Making a pact like this with Dandy isn’t a good idea…
Last time on Space Dandy Season 2, Dandy found a mysterious Couldian, but couldn’t register it because it lost its cloud.
Summary of Space Dandy Season 2 Episode 7
- The commander-in-chief of the Jaicro Empire, Johnny, is closely monitoring the Gogol Empire, when all the sudden he gets the urge to leave. We find out that he wants to become a famous musician rather than a commander-in-chief. He then, by chance, meets up with Dandy and his crew and starts a band with them called “Dropkix”. Dandy and Johnny don’t get along well, nor do they even practice, but they finally get a gig where they only play one song for hours. This leads them to getting a record contract and the chance to play their debut gig, but Johnny must go away to deal with the Gogol Empire. At the time the Jaicro Empire was about to launch an attack on the Gogol Empire, Johnny ducks out and decides to play the gig with Dandy with disastrous results, but also averts a war with the Gogol Empire.
My Take
- In a surprising twist, this is the one Space Dandy episode so far that has even attempted to try to tie in the Gogol Empire into the series. It doesn’t do a particularly good job at that, but it does deliver one of the strongest comedic outputs of the season so far.
… but at least he’s thinking about putting actual effort into something
- The main premise of this episode was something I knew I would love from the start; Dandy starting a band. Seriously, this is perfect, and I only question why this wasn’t attempted earlier. From the beginning, I could tell that the band wouldn’t get anything done, and my suspicions were confirmed in a hilarious sequence of events.
- The story involves Johnny, the young commander-in-chief of the Jaicro Empire, which is the empire opposite of the Gogol Empire. All throughout the episode, the threat of war was looming over his head, and for whatever reason, he decided that he didn’t really want to deal with it, so he went off to form a band with (who else but) Dandy and his crew. Not only that, but their band helped save the galaxy from a massive war between the two empires. Go figure.
Up next on Behind the Music; Dropkix!
- We don’t know much about Johnny. In fact, this is the first time we’ve ever had any information on the Jaicro Empire. All we get to know about them is that they are opposed to the Gogol Empire, and are teetering on the brink of war with them. Actually, we pretty much know the exact same amount about both sides as of this point! It just baffles me as to why they’d go ahead and add a subplot about an intergalactic war, but not ever expand upon it.
- Nevertheless, Johnny is pretty cool. He’s like Dandy… if Dandy were a little less egotistical. Naturally, these two should get along, but don’t. They spend all their time fighting over the most trivial stuff, which is pretty funny. Their bickering takes the limelight, but QT and Meow have some good supporting roles as the drummer and bassist of the band, respectively. They kind of represent the two “level-headed” members of the band who actually care about the music over egos, drugs, and women.
- Making Dandy the singer was a great idea, especially since he only sings at the end of the episode in one of the most glorious endings I could have hoped for. If you thought Dandy and Johnny’s bickering would stop when they hit the stage for their debut concert, you were so wrong. They both set themselves on fire! It was amazing!
Legendary last gig? If it’s so legendary, I doubt it’ll be the last
- The whole episode was like “High School Garage Band Simulator 2014″, in that all the band ever really did was argue, try to think up a name, and hardly even try to write songs. Dandy and Johnny didn’t even attempt to get along, and both of them were too set on all aspects of the music industry other than the music. In may ways, this was an amazing critique of music in this day and age.
- In the end, it turns out that Dandy helped save the universe from certain war through the power of rock n’ roll. Go figure.
- “Rock n’ Roll Dandy, Baby” is another excellent addition into what is turning out to be a superb season. With such original works being put out every week, it’s a true wonder on what will come next. Since they’ve opened the possibility that we’ll see more about the Jaicro Empire in the future, I’ll foolishly hold out hope that they’ll become a factor yet again. Then again, maybe this episode is all we’ll ever see of them.
Summary of Space Dandy Season 2 Episode 8
- Dandy wakes up alone in a strange place, only to find that everything around him is surreal and makes no sense. He wanders around for a bit and meets some strange creatures who help give him a tour of the planet he’s woken up on. He tries to get into contact with his crew, but they don’t answer. After a while, Dandy then realizes the startling fact that he has died. He doesn’t accept that, and tries to fix it. He meets a woman who is the only other living being on the planet, and she decides to let Dandy return to the land of the living because she fell in love with him.
My Take
- Episode 7 might have been a hilarious episode, but this one is far from that. Episode 8 is somewhat depressing. Although it is kind of a downer, it’s surprisingly one of the best the series has to offer.
No, that’s a stomach
- First off, this is a weird episode. Maybe you don’t realize just how weird it is, so let me proclaim this; it’s easily the weirdest in the series so far. The main premise here is that Dandy accidentally died in an accident and his soul was teleported to a mysterious, abstract planet where everything seems wrong and everyone talks about death. It’s not revealed that Dandy truly is dead until near the end, but I think it’s easy to pick up on that theme.
- The limbo that was set up here was actually amazing. Everything was so surreal, even for Space Dandy. Everything in this world was either super-detailed, or barely detailed at all. Everything was just wrong with the way this place was, and that made it so great.
- The real achievement of this episode, however, is the music. Even though a lot of the effects are just instruments with echoes, it still sounded great and complimented the strange mood perfectly. There were times where I felt the real hopelessness of Dandy’s confusion almost exclusively thanks to the musical additions. There’s a chance that these tracks wouldn’t be as good out of context, but I’ll be willing to take that chance if there’s ever an official soundtrack put out for this season.
I’ll say anything you want if you’ll just stop looking at me
- I’d compliment the character design in this episode, but it’s not too out of place from the amazing character design we’ve already seen throughout this series. Maybe everything in this episode is more abstract and exaggerated, but if this episode were to take place on some random planet and not an “afterlife” planet, nothing would really be too out of place. Okay, the bike-creature might be, but everything else looked fine. What a strange episode.
- The ending kind of confused me, though. Dandy got the opportunity to go back to the world of the living, but then in the last scene, he’s seen coming back to the Limbo. I probably shouldn’t look too far into it because of the lack of overall continuity, but I would still like for some sense to be made of it… kind of.
This is the real Emo Dandy
- ” A World with No Sadness, Baby” is actually kind of hard to talk about. I loved this episode, yet it was so odd that I feel I can’t talk about it for a long time. Everything about this episode clicked with me, and it held my attention very well. I can see this one being the black sheep of the series, and that’s fully understandable. To me, though, I think it’s just another great addition.
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Ben
20 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 Episodes 7 + 8 - August 26, 2014
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