Space Dandy, stylized as Space☆Dandy, is a 2014 Japanese comic science fiction anime television series produced by Bones. The series follows the misadventures of Dandy, an alien hunter who is "a dandy guy in space", in search for undiscovered and rare aliens with his robot assistant QT and his feline-like friend named Meow. The anime has been licensed by Funimation in North America, Madman Entertainment in Australia and by Anime Limited in the United Kingdom. The series premiered in the United States before Japan on January 4, 2014 at 11:30 pm on Adult Swim's Toonami block. The series began airing in Japan on Tokyo MX at 11:00 pm on January 5, 2014, followed by TV Osaka, TV Aichi, BS Fuji and AT-X. The series is simulcasted in South East Asia at the same time as Japan on Animax Asia. The series has also been broadcast in Australia on SBS 2 since 3 October 2015. A manga adaptation ran in Square Enix's Young Gangan magazine from December 20, 2013 to October 3, 2014. The manga is licensed in English by Yen Press. The 13 episodes of the first season aired from January to March 2014, and the second season premiered on July 5, 2014.
Plot
The space opera follows the misadventures of Dandy, an alien bounty hunter who is "a dandy guy in space", in search for undiscovered and rare aliens with his robot assistant QT and his feline-like friend named Meow. Though he and his crew act with the best intentions, despite being normally dimwitted and next to useless, Dandy is unaware that he is being pursued by Dr. Gel of the Gogol Empire. The series has loose continuity, with several episodes featuring the main protagonists and antagonists dying, getting turned into zombies, or getting trapped in different dimensions for periods of time, only for them to show up as normal in the next episode. There are also many references to older science fiction, music, anime and Internet culture.
Characters
Production
The anime is directed by Shingo Natsume, with Shinichirō Watanabe serving as general director, and produced by Bones. The anime began airing on Adult Swim's Toonami programming block in North America on January 4, 2014, one day before its Japanese premiere on Tokyo MX on January 5. The series' opening theme is "Viva Namida" performed by Yasuyuki Okamura and the ending theme is "X-Jigen e Yōkoso" performed by Etsuko Yakushimaru. The Adult Swim broadcasts initially used an instrumental track for these sequences due to licensing issues, but the eighth episode onward featured "Viva Namida", as have subsequent rebroadcasts of the first seven episodes. The English version is produced by Funimation in Fort Worth, Texas, using its local acting talent pool. The series' ADR voice directors include Zach Bolton and Joel McDonald. The series is also simulcasted at the same time as Japan by Animax Asia in South East Asia with both Japanese and English audio.
Other media
Manga
A manga adaptation began serialization in Square Enix's Young Gangan magazine on December 20, 2013. The first tankōbon volume was released on March 25, 2014. Yen Press licensed the series for release in North America, with the first volume released on June 28, 2016, and the second volume released on September 27, 2016.
The series received generally positive reviews. Writer Alasdair Wilkins of the A.V. Club gave Space Dandy a B+, stating: "This is a proudly frivolous show, one that delights in its juvenile sense of humor and sneers at the very idea of an ongoing storyline. The show is a surreal throwback to a bygone era of science fiction, like an old Flash Gordon serial or a wacky Superman comic from the Silver Age – if the heroic protagonist were obsessed with butts and breasts. That doesn't mean Space Dandy is a disappointment." Paul and Caroline Daley of Three If By Space wrote, "Dandy himself both in look and personality, combines Elvis Presley, Zap Brannigan, and Han Solo. While Dandy may come off inept or silly at times, he often does possess the skill needed to save the day. This makes him very watchable because you never know which Dandy you’ll get." and "Space Dandy feels like a throw-back. No, not like throw it back, like something out of another time. The bright colors, the music, and especially the main character, the titular Space Dandy, all remind me of a time when adventures didn’t have to make total sense and political correctness wasn’t really a thing yet." Brandon Postal of Capsule Computers gave Space Dandy Season 1 Blu-Ray a 7.5 rating and wrote, "Space Dandy is a fun romp but not exceptionally so. It’s an enjoyable look at Japanese comedic portrayals of different science fiction tropes and styles, but ultimately only good for laughs. If you’re looking for a hard sci-fi series, or even a comedy with a strong narrative, then you might want to look somewhere else. Funimation has done a good job with the dub, making this enjoyable for a wide range of anime fans. I enjoyed some of the characterizations and the takes on various science fiction tropes. I would recommend giving this a watch as long as you don’t take it seriously." Laurent Backman of Slug Magazine wrote in a Space Dandy Season 2 DVD Review, "Space Dandy is just such a show. It’s over the top, at times crass, nonsensical, and seeing as it comes from the creative team behind Cowboy Bebop, not without its fair share of great music." and "There’s not much over-arching narrative for the season, and episodes are their own self-contained storylets, but the formula works perfectly, letting Space Dandy mess around with a bunch of different ideas while never straying too far from its strong comedy backbone."
