Episode 22: We’re All Fools, So Let’s All Dance, Baby

I still cannot believe how I started this blog back in February and I’m already at 160 posts! There have been some pretty well-told anime series on here, but Space Dandy stands out as a very rare show!  Different directors and animators each episode adds a refreshing component about adventures in space.

Taking an interlude from the philosophical drama of last week Space Dandy moves back into the comedy genre with some very distinctive animation similar to that of Akira and Steamboy.  The crew of the Aloha Oe arrive at Planet Grease where Dandy decides to enter a fixed dance competition to make some quickly-earned hard cash against an alien known as Tom Travolta.  Planet Grease, the album store clerk (with a surfer-sounding voice and a faucet handle as an arm), Tom Travolta ( a 70’s style manic with a multi-colored afro hairdo) dancing alien and human-like aliens with lengthy ears.  With 22 episodes in its repertoire Space Dandy has proven to be truly different in its character designs.

If there was any indication that Katsuhiro Otomo was a part of designing this episode it would be the grandmother. Old school hand drawn techniques identifies Otomo’s style.  The mix of Pyonium energy and the Dancingians  causing an explosion would be a scene taken straight out of Akira.  This show has given us an awe-inspiring creative vision at delivering episodic content!  The Dancigians were reminiscent of the supernatural lifeforms portrayed in Mushishi.

Nagahama’s Mushishi is a steady and straight-forward series at being consistent with its atmosphere while Space Dandy is a complete reversal-that tears down any kind of pre-conceived conventions it has set for itself!  Dandy turns into a zombie, he dies in an explosion, replaced by another version of himself, killed and brought to a place between life and death!  Now we’ve got an ending where the pyonium stored within him has caused a universal explosion only to be repeated hundreds of thousands of years later.  Bea tired of being blown up week after week questioning the reason why they are chasing after Dandy ultimately alludes to the fact that each episode illustrates a larger story in its entirety.  Insanely diverse and inventive and yet we learn so much about it’s major cast members.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: 10/10

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