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Shinichiro Watanabe Reveals Space Dandy Comedy TV Anime (Updated)

Director Shinichiro Watanabe (Macross Plus, Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Kids on the Slope) revealed at his Q&A panel at Otakon on Saturday that he is directing the Space Dandy anime at the anime studio BONES. Watanabe said the anime was "not an anime to be taken seriously." It will be the first comedic TV anime series that he will direct. The show will premiere in January 2014.

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

The producers for the series showed key visuals and character designs for the series (see gallery below). The lead character Dandy is an alien hunter and the "dandiest man in space." The anime is set far in the future where people have gone to the far reaches of the universe. Dandy is searching for aliens that no one has found before with his robot partner QT. Watanabe said Dandy bought the robot thinking it was an R2D2-like robot, but in reality "it was a Roomba." Dandy also travels with a cat alien named Meow. Watanabe showed designs for different aliens, which will be introduced in the series each week.

Lastly, the staff showed a promotional video for the series.

BONES had revealed last year that it was working with Watanabe on an original television anime series. The studio filed for trademark registration on "Space Dandy" with the Japan Patent Office for a variety of goods last year. Bandai Visual had registered the "space-dandy.jp" domain on July 18, and Bandai America Inc. registered the "space-dandy.us" domain on July 29.

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