‘Space Dandy’ Season 3 Anime Teased By Bones President Masahiko Minami At Machi Asobi 2017

Space Dandy Season 3 was recently teased by Bones President Masahiko Minami at Machi Asobi 2017, an anime event held in Tokushima in Japan. It’s been a while since the anime series has come up on the radar, but is Bones just trolling fans or is there any real possibility of seeing the crew of the Aloha Oe in (in)action again? “We’ll never know unless we open the box and look inside it!”

Space Dandy Season 2 And The Naming Game

First off, many readers may be searching for any morsel of news related to Space Dandy Season 2, not a third season. Google’s search volume data points out that “Space Dandy Season 2? searches are consistently more popular than searches for “Space Dandy Season 3.” After all, the 26 episodes all aired in the same year, so it makes sense to refer to the first series as a split two-cour season of pompadour perfection.

However, the first and second half of the 2014 anime series did not air back-to-back (and you know how much Dandy likes the back, right baby?). The first 13 episodes aired in the winter anime season, took a break to search for amazing space ramen in the spring, and then finished off during the summer. Amazon, MyAnimeList, and others sites also refer to the second cour of 13 episodes as Space Dandy 2nd Season, so for the purposes of this article, any future episodes are being referred to as Space Dandy Season 3.

Space Dandy Season 3 Needs To Win The Lottery

When will Bones bring Dandy back, baby? The last episode ended perfectly in the spirit of the show, but it also teased fans by showing audiences an ambiguous end card that read, “May be continued?” Unfortunately, the teasing has only intensified over the years.

In August of 2014, Bones president Minami stated during Germany’s Animagic that he wished to produce a Space Dandy movie should the TV series become a success. He also wanted to do more simultaneous releases worldwide. A month later, the staff of Adult Swim’s Toonami discussed the possibility of a new Space Dandy anime.

“It’s quite possible Dandy will be back as a movie or OVA, less likely that there will be a new series,” said Toonami. “We hope for more Dandy, though!”

From there, news about the show fell into a black hole along with Dr. Gel. (Or maybe the third season is in hiding next to a new Cowboy Bebop movie?) The Space Dandy manga series eventually ended, but since it was based on the anime, the manga can’t be the source material for new episodes.

Time travel to 2017 and the news about Dandy just lit up. Director Shingo Natsume discussed Space Dandy in relation to One Punch Man. Funimation announced they will release Space Dandy: The Complete Series with English dub on Blu-ray/DVD on the date of October 24, 2017. It may be just coincidental timing, but then Minami started talking about wanting to do more Dandy.

MAY BE CONTINUED!? #SpaceDandy MAY RETURN, BABY! pic.twitter.com/5c5nwysySD

— Space Dandy (@Space_Dandiest) September 28, 2014

The discussion was during the Bones panel at Machi Asobi, an anime event in Japan. According to Gigazine, the studio was celebrating the third anniversary of the anime during a special talk that had them dancing with someone dressed up in Meow cosplay. The staff talked about making Episode 20, which was the most popular story based on polls with the fans, and also the production of the music for the show. They even ended the Space Dandy panel with a rock-paper-scissors competition and a guy sporting a pompadour won. (And, yes, the producers revealed they heavily “researched” Hooters many times in person for creating Boobies and the character Honey.)

Inevitably, Bones’ president talked about whether they would ever release Space Dandy Season 3.

A reporter named liborek said, “Second season of Space Dandy will happen if Minami finds a treasure.”

That’s a wee bit vague, but Gigazine claims Minami said he would make a second season if he wins the lottery, but so far he has not yet won.

The staff of Bones also spoke about what anime projects its lettered studios are working on at this time. Studio A is working on the A.I.C.O. Incarnation anime for Netflix. Studio B is currently in charge of airing the Blood Blockade Battlefront & Beyond anime, but they also teased a potential announcement of Mob Psycho 100 Season 2. Studio C began production of My Hero Academia Season 3. Studio D is producing a new anime movie called Bungo Stray Dogs: Dead Apple. Studio E continues to work on the film trilogy for the Eureka Seven: Hi – Evolution anime series.

But there was one surprise. An original anime is in the works for the spring of 2018, and Bones plans on announcing the title during December of 2017.

“Official report of the panel doesn’t mention the stuff regarding new original anime, so take it with a grain of salt,” liborek said.

Will audiences ever get to see a Space Dandy Season 3 release date, or will fans need to wait 14.8 billion years? Unfortunately, only Narrator knows. There’s always tomorrow, baby!

[Featured Image by Bones/Space Dandy Anime TV Promo]