Space Dandy Episode #01 (Dubbed) Anime Review

Space Dandy Episode 1

What They Say
Space Dandy is a dandy in space! This dreamy adventurer with a to-die-for pompadour travels across the galaxy in search of aliens no one has ever laid eyes on. Each new species he discovers earns him a hefty reward, but this dandy has to be quick on his feet because it’s first come first served! Accompanied by his sidekicks, a rundown robot named QT and Meow the cat-looking space alien, Dandy bravely explores unknown worlds inhabited by a variety aliens. Join the best dressed alien hunter in all of space and time as he embarks on an adventure that ends at the edge of the universe!

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Space Dandy has certainly been the subject of a lot of hype, originally for the fact that it reunites a lot of the key staff of Cowboy Bebop, including director Shinichiro Watanabe and writers Dai Sato and Keiko Nobumoto. If that wasn’t enough, the project was announced as having a simultaneous premiere in America on Cartoon Network’s Toonami block. When further information was released that fan favorites Masaaki Yuasa, Sayo Yamamoto, and even Akira’s Katsuhiro Otomo would be involved one way or another, it almost seems impossible for Space Dandy to deliver to fans’ expectations. So does it defy the odds?

Well, yes and no. The first episode itself is not perhaps as stunning as many Cowboy Bebop or Samurai Champloo fans might like, but the creativity involved in its design and execution promises the potential for great things to come. It almost comes directly to the episode midpoint, as the first half is underwhelming and sedate, while the second delivers on the cosmic comic mayhem we crave.

The episode opens with a narrator promising a harrowing tale of Space Dandy, that most well-known of space heroes, as though his adventures were legend. When we first our man, though, he’s busy talking to his obsolete robot QT about whether breasts or butts are the preferred attribute in women. A bored narrator interjects, somewhat like the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, about how space travel has been mastered in Dandy’s age, leading to all sorts of discoveries of alien species he’s far too lazy to name. It is through capturing undiscovered species of aliens, we learn, that Dandy makes his money. And the best place to stake out aliens, in Dandy’s opinion? “Boobies,” basically a Space Hooters crossed with the Star Wars cantina, where aliens of every imaginable type come to ogle waitresses in skimpy outfits.

While a lot of the “booby” humor falls flat, there are some charming gags made at the expense of Dandy’s pathetically cheap technology, including poor, obsolete QT. When Dandy discovers a Betelgeusian alien with different markings, he aims to capture it, culminating in a great Cowboy Bebop-style showdown. However, with no real narrative weight yet behind it, it’s hard not to wonder where this all is going. We also learn Dandy is being chased by a giant Gorilla named Dr. Gel, a representative of two great powers warring over the known universe. He’s been ordered by a skull-headed lich creature to capture Dandy, again for reasons unknown.

Dandy manages to escape from Dr. Gel’s clutches through a stroke of Captain Tylor-like luck, as the Betelgeusian, who Dandy has taken to calling “Meow” due to his being, well, a “space cat”, presses buttons on Dandy’s ship without permission. It’s here where the episode really “takes off”, leading us through a surreal warp trip with a broken drive, and depositing Meow and Dandy on a planet with a menagerie of bizarre, deadly aliens, all attacking in sequence like a chain of dominos. It’s an incredible ten-minute sequence that features the best actual animation fans have seen since perhaps Little Witch Academia, and it communicates how much talent, as well as budget and scheduling, that Space Dandy has to work with. If Watanabe has decided not to play all of his cards on a simple introductory episode, we may be in for quite a treat indeed.

The dub is solid, though it adds jokes, such as references to Toy Story’s “infinity and beyond” that will likely rankle purists. It’s still a little difficult to get reads on the dynamics of each character, as at this early point in the series, the actors themselves may not know where the show is going any more than the audience does.

Oddly enough, the episode ends with both Dr. Gel’s destruction at the hands of his superior, as well as Dandy and crew being killed in a super-nova he orders QT to initiate. With all of our characters dead at the end of the first episode, we can likely expect some narrative sleight-of-hand in future episodes.

In Summary
There’s absolutely no way a single episode can live up to what fans are expecting, and the first episode of Space Dandy, I think, doesn’t try to blow us away from the first moments. It’s hard to know exactly what game the staff is playing here, but when the pedigree of the show is considered, and the stellar action sequence that ends out this episode is reviewed, it’s impossible not to be excited for what is yet to come.

Grade: B

Streamed By: Toonami

Review Equipment: Sony Bravia 32″