Space Dandy Season 2

Overall, Worse Than Season 1

Space Dandy Season 2 (Space☆Dandy 2nd Season / スペース☆ダンディ 第2シリーズ) is more of a second cour than a second season. There’s not a real break between the 2 seasons in terms of content. And, there was only a 3-month gap between them airing.

Still, as you can tell from the title of this section, I didn’t think Season 2 was as good as Season 1. But, it would appear that I’m in the minority for thinking this. Apparently, most people rated Season 2 higher than Season 1.

I do see what people like about Season 2, though. It was more interesting visually. And the episodes were a lot more unique than any in Season 1. But, the big flaw with Season 2 is that it’s boring.

There’s not really an overarching plot in Space Dandy. The episodes are pretty random, even in Season 1. But, Season 2 took that randomness to the extreme. It felt like every episode was completely disconnected from every other episode. And many of these random episodes felt more like filler than anything else.

For example, there’s Episode 4, pictured above. In this episode, Dandy enrolls in a high school and the entire thing is a musical. It was a struggle to get through that episode. And the episodes on either side of that one are about as different from it as you can get.

In Season 1, the focus of the series was comedy. We saw Dandy, QT, and Meow in wacky situations because they were funny (for the most part). Season 2 takes a different approach. The episodes are even weirder, but they’re no longer funny. Instead, they try to tell unique stories in 22 minutes — and it doesn’t work.

There Was Definitely Potential

As I’ve already mentioned, there were good things about Space Dandy Season 2. It looked good and some episodes were more stylized than others, which made them stand out. Episode 3 may have been the most visually distinct. But, Episode 5 was my favorite.

Another good thing Season 2 did was get Honey and Scarlett involved more. We actually get to see Honey in situations outside of Boobies. And there’s even an entire episode dedicated to Scarlett. That’s something I wanted. Though, this season fell short of actually adding either of them (Honey) to the Aloha Oe crew.

We also got some new characters who I thought were pretty good. Johnny is a new recurring character I liked. He’s the Commander of the Jaicro Empire, which is the rival of the Gogol Empire. Johnny also dreams of becoming the biggest rock star in the universe.

There’s also the best character of the series, Ton Javrolta. He was only in one episode, but he definitely made an impact. Here’s the thing, though. Every episode in Season 2 introduces a new featured character. And because of that, none of them are around long enough for me to care about them.

If this season had a bit more continuity, it could have been better than the first season. I would have been fine with more Johnny and less of the random puppet guy who wears people’s skin. And, of course, Honey should have played a bigger role.

Something else this season almost did right was how it used the Gogol Empire characters. Dr. Gel and Admiral Perry had real roles at the end beyond failing to capture Dandy. But, it came too late. It was only in the final episode that they were anything more than gags.

It Wasn’t Episodic, After All

In the end, it turns out that the series wasn’t episodic, after all. And, there was actually an explanation for why the episodes were so random. It’s because Dandy has the ability to travel between dimensions. This is something that came up multiple times in this season.

The first episode of the season explores this idea. In it, Dandy and his crew jump from dimension to dimension and meet their counterparts in each one. Later, there’s an episode about Dandy dying and going to the afterlife. He’s able to come back to life by jumping to a dimension in which he’s still alive.

And, of course, this explains how the Aloha Oe crew died at various points in Season 1. They did die, and then we jumped to a different dimension in which they were still alive. This explanation ties everything together.

As cool as it is that everything came together in the end, it still doesn’t make up for the journey. At the end of Season 2 Episode 13, the universe is reset and we end up back at the start of Season 1 Episode 1. That’s neat. But I was still bored watching most of Season 2.

There are 2 ways I can view the conclusion of the series. Either it was a band-aid solution to the problems of Season 2. Or, it was the cause of all the problems of Season 2. Neither is a good option.

Something I do want to point out is that this is kind of normal for Shinichiro Watanabe anime. Look at both Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo. They were largely episodic and had episodes that felt like filler. And then, in the end, everything got tied together and there was some real plot.

Conclusion

In the end, I’m giving Space Dandy Season 2 a 6/10. It was fine — there were good parts, and there were bad parts. And if we combine that score with the score I gave Season 1 (8/10), Space Dandy gets a 7/10 as a whole.

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