Caietele Echinox, vol. 29, 2015: Utopia, Dystopia, Film 156 Luiza-Maria Filimon “Beware the Cosmic String, My Son”: Highjacked Realities and Accidental Utopias in Shinichiro Watanabe’s Space Dandy

ABSTRACT Hey, Everett,1 Anime series in the dystopia sci-fi subgenre What am I like in your world? are essentially what Miller Jr. describes as Let me take a peek. “investigations into the nature of human identity and its relation to sociocultural Hey, Everett, forces and structures.” The rarer utopian According to you, there are lots of counterparts tend to fall under Louis Marin’s different worlds suggested interpretation according to which I’m not sure I understand “Utopia, in its ever-changing state, is the symbolic destination of all travel nar- Oh, the dream of a never-ending dream ratives.” One of Watanabe’s recent ani- mated series, Space Dandy is at its core a From X Jigen e Youkoso space odyssey through the multiverse where (“Welcome to the Xth Dimension”) “normal” is the exception. The study ana- performed by Etsuko Yakushimaru lyzes five episodes set in utopian-like places and deconstructs world-building mechanisms, features and functions, while also recon- Introduction sidering the nature and conditions needed for utopias to function as organic but un- Prior to Space Dandy (2014), Shini- hinged realities in a subversion of the chirō Watanabe’s critically acclaimed anime dystopian tropes. series, Cowboy Bebop (1998-1999), was KEYWORDS conceived “not just [as] a space adventure Utopia; Anime; Space Opera; Science- series for adolescent boys but [as] a pro- 2 Fiction; Parallel Universes; Shinichirō gram that would appeal to adults.” Set in Watanabe. the year 2071, on the spaceship Bebop, it “follows the adventures of a group of LUIZA-MARIA FILIMON bounty hunters (two males and two fe- National School of Political Science and males): ex-triad member Spike Spiegel, ex- Public Administration, Bucharest, Romania cop Jet Black, con-artist Faye Valentine, [email protected] and child computer hacker Radical Ed- ward.”3 The “Bebop” in the title, is a

Highjacked Realities and Accidental Utopias in Shinichirō Watanabe’s Space Dandy reference to “a modern movement in jazz Its slapstick humor and oc- 157 that started at Minton’s Playhouse in Har- casional raunchiness is lem in 1941. The artists there began a crea- marked by an irreverent self- tive competition in an attempt to play jazz awareness. An A.V. Club review sum- ‘freely’, and this competition resulted in the marizes Space Dandy as follows: development of bebop.”4 With the series’ “creator-of-record [being] ‘Hajime Yatate’ The series premiere of Space Dandy – Sunrise Studio’s well-known house pseu- goes out of it way to announce the donym for a team effort”5 – we can presume show’s anarchic, irreverent tone. The that the series creators were “playing “free- show’s titular, pompadour-sporting hero ly” or experimenting without ‘fear of risky is a freelance hunter for exotic, unreg- things’ in the hope of creating a ‘new istered aliens in some far-flung future; genre’.”6 he travels the galaxy in his broken- The main character of Cowboy Bebop, down starship, the Aloha Oe, with only Spike Spiegel, is in Susan Napier’s view, a similarly broken-down robot and a “literally and symbolically adrift in a useless, feline alien for company. A universe that sustains him physically but pre-credits introduction helpfully ex- offers him no emotional or spiritual nourish- plains that these are the adventures of ment.”7 He is part of a reflexive commen- “Space Dandy and his brave space tary between what Annett regards as “the crew… in space.” The show’s belief affects of cool, detached irony and a poig- that the word “space” is enough to nant longing for connection”8 in a world make anything awesome teeters be- inhabited by a sense of dispossession and tween earnest and ironic, as the over- spiritual homelessness. Foreshadowing a the-top vocal performances and char- new trend in the anime medium during the acter animation are juxtaposed with late 1990s and onwards, Cowboy Bebop was eye-popping cosmic panoramas.11 an exponent of a phenomenon described by Napier as affected by “an increasing disillu- This study examines the theme of uto- sionment with the promise of technology.”9 pia in what can be considered a postmodern This was identified in the “rough, retro look pastiche series, comprised of mash-ups and to [...] technology [featured in the series drawing influence from Western sci-fi which] rather than emphasizing amazing movies like Forbidden Planet (1950) or inventions, concentrates on the anguished Tron (1982)12 and Japanese animation clas- psyches of its vulnerable and memorable sics alike. In order to more aptly contextu- characters.”10 alize the place of Space Dandy in the On the other hand, Space Dandy is at Japanese animated sci-fi genre, the paper first sight, the complete opposite of its pre- first offers an overview of how dystopias decessor. It has shed the grievous, brooding and utopias function in anime, of what they layers and quasi-dropped the postmodern / represent for the East Asian culture while, at millenarian / technology-induced angst. In- same time, running a parallel thread to stead and in spite of its shortcomings, Space Western movies and symbols. One particu- Dandy is a series that embraces the crisis, lar aspect we explore deals with the causes ridicules it and in doing so, opens the door that enabled the emergence of Space to new original creations in a financially- Dandy’s utopian communities / places and pressed industry, catering, like other of its how in spite of the trope subversion at the kindred, to the lowest common denominator. centre of the series, they remain bound to a Luiza-Maria Filimon 158 sum of externalities. Because Nineteen Eighty-Four (as is the case with of their inherent accidental ichi-kyu-hachi-yon / 1Q84) .15 origins, these alien utopias The 1988 animated epic, Akira, di- do not succumb to the classical entrapping rected by Katsuhiro Otomo, explored such of the dystopian hubris as a plot device. themes as “the relationships between hu- Even when in some of these instances, the mans and machines and ultimately depict[ed] conjuncture that allowed them to exist, the potential for human development and disappears – as is the case with the end of evolution when confined by an oppressive sentience in one instance, we find in the police state.”16 Originally a seinen manga,17 sage words of a character that “this is not an developed by Masamune Shirow,18 Ghost in ending, but a new beginning.”13 the Shell achieved international mainstream success when it was made into an anime by Mamoru Oshii.19 A stated source of inspira- Observations on Dystopias and Japanese tion for The Matrix,20 Ghost in the Shell Animations: from the Bomb to the attracted parallels to Donna Haraway’s Automaton theories on the “Cyborg Manifesto”21: “we are all now cyborgs, we need to know how We have been subordinate to our the computer sees, to learn to recognize its limitations until now. The time has gaze and then to imitate it.”22 come to cast aside these bonds and to Haraway’s identified dualisms can be elevate our consciousness to a higher recognized in part or in their entirety in the plane. It is time to become a part of all dystopian anime subgenre: “representation / things. simulation; organic / biotic component; re- Puppet Master, Ghost in the Shell production / replication; scientific manage- (1995) ment in home or factory / global factory (electronic cottage); labor / robotics; public Mainstream movies like The Matrix or private / cyborg citizenship; sex / genetic (1999), The Hunger Games (2012) or In- engineering; mind / artificial intelligence.”23 ception (2010) were inspired by or were The dystopian Akira is according to a similar to Japanese cult films such as Akira commentator cited by William M. Tsutsui, (1988), Ghost in the Shell (1995), Battle an exercise in “post nuclear sublime,” rid- Royale (2000) or Paprika (2006). Earlier, dled with the traditional motifs of urban during the postwar period, Japanese sci-fi nihilism where the cinematic cityscape un- authors from Kōbō Abe, Shinichi Hoshi, ravels into “riots in the streets, a venal Sakyo Komatsu to Kenzaborō Ōe and authoritarian state, millenarian cults, terro- Haruki Murakami, were themselves in- rist movements, biker gangs, and a peculiar fluenced and hence embodied the literary government program for developing psychic “structural compromise” of writing in a mutants.”24 A memento of the present, Akira genre that imported “[c]ontemporary Amer- in Pellitteri’s view: ican SF [...] in part as a result of the Ameri- can military occupation.”14 Murakami’s [...] introduces a narrative dystopia that works, for example, echo to varied degrees goes allegorically over the main phases those of William Gibson’s Johnny Mnemo- of contemporary Japanese history, trans- nic (see Sekai noowari to hādo-boirudo figuring the visual spectacularity into a wandārando / Hard-Boiled Wonderland and metaphor for the implosion / explosion the End of the World) or George Orwell’s of Japanese society, beginning from the Highjacked Realities and Accidental Utopias in Shinichirō Watanabe’s Space Dandy trauma of the bombs up to the current Of familiar entropic re- 159 hyper-industrialization and social decay.25 sults we are reminded of in Fritz Lang’s 1927 epic, Me- Shapiro, on the other hand, while still tropolis, where the robotic mechanical man keeping in line with the “present as origin,” is the logical expression for the “subverted views Akira to be “more about the crises utopia of ”German technological moderni- inherent in contemporary Japanese youth zation’ [...] [outside the control] of those culture than what the bomb means.”26 Still, who had enthusiastically promoted mo- in a case of art imitates life, Pellitteri con- dernization as the harbinger of democratic tinues: socialism and cultural purification.”32 Lang’s automatons are denied a soul of their Contemporary manga [and by exten- own and are deemed to be at the root of all sion, anime] was born in the fire of problems – the epitome of hubris – “re- Hiroshima27, which gave it what Saya flect[ing] th[e] increasingly negative asses- Shiraishi (1997) has called the “Ori- sment [at that time] of contemporary