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Fans of Cowboy Bebop creator Shinichiro Watanabe's other sci-fi work, Space Dandy, may be surprised to learn that there was an incredible Star Trek reference packed into every episode of the series, but only for those who watched the original Japanese version. Unfortunately, translating the joke would've been impossible for a variety of reasons, but it's still amusing to learn about.

Space Dandy was a 2014 sci-fi series by Shinichiro Watanabe, which was primarily comedic, in contrast to Cowboy Bebop's often moody and dramatic tone. It followed Dandy and his crew, consisting of a cat-like alien, Meow, and a robot, Qt, as they attempt to encounter undiscovered alien species and turn them in for a profit. The show had a heavy 1970s era theming, with disco music playing a major role and a dated futuristic aesthetic that looks like it was pulled from the 1950s.

To further solidify the series'...

Warning: Spoilers for the plot of Space Dandy 1.1 ahead

It’s hard to think of anything harder to review than a media product made in Japan. On one hand, you need to give the show/game/whatever some slack, because it’s usually aimed at an audience that has vastly different tastes than the average American/British/other audience. On the other, some of this stuff has very, very, very creepy, disturbing, or offensive subtexts.

Thankfully, Space Dandy is not your average anime.

What we have in Space Dandy is a comedic throwback to pulp-era space opera directed/showrun by Shinichiro Watanabe­ and written by a staff that includes a man who rates Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon as his Game of the Year for 2013. Watanabe might be best known for directing and showrunning Cowboy Bebop, a 26 episode series about bounty hunters in space Adult Swim reran from 2001 until partway...

This week sees the release of several new movies and TV shows, some for the first time ever on Blu-ray. Of the ones coming out this week, we’re excited for The Blind Side, the new season of Mad Men, the Blu-ray release of The African Queen, The Men Who Stare at Goats, Fantastic Mr. Fox and the Criterion Collection Blu-ray of Akira Kurosawa’s masterpiece Yojimbo, with Toshirô Mifune (pictured above). Yes, it’s black and white, get over it.

Check them out:

Movies

After Dark Horrorfest Vol. 4 (Dread / The Final / The Graves / The Hidden / Kill Theory / Lake Mungo / The Reeds / Zombies of Mass Destruction) ~ Don McManus, Ryanne Duzich, Teddy Dunn, and Daniel Franzese (Blu-ray and DVD)

Bigger Than Life (The Criterion Collection) ~ James Mason, Barbara Rush, Walter Matthau (Blu-ray)

Brothers ~ Jake Gyllenhaal, Tobey Maguire, Natalie Portman (Blu-ray and DVD)

Days of Heaven (The Criterion Collection) ~ Richard Gere, Brooke Adams,...