Cowboy Bebop Review and Thoughts

 

Cowboy Bebop Review and Thoughts

Ah Cowboy Bebop, this was an anime that was important for me being the anime fan I am today. Back in 2008, I quit watching anime for a number of reasons but then I watched Bebop back in 2012 and then I slowly got back into the medium again. This and Ghost in the Shell Standalone Complex were the two shows that helped me get back into it. This is going to be both a write up and a review, and this will kind of pain me to say but after watching the show again, I think it's a 6 out of 10.

Introductions out of the way, I don't think Bebop is a *bad* show, I think it's decent but it really is mostly a style over substance show. I don't like it when people critique any piece of media that way since you need both style and substance to make an entertaining story, but Bebop is mainly carried by its style more than anything else. If the show didn't have the animation that it did, if the music didn't fit the scenes as well as it did, and if the dub was off in any way, the show would not have the following that it has. The best way to describe Cowboy Bebop is that it's a bare minimum comfort food story done with style that sneaks in a more interesting episode here and there.

I might as well get into the most debateable aspect of Bebop that either make or break the show for some people is well, the episodic standalones. Fact of the matter is, Cowboy Bebop doesn't really have a serial narrative that you expect a lot of an anime to have, it has a number of episodic standalones that has either nothing to do or vaguely something to do with the main plot. Here is the thing, I am not against this style of storytelling, in fact, as someone who wants to be a fictional writer, I find when a writer can pull this kind of story telling off to be an impressive feat. Mainly in that he has to find a way to get a viewer invested within a short time of 22 minutes, I think the Simpsons, "Homer's Enemy" and the various episodes of the Boondocks do this sort of thing very well. Here's the problem with Bebop's standalones, while most of them aren't bad, none them really stand out in any way either. Outside of Mad Pierrot and Cowboy Andy, I can't think of many that really click with me. Mad Pierrot being an interesting thriller story of sorts and Cowboy Andy being a funny parody on the Western. The rest of the standalones? Outside of "Gateway Shuffle", "Heavy Metal Queen", "Toys in the Attic", and "Boogie Woogie Feng Shui", the episodes are mostly serviceable comfort food at best. I can see why Adult Swim still plays this series to this day because back in the days of only having TV channels late at night, Bebop would probably be a good show to watch to have the time pass by. The biggest problem with the episodic standalone episodes I feel is that they revolve around too many of the same concepts like, "good people in bad situations", "wacky hijinks", or just introducing a new concept out of nowhere in every episode. The writing never makes a point or a message that would last with me, and that is fine, but considering the acclaim this series gets, I was expecting more.

I might as well get to the next point, the sci fi setting, I think it's pretty obvious that Shiniciro Wantanabe is a big fan of movies and not just westerns either, he likes all kinds of genres like film noir, gangster movies, cyberpunk stories, sci fi horror, buddy cop stories, war epics, family movies and so on. I feel that Bebop was better off being just a gangster story and removing all the other genres and sci fi setting that the series pays homage to because the gangster narrative with Spike, Vicious and the Syndicate I felt was the most interesting part, but the series forgets about that a lot of time just to pay subpar tributes to different kinds of storytelling and movies. When I got to Ballad of Fallen Angels I am like, "I want to know more about Vicious and what his deal was, more about Mao, more about Annie, more about the whole power struggle with rival crime syndicates and why Vicious took that moment to want to kill Spike and killed Mao, what Mao and Spike's relationship was. Ballad of Fallen Angels as the 5th episode and it felt like there could've been more set up to it. I felt if Bebop was more about this and was a toned down on the episodic standalones, the show would be better for it.

This is going to be a weird comparison but I always felt Cowboy Bebop was the Jak 3 of anime. Both forget what they are, one being a gangster tale and the other being a 3D platformer and the best parts of both are when they remember to be those things. 90% of the run time of both is spent being subpar versions of other kinds of genres in their respective mediums. It is rather strange how the former is considered to be the greatest anime ever while the other is considered to be the "worst" in its trilogy and is considered to be a game with a cult following.

