Cowboy Bebop

Crime is timeless. By the year 2071, humanity has expanded across the galaxy, filling the surface of other planets with settlements like those on Earth. These new societies are plagued by murder, drug use, and theft, and intergalactic outlaws are hunted by a growing number of tough bounty hunters.

Spike Spiegel and Jet Black pursue criminals throughout space to make a humble living. Beneath his goofy and aloof demeanor, Spike is haunted by the weight of his violent past. Meanwhile, Jet manages his own troubled memories while taking care of Spike and the Bebop, their ship. The duo is joined by the beautiful con artist Faye Valentine, odd child Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV, and Ein, a bioengineered Welsh Corgi.

While developing bonds and working to catch a colorful cast of criminals, the Bebop crew's lives are disrupted by a menace from Spike's past. As a rival's maniacal plot continues to unravel, Spike must choose between life with his newfound family or revenge for his old wounds.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Spiegel, Spike Main

Yamadera, Kouichi Japanese

Valentine, Faye Main

Hayashibara, Megumi Japanese

Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV, Edward Main

Tada, Aoi Japanese

Black, Jet Main

Ishizuka, Unshou Japanese

Ein Supporting

Yamadera, Kouichi Japanese

Vicious Supporting

Wakamoto, Norio Japanese

Eckener, Grencia Mars Elijah Guo Supporting

Horiuchi, Kenyuu Japanese

Julia Supporting

Takashima, Gara Japanese

Von de Oniyate, Andy Supporting

Ebara, Masashi Japanese

Mad Pierrot Supporting

Ginga, Banjou Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer, Director

Maseba, Yutaka Producer

Minami, Masahiko Producer

Ikeguchi, Kazuhiko Producer

Reviews

Aug 24, 2008

TheLlama

Recommended

People who know me know that I'm not a fan of episodic anime series unless they're either one season (12-14 episodes) long or a slice of life series. Why? They have a tendency to get boring, or repetitive. But all rules and preferences have exceptions. You know what? Cowboy Bebop is that exception.

The story is set in a space western setting - a genre and setting I'm loving more and more for each show I watch that falls under the genre. We follow two bounty hunters, Spike and Jet, who own a ship called the Bebop. They travel the Solar system, chasing wanted criminals to ... earn money. Along the way, they also pick up two women; the debt-laden Faye Valentine and the playful kid and computer genius Edward (yes, Ed’s a girl).

Each episode brings about a new bounty which they chase after, and while that doesn't sound too exciting to watch 26 episodes in a row, you'll end up loving the show. All the different events makes for a certain degree of unpredictability, and you'll sometimes wonder how things will end. However, that alone is not enough to give the story the rating I've given it. So why have I given that rating? Let's continue...

One of the things that elevate the show a bit above the rest is the manner in which the main cast's pasts are explored. It's not like one flashback episode and you understand everything about how they are today. In one episode you might get one piece, and then the next one in another episode, and it's not until the final three episodes of the show that everything falls in place. This way of executing it makes you want to watch another episode, so that you can find out more about the characters (some may say that this falls in under "Character", but the manner in which the pasts are explored are more "Story" than "Character", IMO). Now, that's so far a 9 for the story. Why did it deserve a 10?

The answer is easy: the way they executed many scenes in the show. The contrasts which you get to see between, music, the setting of scenes and what's really happening just gives the story that extra edge deserving of a perfect score.

The characters are all really good and interesting fellows. Though they every now and then reminded me of characters from other shows, they preserved that originality which gave a feel that they were, if not completely, then at least a little bit more real than most characters out there. The way their pasts intertwine with the future and how everything ends with them confronting and settling open ends from their pasts is also something that's impressive to watch. I don't really have anything more to say than "perfect".

The animation is, for a 90s anime, stunningly good. The detail put into backgrounds and surroundings is really good, and I also love how good lighting effects and shading are at times. All of Ed’s strange movements are animated really nicely too. If there's something negative, it's the somewhat dull coloring (compared to today's standards), as well as poor effects when traveling in hyperspace.

The soundtrack is also astounding! The music used for the show is so incredibly varied, and while keeping mostly to the more jazzy tunes, the soundtrack visits so many genres that it's hard to not like at least a few pieces. What I also loved is the way the music was used not only as a medium to go with and amplify the mood, but also as a contrast to what's happening in several scenes. All in all, it's really amazing. Don't have anything to say against voice acting and other sound effects either.

All in all Cowboy Bebop is an anime that’s in the top tier on the greatness scale, and a show I believe every anime fan should give a try.

