‘Dandadan’s Momo Ayase is the female character anime has desperately needed

Anime and its relationship with women have created a long, complex, polarizing history. Perhaps some series simply cannot handle the screen presence of female characters, while others risk failing women as they fall victim to time-worn gender-centric tropes. Dandadan nimbly avoids fumbling excellent executions of femmes in anime through Momo Ayase.

Dandadan’s Momo is powerful, but it isn’t her only strength

Momo, despite her immense strength, doesn’t let her power determine her entire personality. It could have been incredibly easy for Dandadan to compartmentalize Momo based on her looks and ability alone, yet there’s more to Miss Ayase than just her psychic powers. Momo isn’t only remembered for her combat skills. The training she undergoes to harness her powers doesn’t limit her storyline.

Momo naturally sidesteps the “Mary Sue” narrative argument. Though born gifted, Dandadan challenges her to master her potential to the fullest. As Momo becomes more outwardly self-confident, she’s given room to grow and also experience failure. This directly combats the “strong female” archetype that has kept powerful women limited to just being recognized for their strength. Dandadan allows Momo to build her powers without singling down her plotlines to become the strongest, backing her storyline into a dead end. Instead, the anime adamantly refuses to check off the unspoken box of featuring a “strong female character” simply because the female character has exceptional abilities. Momo is powerful with purpose.

At the same time, Momo is incredibly powerful, and her superhuman status contributes to her toughness, both physically and mentally. Intense fight scenes call for Momo to tap into the entire extent of her strength, and she unwaveringly takes on supernatural foes. It’s refreshing to see a female co-protagonist in a shonen anime unapologetically flaunt their powers while truly fighting back, and Momo is given the grounds to unleash her unbridled strength on anything that may cross her path.

While Ken “Okarun” Takakura also must understand the extent of his supernatural transformations, he doesn’t dare overshadow Momo. Momo, continuously paralleling Okarun in battle, speaks to just how crucial it is that she’s treated as an equal to her co-lead. It’s extremely frustrating and cruel for anime to gift their female leads with extraordinary ability yet not allow them to display the height of their power on screen. Dandadan dares not get in Momo’s way, and instead, encourages her brutality.

Momo’s femininity doesn’t define her

Dandadan refuses to stereotype Momo and avoids the need to fall back on traditional feminine tropes. While some aspects of Momo’s character contribute to her femininity, her personality extends past the confines of gender identity. Although her main friend group is made up of girls, Momo isn’t exactly completely girlish. A girl’s girl, maybe, but not overtly girly. Dandadan shares glimpses of her less effeminate traits and rougher personality without needing to justify them. By allowing her to hold on to some elements of womanhood while retaining more of an androgynous personality, Momo breaks away from the exhausted notion that all women in anime must look, feel, and sound similar.

The voice of Momo herself, Shion Wakayama, confirmed that Momo is a gyaru archetype, and it’s incredibly exciting to see Dandadan commit to allowing its femme lead to embrace such a fascinating culture. While anime as a whole has somewhat taken a step back from the hypersexuality or infantilization of its main girls, Momo representing the uniqueness of gyaru eradicates both from her character.

Her self-identity of being a gyaru is a fundamental detail of her character design. Momo’s fashion sense contributes to her deviations from how women are presented in anime. There are no questionably over-revealing elements in her character design that are outright objectifying, which allows Momo to retain her value of self-expression and detach herself from sexualization throughout Dandadan. While gyarus are primarily recognized for their intentionally norm-defying appearances, there’s also the rejection of societal expectations through the rebellion against the “good girl” mindset. Momo’s independence ensures that Dandadan knows how to handle her outright spunkiness without the need to dial down her personality.

Dandadan promises that Momo is naturally relatable. She’s conflicted, she’s jealous, she’s bold, and she’s unapologetically herself. Dandadan allowing Momo to experience the reality of being a high school girl (with a quirky interest and a crush) contributes to how grounded her personality truly is.

The most interesting aspect about Momo is how simple she can be, even when facing off against the paranormal or extraterrestrial. When stripping Momo of her supernatural woes, she’s extremely human. Even while being fierce to the bone, Dandadan isn’t afraid to explore Momo’s vulnerability and eagerly captures all angles of her personality, not just her most desirable traits. Through Momo’s versatility, the anime actively combats any “flawlessness” associated with the typical mild-mannered, soft-spoken, seemingly perfect anime girls.

By balancing her toughness with her tenderness, Momo unwaveringly thwarts the boring expectations of being a female anime lead. She refuses to bow to the expectations of others and proudly resists the conventions of the traditional anime girl. Thanks to her ferocity and femininity, Dandadan has proven that Momo is the female character that anime has desperately needed.