Why do people say Cowboy Bebop is awesome?

[procyonlotor]

I recently rewatched Cowboy Bebop and I liked it a lot more than I did the first time. As a product of anime as a medium there is very little that I have seen (and I have seen a lot) that parallels it. You would have to reference the likes of Neon Genesis Evangelion to find an equal.

Unlike many anime, this show is genuinely art, not in that it is merely the product of artistic process (Code Geass and Death Note for instance told good stories in thoughtful ways but they were both mired in genre and convention), but because it transcends its state of being anime and becomes simply Cowboy Bebop. At this point, anime is merely a convenient label.

In the end, why is it so good? Because it derives from and involves a thought process, indeed the thought processes of many people, (Hajime Yatate, as the credits refer to the team), that goes beyond the necessities of what an anime series is commonly thought to be: a story - with a beginning, a middle, and an end - with an immediately graspable conflict which is expanded over the course of the series and finally resolved at the end. Cowboy Bebop has all these things of course, but it has so much more.

Consider this post,

Spoiler

Here is the frame that seems to capture the gist of this show's appeal for me. I hope it helps.

Each show is a jazz piece, stand alone, played by instruments.

The instruments are the characters, and we start with just Jet, and he quickly pairs with Spike, and a simple duet is formed, rhythm and bass so to speak. Faye, Edward and Ein all join in on subsequent episodes, and we have a quintet.

Each character, after they are introduced, plays along in combo with the whole, but then each gets a "solo", a show about mainly them and their back story. In Edward's case, her solo also forms her play off.

After the solos, each member drops out, and we are left with Spike and Jet, and then finally just Spike.

Fin.

This interpretation is one of the reasons Cowboy Bebop is not only great, but ultimately better than a great many series. It doesn't have to true, but the fact alone that such an interpretation can arise - that is divine.

 

[The Deadpool]

Consider this post,

While I appreciate the sentiment, we should all really try to keep spoilers to a minimum in a thread where he's up to episode FIVE... Just a thought...

 

[procyonlotor]

Consider this post,

While I appreciate the sentiment, we should all really try to keep spoilers to a minimum in a thread where he's up to episode FIVE... Just a thought...

Remedied. Thanks for pointing that out.

Anyway, yeah, it's perfectly fine not to like it. The important thing is understanding what you're dealing with before casting judgment.

 

[The Deadpool]

Remedied. Thanks for pointing that out.

No sweat. I've been biting my tongue through much of the topic because it's so hard to discuss it without spoiling it... Hence my call to the TC to come back when he's finished...

 

[Bonecrusher]

To be fair I'm 5 episodes in. I am enjoying it, but it is by no means a masterpiece like i hear it is. For example anime news network has it in their top 10 anime list.

What is so special about this show?

Cowboy Bebop is one of my most favourite anime.
- It has a noir theme on, caused by the heavily detective/bounty hunter story.
- It contains lots of cyberpunk inside, machines, cracking, researching, escaping, finding, creating...
- It is a space adventure that shows some examples of future space life.
- You may want a "continuing story" like some tv shows or anime, but "seperate story in each episode with a few connection between" style resembles old tv shows like Miami Vice, Columbo and some follower shows like NCIS, CSI, Law&Order.
- Characters are widely diverse and appealing. They all have interesting backgrounds.
- Musics definitely rock!
- Drawing style and scenes are beautiful.

By the way, my other favourite animes are: Full Metal Alchemist, Akira, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Vampire Hunter D - Bloodlines, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Rurouni Kenshin, Hellsing, Fullmetal Alchemist (first series), Great Teacher Onizuka, Naruto&Naruto Shippuuden.

 

[Laughing Man]

This

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3ZLXQK1Hr8

and this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxxYvHOex9g

Also if you do happen to end up liking Cow Boybebop may I suggest that you take a look at Samurai Champaloo. It's by the same folk and uses quite a few of the same english voice actors and no matter what anyone thinks I liked it quite a lot.

 

[BENZOOKA]

You're just dipping in.

1. I love the music and the atmosphere and I think they go hand in hand.

2. It's an action anime that plays the part of spaghetti western and scifi art.

3. There's a lot of fun to be had exploring the characters and their pasts. Usually such nonsense kills me in an anime, but they take a literature approach rather than a comic book approach and it plays out just solid.

4. Ed

Quite exactly along these lines.

Also the randomness and variety of the episodes. I find Spike Spiegel to be a very interesting and original character as well. But I do love Ed more.

 

[sketch_zeppelin]

SPOILERS

spikes falling out of a church window in the Sympathy for the Devil episode.

Ballad of Fallen Angels. Sympathy for the Devil is the NEXT episode (one he hasn't seen). And while not the ONLY source of info on Spike, Julia and Vicious (there ARE two other two-parter episodes that deal with it too), it IS a major source.

oops my bad

 

[Deathkingo]

Because it was "everyones first anime"

Wrong, that would belong to Pokemon or DBZ, my friend. First "real" anime, maybe.

 

[TheLaofKazi]

Speak Like a Child and Hard Luck Woman are probably two of my favorite episodes. The scene with Call Me, Call Me on Hard Luck Woman is particularly gut-wrenching to me. Hell, it's what made me look up Steve Conte...

I'm an odd duck. I'm a big fan of Jupiter Jazz. The relationship between Spike and Jet is one of the most realistic "men who aren't in touch with their feelings" kind of bonding I've ever seen... Also, Waltz for Venus is friggin awesome. Not the most popular of episodes, but I dig...

I just watched Hard Luck Woman again and so many parts of that episode are just shattering, the presentation of it and the whole setting, the decayed and torn apart town near the oceanside reminds me of something that happened in my childhood and a dream I had once. I can't really remember either, but the whole mood of the episode felt so familiar. It might have been because I saw it long ago when I was a kid, but I didn't really understand the show that much. Plus I live near a lake and a bunch of older, decayed parts of town that I used to walk around in as a kid. So when I watched the entire series recently, a lot abstract, fuzzy, emotional memories that I didn't really understand from long ago were revoked and understood.

There is so much expressed in so little in the show.

Spoiler

The Call Me, Call Me part where Jet says dinner is ready to nobody being there, and later finds Spike and discovers that Ed has left. They don't say much, and all they do is go back and gulp down all their food in silence, and after they finish their meals, they start on Faye and Ed's food. It's kind of how they try to numb the pain a bit, by eating a lot, since they aren't really "in touch with their feelings" as you put it.They don't talk about it, so they resort to other ways of dealing with the pain. Faye draws her old bed where it used to be. That kind of stuff.

 

[The Deadpool]

Absolutely one of the main reasons I love Hard Luck Woman. Their reaction to the whole situation is absolutely brilliant, and Call Me, Call Me just makes it all that more powerful...

 

[Jazzyjazz2323]

I am an avid hater of most anything anime but i cannot in good conscience say cowboy bebop is shit or anything like that.It is the only anime i watch let alone enjoy,Just on the musical level its brilliant not to mention the writing and the setting everything about it just works.

 

[Mikeyfell]

To be fair I'm 5 episodes in. I am enjoying it, but it is by no means a masterpiece like i hear it is. For example anime news network has it in their top 10 anime list.

What is so special about this show?

I really don't know
I mean I loved the show
but I always liked Outlaw Star better

but Cowboy Bebop has the best music in any anime I can recall
and

Spoiler

two of the most powerful character death's in anything