Space Dandy Episode 13: I think I can, I think I can~

What an episode to finish the 1st season with. For those who don’t know, Space Dandy is doing split-cours, so the other 13 episodes will be aired in the Summer. Have hope, we still have 13 more dandiness to watch once we’re done with Spring.

That being said, only a few more days until I cover the hell out of Stardust Crusaders. Spring series won’t get much of a preview but that really depends how I’m feeling. If anything, the first/second/third week of coverage should probably tell you what I’m going to be watching. But these three for sure: Jojo, DaL, and Mahouka (for my friend’s sake).

Anyways, I loved this episode so let’s get right to it.

Dr. Gel and Bea start off the episode again with Perry witnessing the construction of another invention. While nothing is certain about the machine at this point, it gets its run later on.

As the narrator and visuals provide us, QT had gotten into some near-catastrophic event that left him busted up and in a reboot state. 23 days was all it took for QT to become like and we get the flashback-setting episode. While Dandy and Meow attempt to get some attention from women (or at least talk about it) while QT is off on the planet they landed on to pick up some coffee. He meets the Coffee maker (called Maker) and is unable to find himself behaving regularly.

The days go by and he visits the shop just to see her. Her kind words seem greatly affect him but he senses that Register (the cash register) is romantically involved with Maker. Even so, QT doesn’t give up. He keeps visiting the shop even though he doesn’t even drink coffee. Maker admires QT for his “free” status that allows him to go where he pleases (albeit, following Dandy). Maker seems to be getting QT’s feelings here as she herself has problems when QT isn’t around. This escalates when QT shows up one night and takes Maker out to see the city lights in the outskirts.

But after Maker has a small malfunctioning, QT finds out one day that they took her away. While the explanation suggests that this happens a lot in the galaxy (or universe, I have no idea how big the scope is here), the certain planet everybody is on right now apparently apprehend robots that gain more emotion than others and place them on a huge island with other “disfunctional” robots.

Elsewhere, Bea informs Gel of the success of the machine but out of excitement, Gel spills some coffee over the machine’s control panel.

QT is able to get himself on the island by using the large trash transporters. The entire island is filled with broken appliances and general trash but QT is able to locate Maker and Register thanks to a raving party that happens nightly. An old robot informs QT that the robots here have a daily/nightly party to motivate themselves. However, while he reunites with Maker, the old robot from before makes a rather rousing speech about fighting back against the society that threw them away. Things get out of hand when he merges with a larger machine that swallows up the crowd (including Register). Maker cries over the fact that Register would be a part of this and QT realizes that she still loves Register.

Risking himself the most, QT gives chase to the mech before it destroys the city. Various debris and the city’s countermeasure hinders QT’s chase but he gets shot down by the mech’s lasers. Skip scenes to Dr. Gel and Bea where the spilled coffee causes the machine to overpowere and send a massive charge to a particular “random” location. QT somehow gets hit by this and grows immense in size. While QT struggles, pushing the robot to the waters is able to dismantle it after a brief fight and QT himself shrinks.

Thus was the 23 day span where QT had loved, lost, and fought an enormous robot for the sake of love.

The first half of the episode was all sweet and nice but of course, I expected drama to kick up in the second half. It was either action or more “thematic” takes on artificial intelligence and machines developing complex feelings. I unexpectedly got both while I didn’t really expect the former of the two points. QT fighting off the giant makshift mech with all the lighting and music made me feel like I was watching FLCL. Funny to see QT of all beings in Dandy’s crew to find what “love” is while the other two wallow about. All in all, it was an unexpected end that got me good and I can’t say that I wasn’t smiling the entire run through. Space Dandy’s latter half will be aired on the Summer so we’ll see more Dandiness then

-To be Continued-