I might as well now talk about Bebop as a serial narrative...or what little there is of one. The series throws a lots of concepts at the viewer like cowboys, animal and human experimentation, bounty hunters, immortality, corporation scandals, eco terrorism, cryosleep, assassins, crime syndicates, a corrupt police force, a destroyed earth, techno cults, a war, it has all of these things and all of them don't feel like they bleed into each other that well. The series drops these concepts as soon as they get introduced, as standalone stories they aren't that interesting and as a serial narrative, it just makes the world building a mess and makes me scratch my head every 10 seconds.

This will now lead into my next two points, the ensemble cast and the character of Vicious. I'll talk about the former first, the series promotes an ensemble cast and makes you think it's about the crew of the Bebop and their adventures together when that isn't true, it's ultimately Spike Spiegel's story and everyone just so happen to a supporting character. Sounds weird? Here is the thing, whenever Bebop has it's episodes resembling a serial plot, half the cast are conveniently written out of the story. Jet never gets involved that much and him and the main antagonist, Vicious don't even exchange dialogue together. "Radical Edward" is always never in these episodes with a prominent role because the silly nature of his character would not jell well with the serious episodes of Bebop which is also why he is written out of the story before the series' finale. It's funny how shows like Dragon Ball Z and Naruto get bashed for, "main character or GTFO" when Bebop is, "Spike or GTFO". And before you bash Goku for being a "bad dad" remember Edward's dad ditched him and sent him to a rundown orphanage and then ditches him again and runs away when he sees Ed again, and I am wondering what is the lesson here, Ed realizes his dad is a deadbeat and decides to ditch the Bebop crew? What is the point of that? Okay, back on topic, now here is the biggest problem with the Bebop finale while the ending on its own is decent enough, the stuff leading up to the ending just gets my head scratching. Are some of my major issues with it have to do with the before mentioned "Spike or GTFO". Why didn't the finale involve Faye and Jet in any meaningful way? At least DBZ and Naruto would have characters job to opposing force to establish how strong they are. Faye and Jet should've at least participated in the final shootout before Spike fights Vicious, instead of Shin, it should've been Jet. Faye realizing she has nowhere to go could at the very least have her die for Spike to establish how strong their bond has been since being together. Imagine in the first Lethal Weapon where in the finale Murtaugh decides to ditch Riggs after the former saves his daughter, yeah, it wouldn't do a good job at establishing their bond now would it? Instead all the finale of Bebop does is constantly remind you of a character I hardly care about which is Julia. Faye crazes over her, Jet talks about her, Annie's last dying moments is her acknowledging Julia, Vicious wants Julia dead, Spike has a obsession with Julia, this all wouldn't be so bad, if I actually knew more about Julia outside of flashbacks or if Faye and Jet had any agency of their own.

Now the character that Bebop detractors as here and there they tend to show up tend to criticize, the main antagonist Vicious. Here is the thing, I don't dislike Vicious as much as they do, I think Vicious is both a decent and terrible character at the same time. I only think he is decent because of his voice actor in English because he does a good job at carrying a lot of this material and the way he talks and delivers his lines gives a lot of character that the actual story doesn't really give him. Ignoring him, what was Vicious' plan outside of killing Spike? Why did he want to kill the Red Dragon elders so badly? Why did he testify against Gren? Why does he go after Spike on occasion? Why are those henchmen who helped with the coup so loyal to Vicious? Why does he never go after other members of the Bebop to get to Spike? I can go on, but I felt Vicious as a villain was wasted potential, if the series just committed to the gangster narrative, then maybe there would've been more character and even him having more agency in the story. 

Overall, I feel Cowboy Bebop should've been a maybe a 10 episode OVA rather than an anime series, it would feel less bloated and the storytelling would be tighter overall. Note I don't think Bebop is bad, I think it has too many issues that prevent from being an anime I consistently enjoy or an anime where I don't have to zone out during over half its run time. That and I feel the show's mostly critical immunity has gotten me more critical on it in general.