Space Dandy

Narrative: An alien hunter in space, Dandy, who searches for rare aliens with his friends, Meow, a cat alien, and QT, a robot. The narrative is aimed at an older audience with the sense of humor that is entwined with the adventures that they face each episode. Each episode is different to the next with what seems to be no inkling of linking to the plot of the series, however after watching the series again there are parts which foreshadowing the finale of Space Dandy. The plot can alter from being comedy based with characters and themes of episodes, which are evidence of this, to being dark and emotional themes that works well to portray the personalities of the three main characters. For example, the episode 'A World Without Sadness, Baby' focuses on the main character, who awakes on a strange dismal planet where everything is portrayed in mainly grayscale and desaturated colours. The episode touches on the theme of limbo and death which is quite subject heavy for the light hearted episodes that came previous. However this episode helps to build his personality and portray this to the audience, through showing how he tries to escape to get back to the life that he loved and to join his friends that he travels with.

Character: The character design for the show is a mix between a Western and Japanese style through the portrayal of the angular jaws and small eyes compared to the stereotypical anime eyes that take over most of the facial features. The design is quite intricate with clothing and proportional figures, that depict the characters personality, for example with the main character Dandy, he wears a baseball jacket that is related to the popular high school baseball team, which does reflect well on Dandys ego. His body language helps to portray his 'cool' demeanour' as he interacts with characters, head high, winking and snapping his fingers at characters. It also helps to portray his cowardly side, hands in pockets with small steps, hunched shoulders and looking at the ground, or even running away as fast as he can with his arms swinging high in the air and his legs barely skimming the ground as he dashes away. I feel that not only does his body language make the show with the comedy moments but his facial expressions are a key part in this. Dandy's facial features are enhanced with the position of his eyebrows that makes his eyes look clueless, confused and scared with a comedy appeal; his mouth expressions are exaggerated from normal expressions to emphasise the emotion that is depicted.