Space☆Dandy Episode 9: Plants Are Living Things Too, Baby [Recap]

The instant transporter gets an upgrade, you know, the teleporter that took thirty minutes to load up and beam our heroes to their destination? Yeah, QT fixes that and ends up beaming Meow and Dandy onto the weirdest destination thus far. Well, ok, maybe the planet with the giant boob monster was weirder, but this new locale is definitely a contender. Giant sentient space plants, a landscape straight out of an acid trip, and a mysterious purple gas are all part of this episode of Space Dandy.  

Being a show that has pushed the boundaries of animation further and further with each new episode, I guess I should not have been surprised when episode 9 took us to one of the most colorful and surreal locations I have seen in any show.  Planet Planta, and its inhabitants left me feeling like I was watching a for T.V. version of a Hayao Miyazaki film, like Princess Mononoke, but set in the far reaches of space. The Funkalicious tunes and delightfully strange sounds which bubbled about each scene only further improved the spectacle.

We start aboard the Aloha Oe’ where apparently Meow has unearthed the location of a new alien species, Code D. Dandy eventually buys the space cat’s talk, and gives the order to be beamed down to the planet’s surface to QT. But, due to a recent upgrade, the transporter has lost some of its accuracy, and so Dandy and Meow end up in completely different spots. Soon enough, Dandy gets abducted by some weird plant people, and taken to a bizarre lab of sorts, where a mysterious plant person stands over him, observing the strange creature that has stumbled into his possession. And, while Dandy is being experimented on by the plant-man, Meow wakes up to a tribe of pygmy plants, who do nothing but feed the fastidious feline.

Gif by LeSean Thomas/Tumblr

Most of the episode is spent trekking across Planta’s surface, showcasing the bizarre and beautiful scenery that make up the plant planet, as well as the menagerie of plant beings. One plant in particular takes an interest in our hero, Dr H’s daughter, 033H. She takes Dandy on a veg-tastic voyage across Planta, riding a dandelion across a sea of green and flowers. But, when Dandy finally asks if 033H can help him find the mysterious Code D, Federal Microbes (weird pink flying saucer things) give chase. But, due to an invisible membrane, Dandy can’t run away. Instead he gets sucked up by a huge plant alien thing and carried back to the safety of Dr. H’s lair.

While back at the lair, Dr. H dishes out all he knows about Code D, and reveals that the mysterious alien causes plant life to grow at an accelerated rate, and is even dangerous to them. Because of this, only Dandy would be able to further investigate. What follows is a wondrous trek across Planta, until a giant caterpillar threatens to devour our heroes and a new plant person, Cocamuka, arrives to halt their expedition.

It turns out that Cocamuka is the leader of Planta, and has actively thwarted Dr. H’s attempts to further investigate Code D in the past. Being the bad dude that he is, Cocamuka tosses our heroes into jail. But it is not long before 033H shows up to bust Dandy and Dr. H out of their vegi-prison. With our heroes freed, they continue their journey to Code D, which results in even more colorful scenes of Planta until they finally arrive at the ominous hive of Code D.

Gif by LeSean Thomas/Tumblr

Unable to follow, Dr. H is left behind, but 033H decides to brave the danger with Dandy, and so the two press into the unknown. Why 033H followed our hero in Code D’s lair is a mystery, probably more of the same nonsensical magic that makes this show the gem that it is. That being said, the scene in which 033H starts violently growing to the point of busting open was quite powerful. It was not a deep scene by any means, or one that really said anything, but there was something about watching that little seed pod, who did nothing but happily follow our hero, rapidly growing to the point of her own destruction that struck a chord in my emotional strings. Maybe it was the strange similarity between that scene and the ending sequence of the animated classic, Akira, that got me. Or maybe it was just hearing the pain in the little plant thing’s voice. Who knows? But our hero presses on, and eventually manages to destroy Code D.

As it turns out, Code D is nothing more than a strange meteorite, but it was that meteorite that created the new found complexity of life on Planta. Soon after its destruction, all of the plants on the planet return to their simple origins. They lose any semblance of intelligence and are reduced to nothing more than shrubs and vegetation, no longer capable of thought or emotion. Gotta say, this episode made me feels. 

Gif by LeSean Thomas/Tumblr