How can I best describe Space Dandy? Space Dandy is basically the anime the Internet would produce, if it had free license. Space Dandy follows the interstellar adventures of Space Dandy, a bounty hunter who finds and retrieves rare extraterrestrials from across the galaxy. Joining him on his quest are QT, his trusty robotic spaceship pilot/engineer/vacuum cleaner, and the lifeform known as Meow, a Betelgeusian alien (who resembles a walking, talking, oversized earth cat and is generally treated as such). Together, they get involved in mishaps and misadventures in their quest for more cash and food to fill their bellies.

It has zero continuity, it’s stuffed full of references and recognisable stereotypes, it’s near constant in its stream of parodic humour, and is often incredibly immature. It’s also HIGHLY watchable. Boob jokes notwithstanding, the humour is divided between genuine situational comedy and referential parody. And it’s not afraid to reference ANYTHING. Film, anime, comics, manga, politics, history, sci-fi literature; it’s all fair game. And it knows what it’s doing. Hell, one episode is given over entirely to a Day of the Dead parody – and then mutates into something else entirely, taking the piss out of the stringent nature of life insurance policies and Yakult, of all things.

It’s also capable of doing incredibly deep stories – My personal favourites so far are: the episode done in a completely different art style, where Dandy gets trapped on a planet inhabited by sentient plants. The aliens really do look VERY alien here; the episode where they stop by Meow’s home planet, which suspiciously resembles a Japanese backwater town, where Meow faces up to the life he left behind and realises it’s not so bad (also it’s a Groundhog Day parody); The episode where QT falls in love with a coffee maker, and gets caught up in a robot revolution where he must decide between love and doing the right thing.

There’s already been two series of it produced and it has a good history behind it, being created by Watanabe Shinichiro (Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo). If you’re into light-hearted comedy that never lets its foot off the pedal, and you love a bit of reference humour, this is the show for you… Baby.

M.