11. Cowboy Bebop Review

(From left to right)
Spike Spiegal, Jet Black, Faye Valentine, Ein, Edward

This is the Anime Analyzer popping in to talk about a series that I have taken a strong liking to as of late... Cowboy Bebop.

The setting of the series takes place in 2012 where the earth has become barely inhabitable by the human race. A hyperspace gateway (a means of high speed transportation across space) explodes near the moon causing it monumental damage. This explosion causes a large amount of debris to crash down upon the earth wiping out a large amount of the population. In reaction to this, most of what remained of the human population left the earth and began to colonize other planets within the solar system, asteroids, and including several planet's moons. The towns seen in the show are mixture of futuristic technology and signs of the old west. Ever since the earth was struck by the moon's debris, the government has been taken over by interplanetary crime syndicates and the ISSP (Inter-Solar System Police) limiting the amount of justice carried out for laws broken. In response to this corrupt law, the bounty system of the old west was reinstated. Criminals with bounties include fugitives, terrorists, and other various criminals. Bounty hunters, who are more commonly referred to as cowboys are the ones who turn in criminals for the cash rewards. The currency of the la- well space... is called woolongs (which is the equivalent to Japanese yen).
The story revolves around a group of cowboys (and girls) travelling space looking for bounties on a spaceship called Bebop. The crew consists of five bounty hunters.

Spike Spiegel

Spike is a former member of the Red Dragon Crime Syndicate. He is a master at gun fighting and hand-to-hand combat. He specializes in a combat called Jeet Kune Do. This is a martial art founded by Bruce Lee, which involves inflicting damage on the enemy with minimal movement, and great speed. His memory is haunted by his time in the crime syndicate, and by a relationship with a woman he knew named Julia.

Personally he is a very laid back guy who takes life in stride. 

                                                  

Jet Black

Jet is a former member of the ISSP. He resigned when he came to the cold realization that the force had been almost completely corrupted by the crime syndicates that now ran the solar system. This didn't stop Jet from continuing to fight crime, he just changed his method by becoming a bounty hunter. Jet suffered an accident where he lost his arm. There is technology that could perfectly repair Jet's arm; but Jet prefers to keep the cybernetic replacement as a reminder of his past.

Ein

Ein is a Pembroke Welsh Corgi. Ein is a super-intelligent canine with higher capabilities than the average dog. Apparently from experiments that were done on the dog, Ein is capable of such feats as sniffing out data and communication with animals who are another species. Spike and Jet recovered Ein for a bounty, only to find out that the bounty had been taken by someone who gave the client a different dog.

Faye Valentine

Faye Valentine is new to the business of bounty hunting. She was cryogenically frozen because of an injury she had sustained many years ago. Due to the lack of medical science in her time period that was lacking in the now-distant present, she was frozen. She possesses a gambling addiction that annoys Spike and Jet to no end. Despite her disputes with her two fellow bounty hunters, they always remain together... strangely.

Edward

Edward is a young girl who has a knack for all things cybernetic and electronic. She is a skilled computer hacker who is capable of bypassing high-security networks with barely any effort. This is a surprising feat considering her interesting exterior. Ed is hyperactive, always happy, and has little-to no common sense regarding common decency. She has developed a strong relationship with Ein, and assists the Bebop crew in jobs that require her technical expertise.


When you view television programming, there are types of shows that follow a strict story line without veering off from the main course, and shows that have a different situation in every episode. These situations will have nothing to do with each other. Cowboy Bebop is a mixture of these two types of shows. It expands the story, while at the same time doing things that don't have a lot to do with the plot.
Cowboy Bebop is one of the older anime in the industry, but it is definitely worth the watch. If you are into westerns or sci-fi, this show is an interesting combination of the two as I have previously stated. The episodes cover a variety of television genre such as comedy, romance, tragedy, history, and one episode is actually a public service announcement regarding pollution which takes on the genre of horror. The music is a nice mix of classical and jazz, giving the show a very soothing feeling. The episodes are always interesting, the voice acting is realistic, and the art style isn't half-bad. The only thing that would deter people from Bebop (like many other anime) is actually the art style.
I have met many people who refuse to give anime a chance just because of its appearance. There are times where the "lip-flaps" aren't synchronized with the speech of the characters, and times when there is no movement at all yet there is still talking or music going on. My advice... Watch Cowboy Bebop with an open-mind just like all other anime.

That's all for now, I hope this review has attracted you to try out Cowboy Bebop or maybe just anime in general. Until next time...

I am the Anime Analyzer

Signing off...

Cowboy Bebop Episode 01