More fun or more devastating, depending on context
Last time on Space Dandy Season 2, Dandy disco danced until a planet exploded.
He also pretended to be Scarlet’s boyfriend to make her ex jealous, but the two of them discovered they actually might have something between them.
Summary of Space Dandy Season 2 Episode 11
- A 2-dimensional universe has warped into the 3-dimensional universe, and Dr. Gel gets sucked into it. Later, Dandy finds an ex-girlfriend of his named Catherine who is from a 4-dimensional universe. She tells him that the man she left him for, Paul, is responsible for warping the 2-dimensional universe. Dandy then gets the idea that in order to send that universe back to where it came from, he has to destroy the power source. Dr. Gel figures this out, too, and destroys it before Dandy does. However, this launched Dr. Gel into a 1-dimensional universe, and ultimately into a 0-dimensional universe. Dandy then learns that there is no secret to warping.
My Take
- After last week’s fantastic episode where Dandy found love, we’re continuing delving into Dandy’s love life by bringing a four-dimensional woman from Dandy’s past who he was romantically involved with. This woman is… a box. Yeah, Dandy used to date a box.
No, it could have just used the internet for that
- This episode is definitely much more abstract than last week’s. For one, it deals with other dimensions. Then it gets into dimensional shifts. A 2-dimensional universe intersects with our 3-dimensional universe because of a 1-dimensional universe being held captive, and it’s all because of the jealousy for a 4-dimensional woman… er, box. Yeah, this one was a huge head-scratcher.
- But that doesn’t mean it was bad. I’m not saying that in the slightest. I actually liked this episode a lot, despite it being a real head-scratcher. One subtle aspect of the episode that I found funny was how serious this whole situation was played. If any normal person were to observe this, they’d laugh at the notion that Dandy used to date a box (box-woman, I know, but it’s much more fun to say “Dandy used to date a box”, okay?). However, everything here was taken as a hard-hitting drama, as if we weren’t supposed to care that she is a box. That alone is pretty funny.
- One aspect I found to be a little bland though was Catherine, the woman Dandy used to date. She didn’t really have any sort of personality, so it was hard to get excited whenever she said or did anything. If anything, she was just there to give Dandy a reason to send the 2-dimensional universe away from his universe. She was literally just a box with a heart, so we couldn’t see any of her emotions or reactions (besides one point near the end where she cries). The idea of Dandy having an ex-girlfriend who’s a strange alien is pretty neat, but did they have to make it a box with no personality? That was a little disappointing.
- Another disappointing area was with the 2-dimensional universe. We never really got to see it very well. This would have been a grand opportunity to make the cast of Space Dandy mimic retro video game, like maybe Dragon Warrior or the original Legend of Zelda, throughout the whole episode. Instead, we see a short snippet of Dr. Get emulating a generic 2D space-shooter game. It was a funny scene, but it only left me wishing there were more moments like that. We didn’t even get to see 2D Dandy, which was also disappointing.
Oh, what could have been…
- But the episode is saved by the hilarious antics of Dr. Gel. He finally becomes a greater focus in this episode. Granted, we don’t know anything about why he’s chasing Dandy (a subplot that’s all but been scrapped), he delivers some great laughs through his pursuit of scientific anomalies. In many ways, the main focus really should have been on Dr. Gel as he explores the 2-dimensional universe.
Oh, no! The animation budget ran out again!
- “An Other-Dimensional Tale, Baby” certainly could have been a better episode, but it’s by no means the worst addition to the Space Dandy series. The idea of an old girlfriend showing up 10 years down the line is a good idea, especially for the characters we have grown to love in this series. If Catherine had a more relatable personality and a more thought-out design, it may have worked better. At the very least, this episode had some great ideas and a good plot, but never realized its full potential.
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Ben
21 year old university student studying economics by day, snooty anime blogger by night! I have high standards for anime, but I also keep an open mind when it comes to shows outside my comfort area, which usually includes dialogue-heavy drama. Always happy to have a discussion.
Latest posts by Ben (see all)
- Notes of Space Dandy Season 2 Episode 11 - September 18, 2014
- Notes of Space Dandy Season 2 Episodes 9 + 10 - September 10, 2014
- Anime Worth Watching August 2014 - August 29, 2014
- Notes of Space Dandy Season 2 Episodes 7 + 8 - August 26, 2014
- Notes of Space Dandy Season 2 Episode 6 - August 13, 2014
