The Best Of The Rest?

I think it’s fair to say that throughout ‘Anime’ history, there really hasn’t been an ‘Anime’ show that has offered up a unique concept in terms of implementing an original style that is near to perfect other than Cowboy bebop. It’s truly amazing and cool that Cowboy Bebop, an anime that was released a fair while ago, is still being praised by anime lovers and is in some regard, an inspiration to a lot of mediocre anime shows in this present day. What is even more impressive however, is with all of it’s cool aspects in place such as it’s soundtrack which mostly consists of retro ‘Blues’ music, references famous songs in their episode names, ingratiating an interesting array of characters with the shows mixture of Drama and wacky-comedy, it”s no surprise really to let you know that this show was and still is received better to Western audiences rather than the Eastern audience which is a rarity as far as anime goes. While I do think that Cowboy Bebop is one of the best animated shows ever created and can easily appeal to the non-anime watcher, It can’t be helped to mention that there some faults with the show which I will divulge into this review.

As I do with every review I have done, I will firstly set up the premise of this highly acclaimed show. The year is 2071, and by this time mankind has reached the stars. With the invention of hyper-space gate technology, human-kind as we know it, has begun to spread out into the unknown reaches of space. However, with every frontier crime runs rapid as the law and the police who enforce it can only handle so much. and when a criminal becomes so elusive that the police hierarchy can’t seem to catch him no matter how hard they try, well that’s when they need the help of some good ol’ fashion cowboys.Cowboy Bebop follows the story of a rag-tag band of bounty hunters who travel the cosmos searching for adventure and excitement and… yeah no pretty much they’re all just looking to get food on their table as they frequently starve and grab as much credits as possible. Going from episode to episode, our heroes Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Faye Valentine and ‘Radical’ Edward attempt to collect bounties on criminal scum and get involved in disastrous mishaps leaving them out of pocket, while often confronting faces and events from their complicated shadowy pasts.

Our main story arc of the series focuses on Spike and his deadly rivalry with Vicious, an enforcer of the Red Dragon Syndicate. Both Spike and Vicious were once partners and friends, but when Spike began an affair with Vicious’s girlfriend Julia and resolved to leave the Syndicate with her, Vicious attempted to have Julia kill Spike. For their own purpose of regaining freedom, Julia goes into hiding to protect herself and Spike, while Spike himself fakes his own death to escape the Syndicate.

Starting off our character list is the character that you prominently see to the very end in this series, and that is Spike Spiegel; a martial arts expert and skilled pilot. His past like the other characters from this series is shrouded in mystery, well for the majority of the show that is. He was once a member of a highly prominent criminal syndicate before leaving through unknown means and joining up with the Bebop. But because you can’t really truly leave a crime syndicate, his past comes back to haunt him throughout the series; like a nightmare he can never truly wake up from making for some of the most interesting plot twists later on. Spike’s greatest trait is how he’s able to switch his attitude depending on the situation and be bogged down in depression when things get rough as some other hero protagonists might. He can be ass-kicking one minute and then confronting his past the next, but still makes back to the Bebop in time to complain by the end. What I really appreciate and admire about this character out of any male protagonists I have seen in any anime, is how he embodies the traits of the typical ‘Heroic Bloodshed’ good guy. Protagonists in these traditional Hong Kong films of the 80’s are often good-willed criminals, typically Triad members with a high strict code of ethics, which in some cases lead to betrayal of their employer. You can argue from this that Spike is a ‘Heroic Bloodshed’ character in the fact that he leaves the syndicate for freedom and love but is evidently betrayed by those who he befriended at the Red Dragon. Next up we have Jet Black who is one of the more straightforward characters in the main cast. A former cop, Jet buys the Bebop and begins his new bounty hunting gig with Spike after losing his arm. Throughout the many episodes, Jet pretty much takes up the father figure role for the rest of the Bebop crew dealing with the business side of things as well as ship maintenance, analysis and holding the biggest contact book with outside agencies that are useful for getting information on their various targets. But, similar to Spike, Jet also has a past that he would sooner leave behind then return to which could be one of the reasons behind their friendship as well as one of their failings. It’s not really surprising seeing that he is embodies the father figure role that Jet is very much the voice of reason when Spike goes off on a crazy hunt or if Faye steals the money; you can expect Jet to be most rational with an attitude of ‘I’m too old for this ****”. Topping the list to be one of the best Femme fatale characters in Anime, Faye Valentine who unlike both Spike and Jet who run away from their pasts, is a character that is frantically trying to find her origin. Because of this, she immerses herself in excessive greed in gambling to make herself feel better much to her dismay of her other comrades. Despite looking to be the most inexperienced fighter compared to Spike and Jet, she can hold her own in combat though never really places herself into a situation where she needs to. Instead otherwise relying on her charm to get herself through the day. There are times when Faye can be soft-spoken and vulnerable adding much drama to her character, but it’s her sassy attitude that keeps her interesting and keeps us coming back to watch more.She learns to value her comrades, coming back to the Bebop when she realises that it is the only home that she has left, naming it as the “only place I could return to”. She grows to understand the disadvantages of being a loner, and that even though her “family” is somewhat dysfunctional it is still a place where she will always belong. Last but not least is ‘Radical’ Edward and Edward is… different, special and probably one of the most zaniest characters I have ever witnessed in anything. While she is ridiculously smart and is the expert to go to when-ever you need to hack someone, she is what I would call a free-spirit; she is fond of silly exclamations and childish rhymes, is easily distracted, has the habit of “drifting off” from reality…sometimes in mid-sentence, and is the show’s primary source of physical humour. She pretty much exists in this series as an attempt to lighten the mood in a show that would otherwise spend far too long in dark side of characterizations. She joins the Bebop crew half-way through the series because she thinks it will be fun. Seriously though she has a very childish nature about her even though her intelligence is off the charts. She’s also never put into a situation where she needed to be anything else but that wacky side-kick who did silly things, but you know what, that’s perfectly fine. She may not have had the same amount of development or screen time as her peers, but it’s her child-like black and white view of the universe that gives a show a new perspective to look at.

