Well my fears come alive as the following 2 episodes of Space Dandy are very hit or miss types of episodes. I guess parts of it were good but they just happen to end us as regular episodes. Regular has its own definition when it comes to describing Dandy but episodes without too many kinds of emotional moments or amazing scenes don’t really tend to get me. I realize that it’s part of its charm but once again, it’s hit or miss for a lot of people.
Either way, this is a two-parter recap so let’s not waste anytime. I will say these will be rather short.
A rather quirky looking alien is obsessed with smiles and identifies Dandy as the ultimate holder of the smile and wishes he would come to him. Elsewhere, Dandy gets lambasted by his own crew over his dismissive nature and he decides its time for a little time alone. Mail arrives for him about an alien inviting him over for a party and Dandy takes it as a girl asking him to be there and he decides to investigate. Elsewhere, Dr. Gel continues his never ending hunt for Dandy and heads toward the River of Time, a place that happens to be close to where Dandy is headed towards.
The alien in question is Ukeleleman, a skeleton who holds the titular Ukulele and was born from one of the mysterious trees of his native planet. He demonstrates his strange ability to petrify those who listen to his cursed tune to preserve their smiles. Meow and QT succumb to this effect when they use their transporter to get to Dandy’s location first. Dandy arrives and is directed by a Capybara alien that the house lies a bit farther away.
Dandy is dismayed by what he finds and is a little spooked by the skeleton’s obsession over smiles, especially Dandy’s own. Dandy then is shown the macabre garden of petrified aliens all shown smiling while frozen in body and mind. Dandy identifies QT and Meow among them and decides to take them and leave the planet. After shooing away the Capybara aliens away from chewing apart the Aloha Oe, Dandy decides to make for the River of Time to reverse the effects.
Dandy busts out the good ol surfboard before dunking his compatriots to the river and he tries to locate them. While this is going on, Bea and Dr. Gel fall in and experience a tragedy of their own. Dandy sees that his compatriots are all right but also encounter the skeleton trying to pull out Dandy and crew’s old selves from the river. Present Dandy stops him and the punch to the face cracks the skeleton and he bursts into flames. The Skeleton is not sad about his coming demise, he states that smiles never really suited something like him. Dandy reassures him, with the cracked face, Dandy sees a fancy smile on the parting soul’s lips.
It was quite the creepy episode but the end wasn’t as glorious as I thought it would end up but the parting scene did convey something nice.
Episode 3 featured Dandy once again in some form of communication issues with his crew, especially Meow. Instead of using money to buy food, Dandy ends up buying a teleporter that transports him head first into a planet a few galaxies away. Dandy encounters a fish alien who introduces Dandy to the strange world called Pushy Boyfriend. Dandy’s body returns to him when the two ride upon a halibut that zooms over the landscape. The hungry Meow ends up teleporting himself ontop the Halibut as well and everyone falls down a hole to listen to the fish’s tail whilst trying to contain his hunger.
The fish came here to investigate alien life as the first researcher of extra terrestrials but ended up being stuck on this planet thanks to the heavy gravity. After observing the calendar and routines he has mapped out about the planet and its local star, the mentioned star will burn the planet to ash unless he warns his home planet and he vows to get home. The fish has already planned his way back using a makeshift ship and the natural phenomena with this planet’s water spout, the only problem being the ship being too heavy to pull up. The Dandy and Meow are able to the get the ship to the surface.
Riding the waves, the boat rises up to where the gravity is weak and throws a hook to physically attach itself to the planet’s surface, leaving the duo to remain on the planet. Meow launches himself up to the hook and tries to unhook the fish but he fail and falls down. Dandy then decides to finally step in and tie themselves on a rope and launch themselves to the planet’s surface after they spin around to gain massive momentum.
All three arrive safely but the fish realizes that for the two years he was gone, his planet has abandoned the space faring nature and have become diseased, rotten to the core. He no longer wishes to save his planet and wishes to watch it burn. Meow finds the batteries needed to transport the duo back but the encroaching star delays them for a bit. Meow tries to save the fish from a burning death but he only ends up burning himself to a crisp.
The duo get back on the ship with their crispy fish friend and find no choice left but to eat to survive. As Dandy stated, slow and steady got them a free meal.
Episode 3 was fun and extremely stylized but nothing less from the producer of the adaptation of Ping Pong. I called the fish getting eaten by Meow later on but I didn’t think it would be that obvious he would be served like that. Meh and Okay episodes. Next episode however puts Dandy infiltrating a highschool musical scene parody that already gets me excited for it. Hopefully it delivers.
Lair of the Idle 
Dang I need to catch up on this anime.
It’s an entertaining ride and every episode is something different. Not all episodes are as great but everyone’s got different tastes.
Is the guy who directed ping pong directed episode 3? I thought the aesthetic is somewhat similiar.
Yep