First Impressions of Space Dandy

I thoroughly enjoyed watching Cowboy Bebop, and it deserves the praise it has received. It had interesting plots, interesting characters, and one of the best soundtracks I've heard in an anime. Following the success of Cowboy Bebop, Shinichiro Watanabe is directing Space Dandy, the goofy offbeat comedy. It is being released periodically in Japan almost simultaneously as in North America (through Cartoon Network). Luckily for myself I don't have to wait until the North American debut on January 4th for the English dub (since I prefer subs anyway), so I'm here to give my impression of the show! Keep reading for my thoughts.

Once the show begins it gives you a brief history of the infamous Space Dandy, and then throws you right into the action where Dandy is discussing the *ahem* assets of women, claiming booties are superior to boobs (intelligent stuff I know). I think it's clear from the onset that this show will be over the top with no holds barred. It's entertaining, but certainly not hilarious. I much more preferred the relationship between Dandy and his robot QT who seems to pick up the slack for Dandy's proliferous lifestyle. Their banter and dynamic seems much more palatable than booby jokes, so I hope that their relationship will continue to play an important role. But back to the story, they later go to the Boobies bar (Hooters in space, (never thought I'd ever say that...) ) and have a night on the town, keeping an eye out for any suspicious activity. The content overall seems to be a stretch in my opinion, going for gags rather than for deep development, so it was a disappointment in my opinion. That said, they can't do a whole lot in the span of 10 minutes (that's how long the first episode was) so they jump straight to entertainment and jokes, and skip on a rigorous plot.




The presentation for this show is superb, it looks and sounds great. Visually it's interesting enough to keep you watching for the 10 minutes (unfunny jokes aside) and we get to hear that jazzy glory that we've missed since the Cowboy Bebop days. Dandy looks original in style, and has caught a lot of attention because of that, so I'm glad to see the whole episode being a visual treat. I can't wait to see how space battles will occur when Dandy wields that space laser, and I'm excited to see exactly what sort of funky aliens he's going to encounter along the way.

So what we end up with here is a strange combination of pros and cons. The jokes miss the mark, and because of the time constraint it looks like development in this show will be slow and minimal. When comedy trumps content well developed stories seem nearly impossible, especially when the plots take up no more than 10 minutes at a time. I'm not however, giving up on Space Dandy yet. I enjoyed the little that I saw just enough to keep me curious, and I'll let you know my thoughts as the show progresses. Until then, thanks for reading!