To 'Not Helpful' voters (and you 'Helpful' voters too): Feedback greatly appreciated =)

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Jun 15, 2011

xm0123

Mixed Feelings

Cowboy Bebop was originally an anime series created by Shinichiro Watanabe in 1998. It consists of 26 episodes, a mini-sode, and a theatrical movie. It was released in America in 2001, and is one of the few anime franchises to be more successful in North America than in its native Japan. I have seen the 26 tv episodes and the movie. I already know what a lot of you are doing right now after glancing at the numerical score I gave; you're hitting up the comment box on my profile and writing these exact words:

"Fuck you! Cowboy Bebop is a classic! You're not allowed to ... criticize it!"

The more astute viewers will note that I scored the series a 6, but the movie a 9. I kind of like Cowboy Bebop. It does do some things very right. It had the potential to be one of the greatest franchises ever. Alas, while its production values are unmatched, the writing . . . doesn't always match up with the production. Because of this, the series ended up being a style-over-substance experience for me, but why was that?

The premise of CB is that in the late 21st century, mankind has started living in places in the solar system besides Earth. In this future are bounty hunters known as Cowboys. Cowboys do whatever they can to make cash to keep the food stockpile stocked and their spaceships running. The show follows one such group of Cowboys who pilot a ship called the Bebop. In the beginning, we meet Spike Spiegel, a former gangster, and Jet Black, a former cop. As the series progresses, the Bebop also has Ein, a super smart dog, Faye Valentine, a woman on the run, and Edward, a really, really, REALLY weird hacker girl. Cowboy Bebop has been described as a series that has a continuous plot, and has standalone episodes at the same time. Having seen the series, I can tell you that technically, most of the episodes aren't standalone, but many of them are only connected by the core characters.

Here's where one of my problems lie. When Cowboy Bebop is good, it's really good. The setting is very mature; it never condescends to the audience. The action scenes are superbly well done, the dialog is believable (though cheesy at times), and the atmosphere really pulls you in. How many episodes are actually really good? Seven. If you count the movie as an episode, that brings it up to eight. Eight out of twenty-seven episodes were good. The rest were not.

The problem with most of the episodes is one of two things: one, it's really boring, or, two, it's so clichéd, you will be able to predict exactly what happens by the end after the first two minutes, or both. I have to be honest, a lot of the episodes of CB are just plain boring. If this wasn't a "classic" and a more ordinary anime series, a lot of them would be branded as what they truly are; filler episodes. And if it's not boring filler, it's hackneyed.

Watanabe is known for being a huge fan of American cinema, and that's obvious in CB. Unfortunately, he ripped off a lot of American movies virtually piecemeal. Now, you may not suspect it, but I am more knowledgeable of American cinema than I am Japanese animation. To describe it as best I can without spoiling, if you have seen at least one movie directed by Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, John Woo, and Michael Mann, then you have already seen Cowboy Bebop in another format. This is actually a clever trick though; most anime fans reject Western pop culture, and may not notice this when watching CB, so they'll think it's "fresh" and "original", when it's fact, it's actually MORE clichéd then most anime. But hey, when CB is exciting and isn't (too) blatantly ripping off Hollywood, it's worth watching.

At least, when the worthwhile characters are onscreen. I like the main character Spike a lot. He is the embodiment of cool, like a 21st century version of Steve McQueen. He's cool, but he's very human too. He's reckless, he makes mistakes, but he knows how to charm people, and he also knows how to beat his targets. I also like Jet. He's a constant worrywart, which is a funny contrast to his rough appearance. Some of the incidental characters are memorable too, (but usually only in the good episodes and movie). Something else I liked was the Bebop crew was not always a stable group, or nakama you could say. In most anime, when the heroes band together, nothing ever separates them. That doesn't happen in CB. Sometimes, the crew gets in arguments, and sometimes, one of them will leave the Bebop for a time, and so on. It's a touch of realism I appreciate.

However, some of the characters didn't click with me. I never really cared for Faye. I don't dislike her, but I don't really care for her either. Edward is amusing, but she feels out of place in a series like this. The incidental characters in the less memorable episodes are just that, unmemorable. However, what I'm about to print in the next paragraph will anger thousands, possibly millions. (And maybe make hundreds say "Right on!") Mind you, it's just my opinion. Everything I print in these reviews is just my opinion; you don't have to take it personally, but the following opinion of mine needs to be said:

Vicious is one of the lamest villains ever.

The main antagonist is a man known as Vicious, someone who's still a part of the gang Spike came from. He's cunning, ruthless . . . and is absolutely lame. What's his motive? Does he just want power, or to mess with people? Even if so, why is he so boring to watch? The villain from the movie was a lot more interesting. Overall, you got two really good protagonists, some interesting chemistry between the protagonists, one-shot characters who are either interesting or not, and a forgettable antagonist. Yay.