Since this is another anime review that I am doing, it’s usually the norm for me to actually talk about the animation itself since it is one of if not the most important construct that makes up an animation in itself. If the animation isn’t fluid in it’s motions, then quite honestly there wouldn’t be any point in watching that animation. Officially, Cowboy Bebop was animated by ‘Sunrise’ a prestigious Japanese animation company that were responsible for some works like the Gudam series and Code Geass. In fact, If you are a well educated anime buff, you would know that a very large chunk of ‘Sunrise’s’ staff at one point left to create their own production company known as ‘Bones’. You might be wondering why all this is relevant? Well besides the fact that ‘Bones’ first major work was the Cowboy Bebop film ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s door‘, two of Bebop’s animation directors as well as the show’s producers are the founders of ‘Bones’ and ‘Bones’ as a productions studio, is kind of known for their rather high production value in works such as Fullmetal Alchemist. 

Nevertheless, let’s move on to Cowboy Bebop’s animation which for when it was originally released in the late 90’s/2000’s, it was phenomenal for it’s time and it still stands up today even though it was one of the last anime shows to be made using traditional cell animation before everyone started to use digital for everything. If anything, this point about how Bebop was one of the last anime to use Cell animation only adds to the testament of this shows animation because this show is so fluid it’s like watching pure water. It’s one thing for digital animation to be fluid as water, but when you know that same quality can be achieved with someone drawing all the frames by hand, that’s an achievement few hold and even then, not as well as this. By far, the most visually appealing episode to watch out of the entirety of the series and really as well where the main story beings within Cowboy Bebop is episode 5: ‘Ballad of Fallen Angels’ since it has one of the best sequences between Spike and his old colleague Vicious battle in an abandoned church.What I really love about the ending sequence of this episode is how it’s very much a call-back to the ‘Heroic Bloodshed’ Hong Kong films of the late 80’s; more specifically John Woo’s The Killer as in that film similar to this episode, a similar shoot-off takes place in a church. That’s another point to consider as well is how there moments and references throughout Bebop that link with the Honk Kong film movement. Even the character of Spike Spiegel, brilliantly voiced by Steven Blum, is a character that hall-marks.Yes visually it’s really constructed rather well specifically when Spike is falling out of the church in slow-motion with the flashbacks of his ‘old’ life flicker in between him falling, but I must say the music and sound which I will get around talking about a bit later, is placed to near perfection as it does contribute to this heavy tension with Spike’s feeling of facing his old life again in the form of battling Vicious which does spark some bitter-sweet memories. What this links up with really well and what I appreciate and applaud very much for, is the mysticism around the flashbacks that we do see and how Spike actually got away from Vicious, Julia and the Syndicate. For me, once you see these events un-fold, they’ll always be in your head throughout the series as a reminder of just how this show can be so dramatic in a pure and dark state. I could go into great depth with one of my favourite scenes in the entire series, but rather then do that, all I can say is just watch it.

