Cowboy Bebop

Produced by Sunrise INC.

Directed by Watanabe Shinichiro.

If only every anime series was this good, Cowboy Bebop addresses the problem of originality in anime through an awkward means the story is quite clichéd involving bounty hunters flying through space and taking on all manner of foe in various scenarios.  It is the musical department that Cowboy Bebop is leaps and bounds ahead of the pack the music is used almost as a separate character conveying a sense of style and pretension rarely seen in anime.  The director one Shinichiro Watanabe [Escaflowne and Samurai Champloo] takes influence from western culture including Hollywood action movies and of course Jazz music and drips them into the anime in order to create a series that is without a doubt superb.

The four main protagonists are suave and not so sophisticated ex gangster Spike Spiegel, an amnesiac bombshell named Faye Valentine, hard-boiled former police officer Jet Black and the computer whiz and “elastic girl” Ed these four motley adventurers travel through the galaxy apprehending criminals and getting into many a strange situation a long the way.  In order to keep the series fresh and exciting new characters are introduced periodically at first only Jet and Spike eke out a living on board their ship [the Bebop] within the first few episodes they are joined by Faye and then on the trail of a mysterious computer hacker discover Ed and she joins the team [there is also Ein the Welsh Corgi who is introduced within the first couple of episodes and proves to be Ed’s partner and the source of some comic relief.]

The main attraction of the series is the action set pieces on many occasion kung fu moves are thrown around while guns fire in the background all set to pumping Jazz music the first time you see Cowboy Bebop you are sure to be charmed by the sheer charisma of Watanabe’s direction in terms of action and narrative.  Watanabe-san does not beat around the bush in regards to narrative on many occasions we are presented with the protagonists doing detective work these sections are filled with music and scenes of the characters talking you cannot hear them but you understand what is going on the montage and it creates a good pace for the show with the action coming thick and fast and the dialogue and narrative never lagging.

It is clear when watching Cowboy Bebop that the Sunrise Staff are fans of Lupin III.  The designs and style in general are reminiscent of Monkey Punch’s well-known series [nearly every character smokes!] It’s wonderful! Seeing as I’m talking about the design I might as well comment on just how great it is in terms of character design Sunrise have done an excellent job portraying both heroes and villains.  Jet for instance looks battle hardened because of his metallic arm, Faye genuinely looks sexy [well as sexy as an anime character can look.] and then there is Spike who of course is the image of cool his body language, clothing, facial expressions constantly scream this at the viewer and you’ll be damned if you don’t notice.  The animation too is slick and stylish there is no screen jiggle and the picture is clean and sharp at all times.  Sunrise have also managed to implement CG and cell animation without any odd looking moments this is generally a pet peeve for me after watching Metropolis I felt that CG and cell don’t mix but Cowboy Bebop fixed that. Well done!

In terms of story the plot is spread quite nicely some episodes have nothing to do with the main plot however they provide some comic relief or a deeper look at the principle characters and their history.  This helps to establish a strong universe for the story and the intention of the viewer caring for the characters is achieved with spectacular results the tight action scenes evoke real tension and had me crossing my fingers, hoping that the crew of the Bebop would triumph.

For all it’s merits Cowboy Bebop does suffer from some minor problems one of these is the translation into English while the dub Bandai have recorded is quite nice and well done it does not do some of the characters justice sometimes seeming to lack emotion or charisma this is easily remedied because the DVD also contains a Japanese language track.  To Bandai’s merit they have done no editing and so characters still swear and get shot and yes, blood does flow freely believe me.

In the end Cowboy Bebop is a landmark in serialised cartoons showing many directors and studios how to cope with a new venture Cowboy Bebop simply implements a rhythm to it almost subliminally enticing the viewer to watch it.  The characters, the music, plot, location, mechanical designs all add up to the best anime TV series Sunrise has ever produced and perhaps the best anime TV series ever produced.   

Nine out of Ten