While the end is near for And Da and season two, animation studio Science Saru isn’t repeating what it did last season with the show concluding on a crushing mid-arc cliffhanger. Instead, the lovey-dovey raucous sci-fi-meets-yokai anime is going out with a bang, with its penultimate episode setting up a cataclysmic giant robot versus space kaiju battle to send anime fans home happy. 
In And Da and episode 11, “Hey, It’s a Kaiju,” the gang battles a kaiju. While Momo, Okarun, and their new friend, Kenta Sakata, are on the hunt for what they believe to be Okarun’s missing golden testicle (at this point, don’t ask), they discover the glowing ball they’d been chasing around an apartment complex was actually emanating from the inside of a human-sized kaiju. Thinking they cinched an easy victory, the crew quickly reckon with an even bigger threat as the kaiju grows into a full-sized threat, towering over them and chasing them throughout the city.
Momo, Okarun, and Kenta wind up running into Aira and Jiji, rounding out their weirdo superpowered squad, but their feeble attempts at teamwork don’t seem to slow the big lizard down. Okarun, referring to his occult knowledge, surmises that the giant kaiju isn’t a normal kaiju but a space kaiju, because of course it is. Despite Aira taking charge with her Bayonetta-esque hair yokai powers from Acrosilky, she’s overwhelmed by the space kaiju’s ability to not only shoot lightning from its horns but also to cloak itself in an invisibility field. Thinking better of their first giant team-up odds, the gang makes a tactical retreat back to the Ayase house with the kaiju in pursuit, treating the city like a giant diorama for it to trample over.
Back at the house, the gang has a little bit of infighting, with Evil Eye repossessing Jiji and hankering for a fight, Momo and Aira fighting over Okarun, and Okarun simply wigging out over how they’re gonna deal with the giant green discount Gamera kaiju sauntering their way.
Ever the smart egg, Okarun remembers the nanoskin they used to rebuild Ayase’s house and hatches a plan to create something big enough to battle the kaiju. The only problem is that Okarun doesn’t have a big enough imagination to come up with anything. Enter Kinta Sakata.
As well-established in the previous episode, Kinta is a huge otaku for sci-fi, specifically, mecha anime of Mobile Suit Gundam ilk. Hilariously, Science Saru went to great lengths to hype up Kinta’s arrival like a goddamn Marvel superhero by showing off his dedication to the medium in his singing of classic mecha anime theme songs and showing off his freshly painted knock-off Gundam gunpla with the paint still staining his fingers. Seizing his moment, Kinta triggers a transformation of the Ayase house, turning it into a chimera of mecha anime references along the way.
It’s Neon Genesis Evangelion, Gurren the song, Power Rangersand all And Da and with Momo, to the dismay of Kinta, making its design look like a Buddha simply because she panicked thinking of something big to fight the kaiju. With everyone hilariously conveyed to their makeshift battle stations, they’re ready to face the kaiju. The only problem is that they don’t quite know how to make it move.
One interesting detail about the long-awaited arrival of the space kaiju is that Science Saru cleverly hid this moment in plain sight. In the anime’s opening theme, there is a quick frame showing a green shadow of the space kaiju along the walls of the hallway that Okarun and Momo are rushing through. This subtle Easter egg reference also cleverly hints at the creature’s ability to mask its presence.
Seeing as how next week’s episode will mark the end of the season, manga fans likely have an inkling of the exact beat the story will end on, and it’s a big one that’ll probably leave anime-onlys in agony over whether or not they want to read ahead in the manga to figure out where Okarun and Momo’s shonen romance takes them next in the indescribable world of And Da and. Hopefully, fans won’t have to wait long to get that answer should the show get renewed as swiftly as it did the last time for a third season.
And Da and is streaming on Crunchyroll, Netflix, and Hulu.
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