Ger- ginal Experience”: the story of a group man realities and the dashed expectations of young survivors, bound by friend- for a technologically enabled utopian fu- ship and refusing to die, fighting in a ture.”33 On the other hand, Oshii’s Other in post-apocalyptic world and allowing a Ghost in the Shell, “is a purely speculative new world to see the dawn. This trau- or metaphysical entity without a trace of matic scenario can be found in a reality [...] in [a depersonalized] city [that] thousand and one ways in manga and can be both utopia and ruin.”34 anime, where it acts as background to In a similar fashion to Lang, Oshii the battles of the robot: apocalypse rejects on aesthetic grounds, “cultural na- avoided, apocalypse defeated.28 tionalism, itself [spurred by the] rapid mod- ernization [of the Japanese metropolis] since In other words, the bombs constitute the mountains of rubble in 1945.”35 Twenty representations of the unfathomable. A years later, from 1947 to 1949, Lang’s Me- character from the story Seidōshoku no yami tropolis was reimagined by one of Japan’s (A Bronze-coloured Dark, 1979), authored groundbreaking manga artists, Tezuka by Kurita Tōhei, speaks of the outcome of Osamu. Expanding on the class divisions Nagasaki and how: “It was a tale from the between humans and machines, the manga land of the dead, impossible to believe,”29 (animated in 2001) “feature[s] a vertically while Hiroshima survivor, medical practi- oriented city in which robots and humans tioner Hachiya Michihiko writes in the live and work together, but in which they eponymous Diary covering the period from are strictly segregated by vertical divisions August 6th, 1945 to September 30th, 1945 of space.”36 Conversely, this division reoc- (Hiroshima nikki, 1955), how: “outsiders curs at an ontological level, with only the could not grasp the fact that they were wit- most privileged humans able to maintain a nessing the exodus of a people who walked completely organic body, while the others in the realm of dreams.”30 It is a case of are “forced against their will to fuse in aborted utopia which was during the 1980s, varying degrees with the machinic.”37 a leitmotif of the Japanese animated imagi- Dystopias are echoes of the here and nary, revolving around “the vision of the now. In spite of their uncanny features, one Earth scoured by radiation and then spon- recognizes in them the idiosyncrasies, oxy- taneously reborn.”31 mora and cognitive dissonances associated Luiza-Maria Filimon 160 with the present. The prefix “How much organic material is necessary to “dys” “impl[ies] impairment consider a being ‘human’?; What are the or abnormality” of an “eu- juridical ramifications of bodies that incor- chronian scheme”38 rather then a premedi- porate less and less organic material? Is tated descent into an ethically impaired human emotion possible in a world in which abyss. Jennifer Gonzalez in addressing the bodies are no longer containers for the cyborg bodies, posits that they are “reflec- mind/ soul?”47 In Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell, tions of a contemporary state of being.”39 “[a] cyborg’s ‘ghost’ is the remnant of the The cyborg representations “function[...] as organic and human that remains beneath its a site of condensation and displacement,” technological supplements and alterations,”48 coalescing “the multiple fears and desires of with the main character standing for “a kind a [reality] in the process of transforma- of archetypal cyborg entity, poised in the tion.”40 Paraphrasing Joseph Raz, this auto- ever-shifting boundaries and borders nomous reality is part author of its life, as between human and posthuman, techno- such it “must be aware of [its] life as philic and technophobic, utopian and dysto- stretching over time. [It] must be capable of pian, ordinary and extraordinary, conser- understanding how various choices will vative and radical.”49 Stephen Teo accu- have considerable and lasting impact on rately identifies the essence of these dys- [its] life.”41 Taken to its paroxystic end, this topian animations, as an expression of a micromanaged reality – by machines or posthuman imaginary which benefits from technocrats – enables an “apocalyptic dis- “the postmodernity of Asian cities as a course, problematized as a condition that motif of the future”50: can no longer be counted to exist, thanks to the advances of technology and its in- [...] with films such as Ghost in the creasing capabilities for both material and Shell, Akira and Metropolis, anime [...] spiritual destruction.”42 question[s] the human self and its Dystopian anime series like Texhnolyze impact on the world around us. Me- (2003), Ergo Proxy (2006), Psycho Pass tropolis appears to condense the end- (2012, 2014), and even Steins Gate (2011), ings of both Ghost and Akira as the are built around or succumb to Frances robot protagonist, struggling with her Bonner’s 4 Cs tenets of cyberpunk: corpo- identity, triggers off an apocalypse that reality, computers, corporations and crime.43 is regenerative, for all its destructive As far as corporeality is concerned, the power.51 body in its double alterity – of the (an)organic individual(s) and of the city, seen as a living mechanism controlled by A.I.-like programs44 – becomes in Baudril- lard’s words, “a fractal subject – an object among objects [...] with an infinite set of surfaces.”45 In Osamu Tezuka’s animated Metropolis for example, the city is re- presented as a huge machine where the humans inhabit “geographies of exclusion.”46 In these worlds, by fusing with the machine, the human body takes part in an estrangement, to the point that one wonders: Highjacked Realities and Accidental Utopias in Shinichirō Watanabe’s Space Dandy discern and bring out the 161 Utopias: Recovering the Locus Mundi unique inner charm of every existing phenomenon or thing, They say there’s no such place... as to identify oneself with the object being Paradise. Even if you search to the contemplated, to empathize with its myste- ends of the Earth, there’s nothing there. rious beauty’.”62 This state is reminiscent of No matter how far you walk, it’s Ovid’s Golden Age aesthetics, where: always the same road. It just goes on and on. But, in spite of that... Why am The earth herself, without compulsion, I so driven to find it? A voice calls to untouched by hoe or plowshare, of her- me... It says: “Search for Paradise.” self gave all things needful. [...] Then Wolf’s Rain (2003) spring was everlasting, and gentle zephyrs with warm breath played with On the other side of the spectrum, uto- the flowers that sprang unplanted. pias embody both elements of the “good Anon the earth, untilled, brought forth place / no place” binary52: the Golden Age53 her stores of grain, and the fields, of yesteryear and the desired (post)human, though unfallowed, grew white with orderly Eden version 2.0. Though one can- the heavy, bearded wheat. Streams of not access the former place, it will aspire to milk and streams of sweet nectar the latter for “[t]he rationale of a utopia has flowed, and yellow honey was distilled to be post-Golden Age, conceptually if not from the verdant oak.63 chronologically.”54 In Roland Barthes’ view55: “to look at [the past] we must be excluded We drew this parallel since a number from it.”56 In doing so, nostalgia settles in. of Western scholars (Frank and Fritzie Boym describes it “as a longing for [a] Manuel or Krishan Kumar) have argued that home that no longer exists or has never “true Utopias are impossible to find outside existed, [...] a sentiment of loss and dis- the Western tradition.”64 Susan Napier ex- placement, [and] also a romance with one’s plains that from their point of view, tradi- own fantasy.”57 Barthes adds: “[...] the time tional Utopian paradigms are divided be- when my mother was alive before me is – tween on one hand, the city-state originating History. No anamnesis could ever make me in Plato’s Republic, “combined with the glimpse this time starting from myself,”58 post-apocalypse heavenly city of the Judeo- though one might long for and fantasize Christian tradition,”65 and on the other, “the about it constantly. pastoral Utopia, the Arcadia of the Greeks Mutatis mutandis, the Japanese aes- combined with the pre-Lapsarian Eden of thetic concept of mono no aware (the pathos the Bible.”66 With this said, Shinto – Japan’s of things), “conveys fleeting beauty in an foundational religion, which balances “in- experience that cannot be pinned down or fluences from various parts of Asia and denoted by a single moment or image.”59 even Oceania”67 with secular beliefs, di- Tze-Yue Hu explains it as “sensitivity to vides the universe in five parts of which the things and the language of feeling the last one – Tokoyo no Kuni (Land of endless incommunicable, as words are limited in nights) – is “a utopian land whose denizens expressing the intuitive undertaking.”60 In neither age nor die.”68 The oldest and spite of its fragility, Prusinsky adds, citing second oldest chronicles of Japan, Kojiki Andrijauskas: “in the Heian era,61 [...] mono (Record of Ancient Matters) (712) and no aware [...] included ʻthe ability to Nihon Shoki (The Chronicles of Japan) Luiza-Maria Filimon 162 (720) describe Tokoyo no Yamanaka argues that Miyazaki’s movies Kuni “as linked to the dy- “offer a new secularized spiritual vision of a namic of the whole life world where Japanese can find salvation”76 cycle – from harvest, regeneration and re- through an “appeal to ʻnostalgia’ for a usa- newal to death.”69 The influence of Plato- ble past [...] couched within [an] imaginary nian “static utopias” – in More and Cam- fantasy world.”77 The core tenets of his panella’s vein – could be replaced by the body of work are: “memories (kioku), scen- Confucian tradition and its focus on the ery (fūkei), one’s experiences with home- creation of the perfect man or going even town (kokyō), one’s identity and under- further back in time, to Duke of Zhou’s standing of local customs and environ- China – a 3000 years old casebook repre- mental conditions (fūdosei), and one’s orig- sentation of the Golden Age.70 While for the inal experiences with sunset (yūkake).”78 Western Arcadia, Napier identifies “the Miyazaki’s essentially bildungsroman mov- Taoist ideal of simplicity” and in