So, are you ready for this? Okay, 3, 2, 1, Let's Jam!
Cowboy Bebop has been one of my favorite anime's for a while and one of the first I saw on Adult Swim before I was introduced to the 'after ten' anime showings on Cartoon Network where I also watched Outlaw Star, Inuyasha, Yu Yu Hakusho and many more. You know, before Adult Swim went to crack in a pipe. Okay, maybe that wasn't really age appropriate for some readers but hopefully I didn't step too far over the boundaries of my normal readers.
Anyway, Cowboy Bebop is a 1998 Japanese anime series developed by Sunrise. It had some amazing people working on it like; Shinichiro Watanabe, Keiko Nobumoto, Toshihiro Kawamoto and Yoko Kanno for music collectivity.
Because of the shows rather adult theme, Japan's Tokyo TV broadcasted only twelve episodes and a special but later the entire set of twenty-six episodes aired on WOWOW in 1999. The anime was adapted into a two part manga series with a film released later worldwide and has been labeled a "gateway series" after winning numerous awards.
The anime takes place in the year 2071 when our entire solar system of the Milkyway has been hooked up to hyperspace travel. Something we all wish would really happen, hm? Anyone get flashbacks of drawing flying cars in their first grade classroom when asked what the millennium was going to bring??
Well, in 2022 in the anime series, there was an explosion when the gateways of hyperspace travel were still new and experimental severly damaging Earth's moon which lead to meteors and debris killing and destroying most of the Earth's residence and populated cities. As a result, many of Earth's survivors evacuated it and began to colonize on the inner planets like Mars and Venus along with creating habitats in the asteroid belt and on Jupiter's moons. Mar's became the central location for human life and trade routes and along with it, some of the solar system's worst crime syndicates. One, mentioned often in the series, being the Red Dragon Syndicate. An inter-solar police force was created as was an old west themed bounty hunter ring for capturing the large amounts of criminals all over open space known as Space Cowboys. The currency is known as woolong which could be assumed as the modern day equivalency to Japanese yen. Oh, and don't forget, you guessed it, flying vehicles. The technology is actually kid of a mix between modern and futuristic. There are still wheeled cars, zippo lighters, hand guns, fishing rods, etc. But there are also flying ships, flying cars, identification tattoos, jump gates and cybernetics.
So, the main characters of the story to star off with are Spike Spiegel, 'god's gift to bounty hunting' who used to work for the most dangerous ranking synidicate in the solar system, the Red Dragon, with his partner Vicious and his woman, Julia. He is tall, fairly well built, with puffy dark green hair. He also only has one real eye while the other he says "sees the past", and is pretty much cybernetic since his other was shot out, I believe, when escaping the syndicate and the partner he once trusted and watched become as black as the universe. There is also his current partner in bounty hunting, Jet Black. He was once an officer for the ISSP, the intergalactic space force. He has a few cybernetics on him from when he was attacked in the line of duty. But he doesn't let that get him down. He is older then spike, balding, and the captain of the Bebop. The ship the whole series is run out of.
Later you gain other main characters such as Faye Valentine, a "romani", as she calls herself who is on the run from debt collectors. She is actually far older then she looks, having been in a frozen sleep for so many years after the original space gate experimental blast when she was younger. She aged slower and therefor is quite a bit older then she looks. But, she doesn't let her true age pilfer that sex appeal she has which often gets her into trouble. Then you meet Ein, a very intelligent Pembroke Welsh Corgi that was originally stolen from a lab who was testing his intelligence. He gets close to Jet until a new character comes alone named Ed. Or, Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivruski IV as she claims to have renamed herself. Oh, and trust me, I wouldn't have known it was a female either if the series didn't say so. Turns out her real name is Francoise Appledelhi, (I see why the name change) who was left at an orphanage on Earth while her father traveled around to study meteors falling to earth and try to learn to predict them. She is a genius computer hacker who met the rest of the Bebop gang by hacking into their ship and bringing it down for a landing. The way her story ends is so sad, and yet so grown up. Makes me wanna cry!
There are minor characters such as the main villain Vicious, Spike's love who wouldn't leave the syndicate with him, Julie, Jet's old flame, Faye's past lover. But mainly the story revolves around these five and their history. Their own individual ones and the history they make together.
What I love most about this series, as weird as it may seem, is it's short but creative story. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love Dragon Ball Z/GT, Inuyasha, and Sailor Moon, not to mention I hated seeing Cowboy Bebop end, but it kept my interest for as long as it has (I have all the episodes on dvd) because of it's short story that did not run on forever to the point where you wonder how the hell they are going to keep it going or who is going to die but you found out they didn't die and then they do but they come back somehow kind of thing. I love a good ending and I want my attention to be held long enough to see it.
Not to mention the music. Oh dear Buddha! The Music! Songs such as The Real Folk Blues,Tank!, Space Lion, Blue, all performed by The Seatbelts. It will have you remembering the songs forever! I still know the words, English and Japanese to The Real Folk Blues and I haven't watched the anime in forever!
The characters also all have a very spicy history which I love. I like the potential romance that you think might happen but never does, the loneliness in some characters, the fake smiles and devastating pasts that make them who they are in the show. Not to mention the detailed history of why everything came to be the way it did while still keeping the mystery of some things until the very end. I love that! And honestly, I am disappointed that it isn't one of the shows that is on Netflix. A lot of those anime's are highschool girls, half naked, no real story line, yadda yadda. It disappoints me when old and good anime series like this one are not on for everyone to see and remember.
I highly recommend the anime if you actually like storyline, action, sarcasm, despair, drama. However, for those who like seeing nearly naked woman who throw themselves on every guy and a whole lot of romance after romance that the anime is pretty much a hentai made for television? You won't like this. Not that Faye doesn't show a bit of cleavage in each episode she is in, but this is more for the grown ups and not the childish high-schoolers that drop jaw and spend "quality time" with themselves and their favorite anime girl.
I give this show, 5 PAWS!
