Space☆Dandy 2nd Season

If there’s a show that can make you go “WHAT?” Space Dandy would be one of the first to come to mind. The ‘what’ doesn’t associate with a kind of reaction that’s negative though. Rather, I see Space Dandy a show of creative anthology. Each episode takes the characters on a wild ride in space with Dandy doing his usual gags. While the show often goes wacky with its direction, it’s safe to say that the real point of the Space Dandy focuses on much more. Space Dandy Season 2 returns with Dandy and his adventurous crew in this sequel. And seriously, this show craves ... for attention when it comes to imaginative endeavors.

Directed by the brainchild of Cowboy Bebop, Shinichiro Watanabe once again proves his worth. Breaking down the boundary of the adventure theme, he takes this sequel to new heights with his creativity. It quickly makes its point with the first episode by adapting various references and explodes them onto the screen. The comedic nature of the show quickly takes command but also fits in various satires and gags to illustrate creativity. As daring as the first season, it’s not afraid to pull off risks. The risk here is that episodes can come with a mixed bag. But really, Space Dandy was never a show about overly complex plot angles or some dynamic narrative. Rather, it keeps the space adventure zipping along that is mastered with uniqueness.

Stuffed with craziness, the show plays around with itself like it’s in a class of its own. Make no mistake though, Dandy plays more than just the role of a professor as he takes on the good adventure with his crew members. Essentially, the show was about hunting down aliens as Dandy dedicates it as his job. However, many episodes explores more than just that cliché. Comedy first, and space adventure second is probably the better way to say it in this case. Space Dandy has been defined as a show that is free to do whatever it wants. There’s no boundary that confines itself or limit its ideas. Most of the episodes takes in space but also seizes opportunities to expand its settings. These include but not limited to high school, a mystical lake, and even a world where there’s no sadness. (literally, as that title implies). Regardless, the main objective that Space Dandy achieves is not an adventure of classic fun but rather inspiration, the way it presents its stylish blockbuster hit from where season 1 already built upon.

A majority of the attention is focused on the main characters. In fact, the main characters has this connection with both each other and I dare say…the audience. Dandy has this personality that is like a chemistry set for a scientist. Once they get their hands on it, they can’t stop. Their curiosity takes them like the way Dandy takes his adventures to wonders of the universe. This sense of nature can even label him as a hero as Dandy has prevented tragedies and even entire galactic wars in one of the episodes in this season. On the other hand, Dandy’s two sidekicks QT and Meow play some major roles as well in the sequel. Unlike most series that tries to succeed with ‘beating the Big Bad to save the world’, Space Dandy is more about achieving some goal. It focuses on what the premise of each episode and twists in a ways beyond incalculable imaginations. Some of them will make your mind go “WHAT?” while other times will bring a smile of appreciation. It shouldn’t be any surprising though. The sequel doesn’t derive far from the style of season 1. Each episode is carefully crafted with its main and supporting characters to fit with its creative context. The catch is also that the show isn’t exactly like a ‘monster of the week’ program. Instead, it seeks ambition and articulate concepts beyond just the space tropes. However, it can sometimes be frustrating to realize that most characters seize to appear in the future and only opt to play their roles in that specifically dedicated episode.

To take for granted, various themes play along the show as if it’s self-aware. Destiny is one such theme as Dandy often seemingly gets himself involved with circumstances beyond his control. They say fate and destiny is something people can’t defy. In Space Dandy though, that’s a different story as Dandy often tries to tempt fate. His various battles such as against aliens, monstrous fishes, and armed forces often puts Dandy’s own life in jeopardy. Yet, somehow Dandy pulls off a spectacular show when it’s put up or shut up time. It’s not clearly defined as deus ex machina because like I mentioned before, the show is seemingly self-aware about what Dandy is capable of. The sequel takes even more daring risks with imaginative worlds. One such episode really takes the cake with Dandy being in a world where sadness and death itself is extinct. The avant-garde nature combined with its unique humor of each episode brings forward talent on the tables as well. Each episode has a different screen writer including Watanabe himself. I give praise to Kiyotaka Oshiyama and Masaaki Yuasa for their stylish and clever writing. More so, Watanabe shows his skills in coordination by deconstructing the essence of an adventure. The sequel takes its adventure far beyond just space and into scenarios that not even the Twilight Zone can see with its eyes.

Production quality generally remains the same with Bones in charge of the operation. Character designs are still like the previous season with not much difference. There are some particular episodes that Dandy has slight differences to reflect the nature of itself. Otherwise, character designs still reflect the sci-fi trope such as the aliens, space vehicles, and fabulous gentlemen of the universe. One thing I find season 2 masterfully done is how artwork sells what it tries to advertise. The preview of each episode only produces an initial impression with the title being a potential trademark. However, the execution can really knock an audience off-guard with its contrasting visuals. Episodes directed by Watanabe and Yuasa are prominent examples for this.

Soundtrack is more of a classic appreciation. The western style OST fused with sci-fi tones is something to take notice of. The soothing music, the elegance of the OST, and colorful edginess clarify what this season is trying to accomplish. Surprisingly enough, I find the dubs comparable to the original Japanese versions. In both instances, Dandy has a voice of an explorer and takes on adventures with enthusiasm. Other characters too have influences whether they are human, robots, or aliens. One particular episode even has references to the voice actor with his own character (DUB version) and a classic battle of the bands theme. The OP and ED songs remain generally the same for the sequel though.

