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At the beginning it seemed promising. The juxtaposition between the cute (and amateurish) art style and the unsettling weird atmosphere could work to create a cool supernatural horror-esque mystery story. The chemistry between the two main characters was fine, something reminiscent of Nagatoro-san. However after the reveal of Sawada's past it was beyond redeemable. Seriously it was hilarious. One of the few times I've gotten frustrated and at the same time laughed my ass off at how stupid, angsty, and pathetic a character can get.
It's like something a 13-year old wrote when their mom took away their Xbox.
There's also a hint of romance ... sprinkled into the story which would be interesting but nothing is expanded upon from it.
After that point the story loses all of it's steam and initial tension from it's setup and turns from a mystery to an adventure story which doesn't work since the world is without any depth or characters.

What would you do if your whole family was brutally annihilated and some of your relatives even killing themselves just to not let down the honor of your clan and all you could do is just run away? Elusive Samurai tells you that it's better to run away and survive than it is to give up and die for nothing.

The story is a grand adventure of a young boy's journey to redeem his seat as the heir to the shogun. This is the best written adventure/action shonen from recent times. The narrative about rejecting honorable death is amazingly executed. It follows the historical events ... very closely and the world feels lived in. The manga doesn't let up with it's satisfying arcs of tension and resolution. The stakes are high and it feels like that in every major battle and the fights aren't solved by some asspull power ups but rather by strategy and wit.

The main character is incredibly likable. Even as they are very young you can sympathize and relate to them. They are also the very definition of a hero; they're powerful, courageous and wise. The manga makes you actually care about their problems and you can't help but root for the kid.

The supporting cast is also great. They get the necessary characterization and small arcs of their own. You can see all of them grow throughout the story.
There's also the comedy which is more subjective but I found it pretty funny. It didn't break the tone ever.
The villains. Oh yeah they're awesome. They are very menacing, evil, selfish and will even betray their allies to get to the top of the power hierarchy.

The art is cute and cool. The huge battlefields full of warriors are nicely rendered. The action scenes are clear and you can understand what's going on. It's good.
Surprisingly gory and scary at times as well.
This is the best shonen action I've read so far. I don't think the historical aspect of this manga makes this any harder to get into. I hadn't read any history and I understood the story fine. Read it now

So imagine a story with surreal, absurdist imagery and humor that's so dumb and juvenile which can only be compared to FLCL and Panty & Stocking mixed in with the coolest fights against all different kinds of folklore monsters, aliens and conspiracy/urban legend myths. That's DanDaDan for you.

Let's get the obvious out of the way first.
The craftsmanship alone beats a lot of other current action manga out of the park. The environment and characters are very crisp and detailed. The art is also versatile and switches between the moments whenever it wants to be funny, eerie, cool or cute.
The actions sequences are very ... easy to follow and dynamic so it feels like every strike and blow packs a punch.


The weird thing with this manga is that when it's narrative is this simple and stupid you wouldn't expect to be that great right? Wrong.
DanDaDan is like what Hellraiser was to grindhouse. It doesn't pretend to be anything more than it is and does it well. Dumb fun action comedy. And I appreciate that very much.
But even then the story somehow manages to also have very heartfelt moments and as such there are stakes and the battles feel all the more tense. It keeps getting better as the story goes on.

So how do the characters hold up? They're all very likable and their chemistry is great.
They actually develop each other and have a lot of fun moments together.
Surprisingly even some enemies get developed and don't just feel like cardboard cut-outs in terms of depth. Our characters aren't invincible and actually have to find a different way each time to defeat the formidable foes.

The world building is the least focused on aspect here but later on in the story we do get some interesting lore that explains why the aliens are attacking Earth and overall things are explained well.

Some flaws:

1) The plot is very repetitive and simple and it can feel like nothing's moving forward. Our characters go somewhere -> Monsters start chasing them -> Fight -> Repeat.
2) The comedy also feels a bit repetitive and too stupid with the "BOOBS AND DICKS HAHAHAHA GET IT FUNNYY"

3) the thing with the Void. Every time an alien or monster attack, the characters get pulled into this different dimension where they can basically break everything and the normal world will stay fine. A bit too convenient.
4) It doesn't dive deeper into the occult or UFO conspiracies and sometimes just mentions them for the sake of it (ex. flatwoods monster

But overall this a very enjoyable manga if you just want to read a fun, mindless battle-shonen without a greater narrative and story