And I haven't even touched upon the ending yet! Short version, I don't like CB's ending. (More flames incoming! Duck and cover!) Now, the ending is not quite as bad as the ending for, say, Akira, or the anime version of Chobits. It does have a sense of finality to it, something most anime endings don't have. However, I did not find it "legendary." I found it disappointing. First of all, the ending is extremely predictable. It's virtually telegraphed to you before it even happens. Not only that, when I saw it, my reaction was, " . . . that's it? Seriously, that's IT?"

But I better move on to CB's technical aspects before I get too letdown. Its artistry leaves no complaints. CB is probably the best-looking pre-digital anime I've ever seen. Even if you were to remake the series with digital enhancements, I doubt you could make it look better than it already is. Sumptuous backgrounds, top-notch character art, animation that ranges from above-average to really good, no off-model shots, this is a visual feast. The movie looks even better. It's obvious a lot of care was put into the visuals of CB. My only being the primitive CGI, but you get used to it.

And now we touch upon CB's greatest aspect; its soundtrack. It's the sort of the soundtrack that makes you go, "Ah yeah, baby!" This is why you watch CB, the music. The music is the magnum opus of Yoko Kanno. A combination of jazz, blues, and rock, but it isn't just any old jazz, blues, and rock, it's GOOD jazz, blues, and rock. Everything from the opening, to the incidental music, to the endings, you get music that will set your soul on fire. The only anime I've seen whose soundtrack could rival CB's is Death Note's. Something I noticed about CB's soundtrack is the music sounds more like music from albums rather than typical soundtrack music. Another smart move; most people are accustomed to listening to music from CD and MP3 albums as opposed to soundtracks, so when they hear CB's music, it'll be more familiar-sounding than most other anime soundtracks. Regardless, even if you hate CB, you gotta score this music.

CB is also famous for having what is perhaps the oldest English dub for an anime series that is considered god-like. I saw this on Adult Swim, and I can safely say, this is another masterpiece from Bandai and Bang Zoom. Every character sounds like how you would imagine them to, and the voices are neither wooden nor over-acted. All the different accents the characters have sound really cool too. I did sample the Japanese dub on the movie, and I will say, Spike and Jet sound really good in both Japanese and English, but I will never get used to Faye's Japanese voice. Yeah, this is one you gotta see in English. (Though in retrospect, the Japanese performances aren't bad, it just doesn't click like the English dub)

While CB is still often regarded as a classic, I'm not the first to criticize it like so. There has been some backlash against CB in recent years. Some people complain it's not "Japanese-y" enough, that it's too Western. I mentioned that earlier, but there is another anime I've seen, Baccano, which is also very similar to American movies, but it was consistently entertaining, and not as predictable as CB, so I did not mind. Others have mentioned the same things I have, that it's boring, the plot isn't strong enough, it's style over substance. This isn't a disaster by any means, but I do have to say that, outside of the production values, CB is one of the most overrated anime I've seen. It's not one of the worst, certainly not, but it's not quite the experience I was promised either. To put it in other words, there were some episodes that I would score a 4 out of 10. And yet, there are some episodes, including the movie, that I would score a 9 out of 10. The 6 overall is just from mixing the good episodes with the bad.

I like to imagine that in an alternate dimension, CB was an OVA series instead of a tv series. All the episodes I do like, (# 2, 8, 12, 13, 17, 20, and 22) were released on separate OVAs, as well as a few others to bridge the plot gaps. Then a theatrical came out (Knocking on Heaven's Door), and then another to end it all (The Real Folk Blues, albeit with a revised conclusion), and it would be grandiose. Alas, I don't live in that universe. Hey, Shinichiro Watanabe likes drawing influence from Hollywood, right? What's something it's doing a lot of right now? Continuity reboots? He could still do that. I can dream, can't I?

EDIT: This review was revised on 9/17/2015 to be less awkward to read.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Dec 24, 2014

Play2X

Not Recommended

I think its quite saddening that I don't have anything better to do than writing a review. On christmas! However, this really needs to be done at some point, and while other people are eating cookies, I'll do this one: Cowboy Bebop Review Mk II. New and improved, rated by my new guidelines!

First of all, yes, I still dislike Cowboy Bebop, and even without rereading it I still remember the opening phrase from my first review. I'll refrain from it this time though, because at some point I stopped caring about whether I like that particular anime or not, I just want to give a ... fair rating.

