Space Dandy

Disclaimer: Wanted to write this after watching last night's episode. It is produced by Bones and directed by Shinichiro Watanabe, famous for Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo.

"Space Dandy. He's a dandy guy... in space." A silly sounding concept at first, Space Dandy has so far shown us that it's a series mostly focused around comedy, but has its serious moments now and again. The story follows Dandy, a dandy (a man who plays importance on physical appearance) with a pompadour and a love for women (especially their breasts and butts) and a job as a fellow who has to bring in unidentified alien species in for cash. Along with him is QT, a robot who resembles a vacuum cleaner who is more of the straight man of the group(which doesn't stop him from being silly at times) and Meow, a Betelgeusian (alien cat) who finds new planets for Dandy but is otherwise extremely lazy.

 Depending on the episode, our heroes can either be completely competent, or just straight up be complete morons (to the point where even the narrator has to snap them back to shape). Whatever the case, from the first episode onwards, we have them adventuring to different types of planets and meeting strange aliens on their way. Sometimes this is completely played for laughs, other times it is emotional and heartwarming/heartbreaking. Basically, imagine Cowboy Bebop, except invert it so that instead of being mostly serious with some comical elements, it's mostly comedic with some serious moments.

From Left to Right: Meow, Dandy, and QT celebrating the fact they're
missing the point of the particular episode completely.

So what makes this anime really stand out? Well, plenty of things actually. One of the biggest things about it when it was announced was that it would first be shown on Toonami here in the states and then it would be shown to the Japanese audience. Not only that, but the dub is actually very good, with some great voices (although the intro's not as great as the Japanese one). It seems Toonami wanted to pander to the Cowboy Bebop crowd by wanting to make sure that this would be an anime like it.

Another thing that's great is the animation. Holy cow is it crisp and great to look at. While there are moments where the animation isn't too great, there are plenty of scenes that are beautifully animated and fun to watch, like the gif above. Heck, the first episode alone has a really fun scene to watch in the second half, and even the first half is knee-slapping hilarious. Just the emotion and action with it alone makes it great to watch.

I know I summed up the characters rather quickly, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I didn't love the main characters as it is. Dandy's this guy just goes with the flow, because "That's the dandy way, baby!" The fact that he doesn't bat an eye half the time with all these strange aliens makes him that much more enjoyable. Even better, he does have a kind side that he occasionally shows when he's not trying to be a complete show off. QT nerding out whenever he/she finds something that he/she likes(for the sake of not doing that every time, we'll just go by she) is hilarious along with her limited amount of expressions which are taken complete advantage of. Meow can be a complete dumbass at times but you can't really be mad at him.

Is that your final dandy?

On top of the main characters are the villains, Doctor Gel and Bea who try to capture Dandy at every turn (he has some secret that they want), yet despite all their efforts, the Dandy crew isn't even aware they exist. They're entertaining in their own rights, even with their constant failures.

What did you say about my hair?

Side characters are also enjoyable. Whether it's the ditsy Honey from the restaurant BooBies (a restaurant not unlike hooters with cute looking women which has one breast on top and one on the bottom, almost like a capsule), the serious Scarlet who works at the alien registry, or the plethora of characters that our heroes come across, there is never really a dull moment that makes you think, "Just get on with it!"

If nothing else, the alien designs look great. There's some that are just completely over the top, and others are simplistic yet unique. Robots and space creatures alike are rather entertaining. Even the ones I didn't exactly enjoy still feel like they belong in this weird universe.

Overall, I'd say that Space Dandy is an anime worth getting into. It's about halfway done, so there are plenty of episodes, and the ones that we have already do not fail to deliver. Bottom line, if you want an enjoyable little series that'll keep you entertained and intrigued, don't hesitate to pick this up. Or don't. That's the Dandy way.

Here's some gifs to boot, courtesy of /a/.