There’s no single word to describe the second season. It can be fun, sexy, entertaining, insightful, influential, creative, thrilling, formulaic, intelligent, sensitive, charming, or just dandy. Some episodes can also be deep with hidden meanings and evoke emotions. Each episode is filled with potential and explores space like an anthology. Yes, the series may not make sense at times and will leave you in the hanging. Yes, the sequel may have never solved a story subplot or context that should have been. However, does it really need to? Remember, the show doesn’t limit itself with its adventures. It stretches beyond the boundary of imagination by indulging on its unorthodox or perhaps even radical style. In the end, you might ask yourself “what the hell?” I know I did but doesn’t regret a single minute afterwards.

Space Dandy is unique, it is a huge bag filled with endless creativity, it is fun, it is trippy, it is superb. Season 1 is good but there are several episodes that are a hit or miss, however, season 2 is awesome, much better than the first.

STORY: 9/10
Story? What story? Technically, the universe of Space Dandy is so vast that the creators can concoct any story and it will still make perfect sense. Space Dandy is an episodic anime, with the episodes differing A LOT from each other, this is mostly due to the fact that Space Dandy is directed by multiple directors, each bringing ... their own flair and style into the episode they directed, which is why I said this is a huge bag filled with endless creativity, because it is!

There isn’t any continuity between the episodes, as such you are free to watch the episodes separately and still enjoy it as a whole. Dandy and his co may die in one episode, and appear perfectly fine in the next, and this fact, supposedly established in the very first episode of season 1, is actually explained brilliantly towards the end of the series (hence my high score).

ART: 10/10
Hands down, Space Dandy is one of the most beautiful animes I’ve ever seen in my life. Remember when I mentioned the episodes differ a lot from each other? This applies to the art as well! Each and every single episode are drawn in a different style and this gives us viewers a myriad of eye candies to watch for (that ancient Japanese artstyle in ep 5? Wow). Not to mention the jaw-dropping sceneries found in many parts of the show, my eyes were glued to the screen at all times.

SOUNDS: 10/10
Space Dandy wouldn’t be the same without the awesome soundtrack behind it. Most of the soundtracks are funk and jazz music (dandy!), of course there are plenty of other genres as well, heck, we even have live rock music (ep 7), high school musical style (ep 4), disco music from the 80s (ep 9) and many more. This season of Space Dandy had really upped the ante especially on this area, so pay attention to it as well when you watch it.

CHARACTERS: 8/10
Sadly, this season has more episodes of Dandy being isolated from QT and Meow, so we don’t see much of them as compared to the first season. Anyhow, Dandy is as cool as ever, and this coolness escalates to a much higher level especially towards the finale. Scarlet and Honey gets more screentime as well and they will be featured much, much more than just at their respective workplaces. Dr Gel and Bea are also featured as recurrent villains, and towards the finale, there’s a big surprise waiting…

We also have a huge cast of new characters joining in, with my favourites being Johnny and Planet Limbo herself. See for yourself and you will as well, I am sure, love the characters in Space Dandy.

ENJOYMENT: 9/10
Granted, due to the episodic nature of Space Dandy, episodes may be a hit or miss, subjective to the viewer him/herself. If you ask me, I fell in love with most of the episodes of this season compared to the last season, and this season has many episodes with very high rewatchability, either to marvel at the greatness of the art, or the gorgeous soundtrack, or the mightily creative story and characters.

OVERALL: 9/10
I’d reckon that Space Dandy is viewable for all ages, but is especially appealing to the adults. Space Dandy should become more enjoyable as you age, due to the wide range of pop culture references in it. In conclusion, Space Dandy is a clever anime, and a brilliant work of art.

This is more of the stuff you saw in the first season. The animation is still great, music is still good, but for some reason I enjoyed this season less than the 1st one.

For some reason the stories in individual episodes, despite looking good graphically in most cases failed to resonate with me and left less impact than, for example, the absolutely amazing "plant episode" from the first season of space dandy. I'm not sure why this happened.

It is still worth watching, mostly because of high quality animation, and because of unusual stories, but expect it to have less impact than the first season. ... At least the way it worked for me.

Detailed breakdown below:

Story: 6/10.
As I said, most of the episodes failed to properly resonate with me and I found some of them very dull, desptie amazing artwork. However, now and then there are sparks of amazing, that was present in the original 1st season. There's smaller degree of "weird alienness", smaller number of weird worlds and strange stories, but now and then the story does make an interesting point or two, that makes you stop and think.

Still.. I felt like this anime could use a much better scriptwriter. Much better one.

One thing worth mentioning is that there's a very subtle headscratcher in this series that reminded me of Rick and Morty. It is very easy to miss.

Art: 8/10:
Very high quality fluid animation. However, this time around there were several occurrences where I noticed footage reuse and "panning shots" (someone talks in small number of frames and the camera slowly pans acros the scene). This is usually used to reduce animation costs, and I do not recall this happening in the 1st season. However, the anime never goes overboard with it, and still looks good.

Sound: 6/10:
IT is good/catchy, however, in a few circumstances where music was supposed to take the lead, it failed to deliver. Basically, music is mostly good, but I couldn't call it "great". It does its job. Still, it is of higher quality than in many other animes.

Character: 5/10:
Characters lack depth and fails to deliverer in circumstances where story tries to portray them as deep/complex personalities. This is not surprising, because everybody is technically a stereotype/caricature and the show is usually about portraying some weird situation, world or planet, but at the end of the anime, it is not possible to say much about characters.

Enjoyement: 6/10:
I found two episodes dull. The rest was okay. There was a small number of interesting headscratcher in the show, but despite high quality animation by studio bones, I wouldn't call this a masterpiece. Bones developed many other titles that were superior to this one (RahXephon, for example).

Overall: 6/10:
The anime has good animation and is worth because of it. However, I felt like the show desperately needed a better scriptwriter, and failed to deliver its full potential because of it. The artwork is very good, however.

It is wroth checking out, and is recommended in case you wanted to check out high quality visuals and fluid animation.