Space Dandy’s Lazy Animation

Or maybe Space Dandy’s lazy storytelling is the more appropriate title. Either way look at the above screenshot, what’s wrong with this picture?

Even with 8 episodes under it’s belt Space Dandy has been rather sparse with the characterization of it’s main character, Dandy. One point that the show did drill into the viewers about Dandy, however, is that he likes visiting the in-universe Hooter’s knockoff restaurant chain for all the reasons you’d expect him too and that he has made it his life mission to visit every one to bask in the local variations of each restaurant.

So what have we seen in the episodes since?

We’ve yet to see Dandy go to any other restaurant; instead, he’s continues to return to the same restaurant that we saw in episode 1. Why?

If there was a plot-related reason that would be one thing. For example, if the female government agent was instead the manager of Boobies – the Hooter’s knockoff – and she was the one issuing the bounties in a bid to have the most unique employee staff to boost revenue from patrons looking for something new then it would make sense that Dandy would keep returning; but, that’s not the case. Or if Dandy had fallen hard for one of the employees and was trying to wheedle a date out of her; but, that’s not the case either – he doesn’t seem all that interested in any of the employees, even the blond one who keeps reappearing.

And speaking of the blond employee, let’s return to the original screenshot. Why does a restaurant like Boobies, with the clientele it has, situated wherever it is in the galaxy, have nine women employed there who look exactly the same except for slightly different hair cuts and color? Did only fair skinned humans reach the stars? Where are the near human species, like a Vulcan knockoff or a Cat girl named C’mell? Where are the aliens?

The answer I keep going back too in my head is that the animators at Bones were too lazy to be bothered with this part of Space Dandy. Nor has this aspect of Space Dandy added anything to the series, even as a source of fan service it’s been weak – they could have had special events like Cat Girl Day or Maid Day or whatever to draw Dandy in and entice DVD/BD sales to boot. I actually had hoped that it would be revealed that the women that worked at Boobies were actually all really smart and would find subtle ways to take digs at Dandy without him realizing it.

Like I said, nothing about the Boobies restaurant has added anything of value to Space Dandy and if Bones does not want to put the effort in to make it so then it should have been cut completely from the series.