After five years of the series, Yukinobu Tatsu finally showed us who Okarun was before he met Momo, and it wasn’t easy to read. Chapter 252 was simply titled “Ken Takakura,” his real name, and now we’ll see if that memory is enough to pull him out of his oni form. Dandadan chapter 253 comes out on Monday, November 16 on MANGA Plus and VIZ, and here’s when you can read it and what the last chapter left behind.
What Time Does Dandadan Chapter 253 Come Out?
Dandadan runs weekly on Shonen Jump+, and in Japan new chapters drop at midnight on Tuesday. Since MANGA Plus releases them at the same time, readers in the Americas and Europe get them on Monday:
- US Pacific (PST): 7:00 a.m.
- US Eastern (EST): 10:00 a.m.
- UK (GMT): 3:00 p.m.
- Central Europe (CET): 4:00 p.m.
You can read it for free on MANGA Plus and on VIZ Shonen Jump. And if you’re keeping up with other series too, the manga calendar with new chapters coming out this week has every upcoming date in one place.
What Chapter 252 Revealed About Okarun
Warning: this section contains chapter 252 spoilers.
At 31 pages, chapter 252 was one of the longest in the series, and almost all of it is a trip into Okarun’s past. It opens with his mother telling him she’s marrying another man, who already has two kids. She offers to take him into her new family, but Okarun chooses to stay with his father because he doesn’t want to leave him alone, even though he notices his mother leaves relieved, as if he’d been a burden.
From there, the chapter shows a very harsh childhood: bullying since preschool, a messy home, just 300 yen for dinner and an absent father who, in a fit of rage, ends up hurting him by accident. It’s no surprise, then, that Okarun took refuge in an abandoned hospital full of alien magazines, hoping someone from another world would come rescue him. Tatsu also shows the darkest moments of his teenage years, when he came close to giving up completely.
In the present, Hase keeps tormenting him, and Okarun’s oni side whispers that he should wipe everyone out, himself included. But in the middle of that darkness, a memory surfaces: his pleas were heard after all, and they led him to Momo, the first person who valued his interests and stood up to the people bullying him.
What to Expect From Dandadan Chapter 253
Everything suggests Dandadan chapter 253 will be the moment Okarun tries to take back control, and his memory of Momo looks like the key. That said, Hase won’t just stand by, because he now has yokai powers and knows exactly where Okarun is most vulnerable.
For me, the best part of this arc is that we finally understand why Okarun clings so tightly to his friends. After what we saw in 252, his bond with Momo feels far more meaningful, and if Tatsu ends this fight with Okarun overcoming that past, it could be one of the best moments in the whole manga.
So tell me, do you think Momo will be the one to bring Okarun out of his oni form? Let me know in the comments, and follow me as josegeek on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and X for more manga news.
