News

Space Dandy's Toonami & Animax Asia Ads Streamed

Adult Swim's Toonami block streamed the commercial for Saturday's new lineup, including the world premiere of BONES studio and director Shinichiro Watanabe's science-fiction comedy anime Space Dandy:

The commercial also promotes the start of Naruto Shippūden on Toonami on the same day. The full lineup includes:

Animax Asia began streaming its own commercial for Space Dandy on Monday.

Adult Swim's Toonami block will premiere the series in English at 11:30 p.m. local time on Saturday, January 4. The series is premiering on Animax Asia simultaneously with the Japanese television stations.

The Japanese and English casts are:

Otakon Vegas will show the first episode of the series before it runs on Toonami. The series will premiere in Japan on January 5 at 11:00 p.m. Funimation will also stream the series online with Japanese audio, and the company also has home video rights for the series.

Space Dandy is the upcoming science-fiction comedy series from director Shinichiro Watanabe (Macross Plus, Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Kids on the Slope) and studio BONES.

The story revolves around Dandy, an alien-hunter. His job is to seek out new aliens never seen before, and receives a reward whenever he finds a new species. His mission is to find those new species faster than anyone else as he travels the galaxy. Together with the bucket-of-bolts robot QT and the dimwit alien Meow he picked up along the way, he comes into contact with new planets and their inhabitants.

The characters include:

Dandy, a human male who works as an alien hunter. His age is unclear, but he is most likely in his late 20s. He does not care about little things, and believes that his dream is somewhere in the world. He frequents "Boobies," a restaurant known for its voluptuous waitresses. (As Bones producer Masahiko Minami observes, Boobies is not to be confused with the Hooters chain.)

QT, a vacuum cleaner robot. QT says that she is high-powered, but she's actually just a bucket of bolts. (Minami: "It's a Roomba.") She's very serious and her pride is a little big. She likes tidiness.

Meow, a dimwit alien. Contrary to expectations, he's not a genetically advanced cat, but he's actually an alien that lives on the star Betelgeuse. Meow is very carefree, as if he were raised with no constraints. He already knows how to use a cellphone.

Dr. Gel, a brilliant scientist pursuing Dandy

Bea, Dr. Gel's assistant from the planet Pylori. At first glance, he looks like a cucumber, but he is a person.

Commodore Perry (not pictured)

Honey, a waitress with a nice body and dim wits at the Boobies restaurant

Scarlet, a beautiful inspector at the space alien registration center

Staff members include:

• General Director: Shinichiro Watanabe
• Director: Shingo Natsume
• Scriptwriters: Dai Sato, Keiko Nobumoto, and Kimiko Ueno
• Character Design: Yoshiyuki Ito
• Spaceship Design: Thomas Romain
• Theme Song: Yasuyuki Okamura
• Animation Production: BONES

Yasuyuki Okamura (City Hunter 2) is performing the theme song "Viva Namida" and another song, "Healthy Merci." Etsuko Yakushimaru (Arakawa Under the Bridge, Penguindrum, The Tatami Galaxy) is contributing her new single "X Jigen e Yōkoso" (Welcome to the X Dimension) as the ending theme song for the Space Dandy television anime series. Yakushimaru herself wrote the lyrics and composed the music under the pen name "Tika Alpha," while Yoko Kanno arranged the music.