Okarun

* Anime
* Manga

**Ken Takakura** (高たか
倉くら
健けん
, *Takakura Ken*?), also known as **Okarun** (オカルン, *****Okarun*****?), is the main male protagonist of the manga series *Dandadan*.

He is an occult fanatic, mainly a believer in aliens and UFOS, who was living an introverted school life until he met Momo Ayase from school. After a bet with her leads to them forming a friendship and having his kintama missing from being cursed by the Turbo-Granny, Okarun makes it his mission to find what he has lost, with help from Momo and other allies, and overcome any paranormal obstacles along the way.

## Appearance

Okarun is a young man of average height and skinny build with brown hair, brown eyes, and wears round-frame glasses. Originally, Okarun's hair was fashioned in a bowl cut but has since become unruly after his confrontation with the Flatwoods Monster.

While he is one of the few characters that can be seen wearing a variety of outfits, his most common attire is his school uniform, which is a typical gakuran outfit.

### Gallery

Okarun's full appearance in his school uniform.Okarun's anime concept art.Okarun's initial appearance.
## Personality

Okarun is a self-described socially awkward individual who has a consuming interest for the paranormal, with his main focus being the existence of aliens and cryptids. This interest goes all the way back to his childhood where he tried to make contact with aliens in a desperate attempt to make friends, having grown up without a single one in his life due to constant bullying. As a result, Okarun developed an inferiority complex where he believes that he is incapable of fitting in with others or that people are better off not associating with him. Even after making friends with Momo, Okarun still seems to retain some low self-esteem. After Jiji stepped back into Momo's life, Okarun thought to himself that he could not compete with him when it came to being her friend based on his observation on how entertained Momo was being around him and had almost come close to ending his friendship with her as to not be a bother. According to Momo, Okarun's real problem with making friends was that he was too quick to make assumptions about others judging him, which resulted in him subconsciously keeping others at arm's length.

Okarun is an altruistic person who believes that it is only right to help others when they are in trouble. A noticeable example being how he offered Mr. Mantis Shrimp his kintama for him to sale and earn funds for his son's blood transfusion. As a friend, he is fiercely loyal and protective, as he will not allow others to get away with harming those who he has formed a bond with, such as how he furiously attacked the Evil Eye for harming Momo and taking over Jiji's body.

Before learning that spirits truly walk among the living, Okarun was first skeptical of their existence since he believed that there were logical explanations as to why people would come to the conclusion of this paranormal activity.

Okarun is also formal to a fault, as he can never bring himself to address his friends or allies by their first names or nickname without a polite suffix added. The only exception to this is Jiji since the latter will ignore him if he does so. It is because of this characteristic that Momo could tell that Reiko Kashima was impersonating Okarun, due to referring to Jiji as "Jiji-san". The only time he is heedless to formality is when he shifts to his Turbo-Granny form.

## Abilities and Powers

### Supernatural Abilities

Okarun possesses the power of the Turbo-Granny after only the yokai's consciousness was extracted out of his body by Seiko and Momo. Initially, Okarun was only able to enter this mode while still being cursed by the Turbo-Granny and with help from Momo's psychokinesis powers to suppress the curse from his head, thereby allowing him to control his body. After the yokai's powers were accidentally left inside him, Okarun became able to enter the transformation willing.

Okarun uses this power in combat or to put some distance between himself and his enemies. When engaging foes in close combat, Okarun uses his speed to make swift physical attacks that gives his opponent no window of opportunity to counter back, with his attacks being in the form of a series of squats and headbutts. When partnered up with his allies, Okarun can use his speed to quickly jump in to move them out of the way of incoming attacks or choose to carry them on his back either to try and catch up with a target on the move or to make a necessary escape. After receiving training from the Turbo-Granny herself to properly use her power, Okarun managed to improve on his combat rhythm, as shown in his battle against the Music Room Portraits where he was able to effectively use his enhanced speed and reflexes to evade the tulpas barrage of explosive musical notes by remembering the rhythm to the music of the hayashi and defeat them with a succession of five headbutts at once, with the attack being so fast that he left afterimages. Later, he was capable of dodging the Evil Eye's multiple grudge ball attacks, whereas he previously had difficultly dodging just one in his first fight with the yokai.

Since All-Out comes from the boost in leg strength, Okarun is able to launch himself with great force like a missile, which is his preferred method of attack. The charging speed is great enough to have Okarun get through a crowd of possessed citizens and send Acrobatic Silky, a large body yokai, crashing back and left badly injured to stand up for a short amount of time. Most incredibly, Okarun was able to split the giant body of the Serpod Dover Demon Nessie in half.
 * Okarun teleporting from the Ayase house…
* …to Seiko's location in Hokkaido.
1/2
While it takes some time to reach a desired place, Okarun is able to instantly teleport to his intended location if he transverses an active telephone line being made by a person from where he wishes to go. This ability also helps to accelerate Okarun's immense speed once he ejects from a telephone wire and continues to move, being so fast that his movements appear to be akin to lightning rippling through the area.

 In this form, Okarun gains the ability to fly and is invisible to people who do not possess refine control of their spiritual power. He is limited to staying in this form for an unspecific short amount of time, as the longer he stays the thinner the cord linked to his physical body will become until it detaches, and once detached, he can never return back to his body.

## Etymology

* The name **Ken** means "healthy, strong" (健).
* Ken's surname **Takakura** means "tall, high" (高) (**taka**) and "warehouse, storehouse, barn, treasury, granary, cellar, magazine, godown, depository, elevator, storage place, repository, supply shed, grain elevator, stockpile, arsenal" (倉) (**kura**).

## Trivia

* Much to Momo Ayase's dismay, Takakura shares the same name with the late Japanese actor, Ken Takakura.