Review of Space Dandy

Cowboy Bebop was a very important series for me as an anime fan. When it first appeared on American television with the birth of Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block I quickly fell in love. I had enjoyed a number of anime prior to that, but it really did prove to me how evocative and thoroughly entertaining the medium could be. I'd generally credit it with being the singular show that lead me to wanting to seek out other anime on my own in hopes of finding shows just as good or better than it--something I've only successfully done a handful of times even now.It remains a masterful work and deserves every bit of the legacy it holds to this day.

So, naturally, the people involved in the creative process for Cowboy Bebop are people I would want to follow closely. As it were, the director of the show would release another TV anime a few years later, Samurai Champloo, that while not as good, definitely revealed this man, Shinichiro Watanabe as a leading auteur in the world of anime. That following this he was effectively quiet for a decade, save for some work on OVAs and doing the music for a few things was kind of a shame. He returned to the world of TV animation in 2012 with Kids on the Slope, a series which despite having his name attached I could not work up much of an interest to watch. Two years later, however, we find Watanabe roaming the galaxy once more with another new TV anime, Space Dandy.

Truth be told, Space Dandy was not an easy sell on me either. As much as I loved Cowboy Bebop, I just did not expect much from it. I didn't see anything in the art and character designs that demanded I give it my attention, and with the goofy name and premise I was quick to assume it was something I would be safe to dismiss outright. It wasn't actually until just a week before the end that word of mouth caught up to me and I decided to finally give it a look. Having done so, I'm glad. While this is not Watanabe returning to his Cowboy Bebop form, what it is is a very entertaining and surprisingly rewarding little anime that is well worth a look.

In all fairness, it's not entirely a Shinichiro Watanabe project in the same sense as Bebop or Champloo was. He is the chief, general director and the auteur who's fingerprints are undeniably all over it, yes, but lots of different directors are brought in to direct different episodes. The same is true of the writers; the series does not have a single main writer working on the composition but instead a number of writers all supplying different episodes. Naturally this leads to inconsistencies from episode to episode, but Space Dandy is built to make it work. Whereas in most series having so many different hands guide the characters in different ways might make for a muddled mess, Space Dandy really embraces an episodic nature, much like Cowboy Bebop, save with even less need for the episodes to follow one another logically.

With its spacey premise and episodic nature along with Watanabe's touch, it's actually very tempting to call Space Dandy something of a goofy younger sibling to Cowboy Bebop, though the goofiness really needs to be stressed. Cowboy Bebop had a lot of humor and some pretty goofy episodes too, but with Space Dandy silliness is front and center and fairly unrelenting. You might assume that so much wackiness without any weight behind it would get overbearing at times, and you'd probably be a little right. There are moments where the show seems to chug along from one joke to the next and it's all a little obvious really. Still, if you ask me, there is enough that is legitimately funny here to make it worth your time.

Really though, the show is almost more impressive when it sets the goofiness aside just a little and tries to be more earnest. I suppose that while in Cowboy Bebop, some of the most memorable standout episodes were some of the more humorous and whimsical ones, in Space Dandy, it follows that the memorable stuff would be the ones that focus more on mature and genuine character development. Episode five, written by Code Geass' Ichiro Okouchi, was probably the strongest in my opinion, developing Dandy's character in a positive way in 20 minutes than the rest of the series was interested in doing through its entire run. Episode 10, from the series' most regular writer, Kimiko Ueno nearly has the same effect with Meow's character. It could probably honestly have used more episodes that take themselves seriously. Oftentimes all the focus on humor and silliness just makes the lesser episodes feel like diverting filler. The best episodes just overshadow the rest, and make Space Dandy look overall kind of lazy. I'm not sure it's an entirely fair comparison, but Kill la Kill did just prove that an anime can successfully manage a thoroughly ridiculous, over the top and comedic tone and also have strong character development and an engaging core story line.

The characters themselves are all right, I suppose, though those important character development episodes help to make you care about them beyond their function. It's really important for the main character Dandy, who appears as a rather useless, thickheaded, perverted simpleton that he gets the most moments to redeem him or else the show would just come undone. His two sidekicks, cat alien Meow and robot QT probably could have used some more early character development episodes to make us care about them though. It's kind of strange that the first episode we get trying to develop QT's character in a real way beyond just the useful robot assistant is what caps off the first season. The three of them are enjoyable enough in their antics though, I suppose. It could maybe use more of a supporting cast; most characters that are encountered appear for just an episode. Exceptions come in the form of waitress Honey and alien inspector Scarlett, two very different women who Dandy regularly is made to visit, though who are yet to really serve much purpose outside of their roles; neither really makes up for the series' lack of a major female protagonist. There is also a chief antagonist in the form of the ape like mad scientist Dr. Gel and his boss Admiral Perry, who appear frequently in the show to generate deus ex machinas or somehow manage to end up looking even more foolish than the unwitting Dandy and his crew.It probably could have done more to establish these villains, their place in the story and what level of threat they actually pose by this point in things. As it is, it's hard to know what to really make of them most of the time.

While the plotting is inconsistent and the cast could be stronger, where Space Dandy shines brightest is in it's exquisite production. Studio Bones is fairly known for good work and this is one of their best looking anime yet. It's regularly quite striking, with perfectly smooth animation and gorgeous art. Some episodes, such as episode nine with its psychedelic trip through a bizarre plant world are a complete visual delight. Clearly no expense was spared in making this anime look as good as it could. Sound is great too. Watanabe is a master of making bold musical choices in his anime, and it's the sort of soundtrack we'd expect from him. The opening and ending themes are both really catching and memorable, and there are a lot of cool tracks scattered elsewhere throughout.

Ultimately, it's probably the flawless production that allows me to still call Space Dandy a pretty great anime despite some of its more obvious problems and juvenile tendencies. If you want deep and engaging, you're looking at the wrong show, but if you want a fun time, you could do a lot worse than Space Dandy. It is at this point essentially half finished, it's two cours having been split by the spring anime season, but what I've seen thus far is enough to leave me optimistic about what the rest might hold. Recommended.