Review of Space Dandy

ATTENTION! THIS IS A REVIEW FOR BOTH SEASONS SINCE I WATCHED BOTH OF THEM BACK-TO-BACK AND THINK THIS IS THE WAY THE ANIME SHOULD BE WATCHED TO GET THE MOST ENJOYMENT OUT OF IT THERE ARE MAJOR PLOT POINTS SPOILERS BECAUSE THE STORY DOESN'T POINT IT OUT IN AN OBVIOUS WAY! THEY ARE MARKED BUT BE WARNED! So, here I'm back from watching the two seasons to finally give my opinion of the show. I first thought it would be just an episodic acid trip show coupled with lots of Gundam, the 80s, and pop culture references. Boy, was I wrong! Here is the thing. Is Space Dandyan episodic anime with no continuity or determined plot? Yes (Dandy is a space hunter looking for unknown alien races in return of making a good profit, he is not that good while doing his job. But he is Dandy while doing it!) and No.

[SPOILERS START HERE]
If you pay attention to all the episodes' undertones and vague dialogue sequences between The Gogol Empire Admiral Perry (Space Skeleton looking thing) and Dr. Gel (Gorilla Doctor) there is a reason why they are looking to capture Dandy for their purposes to tip the power scale of the war between the Gogol Empire and the Jaicro Empire. It's stated multiple times that Dandy has (for a mysterious and unknown reason until chapter 8 of season 2) some energy inside him that can make all the difference and help the Gogol Empire to win the war.

What is this energy and plot McGuffin thing about Dandy? To explain in simple terms, Dandy is special since he is the main character. Did you notice that in some episodes Dandy and the crew simply die in some space catastrophe but in the next episode everything is back to normal? Yes, it was not just made for comedic purposes. As the anime spouts some mumbo jumbo quantum physics terms left and right like it was nothing, it is explained in Chapter 8 of the Season 2 (which in my opinion is the best animated, best directed, and psychedelic episode of the series) that Dandy really died all those times, but even Space Death (who is a chick that falls in love with Dandy because of his visits to the space afterlife, and being the only other living being in the afterlife) can't understand because he is not actually dead and must be returned to life every time, BUT in a parallel/different universe (if you stay to listen to the ending lyrics, it states this too) as nothing had happened, and so, life for Dandy simply keeps going on. Dandy is in other terms a UNIVERSAL CONSTANT THAT NEEDS TO EXIST, so killing him is pointless as he will come back because the universe itself wants it to be that way (in other words the creators of the anime itself hehe). That's why The Gogol Empire wants Dandy and why he has this mysterious energy inside him, even though they don't really get how he got a hold on an energy of this magnitude.
[SPOILERS END HERE]

Oh, and a little trivia: The Gogol Empire is a parody to Google, where they have their Gogol Streetview to search for dandy throughout the Galaxy, and their catchphrase used by a Yahoo member in the forums where Meow asks a question is just "Gogol it". Then, who the hell is the Jaicro Empire? It is said to be based on the JAIRO, which stands for Japanese Institutional Repositories Online. It's a web-based search interface that provides aggregated open access to Japanese academic content, including journal articles, theses, research bulletins, and reports. It is administered by Japan's National Institute of Informatics, and if my research is not mistaken, it seems it was discontinued in April of 2019.

Space Dandy can be a super hit and miss comedy show (niche for a lack of better words) because it has some jokes that if you have no previous knowledge of what it's trying to parody then you will not see through it, and said jokes will become bland. I can't see my 15 or 17-year-old selves enjoying it as much as I did while I'm 26. And if you never saw Watanabe's works (Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo), it probably won't have the same impact as it did to me. With all that said, it is understandable why Studio Bones had to cancel the series (which Watanabe was working on a movie for it). The show didn't turn out to be revolutionary anime they wanted to be, especially when Shonen is so strong lately and the audiences aren't interested in a more deep yet comedic anime.

I give a 9/10 if you understand what is happening under the hood of the show and is familiarized with Shinichiro Watanabe's work. If not, this isn't like Rick and Morty, who has similar premises but has more crude humor to help it if the audience isn't smart or mature enough to get everything that the show wants to transmit, then it turns out to be a 7/10. For the animation, music is 10/10 (subjective), artwork, character design, it is a consistent 8/10 (the general slice of life episodes), with some 9/10 and 10/10 animation in the deeper, psychedelic episodes (the first episode, the zombie episode, the space pororoca episode, the life-death of Dandy episode, the multiverse episode, the giant fish episode, and final episodes).

Give it time, but Space Dandy could get to be recognized as of the hidden gems of all anime out there. It really lives up to the quality of Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo, but the anime was released in a time where it won't get much traction as its predecessors got. If let us say, the anime was really today (2020), amidst all the COVID-19 pandemic and people being more at home, where introspects of life are happening more (global crises, and all), then this anime would get a lot more traction and be one of the best of the year.