particular, ies subvert the theme of “good vs. evil” with Tao Yuanming’s fable of a lost village, the hero / heroine almost never fighting or Tōgenkyō (The Peach Blossom Spring) opposing “a single monolithic enemy,” (421), “a fictitious haven of peace, away instead confronting conflicted individuals or from the turmoil of the world,”71 acciden- groups defined by their redeeming qual- tally uncovered by a lost fisherman “where ities.79 As James Mark Shields points out, people live in harmony with nature, happily what occurs is a premeditated deconstruc- unaware of the strife and problems of the tion of the “good-evil divide.”80 outside world.”72 Miyazaki himself was influenced by Aside from mono no aware, another Isao Takahata,81 whose Grave of the Fire- concept, originating in Okinawa and still flies (Hotaru no Haka) (1988) based on an practiced today to a certain degree, yuimaru semi-autobiographical short story (1967) by (reciprocity) represents: “a virtue that ena- Akiyuki Nosaka,82 is a masterful exercise in bled the people [...] to develop an idiosyn- “disaster utopia.”83 This type of stories cratic culture and identity, [...] recall[ing] despite representing overwhelming tragedy, the ancient need for members of a family “are also a promise of ʻhappy reconstruction unit to work together to eke out a bare days’, world-rectifying events that establish subsistence and for households to undertake a new and fairer order – and a social projects for the common good.”73 This type universe renewed.”84 Late film critic, Roger of communitarian identity is expressed Ebert thought of Grave of the Fireflies as through the notion of ichariba-chode (“Once “an emotional experience so powerful that it we meet, we are like brothers and sis- forces a rethinking of animation”85: ters”).74 Chimugurisan (“someone’s pain is my pain”) and nuchidotakara (“life is the Grave of the Fireflies (1988) is an most precious thing in the world”) embody animated film telling the story of two similar Okinawan values distilled in the children from the port city of Kobe, crucible of the tumultuous and ardent ex- made homeless by the bombs. Seita is periences of island life.75 a young teenager, and his sister The animated version of these utopian Setsuko is about 5. [...] The first shot experiences is encountered in Hayao Miya- of the film shows Seita dead in a zaki – arguably one of Japan’s most ac- subway station, and so we can guess claimed storytellers and filmmakers – and Setsuko’s fate; we are accompanied Studio Ghibli’s filmography. Hiroshi through flashbacks by the boy’s spirit. Highjacked Realities and Accidental Utopias in Shinichirō Watanabe’s Space Dandy [...] There are ancient Japanese cultural perfect, optimistically repre- 163 currents flowing beneath the surface of senting the possibility of Grave of the Fireflies, and they’re challenging but sustainable explained by critic Dennis H. Fuku- and fulfilling life in profound natural shima Jr., who finds the story’s origins harmony, without sacrificing intellect.”90 In in the tradition of double-suicide plays. so far as the environmental ubiquitousness It is not that Seita and Setsuko commit is concerned, this can be in part attributed to suicide overtly, but that life wears the idea that even when travelling into the away their will to live.86 past91 – like in Spirited Away – the pastoral utopian dimensions are composite elements In a different tonality yet still main- of an idiosyncratic illo tempore and lost taining the familiar nostalgic register, Miya- space,92 where the “positive construction of zaki’s films from Nausicaä of the Valley of nature [becomes] a prerequisite for [such] the Wind (Kaze no Tani no Naushika) ideals.”93 (1984), My Neighbour Totoro (Tonari no In concluding this section, we are Totoro) (1988), Princess Mononoke (Mono- reminded of Karl Mannheim’s essay con- noke-hime) (1997), to Spirited Away (Sen to fronting the concepts of “ideology” and Chihiro no Kamikakushi) (2001, winner of “utopia” whereupon the former is dependent the 75th Academy Award for Best Animated on a historical perspective based on a Feature), Howl’s Moving Castle (Hauru no complex game of socio-historical condi- Ugoku Shiro) (2004, nominated at the 78th tions, thoughts and actions. By contrast, the Academy Awards for Best Animated latter – when transposed in practice – Feature), Ponyo (Gake no Ue no Ponyo) wholly or partially – presupposes an an- (2008) or The Wind Rises (Kaze Tachinu) nulment or dissolution of the prevalent and (2013, nominated at the 87th Academy preordained order.”94 Speaking of history, Awards for Best Animated Feature) – are Himmelmann states that it cannot be under- accounts of utopian environments, that (with stood by itself – in other words, it is not the exception of the last one) are located in “natural,” since it is contingent on a spi- a fantastic no-space, explained in Todorov’s ritual initiative on the part of the social words as “a frontier between two adjacent consciousness.95 Miyazaki’s tales are exer- realms.”87 In addition, these worlds built cises in contesting the idea that uncovering around the intersection between the sacred history means destiny,96 instead he unveils and the profane, the fantastical and the glimpses of nostalgic dreams, remnants of a mundane, are also riddled with temporal bygone era asleep in the uncharted sea of dislocations and “scramble[d] sociohistorical memories and millennia.97 points of references.”88 In My Neigbour Totoro, for example, Wegner highlights “the utopian dimensions of animation,” characterized by the “absence of landscape” as is appropriate for the multipurposeful and resourceful satoyama regions (“forest commons managed by local agricultural communities”).89 In the manga version of Nausicaä, we find a society of “forest people,” which in spite of inherent toils and tribulations, “are portrayed as Luiza-Maria Filimon 164 Dandy, the superficial alien hunter, QT, the robot with outdated software / vacuum Space Dandy – cleaner capable of feelings and Meow, a Reiterations lazy cat-like alien from the Planet Betel- of Postmodern Champloo98 geuse, addicted to Twitter – regularly die, are stranded in other dimensions or periods This place is everywhere and nowhere. of time and in one instance, they even Space Dandy (2014) inadvertently trigger a chain reaction that turns the universe into a zombie utopia Space Dandy (2014) is the result of a (further explored bellow). collaborative effort helmed by Shinichirō Since every episode reboots the char- Watanabe as general director and produced acters, there does not seem to be a lot of by Studio Bones. Like his two other pre- character development and growth outside vious original incarnations – Cowboy Bebop the character-driven episodes like episode (1998-1999) and Samurai Champloo (2004- 10: Ashita wa Kitto Tumorō Jan yo (There’s 2005) – Space Dandy constitutes a similar Always Tomorrow, Baby), which is Meow- mix of influences, themes and concepts laid centric and similar to Bill Murray’s over a 1970s disco inspired soundtrack, Groundhog Day (1993); episode 13: Sōjiki which gives the series an “old school and Datte Koisuru Jan yo (Even Vacuum Clean- retro”99 feel. Unlike the other two, Space ers Fall in Love, Baby), which is QT-centric Dandy is designed as a comedy that prog- and inspired by classics like Isaac Asimov’s resses across its two cours,100 into more I, Robot, Bicentennial Man, Phillip K. Dick’s weird, brooding and darker tones, changing Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, or tonalities, from slapstick to Gallows, from Steven Spielberg’s A.I: Artificial Intelli- lowbrow to highbrow, from droll to dry, gence (2001); or episode 21: Kanashimi no from one style of animation to another de- Nai Sekai Jan yo (A World with No Sadness, pending on the directors, writers and ani- Baby), which is Dandy-centric and is mation supervisors assigned to every epi- reminiscent of late Robin Williams’ movie, sode. Narrative wise, the series is wilfully What Dreams May Come (1998), Guillermo disjointed, with every episode more or less del Toro’s Pan Labyrinth (2006) or even rebooting the action across apparent parallel Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris (1972). The dimensions. Though not all 26 episodes characters function as plot devices, offering provide an equally satisfying story-telling humour relief in the traditional stand-up experience, in subtext, Space Dandy plays comedy style of Manzai which involves a more along the lines of an ironic self-aware boke (funny man), usually Dandy and a commentary on the state of the anime tsukkomi (straight man), usually QT with industry, than of simply yielding to the nar- Meow switching between the two roles. In row-minded supply and demand for gratui- the background, the Gogol and the Jaicro tous fanservice (which is the case especially Empires are in a life or death stand off for with the first episode, critically panned101 and the control of the universe. Without his regarded as one of the series’ weakest parts). knowledge, the first side is pursuing Dandy A space opera dramedy at its core, – thought as crucial for the future of the Space Dandy follows the accident prone universe – yet is always unable to capture three-”manned” crew of the spaceship Aloha him (with the exception of the last episode). Oe, in their quest to find and capture rare or The parallel universes leitmotif appears new alien life forms. The main characters – from the first episode, Nagare Nagasarete Highjacked Realities and Accidental Utopias in Shinichirō Watanabe’s Space Dandy Ikiru Jan yo (Live with the Flow, Baby) one man’s (season 1, epi- 165 where while trapped in the void, Dandy sode 2), a non-sentient one pulls on a large wire which happens to be in (season 1, episode 4), a QT’s assessment a cosmic string: “Oh wait, plant-based one (season 1, episode 9), a I know what that is! That’s a cosmic string. temporal loop one (season 1, episode 10) If we go pulling on it all willy-nilly, there’s and last but not least, an afterlife utopia a chance that space-time will distort even (season 2, episode 8 (21)). more and we’ll be trapped here forever”102, while in the second episode, Maboroshi no Uchū Rāmen o Sagasu Jan yo (The Search Journey into the Multiverse: for the Phantom Space