Tuesday Reviewsday: Space Dandy

Hey everybody, Aaron here. It's been a long time since my last post, but I've been really busy writing adventures and mysteries for games such as: Savage Rifts, Trophy, and Brindlewood Bay. Besides being the Head Writer for a ZineQuest 2 Kickstarter project Oligarchy - a game of political folly. Those are all wrapping up in the near future so I have time to get back to Tuesday Reviewsday. 

Earlier this month we finished watching Space Dandy! a science fiction comedy anime from Shinchiro Watanabe of Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo fame. Over the course of the series, the titular character travels the star in his tiki themed spaceship searching for alien lifeforms, falling in love, and hanging out at an interstellar Hooters. It's a love letter to fishbowl helmets, rayguns, scantily clad ladies, Americana, and high adventure across a lurid galaxy. Every episode shares a loose continuity but rarely impact one another. Which is probably for the better since that gives each episode room to breathe, no matter how gonzo or ridiculous the individual premise may seem. 

Overall the show alternates between lighthearted and poignant, delivering  a heartfelt salute to its influences while leaning on animation's strengths. Similar to Watanabe's other series the soundtrack is impeccable. I mean, watch this:



If you like pulpy sci-fi stories like Flash Gordon, the Original Star Trek, Secret of Sinharat or Barbarella you should check out Space Dandy! You can watch it on Hulu.

If you'd rather have dandy adventures in space for your next tabletop game, then check out Troika! the Otherworld's Favorite Roleplaying Game (art free SRD here) and try out Across the Humpbacked Sky, Baby! from Carol and I. It's a collaborative framework for creating weird aliens and some weird planets for them to hide on.