Space online dating sites, you say? How futuristic
- Last week on Space Dandy, the crew went on a hunt for an elusive shape-shifting alien called a Chameleonian.
Summary of Space Dandy Episode 13
- Aboard the Aloha Oe, QT rants about how silly the notion of love is. Then, Dandy and the crew decide to relax at a coffee shop where QT meets a robotic coffee maker named Maker, and he starts to discover that he has feelings towards her. He then takes it upon himself to visit the shop every day and buy coffee that he does not need so he can interact with her. After a while, the two start to hit it off. QT takes her to see the city, but after that, she starts to develop feelings for him. Because of that, Maker along with the cash register she worked with are taken away to a landfill for robots who have developed feelings.
- QT then infiltrates the landfill in hopes to find Maker, and eventually does. However, the robots in the landfill soon take it upon themselves to revolt against the society that has imprisoned them in the form of a giant robot. Seeing that Maker developed feelings for the cash register instead of him, QT tries to stop the giant robot. He is struck with a blast of Pyonium energy and his body enlarges to the point where he can fight the giant robot, and eventually defeating it.
My Take
- We had an episode that helped establish Meow’s character a while back, and now we’ve finally been given the same with respects to QT in the form of a 23 day saga about how QT began to like drinking coffee. Who knew that a little robot could bring out so many emotions in me?
Even though he’s terrible at the art of flirting, you have to admire his ambition
- It’s not fair to compare the two episodes, though. Meow’s episode revolved around his personal feelings about leaving his family to see the universe, whereas QT’s story revolves around him (yes, HIM) finding love with a coffee maker named Maker. This love, however, is forbidden on this planet because once robots start developing complex emotions, they get scrapped because they become less efficient. It’s actually a good concept, and it does highlight one aspect that I’ve felt is sorely lacking from this anime; robots actually being characters. QT has shown us that in this world, artificial intelligence is possible… so why was there such a lack of robots from the series? Maybe it was a lost opportunity in hindsight, especially since I always loved the idea of there being robots with artificial intelligence, but I’m glad that they finally did more with robots.
- QT and Maker’s relationship was pretty sweet. I especially loved how overbearing QT became after he discovered that he could feel love. It was nice how he always just wanted to see Maker, and even went so far as to buy a load of coffee mix that nobody needed just so he could interact with her. He even abandoned the crew as they just lazed around the ship and wallowed in their own filth.
- Once QT got to the junkyard, then things got weird for me… in a good way. It turned into some sort of homage to Japanese monster movies with a giant QT doing battle with a giant amalgamation of robots who were bent on a revolution, all while destroying portions of the city they called their arena. As a huge fan of classic Japanese monster movies, this was a treat.
“Well, it’s just that we’re 13 episodes in, and we still don’t know why we’re in this series.”
- I think I finally figured it out; the entire purpose for the Gogol Empire in this series is to provide convenient plot-points. In Meow’s story, they provided a way for the time-loop that Dandy and his crew were caught in to exist, and in this episode, they accidentally made it possible for QT to become massive. The Gogol Empire might just be the unsung heroes of this series.
- I liked this episode, but it wasn’t the best robot love story ever. Also, did anyone else notice the slight similarities to WALL-E?
- I did have one question while watching this episode, though; why in the world did the manufacturers make a robot coffee maker (or any machine on this planet which seems to be robotic) and not want them to develop any sort of emotions? I mean, they gave their appliances artificial intelligence, but scrap them once they further develop emotions? It seems massively counterintuitive. I know that an automated coffee maker is convenient, but some appliances might be better off without being self-aware beings.
- So, I essentially learned two things from this episode;
- QT is a male robot.
- QT is also a vacuum cleaner.
Okay, vacuum cleaners don’t clean up discarded boxes and magazines, guys
- “Even Vacuum Cleaners Fall in Love, Baby” was a somewhat satisfying end to the series, but at the same time, it’s disappointing. It was satisfying because it was an episode about QT who had otherwise been brushed to the side in the scope of the series, but it was disappointing as a finale because there were so many loose ends that never got tied up. I guess you have to take the bad with the good, and fortunately there’s more good here than bad. If it wasn’t a satisfying end for you, just remember; there’s always season two!
