Origins of Flatwoods Monster featured in DAN DA DAN

DAN DA DAN continues to impress as one of the standout anime of the Fall 2024 season. With each new episode, fans get to know more bizarre and captivating paranormal entities. During the second episode, the Flatwoods Monster makes its debut.

But just like the Turbo Granny, the Flatwoods Monster is based on real-life cryptid legend that has fascinated UFO enthusiasts for decades. Reasonably, the one portrayed in DAN DA DAN isn’t a one-to-one copy of the one from urban legends.

Flatwoods Monster in DAN DA DAN

In DAN DA DAN, the Flatwoods Monster makes its debut in the anime’s second episode. The creature is depicted as an alien with a strange, mechanical body, glowing eyes, and an eerie presence that sends shivers down the spines of anyone who comes across it. Its towering figure and otherworldly appearance make it one of the most menacing entities in the anime so far.

The Flatwood Monster appeared after Momo removed the protective talisman attached to her residence’s Torii gate. It quickly sealed the house’s vicinity, preventing the duo from getting out and re-attaching the talisman. Interestingly, the monster isn’t without flaws. It primarily used sumo techniques, and it also surprisingly limited itself to sumo rules. The duo only needed to make it touch the ground to eliminate its limbs.

The series certainly took creative liberties in its portrayal of the Flatwoods Monster, amplifying its threatening presence for dramatic effect. Even so, it is derived from real-world legends.

Urban legend behind the monster

The Flatwoods Monster, also known as the Braxton County Monster, originated from an incident in Flatwoods, West Virginia, in 1952. On September 12th of that year, several locals reported seeing a bright object streak across the sky and land in a nearby field. When they went to investigate, they encountered a creature that became one of the most famous cryptids in UFO lore.

According to eyewitness accounts, the Flatwoods Monster was a towering figure of about 10 feet tall. It was clad in a metallic, skirt-like structure with glowing, orange-red eyes and a spade-shaped head. The monster emitted a noxious mist, which reportedly made some witnesses feel sick. The creature was seen hovering near the crash site of what many believed to be a UFO, sparking a wave of UFO sightings and cryptid reports in the area.

While skeptics have dismissed the Flatwoods Monster sighting as a misinterpretation of natural phenomena — claiming that the witnesses may have mistaken an owl perched on a tree for an alien — the legend continues to thrive in popular culture.