Ramen, Baby), Trope Reversals and Plot Devices Dandy and Meow travel through a worm- hole to an alternate dimension, with QT this In search of new lands, I build time, stating that: “Since you just forced a new house your way through the wormhole, the space- I thatch the house with reed stalks... time warp has gotten more severe and dan- gathered neatly in bundles gerous.”103 This culminates in episode 14: At the stone wall, let us celebrate the Onrī Wan ni Narenai Jan yo (I Can’t Be the golden house, that was built by Only One, Baby), after Meow asks himself: a hundred carpenters.105 “In a universe where the possibilities are Obokuri-Eemui (Obtain Our Bearings, endless, how did I come to be friends with folk song) performed by Ikue Asazaki such irresponsible people?,” with the three of them meeting weirder and weirder coun- In episode two, The Search for the terparts from parallel universes. This was Phantom Space Ramen, Baby (Maboroshi caused by the sudden appearance of a cos- no Uchū Rāmen o Sagasu Jan yo), the mic string – which is, in the narrator’s characters are on a quest to find a rare alien words: who makes “other-dimensional flavored ramen” (Japanese noodle soup). Written by better referred to as a dimensional fray. Dai Satō106 and directed by Sayo Yama- This is a string-like domain, the rem- moto,107 the irony in this episode is that the nant of a phase defect at a certain point long-sought for dish in the premise is ac- in space. By tugging on this string, a tually none other than the terrestrial Ramen doorway to another parallel universe is Jiro, listed by The Guardian UK in its “50 opened. [...] these universes are realms best things to eat in the world” and just like which encapsulate every conceivable the series, “[r]amen Jiro is a very non- possibility. [...] All of them are neither traditional, in your face, take it or leave it. counterfeits nor doubles but [Dandy’s] You either love it or hate it.”108 This episode indisputable self for that particular is as much about one man’s tale as it is world.104 about the quasi-religious experience and spiritual quest to find the perfect culinary If so far we examined where, how and experience. Fittingly located on the other why the themes of dystopia and utopia lead side of a wormhole, on an asteroid floating themselves to Japanese animations, in this in space, the ramen-ya (restaurant) is man- final part, we analyse a set of episodes aged by an old alien109 that has been there which are exponents or take place in what for the last 10,000 years, with Dandy and we have referred to as “accidental utopias”: Meow being the first customers in 90 years. Luiza-Maria Filimon 166 In order to still make a genre, with the main characters instead of living, he arranged to send fighting the walking dead, becoming them- ramen through the worm- selves – the robot included – zombies. In hole, noting that by the time it arrives, the this trope reversal, the creators construct an noodles are stale and the flavor, changed. undead universe, narrated by God, in the Prodded by Dandy and recognizing in him spirit of Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s “an Earthling,” the old alien recounts how Guide to the Galaxy. This unconventional he went to Earth himself: “so long ago. I situation expands from the bottom to the can’t even remember when it was.”110 Res- top, beginning with daily activities: “A ponsible in his youth, for someone’s death, zombie’s morning starts early. At first, they he flees his home-world and eventually could not accept the fact that they had growing exhausted in “both heart and soul” become zombies and tried to find a way to arrives on a world called Earth, where he turn back.” Failing to remedy their situation, learns the flavor of ramen, stating how it the trio was initially, “haunted by the mean- was something he would never forget and inglessness of their lives,” trapped in an how afterwards, never able to return home, endlessly repeating cycle of despair and “an he went to the alternate dimension where: inexplicable craving for raw meat.” Their “All I can do is live here forever, making senpai (elder) zombie – which they had my ramen.” Asked by Dandy if he is lonely, previously captured and thus set in motion the old man answers that he has “long since the zombie apocalypse – “tells” them how forgotten what the feeling of loneliness is.” “changing your thinking may let you lead a With the wormhole destabilized and closing happy zombie life.” The narrator explains forever, the old alien chooses to remain how after they replaced “the word “rotting,” there and along with him, the secret in- with the more positive word, “fermenting,” gredient to the flavor – his tears.111 the half-rotting heroes were able to be more This episode encapsulates sci-fi writer positive, too,” to the point that Dandy Kim Stanley Robinson’s – author of the “thinks” how: “There’s not that big of a utopian Wild Shore Triptych and The Mars difference between being dead and being trilogy – definition on utopia as “the process alive”113 (this is reversed at first, only to be of making a better world, the name for one repeated in episode 21). path history can take, a dynamic, tumultu- With slowness the only downside, life ous, agonizing process, with no end. Strug- as zombies in space proves to be repetitive gle forever,”112 scaled down to the path of but peaceful. Moreover there is no discrimi- atoning for one man’s sins yet with no one nation since “in space, zombies don’t stand to offer absolution in return. It is accidental out so much.” Dandy obtains a death certifi- and it is an utopia because the experience is cate and the payout from his life insurance intermediated by a singularity and acknowl- policy and life continues undisturbed, with edged by Dandy and thus – at least in this zombies converging for unexplained rea- case – proves wrong the adage according to sons at the mall. After “even the zombie which “no man is an island” literally and hunter and the employees at the insurance figuratively. agency that employed him, turned into Episode four, Sometimes You Can’t zombies, [everyone] was able to live peace- Live with Dying, Baby (Shinde mo Shini fully once again,” while the entire universe Kirenai Toki mo Aru Jan yo), directed by turned “at an astonishingly fast pace, where Ikuro Sato and penned by Kimiko Ueno, is even robots turn[ed] into zombies.” When an enterprise in deconstructing the zombie finally “every living thing has become a Highjacked Realities and Accidental Utopias in Shinichirō Watanabe’s Space Dandy zombie,” the narrator proclaims: “no more largely on the Vegims, espe- 167 species, no more sickness, no more differ- cially on the scientist Doctor ences. Everyone has become equal as H and on his daughter, zombies.”114 033H. Having never previously encountered The movie Warm Bodies based on the a human, Dandy is thought at first to be a eponymous novel, written by Isaac Marion, strange plant. A review summarizes the incorporates a similar genre subversion with events as follows: the added romantic undertones between a human and a zombie that also happens to be Dr. H is kind and welcoming to Dandy the narrator of the story.115 The absurdity of once he’s been identified, and he too the premise as well as the positive outcome seeks to know more of the mysterious of the episode, would appear to confirm Code D – which [...] causes plants to Geoghegan’s dual interpretations of utopia: expand to even more preposterous on one hand, the “good place that, as of yet, sizes. What he doesn’t realize is that has found no place” and which apparently it’s also Code D’s presence that gave can only be found in space and on the other, the plants of Planta their sentience – the “desire for goodness [peace] that could and when Dandy and 033H [...] go on a never realistically find a place”116 (see magnificently surrealistic journey to endnote 55). find and retrieve Code D, the result is In episode nine, Plants Are Living the end of sentience on Planta.119 Things, Too, Baby (Shokubutsu Datte Ikiteru Jan yo) the crew is searching for the Before he regresses to his base form, mysterious alien – Code D – on Planet Dr. H recounts how: “Long ago, we were Planta. Directed by EunYoung Choi117 and ordinary plants. However, one day, that based on her story and Shinichirō Wata- Code D, that meteorite landed here and nabe’s screenplay, the action takes places on everything changed. We all evolved. How- the planet described by the narrator as ever, we were unable to control it. We will being: go back to our original forms, back where we once were,” with his parting words from times of yore, known as a world being: “This is not an ending. This is a new where plants alone grew rampantly. beginning.”120 With sentience comes wis- But in recent years, as a result of dom and Doctor H’s input on how Code D evolved plants, it has become a plant affects them in various ways – approaching republic of 18 different states. Vegims its location, makes them grow exponentially – cerebral plants that live mainly in the – would anticipate a potential disturbing northern hemisphere, possess an ele- outcome to the continued evolution of life vated intelligence and use tiny organ- on the planet. Therefore, the only possible isms known as microbes to do their and reasonable outcome should be a return labor. Elsewhere, Movies, which live in to a state prior self-awareness and cogni- the southern hemisphere, are lower or- zance, which is hastened by the fortuitous der plants which live a simpler arrival of Dandy on his quest to retrieve lifestyle.118 what he believes to be a rare alien. Episode 10, There’s Always Tomor- The planet allows for the cohabitation row, Baby (Ashita wa Kitto Tumorō Jan yo) of a utilitarian-inclined society and of a is directed by Masayuki Miyaji and based pastoral, Arcadian one. The episode focuses on script by Kimiko Ueno. Miyaji participated Luiza-Maria Filimon 168 in Studio Ghibli’s training machina intervention, the narrator adds: program and afterwards was “they finally noticed that they were in a given the assistant director loop”122, with a reviewer highlighting that: position to Hayao Miyazaki in Spirited “They’re so content to simply sit in a bar Away, while Ueno is also responsible for the drinking that it’s about