Two Actors Split Okarun, and Turbo Granny Sounds Familiar
Casting is where the stage play Dandadan Occultic Stage gets interesting. Momo Ayase, the high school girl who doesn't believe in aliens, is played by Yuiri Murayama (村山彩希), a former AKB48 member who has headlined musicals since leaving the idol group and has built a reputation for her acting. Her co-lead is split between two performers. Raimu Ninomiya (二宮礼夢) plays Ken Takakura, the ghost-skeptic occult nerd everyone calls Okarun, while Hiroki Hyakuna (百名ヒロキ) plays Okarun in his transformed state, the form brought on by the curse of the yokai Turbo Granny.
That yokai comes with a voice international fans already know. According to Japanese anime news site Anime Anime, Mayumi Tanaka, who plays Turbo Granny in the TV anime and is known worldwide as Monkey D. Luffy in One Piece and Krillin in Dragon Ball, joins the stage production in a voice-only appearance as the same character.
The named cast is rounded out by Aoi Nakabeppu as Momo's grandmother Seiko, Riko Tanaka as Aira Shiratori, and Risa Yamazaki as Acrobatic Silky.
A Dance Company Leader Stages the Chaos
Direction comes from Imagine Ito (伊藤今人) of the dance company Umebō, working from a script by Shinjiro Kameda with music by Ryō Konishi. In his opening-day comment, Ito admitted the whole project sounded close to reckless on paper. Recreating the manga's overwhelming world and relentless battles in a live theater space, he said, took specialist staff from every field. He promises dance and action unlike anything else in 2.5D theater. (2.5D is Japan's term for live-stage adaptations of manga, anime, and games; the Japan 2.5-Dimensional Musical Association is credited as a cooperating partner on this production.)
The cast comments circle the same theme: physicality. Ninomiya said the show is packed with expression only live theater can pull off, with the cast racing across the stage to render the world of Dandadan through their bodies rather than through technology. Hyakuna added that once lighting, sound, and a live audience were layered onto what the company built in rehearsal, it became, in his words, an incredible Dandadan. Ninomiya closed his message with a line written for the character he plays: "You've just gotta see it in the theater!" That sentence-ending tic is Okarun's signature speech pattern in the manga.
The Manga Behind the Play
Dandadan is Yukinobu Tatsu's supernatural action series, serialized on Shonen Jump+, Shueisha's manga app. It pairs Momo, who believes in ghosts but not aliens, with Okarun, who believes in aliens but not ghosts, and throws every kind of paranormal menace at them. Per the Anime Anime report, the manga has more than 14 million copies in circulation, and its chapters had passed 1 billion views on the app as of June 2026. The TV anime has been running since 2024, and a third season has been green-lit.
The stage play marks the franchise's first trip to live theater. Opening night on August 26 followed a press dress rehearsal, and the production released photos from that run alongside the staff and cast comments.
Looking Ahead
The Tokyo engagement at Nippon Seinenkan Hall runs through September 3, 2026. The show then moves to Osaka's Sky Theater MBS for a three-day run from September 11 to 13. Tickets are ¥12,500 for weekday performances and ¥12,800 on weekends, all seats reserved, with details on the official site.
No international screening or streaming of the stage play has been announced. Fans outside Japan can still keep up with the franchise: Viz Media and Manga Plus publish the manga in English, the anime streams internationally on Crunchyroll and Netflix, and Season 3 is on the way.