Review of Space Dandy

Space Dandy was a show I was very excited for, from the very first preview I saw. Being headed by director Shinichiro Watanabe, who I've been a fan of for a long time, I naturally came into it with high expectations. The show didn't meet those expectations, for a few reasons, yet... the entire thing still manages to be very enjoyable, and even beautiful at times. I watched the 5.1 English Dub, and it sounded great. I liked the choice of sound effects, and the audio mix ended up being very nicely done. The soundtrack has some great songs in it, all of which fit thetone of the world. The voice acting was well done, too. Each of the actors gave their character exactly the right kind of personality, and were able to keep the tone of the Japanese version, while still making the lines sound perfectly natural in English.

Speaking of the characters, I felt the main cast were all very well designed, and have a very iconic-looking, Watanabe art style. They're also all very different from each other, not only in terms of design, but also in terms of personality. This means that they often end up clashing with each other, which makes for some really good character moments. The crew also seems to grow closer to each other over the course of the episodes, and by episode 13, they all feel very fleshed-out and memorable. However, as much as I love the main cast, a lot of the supporting cast seems to feel very one-dimensional, especially the main antagonists.

This is where the problems start. Space Dandy's story seems like it's much more concerned with simply making jokes and doesn't bother with consistency or any type of over-arching plotline. Most episodes have narrative elements that seem well thought out at first, but end up being incredibly self-contained, never to be re-visited. Because of this, much of the character-development gets snubbed, as does the world... which generally feels like a new universe with each passing episode. Of course, it's not all bad. Some of the episodes end up being very memorable, and the overall style of the directing really helps to tell the stories that do get told. It's just too bad most of these stories end up being completely nonsensical, the butt of a joke, or some type of satirical element.

However, the show really brings it home in the art department. It's fantastically animated, using many impressive, jaw-dropping techniques commonly only seen in animated feature films. The show also makes great use of color, and the art style is well suited to the diverse nature of the worlds that Dandy & crew end up visiting. There's so much variety to it all! As much as that's a bad thing for the story, I feel it does wonders for the art. It seems a ton of time and effort was put into making every inch of this show just look absolutely gorgeous.

Overall, the show is incredible to look at, but if you're looking for an interesting story, I'd say you should definitely look elsewhere. The characters are fun, and the jokes are funny, but the stories are really only there in service of everything else. In the end, Space Dandy manages to be a fun, entertaining show, with some gorgeous looking art... but it lacks any real substance, which ends up being it's one major flaw. This prevents me from giving it an incredible rating, and instead, I simply give it an 8/10.