My first actual Anime review…

So I heard about this New Anime called Space Dandy. Not I’m not a huge fan of space and stuff but it was a new anime and I hadn’t really thought about starting a new anime but the thought of a new anime in 2014 got the better of me and I ended up watching it.

So what did I witness?

A very colourful and groovy opening. It had that Retro Feel and Dandy reminded me of Elvis with his style. The opening theme is pretty cool and I enjoyed listening to it from start to finish.

So the plot evolves around Dandy who is a Alien Hunter. That’s interesting… Reminded me of Doctor Who but still interesting. He has a companion robot called QT. Not sure if its meant to be that “QT/Cutey” thingy. Well this robot is very cute and I don’t mean in the sexy way. Just reminded me of a pet… Like Tony Tony Chopper in his child form.

The voice of Dandy is very familiar as the same voice actor voices Grimmjow from Bleach and Vergo from One Piece amongst many, many others. And I mean like, the list is huge.

So his style reminds me of Franky from One Piece. His voice, his attitude and his hair. Did I mention he’s a PERVERT. It seems that will be one of the main themes for the anime. Can’t say I’m a big fan of that theme.

The first word in the show is ‘Boobs’… He has this rant about how girls are objectified for only their breasts. And by ONLY he means that they should appreciate their hinds as well. He’s more of an Ass-Man!

Boobies – The space equivalent to Hooters are part of a chain of Breastaurants. Visiting them is Dandy’s purpose in life along with hunting aliens of course. But he doesn’t accept he’s a pervert. He claims it’s a camouflage for work when attending these Breastaurants. He makes QT do the work. I wonder what Q.T. actually stands for?

He gives a girl her name in the James Bond style as well.

“Dandy… Space Dandy!”

He does have this charm about him but he’s really stupid at the same time. Lucky for him, he’s smart in comparison to the blonde waitresses. Not all of them are blonde but I’m using blonde as a stereotype meaning they’re really stupid. No offence to any blonde’s out there. I think you are all lovely, despite some of you having a below average IQ.

He is left a little embarrassed as his vibe gets killed off. Something popular starts happening and the girl leaves him, just as he is about to say he’s an Alien Hunter.

He start acting like a jerk to QT because of his bad mood. Calls it an old model that he might need to replace it. QT has a breakdown. I mean literally… Runs out of battery. Due to this, he is unable to identify very well. Not like he could to begin with. Was using an alien hunting magazine.

They do spot an alien that is recognizable apart from what is a mark on its face (which is later revealed to be a sticker). I think their job is to identify unidentified Aliens or something. Either that or they capture them.

The Alien looks like a cat and also happens to be a pervert, using its phablet to take indecent photos of the girls. Due to being caught by Dandy, he makes a run for it. Dandy think its an unidentified alien and pulls out his weapon; A Fishing Hook. We’ve seen what Gon from Hunter X Hunter can do with that so definitely worth running away from.

They cause a lot of ruckus and break a few things but in the end, they become friends. Neither Dandy or QT can understand the Cat-Aliens name and claims it was meowing, despite him getting annoyed about it.

Dr Gel of the Gogol Empire is some alien Antagonist. He’s out to hunt Dandy.

Dandy explains in brief about Alien Hunting and then mentions that he forgot to mention a war but then goes back to his adventure in the Breastaurant without even explaining. Such a silly guy.

Apparently he’s important to capture for some reason. I wonder why?

He explains his laziness by saying “You should go with the flow, there is no point in swimming against a current”.

I think that’s a great way to put it. I’m a lazy guy myself and I always use the ‘Go with the Flow‘ phrase… because that is what I often do in life. Just let the current take me. Even my mom started using it. I mentioned that I don’t really have any such plans at the moment and she said, “So you’re just going to go with the flow…” and I thought, Exactly! And my mind wandered to Space Dandy.

Wow! I will forever associate that phrase with Dandy now.

Another funny moment was his fear of warping. He is shit scared of warping as it apparently thins hair. Obviously he loves his hair considering how marvelous they are. The cat creature being the ‘dumbass’ he is, presses the button and the poor fella thinks he’ll go bald.

He also reminds me of a Jack Sparrow type of character. Does things by accident and baffles the world into thinking he’s amazing. He did the same to the bad guy who was spying on him to capture him; an assassin hired by Dr Gel. The useless assassin is vaporised by some means for losing track of Dandy just because Dandy did some stupid thing by warping randomly back and forth through space.

The Cat Alien and Dandy end up exploring some new island where they warped to and there are these huge aliens waiting for them. They give them a hard time. They get flung into the air, drowned, electrocuted and have a right shitty time.

He ends up pulling out his space gun. He fires his gun and misses out on all his targets… but ends up destroying the whole place. But in doing so, he releases some kind of android robot that takes the aliens out. He then drops his gun like an idiot in his attempt to swing it around like a cow-boy, thinking he’s cool after shooting. It kinda shows that he likes to take credit for doing things right by accident, claiming he meant to do what he did.

The robot QT ends up teleporting one of the huge aliens in to the ship in his attempts to rescue Dandy and Cat-Alien. This is just just too much. Everybody is useless as the next guy.

They have to end up using a last resort weapon as a last resort, forgetting that it would end up destroying themselves as well as everybody else… Considering it causes the ship to explode.

And that’s how it ends!!!

The Ending theme is really groovy as well. If it starts good and it ends good. It is worth spending time on it.

THE GOOD

The pacing was good. It was different and it was entertaining. The animation was brilliant and the music was very nice. I liked the retro theme we got going, despite it being set in space. It’s funky and groovy!

THE BAD

I think the episode lacked a bit of background knowledge because I’m still not sure what he does and why this evil guy, Dr Gel wants him dead. We will probably find out more in the next episode or two but just something to pick out. I just don’t really know what to expect from this in terms of story and plot.

There’s a lot of fan service but that makes sense because he is a pervert after all.

& THE FUNNY

Comedy is what its all about. Like I mentioned, the comic timing is really good. I loved the fact that he’s such a moron, yet so Dandy! I liked the scene where they claimed the Cat-Alien was meowing just because they couldn’t pronounce his name. I loved it when they screw up over and over again. And I liked the fact he’s a huge pervert but doesn’t admit it. He is actually a pervert I can enjoy, like Franky and Brook.

Overall a nice comedy/gag anime. Not sure what I feel about it yet. Might be worth the laughs. Will have to watch a few more episodes to make my mind up. but so far so good. Was worth the laugh. I give the first episode a 7/10 for its sheer entertainment value.