three months before script in the zombie episode. In so far as they even notice that anything’s wrong.”123 they share the same writer, the two episodes After a series of failed attempts at es- also share a number of similarities such as caping their predicament, a pattern emerges: the proclivity for repetitiveness, the mun- “Wake up in the morning, work up a sweat, dane, or the banality of quotidian life. and have a drink after work at the usual Through another subversive irony, in the bar.” Having always wanted to escape his zombie case, the main characters proved to ordinary planet where nothing ever happens, be much more aware of their condition and Meow arrives to the conclusion that “doing even try to pro-actively improve it, while what seems like the same thing every day trapped in the time loop, they do not suspect like this [working at a manufacturing plant] that something is amiss for numerous ... might not be too bad either.” But it is not cycles: about doing “what seems like the same thing,” it is actually “doing the same thing,” [At one point, the narrator explains:] as QT aptly points out.124 I’m sure everyone’s noticed by now. There is a touch of Miyazaki’s l’esprit The strong magnetic field caused by d’espace, in Miyaji’s direction of a story the [accidental burst] of Pyonium [an about reconciling the comfort brought by unintended effect of the war between the native hearth with the infinite possi- the two empires] twisted time and bilities that wait to be discovered, once the space into a Möbius and that has first place is left behind. A reviewer un- caused them to fall into a space-time derlines precisely this aspect: loop. They are repeating the same day over and over again.121 [...] being forced to repeat the same day in a place he couldn’t wait to flee As mentioned above, this largely goes would be pure hell for Meow, but he unnoticed by the trio and by anyone else on actually begins to appreciate the appeal Meow’s planet, Betelgeuse. On the 88th of it. [...] There’s also a chance to let loop, QT wonders: “Oh? Do the days all Meow’s father know that he appreci- seem the same to you?”; only for Dandy to ates him and that’s he’s sorry he can’t dismiss it on account that “everyday is so follow his path, and a “grass is always monotonous.” When eventually, on the greener” realization that a comfortable 108th loop, all three start to anticipate ran- daily routine has its own charms. The dom events: “For some reason I know time loop is just a metaphor, of course, what’ll happen next! (QT); “Is this what a stand-in for the daily routine that’s at they call precognition?” (Dandy); followed the heart of so many lives – and by “Does this mean we have superpowers?” highlights the choice so many young (Meow), the miffed narrator interjects and people must make between the lure of scolds them: “Of course not! It’s a loop! A adventure and a new vista every day loop! How many times do you think you’ve and the knowledge that you’ll never repeated the same day? The story can’t want for a bed, food on the table and progress like this!” Owing to the deus ex people who care about you close-by.125 Highjacked Realities and Accidental Utopias in Shinichirō Watanabe’s Space Dandy In this case, from an ontological [...] a lot of people 169 standpoint, utopia is a Möbius-like closed forget the circumstances system that has reached a plateau and in of their death [...]. Do which any further change, mutation or trans- you accept that you’re dead now? gression, would inevitably cause the col- Because [...] this is a planet of the lapse of this mundane order. It also ame- dead. [...] It’s more unnatural to be nable to Walter Benjamin’s idea “that under alive. Anyway, you won’t grow older the surface of rationality the urban-indus- or get hungry here. You don’t have to trial world had become re-enchanted on an work, and there is very little stress. It’s unconscious level.”126 great. Come enjoy the party. [...] [B]e- Finally, episode 21, A World with No cause there’s nothing for you to lose Sadness, Baby (Kanashimi no Nai Sekai Jan here. It’s a world with no sadness.131 yo), directed by Yasuhiro Nakura (who also provides the storyboards) and written by Hearing this, Dandy asks how if there Shinichirō Watanabe, takes place on Planet is no sadness, then “doesn’t that mean Limbo, “filled with ghosts,” “a place be- there’s no joy, either?” When he finally tween this world and that world,” inhabited meets Poe and tells her he wants to escape by “the souls of the dead,” where the only the planet, she replies that he cannot go thing that is alive, is the planet itself. Anthro- back but that he may be able to go to pomorphized, the planet takes the form of a another dimension where he may have girl named Poe that recounts how: “A long, escaped death. In order for this happen, a long time ago, this planet had living beings sacrifice is required and it consists of Planet on it. But they destroyed themselves with Limbo’s existence coming to an end: “[...] a their own civilization. [...] They are not large amount of energy is required for that. around anymore.”127 Instead what happens is It would take all the energy on this planet” that “the souls of the dead have a certain .132 Once Dandy arrives to the conclusion magnetism. Pulled in by the souls, other that either dead or alive, he is still himself, souls also come here” and since Poe has been the episode ends on an ambiguous note: lonely for a long time, it has made the planet showing him asleep on Aloha Oe as well as a home for them. This is where Dandy wakes back on Planet Limbo, rejoining Poe and up – dead by all accounts – after what can Ferdinand. only be described as a Viking ceremonial An alien minstrel playing Maurice burial. Not being yet aware his condition, Ravel’s Pavane pour une infante défunte Dandy goes in search for “someone” to tell (Pavane for a dead princess) paints a fitting him where he is. This “someone” (dareka) image to an Elysian world that exists only happens to be Ferdinand, a veritable Virgil- because of the grace of a solus deus and like guide, a pure expression of a daimonic managed by its “reason” – seen in the epi- archetype,128 a personified extension of the sode as surveillance drone-like extensions planet: “I guess you could say I’m rare. But of the planet, called Night Porters. What is a you could also say I’m extremely com- utopia if not a world without sadness, such mon.”129 Ferdinand leads Dandy on a journey as described by Ferdinand? All the analyzed of self-discovery where they encounter many episodes essentially offer the viewer glimpses strange creatures deliberating on the meaning into universes that in the end cannot be, not of life and death.130 When Dandy is finally only due to the completely alien atmosphere confronted with the cause of his death, and weltanschaung, but also because the Ferdinand quips that: theme of utopia is interpreted not just as a Luiza-Maria Filimon 170 means to an end, but as the type of dystopian scenario,133 which stays dead-end – that can be ac- true to the creed that abuse, exploitation and cepted like in episode 4 and neglect at the hand of organics, can have 10 or which can be willfully discarded as in nefarious consequences for those who the case of Planets Planta and Limbo. As far would abuse their power and privilege. as experimenting with the medium, episodes As we have detailed in the first part, 2, 9 and 21, also happen to be the most dystopias are reflections of crisis, inevitable rewarding visually and story-wise. manifestations of when the fragile status quo of the present is disrupted malevolently or not, or just due to society as whole Conclusions ignoring to take heed of the law of unin- tended consequences. In so far as the anime As we have already established, all the medium reflects the current state of the “accidental utopias” took place in alien en- Japanese popular culture, it too is directly vironments where most of the aliens were exposed to what is essentially an identity beings unique among themselves; some crisis. In an environment characterized by manifested a benign surveillance element “nichification” as a result of monetary con- (episodes 9, 21); with the exception of the straints and an apparent general stagnation first case, they were generally structured in so far as original productions are con- within the confines of a raison d’être (epi- cerned, Space Dandy incorporates the good sodes 9, 21) or self-contained (with the ex- and the bad of the industry and given the ception of episodes 4, 10); they were pattern benefit of the doubt, regards the latter as a generators (especially episodes 4, 10); there “necessary evil” associated with commer- were external agents that enabled their cial mediums in general. coming into being (zombie alien in episode Utopia, as we have seen, remains an 4, meteorite in episode 9, random blast of experiment in societal otherworldliness Pyonium energy from an intergalactic war moored in an “uncanny valley.” Adapted to in episode 10, the planet’s conscience in our case-study, this utopian uncanny valley episode 21) or on the contrary, that hastened refers to the ultimate rejection of these their collapse (Dandy in episodes 2, 9, 21, societies or experiences. It is no accident the narrator through a deus ex machina in that the epitome of irony is reached in the episode 10); they were shown to be both zombie utopia: the usual cognitive functions ephemeral (episodes 9, 10, 21) and eternal required to reap the benefits of living (episodes 2, 4). The only element they had peacefully and harmoniously in a homo- in common was the distinct and overtly genous community of shared values and expressed lack of sadness at the heart of emotions, are “zombified” and thus ren- these worlds and the collective shrug when dered obsolete. These are precisely the as- pointed out by external actors (Dandy in pects which QT disregards in the beginning episodes 2, 21, the narrator in episodes 4, of episode 13 as “pointless things”134 but 10). whose importance could not be stressed In counterpoint, it seems only ap- enough. At its core, the outcome of dysto- propriate that episode 13, Even Vacuum pias and utopias is not a by-product of Cleaners Fall in Love, Baby (Sōjiki Datte stealing from the “forbidden tree” but of Koisuru Jan yo), written by Dai Satō, pre- disregarding the ontological values which sents us with a classical “rise of the ma- constitute the society’s very own founda- chines, once they begin to manifest emotions” tional tenets. From this sacrilegious act – as Highjacked Realities and Accidental Utopias in Shinichirō Watanabe’s Space Dandy shown in the first part of the study – society Bruno, Giuliana. “Ram- 171 inevitably falls into the entropic chain- ble City: Postmodernism and reaction of abuses which pave the way, to ‘Blade Runner’,” October, more and more dystopian-prone outcomes. vol. 41 (Summer 1987), pp. 61-74. Reversely, the opposite is also possible, Chipman, Jay Scott. “So Where Do I Go whereby upholding these values, one should from Here? 