tatsu served us with another cool chapter. In chapter 185, titled 'You're the Perp,' we see Aira and Class Rep continue their fight against strange headless basketball players, and we see them saving Kuoki. Besides the cool fighting sequence, we also learn who is behind the blackmail of school girls, and as usual, Tatsu doesn't run away from presenting his villains as strange and incredibly creepy.

Aira Is the Boss

In the previous chapter of Dandadan, we saw Aira saving Class Rep and the duo trying their best to defeat the strange headless creatures and find Kuoki. In the newest chapter, Aira continues to show why she is a certified leader of her group and puts her life into saving her friend and Kuoki, who's been missing. Of course, Aira wouldn't be Aira if she didn't criticize her friends, even during a dangerous fight, where she focused on Class Rep not being able to develop her power. Her powers don't last long, and their radius isn't far enough to ensure they are going to be safe from cursed beings.

Rin protests during that time but quickly changes her focus when she realizes that Kuoki is still missing and that they need to save her. Mai is the only one who can actually see Kuoki, due to her floating head being enveloped by pygmies as a protection. Mai decides that she will have to briefly separate from Rin and help Kuoki but at the cost of Rin's powers, which propels Aira to showcase her ability and skill set while trying to dodge relentless attacks from strange beings.

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Kuoki Is Saved

Mai goes on a mission to take Kuoki's head and dunk her 'upwards' since that is the only way to wake her up from a curse that surrounded the whole gym. She reaches the pygmies, who use their bodies to form a bigger one for Mai to reach the basket. Of course, Tatsu 'doesn't miss' because the whole sequence looks like it came from the 'Space Jam' movie.

Mai 'dunks' Kuoki's head and saves her life, which gives the opportunity for Aira to use her speed and take all three girls from a line of fire. Kuoki immediately wakes and tries to tell Aira what she found out while she was investigating the gym—and it reveals to us the mystery figure who was behind the blackmail and attacks on high school students, including Kuoki and Momo.

The Enemies Get Stronger and a Mystery Is Revealed

Yukinobu Tatsu is an incredible storyteller and a mangaka, especially when it comes to the characterization and design of his villains. Kuoki reveals a mystery figure behind the attacks, and it is Mr. Murakami. On the surface, a very willing and innocent gym class teacher is actually a monster who blackmailed underage girls into giving him explicit photos of their bodies and used them as leverage for girls to do his missions.

After Kuoki reveals the perpetrator, Aira immediately wants to find him to kick his 'ass.' She thinks he is hiding in the gym, and they need someone to locate him. Pygmies are their best bet, and Aira tasks Kuoki to use her close bond with pygmies to help them find Murakami. Meanwhile, Rin calls for attention due to headless basketball players turning into giants, or someone would say, titans—they are getting bigger and bigger every second. While the trio prepares for the ultimate attack of the titan-sized headless cursed basketball players, we see an incredibly creepy Murakami exercising on his gym bicycle, heavily sweating and chortling about girls being trapped inside of the gym, while he is in a different location.

Conclusion: The Mystery Figure Behind the Conspiracy Is... Creepy

Sometimes it feels like Dandadan is a horror manga series, due to its willingness to take a step further than most other titles. It is a shōnen manga series focused on teenagers and young adults, but it sometimes feels uncomfortable and borderline scary when reading its chapters. This particular chapter was really well done, but it felt uncomfortable due to the reveal of Murakami, who is revealed to be a sleazy manchild who used the vulnerability of young girls to blackmail them into doing very bad things. Tatsu really does know how to make a reader hate certain villains. Since this is the third chapter in a row following Aira and Rin fighting against these headless monsters, there is a high possibility this particular battle will end in the next chapter. The story will most likely move towards Kinta and Okarun fighting Bully san, and eventually, we will move to Momo's part of the story.

This is one of the longest story arcs we saw from Tatsu, after the Space Globalist arc.

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