#space dandy

I miss Space Dandy so much, baby

Dandy and friends explore the fall of the Ramen Empire

Space Dandy is a dandy guy in space. This is his story. This blog series will cover the entire run of Space Dandy, one of my favorite shows of all time. I’ve seen the show before but will only cover up to the current episode, so newcomers can follow along. Check back every Sunday to see the tales of the Dandy, QT, and Meow. This week I’m writing about “The Search for the Phantom Space Ramen, Baby”

You can sort of tell that Space Dandy is trying to find it’s footing, it manages to lay down some important details though. Mainly we find out how the alien registration works, and it’s kind of messed up. Captured aliens that aren’t new species are launched into space. We also get the introduction of Scarlet, alien evaluator and a badass who can beat up multiple members of the Gogol Empire. Speaking of the Gogol Empire, I thought this was something that wasn’t hinted to until much later, but in episode 2 we already get some obvious Gogol = Google moments. I know I didn’t make the connection until way later, but it’s funny going back and realizing it’s right there. GOGOL STREETVIEW.

I like the dynamic early on where you can’t really tell if Dandy and crew are smarter than they seem or if the Gogol Empire is dumb, or maybe everyone is dumb. Meow is giving away their location via social media while the Gogol Empire is stumped to their location before Bea finds Meow through his account. The majority of the episode focuses on a search for the Phantom Ramen. Ramen so good it’s out of this world, they find it through a wormhole, and it’s being sold by an alien living for 10,000 years. While finding out he had to leave his biker gang because he burned his lady to death while trying to light her cigarette was sort of  funny, overall it’s just sort of there.

Poor Meow though, he takes Dandy’s secret ramen from his stash only to lose out on trying the phantom ramen because they need to try and get back to the wormhole. Overall though this episode is just okay with a couple of good moments. It’ll get better.

We begin a new journey with three idiots/geniuses/heroes.

Space Dandy is a dandy guy in space. This is his story. This blog series will cover the entire run of Space Dandy, one of my favorite shows of all time. Check back every Sunday to see the tales of the Dandy, QT, and Meow.

I decided to write about Space Dandy shortly after the original run finished. From the initial trailer, I was hooked, and hoped the show would be awesome. Turns out it was. It’s definitely my favorite anime of all time aside from FLCL. So I decided to write another blog series like the one I did with EVA, except this one is a little different. Obviously I’ve seen the show before so there’s that. I don’t remember much of the details so I’m not going to spoil ahead, so if you haven’t seen the show you can keep up here. Also the first run through I watched the subbed version. This time I’m watching the dub version. I purposefully didn’t watch the show over the last year just so I could watch the dub and have it feel somewhat fresh, and not compare the two all the time. With all of that background stuff out of the way. Let’s talk about the first episode: “Live With the Flow, Baby”

This episode coves a lot in a short time, but I think one of the things that initially hooked me was Dandy’s speech in the beginning about asses being superior to boobs. Instant connection there. And already I wonder about the conversations Dandy and a certain chairman in another series would have. Dandy and his robot friend QT are alien hunters, but Dandy wants to go to Boobies, a “Breastaurant.” I’m not going to make many sub/dub comparisons, but I am probably going to talk about the narrator each time because he is clearly being played differently than in the sub. His half-assed intro near the beginning was pretty funny.

So we get introduced to all of the characters with great stuff that lets you know who they are, Dandy prefers to go to Boobies instead of working, QT is outdated and even uses an physical alien guide because of it, Meow takes a bunch of creepshots of the waitresses at Boobies, Dr Gel and Bea are hunting for Dandy hinting at his importance. Dandy’s talent or luck is pretty impressive too, based on his terrible aim somehow manages to capture Meow and later on saves them from an alien by starting this food chain effect of summoning bigger and bigger aliens. (Neat gag by having the giant robot give the thumbs up T2 style as it was being devoured by a slime monster).

I think the biggest takeaway from the first episode is that these three are idiots. QT has an excuse because he is outdated (but somehow manages to break the fourth wall). Dandy pulls on a damn string warping space and time, and Meow knows nothing about the world. But they are charming idiots. Watching Meow just laugh at Dandy struggle the entire time against the aliens is pretty good. It’s just a shame that they all died at the end of the episode. A fact that the narrator states with a shrug in his voice. There’s way too much to write about here, but it’s a pretty great starting episode. Next time on Space Dandy, ramen, ramen, and more ramen.