Cowboy Bebop

Writer: Keiko Nobutomo
Director: Shinichiro Watanabe
Production House: Sunrise
Review Type: Anime
Status: Completed
Genre: Mecha, Shounen

Synopsis

The year is 2071 AD. With the systematic collapse of the old nation-states, a mixed jumble of races and peoples were driven out of their terrestrial Eden and spread to the stars, taking with them the now confused concepts of justice, freedom, violence, and love. New rules were established, and a new generation of bounty hunters came into being. People referred to these bounty hunters as 'cowboys'.

Meet Spike and Jet, a drifter and a retired cyborg cop who have started a bounty hunting partnership. In the converted ship The Bebop, Spike and Jet search the galaxy for criminals with bounties on their heads. They meet a lot of interesting characters, including the unusually intelligent dog Ein, the bizarre hacker child prodigy Ed, and the voluptuous and vexing femme fatale, Faye Valentine.



The crew of the spaceship Bebop are a partnership of bounty hunters, called "cowboys", who travel the solar system trying to apprehend bounties. Jet's the owner of the Bebop, but has partnered with Spike for his diverse combat skills. Though he is reluctant to admit it, Jet has also come to rely on Spike for companionship in the normally solitary field of bounty hunting.

Most episodes revolve around attempts to bring in a specific bounty. Some of the Bebop's varied targets include small time thugs, gangsters, hackers (known as 'net divers') , religious leaders, psychopaths, genetic experiments, mutant creatures and petty thieves. Occasionally the Bebop crews' pasts catch up with them, and the show regularly views the history of the main characters and more general past events, in flashbacks. For example, Spike's past as an assassin for the syndicate appears in a number of episodes.


Chibi's Bebopping Comments

I'll just get straight to the point with this one. As a longtime anime fan who has seen it all, from lengthy chronological series like Naruto, One Piece and Bleach to arthouse favorites like Akira and Tekkonkinkreet, to visually stimulating explosive CGI extravaganzas such as Karas and Appleseed, I can say that Cowboy Bebop is, hands down, one of the finest anime ever produced for the small screen.

The writing in this series (Keiko Nobumoto receives the 'Screenplay' credit, which I guess means that she was the head writer) is just flawless and the translators did a great job of carrying over the feel and expressiveness of the Japanese dialogue in English, rather than just translating it word for word (this applies to the subtitles, I NEVER watch dubs and yes, I speak a little Japanese) . The individual episodic plots are meticulously well written, and there's the ever present shadow of the overarching main plot, which is never truly revealed throughout the story. The characters are very realistically written, interesting and three-dimensional, with the notable exception of Ed, the hacker, whose annoying presence is probably a plan by Sunrise in order to appeal to a particular type of audience (loli, bi-shounen or yaoi freaks i guess). Fortunately, Ed does not feature much throughout the series while the other three, Spike, Faye and Jet, are so cool and appealing that an episode could consist solely of the three of them sitting around, playing Mah Jong and it would still have enough sexual tension and banter to keep it enthralling.



Cowboy Bebop also demonstrates it's versatility in writing with a wide range of character in its episodes. Some are funny, others action-packed and others quietly introspective, or a mix of all three. The anime takes place in a world that is both futuristic and retro, and the realism of the series in making this world believable is uncanny. With so much attention given to detail, watching the show really makes you feel as if such a place does exist.

The direction and look of Cowboy Bebop are just simply cool and breathtaking. If you're a fan of the jazz era, you'll love the color scheme, the inking and the lines. Director Shinichiro Watanabe does an amazing job of creating the feel of coolness from days gone (most notably the Brat Pack's big band era; the Brat Pack being Frank Sinatra and a few of his peers at the time) by while keeping you all the while, decidedly in the future. A bevy of angle shots, rapid cuts, stills with voiceover, extreme close-ups and many other techniques, some of which can only be accomplished in an animated production. The CGI was also executed to great effect, which not only helps the futuristic feel of the series, but also gives Cowboy Bebop certain special effects that few other animes have. You can feel that Sunrise isn't pulling any punches from just viewing the opening credits. It's no surprise that Cowboy Bebop was one of the more expensive anime series ever produced.



Now for the music. It features music from quite possibly the most-talented, versatile and interesting composer in Japanese Jazz and certainly one of, if not the greatest composer for anime soundtracks today; Yoko Kanno. The score to Cowboy Bebop takes all the best elements of jazz, pop, rock, classical and blues and mixes it all up in a score so catchy and wonderful to listen to that it is impossible that any anime series anywhere that had a better one (trust me I've looked, and the closest to come to it is either Naruto or Bleach, and even bleach uses bands and singers and not really compositions) . If you're interested in the feel of the series, but don't want to commit to a DVD, try one of the soundtrack albums and I guarantee you'll pick up the DVD the next day.

In short, this is one of the few animes that I have ever seen that really is cool, fun and never, ever insults your intelligence (Naruto fillers anyone?) . If more animes were like this god only knows how I'd get anything done, much less have a girlfriend. For a good long time since I started watching anime again almost all of my measuring of a good series will be against this one. This is the epitome, the penultimate, the incarnation of everything that is good about anime. Do yourself a favor and buy it, and you'll be gushing as much as I did.



Cowboy Bebop is written by Keiko Nobumoto and directed by Shinichiro Watanabe, and is produced by Sunrise. It was originally aired from April 1998 to April 1999, spanning 26 episodes. A movie titled Cowboy Bebop : The Movie was released in Sept 2001, and was 115 minutes long. It was directed by Shinichiro Watanabe and produced by Masahiko Minami, Minoru Takanashi and Masuo Ueda. The screenplay was written by Keiko Nobumoto, while the story itself was written by Hajime Yatate. Two manga series were written following the anime and movie. The first is Cowboy Bebop: A New Story, which was written by Hajime Yatate and illustrated by Yutaka Nanten. It was published by Japan Kadokawa Shoten and Tokyopop for the United States and Canada which ran from April 1998 to April 2000, spanning 3 volumes. Another manga called Cowboy Bebop: Shooting Star was realeased around the same time, and was also penned by Hajime Yatate but illustrated Cain Kuga, and also published by Japan Kadokawa Shoten and Tokyopop for the United States, and is still running.


Chibi's Review



Storyline: 5/5
Character Development: 5/5
Art: 5/5
Originality: 5/5