You started Dandadan expecting a wild supernatural comedy. Then episode 11 introduced someone different from the chaos of the first ten episodes. Calm, cool, oddly funny. Then Season 2 hit and that same character became the most emotionally devastating arc in the series. That is Jin Enjoji, better known as Jiji, and he earns every opinion people have about him.

Jiji surprised me most, starting as apparent comic relief and developing into someone carrying genuine weight. This is everything you need to know about Jin Enjoji Jiji from Dandadan, from his backstory and personality to his Evil Eye powers and why Season 2 hit so differently than Season 1.

Who Is Jin Enjoji (Jiji) in Dandadan?

Jin Enjoji, nicknamed Jiji (ジジ), is one of the main characters of Dandadan, the supernatural battle manga by Yukinobu Tatsu that received its anime adaptation in Fall 2024 from Science SARU. He serves as the deuteragonist alongside Aira Shiratori, functioning as a secondary main character to Momo Ayase and Okarun.

His official profile describes him as Momo’s childhood friend and her first love. Handsome and tall with a naturally charismatic presence, but his words and actions lean frivolous. On the surface he reads as a cool guy who doesn’t take much seriously. The first several episodes after his introduction in Season 1 Episode 11 play into that expectation. Then Season 2 methodically dismantles it.

His name comes from an interesting source. According to the 2025 Shueisha Jump+ 10th Anniversary exhibition materials, Jiji was named after Guido/Gigi from the 1973 novel “Momo” by Michael Ende, the same novel that Momo Ayase’s name references. The character connection between the two names is not accidental.

Jiji’s Backstory and Connection to Momo

Jiji and Momo were childhood friends in elementary school. He was her first crush, though the relationship was complicated enough that he did not fully register this himself until much later. After moving away, the two lost contact, and Jiji grew up separately until a supernatural crisis forced a reunion.

At his new home, Jiji began experiencing terrifying hallucinations, sleeplessness, and a general sense of being watched. His parents fell ill. Normal exorcism attempts failed. Running out of options, he went to Seiko Ayase, the spiritual medium grandmother he remembered from childhood, for help. He did not initially realize that Seiko was Momo’s grandmother. This brought him back into Momo’s life and directly into the supernatural world that would define the rest of his story.

The childhood dynamic between Jiji and Momo creates an emotional undercurrent through his arcs. He liked her before he understood what that meant. She liked him before he came back. By the time both of them are aware of it, the supernatural chaos surrounding them has given both of them bigger concerns. That tension, affection that exists but keeps getting displaced by genuinely dangerous circumstances, is handled with more restraint than most romance-adjacent anime manage.

Jiji’s Personality: More Complex Than It Looks

The anime-planet community reaction to Jiji describes him accurately: people dislike him initially, then the Evil Eye arc changes everything. That trajectory is intentional. Tatsu introduces Jiji as a character you might not immediately warm to, someone whose cool exterior and casual attitude can read as shallow or self-centered in early episodes, before the backstory and Season 2 arc reveal what that exterior is actually protecting.

Underneath the charismatic surface, Jiji is genuinely caring about the people around him. His small frowns and rare genuine smiles, which some community members have identified as markers of a character more emotionally complex than his dialogue suggests, track consistently through his appearances. He makes weird faces. He flirts in ways that undercut his own cool-guy image. He is, as one fan review put it, “a massive dork” beneath the surface.

The most important personality trait is empathy, and it is what gets him into trouble. When Jiji encounters the Evil Eye’s backstory and understands what the spirit experienced, he responds with compassion rather than the caution every experienced supernatural fighter around him is advising. That empathy, choosing to acknowledge the humanity in something that most would simply destroy, is what leads to the possession and the arc that follows. His greatest strength and the source of his biggest problem are the same thing.

The Evil Eye: What It Is and Why It Chose Jiji

The Evil Eye is a powerful yokai that had been haunting Jiji’s new house for decades. It is not simply a malevolent spirit. Its backstory, revealed during Season 2, involves a young boy who was betrayed and sacrificed by his village, his grief and rage transforming him into the vengeful spirit that became the Evil Eye. The trauma at the core of the yokai’s existence makes Jiji’s eventual empathy for it both logical and painful.

