Review: Space Dandy “The Search for the Phantom Space Ramen, Baby”

So, how far will Dandy go for the best tasting ramen? Find out after the jump!

Spoilers Below

We start out at The Arc, where Dandy is trying to register an alien, to no avail. So, He’s out of luck. Dr. Gel is looking for Dandy, and from the sound of it, he will find him soon. Back on Dandy’s ship, he’s trying to find something to eat, and finds that Meow ate it all. He tries to jettison Meow out, but Meow buys his way back in with info on a ramen shop that is second to none. Back at Boobies, Dandy and Meow are drooling over a girl. They find a lead to go to the Menya Noodle Galaxy, but the Phantom Ramen isn’t there. Dr. Gel finally gets his lead on Dandy, while Dandy and company are on their way to Ramen Nebula. They run into a hiccup; they have no cash to pay. Dandy spots a girl,and he tries to woo the girl into buying the ramen. This gets broken up by a gang shooting at Dandy. The girl gets her ramen blown up, and steps in to defeat the guys. Her name is Scarlet, and she is whooping some ass.

Apparently, those were Dr. Gel’s men that got beat. Meanwhile, Dandy is at Andramenda, where more of Gel’s men show up, same with Gold Medal Noodlist. After losing Dandy again, Gel sends his entire fleet after Dandy. After stealing Meow’s phone, they realize that they’ve been followed because of Meow’s checking in. They end up at their next stop, where they order Double High Greasy Towers, and Meow almost has an orgasm, because this is THE Phantom Ramen. So, of course, Dandy needs to find out what’s in it. It wasn’t a cooker that had the ramen, it was a wormhole, transported to another dimension. Where they got crapped out, they found the ramen shop where their ramen came from. We get the story of how he got to Earth, which was kind of detaching from the story. QT tells them to hurry up, so they don’t get stuck. Dandy got to eat the ramen, where Meow missed it.  They make it back just in time.

So, last episode ends with a blinding white light, and this episode does absolutely nothing to explain it. That’s kind of bad story telling, because they’re using parts of last week’s episode, but glossing over everything else.

As for the episode, it’s great. The fact that Dandy and Meow are going across space to get the best tasting bowl of ramen is a fantastic plot device for this, because it’s zany and off the wall, just like the show. The interaction between Meow and Dandy is classic, especially at the end. I enjoyed how Dandy ragged on Meow for not getting to try the fresh ramen, because of how he ate Dandy’s ship dry. This show is great, because it’s a very light hearted anime, especially compared to shows like Bleach.

Boobies shows up again, but this time, in a much shorter scene. Going forward, I have a feeling a lot of the comedy here is coming through Boobies. That’s perfectly okay with me, because it reminds me of Hooters. I also see a lot more humor in general coming, which is going to be great as well. All in all, another fantastic episode, even though it doesn’t give us anything to work on to give us a conclusion for last week’s episode.