Sunday, January 5, 2014

Space Dandy Episode 1 Notes

(Note: Episodic notes are still mostly to be found on the Episodics Notes' page, but 0-2 episodes per week will have their write-up appear on the main page, when I think they warrant it. For those who don't know, I take the notes as I watch the episode, and merely re-order them afterwards.)



So, I've been hearing good stuff about this, let's see what we've got here.




MAD-CAP OBSERVATIONS:



1) THE NARRATOR AND THE FOURTH WALL:



* That narrator, the intonation, very reminiscent of 80s sci-fi shows. Heh. I wonder how the Japanese version will have it, I'll make sure to check later.

* "These are the brave adventures of Space Dandy and his brave crew, in space." - Yes, this is some JoJo/MT3K-level stuff right here.

* "Why are we even talking about this? Can't we let the narrator do the prologue first?" - Very much KLK, but also Samurai Champloo episode 1 with the "rewind". 4th wall? We don't even know what walls are!



2) BREASTS AND BUTTS APLENTY:



* "Breastaurants", someone here deserves some sort of prize."Breastaurants are [space restaurants] where zero-G meets double D." - Erm, yeah, to quote the narrator, I think I'm done Give someone a prize here for these lines.

* "Nothing trumps the rump!" - This man knows how it is, he sure is dropping some knowledge-bombs here. Heh.

* Yup, when we have boobies, the narrator cares,

* , as the droid had put it, what else can one ask for? Ah, yes, butts.



3) BEING DANDY, SPACE DANDY (AND SHINY COLOURS):



* Registering new aliens, this is like taking pictures in Beyond Good and Evil

* "" - Space Dandy 2014, 2deep4me.

*Oh, don't mind me, I'm just being dandy.

* "Robots don't get depressed, even the obsolete ones." - That passive aggressive guilt tripping, he's like Marvin! (The paranoid android from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.) Also, his face is blue, he's probably a depressed droid.

* , as if it's been left behind by a movie with no SFX money in the 60s



4) JUST YOUR AVERAGE NEFARIOUS SPACE-VILLAINS:



* Space Dandy foiled by a sticker, after his rambunctious mayhem landed him a useless catch, it's time to introduce trouble. , eh?

*The symbolism is so strong here :O

* "No scheme is too underhanded." - . Just ye olde space villains.

* "Your excellency, we lost him. But worry not, we'll find him again soon enough. Will sometime next week work out for you?" - You know, some might say it's a parody on the shows of my youth, but I think it just might be a homage. Starski and Hutch and all those shows from 70s-80s really did like their boobies like that, and all the cartoons of my childhood, including stuff like Samurai Pizza Cats, Thundercats, Poke'Mon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and others, the villains did have this sort of ridiculous self-deprecating humor, this is just continuing in the same vain.



MISC:



* OP - Short! Just music! Stills and psychedelic colours. Reminds me of shows from the 70s. Everything here is crafted very intentionally, one can draw some parallels to Kill la Kill.

* ED - More mad colours, more of that electric beat.

* Well, next episode's preview shows us a woman who looks like a female Dandy. Guess we're going to pick up a couple more members to our motley crew.



POST EPISODE NOTES:



Yeah, the English translator/whoever came up with these puns (could have been the original crew) deserves some sort of medal.



Honestly, this had a lot of colour, a lot of movement, and quite a bit of 4th wall breaking, and homage to older stuff, all over the place.



I don't have much more to say, at least for now we're in deep spectacle mode, maybe later on we'll settle down for a more serious tale, or at least one which is a more consistent story, but that time is not yet.



SUB VERSUS DUB:



Note, this is only going by the first ten minutes of the episode. The dialogue is much more fluent and fluid in the original Japanese script, and Dandy is a bit more clever/witty there. I also like the voice of the villain, Dr. Geru considerably better in the Japanese version



However, the silly puns work better in English, the narrator's voice is a much better fit, and in general, it's more "fun" and "cheesy", which fits the mood of the show better, especially when you consider that the show already pays homage to such a degree to the cartoons of our youth, where such cheesy and somewhat "messy" lines were quite common.



So, to summarize - the Japanese script is better, but the English dub is more fun/true to the dubs of our youths, and the worse script is a part of that.
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