Some Thoughts on Space Dandy

Now that four episodes of the brand new anime, Space Dandy, have aired in the US, I'd figure it's time to give some early impressions for the show. I'll do this frequently for things I'm watching, starting with this. So far, it's been actually really awesome. Read on for more thoughts.

If you're looking for pure, non-impactful fun, then Space Dandy is the show for you. It really doesn't matter if you're not a fan of anime, because I think it can appeal to any tastes, as long as you don't mind that it's animated. Space Dandy chronicles alien hunter "Space" Dandy, and his crew, the robot QT and the "Beatlejuicean" Meow and their travels through space aboard their ship, the Aloha Oe.

As you can see, the three main characters are vastly different, and their dynamic is hilarious, much like the show itself. The first episode dealt with them finding Meow at the local restaurant chain and then chaos ensued, leaving our heroes dead.

Space Dandy is like that. It's episodic, which makes it really approachable. The characters all died in the first episode, but in the second episode, in which they searched for a super rare space ramen, they were back to normal. Even with a loose, episodic plot, Space Dandy still has some good stories to tell.

Last week's episode was about them finding a beautiful woman who turned out to be a vicious, gluttonous alien. And the whole time, they were worried about a large group of other aliens who were only trying to tell them about this monster. It's a really weird show.

The newest episode, featuring a zombie story, however, was the best yet, and actually solidifies as one of the best new shows I've seen in recent memory. The first half was nonstop zombie action with a killer soundtrack and just an explosion of colors as alien zombies tried to infect our hero. The second half was purely narration as the characters all stumbled around and groaned as zombies. It was actually really funny.

The cast of characters, animation, stories, and English dub (especially QT's auto-tune voice NOT present in the Japanese version) all make this a worthwhile use of 30 minutes of your week. I'd highly recommend this, and look for more thoughts in the coming weeks.

- It's Clear