Now the overall plot to Bebop is simple enough to grasp very quickly, but just because it’s simple, doesn’t stop it from being one of the most entertaining and interesting plots in anime. The story as great as it is not without flaws however. I may have hinted at this a little earlier in the review that the crew of the Bebop (the ship the main cast fly around in) considering how well skilled they are, more or less suck at actually bounty hunting. In the entire run of the series, the crew is unable to catch or turn in the bounty on 14 separate occasions. I’ll give it that this is one of the series’s main plot points that they never have any money around and that they are always starving desperate for any food that comes there way and the fact that what little they do have is usually spent on repairs or stolen by Faye in her attempts to win more money in gambling, but for characters that much scaled having a large array of protagonists, you’d think they would catch a break at least most of the time. The other major gripe I have with the show is it’s rather slow start in terms of it’s introduction to the story. If I’m being a little knit-picky, Bebop really doesn’t get truly interesting until episode 5: ‘Ballad of the Fallen Angels’ which I mentioned earlier in this review as one of my favourite episodes in the entire series. As much as I think that for everyone reading this review that you all should really watch this anime to get yourself into well… anime, it can’t be helped to mention how watching through the episodes 1-4 really don’t help in revealing the heavy story line. On the flip-side of that you can argue that those first 4 episodes does sell in terms of the entertainment value with the action and introduces some of the characters which I can understand, but in terms of those episodes introducing the main story, it’s sad to say that Bebop just doesn’t do that at all. Don’t get me wrong, those first few episodes are in now way shape or form miserably bad, but considering this shows reputation as one of the GREATEST ANIME EVER!!, those episodes simply don’t really develop the main story arc. Personally, if you are trying to show off this anime with it’s really intriguing storyline, then I would suggest as to watch ‘Ballad of the Fallen Angels’ firstly as it opens up the main story line more effectively and then move on to episode 6 ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ and then head back to episode 1 and go from there. The two episodes of 5 and 6 have enough context so you don’t get lost but enough intrigue for the first 4 episodes to be entertaining than they are on there own straight from the bat. Other people may have different opinions on the viewing order and that’s fine, but for me after watching the entirety  of the series, I couldn’t help myself to mention in this review how the story right from the start is a little lack-luster.

Having said that however, there are some good qualities that Cowboy Bebop can boast about compared to other anime’s past and present. For one, while the majority of the episodes do just consist of the Bebop crew trying to catch Bounties to which they unsuccessfully never get any reward for, there are a few occasions throughout the series that focuses specifically on the main cast. For instance, each character of the Bebop crew does have their own separate episode in which they either explore their past through an old friend or past event, or it could be an episode in which one of the characters do a mission separately from the group. A good example of that would be Ed’s episode ‘Mushroom Samba’ in which she is the only one able to look for food, but stumbles upon a bounty that she alone can do due to the fact that the rest of the crew in this episode have taken Mushrooms which leave them unconscious. The other aspect I like about the structure of the series is how in some of the episodes, they heavily reference popular songs from different era’s. So the best example of this is shown in episode 14 which is entitled ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ which is obviously the title from a song performed by Queen and another example that people might recognise is the song name ‘Honky Tonk Woman’ which is the title of episode 3 and is a song performed by the Rolling Stones. I’ll probably go into more depth of the msuic in the Sound segment of this review, but the musical references are more predominant within the episodes themselves which I think is pretty cool and niche. My favourite musical reference has to be when Spike in ‘Mushroom Samba’ is walking up an infinite stair case and encounters a Frog which tells Spike that this is ‘the staircase to heaven’ obviously referencing the famous Led Zeppelin song.Now from here I could talk about the several themes that Cowboy Bebop evokes such as ‘the fear of technological advancement’ and ‘Life after Death’ and so on, But I honestly think I’ll be here all day explaining those themes if I’m quite honest. I don’t think it’s worth talking about anyway, besides if you really wanted to know about these themes, then I’m sure there are other books on theory that explain it better then me. I will say this however, the episode in which offers all these themes relatively all together it episode 23 ‘Brain Scratch’ which explores the ideas about eternal life, the internet etc.

