I’ve officially given up on expecting any sort of continuity in Space Dandy as far as the story goes and am starting to enjoy the show for what it is – a wacky space themed comedy with stellar animation that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Speaking of the animation, it seems like every week something new makes me sit back and say “Wow, these visuals are extremely impressive.” The big action sequences obviously stick out but I find myself appreciating the little things, like how Scarlett’s garments wrinkled and moved in a realistic fashion last weekend. The facial expressions are also..well, expressive! This is some god tier animation at work here; we’re truly being spoiled even though the script doesn’t always live up to the eye candy.
As for the actual episode content, this was a confusing one to say the least but I’ll try to make sense of it. From what I gathered Dr. Gel was given a book by Admiral Perry (skeleton guy) that he checked out from the planet Lagado which happens to be a massive library of sorts for the universe. This book, known as ‘the librarian’, happens to be sentient and takes over his mind in order to solve a formula about time space distortions. This makes sense considering Dr. Gel is a gifted scientist, as confirmed by Admiral Perry during the episode, and happens to have the resources of a massive space empire at his disposal. Due to Dr. Gel’s preoccupation with the formula, Bea is given control over the attack on Lagado which Perry has authorized because he doesn’t want to pay a fee for the overdue book. What a cheapskate.
Anyway, somehow the librarian is separated from Dr. Gel and finds its way into Dandy’s hands thanks to his ‘unique energy’ the Gogol Empire keeps mentioning; I took this to be confirmation that Dandy is the key to this multiverse theory the show relies on to explain how characters die and come back the next week with no repercussions. Is this power what the Gogol and Jaicro empires are fighting over? Hmm, looks like we’re slowly unraveling that mystery, although I don’t expect it to be fully explored until season 2.
Eventually the ticket found at Boobies, who also happens to be a sentient being from Lagado, decides it’s time to go home and manipulates the crew into traveling to its home world through Honey as a coupon advertising free food. Dandy and the crew warp to Lagado as Bea and the Gogol Empire prepare to attack it. Upon noticing Dandy’s arrival Bea attempts to capture him but he escapes, vanishing into thin air before they can pull him in with the tractor beam. Dandy and crew, unaware of the danger posed by this massive fleet of ships, assume they were at Lagado for the free food.
Dandy and company make their way through the planet to a chamber where they are introduced to the Librarian and ticket that led them there. Here they confirm that the book is an alien who uses other people’s brains to think because according to the duo, “doing so is much easier than thinking for oneself, afterall.” The Librarian is revealed to have the power to alter memories at will which explains why nobody can remember anything; she uses this as a form of mind control due to the inability to move her physical body unassisted. Dandy and the crew go on a number of adventures with her over the span of 6 months because she wanted to explore the universe and saw Dandy as her best option to get home after being checked out by Admiral Perry. Think of the name “Secrets of the Cosmos for Dummies”. Remember when the librarian said that it uses other people’s brains to think because doing so is so much easier than thinking for yourself? This is actually some pretty deep stuff although viewer has to travel a convoluted road to get to this point. I think the overall theme of the episode is that knowledge is a powerful tool that can consume a person if used for the wrong purpose. True knowledge resides within those willing to discover the truth rather than be handed it on a silver platter. This kind of reminded me of Plato’s cave allegory in The Republic, that may be a bit of a reach but I can see some parallels, I wonder if portions of the book served as inspiration for this episode?
Probably not. This is reach of Mr. Fantastic proportions but let me have my moment.
As a thank you to Dandy and crew for letting her waste 6 months of their lives the librarian wipes their memories and gives them a box as a souvenir. The only thing the crew remembers after this is that they came into contact with a rare alien and that this mysterious box has something to do with it so naturally they try to cash in on their discovery. Then the episode takes a left turn and the world is destroyed in a format war or something? Yeah..this was a weird, overly complex episode that I don’t fully understand even after multiple viewings.
The whole film noir vibe was pretty cool but left me wishing there was less dialogue a la Samurai Jack, and that the writers let the atmosphere and soothing tunes take over. The Librarian’s planet was very haunting and reminded me of a Metroid game for some reason but I guess that direction doesn’t mesh well with the comedic overtones of the show.
Overall this was a really odd episode that I’m still trying to figure out. The noir look was definitely a jarring change of pace; I personally prefer the more colorful episodes we had been getting the last couple of weeks but can appreciate the switch. Dandy has been aces for me the last 4 or so episodes but this one was meh, it seemed way too complex for its own good and the story could have been structured better in my opinion. It didn’t need to be dumbed down, just made easier to follow because the confusion comes from a lack of structure and pacing in my opinion.
Sorry for the long post