Space Dandy

Plot

The space opera follows the misadventures of Dandy, an alien bounty hunter who is "a dandy guy in space", in search for undiscovered and rare aliens with his robot assistant QT and his feline friend named Meow. Dandy is unaware that he is being pursued by Dr. Gel of the Gogol Empire.

The series has loose continuity, with several episodes featuring the main protagonists and antagonists dying, getting turned into zombies, or getting trapped in different dimensions for periods of time, only for them to show up as normal in the next episode. There are also many references to older science fiction, music, anime and Internet culture.

Characters

Dandy (ダンディ, Dandi)

Voiced by: Junichi Suwabe (Japanese); Ian Sinclair (English)

Dandy is an easygoing and forgetful alien hunter with a pompadour hairstyle whose job is to discover new alien life forms across the galaxy and have them registered with the Space Alien Registration Center. He is the captain of the Aloha Oe (アロハオエ号, Arohaoe-gō), his personal spaceship. The cockpit of the Aloha Oe can split off into an escape pod dubbed the Little Aloha (リトルアロハ, Ritoru Aroha) and it displays the ability to transform into a robot called the "Hawaii Yankee" (ハワヤンキー, Hawayankī). Dandy regularly visits an intergalactic breastaurant known as "BooBies" (ブービーズ, Būbīzu) where he indulges in his posterior fetish and dreams of someday buying out the franchise. Dandy is also shown to have many hidden talents, including being a highly skilled surfer capable of surfing on abstract concepts such as time and having a deep understanding of physics, such as figuring that when a person "warps" on ships, they are actually moving their consciousness to a universe that is slightly further ahead in the same timeline rather than moving to a different area of the same universe. Unbeknownst to him, Dandy is targeted by the Gogol Empire due to his connection to a reality-defying element called pyonium. Ultimately, after the universe comes to an end, Dandy is revealed to be, unbeknownst to even himself, an omnipresent figure who exists in any and all hypothetical timelines (with his various skillsets belonging to other previous Dandies). Dandy is then told by the current God that the nature of his existence means that he is to replace him as the god of the new multiverse, an order which Dandy turns down (because as a bodyless god, he wouldn't be able to go to BooBies), leaving the current universe with the words "Stay dandy, baby." The series ends where it began (with Dandy and QT heading to BooBies, where they will meet Meow for the first time), except Dandy has retained his memories from the previous multiverse. Dandy then wonders if his many adventures have changed him, and asks himself if he is still the same person that he once was.

QT

Voiced by: Uki Satake (Japanese); Alison Viktorin (English)

A member of Dandy's crew, a robot that resembles and also operates as a vacuum cleaner. QT boasts being more intelligent and competent than its fellow crewmates, but its usefulness is stymied by problems caused by its outdated hardware such as memory shortages and battery outages. Despite being feminine in voice and some of its mannerisms, QT is referred to as a male by Dandy and Meow on several occasions and seems to self-identify as such. It is capable of feeling a wide range of emotions, but for the most part sees them as confusing, extraneous, and unnecessary for computing. QT is also obsessed with everything being peaceful and orderly, and as a result is shown to be an avid fisher due to the zen-like nature of it. QT is also shown to be capable of feeling love, having fallen in love with a sentient coffee making robot in the season one finale, but gave up after it realized the robot was itself in love with the store's sentient cash register, who QT was forced to fight after the register turned out to be part of an anti-human extremist terror organization. QT is then shown drinking a cup of coffee in remembrance of its lost love. QT appears with Dandy in the new universe, unaware of the adventures that they have yet to undertake and acting puzzled by Dandy's sudden introspection.

Production

The anime is directed by Shingo Natsume, with Shinichirō Watanabe serving as general director, and produced by Bones. The anime began airing on Adult Swim's Toonami programming block in the United States on January 4, 2014, one day before its Japanese premiere on Tokyo MX on January 5. The series' opening theme is "Viva Namida" (ビバナミダ, Biba Namida; "Viva Tears") performed by Yasuyuki Okamura and the ending theme is "X-Jigen e Yōkoso" (X次元へようこそ, Ekkusu Jigen e Yōkoso; "Welcome to the Xth Dimension") performed by Etsuko Yakushimaru.

The Adult Swim broadcasts initially used instrumental tracks by Mountain Mocha Kilimanjaro for these sequences due to licensing issues, but the eighth episode onward featured "Viva Namida", as have subsequent rebroadcasts of the first seven episodes. The English version is produced by Funimation in Fort Worth, Texas, using its local acting talent pool. The series' ADR voice directors include Zach Bolton and Joel McDonald. The series is also simulcasted at the same time as Japan by Animax Asia in South East Asia with both Japanese and English audio.

Other media

Manga

A manga adaptation began serialization in Square Enix's Young Gangan magazine on December 20, 2013. The first tankōbon volume was released on March 25, 2014. Yen Press licensed the series for release in North America, with the first volume released on June 28, 2016, and the second volume released on September 27, 2016.

Video game

A video game Space Galaga (based on the arcade game Galaga) was released on Android on January 24, 2014, and on iOS on February 6, 2014.

Reception

The series received generally positive reviews. Writer Alasdair Wilkins of the A.V. Club gave Space Dandy a B+, stating: "This is a proudly frivolous show, one that delights in its juvenile sense of humor and sneers at the very idea of an ongoing storyline. The show is a surreal throwback to a bygone era of science fiction, like an old Flash Gordon serial or a wacky Superman comic from the Silver Age – if the heroic protagonist were obsessed with butts and breasts. That doesn't mean Space Dandy is a disappointment." Paul and Caroline Daley of Three If By Space wrote, "Dandy himself both in look and personality, combines Elvis Presley, Zapp Brannigan, and Han Solo. While Dandy may come off inept or silly at times, he often does possess the skill needed to save the day (or at least their skins). This makes him very watchable because you never know which Dandy you'll get." and "Space Dandy feels like a throw-back. No, not like throw it back, like something out of another time. The bright colors, the music, and especially the main character, the titular Space Dandy, all remind me of a time when adventures didn't have to make total sense and political correctness wasn't really a thing yet."

Brandon Postal of Capsule Computers gave Space Dandy Season 1 Blu-ray a 7.5 rating and wrote, "Space Dandy is a fun romp but not exceptionally so. It's an enjoyable look at Japanese comedic portrayals of different science fiction tropes and styles, but ultimately only good for laughs. If you're looking for a hard sci-fi series, or even a comedy with a strong narrative, then you might want to look somewhere else. Funimation has done a good job with the dub, making this enjoyable for a wide range of anime fans. I enjoyed some of the characterizations and the takes on various science fiction tropes. I would recommend giving this a watch as long as you don't take it seriously." Laurent Backman of Slug Magazine wrote in a Space Dandy Season 2 DVD Review, "Space Dandy is just such a show. It's over the top, at times crass, nonsensical, and seeing as it comes from the creative team behind Cowboy Bebop, not without its fair share of great music." and "There's not much over-arching narrative for the season, and episodes are their own self-contained storylets, but the formula works perfectly, letting Space Dandy mess around with a bunch of different ideas while never straying too far from its strong comedy backbone."