Dandadan started as a manga about a girl who believes in ghosts and a boy who believes in aliens, daring each other to prove the other wrong. The Science SARU anime adaptation turned that premise into one of the genre's biggest breakout hits of the past two years, and the figure market is only now catching up to the fandom.
For a franchise that barely had any English-language figure coverage a year ago, the current wave is notable. Good Smile Company, Max Factory, and Banpresto are all building out figure lines around the same handful of characters at roughly the same time.
That is a lot to track if you are coming to this cold, especially with multiple manufacturers using different formats for the same cast. A chibi-proportioned Nendoroid and a screen-scale figma of the same character serve very different collecting goals.
This guide is a plain-English map of who is driving the hype, which manufacturers are making what, and how to start a Dandadan collection without overpaying for the wrong format.
Dandadan follows Momo Ayase and Ken Takakura, nicknamed Okarun, two teenagers who each insist the other's supernatural belief is fake, then stumble into both a haunted tunnel and an alien abduction in the same arc.
The anime's blend of horror, comedy, and genuinely strange character designs, including a grandmother possessed by a turbo-charged spirit, gave it a visual identity distinctive enough that figure manufacturers clearly saw an opportunity the moment it started trending internationally.
Momo Ayase and Okarun, in both his human and transformed states, are the clear leads. The real breakout character for merchandise purposes, though, has been Turbo Granny, the manekineko-style spirit possessing Okarun's grandmother.
The Serpoians, an alien species central to one of the manga's most memorable early arcs, round out the cast getting dedicated figure treatment, a strong signal that publishers expect demand to extend past just the two human leads.
Good Smile Company has a Nendoroid of Turbo Granny, catalog number 3015, built around her manekineko form, while Max Factory's figma line covers both Momo Ayase and Okarun in his transformed state as separate releases.
We cover the exact specs, the release-date confusion across retailers, and what is actually included with each figure in a dedicated companion post, worth reading before you commit to a pre-order.
Banpresto is covering much of the same cast through its Glitter & Glamours and SOFVIMATES prize-figure lines, a different buying experience entirely from Good Smile's pre-order model. These tend to be more affordable, non-articulated display pieces sold through arcades and retail partners.
A separate post breaks down exactly what Banpresto has shipped so far and what is still coming, since prize figure timing tends to shift more than mainline Nendoroid and figma releases.
A newly popular anime with a limited first wave of figures is a classic setup for early-adopter premiums, and Dandadan is following that pattern closely. First-run Nendoroid and figma pre-orders for breakout anime characters routinely sell out before a wider restock catches up.
Turbo Granny in particular benefits from being a genuinely odd, visually distinct design rather than a generic protagonist pose, which tends to hold collector interest longer than a standard character release would.
Nendoroid figures are chibi-proportioned, highly accessorized, and the easiest to display in volume. figma figures trade the cute proportions for proper action-figure articulation and closer-to-screen scale. Banpresto prize figures sit in between on price and detail, with far less or no articulation.
If you only plan to buy one figure per character, figma generally gives the most screen-accurate display piece, while Nendoroid is the safer pick if you are building a shelf of several characters side by side.
Because this is still an early, fast-moving figure line, the safest first purchase is whichever format you will actually enjoy displaying, not whichever one looks like the better flip. Dandadan's merchandise push is new enough that resale value is still unproven.
A Nendoroid box protector is worth budgeting for from the first purchase, since the current Nendoroid wave is a limited early run worth protecting in its original packaging.
A manga and anime about a teenage ghost believer and alien believer who end up proving each other right.
Good Smile Company and Max Factory lead the Nendoroid and figma lineup, with Banpresto covering the prize-figure side.
It is the fan and merchandise nickname for Okarun's grandmother in her manekineko-possessed form.
Both are too new to a Western figure market to call reliably; buy for display enjoyment first.
Dandadan's figure lineup is still young enough that getting in early is realistic without needing a flipper's budget. Start with whichever character pulled you into the series, and put a display riser under it so your shelf reads as a collection, not clutter.
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