Story is for me defined by its Main Plot, the setting used, as well as the execution of the storyline.
First, for the main plot. The most episodes are without any relevance to the main plot. They neither help to develop the cast, nor do they illustrate the setting. They are filler. Nothing more, and nothing less. And to be perfectly honest, I don't think its a viable option to spam filler after filler without even explaining what the anime is about. When I first watched this anime I lost interest after a mere 3 episodes and dropped it (For reference, by now I watched this anime like 3 times only for review reasons). But without filler episodes, what is actually left? A story which couldn't be more cliche. A story of two former friends, who fell in love with the same woman.
Revenge, bloodlust... The usual stuff.
As for the setting: To be honest, I don't have the most experience with science fiction, but I feel like this is one of the worst tries. The Ring travel system doesn't make sense in the slightest, nor do the spaceships. The first thing that comes to mind is Spikes space ship, the SWORDFISH II wouldn't be able to even navigate in space. Much less in the atmosphere. Well, crash and burn, Spike. I guess.
Execution: I think I already mentioned that Fillers before the story isn't exactly the best way to hook the audience. As for the main story, I already said that it's a rather cliched one (everything beyond that would be spoiler). Well, you get the picture.
So overall: We have a B-Movie storyline, sprinkled with fillers (1/3), a logically flawed setting (1/3), and a rather bad execution which never hooked me up (1/3). Overall 4/10 for the story.

Next is the Artwork, which not just considers the Artworks for the characters, but also the background, as well as the fluency of animation (especially during battlescenes).
To be blunt, compared to other anime of that time Cowboy Bebops artworks aren't anything bad. They do their job just fine without being groundbreaking or breathtaking.
The backgrounds on the other hand are rather often undetailed, and I can even recall scenes in which parts of the screen were whited out (without being flashbacks). This leaves the animation, which is as always in Watanabes works, quite flashy, but only style and no substance. The choreography is pretty bad.
Summing it up: The character artworks are up to par (2/3), while the backgrounds and animation are quite lackluster (1/3 for both). Overall 5/10 for art.

For the sound I rate the voiceover (japanese dub only), as well as the OST/BGM, and the OP/ED. So, lets kick it off with the Voices. I don't really like the japanese cast, which, in my opinion, fail to express any feelings their characters might have. Without the video and subs I couldn't imagine whether the characters are sad, happy or whatever. Overall a pretty bad performance. The english cast on the other hand was pretty damn good, and I have to give credit to them, this is one of the best dubs I know. As for the OST I wondered why I couldn't remember even a single track. After rewatching an episode I knew: Because there is next to none OST most of the time. The few OSTs presented are more to underline the plot, but on their own don't really pack a punch. Lastly, the OP/ED Themes. I don't really like Blues to begin with, but I don't really feel like the theme fits Action-headhunter stuff too well. It felt more like some detective story or the like, at least to me. As for the ending 'The Real Folk Blues' fits way better and brings closure to each episode.
Final scores for sound: Bad japanese cast which produces no feelings (1/3), next to nonexistant OST with forgettable tracks (1/3), and a mediocre OP, but okay ED (1/3).
Sums up at 4/10 for sound.

Characters should preferably have some catchy initial designs, good relations with their surroundings, and a good development. which is why I rate characters in there 3 categories.
Initial designs: I don't think that Cowboy Bebop reinvented the wheel with their characters, but they fulfill their purpose. Jet as that cop who left the police to deliver justice on his own, the more or less sexy girl, and the easygoing main lead.
Unfortunately I never felt like they had any relations with each other. None of their interactions with each other, but also with the surroundings felt real to me, because basically they had no counterparts they could greatly argue with.
As for the development, quite honestly, I don't think that any of the characters had great development. Thinking bad I can't recall much of a development to begin with. The Spike from Episode 26 will act like the Spike from Episode 1. Or 4. Or which episode you want to choose.
Same goes for most other characters, with only Faye being the exception.
So overall the characters are rather disappointing, especially since they started with promising designs (2/3). But their Interaction was nonexistent (0/3), and the development was poor (1/3).
Overall 4/10 for the cast of Cowboy Bebop.

Enjoyment. Well, thats something everyone should decide for themselves. For me at least its a 1/10. Why? Because I answered these questions honestly:
How much did I like the seen episodes (0-3)?
How much do I want to see the story continue (0-3)?
Would I recommend it to someone? (0=no, 1=yes)
Would I watch it again, just for fun? (0=no, 1=once, 2=muiltiple times)
Quite honestly, for me the obvious answer is No, no, and No! And No!

Overall: Well 3,6 is pretty... bad. I don't like it, but if you do... Feel free to do so, thats called taste.
Tl;dr: Forgettable story with lot of flaws and filler, acceptable artworks, rather weak OST and voiceovers, and a weak character development.

I'm always open for feedback, thanks in advance!

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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