Television series

Space Dandy

Name: Space Dandy
Genre: Comedy, Anime, Science Fiction
Released: 2014
Cast: Junichi Suwabe, Uki Satake, Hiroyuki Yoshino, Banjo Ginga, Kousuke Hatakeyama

Space Dandy is a gloriously silly sci-fi comedy where a pompadoured alien hunter and his ragtag crew bumble across the galaxy discovering new species for bounty money. It's bright, goofy, and deliberately ridiculous—the kind of show that exists mainly to delight you with inventive one-off scenarios and visual jokes. Made for people who love animation that swings for the fences and don't mind if the plot is basically an excuse.

TVMaze rating

3.8

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love episodic, gag-driven sci-fi where each stop is a fresh oddball idea, a loose mix of Cowboy Bebop swagger and Adventure Time silliness, and you're happy for the plot to wander off on tangents.

Skip it if you want a serialized story that builds steadily toward a payoff, since its episodes often reset, get experimental, and reward a scatter-shot attention span more than patient following.

What it asks of you: Twenty-six episodes of roughly twenty-five minutes each, so it's easy to dip in, but it changes style and tone from one episode to the next and asks you to go with its restless energy.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Cowboy Bebop1998

A masterpiece of episodic storytelling with the same sense of adventure and style, mixing sci-fi with genre pastiche. Each episode is its own complete world, held together by charisma and a killer soundtrack.

But It's tonally much darker and more melancholic. If you're here for pure silliness, Bebop's existential dread might feel like a downer.

Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann2007

Joyful, maximalist anime that erupts with colour and ambition. It shares Dandy's willingness to be absurd in service of genuine heart and creative zaniness that makes you smile.

But It gets increasingly heavy and earnest. The first episodes are fun but it transforms into something much more dramatic by the end.

Kill la Kill2013

Wildly inventive action comedy with the same art-school energy and visual exuberance. Both shows prove anime can be gorgeous, hilarious, and completely unafraid of looking weird.

But It's sexually provocative in ways Dandy isn't, and some viewers find that distracting or uncomfortable rather than funny.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Space Dandy

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Midnight Gospel2020

Both use absurdist, visually wild sci-fi settings as a framework for characters just hanging out together. The plot is secondary to the vibe and companionship.

A psychedelic space adventure where a guy in a dimension-hopping clown suit has conversations across surreal worlds. Same visual improvisation and genre-hopping as Dandy, but it sneaks genuine existential weight underneath.

But It's a Netflix miniseries that ends abruptly after one season, and the second half pivots to grief and mortality. Some find the tonal shift devastating rather than earned.

The Owl House2020

A Western cartoon with anime's sense of adventure and character-building, mixing monster-of-the-week episodic fun with a genuinely likeable found family. It has Dandy's lightness with more emotional depth.

But It's aimed at a younger audience, so the humour is less surreal and more straightforward. Some may find it too earnest.

Mob Psycho 1002016

Bursting with visual creativity and comedic energy, it finds humour in the everyday even as supernatural chaos unfolds. Same anarchic animation style and refusal to play it straight.

But The protagonist is anxious and uncertain rather than confident. It's warmer and more introspective than Dandy's surface-level chaos.

Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake2023

Episodic adventures across a colourful world with a band of misfits, mixing joke-per-minute comedy with surprising emotional moments. Both celebrate weird ideas and strange characters.

But Later seasons get very serialized and plot-heavy. Early episodes are rambling and goofy, which some find aimless.

Everything Everywhere All at Once2022

Multiverse chaos played for comedy and heart, with the same manic energy and visual invention. Both celebrate absurdist ideas and found family across impossible circumstances.

But It's chaotic to the point of being hard to follow, and underneath the jokes is genuine grief. The tonal whiplash isn't for everyone.

Everything Everywhere All at Once poster

Redline2009

A hand-drawn sci-fi racing film of staggering visual beauty that prioritizes style and joy over plot. It's the closest thing to Dandy's spirit—pure animation exuberance with a paper-thin story.

But There's essentially no plot, which some experience as emptiness rather than freedom. At its core it's just very pretty stuff happening.

Turning Red2022

Both shows understand that sometimes the point is just to watch people you like do things in places that look cool. Plot is a polite fiction.

A Pixar film that abandons coherent narrative for colour, energy, and pure joy. Like Dandy, it exists to celebrate animation itself—every frame is a design choice rather than service to a plot.

But It's aimed at kids and sometimes feels chaotic rather than clever. The story about a girl who turns into a giant panda is thin enough that some experience it as shallow.

Perfect Blue1998

Both are made by or influenced by Shinichiro Watanabe's circle, and both understand that anime's plasticity lets you show mental states and impossible spaces that live-action can't. Both use animation as language rather than decoration.

A nightmarish psychological thriller that uses animation to explore obsession and identity. Satoshi Kon, who worked on Dandy, pioneered a visual language where animation itself tells the story through distortion and style.

But It's a pitch-black exploration of fame and stalking. Going from Dandy's cheerfulness to this is like driving off a cliff—deliberately unsettling rather than fun.