English Dub Review: Space Dandy “There’s Always Tomorrow, Baby”

Dandy and crew were set in a time loop! Find out what happens after the jump!

Spoilers!

The narrator starts us off  by retelling us about the war between the Golgol Empire and the Jaicro Empire and it’s a big deal. The Jaicro just deployed their superweapon, ALE. Admiral Perry decides to use it’s experimental weapon, CORE. Dr Gel pleads with Perry not to use it, because the Pyonium control is still not complete. Perry wants to put fear in the Jaicro, but it just blows itself up. The resulting blast sends the pure Pyonium energy clear across the universe. After the somewhat dreadful Japanese opening, The Aloha-Oe has a mechanical problem, and they have to go to Planet Betelgeuse, home planet of Meow. Meow does everything he can to not go, but Dandy goes anyway. They land, and the planet looks like a Brazilian favela. They go inside his home, but Mew’s mom is ill prepared for the added guests.

This just turns into one embarrassing thing after another for Meow, including his brothers playing tug-of-war with QT. Everyone just seems so hospitable here. Everything is rather peaceful, and boring. That’s also why Meow decided to leave home. We see Meow’s dad go into the family factory, and we get a bit of backstory on how as the first born, Meow is supposed to take over the factory. That’s another reason why he decided to leave. We also meet Katie, Queen of her class, and Meow’s huge crush. She is a server at the bar they’re at, and is always being hit on.  That doesn’t really fly with Meow, but he just sits there. After a bit, his dad walks in, and they talk about Boobies. They go home, just to wake up to the same day, all over again. And this is just a repeat of all the day’s events. Yep, you guessed it, the Pyonium blast caused all of Planet Betelgeuse to go into a Groundhog Day scenario. It caused a Moebius, causing time to loop itself. So, after 108 loops, Pinhead, Blockhead, and Bonehead, they started getting clues that they were all living the same day over and over. They think it’s a sixth sense at first, until the narrator breaks the fourth wall, and tells them it’s a time loop.

So, after Meow snaps on the barkeep, and Dandy realizing he will never get to see Boobies again, they rush to fix the problem. Meow runs into a couple more friends from school. They have a car that can go into space, so Dandy steals it, and he blows it up. They run the loop for a few days, with Meow ending up helping at the factory. So, Meow is having his rewarding drink after a day of work, and Dandy brings Meow’s friends in. They give him a way to figure out how to fix it, and that being Wahoo Answers. They ask what should they do since tomorrow won’t come, and they get torched by internet trolls.

Dandy tries to tear the page off of the calendar, and he isn’t even close to. This starts the battle between man and paper calendar. They shoot everything at it, including a rocket launcher. When nothing works, they end up back at the bar, where Meow awkwardly hits on Katie, who shuts him down, because she’s a lesbian, with the bar lady. This sends Meow into a fervor. He takes a chainsaw to the calendar, which does nothing. Meow’s dad comes back, and offers to help out. They take it to the factory, and he gets to work on tearing off the page in the calendar. They get it taken off, and they all celebrate. Meow, Dandy, and QT make their way to their ship, but Meow has a pretty bittersweet send off from the family.

Well, here’s another long review, because of another huge run of exposition. However, instead of a  boring, Lord of the Rings feel, this was fun. There were engaging moments, and most of them revolved around Dandy, Meow, and QT together. That is what makes this funny. Those three characters split off for most of the episode is what kills the humor that drives the show.

I really hope we see more of Meow’s family, because they were really organic and a different breed for the series. Meow’s dad was awesome, and to be honest, I don’t have a reason. He’s just a blue collar guy, who works everyday. What got me rolling, however, was the awkward flirting and joking marriage proposal between Katie and Meow. It floored me, because it was hilarious, and that she was with the very homely barkeep, Mama. The selling point of this episode, was the Narrator, though. From the opening line, when he just casually reminds us about the Golgol and Jaicro war, you knew that it was going to be different for him. Then he gives us a bit of story about the Pyonium blast, and again, when he finally breaks the fourth wall and lays into Dandy and company. It was something that hasn’t happened, and I wouldn’t mind more. This episode is almost up there with, ” The War of the Undies and Vests, Baby,” as best of the season.