IT'S ALL ABOUT THE BOOTY, BABY

‘SUP NERDS! The blog has officially caught up to modern times. My first homemade cosplay revolves around my intense passion for Space Dandy.

Space Dandy… a Dandy Guy… in SPACE!

Space Dandy is absolutely the best anime on the entire planet, in the entire solar system and Milky Way. Hell, I’d say it’s the best anime in the whole universe. If you haven’t watched this series: Stop reading right now and you can go watch it for free.

The cast of Space Dandy. Let me tell you now that my favorite character is all of them.

Okay, I know you’re still watching Making a Murder and re-watching Friends for the millionth time, so I will give you a quick synoposis:

Space Dandy is about Dandy, Meow and QT going on whacky adventures. These good-for-nothings are always broke, so they hunt for unregistered aliens to earn some cash. They love spending it at their favorite breastaurant chain, Boobies. The series was written by the creators of Cowboy Bebop and animated by Bones, the studio behind Wolf’s Rain and Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

Boobies: “Where Zero-G meets Double D.”

Dandy and crew are frequently (and unknowingly) chased by Dr. Gel and Bea who are leading half of the galaxy through a gruesome war. You slowly learn what the baddies want from Dandy and they will do anything to get it.

Honey is a charismatic waitress at Boobies. She is seemingly ditsy and her solemn female counterpart, Scarlett, gets the pleasure to deny Dandy’s (mostly) lame alien catches at the registration office.

Why My Guy is Dandy

I absolutely adore Dandy because of how relaxed his character is. His motto is to “go with the flow, baby” and he takes life as it happens. I’m the definition of a Type-A personality and I admire Dandy’s ability to chill and adapt to things if they aren’t according to plan.

At the start of the series, Dandy comes off as an shabby young man who has nothing but booty and food on his mind. As the episodes pass, completely different aspects of his character is revealed, showing him to be a sensible gentleman… although he still is the biggest lover of ass. Yeah, he even gets himself into a glee club sing-off exclaiming that beauty is in the booty.

Changes

Space Dandy rose my spirits. I had an absolutely nightmarish New Years at my last job—my boss went on a sudden and inappropriate “personal leave,” the next day my assistant manager quit without the knowledge of my manager leaving and the day after that my district manager announced my store was shutting down.

Three consecutive days of hell from completely isolated and unrelated situations. I felt the weight of everything fall on my shoulders as the next manager in line.

After my store shut down, I was unemployed and depressed for a couple months. To get myself motivated, I joined a gym. I already saw most of Space Dandy before this point, but I spent an hour or two every day watching anime as I ran.

A little bit of humor can't hurt, right? After re-watching the series, the stellar writing, soundtrack and animation captured my heart during a rough time. Seeing Dandy’s composed attitude helped me reevaluate what I was doing with my unplanned and seemingly dead-end life. I dared to make a cosplay of him for ACen 2015. I needed a new challenge to get me out of my slump.

There’s a First for Everything

As I previously mentioned, the last thing I sewed was a crappy pillow and sleep pants in junior high… which was 10 years ago. I had no skills with a sewing machine.

The last thing I sewed before Dandy.

I first started with making his red shirt because it’s the simplest part of his outfit. I thought that if I could make a basic top, I could totally make a super advanced letterman jacket!! I took a t-shirt that fitted me well and cut some fabric to match that style. IT WAS A SUCCESS… even if it did take me two days to make such a common thing.

Not a bad jacket for a first try.

I knew that the jacket would be a pain, so I forced my loving boyfriend to alter a perfectly styled pair of boots and make Dandy’s belt buckle. Jacob begrudgingly made them for me, and they turned out absolutely awesome. Julia was kind enough to make his little charm necklace for me.

It took me a bit of time to find a pattern for the jacket, but I cannot begin to describe how much longer it took me to actually sew it. There was a point where I didn’t sleep for a couple days to because I screwed up so often and had to re-do parts. Julia was my support as we both worked on our cosplay until the very last minute before ACen.

 I really couldn't figure out how to make a pompadour with my wig and decided to be a "Lady Dandy."

The star was more difficult to make than I thought.

Proud

Overall, I think I did an awesome job for making such an advanced piece while teaching myself all the basics of sewing. Of course I got a bit of advice from Julia and some assistance with the accessories from both her and Jacob. The quality of the jacket really isn’t that great, but for being a first cosplay it’s pretty impressive. I would be happy to revisit this outfit once I master the art of sewing.

Next time, I’m going to tell you all about how I helped K.O. Mike Tyson in the boxing ring and show you one of my practical cosplays!

Meanwhile, you should definitely check out this phenomenal Space Dandy anime music video I found on YouTube.

 

LATER, DWEEBS.

-Loverly Liz