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Season one of Space Dandy is one of the best comedies I have ever watched. A bold statement to say the least, but it’s true. It’ll be tricky for me to describe why that is without giving away the jokes of the episodes, but I think the best comedies, especially animated comedies, are all about timing and writing. The best examples of that would be classic episodes of The Simpsons, where the best episodes were clever in their writing and execution that make them super memorable. The best examples for Space Dandy are quite a few episodes. Let’s start from the top with episode one “Live With The Flow, Baby”. You only get one shot to make a good first impression and thankfully Space Dandy knocks it out of the park. The best first episodes of any TV show have to be incredibly memorable, and this show does that with flying colors. It sets up the premise of the series along with the cast of characters all within a 24-minute time limit. Without giving anything away, the episode is just setting up the antics that the crew of the Aloha Oe will face throughout the show’s twenty-six episode run. This is where they introduce the core cast of characters which include, Dandy, his robot sidekick QT, a Betelgeusian that Dandy and QT call Meow because he looks like a cat, and Honey, the stacked waitress at the restaurant (and recurring joke) Boobies. It’s a fantastic introduction and sets a good tone for what the viewer can expect: over the top action and wildly creative alien designs along with some fantastic animation.
Another highlight of season one would be episode four, “Sometimes You Can’t Live With Dying, Baby.” This is the zombie episode which is both hilarious and a time capsule of how popular that trend was in the 2010’s. The crew of the Aloha Oe come across what they believe is a rare alien, but it is instead a zombified version of an existing species. From there, it devolves into a Night of the Living Dead parody/homage. It nails the homage and knows how to flip it on its head to come to its natural conclusion, one that doesn’t create dread but instead, hilarity to those who watched it. I think a highlight for me was the different ways a zombie expresses different emotions, along with QT getting infected and becoming a zombie despite being a robot. It’s just pure jokes and each one hits it out of the park.
I do want to make it clear that Space Dandy can do more than just jokes. It also has episodes with a more emotional core, with one such example being episode five, “A Merry Companion is a Wagon in Space, Baby.” This one has Dandy escorting a rare alien to meet with another member of her race while also protecting her. A lot of this episode reminded me of Michiko and Hatchin because Dandy is escorting a young female character to meet with someone close to her. They don’t get along at first, but over the course of the episode, they bond and come to like one another by the end. It’s a strong episode, one that’s less focused on laughs and more on having a stronger core on characterization, especially in how it gives Dandy more depth past the surface level. You get the impression that while Dandy may do things that would benefit him, he isn’t heartless and does want to protect those he cares for.
Episode eight, “The Lonely Pooch Planet, Baby” follows the crew of the Aloha Oe as they arrive on an abandoned planet and come across a dog that for some reason ended up on such a planet. Minor spoiler for the episode, but the dog dies at the midway point, with Dandy and the others laying it to rest by sending it out into space. It’s a weirdly emotional scene for a goofy show like this to have but I find it refreshing to go into a comedy and find it doing more than just making the viewer laugh. It does get back to telling jokes in the back half of the episode, but I think humor should really remain the focus for a comedy, even though it needs to do more than just be funny. It needs a great cast with great chemistry and strong emotional cores to give the characters more depth.
Since I’m on the subject of characters, let’s talk about the English dub. The dub was produced by Funimation Entertainment (which is now Crunchyroll) and it is one of the best dubs they have ever made. Ian Sinclair sells Dandy completely. His voice and line delivery are fantastic as he’s able to switch from being calm and cool to freaking out in an instant. It makes it hard for me to imagine anyone else playing this character. Meow is voiced by Joel McDonald and he does a good job as the freeloading space cat. QT is voiced by Alison Viktorin, who is able to get a serious but sarcastic tone going. On top of that, they made the smartest move to auto tune her voice so whenever QT speaks, it sounds more robotic than the original Japanese voice over did, so the effect is unique to the English dub. It adds so much more personality and is fun to hear without getting overbearing or obnoxious. It brings the right amount of silliness while allowing QT to still have more earnest and heartfelt moments. Rounding out the main cast, Alexis Tipton does a great job as the bubbly Honey. Looking more broadly, the full dub cast list for the entire series is insanely packed with talent, featuring names like Bryce Papenbrook, Johnny Yong Bosch, Colleen Clinkenbeard, Jad Saxton, Todd Haberkorn, Ashly Burch, Monica Rial, and so many more. It’s a stacked cast and everyone involved were casted well and did a fantastic job. Coming off from the mediocre dub of Kids on the Slope (when I was doing a Watanabe marathon to prepare for Lazarus) to a great dub like Space Dandy is welcomed, especially since this is the level of quality I expect from a Watanabe series. In fact, Space Dandy would be a unique show as it would be the test bed for what would become “broadcast dubs” which would later be rebranded as “simuldubs”. No longer would English watchers of anime have to wait a year or more to hear their favorite series dubbed into English. While that process would come with its own growing pains, it’s hard to imagine where the industry would be without Space Dandy premiering first on US TV. Would simuldubs exist today? Would companies pump those out at a faster rate than before? You never know.
I will say not everything about season one is perfect as there are a couple of “meh” episodes. The two I want to highlight are episode three “Occasionally Even the Deceiver is Deceived, Baby” and episode nine “Plants Are Living Things Too, Baby.” Episode three is all about fanservice and it’s the most unnecessary thing for a series that already has a lot of ass and boob shots. I understand that’s part of the joke itself, especially with the alien at the end, but it’s minimal on laughs and feels more like an excuse to draw boobs. As for episode nine, as mentioned earlier, much of Space Dandy has a ton of talent working on it. Each episode has a different director, writer, and animation staff working on it, meaning that this show can switch up its art direction and animation style to fit the vision of the director of that episode. However, I find that to be a double-edged sword and I feel episode nine is one such example of it. It’s less focused on laughs and more interested in showcasing off bizarre and weird visuals. The animation may be smooth, but the episode itself is very forgettable, with the viewer likely to only remember it because of its visual style.
I think it’s fair to wrap up this talk on season one by bringing up one final episode and that is the season finale, “Even Vacuum Cleaners Fall in Love, Baby.” It’s a QT-centered episode and it follows him falling in love with an espresso machine. The premise is pretty cute, but I think having it be the final episode to the first half of the series was a smart move because this episode is hilarious. It is chock-full of great jokes while still having a strong emotional core. It ends on a strong note, and with that as the finale of season one, I was hotly anticipating season two and it would be a somewhat short wait.