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Anime, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, Steiger, Janet. “Future Noir: Contempo- 2006, pp. 81-112. rary Representations of Visionary Cities,” in Patten, Fred. Watching Anime, Reading Annette Kuhn (ed.), Alien Zone II: The Manga. 25 Years of Essays and Reviews, Spaces of Science Fiction Cinema, London: Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press, 2004. Verso, 1999, pp. 97-122. Luiza-Maria Filimon 174 Surat, Daryl. “Otakon Questioning the Stakes of Historical Rea- 2013: Fifty Minutes with son, Oxon and New York: Routledge, 2013, Shinichirō Watanabe,” Ani- pp. 84-102. gamers, August 26th, 2013, http://www.ani- Yamanaka, Hiroshi. “The Utopian gamers.com/posts/shinichiro-watanabe-space- “Power to Live.” The Significance of the dandy-otakon-2013-press-conference/. Miyazaki Phenomenon,” in Mark W. Mac- Takeshi, Matsumae. “Early Kami Wor- Williams (ed.), Japanese Visual Culture. ship,” trans. Janet Goodwin, in Delmer M. 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Advanced for the first time, the Goes Tokyo: Recreational Apocalypse and concept of the “many-worlds interpretation” the City in Postwar Japanese Popular Cul- of quantum physics. ture,” in Gyan Prakash (ed.), Noir Urban- 2 Fred Patten, Watching Anime, Reading isms. Dystopic Images of the Modern City, Manga. 25 Years of Essays and Reviews, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, pp. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press, 2004, p. 357. 104-126. 3 Mie Hiramoto, “Anime and intertextuali- Wegner, Phillip E. “‘An Unfinished Pro- ties. Hegemonic identities in Cowboy Be- ject that was Also a Missed Opportunity’: bop,” Pragmatics and Societies, vol. 1, no. Utopia and Alternate History in Hayao 2 (2010), p. 239. Miyazaki’s My Neighbour Totoro,” Image- 4 Michelle Onley Pirkle, “Dèjà Vu All Over Text: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies, vol. Again? Cowboy Bepop’s Transformation to 5, no. 2 (2010), http://www.english.ufl.edu/- the Big Screen,” in J.P. Telotte, Gerald imagetext/archives/v5_2/wegner/. Duchovnay (eds.), Science Fiction Film, Wilkins, Alasdair. “Space Dandy is Television and Adaptation. Across the more than Cowboy Bebop’s demented little Screens, New York and Oxon: Routledge, th brother,” A.V. Club, February 7 , 2014, 2012, p. 64. http://www.avclub.com/review/space-dan- 5 Fred Patten, op. cit. dy-is-more-than-cowboy-bebops-demented- 6 Michelle Onley Pirkle, op. cit. li-201062. 7 Susan Napier cited by Crystal S. Ander- Wong, Yoke-Sum. “A Presence of a Con- son, Beyond the Chinese Connection: Con- stant End. Contemporary Art and Popular temporary Afro-Asian Cultural Production, Culture in Japan,” in Amy Swiffen, Joshua Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Nichols (eds.), The Ends of History. Mississippi, 2013, p. 118. Highjacked Realities and Accidental Utopias in Shinichirō Watanabe’s Space Dandy 175

8 Sandra Annett, Anime Fan Communities. 18 A previous manga by Masamune Shirow, Transcultural Flows and Frictions, New Appleseed (published between 1985 and York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, p. 122. 1989), takes place in the 22nd century, in the 9 Susan Napier, “Manga and anime. Enter- Utopian city of Olympus, overseen by Gaia tainment, big business and art in Japan,” in – a supercomputer. Neill Blomkamp, direc- Victoria Lyon Bestor, Theodore C. Bestor, tor of sci-fi and dystopian fair like the ac- with Akiko Yamagata (eds.), Routledge claimed District 9 (2009) or Elysium (2013) Handbook of Japanese Culture and Society, cited one of Appleseed’s main characters – a Oxon and New York, 2011, p. 236. quasi-cyborg maintaining its humanity – as 10 Ibidem. a source of inspiration for his rabbit-eared 11 Alasdair Wilkins, “Space Dandy is more robot in the short film, Tetra Vaal (2003), than Cowboy Bebop’s demented little broth- which afterwards developed into the feature er,” A.V. Club, February 7th, 2014, www.av- film, Chappie (2015), about a stolen police club.com/review/space-dandy-is-more-than- robot that develops cognitive and empa- cowboy-bebops-demented-li-201062 (site of thetic functions. (Ryan Lambie, “Exclusive: A.V. Club), accessed June 18th, 2015. Neill Blomkamp on his next sci-fi film, 12 Daryl Surat, “Otakon 2013: Fifty Minutes Chappie,” Den of Geek, June 11th, 2013, with Shinichirō Watanabe,” Ani-gamers, http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/chappie/ August 26th, 2013, http://www.anigamers.com/- 25920/exclusive-neill-blomkamp-on-his- posts/shinichiro-watanabe-space-dandy-ota- next-sci-fi-film-chappie, (site of Den of kon-2013-press-conference/ (site of Ani- Geek), accessed June 18th, 2015). gamers), accessed June 18th, 2015. 19 Brian Ruh describes Mamoru Oshii as “a 13 Shingo Natsume (director), Dai Satō filmmaker who exemplifies the breadth and (writer), Space Dandy, season 1, episode 13, complexities of modern Japanese cinema March 26th, 2014 (Japanese airing date). [...].” Of the full-length movie, Avalon, 14 Andrew Milner, Locating Science Fiction, James Cameron said it was “the most artis- Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, 2012, tic, beautiful and stylish [film] in Science p. 175. Fiction History.” An “anime auteur,” Oshii 15 Ibidem. – states Ruh – “uses the media of film and 16 Gerald Alva Miller, Jr., op. cit., p. 69. animation to express his unique view of the 17 Similar to the Western comics, “manga world.” His movies are “visually grounded developed from historical art traditions in in a technological reality,” interspersed with Japanese culture, although [its] influences theme of control, privacy and surveillance and predecessors arguably reach back far- (Brian Ruh, Stray Dog of Anime. The Films ther than [its] Western counterparts. The of Mamoru Oshii. Second Edition, New creation [of this] form [...] includ[es] po- York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, p. 1, p. 3, litical and governmental influences on the p. 6, p. 8, p. 9). growth of the medium and a definite break 20 The creators of The Matrix, the Wa- away from juvenile origins to ‘grow up’ as a chowski siblings, showed the producers a storytelling format.” (see Robin E. Brenner, DVD of Ghost in the Shell, stating that: Understanding Manga and Anime, West- “We want to do that for real.” Steven port: Libraries Unlimited, 2007, p. 1). Seinen Spielberg and James Cameron are also fans, manga is oriented at older male audiences, Spielberg going so far as to acquire the with the female equivalent, being josei. rights to produce a live-action movie to be Luiza-Maria Filimon 176 released in Spring 2017. (Steve Rose, detonations of energy weapons in mecha “Hollywood is haunted by Ghost in the (a.n.: robot themed).” (see Mick Broderick, Shell,” The Guardian, October 19th, 2009, “Making Things New. Regeneration and http://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/oct/ Transcendence in Anime,” in John Walliss, 19/hollywood-ghost-in-the-shell (site of The Kenneth G.C. Newport (eds.), The End All Guardian); Tatiana Siegel, Michael Flem- Around Us. Apocalyptic Texts and Popular ing, “DreamWorks to make ‘Ghost’ in 3- Culture, Oxon and New York: Routledge, D,” Variety, April 14th, 2008, http://va- 2014, p. 121). riety.com/2008/film/markets-festivals/dream- 28 Marco Pellitteri, op. cit., p. 472. works-to-make-ghost-in-3-d-1117984029/ 29 As referred to by John Whittier Treat, (site of Variety), accessed on June 18th, Writing Ground Zero. Japanese Literature 2015). and the Atomic Bomb, Chicago: The Uni- 21 Gerald Alva Miller, Jr., op. cit., p. 76-77. versity of Chicago Press, 1995, p. 26. 22 Nicholas Mirzoeff, “The Subject of Vis- 30 Ibidem, p. 27. ual Culture,” in Nicholas Mirzoeff (ed.), 31 William M. Tsutsui, op. cit., p. 115. The Visual Culture Reader. Second Edition, 32 Lee Makela, “From Metropolis to Me- London and New York: Routledge, p. 11. toroposisu. The Changing Role of the Robot 23 Renata Koba, “Cyberpunk versus Empire: in Japanese and Western Cinema,” in Mark Constructing Technotopia in the New World W. MacWilliams (ed.), Japanese Visual Order,” in Fátima Vieira, Marinela Freitas Culture. Explorations in the World of Man- (eds.), Utopia Matters. Theory, Politics, Lit- ga and Anime, New York: M.E. Sharpe, erature and the Arts, Porto: Editora da Inc., 2008, p. 97. Universidade do Porto, 2005, p. 253. 33 Ibidem. 24 William M. Tsutsui, “Oh No, There Goes 34 Yomota Inuhiko, “Stranger than Tokyo: Tokyo: Recreational Apocalypse and the Space and Race in Postnational Japanese City in Postwar Japanese Popular Culture,” Cinema,” trans. Aaron Gerow, in Jenny in Gyan Prakash (ed.), Noir Urbanisms. Kwok Wah Lau (ed.), Multiple Modernities: Dystopic Images of the Modern City, New Cinemas and Popular Media in Transcul- Jersey: Princeton University Press, p. 116. tural East Asia, Philadelphia: Temple Uni- 25 Marco Pellitteri, The Dragon and the versity Press, 2003, p. 88. Dazzle. Models, Strategies, and Identities of 35 Ibidem. Japanese Imagination, trans. Roberto Bran- 36 Sharalyn Orbaugh, “Frankenstein and the ca, Latina: Tunué, 2010, p. 175. Cyborg Metropolis: The Evolution of Body 26 Jerome J. Shapiro, Atomic Bomb Cinema: and City in Science Fiction Narratives,” in The Apocalyptic Imagination on Film, New Steven T. Brown (ed.), Cinema Anime, New York and London: Routledge, 2002, p. 258. York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, p. 87. 27 Boasting over 15 years of work in the 37 Ibidem, p. 88. field, Philip Brophy “has demonstrated how 38 Janet Steiger, “Future Noir: Contempo- the influence of the atomic bombings of rary Representations of Visionary Cities,” in Hiroshima and Nagasaki can be traced Annette Kuhn (ed.), Alien Zone II: The throughout anime’s post-war development Spaces of Science Fiction Cinema, London: and aesthetic sensibilities – from the ocular Verso, 1999, p. 101. flash contained in kawaii (a.n.: cute) cartoon 39 Jennifer Gonzalez, “Envisioning Cyborg eyes to the radiating beams and explosive Bodies: Notes from Current Research,” in Highjacked Realities and Accidental Utopias in Shinichirō Watanabe’s Space Dandy 177

