Title: Space Dandy Season 2
Genre: Comedy, Sci-Fi, Space
Publisher: BONES (JP), Funimation (US)
Chief Director: Shinichiro Watanabe
Director: Shingo Natsume
Original Air Date: July 6, 2014
When Space Dandy debuted last winter, I couldn’t have been happier. I thought that the show, although flawed, had some of the best moments I had seen in any recent anime. The whole series was non-sequential, stupid, and unbelievably funny. However, when the first season abruptly ended in March after only completing 13 of its promised 26 episode run, I was more than a little disappointed. Maybe the hiatus helped, because when season two debuted in July, it was like reuniting with an old, dear friend who’s changed for the better.
The main story still focuses on Dandy and his two wacky companions, Meow and QT, and it logs his exploits in a glorious disregard for continuity. Unlike the first season where there were a couple of episodes that were necessary to give a little bit of backstory on each of the main characters, season two assumes that we already know every trivial detail about these characters and uses them to their full comedic abilities. This is great because the first episode seems to pick up exactly where the last episode of season one left off; absolutely nowhere.
Just like in season one where QT and Meow both got character arcs, season two sees the arcs of Scarlet and Honey. These two characters were almost essentially used as props until now, so it was great to finally see them become more fleshed out characters. Not only with Scarlet and Honey, but we finally got to understand the war that the Gogol Empire was waging, and why they were searching for Dandy. It was weird to finally watch this series attempt to have a plot, and it strangely worked out in its favor.
Although season 2 seems to have benefited from having much more creative ideas than season one did, that doesn’t mean it is immune from sub-par episodes. Throughout the entire season, it was clear that the people behind the show were throwing out every crazy idea they had. Although most of these episodes worked out for the better, some of them were almost too strange, specifically near the end of the run, specifically “An Other-dimensional Tale, Baby” and “Gallant Space Gentleman, Baby”. Both of these episodes seemed to be missing the elements that made Space Dandy a treat to watch in the first place.
However, a great aspect of the entire series, not just season two, is the abundance of great characters and great settings. It seems that the characters we meet, even for only one episode, were all memorable and likable, and sometimes relatable. Season two takes everything that was great in the previous season and runs with them, giving us new, bizarre characters on new, bizarre places. For example, in the first season, we meet a character that can change into anything he wants to, thus confusing everyone. That’s extremely abstract, however, in season two, we meet characters who exist in other dimensions. I’d say that a setting like that is much more abstract, and season two took more chances like that.
It’s easy to see why I feel that Space Dandy Season 2 is better than the first season. For one, the ideas are more outlandish. There is an episode where all Dandy did was try to catch a legendary fish. There was another one where he died and went to limbo. Just like the first season, the series’ biggest strength is in its oasis of strange ideas that are free to do whatever they please because of the lack of continuity. In this season, I knew from the start that there was going to be limited continuity, so my hopes for a continuous storyline didn’t get in the way of me enjoying what was presented. Was the delay of these episodes, subsequently repackaging them as a second season, worth it? Yeah, I suppose so. If season two didn’t exist and the show went for the full 26 episode run, there’s a good chance that it would have become stale after a while even though the quality is much better.
The last point that made me love this series was the music. Thankfully, the opening and ending stayed the same, and a lot of the music tracks were reused here. However, I noticed some new tracks used in season two that were downright amazing, specifically in the episodes “A World With No Sadness, Baby” and “We’re All Fools, So Let’s Dance, Baby”. Throughout the show, the music helped play a key part in immersing me in the show, and those two episodes were the standouts in that regard.
The future of Space Dandy is dubious. Despite fairly strong ratings and critical acclaim, nothing has been confirmed about the series’ future yet. If you’ve read my posts, then you already know that I would love to see more Space Dandy in the future, but only time will tell on that.
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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)
- Space Dandy Season 2 Review - October 6, 2014
- Notes of Space Dandy Season 2 Episode 13 - October 1, 2014
- Notes of Space Dandy Season 2 Episode 12 - September 23, 2014
- Notes of Space Dandy Season 2 Episode 11 - September 18, 2014
- Notes of Space Dandy Season 2 Episodes 9 + 10 - September 10, 2014
