Who Is Turbo Granny?

Turbo Granny (ターボババア, Tābo Babā) is the breakout yokai of Dandadan. She's the first supernatural thing the heroes ever tangle with, and she's also the one who refuses to leave. A foul-mouthed speed demon who opens the series as the villain and, somewhere along the way, turns into everyone's favorite cranky little sidekick. Here's who she actually is, all of it checked against the Dandadan Fandom wiki.

The real urban legend

Here's the fun part: Tatsu didn't make her up. The "Turbo Baba" is a real modern Japanese urban legend, an old woman who can somehow keep pace with a speeding car. Sometimes the stories clock her at 100 km/h, which is where her nickname the 100 km/hr Granny comes from. People claim to spot her along highways and inside tunnels. Dandadan takes that and runs with it. Literally runs.

Origin in the story

In the manga she's a well-known yokai who fused with an earthbound spirit inside a tunnel in Shono City. Step into her territory and she curses you by stealing your reproductive organs. Simple as that. But the reason she's out wandering is weirdly sweet. Seiko Ayase explains that the Granny seeks out the spirits of girls who died tragically, just to comfort them, and that's what pulled her toward the tunnel's earthbound spirit crab in the first place. So under all the swearing and organ theft, there's actually a soft spot in there.

The race with Okarun

She shows up in Chapter 1, when Okarun heads to her tunnel to prove the paranormal is real. Bad call. She curses him and makes off with his "kintama" (his testicles, which become both the running gag and the plot engine for the entire series). Then she offers him a footrace to win them back, and of course she cheats, counting at random to throw his timing off. The kicker: when it's all over, her powers are sealed inside Okarun. That's the whole reason he gets his signature super-speed transformation.

The maneki-neko doll

With her power locked into Okarun and her consciousness yanked back out of his body, Turbo Granny has nowhere to live. So she ends up stuck inside a maneki-neko (lucky cat) doll. That tiny, perpetually annoyed cat figurine is how most readers picture her for most of the series: a pocket-sized mascot riding along with the team and trash-talking everyone in earshot. Her real form is something else, though. An old woman with reddish-brown wrinkled skin, wild white hair, and wide yellow-sclera eyes. Anyone she curses ends up as a fanged, big-mouthed copy of her, which is exactly as unsettling as it sounds.

From villain to ally

What really defines her is the heel-face turn. Once she's beaten, she cuts a deal with Momo Ayase: she'll help Okarun track down his still-missing kintama, and in return she gets her powers back. That deal folds her into "the Family," Seiko's little circle of paranormal misfits, and she sticks around as a major supporting character from then on. She even coaches Okarun on reining in his borrowed speed during the Evil Eye arc. Not many Chapter 1 villains end up this load-bearing.

For Dandadle's Classic mode, she's about as clean a yokai as you'll get: yokai species, an "Ally" allegiance, debut in Chapter 1. That last bit makes her a great anchor for Higher or Lower mode, since you always know which side of Chapter 1 everything else falls on. Want the rest of the cast lined up the same way? The characters explained guide and the full character database have you covered.