By TREVOR HOGGImages YT/S,D courtesy of GKIDS.Capturing the spirit of the manga through an off-the-wall hybrid of aliens, ykai [supernatural beings and phenomena in Japanese folklore] and high school romance is the Crunchyroll, Netflix and GKIDS anime series Dan Da Dan. The original ink drawings of Yukinobu Tatsu have been reinterpreted by director Fga Yamashiro and Science SARU with a color palette that ranges from monochromatic to muted pastels depending on the theme of the scene in question. The story revolves around a dare between two classmates resulting in one becoming possessed by an evil spirit while the other is abducted by intergalactic beings that accidentally unlock her psychic abilities. The unlikely duo face a number of adventures together that cause them to utilize their newly acquired powers and in the process of doing so fall in love.There are only so many colors in the world. It is intense when it comes down to Dan Da Dan because when you can put one color on the screen, your options suddenly become limited. The approach right now is to go full throttle every time, and well see!Sophie Li, Color Script Artist, Science SARUColor Designer Satoshi Hashimoto and director Fga Yamashiro shared an understanding as to what the base colors should be for each of the characters appearing in the 12 episodes.Handling the color design were Satoshi Hashimoto and Makiho Kondo, with the former working on projects such as Spy x Family, Death Note and Paprika. First of all, I want to talk about briefly the pipeline order in Japanese animation, states Satoshi Hashimoto, Color Designer at Science SARU. Basically, what happens is that the colorists, background artists and animators are separated. Then, as things go, first of all the director decides the direction he wants to go in, and he orders the backgrounds based on that. He gets those backgrounds back, then he brings them to us and the color team, and talks about what he wants to do. Then, we make the colors using those backgrounds, based on his and our own ideas.Working on a subliminal level is the color script. Its more like music, notes Sophie Li, Color Script Artist at Science SARU. Its underlying but conveys emotion, an energy and sometimes story through color. When I start thinking about the colors for a specific show, what is important is to try to understand the tone of the project and the directors vision; whatever references they are using and how the color in those references work and try to apply the logic into this new show that were making. Thats how color script works. It also involves a lot of figuring out light directions. Sometimes, light and dark values in a scene also comes in. When I do the color script, I try to lead with the emotion of the scene. I want the audience to know where we are in the story, and they will remember what the color combination is on the screen. After watching the show, they will know this is the beginning, middle and end of the fight. It progresses clearly, which is something I hope to achieve in the color script.A graphic panel recreated from the original manga that has been reinterpreted with color.Its more like music. [The color script] is underlying but conveys emotion, an energy and sometimes story through color. When I start thinking about the colors for a specific show, what is important is to try to understand the tone of the project and the directors vision; whatever references they are using and how the color in those references work, and try to apply the logic into this new show that were making. Thats how color script works.Sophie Li, Color Script Artist, Science SARUDetermining the color palette for each scene is whether the adversary is an alien, ykai or combination of the two. I have been with this production since pre-production, so when we were figuring out the direction of the series, I was doing things like image boards, Hashimoto explains. Even at the early stages, the director had a strong idea as to what he wanted to do with the color direction for the ykai and aliens. The idea has always been that the ykai, for example, Turbo Granny or Acrobatic Silky, are warm colors, like a reddish or pinkish for the characters in question. Whereas, the aliens are the opposite to that. They have colder colors to them; for example, the Serpo aliens that you see in the first episode are bluish. When Okarun is cursed by Turbo Granny, he gets her red color, and you can see his hair and the tips of his cloths turn partially red. Those were all requests from the director. A retro aesthetic was adopted for the everyday scenes because of the frequent references to Japanese pop culture in the manga. A lot of Japanese animation nowadays is focused on being flashy, vivid and high saturation all of the time. But this time we wanted to go with a slightly less saturated, more relaxed look for the screen and save that vivid high-saturation, more modern anime look for the action scenes to make them pop.Cool colors were used to distinguish the alien characters, with blue designated for the Serpo.Dan Da Dan is crazy! laughs Li. It conveys so many genres. It was so free even though there were references given by the director, like for his fight scene, which was inspired by a particular fight in Ultraman. Its important to put myself back in the box and say, This is heavily influenced by older filming techniques and that kind of feeling. I think about it as if Im using a real lightbulb somewhere in the scene and non-digital older colors, too. A lot of time was spent developing the color language for Episode 101. When the color is dyeing the whole scene, I try to use lighting to balance it out so you know Momo is under this spotlight and whats happening. When its a running around sequence, the color balance is always hard to keep, like Episode 104 with the big fight with the crab, Li says.When Momo unlocks her psychic powers, she is given the theme color of emerald green.Some of the scenes look like actual ink drawings taken from the manga, such as the Fleetwood Monster fight, and this applies to some of the other colors that we use as well, especially for black and white where it gets a lot harder to depict depth, notes Makiho Kondo, Color Designer at Science SARU. The characters are put into a similar tone, and you have to rely on brightness. It was difficult to construct the screen in a way that even with those colors, it would still have the depth the director was looking for. We ended up having a lot of back and forth with him where he would say, We could make this darker. We can make this whiter or brighter. We were doing a lot of individual smaller changes to make sure that we felt the level of depth between the characters or between the characters and the background. Then, the ideas about the insert colors, for example, the red in the scene when Okarun uses his power, and in his hair and face lines; director Yamashiro was particular about having that stand out in any scene he used it in. The black and white was particularly good for helping us have the red stand out.The emerald green of Momo and red of Turbo Granny-possessed Okarun collide during the alien abduction sequence