English Dub Review: Space Dandy: Never-Ending Dandy, Baby

 

Spoilers Below

Wow.

Seriously, that is what’s coming to mind after watching this.  THIS was the way to wrap up a series. They didn’t just provide a big adventure for the show to go out on. This episode took literally 2 seasons worth of random stories and sometimes even mind-numbing stuff and wrapped it into a bundle of logic, stringing everything together and making it all fit and make the scene. That is what a finale should do and this episode sent Dandy off with it’s the best episode of the series.

The story of this episode is the rescue of Dandy from the Gogol Empire. This leads to Honey and Scarlett joining QT and Meow in trying to rescue him, but also Johnny and the Jaicro Empire launching an attack to stop the Gogol’s from using Dandy to power their ultimate weapon of destruction. This ultimately leads to the destruction of all existence and the explanations of Dandy, the multiple universes, the seemingly random things that happen to Dandy and his friends, and even GOD.

Makes it sound so simple, doesn’t it?

Character-wise this wrapped up several character arcs that have transpired during the season as we find out that Dr. Gel and Dr. Bea were after Dandy for his Pyonium all the time, however, Dr. Bea was actually a spy for the Jaicro Empire. He shoots Dr. Gel in the back and tries to take control of Dandy and the weapon for himself, much Admiral Perry’s surprise. Gel doesn’t due, not only getting revenge on Bea, but also helping Dandy try to save the universe. As for Admiral Perry, we later find out that the Admiral has been an illusion all this time, and during the final battle between the rulers, he reveals himself to Johnny as just a short middle-aged guy with grey hair. I can’t say I recall ANY hints of these things coming to a head like this, save for a small smirk from Dr. Bea when the Jaicro empire started their attack earlier in the episode. THIS was the moment the evil characters needed all this time. At least in this last go around they finally not only got screen time, but they also played more than just bumbling comic foil. Great stuff with this.

Although it was somewhat explained in the last episode, we get a more detailed explanation of just what Pyonium is and what it does. It is a particle in which you can use the cosmic threads (Remember those?) to jump between the dimensions.  It can cause random events to occur and the only one who has mastered it was Dandy. So all the random quirky stuff that has happened like Dandy being stuck in a time loop on Meows homeworld or QT becoming a giant robot? Pyonium.

However the really interesting aspect of the show that is explained? The Narrator. Turns out the Narrator gags during the show weren’t just gags. The voice it turns out is GOD. God has been watching over the universe for 14.8 billion years. He has been watching over Dandy this whole series (thus explaining why he’s been part of the show) and also briefly as a Chameleonian (the one from the Honey episode?). We find out all those times that Dandy has mentioned being a surfer, truck driver, and all that were actually true. Dandy can be in all universes at the same time even if he doesn’t know it.  After Dandy causes the collapse of ALL the universes, God offers Dandy a chance to be the successor to him and be the god of the new universe.

Dandy turns him down because he wouldn’t have a body to go to Boobies with.

Dandy had an amazing episode here as well. He did show a lot of the typical Dandy attitude, like not having a clue what Pyonimum was (He can’t even say it), and being driven that last little bit to save his friends by a shot of Honey’s thong panties, but at the same time we saw something amazing in him when after his friends come to save him, he then goes to sacrifice himself to make sure they wouldn’t be in danger anymore. This is probably the single most selfless moment of Dandy in the entire run and showed that while he may outwardly get annoyed with them sometimes, he really does care about his friends a lot and didn’t want them to be in any more danger because of him. Not sure if obliterating the universe helped that any, but he didn’t know that.

In the end, the new universe is formed, and 14.8 billion years later, we start right back (although with some changes) to the beginning of the series all over again.

The art and visuals in this episode were amazing! The battle scenes on the Gogol world were great and well-done space battle scenes that could stand up to any Gundam series. The animation for such things as the universe coming apart and ESPECIALLY the scene were Dandy flies off to destroy the weapon, blew me away. This show since day 1 has been about the visual and this topped everything they have done. Sure there were a few spots of the lesser detailed “Naruto” animation, BUT they were used sparsely and not for important character scenes. The robots and tech looked great in this show and even the trippy stuff looked above what this show has ever produced.

The pacing and the storytelling for this ep were top notch. There was jumping around from the different points of view, and while the action was fast and heavy, it wasn’t ADHD/editor-having-a-seizure jumping. You knew what was going on every step of the way. This crew did a superb job of telling this story, showing all the action, And being able to explain so much in the past of this show and what lead to this finale. Hell, within the first 10 minutes of the show I knew it was an amazing episode and one I was glued to during the entire 30 minutes. They didn’t dick around or waste time. They put everything they could story-wise into this and it fits well. They even had time to mix in some of the typical Dandy humor and references in it. The Jaicro giant robot was a big reference to Ideon, Dr. Gel’s ship was a giant statue of Liberty with a ball gag in her mouth, and the “Here’s Johnny!” line as Johnny enters the fight with Admiral Perry made me laugh. I think however having Dandy get that one final push, that one last bit of energy to save the universe, all from a panty shot of Honey’s thong was the one that caps it all off. It was a big-time episode, but not so big that it forgot just what kind of show it is. Perfect.

What can I say to wrap up a show like this? This was like Space Dandy cranked to 11 and a finale this show can be proud of. It took a show of two seasons of foolishness and insanity and actually put a real logic behind all of it. As it was doing this, it was delivering a damn good action show and a hell of a wrap up to this series. I’d not put it on the level of Akira or Mizyazki, or even other finales like Sailor Moon or Cowboy Bebop, but for what this show was, the crew really went out with a bang and produced THE best ending they could give a series like this.

Aloha, Baby!