What They Say:
Space Dandy is a dandy guy in space! This dreamy adventurer with a to-die-for pompadour travels across the galaxy in search of aliens no one has ever laid eyes on. Each new species he discovers earns him a hefty reward, but this dandy has to be quick on his feet because it’s first come first served! Accompanied by his sidekicks, a rundown robot named QT and Meow the cat-looking space alien, Dandy bravely explores unknown worlds inhabited by a variety aliens. Join the best dressed alien hunter in all of space and time as he embarks on an adventure that ends at the edge of the universe!
The Review:
Audio:
The audio presentation for this release is quite good as we get the original Japanese language track in stereo as well as the English language mix, which is bumped up to 5.1, and both of which are encoded using the Dolby TrueHD lossless codec. The series is one that works the forward soundstage well with some fun placement at times with the dialogue and sounds while also hitting up the action-oriented moments in a way that uses it in a wider range, which comes across better in the 5.1 mix because of the greater reach. The show is largely like most series when it comes to its dialogue in that it has a kind of full feeling, but there are some good moments where it’s got more depth and is built up with more impact. The non-dialogue aspects work well with the variety of situations that are engaged with and how there’s a lot of different types of creatures, vehicles and effects to work with to ramp it up even more. It’s a very solid track that definitely works well and comes across cleanly and clearly throughout with no problems such as dropouts or distortions during regular playback.
Video:
Originally airing in 2014, the transfer for this TV series is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 in 1080p using the AVC codec. The thirteen episode show is spread across two discs in a surprising ten/three format as usually you don’t get that many on a disc, especially for a new and very active show. Animated by Bones, the show is one that is rich in colors, details and fluidity of animation that is just beautiful and rarely used for a series of this particular nature. The quality of the animation definitely leaps above what we’ve seen before in streaming or broadcast quality and it just looks great here with a rich variety to the colors that are solid and layered, details that are sharp and problem free and a solidity that carries through well and makes for a visually striking presentation. It looks like every bit of the cost of the production has made it into the animation and the transfer captures it just as it should.
Packaging:
After the limited edition variations we had for the first half of the show, this one is going to be a bit weaker no matter what with only a regular edition available. The release comes with a slipcover that mirrors the Blu-ray case itself and it definitely works well. The front cover is pretty fun as we get Dandy and his cohort rocking out from the episode where they form a band. It’s got a pretty neat color palette to it that stands out well to make the show look unique. The look overall is pretty strong with the logo design and the layout, making it an appealing looking cover. The back cover goes with a brighter blue that gives it all a lot of pop, especially when combined with the yellow text that’s used. We also get a great image of Honey along the right that’s really sexy. The premise is well covered and the extras are listed in a clean fashion though the thinness of the font and the yellow makes it a tad difficult to read at times. The bottom brings out a good strip of shots from the show and a detailed technical grid that covers both formats. The reverse side of the cast brings out a great reversible cover that has two pieces of big Hawaiian style artwork with Honey on the left and Dandy on the right as he leans on a palm tree against the moonlight.
Menu:
The menu design for this release is pretty straightforward and expected as we essentially get the whole screen given over to clips from the show. It has some fun pieces with the characters but also shows off some of the starfield material as well as the ships and the like. The logo is kept along the top while the menu navigation along the bottom is quick and easy with no problems in getting around. One big plus for this release for me is that this includes a marathon play option, which runs for three and a half hours on the first disc and just an hour on the second. This just keeps you moving from situation to situation in a fun way and it also makes it easy to really just settle in and watch a whole lot of it in a row.
Extras:
Extras for this release largely mirror what we had with the first set and that’s a good thing. We get the Japanese language version of the DVD and Blu-ray commercials, the TV spots and the clean versions of the opening and closing sequences, all the usual kinds of basics that I appreciate being included. For the English language original materials, we get a pair of new commentary tracks from the team behind the show that’s definitely fun to listen to as they give you a little more insight into the show and the dubbing process for it. The big extra is the Dandy Guy in Space piece which brings the production team and cast in to talk at length about the show. It clocks in around thirty-two minutes and definitely brings a good view of how the show was put together for the dub.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The first season of Space Dandy was one that took a bit getting used to with what it presented since I hadn’t really dealt with a show like that in some time. Working with an episodic outlandish comedy with an array of great directors and creators involved in it, there’s a lot that you can really dig into and pretty much write white papers about with what’s presented at times. The second season essentially continues on what we had before and just runs with a host of really amusing situations, twists, turns, and silliness. It does bring it to a two episode finale that in a way kind of explains things, but I mostly just loved that the show resets things to zero with each episode. It is a show that you really need to break up and not marathon, though, which was my only downside with it in watching it over the course of a single day.