in Episode 101.Tones of gray are explored for the transformed skin of Okarun, while different shades of brown are considered for the eyes of Momo.Each of the transformed states of Okarun had to be color designed, with red highlights a common throughline.When Momo and Okarun defeat Turbo Granny, all the spirits of the deceased girls that have fused with her are unleashed like a watercolor painting.The characters have their colors, and we had to take into account. For example, the auras; if there is going to be effects placed on this in compositing, how is that going to change the color? What are shadows going to look like? A lot of it was working with both the director and compositing team to decide on colors that will still look good even placed under compositing effects or pushed in a different direction. There was a lot of trial and error back and forth to make sure that the final result was what everyone was looking for.Satoshi Hashimoto, Color Designer, Science SARUThe color treatment of effects was determined by the scene itself. For the regular type of effects, like explosions in normal scenes, we would go with a baseline normal color, Hashimoto remarks. But we paid a lot of attention to how the character effects should be influenced by the image colors that a character has. For example, Okarun is using some sort of power, and we flash some red in there. Another big one is Momos psychic power; we were using her specific colors for that as well. Careful attention had to show how digital augmentation would impact the desired color. The characters have their colors, and we had to take into account, Hashimoto states. For example, the auras; if there is going to be effects placed on this in compositing, how is that going to change the color? What are shadows going to look like? A lot of it was working with both the director and compositing team to decide on colors that will still look good even placed under compositing effects or pushed in a different direction. There was a lot of trial and error back and forth to make sure that the final result was what everyone was looking for.A color-inverted environment was created to emphasize the growing psychic powers of Momo.To understand the motivations of characters, backstories are a significant part of the storytelling, and nothing is more tragic than what led to the existence of Acrobatic Silky. Of course, we had a color script for that which helped to decide the overall direction, Hashimoto explains. The way I was thinking about it was that we have the action scenes, and the strong pink was based on grudges Acrobatic Silky was holding; however, when we were dealing with the mother, I wanted to represent the free parts of her life, the times she was spending with her daughter and her truer personality by using the opposite color to pink, which in this case would be a blue. I wanted to create a gap between her true feelings and sadness; for example, her life with her daughter versus the pink you see during the action scenes when she becomes a monster.When Turbo Granny is winning during the fight with the Serpo aliens, her red color becomes more vibrant and dominates the frame.Piecing together the frames when the psychic powers of Momo are awakened, as well as a black-and-white moment from the Fleetwood Monster fight.The opening title sequence provided an opportunity to experiment with the colors free from the storytelling.The main purpose of the opening title sequences is to be fun to watch and make the viewer interested in finding out what happens next.The spirit of Turbo Granny gets transferred into a doll that poses with Aira and Jiji, who both get possessed by ykai and inherit their abilities.Looming over the narrative are the missing testes of Okarun, which have been turned into golden balls by Turbo Granny and are desired by a number of opposing forces for different reasons.Color Script Artist Sophie Li was given the freedom to come up with the character closeup shots that begin the opening title sequence.The color script for when Okarun gets possessed by Turbo Granny in the tunnel and Momo gets abducted by the Serpo aliens, as well as the fight sequence that occurs when the two stories intersect.Black and white prevail when Momo uses her psychic powers to find and grab hold of Turbo Grannys aura. I had a strong idea already, Li recalls. It was more like making concept art. This particular shot was like x-ray vision and simplified lines that inverted the color. I was testing out how the grading of the hand works to make it simple. The main point of that sequence was to make it readable, and nothing matters besides her hands, which are her theme color of turquoise, and the color of the flame of each character. Everything else is black, grey and white lines; that remains consistent every time she uses her powers. A massive crab goes through different shades of red as it attempts to catch Okarun and Momo. I tried to think about the different elements and the part of the fight where you have to let your eyes rest a little bit. When the crab is boiled, it is more orange, and when Turbo Granny goes into the final form with the crab, it is more of a darker red. The progression shifts subtly in the show, but when I do the color script, it is more condensed.Each fight has its own theme color, with the Fleetwood Monster getting a black-and-white treatment, with the red associated with Okarun serving as an accent.During the crab chase, the color script reflects who has the upper hand at a particular point of the narrative.The color script for when Momo is using her psychic powers to find the whereabouts of Turbo Granny by locating her aura, which resembles a red flame.Reflecting all the Japanese pop culture references in the manga, a nostalgic retro feeling was adopted for the daily life scenes.Turbo Granny does not always retain the same red color; at times orange takes over depending on her mental state.Momo and Okarun during a moment in the black-and-white fight with the Fleetwood Monster in Episode 102.Emerald green is the theme color for Momo and is represented by her dangling earrings.Light and dark values are essential when directing the eye of the viewer, especially when a single color overpowers the frame.The typical vivid, high-saturation aesthetic prevalent in anime was avoided for the everyday moments.Pink was the theme color of Acrobatic Silky, with the black hair serving as reminder that she is an evil spirit.The backstory of Acrobatic Silky is tragic, and blue was used to contrast with her theme color of pink for the moments where she was a loving mother to her daughter.A dramatic moment occurs when Acrobatic Silky dances on a rooftop where the light is celestial.Adding to the drama of Acrobatic Silky fading away is the muted rusted, decayed background that resembles an abstract pastel sketch.Dan Da Dan has been both challenging and rewarding. There are only so many colors in the world, Li acknowledges. It is intense when it comes down to Dan Da Dan because when you can put one color on the screen, your options suddenly become limited. The approach right now is to go full throttle every time, and well see!