Old But Familiar Face Arrives in Dandadan Chapter 181

The newest Dandadan chapter is out, and as usual, it is really fun. Besides the usual 'Family' shenanigans, this chapter, titled 'Must be the Influence of a Curse,' sees Okarun being incredibly cool, Jiji acting strangely, Vamola being her usual sweet self, and one of the old faces coming back. We even get a glimpse of Momo's power.

Okarun's Popularity Skyrocketed 

In the previous chapter, we saw our team being on alert for an enemy that's been harassing them, Aira being weird with Okarun, and finally, the glimpse of new potential enemies. This chapter continues immediately after the previous one, and we see how Okarun's popularity skyrocketed in recent chapters, and it's really adorable seeing a very insecure teenager being so unaware of the attention. Momo being a good supporter for her future boyfriend is another cute thing to see, and Vamola is just there being her sweet self.

While they're walking through the schoolyard, they see a commotion happening in front of the school gates where a few quite big guys tower over the group of students. Okarun approaches the gate to see what is going on while being admired by his classmates and realizes these enormous guys looked for him—this is where we meet a familiar face.

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Old But Familiar Face Enters the Fray

At first, Okarun and Momo don't recognize their old ally from the 'Danmanra arc,' a teenager named Unji Zuma. He looks different since the gang last saw him, for which he explains that he's been at the hospital for a long time and his hair grew out. Okarun and Momo are glad to see their friend after so much time, but Zuma cannot locate where Momo's voice is coming from, making him go crazy until Momo puts him in his place.

Zuma is surprised seeing Momo so little, and the girl reveals that she ate treats in the cursed trunk, which made her this way. This is where Zuma confirms that he looked for Momo and that his eyesight went very wrong since Danmanra. Zuma continues to throw bombshells on the group by introducing a small old man, called Daiki Hakono, who is actually a man Momo met in the cursed trunk. Since the incident, he's been aging rapidly, and his condition is getting worse. What's even worse, Daiki is a child who disappeared from his family home four years prior, leading to his own parents not recognizing him, making this whole situation even worse.

Momo Is Getting Closer to 'Cure' for Her Condition 

Zuma feels remorse for the young child and vows to help Daiki get better, including Momo, who is suffering from the same source. While they're discussing their next step, Jiji and Aira appear, and everything gets messy pretty fast. Jiji misinterprets the situation, and he and Aira immediately go and try to protect Momo from 'harm.' Okarun's confused, Momo's just baffled, and Zuma immediately retaliates and tries to calm things down. It doesn't help, of course, and things escalate even more due to the trio activating their yokai powers.

Suddenly, everything stops. The trio goes back to their normal state and, baffled, looks around to see what happened—Momo activated her 'sealing' powers to contain the yokai to stop the fight. This is actually a power that we saw in the first chapter/episode of Dandadan, with which she managed to contain Okarun's Turbo Granny powers. Nevertheless, Momo showcased her cool powers and put everyone in their place and proved why she is the coolest character of Dandadan.

Conclusion: Dynamics Between the Group Will Likely Change

This was a really good chapter because it serves as good furtherment of the storyline, mostly in regards to Momo's condition. It's cool seeing other characters getting their flowers, but having Momo in the background for long is never a good thing. Tatsu knows that, hence why we're slowly but surely having Momo back at the front of the Dandadan plot. Moreover, it's interesting how we saw Aira's expressed feelings toward Okarun in the previous chapter, and in this one, we see Jiji having a meltdown over Momo.

Now, the latter is more of him being concerned, but it feels that the characters dynamic will massively change in the future Dandadan chapters. Jiji is acting too emotional, due to feeling guilty over Momo's condition, and Aira just cannot help being her expressive self. Who knows, maybe the Evil Eye sighting from Jiji will prove to be a major plot point of his character development, possibly hinting at Evil Eye powers being removed from the lanky boy. Tatsu always does everything for a reason, and this particular detail isn't in the chapter without the reason—in the end, the creator of Dandadan knows his characters the best.

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