Cowboy Bebop

There’s nothing quite like it when you come off an anime and realize how much it has built itself as this vital piece of art that has since transcended its ever-present influence on other mediums. This particular show, named Cowboy Bebop, definitely lived up to the legacy it deserves of being the pinnacle of late ’90s anime that would influence a wide variety of anime leading up to the new millennium. Even with that being said, that’s not to say that Cowboy Bebop has its fair share of hiccups.

But before I get into that, it is essential to distinguish the inevitable nature that director Shinichirō Watanabe constructed from the ground up to make Cowboy Bebop’s world vibrant and distinct. Since Cowboy Bebop has separate plot arcs within each episode, with some continuity within its main cast, the show has a great sense of exploratory mystery behind every story being told. You have the feeling of wanting to know these actual people and locations because of how incredibly different they all are. They each have their distinct look and atmosphere to them. As Watanabe is vastly known, he loves to mix different types of genres into one show to make them feel unique in his eyes. Usually, this could cause an anime to lose some main focus on what it wants to be, but Cowboy Bebop, thanks to its plot structure, paces these genres evenly to make us know its true identity.

Along with mixing these genres, the sense of direction that encapsulates Cowboy Bebop as a whole transcends itself to a whole new level of creativity. The noir aspect of the show adds a lot more depth to its atmosphere, from its attention-grabbing shootout scenes to the silent moments that hook you instantaneously. There are some comedy elements to be seen in Cowboy Bebop, and the writers time it very well and give all the characters great charm to provide reliable, entertaining moments. They don’t just contain physical comedy by any stretch, but instead, the writing is very sharp and witty whether you’re watching it dubbed or subbed.

Memorable characters are in no shortage in Cowboy Bebop, at least within its main cast. Spike Spiegel, Faye Valentine, Jet Black, and Edward are the quintessential quartet to be studied if you want to replicate a great form of characters such as this. They are not just good because of their tremendous character growth, but the fantastic chemistry they all have whenever they are on-screen together. At first, they all act very indecently to each other. It isn’t until throughout several episodes that they genuinely try to care for one another, yet they still feel the slight edge to go on their own for better or worse.

Spike is often regarded as the best character, and they aren’t entirely wrong in saying so. He has an alluring presence where he isn’t just some strong individual who can handle himself in any given situation or this average person. He has the wit and personality to be both of these personalities, and you want to root for him because of his likable persona. It would be a crime not to mention the Dubbed performance by famed voice actor Stephen Blum who manages to make Spike have a lot suave with his extraordinary voice. And for that matter, almost all of the English dubbed voice actors work to make Cowboy Bebop one of the few instances where the dubbing is just as good, if not better, than the original Japanese voice acting.

Faye Valentine provides some of the funniest, sarcastic humor to Cowboy Bebop. You could easily chalk her character archetype as a way to push a female character in a predominantly male present cast to let the males have their way with her body. However, they manage to make Faye into a girl who doesn’t take any crap from anyone and has complete control over anything that she finds wrong in her mind. Then we have Edward, who is by far the most eccentric character of the show because she’s in her little world where nothing seems to make her overly pessimistic, no matter how grave a situation might be. What makes her fascinating to watch is her growth as a person while at the same time viewing her child-like charm in the same way we would have viewed Edward’s way of thinking as a child. Every time she’s on-screen, there is a good chance anything is possible in terms of comedic dialogue being thrown out, and they are all fantastic to listen to. Lastly is Jet Black, who’s the most logically, down-to-earth character in the show, other than maybe Spike in most cases. While he may be the lesser of the three leads, there is no doubt to be made that Jet has his fair share of memorable moments that grows him into an actual three-dimensional character like the rest.

With this being said about our four main heroes, the rest of the side characters that crop up in these plot arcs are not spectacular or memorable. Even the show's main villain doesn’t leave much of an impression in being a noteworthy villain as initially anticipated. This problem could be forgiven slightly, considering they have only one episode to build them up, but that is not to say all of them are not noteworthy, with the Dr. Lobbes character being the best of the bunch. Considering that he was in one of the best episodes that weren’t the last three episodes that succeeded it.

Around the time when Cowboy Bebop first aired, anime recently had begun somewhat of a transitional period where it started to incorporate very challenging, philosophical themes into its narrative. The other two that come to mind are Neon Genesis Evangelion and Serial Experiments Lain. That’s not to say anime did not have anything like this before, but Cowboy Bebop and the other shows I mentioned pushed it off the stream of consciousness into the anime community. With that said, Cowboy Bebop seems to be the one that is the most subtle way of detailing its philosophical themes involving existential concepts. This approach to integrating these themes is both a service and a disservice to the show’s credit.

Although it is very admirable for Bebop to showcase its themes in a non-preachy scenario or get muddled into strange concepts that contradict each other, it subtly limits it from doing anything with most of the narrative plot arcs. You can basically watch Cowboy Bebop and have all of them fly over your head, and you would still have the same experience, but once you do notice them, there’s not a lot of meat for our brains to digest or digest comprehend. The show's finale has a significant implication of putting them all together. Still, in the long run, they don’t add up to anything other than trying to throw out whatever philosophical theme that might seem the most probable in these given situations.

While that aspect wasn’t necessarily one of the show’s best highlights, the plot that carries the main narrative is relatively serviceable and brings up one of the most poignant finales I’ve ever seen in anime. When you feel the growth that all of these characters go through, you never want these characters to go away from one another because of how amazing they play off one another. Once I saw them go their separate ways for a moment, without spoiling any of the necessary details, I almost felt upset that they were even inclined to do so in the first place. Because of the amount of care given to make the personalities of these characters genuine and delightful, the contemplative nature near the finale feels very sincere. If that is writing that could not be considered significant by that fact alone, I don’t know what is.

I’ve always believed that Yoko Kanno is one of the best composers to be working in anime to this day, and Cowboy Bebop reigns as the best-coordinated orchestration that she ever did. The opening itself garners some needed praise not only for its recognizable melodies and instrumentation but for how it captures the feel and tone of Cowboy Bebop as a whole. What fits Yoko’s style of instrumentation and Watanabe’s creative vision is how they both have the same way of mixing different types of music and genres that make them feel very on-point with the direction of the art style and the score that goes with it. Yoko’s fantastic blend of jazz, traditional orchestration, guitar rock, and occasional electronics create the ultimate soundtrack that would be worthy of being listened to without the need for the show’s visuals to accompany it.

Does Cowboy Bebop deserve the number of perfect accolades that it has gotten for the past decade or so? In most aspects, it certainly does. There is simply nothing out there that is quite like it in terms of authentic style and flair that is on-screen back then and now. It manages to perfectly pace the witty humor from the deep drama that engulfs each character and the confrontations they have to face, one way or the other. If anything, the characters are enough to warrant a watch of their unique chemistry, and the plot can be well-serviceable for anyone willing to experience it. It’s a show that literally goes off with a bang and soars ever so gently off into the blissful reaches of the heavens. This space cowboy can prove himself worthy of being called such a title in great character stories such as this.

Grade: A-