Space☆Dandy S2 – 04
Live by the booty, die by the booty.
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I cried. This episode of Space Dandy made tears of happiness spring to my eyes and fall down my cheeks. Yes, I cried actual tears of joy because a stupid guy with a pompadour was serenading his prom date’s ass. It was just so amazing and funny and beautiful to watch that I couldn’t help but cry. This is not just my new favourite Space Dandy episode, but one of my new favourite episodes of anime in general. |
Who would have thought that a High School Musical parody would be a masterpiece? Furthermore, who would have thought something as foreign as Space Dandy would go for that parody high school episode at all? Space Dandy is predictable only in how unpredictable it is, I suppose. This episode doesn’t just poke fun at the musical genre, it completely owns it. What should just be a cute joke is pushed to the extreme by how much Space Dandy commits to the idea of being an actual musical, while still maintaining all of the original flavours of the episodes past. This is still our beloved Space Dandy, it’s just dabbling with a new genre this week. But it doesn’t just half-heartedly spit out cheesy songs at us. No. These are incredibly elaborate dance routines created to make you feel pure, undistilled joy.
Even E.T. can’t help but join in
The problem with a lot of parodies is that they devolve into the thing they are making fun of. For example, you may see a show joking about how shows with moe girls have no substance…but in the end it’s just another boring show about moe girls that commits the very same sins it tries to mock. I see it a lot in video games as well when they try to joke about how tedious fetch quests are. Just by acknowledging that, you don’t make up for still forcing us to collect freaking boar hides. It’s still boring whether or not you point that out, tongue-in-cheek.
But Space Dandy takes the concept of what could have been a very cheesy, forehead-smackingly childish rendition of musicals and makes it wonderful. It made me feel like I was secretly a fan of musicals all this time and that a singing Dandy was all I had ever wanted in life. I’ll do my best to explain why the musical numbers were so fabulous, but really…words don’t do it justice when you can just replay Dandy’s singing battle with the Queen Bee for yourself.
The entire episode looks and sounds wonderful. The songs are addictive and simple enough for you start belting out “ASS IS ALL” in the shower after just one listen. The animation prioritizes fluidity, which makes all of the dancing look really damn good. Sometimes the details get compromised because of this, but it overall has a very beneficial effect since you can see every slight movement and therefore feel the rhythm. Everything just comes together nicely in terms of visuals and audio. With brightly coloured aliens waving their various, medically-undefined limbs around as nerds lay down some serious smack talk in the form of a song, you really can’t go wrong.
The icing on the cake is how adorable the nerdy female is and how she ends up falling for Dandy. In the end, Dandy actually shows some interest in her despite being as shallow as a kiddie pool. It’s really sweet since he once called her ugly but now he appreciates her after training together (and discovering dat ass). Okay, maybe it’s not an award-winning love story, but it’s still sweet. They would be an adorable but doomed couple. Alas, Dandy is cursed to wander eternally in search of rare aliens. Maybe next time he’ll remember and actually take the ONE GIRL WHO LIKES HIM to his spaceship. And he wonders why he never gets any action. Sheesh.
See you later, Space Doofus.
About Overcooled
A neuroscience graduate, black belt, and all-around nerd. You'll either find me in my lab or curled up in my rilakkuma kigurumi watching anime.
POWUH: 400-499 with 445 comments
All the dance numbers looked great but the one that looked the most brilliant was the one drawn by Yutaka Nakamura. He’s the type of Key animator that doesnt sacrifice detail for fluidity; instead he marries both and it was awesome seeing Dandy and Freckles dance within that spotlight (the one Yutaka animated)…This was a really fun ep of space dandy that kicked all types of ass. I had been anticipating this ep since the PV of the second space dandy season and i felt like it truly delivered
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Ahhhh that dance sequence was especially beautiful. What an amazing attention to every single detail.
This episode was amazing. Season 2 is really going hard!
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 140 comments
I think I finally figured it out. What Space Dandy really is is an anthology piece serialized as an anime. Think about it, the theme is bums in space. Every episode is something radically different building on that theme. Zombie bum in space. Bum meets fish in space. Bum goes to Space High School. Bum goes to space race (makes lots of gay jokes too). Like how Short Peace or Robot Carnival are made of different parts that address one or two matters, this is a show that uses the same characters, but the plot and setting can be whatever it needs to be to get the message across. Baby.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
It really does have an anthology feel, doesn’t it? Like a bunch of short stories with the same characters being recycled.
POWUH: Beginner (20-35) with 29 comments
I started this episode thinking, as you’ve mentioned, “Dandy doing a high-school transfer episode?” I never thought it would turn into Grease meets anime! Similarly to you, I really loved the combination of music, cheese, drama and an awesome crescendo at the end. Just when I thought they might be running out of pseudo-science parodies for Dandy – along comes this episode! Really loved it! Great review!
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
It looked like a high school parody, which would have been good enough. Then it ended up being a musical parody and it got even better. It really was amazing! 😀
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
These last too episodes stick out in my mind so much. One, they work really well in the genre of story they wanted to tell; nothing was overarching….it was maximum arch all the way. Two. It made me forget, what I felt, were derptastic moments of creator calvacade style that Dandy has been mining.
All is All, and these were good.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
The past two episodes were easily some of my all-time favourites. I’m eagerly awaiting the next one (which is probably out now, I’m just really slow).
They definitely aren’t on a derp streak right now! Cheesy, yes, but derpy, no.
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 145 comments
looking at the opening pic, with his facial expression and hand position, i just want to caption “say, say, say” hard gay style.
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 145 comments
but ketsu ketsu ketsu is pretty good too imo
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
All of us agree on the fact of him being an “Ass Maaaaannnn”.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I am now extremely upset there was no alternate universe HAADO GEI Dandy in the first episode of this season u_u