by Link
(The Work Which Becomes a New Genre Itself…)
I recently just completed the Cowboy Bebop series, as it is apparently one of those ‘new age bread and butter’ anime AKA “Stuff that was on Toonami/Adult Swim that everyone and their mother has seen.” Now, this is being based entirely off the TV series and NOT the movie (the animated one, not the rumored live action one with Keanu Reeves) “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door“.
Let me give you all the basics of the series before I go elaborating on other stuff. Sometimes Cowboy Bebop is classified as a ‘cyberpunk’ sort of series, but it honestly isn’t. There really isn’t anything cyberpunk about it at all when you compared to Ghost in the Shell, Texhnolyze, or Ergo Proxy. The series is essentially a spaghetti western of sorts, but… y’know… in space instead of the old west.
There are three main characters in Cowboy Bebop, others will claim four, but Ed is just about as important as Ein the dog is in this series and is mostly just comedic relief. We have Spike the assumedly ‘main’ of main characters, we have Jet the ’side-kick’ to Spike and then we have Faye the ‘female/eye candy/fan service’ part of the group whom appears in the third or fourth episode. They’re bounty hunters (AKA Cowboys) in the year 2071 (I believe), where people have colonized on the other planets and Earth is in pretty poor condition (it’s not really explained, and it isn’t really required to be explained anyways.) They all live aboard Jet’s ship the Bebop (That’s why it’s called Cowboy Bebop, DUH!), live out their day to day lives capturing various criminals for the reward money. There is more on the story itself later, but let’s focus on the biggest aspect of Cowboy Bebop…
Music: Yoko Kanno, the creative mind behind Wolf’s Rain & Ghost in the Shell TV’s soundtracks really made it big with Cowboy Bebop (although she was pretty awesome back in the Macross Plus days too.) It’s just absolutely perfect, every single track is like a freakin’ masterpiece! There’s a huge emphasis on Jazz music, but there’s a lot of other styles thrown into the mix as well. There is SO much music (there’s something like 7 or more different OSTs for the series) that you rarely ever hear a song in Bebop more than once, occasionally you’ll hear it twice if you’re lucky.
Also, speaking of music, did you know that all the episode titles (even the movie) are direct titles of songs or incorporate a genre of music into the title? I think that’s a VERY neat touch, especially when you get episodes named ‘Honky Tonk Woman‘ and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody‘.
Voice Acting: Speaking of audio… and heck, speaking of… speaking, the English voice acting in Cowboy Bebop is superb. Steve Blum (AKA Tom from Toonami, however I know him best as Roger Smith from The Big-O) did a fantastic job with Spike’s voice. Normally I get sick of Blum and his voice since it’s overused in anime, you can pick Steve Blum out in a crowd, sort of like you can with Cam Clarke (although it takes me a bit longer to realize it’s Cam Clarke.) But, this time in, I just wasn’t annoyed by his voice, it seemed VERY appropriate and just made sense to me. The other voice actors did a fantastic job, it was a little weird with Faye having Wendee Lee as her voice actress, considering she also played the female love interest, Angel, in The Big-O.
Overall, I’ll say that Cowboy Bebop is one of the few examples of an early GOOD dub in anime. It was very rare back then to be able to tolerate a dubbed anime when compared to the Japanese version. My only fear is that somewhere, lost in the translation, might have been Ed’s habits and personality. Now, I haven’t researched this, but I have a suspicion that the way she talks and her rhyming habits and what not might’ve made more sense in Japanese in terms of honorifics and/or the rhymes themselves. But, it’s not really a ‘deal’ breaker or anything of that sort.
Visual: Now for the absolute opposite of audio… the visual. Cowboy Bebop is an extremely slick looking show, right from the very beginning with the intro you can tell this anime is going to just reek of awesome in terms of visual style (and music.) Some of my favorite parts about Cowboy Bebop are the EXTREMELY well done fight scenes, they are usually fast-paced and last a little longer than 10 seconds, (with a few disappointing exceptions, which I’ll explain later.)
