Dandadan · Character Guide
Ken Takakura
Known by his nickname "Okarun," one of Dandadan's two leads — a socially awkward believer in aliens whose life is upended after an encounter that grants him supernatural abilities.
Ken Takakura, better known by his nickname "Okarun," is one of the two central protagonists of Dandadan, forming the series' core partnership alongside Momo Ayase. He starts the story as a believer in aliens and UFOs — a belief that turns out to be a lot more relevant to his life than he expects.
Role in the story
Okarun's arc is built around an early, life-altering encounter that grants him abilities tied to the series' alien/UFO mythology, setting him on a collision course with the ghosts, spirits, and eventually far larger threats that Momo's own psychic side of the story surfaces. The push-and-pull between his awkward, often comedic personality and the genuinely dangerous situations he keeps getting pulled into is a defining feature of how Dandadan balances tone.
The Dragon Knights conflict
By the time the story reaches its confrontation with the Dragon Knights, Okarun is fighting on the front lines alongside Momo, with reinforcements like Rokuro "Kinta" Sakata arriving mid-battle to back them up — as shown in Chapter 245, where Kinta's newly built mech joins the fight specifically to reinforce Momo and Okarun against the Dragon Knights.
Why he matters to the series
Okarun's combination of genuine vulnerability, comedic energy, and steadily growing power has made him one of the most consistently central figures in Dandadan's cast. As the Dragon Knights arc escalates, his continued presence on the front lines — alongside Momo and the series' expanding roster of allies — makes him one of the characters most directly tied to how the current conflict, and the story's broader mysteries, eventually get resolved.