The Evil Eye chose Jiji specifically because of his enormous spiritual power, which Jiji himself was not aware he possessed. The yokai recognized that obtaining Jiji’s body would give it the strength to achieve its goal: eradicating all human life to prevent anyone else from suffering what it suffered. It is a villain whose motivation is rooted in genuine anguish rather than arbitrary cruelty, which is what gives the arc its emotional complexity.

The possession mechanics have a specific rule. Cold water or cold contact activates the Evil Eye and triggers a takeover of Jiji’s body. Hot substances reverse the possession and restore Jiji’s control. The manga notes this is a deliberate reference to Ranma Saotome from Ranma 1/2, and Jiji himself acknowledges this by singing the Ranma 1/2 opening after the rule is explained, which is exactly the kind of character moment that makes Dandadan’s comedy work alongside its serious content.

Jiji’s Powers and Abilities Explained

Jiji’s combat abilities come from two sources: his natural physical capability and the Evil Eye’s supernatural power. Both develop significantly across Season 2 and into the manga’s subsequent arcs.

Natural Physical Ability

Before any supernatural enhancement, Jiji has exceptional physical capability. Enhanced strength, speed, and reflexes that place him above a normal human in terms of combat potential. His athletic build is not cosmetic. When the Evil Eye takes over, it works with this existing physical foundation and amplifies everything dramatically.

Evil Eye Possession Powers

In full possession, Jiji becomes one of the most dangerous beings in the series. The Evil Eye grants him supernatural strength, speed, and durability comparable to Okarun in his transformed state. The possessed form can shatter fortified exosuits, break bones, and engage multiple opponents simultaneously. The Evil Eye also grants the ability to summon grudges, the accumulated rage of the Kito family’s sacrificial victims, and shape them into weapons and defensive structures: Grudge House (a dome-shaped barrier) and Grudge Ball (a projectile). The psychic attack capability, described as psychic wave projection, is one of the more unusual abilities in Dandadan’s power system.

Ki Projection (Evil Gun)

In later manga chapters beyond Season 2, after training with Seiko Ayase, Jiji develops the ability to focus his ki into his hands and project it as an invisible energy blast. He names this the Evil Gun. The technique fires a directional energy beam comparable in concept to Dragon Ball’s Kamehameha, which Jiji acknowledges with typical self-aware humor about the comparison. The Evil Gun represents Jiji gaining a power that is genuinely his own rather than entirely dependent on the yokai within him.

Spiral Ki Synchronization

Jiji can synchronize his ki with the Evil Eye’s energy in a spiral rotation. This boosts his strength significantly while also granting him the yokai’s durability. The synchronized state also allows him to make contact with ethereal entities that physical attacks cannot normally reach, which gives him a specific tactical advantage against spirits that Okarun’s more straightforward power cannot access.

The Evil Eye Arc: Why Season 2 Hit Different

Season 2 of Dandadan opens immediately into the Evil Eye arc, and multiple critics and reviewers have identified it as one of the most emotionally devastating anime arcs of 2025. The character work that the first season did establishing Jiji’s surface-level personality pays off in a specific way: the arc works better the more you liked the surface version, because it dismantles that surface version systematically.

Watching Jiji possessed by the Evil Eye is disturbing not because of the power escalation but because of what it means for his character’s agency. He made a compassionate choice based on genuine understanding of another being’s suffering. The consequences of that choice were not punishment for stupidity but punishment for being the kind of person who chooses empathy over self-preservation. That is a more sophisticated use of supernatural horror than most battle anime attempt.

The arc also deepens his relationships with Momo and Okarun in ways that matter for the story’s emotional architecture. Okarun having to fight someone he considers a friend, while Momo tries to reach Jiji’s consciousness from within the possession, creates stakes that pure power battles cannot generate. The community response after Season 2 aired confirmed what the manga readers already knew: Jiji was never just comic relief. He was the character with the most emotional ground still to cover.

