SPACE
DANDY: A series that doesn’t take itself seriously -- for better or worse
The
story follows Dandy, an alien hunter who earns a living by cataloguing new and
undiscovered alien species. He travels the universe with his robot assistant QT
and a space cat named Meow.
What
first captured my attention is the art design. I mean, just look at all those
colours. Outer space has never been portrayed more vibrantly. But this is not
very surprising. This is BONES we’re talking about after all.
Literally
from the very first minute of the series, Space Dandy clearly portrays that
there will be full of laughs -- and this doesn’t disappoint. The show is
inherently funny. The show also portrays that there will be a lot of fan
service. So far, it appears that the fan service is not there to gain more viewers.
It appears more like an innate part of the overall impression Space Dandy wants
to trigger.
The pilot
episode isn’t perfect though. The comedy, as much as it has made the show
really entertaining, has given the story a tendency to stray. This is
particularly obvious in the first half, wherein nothing is practically
happening. Dandy and QT are just inside the ‘breast-taurant’ and being funny.
But
the second half does a better job in mixing exposition and comedy. The viewers
are introduced to certain characters and plot elements that appear to be major
factors in the show. I must admit that the exposition, the establishing of the
story, is done in a very comedic approach. Even the characters who appear to be
the villains are able to be comedic in their own rights.
Speaking
of the characters, I admit that I’m not expecting deep and complex ones. But I
think the characters of Space Dandy are actually quite interesting. We have a
dandy spaceman, an outdated robot, a hippy space cat, a dumb and beautiful
waitress, and a somewhat-comedic villain. And on the backdrop, we have a war
between two empires -- which, of course, is portrayed quite comically. Who
wouldn’t want to watch that?
Overall,
Space Dandy is a feel-good series. Superb colours, genuine comedy, inherent fan
service, quite-interesting characters, and a story that seems to be serious but
is not. There is a good chance that I’ll subscribe to it. After all, that
ending of episode one just makes me hunger for more of Space Dandy. There is a
high chance that I’ll review it on the blog once the series is done.
When I saw that you wrote this post I decided to give the show a try since it airs on Toonami in America, and I have to say that it was fun. I am not entirely sure why but the animation in the action scenes seemed to have faltered a bit compared to the rest of the show, but other than that, the animation very good. The satire on fan-service was hilarious though! Even though some parts of the villain scenes were humorous, it was a little too corny for my taste, but Space Dandy himself was often very humorous. Overall, not bad for a first episode.
ReplyDeleteI think I might continue watching Space Dandy since it seems like one of those shows that is best watched on a weekly basis and not marathoned like something more serious and story based.
-James
Yeah, I think that's one of the problems with comedy. Some things that others find funny would appear forced for others. Overall, I enjoyed the episode too, but there's not much substance to it. But that's fine. It appears that Space Dandy's real intention is for laughs, and not to tell us a compelling story. I agree that it is something that you could watch weekly instead of marathoning it. It's a good way to pump your spirits once a week.
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