Awesome Art: Considering who made it, this is a given. But it goes doubly so as most episodes have a different art director, and sometimes the style becomes very different. You never know what you are gonna get.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Dandy surfing off into space at the end of episode 6. It has great animation and music to go with it, making it a fan favorite moment for the series as a whole. And yet it comes out of nowhere at the end of what is generally considered one of the worst and most pointless episodes in the series. And the only foreshadowing to it is Dandy telling the others how much he used to surf at the beginning of the episode, with them not really believing him. The fact that such an awesome moment happens after such an inane episode almost feels like a prank on the part of the creators.
Broken Base: The whole Sub vs. Dub debate is more pronounced than usual here, since the show was aired in Japan AFTER America.
During the initial launch of the show, Almost all of the fanart found on Pixiv was of Meow exclusively. Even though other characters are getting their own pics, Meow still has the most in general.
Meow's family from Episode 10. Only his mother and father get more extensive speaking lines, while at least three of his siblings (two younger brothers and a teenage sister) get small lines, but all of them are quite well liked by fans thanks to their cute appearances (of note, his teenage sisters are wearing Sailor Fukus, and one of the non-speaking siblings looks like a total Bookworm) and general likability.
While Space Dandy has a lot of one-shot characters, Adelie, Prince, Pine-Pine, and Johnny stand out the most. A lot of fans really want to see them return in future episodes.
Many of the alternate cast members from Episode 1 of Season 2, especially Emo Dandy.
Epileptic Trees: The Cosmic String that Dandy pulled in the first episode incited a massive amount of Wild Mass Guessing, especially about a possible connection to all the Negative Continuity going on in the series.
The ending to Ground Hog Day Loop Episode 10, if taken literally rather than metaphorically, hints at a possible explanation to all of this: the crew might and have been stuck in a never ending time loop since the beginning of the show, due to the actions of the Gogol Empire's space warfare.
" Whether or not they're caught in a loop, they're still pretty much caught in a loop."
Someone viewing "An Other-Dimensional Tale, Baby!" familiar with tesseracts will recognize Catherine as a 4th-dimensional being immediately. Her strange movements are of her turning around as would be perceived by 3-dimensional beings.
The phenomenon gestaltzerfall that happens to Dr. Gel is a result of staring at too many kanji characters for prolonged periods of time and forgetting their meanings altogether.
Episode 5, which was the first consistently serious episode in the series and showed Dandy having a Hidden Heart of Gold. Some see it as a step in the right direction since it shows the series isn't entirely a Gag Series.
Episode 4 showed how within the constraints of being said Gag Series, the anime still manages to pull one of the best laughs and storylines with its unique Slice of Life take on the Zombie Apocalypse trope.
The second season/half of the series is this in general.
Hilarious in Hindsight: Dandy wonders how he can get the narrator's job after the latter blows off describing the myriad alien species in the opening episode. Dandy's English VA Ian Sinclair would go on to perform similar Lemony Narrator duties for two differentseries.
Played for Laughs with the aliens in Episode 6, who insist that Dandy and Meow share a bed with them. One of the beds is even red and heart-shaped.
In-universe example after Prince falls for Dandy.
Slightly between Bea and Dr. Gel. Bea worries a lot when Dr. Gel appears to be buried in work, and Gel's final words upon being sucked into a black hole is "Hold me close, Bea!"
Jerkass Woobie: Yeah Dr. Gel is a bad guy, but the sheer amount of times he gets blown up or otherwise horribly killed/abused makes it pretty hard not to feel for the guy. Not to mention he has probably the worst boss in existence in the form of Admiral Perry.
Three out of four members of the main cast (including the title character) apparently die at the end of the first episode. It's blatant Played for Laughs and immediately lampshaded right afterward in the On the Next segment.
Done again in Episode 3 where the end of the episode implies that Dandy forgot to save Meow. The scenes of the next episode show Meow is just fine.
Although there are hints throughout the show and the ending sequence that alternate universes are to blame.
Happens again in Episode 4, when everybody is zombified. Literally everybody, including the narrator.
Season 2 Episode 1 ending with All future episodes will be starring this (emo) Dandy. Complete with a redone title sequence.
Signature Scene: Dandy, Meow, and QT trying to escape the planet full of giant aliens. It's a complete batshit insane scene animated beautifully with catchy music. It has giant alien monsters fighting each other along with Dandy and Meow and culminates with the planet exploding, killing everyone including the main cast. It helps that it's from the first episode alone.
Spiritual Adaptation: The show is sometimes viewed as a an amazing adaptation/sequel to Spaceballs, due to having a similar style of snarky, self-aware humor. There is an animated Spaceballs series, but it's widely viewed as a disgraceful and cheap rehash of the original film, while Space Dandy is praised for doing what that show should've done, making its own unique voice from the similar base of "epic Space Opera parody".
Episode 4: Pretty much everything about the zombie apocalypse. Especially once the entire universe gets zombified.
Superlative Dubbing: Funimation's English dub of Space Dandy is a very excellent one. Not only are the jokes translated very well, but the acting is superb. Ian Sinclair, Joel McDonald, and Alison Viktorin are clearly having fun with the material the show throws at them, and by the time Season 2 came around it feels like they have wholeheartedly embraced their roles. And the enthusiasm doesn't just stop with them, as the guest voice actors brought in for one-episode characters are also putting their best effort into their roles, and having as much fun with them as the show allows them to. The most notable episode that stands as the best example for how well they dubbed this anime is the musical episode, where all the songs sung by the characters have been well translated, and wonderfully performed.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Characters like Adelie, Prince and Pine-Pine are all set up with the potential of becoming reoccurring characters, but never appear again after their debuts. Johnny manages to get a second appearance during the finale, but doesn't get to interact with Dandy at all during it, one again causing this trope to occur.
Ugly Cute: The Plant Scientist's daughter, 033H, is ridiculously moe-worthy despite being a sentient plant. Her interactions with Dandy are just plain adorable.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: The job of alien hunters like Dandy is find rare aliens and get them registered. However, Dandy has shown he is willing to forcibly capture aliens and have them register against their will to make a profit.
Values Dissonance: "The Transfer Student Is Dandy, Baby" is framed around Dandy, a man in his late twenties to early thirties, pretending to be a high school student in order to sneak into a private school and sneak away with a rare alien student. He also openly fantasizes about being with teen girls attending the school and frequently leers at them throughout the episode. A set up that's comedic in Japan and creepy in most western countries.
Laika the lonely dog waiting for someone to love and play with her.
Adélie qualifies too. Her mother never got married and she was born without a father, leading to a possible implication, then her mother died later in her life. She spent the majority of the episode finding her grandfather, only to find out someone else has moved into his apartment. Just watching her break down sobbing after she accused Dandy of abandoning her makes you just wanna hug her.
Although he can be seen as a Butt-Monkey, Meow is encroaching into the territory, if not borderline Jerkass Woobie. He was killed several times, lost a bowl of the best ramen in the universe, sobbed his eyes out over Laika's death, had insecurities about his home planet and had his heart broken by his childhood crush. The space cat could really use a hug.
It has great animation and music to go with it, making it a fan favorite moment for the series as a whole. And yet it comes out of nowhere at the end of what is generally considered one of the worst and most pointless episodes in the series. And the only foreshadowing to it is Dandy telling the others how much he used to surf at the beginning of the episode, with them not really believing him. The fact that such an awesome moment happens after such an inane episode almost feels like a prank on the part of the creators.
