Momo Ayase: belief, evidence and being taken seriously
Momo’s early encounters separate defending a person from agreeing with them, then test what happens after disbelief ends.
Spoilers throughout. This page assumes you have finished the series.
Momo Ayase can take Okarun seriously without accepting his account of the world. Dandadan's opening makes that distinction useful: her willingness to help him comes before their agreement about what exists.
In the official episode 1 synopsis, she intervenes against his bullies, then argues with him. She accepts ghosts and rejects aliens; he holds the reverse position. Their separate trips to supposedly haunted and extraterrestrial locations turn the disagreement into a test. Neither enters as a neutral observer. Each wants the other person's disbelief overturned.
Being partly right is an awkward victory
The symmetry prevents Momo from occupying the comfortable role of the sensible person educating a fool. Her opponent has something to learn, but so does she. Read this way, their first argument concerns the limits of each person's confidence as much as the paranormal itself. Defending Okarun from mistreatment never required treating all his beliefs as correct.
By episode 2, the dispute has become a practical problem: Okarun bears Turbo Granny's curse, Momo restrains its effects with her newly awakened power, and an alien threatens them at her home. Both categories now demand attention. The interesting consequence is how little use winning the original argument would be. Neither person's starting position supplies a complete account of their shared danger.
Evidence does not finish the judgment
There is an objection to celebrating this as open-mindedness: the story makes denial difficult by putting monsters directly in their path. Forced acknowledgment is a lower bar than patiently reconsidering an absent person's testimony. These opening events cannot establish that Momo has become a universally careful judge.
Episode 10 offers a more revealing choice. A defeated alien collapses before Momo's group, who take him home for treatment and hear about his problem. They already know aliens exist. The new question is how to respond to this one when he is helpless.
My reading is that this second revision matters more than the first. Admitting a category exists changes a belief; attending to an injured opponent changes a relationship. The group has grounds for caution, so care here need not mean declaring the alien harmless. Momo's early story is strongest where taking someone seriously remains compatible with disagreement, uncertainty, and attention to what they actually do.