Chris Hables Gray (ed.), The Cyborg Hand- 48 Silvio Gaggi, “The Cyborg and the Net: book, New York: Routledge, 1995, p. 267. Figures of the Technological Subject,” in 40 Ibidem. David L. Erben (ed.), Adrift in the Techno- 41 Joseph Raz, The Morality of Freedom, logical Matrix, Cranbury, New Jersey and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986, p. London: Associated University Presses, 370-371. 2010, p. 129. 42 Susan J. Napier, “When the Machines 49 Jay Scott Chipman, “So Where Do I Go Stop. Fantasy, Reality, and Terminal Iden- from Here? Ghost in the Shell and Imagi- tity in Neon Genesis Evangelion and Serial ning Cyborg Mythology for the New Mil- Experiments: Lain,” in Christopher Bolton, lenium,” in John Perlich, David Whitt Istvan Csicsery-Ronay Jr., and Takayuki (eds.), Millennial Mythmaking. Essays on Tatsumi (eds.), Robot Dreams and Wired the Power of Science Fiction and Fantasy Dreams. Japanese Science Fiction from Literature, Films and Games, Jefferson, Origins to Anime, Minneapolis: University North Carolina and London: MacFarland & of Minnesota Press, 2007, p. 102. Company, Inc., Publishers, 2010, p. 175. 43 See Frances Bonner, “Separate Develop- 50 Stephen Teo, The Asian Cinema Expe- ment: Cyberpunk in Film and TV,” in rience. Styles, Spaces, Theory, Oxon and George Slusser and Tom Shippey (eds.), New York: Routledge, 2013, p. 85. Fiction 2000: Cyberpunk and the Future of 51 Ibidem, p. 87. Narrative, Athens, University of Georgia 52 Geoghegan deems utopia to be “unique Press, 1992, p. 191-207. For an analysis of amongst political concepts in having an the four Cs, see “Chapter 1. The Movement: intentional ambiguity built into it from its Signs and Signifiers,” in Carlen Lavigne, A very inception. Thomas More punned on the Critical Study: Cyberpunk Women, Femi- sound of two Greek words, eu and ou, to nism and Science Fiction, Jefferson, North make “utopia” mean simultaneously good Carolina and London: McFarland & Com- place and no place. This introduced a dyna- pany, Inc., Publishers, 2013, pp. 9-20. mism into the concept [...]. First, there was 44 Appleseed’s Gaia, Ghost in the Shell’s the dynamism of the “good” and the “no”. Puppet Master, Psycho Pass’ Sibyl System, In a positivist sense it could mean the good The Matrix’s Agent Smith, I, Robot’s place that, as of yet, has found no place. Or, V.IK.I. negatively, it was a desire for goodness that 45 Wong Kin Yuen, “On the Edge of Spaces: could never realistically find a place.” (see Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell, and Hong Vincent Geoghegan, “Political Theory, Uto- Kong’s Cityscape,” in Sean Redmon (ed.), pia, Post-Secularism,” in Tom Moylan, Raf- Liquid Metal. The Science Fiction Film faella Baccolini (eds.), Utopia Method Vi- Reader, New York and Chichester, West sion. The Use Value of Social Dreaming, Sussex: Columbia University Press, 2007, p. Bern: Peter Lang, 2007, p. 75). 107. 53 The Golden Age in Ovid’s Metamor- 46 Sharalyn Orbaugh, op. cit., p. 88. phoses, has become “heavily scented with 47 Sharalyn Orbaugh, “Manga and Anime,” the primitivist nostalgia of an oversophis- in Mark Bould, Andrew M. Butler, Adam ticated society: ‘Golden was that first age, Roberts and Sherryl Vint (eds.), The Rout- which, with no one to compel, without a ledge Companion to Science Fiction, Oxon law, of its own will, kept faith and did the and New York: Routledge, 2009, p. 121. right. There was no fear of punishment, no Luiza-Maria Filimon 178 threatening words were to be read on brazen (the characters mean “peace” and “tranquil- tablets; no suppliant throng gazed fearfully lity”) suggests cultural considerations as upon its judge’s face; but without judges well as political, namely literature, art, Chi- lived secure. [...] There was no need at all of nese learning, and Buddhist thought” (see armed men for nations, secure from war’s G. Cameron Hurst III, “The Heian Period,” alarms, passed the years in gentle ease. [...] in William M. Tsutsui (ed.), A Companion Then spring was everlasting...’.” (as quoted to Japanese History, West Sussex: Willey in Frank E. Manuel, Fritzie P. Manuel, Uto- Blackwell Publishing, 2009, p. 30). pian Thought in the Western World, Cam- 62 Antanas Andrijauskas cited in Lauren bridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press Prusinski, op. cit., p. 27-28. See also Anta- of Harvard University Press, 1979, p. 74). nas Andrijauskas, “Specific Features of 54 Christine Rees, Utopian Imagination and Traditional Japanese Medieval Aesthetics,” Eighteenth-Century Fiction, Oxon and New Dialogue and Universalism, vol. 13, issue York: Routledge, 1996, p. 9. 1/2 (January 2003), pp. 199-220. 55 Referring to History. 63 As cited in Frank E. Manuel, Fritzie P. 56 Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida, trans. Manuel, op. cit., p. 74. Richard Howard, New York: Hill and Wang, 64 Susan J. Napier, The Fantastic in Modern 1981, quoted in Giuliana Bruno, “Ramble Japanese Literature. The Subversion of Mod- City: Postmodernism and ‘Blade Runner’,” ernity, London and New York: Routledge, October, vol. 41 (Summer 1987), p. 61. 1996, p. 143. 57 Svetlana Boym, The Future of Nostalgia, 65 More’s Utopia and Campanella’s City of New York: Basic Books, 2001, p. xiii. the Sun stem from this conception. 58 Roland Barthes, op. cit. 66 Ibidem, p. 144. 59 Lauren Prusinski, “Wabi-Sabi, Mono no 67 Matsumae Takeshi, “Early Kami Wor- Aware, and Ma: Tracing Traditional Japa- ship,” trans. Janet Goodwin, in Delmer M. nese Aesthetics Through Japanese History,” Brown (ed.), The Cambridge History of Studies on Asia. An Interdisciplinary Jour- Japan – Volume 1: Ancient Japan, Cam- nal of Asian Studies, Series IV, vol. 2, no. 1 bridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006, (March 2012), p. 27, http://studiesonasia.il- p. 329. linoisstate.edu/seriesIV/vol2-1.shtml, (site of 68 Ibidem the Studies on Asia journal) accessed on 69 Jacqueline Dutton, ““Non-western’ Uto- June 18th, 2015. pian Traditions,” in Gregory Claeys (ed.), 60 Tze-Yue G. Hu, Frames of Anime. Cul- The Cambridge Companion to Utopian Lit- ture and Image Building, Hong Kong: Hong erature, Cambridge: Cambridge University Kong University Press, 2010, p. 130. Press, 2010, p. 244. 61 According to Hurst III, the Heian Period 70 Susan J. Napier, op. cit., p. 144. (794-1185) “is Japan’s classical age, when 71 Jing Shen, Playwrights and Literary court power was at its zenith and aristocratic Games in Seventeenth-Century China, Lan- culture flourished. [...] In distinction to the ham, Maryland: Lexington Books. 2010, p. subsequent eras of warrior power, it is seen 232 as an age dominated by a small cluster of 72 Torbjörn Lodén, “Literature as a Vehicle aristocrats who ruled under the aegis of the for the Dao: Changing Perspectives of Fic- emperor by mastery of the civil rather than tion and Truth in Chinese Literature,” in An- the military arts. Thus, the term “Heian” ders Cullhead, Lena Rydholm (eds.), True Highjacked Realities and Accidental Utopias in Shinichirō Watanabe’s Space Dandy 179

Lies Worldwide: Fictionality in Global Con- 84 Yoke-Sum Wong, “A Presence of a Con- texts, Berlin and Boston: Walter de Gruyter stant End. Contemporary Art and Popular GmbH, 2014, p. 39. Culture in Japan,” in Amy Swiffen, Joshua 73 Ronald Y. Nakasone assisted by Sayaka Nichols (eds.), The Ends of History. Ques- Inaishi, “Okinawan Americans: History, Peo- tioning the Stakes of Historical Reason, ple, and Culture,” in Jonathan H.X. Lee, Oxon and New York: Routledge, 2013, p. Kathleen Nadcau (eds.), Encyclopaedia of 98. Asian American. Folklore and Folklife (Vol- 85 Roger Ebert, “Grave of the Fireflies,” ume I), Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2011, p. March 19th, 2000, http://www.rogerebert.com/- 877. reviews/great-movie-grave-of-the-fireflies- 74 Hiroshi Kakazu, Island Sustainability. 1988, (site of Roger Ebert.com), accessed Challenges and Opportunities for Okinawa June 25th, 2015. and Other Pacific Islands in a Globalized 86 Ibidem. World, Bloomington: Indiana, Trafford Pub- 87 Tzvetan Todorov quoted in Paul Jackson, lishing, 2012, p. 229 op. cit., p. 55. 75 Ibidem. 88 Thomas Lamarre, The Anime Machine. A 76 Hiroshi Yamanaka, “The Utopian “Power Media Theory of Animation, Minneapolis: to Live,” The Significance of the Miyazaki University of Minnesota Press, 2009, p. 95. Phenomenon,” in Mark W. MacWilliams 89 Phillip E. Wegner, “‘An Unfinished Pro- (ed.), op. cit., p. 238. ject that was Also a Missed Opportunity’: 77 Ibidem. Utopia and Alternate History in Hayao 78 Tze-Yue G. Hu, op. cit., p. 131. Chapter Miyazaki’s My Neighbour Totoro,” Image- on “Miyazaki and Takahata Anime Cine- Text: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies, vol. ma,” pp. 105-136. 5, no. 2 (2010), http://www.english.ufl.edu/- 79 James Mark Shields, “Miyazaki, Hayao imagetext/archives/v5_2/wegner/ (site of De- (1941- ),” in Eric Michael Mazur (ed.), En- partment of English, University of Florida), cyclopedia of Religion and Film, Santa accessed June 26th, 2015. Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2011, p. 321. 90 Viktor Eikman, Meadow and Apocalypse. 80 Ibidem. Constructions of Nature in the Early Works 81 Takahata has stated that his animations of Miyazaki Hayao, Advanced Essay, “are not about fantasizing or searching for Göteborg University, Sweden, June 2007, p. utopia, [...] [c]iting the Chinese proverb 63, http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/essay/- onkochishin (innovation is known through files/ViktorEikman_Meadow.pdf (site of ancient knowledge) as the visionary guid- Ghibli Wiki), accessed June 26th, 2015. ance of his career.”81 (See Kenji Tokitsu, 91 It is important to stress that while Miya- Miyamoto Musashi. His Life and Writings, zaki – in Lucy Wright’s interpretation – Boston: Weatherhill, 2004, p. 43; Tze-Yue “still draw[s] on the cultural myth of an G. Hu, op. cit., p. 131). idealized, paradisal existence in ancient 82 Guilt-ridden survivor of the 1945 fire- Japan,” he also avoids the ideological en- bombing of Kobe. His adoptive father died trapments associated with the more “nation- during the bombardment while his younger alistic implications inherent in any discus- adopted sister died of malnutrition. sion of Shinto” (Lucy Wright, “Forest Spir- 83 Concept originating with social historian its, Giant Insects and World Trees: The Na- Kitahara Itoko (2006). ture Vision of Hayao Miyazaki,” Journal of Luiza-Maria Filimon 180

