Recap

Space Dandy gets weird again. The first time it sort of doesn’t work. The second time it really does.

Zigg’s Thoughts

My apologies for missing the post last week, but I’m going to spin it into a good thing, as these two episodes are a perfect contrast to each other. Both of them feature the show drifting towards the slightly more trippy, psychedelic territory it’s often dabbled in, but while episode 15 sort of fails to stick the landing, 16 is a delightful odyssey from beginning to end.

It’s an arch example of how less can occasionally be more. Episode 15 arguably has too much plot for its very odd premise, and also tends to play the plot it has too straight, never Space Dandy‘s strongest suite. There’s great potential to be had in the idea of this creepy alien collecting the smiles of people from all over the universe, like some sort of platonic serial killer. The problem is, creepy is the one thing the show can’t actually achieve. It’s simply too zany and too all over the shop, and the result is the mood hangs somewhere between mildly unsettling and just plain flat. It doesn’t help that they hang their hat on some confusing subplots – the whole ‘river of time’ thing is not really very well explained and (unusually) Meow and QTs segments are pretty limp. Even the ending, presumably aimed to be a visual spectacle, sort of falls flat due to some pretty basic directing.

That’s not an issue with Episode 16, which succumbs to delightful madness almost as soon as the credits have rolled. It’s not especially surprising to find out this one was directed by Masaki Yuasa, the Kick Heart and Ping Pong director who’s famous for his wildly uncontrolled visual style. The art here flows beautifully from colour to colour and shape to shape, more concerned with energy and visual flourish than technical perfection. Largely freed from any sort of need to assemble a plot (OK there’s sort of one, but it’s more a fever dream than anything else) Yuasa concentrates more a delightfully bizarre tone and a series of surreal set pieces. It’s more reminiscent of psychedelic classics like Yellow Submarine or Terry Gilliam’s Monty Python works than something you’d traditionally call ‘anime’. Yet it also never falls into the trap of being pretentiously self-conscious either. Instead the episode never abandons the core quirkiness and silliness of Space Dandy, right down to its bizarre, action packed ending. And the final moments, a knowing wink in a candlelit dinner, speak of a show supremely confident in its own ability to be funny, unusual and a showpiece for the best of the animated artform.

Random Observations

• While it’s not executed to the best of its potential, there’s definitely some weird pathos to the ‘burning man’ ending of Episode 15.
• When watching Episode 16 Iro and I immediately made comparisons to the show’s other major ‘arthouse’ episode, Episode 9. Not coincidentally, that was also directed by a Kick Heart veteran, Enyoung Choi.
• The sequence where Dandy and co surf up the giant waterspout is one of the most breathtakingly animated in years.
• Another big shoutout to the dubbing – the ridiculous fish-trash ending of episode 16 wouldn’t be anywhere nearas funny without the totally over the top accents.
• Iro’s Note: The Space Battleship Yamato cameo in Episode 15 put a smile on my face.