Notes of Space Dandy Episode 6

Really? Most peoples’ hearts would bleed for a Saturday

Last week on Space Dandy, Dandy helped a small alien girl find her long-lost granddad.

Summary of Space Dandy Episode 6:

On the search for new alien species, Dandy and his crew happen upon a moon that is in a state of war. After crash landing on the moon, Dandy and Meow go in search for alien species while QT fixes the ship. Both Meow and Dandy are found by different aliens; one who wears underpants and one who wears a vest. These two aliens are the last ones of their respective species, and are at war with each other, and their war prompts Meow and Dandy to turn against each other as well. Realizing that they need the aliens to be alive to be registered, QT arranges a peace conference against the two species. However, things go sour, both aliens kill themselves, and they blow up the moon, forcing Dandy to surf the debris to save Meow and return to the Aloha Oe.

Those might be the lowest standards I’ve ever heard of

This episode came out of nowhere (well, more so than others). Dandy and Meow get pinned against each other in a war against two similar species who don’t even know why they’re fighting to begin with? I don’t know, that’s a little too odd, even for this series to pull off. But does it work? Well, that’s debatable; yes, this episode had the right blend of humor and story, but the aliens that Dandy and Meow are siding with gave me little to no investment. We don’t know about their backgrounds or how their war started, and Dandy and Meow seemed way too eager to help them wage the war rather than taking them to the registration center.

The circumstances surrounding this war, however, did provide a small bit of humor. One alien wears underpants and the other wears a vest, and both are vehemently opposed to the opposite side’s willingness to wear their preferred article of clothing. So the show was able to pull off a little bit of fan service with Dandy as he spends this whole episode in nothing but his underpants.

But fan service aside, this just didn’t feel like the Dandy that we’ve seen in previous episodes. I would have guessed at the halfway mark of the episode that the two aliens were going to try to duke it out while Meow and Dandy tried to stop them and force them to go onto their ship to get registered. I never would have guessed that Dandy and Meow would become so invested in a conflict they knew little to nothing about to the point where they turn on each other in the name of the alien who just happened to come across them. It just doesn’t seem like Dandy to pass up an opportunity to let two undiscovered species (who, mind you, were the last ones of their kind) harm themselves when he could get a big, fat reward.

Space Dandy is a dandy with fisticuffs!

Granted, near the end of the episode, Dandy and Meow do try to hold a peace conference which seems to go smoothly, but it was all thanks to QT. Dandy didn’t even try to prevent the carnage that unfolded because he and Meow started fighting again. It’s funny when Dandy comes so close to catching a break but suddenly losing it (or letting it go), but here it seemed a tad bit unnecessary. It felt as though the entire ordeal Dandy went through was for naught, which was disappointing.

Maybe it was to show how frail people are, or how we can jump to stupid conclusions based on little evidence. But that assumption is a long shot. A show that sells itself on being over-the-top stupidity probably won’t take a 180 and start to preach a message of understanding. Then again, maybe I’m just thinking too far into it. It should be worth nothing that, although I do have a lot of seemingly negative quips about this episode, I still enjoyed the hell out of it. It’s funny, it’s stupid, it’s Space Dandy. It just stands out as the weakest episode at this moment.

You know what? He really does forget a lot of things

“The War of the Undies and Vests, Baby” delivers what the name promises. Although I think it’s the black sheep of the series at the moment, it’s still a nice addition. If nothing else, the whole episode is worth it for the ending where Dandy rescues Meow and space-surfs on the particles of the moon that the two were just standing on. And yes, that is just as great as it sounds.