#clammbon

Furthering the connection, the track name refers to two of the starring characters: convicted murderer Napoleon Wilson and police Lieutenant Ethan Bishop, who become unlikely allies during the titular assault.

Although some quick Googling found I wasn't the first person to notice this, I didn't immediately see any insight about why this pretty specific homage was made. I was really curious as to what was going on behind the scenes, so I did some research...

First, I looked to see if series director Shinichiro Watanabe had mentioned anything about it. During an appearance at Otakon 2013, Watanabe explained his approach to the soundtrack. He selected a variety of musicians whose work he personally enjoyed. They were given an open-ended direction of what sort of music to make, and there was a general request to avoid using any instruments invented after 1984 to give an old-school/retro feeling.

I pulled out my ol' Space Dandy Official Fan Book, which covers the first season of the show and features brief interviews with many artists, to see if Mito's profile section had any specific insights:

(Note: I can't read Japanese myself, so this information is paraphrasing a mix of machine and manual translations.)

The musician Mito (of the band Clammbon) is responsible for the piece in question. He mentions meeting Watanabe at a James Blake show, where the topic of John Carpenter's music came up. Discovering they had a mutual appreciation of Carpenter, Watanabe expressed a desire to work with Mito on a future anime production.

Watanabe's Dandy direction for Mito was to make something to express his love for John Carpenter's horror music.

In keeping with the pre-1984 limitation on music, Mito took advantage of Carpenter fans' work identifying the synthesizers the director had used and strove to use that original analog equipment as much as possible. Adding that this manual audio mixing process meant that he couldn't provide stems, he jokingly acknowledges his approach may have caused trouble for the post-production staff.

His remarks seem to indicate that "Napoleon & Bishop" was written for episode 4 ("Sometimes You Can't Live With Dying, Baby", it plays during the finale as the galaxy becomes zombified), although it can be heard in several other episodes.

Now, "Sometimes You Can't Live With Dying, Baby" is obviously primarily referencing George A. Romero's Dead movies: the zombie's desire to go to the mall references the setting of Dawn of the Dead, and Romero himself is name-dropped in the movie the characters watch as the episode closes. But there's a bit of Carpenterian connection there, too, if you're willing to look at it that way...

John Carpenter never made a true "zombie" movie, despite his frequent forays into horror. However, Assault on Precinct 13 has been noted for its resemblance to the zombie subgenre: the relentlessly murderous gang members are presented nearly without dialogue and act in an eerily deliberate manner, with a single-minded focus on attacking the protagonists regardless of how many losses they take, so despite their use of firearms they come across almost like mindless zombies. The plots are also loosely similar, with both movies featuring several individuals brought together by chance barricaded against the waves of enemies. Many reviewers have compared Assault on Precinct 13 to Night of the Living Dead; Carpenter himself acknowledged that, as his primary influence was Rio Bravo, the production of the movie was "cross[ing] the western genre with a Night of the Living Dead horror movie" on the DVD commentary.

So there you have it!

Both director and musician had a fondness for John Carpenter's music, leading to the specific request to homage Carpenter's scores

A horror-inspired episode Space Dandy episode served as a good place to exercise that fondness for Carpenter

Mito combined the request to evoke Carpenter with the guideline to use vintage instruments, and recreated Carpenter's 70s sound with analog equipment in a way that very closely mirrored the original musical cue

This was a fun connection to discover, and I enjoyed digging deeper to figure out what motivated Watanabe and Mito to make the homage.

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Additional footnotes:

1. Carpenter's remarks on his Precinct 13 score:

From the liner notes of the 2003 soundtrack release:

It is interesting (but not surprising) that the soundtrack for Assault on Precinct 13 is only 26 minutes long. In my own defense, it was all the time I could afford in the recording studio. I had to compose and perform a few mood pieces that I could use again and again through the movie.

He also recalls "having great difficulty" composing the "quiet piano sequence" that would become "Julie" (and would inspire "Napoleon & Bishop").

I find it interesting that the process of using mood pieces "again and again" also serves to describe Space Dandy, with many tracks (including "Napoleon & Bishop") used multiple times to evoke emotion.

2. Watanabe's remarks on John Carpenter

At Otakon 2013, when asked about 1970s movies that inspired Space Dandy, Watanabe mentioned Carpenter (in general, not Assault on Precinct 13 in particular):

I like John Carpenter movies. Space Dandy is greatly influenced by John Carpenter. Do you guys know the movie Dark Star? It’s heavily influenced by that.

He also remarked that all Dandy crew members had to watch a few movies, including Dark Star, prior to starting. During a Q&A, he told a fan that Dark Star "is a very dumb movie, so please check it out."

3. Mito Goes To Hollywood

Mito also brings up the song he wrote for episode 13 ("Even Vacuum Cleaners Fall in Love, Baby"):

For this song, he was requested to make "something like Frankie Goes to Hollywood," which he describes as a niche request. I'm not particularly knowledgeable about the work of Messrs. Frankie, but "I should be..." might be a pastiche of "The Power of Love":