Momo Ayase has brought up her grandmother a few times in the first two episodes of Dandadan. Momo’s grandmother, Hoshiko, is a spirit medium who looks surprisingly young for her age. She wears glasses, hoop earrings, and keeps her hair in a high ponytail. Her style makes it clear she’s trying to appear younger, rocking a revealing sweater that shows off her cleavage. When she’s working under her professional medium name, Dodoria Santa, she goes for a completely different vibe, wearing a grotesque mask and a black hooded cloak, hiding her body and face. It’s not clear if she does this to create a spooky persona or because she feels she won’t be taken seriously as a woman.
Episode 3, “A Clash of the Grannies, Huh?” kicks off with Hoshiko reading the fortune of a young idol. She guesses he’s 27, but he insists he’s only 20. She also says he loves curry and has a wife and kids, and he basically calls her a fraud. Hoshiko gets home just in time to stop Turbo-Granny from eating Momo. Armed with only a bat, she goes head-to-head with Turbo-Granny, who quickly gets behind her. But Turbo-Granny is set on fire and trapped in a barrier circle that Hoshiko created. The circle burns the demon if she tries to cross the line. With her “charm nails” and the barrier, Hoshiko can protect herself and keep Turbo-Granny stuck. Even though Turbo-Granny warns that Ken will die if she’s set on fire, Hoshiko doesn’t seem bothered.
Gotta play tag with Turbo-Granny
Momo wakes up worried about Okarun (Ken) and immediately goes looking for him. She finds her grandmother, Hoshiko, watching Bakatono and, for a moment, thinks Hoshiko might have killed Okarun. Playing along, Hoshiko lets her believe it, clearly holding onto some bitterness over Momo dismissing her psychic powers before. Hoshiko hasn’t seen Momo since she got her own powers, and the tension between them is obvious. Eventually, her grandmother reveals where Okarun is, and Momo rushes to the shrine to find him eating. She’s relieved.
After telling her grandmother that she has powers now, Hoshiko shares more about the Turbo-Granny. Apparently, she was once called “100 KM/H Granny” and terrorized Japan, with Hoshiko even investigating her in the tunnel. Hoshiko claims she couldn’t get anywhere near the tunnel because of the overwhelming presence there. She explains that bound spirits stay where they have strong attachments and are most powerful in their territory. It’s dangerous to fight them on their home turf. According to Hoshiko, the bound spirit has fused with Turbo-Granny, making things even trickier. Despite the warning, Momo’s still set on saving Okarun. Hoshiko tells her she’ll need to “play tag” with Turbo-Granny and get her to leave her territory. Outside of it, she’ll be weaker and easier to defeat. But first, both Momo and Okarun need to train and get stronger. The episode ends with a twist: Shouma-San, the idol mentioned earlier, is actually 27 and has a secret love child, proving Hoshiko’s earlier prediction was right.
