Review of Space Dandy

You don’t understand how badly I want to like Space Dandy. The fantastic visuals, Dandy as a character, some of the great ideas that go into the episodes…there’s so much going on that could make for great entertainment… But instead, Space Dandy has one good episode and is mired by tons of flat humor, a whole load of boring to bad episodes, and overusing Boobies as a humor device. Pros 1.) Great Animation and Soundtrack- Seriously, Space Dandy looks sexy as hell. From the retro character designs to the whacky aliens to the trippy worlds, Space Dandy is a great acid trip. Many episodes have a uniquestyle from the others. The plant episode and the library episode did a good job of providing a unique enough experience to be memorable as far as the animation is concerned, though flat lined in every other department. The soundtrack is also brilliant, with tons of the flair and flavor we can expect from the people who brought us Bebop and Samurai Champloo.

2.) Some Good Ideas- Some of the episodes contained good ideas that weren’t capitalized on, or would have been awesome if they were fleshed out. Space Dandy is definitely smart somewhere, but the execution is so poor and the episodes so devoid of any of the humor or entertainment that it is supposed to provide. The references to classic sci-fi tropes and movies are great nods to the classics Dandy attempts to emulate, and those occasionally provide humor, but, for the most part, episodes as a whole fall apart.

3.) That One Good Episode- The only good episode in the series is the one that makes fun of Disney’s copyright laws and also has one of the best space races I’ve ever seen. This is episode seven; an episode that I will think of anytime anyone mentions Space Dandy. It’s a fantastic episode. Watch it and avoid the rest. The rest sucks.

Cons
1.) Uninteresting and Unfunny Characters- The first episode Dandy is a pretty cool character and you think, “Damn, they’re gonna do some awesome things with him”. But they never do. His character is as stagnant as the rest of the series and he’s never particularly funny. Most of the jokes surrounding him are way too juvenile and overused to elicit even a chuckle. Boobies was funny the first time, but by the twelfth episode, it’s downright annoying. And this lack of comedy can be found in QT, whose autotuned voice makes sense, but isn’t a great design choice in the long run. Meow is also uninteresting as a character.

And then there’s a bad guy, Commodore Perry, who chases them around for some reason or other. The character’s just don’t provide anything worth mentioning to the table.

2.) Decent Enough Plot to Work With, Uninteresting Execution- You see me use the word “uninteresting” a lot because that about sums up Space Dandy. The setup, Dandy is searching for never before seen aliens in order to obtain a bounty, is pretty cool. But the execution is so boring. He goes to a planet where two aliens fight over the ultimate clothing. He returns a lost library book. There’s an alien that shape shifts, there’s a plant planet. The animation and style for every one of these episodes is fantastic and the still shots are goddam beautiful but I can’t watch a comedy anime for its formalism. And maybe if this anime were not a comedy I would rate it higher, but that’s what it wants to be, and that’s what I’ll treat it as.

3.) So Much Wasted Potential, Baby- What I ultimately hate this anime for is wasting so much potential. I can’t emphasize enough the amount of good ideas that went into Space Dandy that are wasted by poor writing, directing, and characters. I can see where this could be funny, and it does provide the occasional chuckle, but it’s so much better taken as abstract sci-fi than a comedy. Maybe if you were high this show would work, but as it stands, Space Dandy is just poor.

Overall
Sigh. Space Dandy, Space Dandy, Space Dandy. Wasted potential central. It feels so much like Kids on the Slope, another anime made by director Shinichiro Watanabe. It is set up so well, but fails in every way except animation and music. After Cowboy Bebop, I think Watanabe decided to go style over substance, which tends not to work for me, especially in a comedy series. As I said, if this had been a formalistic sci-fi anime (with occasional comedy elements), it would have worked better. But as a comedy, it fails miserably. It’s unfunny, has terrible characters, and is begging for a better team to handle it.

Watch episode seven. But pass up the rest.