Religion and Popular Culture, vol. 10 (Sum- last week, because the second half was much mer 2005), cited by Phillip E. Wegner, op. better. Between that mediocre ten minutes cit.). and the general resistance anime fans have 92 Ibidem, p. 96. towards series that debut in English, get 93 Viktor Eikman, op. cit. See also: David written about in The Atlantic (don’t worry, Ingram, Green Screen: Environmentalism the article was full of mistakes) and, quite and Hollywood Cinema, Exeter: University frankly, any anime that’s overtly trying to of Exeter Press, 2000. appeal to an international audience the blood 94 Karl Manheim, Ideologie und Utopie, Bonn, was in the water after the US premiere. This 1929, cited by Grigore Arbore, Cetatea ideală, was a show a lot of people were waiting to București: Editura Meridiane, 1978, p. 62. rip apart, and when they saw their chance 95 Nikolaus Himmelmann, Trecutul utopic, they took it. Frankly, going into the opener I trans. Alexandru Avram, București: Editura was expecting the worst.” (“Space Dandy – Meridiane, 1984, p. 230. 01,” Random Curiosity, January 6th, 2014, 96 Ibidem http://randomc.net/2014/01/06/space-dandy- 97 Ivan Lissner, Culturi enigmatice, trans. 01/, (site of Random Curiosity, anime blog), Victor H. Adrian, București: Editura Meri- accessed June 26th, 2015). diane, 1972, p. 13. 102 Space Dandy, season 1, episode 1, Shin- 98 Samurai Champloo (2004-2005) is Wata- go Natsume (director), Shinichirō Watanabe nabe’s second television series after Cow- (writer), January 5th, 2014 (Japanese airing boy Bebop, which takes places in an alter- date), http://goo.gl/58yoKW, (site of Funi- nate Edo era (1603-1868), characterized by mation), accessed June 26th, 2015. modernistic elements and set on an anachro- 103 Space Dandy, season 1, episode 2, Saya nistic hip-hop background. The Champloo Yamamoto (director), Dai Satō (writer), in the title comes “from the regional lan- January 12th, 2014 (Japanese airing date), guage of Okinawa – chanpurū – and liter- http://goo.gl/R41W2O, (site of Funimation), ally means ‘something mixed’” (Jiwon Ahn, accessed June 26th, 2015. “Samurai Champloo: Transnational View- 104 Space Dandy, season 2, episode 01 (14), ing,” in Ethan Thompson, Jason Mittell Masahiro Mukai (director), Kimiko Ueno (eds.), How to Watch Television, New York: (writer), July 6th, 2014 (Japanese airing New York University Press, 2013, p. 365). date), http://goo.gl/qUUJkL, (site of Funi- 99 “Bones’s Shinichirō Watanabe talks Space mation), accessed June 26th, 2015. Dandy & Cowboy Bebop [Otakon 2013],” 105 “Obokuri Eeumi (from the anime: Samu- August 14th, 2013, http://sgcafe.com/2013/- rai Champloo) by Ikue Asazaki”, Ai No Ko, 08/bones-shinichiro-watanabe-talks-space- July 3rd, 2010, https://goo.gl/OAA8t6, (site dandy-and-cowboy-bebop/, (site of SGCafe), of Frederick Cloyd blog) accessed June accessed June 26th, 2015. 26th, 2015. 100 In Japanese TV programs, a cours re- 106 Who has also penned scripts for other presents a unit of production equivalent to dystopian tinted sci-fi series from Cowboy 13 episodes. Bebop (1998-1999) to Ghost in the Shell: 101 “So – is anime saved? For now, the jury Stand Alone Complex (2002-2003), Ghost in is out and the bag is mixed. I know this for the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd GIG (2004) to Wolf’s sure – it’s a shame BONES decided to pre- Rain (2003), Ergo Proxy (2006-2007), or view the first half of the premiere episode Toward the Terra (2007). Highjacked Realities and Accidental Utopias in Shinichirō Watanabe’s Space Dandy 181

107 Has directed critically acclaimed sci-fi 115 Zombie R describes his surroundings: “I series such as Michiko to Hatchin (2008), think we’ve been here a long time. I still Lupin III: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine have all my flesh, but there are elders who (2012), as well as episodes for Texhnolyze are little more than skeletons with clinging (2003), Gunslinger Girl (2003), or Ergo bits of muscle, dry as jerky. Somehow it Proxy (2006), etc. still extends and contracts, and they keep 108 Killian Fox, “The 50 best things to eat in moving. I have never seen any of us ‘die’ of the world and where to eat them,” The old age. Maybe we live for ever, I don’t Guardian, September 13th, 2009, know. The future is as blurry to me as the http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/20 past. I can’t seem to make myself care about 09/sep/13/best-foods-in-the-world, (site of anything to the right or left of the present, The Guardian); W. David Marx, “Ramen and the present isn’t exactly urgent. You Jiro: Tokyo’s most controversial noodle,” might say death has relaxed me. I am riding CNN Travel, October 5th, 2009, http://trav- the escalators when M finds me. I ride the el.cnn.com/tokyo/eat/ramen-jiro-controver- escalators several times a day, whenever sy-835612, (site of CNN), accessed June they move. It’s become a ritual” (Isaac Ma- 28th, 2015. rion, Warm Bodies, New York: Atria Books, 109 The voice actor for the old alien – Ichiro 2011, p. 5). Nagai – is synonymous with Japanese ani- 116 Vincent Geoghegan, op. cit., p. 75. mations: “the embodiment of TV anime. 117 EunYoung Choi storyboarded, provided From the very first two classic shows – Key Animation, was the animation and epi- Tetsuwan Atom (Astro Boy, 1963-1966) and sode director of various episodes of the sci- Ōokami Shōnen Ken (Ken, The Wolf Boy, fi classic Casshern Sins (2008-2009), Kaiba 1963-1965) – he has been there as a voice (2008) Yojouhan Shiwa Taikei (The Tatami actor in countless TV shows, classic and ob- Galaxy) (2010-2011). scure, over the decades. He is one of the 118 Space Dandy, season 1, episode 9, Eun- defining voices of anime, one of the voices Young Choi (director and story), Shnichirō [...] heard countless times and recognize[d] Watanabe (writer), March 2st, 2014 (Japa- immediately” (Benjamin Ettinger, “Space nese airing date), http://goo.gl/9fxuho, (site Dandy – Episode 2 Review,” Anipages, of Funimation), accessed June 27th, 2015. February 3rd, 2014, http://www.pelleas.net/- 119 “Space Dandy – 09,” Random Curiosity, aniTOP/index.php/space-dandy-2, (site of March 3rd, 2014, http://randomc.net/2014/- AniPages), accessed June 28th, 2015). 03/03/space-dandy-09/ (site of Random Cu- 110 Space Dandy, season 1, episode 2. riosity, anime blog), accessed June 27th, 111 Ibidem. 2015. 112 Kim Stanley Robinson, Pacific Edge, 120 Space Dandy, season 1, episode 9. New York, Tim Doherty Associates, Inc., 121 Space Dandy, season 1, episode 10, 1990, p. 95. Masayuki Miyaji (director), Kimiko Ueno 113 Space Dandy, season 1, episode 4, Ikuro (writer), March 9th, 2014 (Japanese airing Sato (director), Kimiko Ueno (writer), Janu- date), http://goo.gl/Vp5S7J, (site of Funi- ary 26th, 2014 (Japanese airing date), mation), accessed June 27th, 2015. http://goo.gl/Xa1X0d, (site of Funimation), 122 Ibidem. accessed June 26th, 2015. 123 Ryan Lambie, “Space Dandy: why you 114 Ibidem. should watch it, 5 essential episodes,” Den Luiza-Maria Filimon 182 of Geek, April 16th, 2015, http://www.den- ofgeek.com/tv/space-dandy/34976/space-dan- dy-why-you-should-watch-it-5-essential-epi- sodes, (site of Den of Geek), accessed June 27th, 2015. 124 Space Dandy, season 1, episode 10. want to know what our reason is for living.” 125 “Space Dandy – 10,” Random Curiosity, The other replies: “How very conceited. March 10th, 2014, http://randomc.net/2014/- Bacteria and microorganisms do not have a 03/10/space-dandy-10/(site of Random Cu- reason for living. Yet you believe you do?.” riosity, anime blog), accessed June 27th, Elsewhere a similar conversation: “How to 2015. live my life? That is the question. I don’t 126 Walter Benjamin referred to in Anne want to think about dying. I don’t want to Allison, Millennial Monsters. Japanese Toys live like that. I don’t want to think so much and the Global Imagination, Berkeley and about dying that it’s the only thing that Los Angeles: University of California Press, occupies my mind.” An acapella chorus 2006, p. 28. answers: “Isn’t it the same as “how to die”? 127 Space Dandy, season 2, episode 21 (8), Even if you don’t want to think about it, Yasuhiro Nakura (director), Shinichirō Wa- everyone dies in the end. Keeping death at a tanabe (writer), August 24th, 2014 (Japanese distance and not thinking about it, that is airing date), http://goo.gl/Fndffv, (site of like averting your eyes from death. If you Funimation), accessed June 27th, 2015. leave them be, objects will break and living 128 He can be interpreted as an agatho- things will die. The world is heading to- daimōn – a noble spirit or as a genius loci – wards destruction. So thinking about one’s a spirit protective of the planet in this case. death is a matter of no importance” (Space 129 Space Dandy, season 2, episode 21 (8). Dandy, season 2, episode 21 (8)). 130 One asks: “What do you think? Isn’t it 131 Ibidem. strange? Even if we live happily for a short 132 Ibidem. time, it’s not long before we all die in the 133 A scene taking place in a scrap-yard of end. The only difference is that some live a discarded robot appliances mirrors the Zion little longer, and some a little shorter. [...] dance party from Matrix Reloaded (2003). aren’t we all just living in order to die? I 134 “Out of everything, the most pointless would be what living beings call love.” Space Dandy, season 1, episode 13, Shingo Natsume (director), Dai Satō (writer), March 26th, 2014 (Japanese airing date), http://goo.gl/9zUcju, (site of Funimation), accessed June 27th, 2015.