As one of 2024’s most anticipated anime, Dandadan’s premiere held nothing back from viewers with an electrifying debut. From a uniquely detailed world, its weirdly behaved protagonists to its instantly-gripping lineup of the first antagonists, the series’ first episode leaves nothing short of an itching excitement for more. While Turbo Granny takes most of the shine of its first episode, the funny-talking, corporately dressed aliens with somewhat twisted senses of humor, the Serpo, hardly fall behind in what turns out to be a shockingly but expectedly good debut of a first episode. However, what exactly is Serpo? The question of their origins is instantly solved but leaves holes within itself. Knowing that the Serpo are aliens, albeit satisfying, simply just raises more questions as to their biological and psychological compositions, in addition to what precisely their presence means for the series’ storyline in general. Therefore, this piece dives deeply into the Serpo as an alien race and what their presence means for the story overall.
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What Are The Serpo?
From the faraway planet of Serpo, the Serpo aliens are an alien race of an entirely male species who serve as minor and major antagonists at different points within the series—mostly disguised as humans with particularly specific male disguises. Mostly appearing in a collared, button-up shirt tucked into corporate pants, with belts and corporate shoes, the Serpo do a rather impressive job of all looking like the same middle-aged branch manager of a bank. Due to being an exclusively all-male race, they are incapable of organic reproduction and, as such, resort to using cloning technology to multiply.
However, they soon hit a wall within their technology, as it is impossible for identical beings to evolve biologically. At this point, the series looks like one where technology goes wrong in anime goes really wrong. However, the Serpo don’t give up; thus, their shortcomings and need to reproduce biologically lead them to seek other ways to attain reproduction. This ultimately leads to their interest in humans. Since humans have reproductive organs and are capable of the Serpo’s goals, they abduct humans from Earth and try to steal their reproductive organs.
Beneath their humanoid disguises, the Serpo are aliens with slug-like heads and largely prominent eyes, which look like car headlights and lips, with line-patterned bodies and big abdomens.
The only point of difference in Serpo is usually their eye colors, which vary between pink, yellow, and cyan in individual Serpo.
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What Are The Serpo Capable Of?
Looking beyond their disconcerting appearances, both when they disguise themselves and in their natural forms, the Serpo is essentially one of the most intelligent races in the universe, possessing advanced skills in science and technology, light years beyond what the Earth is currently capable of within the series.
However, their intellectual capabilities are also directly responsible for their twisted sense of peace. Believing in the rightness of their actions and that they are peaceful, the Serpo display high levels of forceful and violent behavior against humans, as they do with Okarun and Momo on their first encounter. This implies a level of obliviousness to the fact that their actions are anything but peaceful. Alongside their twisted sense of peace, the Serpo also hold a deep sense of superiority over those classified as subordinates to their authority.
Biologically, the Serpo are more than machine than organic lifeforms, possessing machine-like tools between their legs for different purposes: the reproductive, scissor, and amalgamation tools. The reproductive tool is essentially their form of a reproductive organ. In addition, the scissor tool is a sizeable scissor-like tool that is used to extract the reproductive organs of humans. Finally, the amalgamation tool helps the Serpo fuse themselves with multiple lifeforms. Beyond the organs and tools, the Serpo also specializes in psychokinesis, allowing them to manipulate objects and people, even exert shockwaves, manipulate brain waves, and create psychic fields.
So, with the level of weird and humor-centered elements the series presents, it is easy to understand the idea behind the Serpo as characters, given it might also symbolize deeper and darker aspects of human reality.