For the most part, the premise of the second season is the same as Dandy, QT and Meow go off on various adventures to find rare aliens that they can bring back. There’s a good bit of variety to it and even some great surreal adventures that just amps up the fun. The opening episode in particular really does this as Dandy, every conscious of weird things in his life, pulls a string dangling from his hair and ends up visiting numerous parallel dimensions with QT and Meow where they see how Dandy could have turned out. It’s a great multiverse story that serves to show Dandy in a lot of different forms. I really, really loved the whole space trucker side since they did it up in the big glammed out truck like we get from a lot of movies. There’s something so strangely and utterly Japanese about it. But the variety of the situations works great and there’s a whole lot of snark and fun to it.
Another fun version of Dandy that we get later in the season has him hooking up with Johnny, the commander of the Jaicro military. Johnny is looking to see if he can be something more in his life and the two end up forming a band together. It’s an entire riff on the music industry, beautifully directed by Sayo Yamamoto, which just takes it in a lot of weird and zany situations. Rock n’ roll episodes have their own rhythm to it and they play it well here as the two connect in a way that artistic types can from time to time. There’s drama, hilarious moments and some great stage performances that just elevates the whole thing. The beauty of Dandy is the ability to repurpose him so easily for every situation and this one just runs with it in a very big and fun way. Naturally, there’s a bit of a bigger issue that comes into play because of Johnny’s background, but that just adds spice to the situation as a whole.
The other standalone episode that made a really big impression on me is the “Lovers Are Trendy, Baby” episode. This one goes with a very predictable idea where Scarlet hires Dandy to pretend to be her boyfriend on a vacation world in order to get her ex-boyfriend Dolph to leave her alone and move on. It’s a standard setup, but it executes it so beautifully with the two of them on the pleasure planet as they do all sorts of activities together over the week, all while Dolph in his old school mecha watches on in the background. It naturally devolves into confrontation and there is a whole lot to like there, but the beauty of it is that they do manage to really and truly make you feel that Dandy and Scarlet could have a future together. In the space of a single episode, they’re able to show this with depth and beauty and even make it an utterly heartbreaking sequence towards the end with the almost could have been aspect of it. It may even be my favorite episode of the series as a whole with what it does here in humanizing both of them.
Where the show really won me over the most though and played nicely into my comics wheelhouse is with the final two episodes. The penultimate episode is one that barely features Dandy and focuses on him in court for the murder of a rare alien that he was after. it’s a wonderful send up of any number of legal procedural properties out there and there are some very specific gags that various audiences will get with it. Playing with the nature of a court in this kind of setting and experience means it can go all over the place and just the comedy of how the two lawyers work and the cast that’s paraded through it is wonderful, from the wife of the victim to the kids that have a weird connection thanks to an apparently hyperspace traveling baseball. It goes into weird areas and I absolutely loved that it brought things back to Meow’s whole net surfing and social media side as well.
The finale serves up a lot of great material even though Dandy is a smaller player in it until the second half or so. Having Dr. Gel finally get his hands on Dandy after another series of near acquisitions over the course of this season, it turns into a whole torture thing while everyone from throughout the series of any note comes back to try and help rescue him. This lets Scarlet, Honey, and others to really show their stuff and have a lot of fun with big action sequences. It’s almost over the top animation in a way, but what we get is essentially every bit of the budget on screen and it’s absolutely glorious with the quality of it. It runs in so many different directions that it’s an overload of the senses. The series has always been strong its animation and designs, and the shifts throughout it have been fantastic. This is a great capstone episode.
And like a lot of finales, it also goes in a big way with the story. What drew me to it as it went on and moved away from Dr. Gel and to the whole sorta behind the scenes premise of the show. Bringing Dandy into a god-like arena and making him a unique element in the universe that’s able to transcend parallel worlds and the like is a lot of fun. It basically makes it clear why we had the resets in each episode as well with all the variations we’ve seen. A lot of this reminded me of the old Animal Man comics in a way with the multiverse and what it is that Dandy is capable of becoming should he want to. I loved the banter between the players at this stage and the ties to everything that came before. It also serves to take all that we had and does a large reset once again, making it so we can easily get more of this property. Which I’m pretty game for.
In Summary:
Comedy series are are to pull off and harder to make enjoyable across the entire run. Space Dandy works a lot of very different situations across the second season with some great creative forces involved to bring out some unique ideas and situations. Even when it plays to familiar stories it does it with such style and confidence that you have to love it. It’s definitely a bit of an acquired taste with what it does, but you can also just wholly appreciate it for the animation quality itself. And it’s striking so much of the time and especially towards the end. This set brings everything together in a solid way with a lot of laughs, a lot of great animation and a solid technical presentation that will delight. It’s easily a show that you can revisit often, show off particular episodes of to folks and discover new things about each time you watch it.
Features:
Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0 Language, English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Language, English Subtitles, Dead Guy in Space: Part 02, Episode Commentary (19, 26)
Content Grade: B+
Audio Grade: B+
Video Grade: A-
Packaging Grade: B+
Menu Grade: B
Extras Grade: B
Released By: FUNimation
Release Date: September 22nd, 2015
MSRP: $64.98
Running Time: 325 Minutes
Video Encoding: 1080p AVC
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Widescreen
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