The character designs (and even the spaceship designs) themselves are also extremely awesome, and there are many unique faces throughout the series, both as major and minor characters. Faye Valentine in particular is essentially the embodiment of ‘the sex’ (as opposed to the complete opposite of ‘the sex’) as they say on the Internets. Not to mention all the other characters come off looking like very cool cats, hell, 90% of the characters in the series smoke cigarettes just to emphasize their coolness! They do an excellent job of making things as stylish as possible to reflect the stylish music of the series. There are a couple scenes that are just visually breathtaking, such as the ‘church’ scene that occurs early on in the series.
Story: I will warn there ARE a few minor spoilers in this section.
Nothing major though.
Each episode usually consists of the following basic hierarchy:
- Villain of the week/episode is shown doing something dastardly
- Big Shots (a television show announcing the latest bounties, I love it!) comes on the air, and the gang goes ga-ga over the large reward placed on the persons head.
- They go out and hunt this guy down, a little bit of detective work here and there, and a fight scene usually ensues whether in space, a gun fight, or hand-to-hand combat, and 9/10 times the person ends up dead and they get no reward money.
Very few episodes differ from this. In fact, very few episodes contain any substance of a main plot at all. At best, there are three backstories/plots playing out throughout all 26 episodes:
- Spike’s past with Julia & Vicious (the pseudo main villain of the series.)
- Faye’s past (Something they never entirely answer.)
- Jet’s past as a former police officer type (although this isn’t really shrouded in much ‘mystery’, it just adds character development to his character. In fact, he’s probably the MOST fleshed out from the bunch.)
Ed also has a very brief ‘past’ episode, but it’s nothing important and it’s also shared with an episode that explains Faye’s past.
Long story short (man, I’m so witty with my puns) the TV series feels like a string of filler episodes that never really ultimately amount to anything of great importance or value as a whole. There isn’t much of a big picture, and that was by far the most disappointing part. If you are familiar with Samurai Champloo, another one of Shinichirō Watanabe’s works, it essentially follows the same format of storytelling.
My LARGEST complaint about the series is the ending (no major spoilers I swear!) It just sort of ‘decides’ to happen during episode 25, and prior to that there are maybe 2 other episodes that even lead up to this point/”climax”. I won’t go into much detail, but eventually there is a ‘final showdown’ and it just flat out sucks. All the action leading up to the final showdown is cool, but when it’s the one-on-one fight, it lasts something like 15 – 20 seconds and ends. Then it ends with one of the most ANNOYING phrases and anti-climatic moments ever (that even in my infinite otaku wisdom can’t figure out) the character says “BANG!” and then it cuts to credits. What the hell?! Gantz pulled this SAME exact thing and ended on such an anti-climactic note as well (only Gantz was slightly more confusing than Cowboy Bebop’s ending.) But still, what a horrible way to end the series.
Overall: Overall it’s a pretty enjoyable ride. Maybe back in 1998 when this anime was fresh and new it deserved to be in the top 3 anime tv shows of all time (with Neon Genesis Evangelion holding the number one spot I’m sure.) Nowadays, with all the good shows out there with intricate and amazing plots and enjoyable characters, etc. it probably places in the top 15 tv shows if it’s lucky.
The music is fantastic, the animation and 90% of the fight scenes are very intense, but ultimately the storyline (at least for me) just ran around in circles and never really made it anywhere. It’s all style and absolutely no substance, but not in that awesome No More Heroes sort of way.
Arbitrary Score: 7/10
Disclaimer: I judge anime on a VERY strict scale. Few anime ever make it to a 9 or 10 with me. 5 is an average that 90% of the anime I watch receive. I’m functioning off a myanimelist.net system that I created for myself.
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Aw no way. A 6.5? I think its time to do a second Opinon…..also, the ending was great! The series was awesome!
6.5??? Wow. My score of a 4 for MGS2 can be argued, but I dunno how you could give this anime that low of a score.
Let’s put it this way. My girlfriend does not watch anime. She’s seen some Miyazaki and liked them. We are halfway through Monster and she has been enjoying it (actually need to finish that one with her), but I tell you…she was utterly devastated at the end of Cowboy Bebop. She simply could not except that the show was over. She was blown away by it that much.
The show pacts style, charm, and action is ungodly doses. The only flaw I could ever detect was its occasional lapse in storytelling, but the performances (either Japanese or English) were top notch, the action was fluid and exciting, the humor was always engaging on many levels and in the end, you cared for every character. Not too many shows can do that within just 24 episodes.
