he opening episodes of Cowboy Bebop introduce bounty hunters Spike Spiegel and Jet Black in a breathless rush that leaves little time for details or backstory. As the series continues, little more is apparent about them except that they're suave, skilled, secretive--even with each other--and they have the worst luck in the universe when it comes to actually nabbing their targets. Spike and Jet almost never get their man.
(Or woman. Or interplanetary terrorist group.) Instead, they often get stuck with some sort of McGuffin that brings instant violence down on their heads, or saddles them with a moral responsibility for someone in a messy jam, or both.
In some cases, they just get saddled with a new partner. After inadvertently adopting an experimental "data dog," they stumble across notorious gambler and bounty-hunting sexpot Faye Valentine. By an improbable coincidence, Spike and Faye end up at odds in a casino, with explosive results. Afterwards, Faye decides to set up shop with Spike and Jet, who try to brush her off but seem helpless in the wake of her indifference to sarcasm and sneering. Still later, a hunt for the planetary vandal scrawling gigantic symbol-pictures into the wastelands of South America brings a precocious 13-year-old hacker named Ed on board the Bebop. By episode 9, the series finally has its full complement of protagonists, not that this changes the frenetic pace one way or another.
Most episodes of Cowboy Bebop are stand-alone caper adventures focusing around a single bounty hunt. Particularly memorable episodes include #5, "Ballad of Fallen Angels," in which Spike confronts an old acquaintance--a man called Vicious who lives up to his name by brutally wiping out a series of local ganglords. The episode leaves Spike's history mostly obscure, but presents a series of spectacular, dynamic flashbacks that become clearer bit by bit as the series unfolds. Episode #7, "Heavy Metal Queen," presents one of the most mature and personable female characters ever seen in anime, while Episode #11, "Toys in the Attic," is a hysterical deadpan parody of Alien that seems to end with the death of almost all the Bebop's crew. Other episodes in this run start to flesh out Jet and Faye as characters, allowing tantalizing peeks into their history but never quite spelling out what makes them tick.
Snazzy stuff for SF sophisticates
Cowboy Bebop is a showcase of avant-garde style, from the snazzy visuals to the snappy stories to the enthusiastic, upbeat score. The sophisticated plots, which aren't afraid to kill off characters for plot purposes, an emotional shock, or even a comic effect, have a focused, adult science-fiction feel that's fairly unusual in anime. So does the dramatic art direction, which includes an unforgettable bullet-time tracking shot, a gorgeous memory/action montage, a striking amount of complex, baroque scenery, and astonishingly beautiful character compositions. But Yoko Kanno's wildly diverse musical score gets top credit for setting the scenes and giving this show an absolutely unique flavor of sly, laid-back beat-era cool.
After a slight misstart in the opening episodes, which move a bit too fast and rely a bit too heavily on computer animation, the series' pacing settles to a near-perfect rhythmic blend of comedy, plot-priming, and explosive denouement. The plots move along mostly on interaction rather than exposition or narration, leaving a lot of blanks along the way and relying on viewers to keep up. The oblique storytelling emphasizes character over construction and contributes to the sensation that the writers are aiming for a smart, demanding audience.
Bandai is releasing the series on VHS, but the DVDs are much cheaper per episode, and each one contains a neat little bonus--extended music videos on volumes #1 and #4, and a series of interviewlettes with prominent members of the creative team on #2 and #3. It's fun to actually see the faces behind this remarkably diverse and colorful creation. (Series director Shinichuro Watanabe looks like a Japanese version of Neil Gaiman, and Kanno is adorable as she acts out her perception of the laid-back animation staff.)
Ultimately, there will be six DVDs in the series, as opposed to thirteen VHS tapes. Either way, these are a must-have for the serious anime fan who wants to see the ultimate example of where anime can go with the right people at the helm. Cowboy Bebop is a spectacular series that out-thinks, out-speeds and out-cools anything else currently on the market.
