Space Dandy is a little bit like Cowboy Bebop's Spike Spiegel but more disco oriented than jazz. Both cite Jeet Kune Do as their philosophy. They both have non-traditional haircuts. Spike's a bounty hunter; Space Dandy's an alien hunter. Both first names begin with S.
Space Dandy also looks a bit like Lupin III, with a little bit of an ape face, explaining why he flirts with woman, which I will get into a little bit. On with the review!
The episode starts off great with high quality images that remind me of that feeling I get when I watch an Alex Ross painting. It's like a work of art and instantly sells art books online. (Do it, Funimation! Do it!)
It then goes into the really off-beat song that I really cannot get into, but I get: it's a zany show.
It seems a bit like a bit more like Your Highness than Ghost in the Shell as there are constant pics of "Boobies" and Ketsu in the show and the debate of what is more important, but it also demonstrates the importance of the prominence of feminine features in restaurants.
And when they get to alien boobies it gets interesting: I like the scene where it is just a plain shot of aliens eating. There's all these aliens at the breastaurant and what are they eating? Each other? Breasts? It is very civilized, even though some aliens eat with a lot of noise as a result of improper manners. It really has this Star Wars Mos Eisley feel to it, which is what director Shinichiro Watanabeis always great at. The aliens look so different from each other in the future, opposed to aliens made in most medium.
Even aliens like human boobies. That is definitely something interesting to think about in terms of marketing and psychological conditioning.
The image after that is of a space ship with an S&M Statue of Liberty head in the front of it, possibly demonstrating the role of woman in the show, slaves in this universe?
Then after the 16 minute mark, we have an interest ethical dilemma brought about by space: What happens when you have the most powerful technology, unsecure, in front of some of the dumbest minds in the universe? The fact that it was so easy for Space Dandy to screw up our screens and go through space-time continuity is an interesting idea brought about that is not included in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, maybe Prometheus.
We finish the episode off with an Empire Strikes Back Moon Worm before dealing with a Death Star-ish explosion and a South Park ending. It sort of reminded me of how Stanley Kubrick had pornographic images throughout Dr. Strangelove before finally dropping the nuke, the last spasm as some have called it.
Overall, it's great to have Shinichiro Watanabe back. A lot of the space themes from Cowboy Bebop is back, his episodic very television-ish style as well as a few philosophical questions regarding the future that are there, but not put in the way of the fun plot.
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