Saving the best aspect of the show till last we have the sound and music to which Cowboy Bebop thrives upon than any other anime. Before I actually give my thoughts on the actual soundtrack which is really amazing, I think it would be unjust to not talk about the composer of the some of the music scores in this show Yoko Kanno. I know I might sound like a broken record to those readers who all ready know who Kanno is and what she has come up with in terms of the different anime’s she’s been apart of, but it can’t be helped to mention just how much of a good job she has done with Cowboy Bebop. The soundtrack that this show has is just a real pleasure to listen to and it’s pretty much thanks to Kanno’s producing and writing. Cowboy Bebop is very much a show that revolves around music; while being heavily influenced by jazz and the blues, there are a multitude of genres that the show uses from episode to episode. This of course links to what I said previously about how some of the episodes titles are musical references in of themselves E.G. The Rolling Stones’s ‘Honky Tonk Woman’, Aerosmith’s ‘Toy’s in the Attic’ album, Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody. If I had to pick out one song from the show that always makes me smile is the opening theme of the show ‘Tank’ done by the Seatbelts as it’s in a class of it’s own and is one of few openings that not only get me pumped for watching the show, but get’s you pumped up in general. Don’t get me wrong, the rest of the songs in the soundtrack is something that I won’t ever stop listening to now after watching the show, but ‘Tank’ is a theme song that for me, will never get old and boring; unlike some over shows out there where I tend to skip the intro, Bebop’s opening credits will never get old, and I hope for those readers who have never seen the show, eventually feel the same way as I do. 

I would be remiss not to mention the English Dubbed version of this series as it not only was the version that I watched, but more importantly, it has been the benchmark of every anime dub that has preceded it. For me like always, I don’t necessarily have a problem when an original Japanese show is turned into English Dub. I can understand it when the original source isn’t translated well into English and that’s fine, but it’s always been the knit-pick criticisms that I’ve always hated. I never like to see criticism about the English Dub that blatantly say ‘That English voice is wrong’ because to me, a criticism like that is frankly weak and not needed. The English Dub of Cowboy Bebop is a good example of how even Dub-haters can acknowledge the voice that has been presented in this show. Steven Blum’s voice of Spike alone, is a good enough reason why this show excels and really, does show that original Japanese anime that is being translated into a dub, can succeed. 

Cowboy Bebop is an absolute classic and a defining example of what anime is and what it’s capable of. I believe that there is something in this anime for everybody to enjoy and I’ve yet to talk or meet someone that say’s otherwise. I also believe that the only people who don’t like Bebop, are the people that have never watched it, or are the kind of person that dislikes popular things just because everyone else say’s that they’re awesome. If you’re unconvinced, please watch the 5th episode ‘Ballad of the Fallen Angels’ and decide for yourself. While Bebop is a show that is very much original with’s music, art direction and story structure, it’s also a show that thrives within the popular culture taking influences from popular song titles to Honk Kong film movements that are visually appealing, and by no means am I saying that this is a bad thing. I think that Bebop is definitely on top of the anime tree and should be an example of what anime can do. I also think that this one of those show’s that non-anime watchers SHOULD watch and it SHOULD also be put onto Netflix; a mean Attack on Titan is on there, why CAN’T THIS SHOW BE THE SAME?! Anyway’s, Thank-you for reading my review… See you Space Cowboy/girl…

Once again Thank-you to all of the readers who have the entirety of my latest review and have made it al this far. two things before I sign off. 1 – obviously if you are a regular around my Blog, you’ll notice that with this specific review, I actually typed out my post in a different but fresh structure. What I would you regular readers to tell me is what do you think? should I keep this new way of reviewing with the different subheadings, let me know by message or through the comments down below. For me I enjoyed it doing it this way, but obviously you guys make what my Blog is, so feel free to let me know. Last but not least, I’m going to leave the soundtrack of Cowboy Bebop down below so you guys can witness what such good music this show has in store. I will also be doing the Movie review of this show as well so be sure to keep in tune with this Blog. As always thank-you for reading and I’ll see you all next time, Take Care!! 🙂

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – Alex Rabbitte