Space☆Dandy S2 – 10

She will slurp angrily for as long as it takes for Dandy to get the hint.

Another day, another Dandy. I never thought there would be a day I’d see Dandy wearing some preppy, whiteboy outfit though. It’s not a look that I can really recommend for anyone. But Space Dandy is all about changing things up each week and if I have to suffer through Dandy wearing a sweater tied around his neck in order to see some cute romantic development then so be it.

These two pictures aren’t actually supposed to go together, but it works out in the end~

I wish I knew why the chemistry between Scarlet and Dandy is so believable. Dandy is such a playboy that it’s hard to see him taking any one woman seriously without cranking his neck around to stare at Honey’s ass if he has the chance. As for Scarlet, we’ve only seen bits of pieces of her. Her desperation towards finding a good man as seen in the Cloudian episode mostly poked fun at her too. Despite all this, it’s surprisingly easy to see them falling into a serious relationship if they had the chance. Scarlet being with Dandy should go against everything we know about these two, but somehow it just works out to be the perfect, albeit doomed relationship. I was genuinely upset when they didn’t actually hook up because there was so much potential. And that’s coming from someone who, if anything, is turned off by romance in anime.

The neat thing about Dandy and Scarlet is that they have a healthy mix of similarities and differences to keep them invested in each other. Scarlet is organized and precise enough to keep Dandy in check, whereas Dandy’s capricious nature lets Scarlet unwind every now and then to just have fun. Of course, it doesn’t always work out so perfectly, especially when you have someone on the extreme end of the “carefree” scale like Dandy. But for the most part, they have some complementary traits that make them good for each other. To tie their differences together, they share a love for action, fighting, and sports. I’m sure if Dandy ever asked Scarlet to go surfing with him, she’d be there in a heartbeat. The way they fangirled over Chuck videos was also pretty darn cute!

At first I thought Scarlet used to date a literal giant robot (with no pilot)…which would be pretty badass.

I love how Space Dandy shows the connection these two have without even using dialogue. You can tell as the days breeze by that they’re thoroughly enjoying the company, and that they never run out of things to talk about. When Dandy chases after Scarlet, not a word is said, but you can feel the desperation by his body language alone. It’s like the epitome of the “show, don’t tell” rule of animation (or movies in general). The mix of comedy from watching an insane Gundam-piloting ex-boyfriend and drama from seeing Scarlet and Dandy never fulfill their love for each other was just wonderful. But for the life of me, I have no idea why a show that had disco-dancing last week could make me so emotionally invested the next week.

By all means, the plot sounds like something out of a terrible fanfic AU. “Let’s make them pretend to be lovers…and then have them actually fall in love!” is certainly not the most original idea anyone has ever had. Pretty sure you can find the exact same thing but with Sasuke dating Naruto, or Sherlock Holmes and Watson, or god knows whatever weird fanfic options there are out there. The bottom line is that when you look at it on paper, this episode shouldn’t work. But it does. It works so well! I feel that making it this far through Space Dandy has endeared me to the characters more than I am consciously aware of. It’s been such a wonderful and whacky journey that I’ve become completely enthralled by every and anything Dandy-related. That’s not to say that it’s secretly a terrible show and I’m just biased from watching so long! It’s just that all the build-up and fluid characterization thus far (shifting from serious!Dandy to baka!Dandy from week to week) has really paid off.

Seriously though…Fuck that train, man. They could have had something special.

NOOOOOOOOO

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.