Games

Dandadan: Momo Ayase's Powers and Abilities Explained

Published

4 weeks ago

October 29, 2024

Christoph Rediske

Key Takeaways

Table of Contents

Momo Ayase’s psychic powers were unlocked during an alien abduction, giving her psychokinesis and durability.
Momo can easily suppress Turbo Granny with little effort, using her psychokinetic hands.
Momo’s hidden potential was teased in episode 1, showcasing her ability to levitate and display incredible strength.

Warning: The following contains minor spoilers for Dandadan, Episode 4, “Kicking Turbo Granny’s Ass”, now streaming on Crunchyroll.

Momo Ayase from Dandadan is the newest addition to a long list of anime psychics. Among the members of that list, there are characters that can predict the future, mind-control people, warp reality, and do pretty much anything else you can imagine. So, just how useful and powerful are Momo’s powers compared to everyone else’s?

Momo is new to the whole fighting scene, and she’s far from mastering her powers just yet, so don’t expect her to go toe-to-toe with someone like Mob from Mob Psycho. However, she’s more than enough to give the various anomalies in Dandadan a run for their money.

Dandadan Brings Its First Arc to a Stunning Close

This week’s episode will have you seeing red – literally – as Okarun and Ayase’s battle against Turbo Granny takes to the streets.

Momo’s Psychic Powers

Her Powers Were Unlocked During an Alien Abduction

Momo Ayase is a psychic whose powers manifested while being abducted by an alien race known as the Serpoians. Momo’s grandmother, Seiko Ayase, had been secretly teaching her to unlock her powers from a young age, but training was cut short because she felt embarrassed when her classmates and crush teased her for the funny poses she had to do. Thankfully, the lessons Seiko taught Momo came back to her just in time during the abduction, allowing her to break free, save Okarun, and escape from the crashing UFO.

The Serpoians, on the other hand, suspected that they stimulated her brain waves too much, which caused her chakra to open up. Regardless of what actually triggered her powers, they’re here now, and she’ll need them when facing aliens, evil spirits, and everything in between.

Momo describes how her powers work in Dandadan episode 3, “It’s a Granny vs. Granny Clash!”. According to her, she can see or sense auras inside living and non-living things and then use her hands to “grab” those auras even from afar. After that, she can squeeze, lift, push, and pull on them as if she were physically interacting with them with her hands.

Suppressing Turbo Granny with Little Effort

Momo can seemingly indefinitely keep Turbo Granny from taking over Okarun’s mind and body. All the suppression seems to take is to have an open hand facing Okarun and an unbroken line of sight between them. The suppression limits Momo only in the sense that she can’t use her hand for anything else. In episode 2, “That’s a Space Alien, Ain’t It?!”, she still managed to fight the giant Flatwoods Monster with only one hand, implying that keeping Turbo Granny under control wasn’t draining her strength or energy much.

Gwen Tennyson/Ms. Marvel Light Hands

Momo’s psychokinesis is mainly visualized as giant green glowing hands, sort of similar to Gwen Tennyon’s magic in Ben 10 or Ms. Marvel’s powers in the MCU. With her psychokinesis, Momo can move even heavy objects like a fire truck and Turbo Granny fused with the Earthbound Spirit Crab.

There is a downside to the power though. Since Momo has to directly use her hands to act out what the psychokinetic hands do, the actions she can perform are limited to what her hands can do. Also, as seen in a later arc in the manga, Momo’s control over her psychokinetic hands is weakened when her physical hands are restricted, such as when they’re tied together.

Enhanced Durability

Although not as flashy, this power is probably what keeps her alive the most during tough battles. Whether her body simply toughened up after unlocking her powers or her psychic abilities are somehow shielding her, Momo can tank powerful hits that would knock a normal person out instantly.

Her durability comes into play in episode 2 during their fight against the Flatwoods Monster, who punched her into a wall multiple times. The attacks were strong enough to form a crater in the wall big enough for both Momo and Okarun to fit in, and yet Momo remained conscious and able to use her powers throughout all of it.

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Peering Into Memories

This power hasn’t been shown in the anime yet as of episode 4, “Kicking Turbo Granny’s Ass”, but in the manga, Momo has occasionally been able to dive into a target’s memories. Although, in all instances, Momo has only been able to do it accidentally, so it’s unknown if she can view the memories of anyone she wants on purpose.

Momo’s Hidden Potential

Episode 1 Teased How Strong Momo Could Become

Having the power to indefinitely suppress an evil spirit and generate giant glowing hands is cool and all, but Momo’s true power has yet to manifest itself. She entered this state for a while in Dandadan episode 1, “That’s How Love Starts, Ya Know!” while fighting the Serpoians and removing Turbo Granny from Okarun.

Momo generated a green aura, and her hair appeared longer in this awakened state. It also looked like she was breaking reality, similar to an effect during the fight between Broly and Gogeta in the Dragon Ball Super: Broly movie.

It was a lot more amazing the moment the powers awoke inside of me. That was when everything I imagined turned into reality, like I was invincible!

While in this form, she can levitate herself and is strong enough to send a Serpoian flying with a kick, causing it to hit the UFO interior and severely damaging said UFO. Little else is known about this form since it’s barely been shown, but you can be sure it makes Momo an even greater force to be reckoned with. Seiko hinted at Momo being able to naturally access that state eventually through training, so be ready to see more of it in future episodes/seasons of Dandadan.

Dandadan: Best Characters In The Manga, Ranked

The Dandadan manga is home to a selection of great characters, but some are arguably better than others.

Dandadan is now available to stream on Crunchyroll, Netflix, Muse Asia, and several other streaming platforms. The release date for the next episode of Dandadan, episode 5, is set to be October 31, 2024, at 9:00 AM PT.