The lowest score I would give this anime would maybe be a 8.5 at the very lowest, but I would personally put it at a 9.5.
Also, are we changing the Under the Knife title cards…AGAIN? sigh…
And also, I understand your beef with the last scene. Trust me, I reacted the same way when first seeing it. However, I promise you that after you watch the whole series again for a second time, maybe even a third, that ending will hold a more powerful significance for you. Trust me on that.
Honestly, its easy to see how people could write this off as just an overhyped series, but its one of those few occasions (a la Dark Knight) where the hype is lived up to it.
That UTK card is so much better to look at.
I have to say I like the placement of all your images too. I’d do that too, but I usually write everything in bbcode.
Damn why did they have to reference the “Bang” crap in Toonami’s final clip. If they wanted to reference a great thing with Steve Blum then they should have gone with dead rising.
“Remember kids…YOU ARE NOTHING BUT A FILTHY COMMUNIST!”
Not thats a farewell message I can get behind
Let me explain my grading system for anime is, since it’s slightly different than what the main stream is used to.
5 = Average. Not bad. So, I’m just saying this Anime is slightly above average, not the bestest thing in the world, but still pretty good for it’s time. I’ve always focused primarily on story, in my games and my television shows. If it can keep me wanting to watch more, then awesome it’s a great anime. That rarely happened with Bebop. It never had any huge cliffhangers, it never made me excited to ’see what happens next’, it was just “Yep… here’s another episode, I wonder when the main plot is going to happen.”
Also, as a side-note, I also disliked Samurai Champloo due to the same story telling factors.
I’ll admit, story and character development are my two top criteria for a good anime. If one of those is lacking, its not a good anime. But the way the story is told definitely is going to hit people differently. If this was your first complete viewing of Cowboy Bebop, then I can understand your hatred for the story-telling style. But after a second viewing, it was then I discovered that because of this style of story telling, you discovered something new with each visit. Something that made you understand the characters and the course of their actions throughout the series. My last viewing of the series, I inserted the movie between episodes 22 and 23 (because thats where the movie fit chronologically) and you wouldn’t believe how that changed the ending for me. Spike’s final “bang” on the stairs, sent shivers down my spine.
Watch it a second time…then get back to me. ;)
Btw, Beeslo, I usually enjoy rewatching a series. I usually only enjoy rewatching them if I enjoyed them the first time through though. What I’m trying to say here, is that Cowboy Bebop should be an enjoyable experience the first time through, instead of the response I see from a lot of people (not just you, I scoped around in ‘overhyped’ related topics after making this review.) The response I always see is “Rewatch it and you’ll have a new appreciation.” That’s just… bad storytelling. At least in my opinion.
Hey, I hated Pulp Fiction the first time I saw it and it was because of its storytelling method. Thought the movie was highly overrated. Watched it about 5 years later and I couldn’t believe how much I loved it. Sometimes its just time and the act of rewatching something that has the ability to open your eyes to things you never noticed before and appreciate them 100 times more than ever. Case in point: Pulp Fiction is easily one of my favorite movies of all time now, And I absolutely hated it on my first viewing.
I don’t think the “BANG!” has all that much importance but Spike just wanted to “go out with a bang” as they say.
I wouldn’t say you have to watch it more than once to like it but it’s likely you enjoy it even more the second time around. I enjoyed it greatly the first time and back then I didn’t know anything about it other than it’s supposed to be good. It’s almost certain that you won’t immediately a series that has been hyped a lot because it’ll raise your expectations so high that you won’t notice the beauty right in front of you. In that case it might really require a second viewing so that you can enjoy it for what it is in contrast to what you expected it to be.
That’s also why I don’t try to investigate a series anymore before I start watching it because too much hype and praising can easily ruin the experience.
Thanks for stopping by Kurisu, and I can totally agree with you. High expectations definitely ruined Bebop (as well as knowing about some of the final episode spoilers in advance due to music videos and other stuff.)
I see you changed your score…who says whining and bitching doesn’t get anything done. ;)
i only watched it once and i’d give it a 9 prolly
in other words fuck you bub
MyAnimeList.net wouldn’t let me use a .5, so I rounded up.
Isn’t the “Bang” referencing to episode 6, “Sympathy for the Devil”? When the immortal kid says that he’s finally happy to die, Spike throws his harmonica up in the air and says “Bang”.
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