Cowboy Bebop

Genre: Action
Type: Series

Cowboy Bebop at first glance (and by "first glance" I mean the first few episodes) seems very confusing and doesn't seem very interesting at all, but as you pull yourself further into this futuristic world, the storyline begins to unfold itself and what seemed to be mysterious becomes revealed. Or at least that's how I felt when I first started watching this anime. To first time viewers, this anime follows no direct storyline; the episodes do not "continue" onwards from the last episode, even though the episodes are numbered.

As I continued watching the series, parts of the story were unfolded for me, not very plainly or direct, but certain events and parts of the story which was not shown were easily implied or concluded. The ending of Cowboy Bebop was one that could never have been expected (Don't worry I wont spoil it for you). As you watch more and more of this show, you become absorbed within the characters lives and like and/or dislike each of their personalities to the extent to where they feel like they could exist in reality.

The story starts out by the introduction of a large ship, in the year 2071, named the "Bebop," who is owned by a bounty hunter by the name of Jet Black. Spike Spiegle, a tall, martial-arts man with strange, enormous hair and a very mysterious past tags along as a fellow bounty hunter in the Bebop. As each episode passes by, it was easily seen that the producer of this anime was very original. No episode is even similar in any way. In the second episode, a medical experimentation on the intelligence of a dog has made it one that has become a favorite for an extremely versatile and resourceful outlaw, since the value of the dog has risen to astounding amounts of "Wulong"(the currency in Cowboy Bebop). Eventually the dog lands in Spike's hands and thus has become a burden on his and Jet's life. Although Spike claims he hates dogs, it seems as if he is quite fond of the critter.

A few short episodes later, a new character is introduced, by the name of Faye Valentine. Faye at first glance seemed like the "slutty" or "sleezy" type, demonstrated by her selection of very skimpy clothing, also as her passion is cheating the "pants" off gamblers with her rigged set of dice. What sort of seems unappealing within this anime is that all characters are introduced very abruptly, without any proper introduction; likewise it also gives the "reality" feel towards the anime because that is how all people usually meet. But later on within Bebop each character has their "own" episode in which past times and events are revealed, making the characters more interesting.

As the story continues, another character is introduced to the audience. A small child, Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky the IV, or "Ed" for short, is a boy (or girl!?) genius who appears to be orphaned and left alone on his (or her?) own place on Earth. Coincidentally, the crew is out to find the bounty of one named "Radical Edward" the genius hacker on the loose causing massive and abstract destruction.. Ed is a brainiac when it comes to computers and hacking. He can hack almost any satellite or mainframe that he desires. He spends all his time toying around on his computer or flying around airplanes (not toy ones either). Ed's trademark can be easily spotted as a large yellow smiley face with red cheeks and a wide spread grin. For a while the crew thought Ed was a boy, but to their own surprise she in fact, was a girl! How disturbing...

The storyline overall is not very clear in the beginning of the series, like in most other animes, where one man with an unclear past is set out on a journey to do whatever. That's what intrigues me about this anime. You have to keep watching it in order to see why and how things happen, and who the characters really are. During the middle, surprisingly, no "filler" episodes are given, frankly, every episode is vital to watch in order to gain the utmost knowledge on all the past events that happened to every character. Either the episode contains a very absorbing action sequence or has the dark, mysterious pasts of a character revealed. A hidden, subset love story between Spike and a girl named Julia is presented, although not much is dictated. Spike relives these events inside his dreams, and adds depth towards the story as a whole. The end is very emotional, as Spike retains an "arc-nemesis" that he feels he needs to confront. Everything in the ending is disclosed as the anime comes to a halt itself with a very moving ending. Many things are left unmentioned and left for the view to guess on. I find this somewhat disappointing, yet satisfying because I am left to decide what happens to the rest of the characters!

The animation throughout the entire series was flawless, and very, very well drawn. To me, a good anime has to have good looking characters and nice, smooth animation during erratic scenes (like that of a high-intensity battle!). A lot of spastic scenes were involved, because of the random amounts of action within the show, thus requiring a nice even transaction between the subtle, calm scenes, and the intense fights and battle scenes. This was done and done well, which I commend.

Music remains within the confines of a constant theme, which remains jazz. All different types of jazz are presented to the viewer during different times of the series. As the title of the anime itself reads "Cowboy Bebop" (Bebop being a form of jazz), jazz is a heavy influence throughout Bebop. Fast, rambunctious jazz can be heard during eccentric and intense battle scenes; while slow, melodic jazz is played during moving or emotional times and events. At the end of every episode, there is usually a very "soft," non abrupt ending (which is a good tip for the view in knowing when the episode is going to end), which commonly a soft melodic jazz is played. This is fascinating, as before my ears refused to listen to even the slightest bit of jazz, but after watching Cowboy Bebop, a whole new genre of music becomes familiar to me.

All in all, Cowboy Bebop is an anime that presents for the most part a very nice, deep, mysterious storyline that intrigues the view in wanting to find out "what happened before" or "who this character really is." Lots and lots of action is incorporated within this show; all the while having a slight abstract romance, at times very emotional and moving scenes and events, and of course, in some random events humor can be found. If you enjoy all those aforementioned elements within an anime, then Cowboy Bebop is perfect for you! If you're more interested in an off-set, dramatic anime with a huge romance involved then maybe this might not be what you're looking for. Overall Bebop pleases most of the anime viewers, which is why I think that this is one of the greatest anime series out there, and of course this remains to be my all-time favorite anime I've seen so far.

Written by Blood

Rating Meter: 99 %