Jiji’s Voice Actors: Japanese and English

In the Japanese dub, Jiji is voiced by Kaito Ishikawa, one of the most recognizable voice actors in anime. Ishikawa is known for playing Iida Tenya in My Hero Academia, Naofumi in The Rising of the Shield Hero, and Tsukishima in Haikyuu, among dozens of other major roles. His ability to balance Jiji’s surface comedy with deeper emotional moments makes him well-cast for the role.

In the English dub, Jiji is voiced by Aleks Le, who has built an impressive resume with roles including Zenitsu Agatsuma in Demon Slayer, Manjiro “Mikey” Sano in Tokyo Revengers, Sung Jinwoo in Solo Leveling, and Mash Burnedead in Mashle. The English dub casting matches the Japanese version’s approach: a voice actor with established credentials in emotionally complex supporting roles.

Jiji vs Okarun: Understanding the Dynamic

The relationship between Jiji and Okarun is one of the most entertaining dynamics in Dandadan. They are described as close friends and friendly rivals, which in practice means they generate constant comedic friction while genuinely supporting each other when circumstances require it. Okarun is openly passionate and earnest. Jiji is performatively cool and casually competitive. The contrast is consistent and reliably funny.

The competition over Momo, which could have become an exhausting love triangle in less skillful hands, is resolved quickly enough that it becomes a character detail rather than a plot driver. Jiji understands the Momo and Okarun relationship and respects it while still being genuinely fond of Momo. The lack of manufactured romantic conflict between the three is one of Dandadan’s most appreciated narrative choices according to fan community discussions.

Dandadan Season 2 and What Comes Next for Jiji

Season 2 of Dandadan aired in Summer 2025 and covered the Evil Eye arc in full. The community reception was strong, with multiple critics citing the arc as evidence that Dandadan’s second season surpassed its already excellent first. Jiji’s arc specifically was cited as one of the emotional peaks of 2025 anime.

The manga’s subsequent chapters continue Jiji’s development with the Evil Gun training arc, the Kur Invasion arc, and ongoing expansion of both his powers and his relationships. A third season has not been confirmed as of mid-2026 but the manga’s continued serialization and the strong reception of both anime seasons makes further adaptation highly probable.

Dandadan as a series fits naturally into discussions about the best action anime of the current era for its combination of genuine supernatural horror, innovative action choreography, and character writing that earns its emotional moments. Jiji is a significant part of why those discussions include Dandadan. His arc demonstrates that the series is not just a spectacle delivery system but a show interested in what its characters are actually made of under pressure.

For fans who love the character design and want to explore more series with similarly complex ensemble casts, the best shounen anime of all time guide covers the series that built the template Dandadan now operates within and expands beyond. The best anime characters of all time discussion increasingly includes Dandadan’s main cast as the series cements its reputation.

Frequently Asked Questions About Jin Enjoji Jiji

The Character Who Made Season 2 Worth It

Jin Enjoji Jiji is what happens when a series takes a character who could have been purely comedic and decides to take him seriously. Season 1 set the expectation. Season 2 spent its runtime methodically disproving it. By the time the Evil Eye arc concluded, Jiji had gone from “Momo’s childhood friend” to the character that most viewers cited when explaining why Dandadan’s second season hit harder than the first.

The combination of his natural warmth, his reflexive coolness that keeps people at arm’s length, his catastrophic empathy toward a being everyone else wanted to destroy, and the specific supernatural consequences of choosing compassion over caution makes him one of the most genuinely interesting supporting protagonists in recent action anime. If you watched Season 1 and found Jiji forgettable, Season 2 is specifically designed to correct that impression.

For context on where Dandadan fits in the broader action anime landscape, the best action anime guide covers it alongside the series that shaped the genre. And if Jiji’s character design and voice work made you curious about what else Kaito Ishikawa and Aleks Le have done, both voice actors are heavily featured across the best shounen anime landscape.

What was your reaction to the Evil Eye arc in Season 2? Did Jiji change your opinion of him? Drop it in the comments!