Anime Sophist: Cowboy Bebop Review: The Real Folk Blues

It only seemed fitting to kick off the reviews with a series that’s considered a landmark achievement in anime. Cowboy Bebop excels in all aspects with fast-paced and engaging storytelling, memorable characters, and a soundtrack unlike any other. The show has become a staple of Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim programming block and continues to draw more American viewers into anime with its unique style each passing year. After watching just a few episodes of this series you’ll understand why.

Cowboy Bebop is set in the year 2071 and centers on the ragtag crew of the spaceship Bebop. A catastrophic event has made Earth’s surface uninhabitable and mankind has spread across the solar system to avoid extinction. With such a wide area to cover police forces can’t handle everything so the government has begun handing out bounties for the capture of fugitives. The cast of Bebop is one such team of bounty hunters crossing the solar system in search of new bounty heads hoping to scratch together enough of a reward to survive until tomorrow.

Many anime, especially sci-fi anime, fall into the trap of fleshing out the world a bit too much to the point where it becomes redundant. Bebop smoothly avoids that trap by simply dropping the viewer into the world and acting as if it had always been there. Details about what exactly happened to Earth and how people live in this new frontier are gradually revealed as the series progresses rather then shoving it down the viewer’s throat from the get-go. It’s handled very much the same way as you’d explain the world to a child. You don’t tell the kid everything about the world from the minute they can understand what you’re saying, you just let them live their life and after awhile they pretty much understand how and why most things work without needing a lecture. As the series progresses the pasts of the all the protagonists are revealed and we slowly see how the crime syndicates are making bounty hunters a necessity. The brilliant thing is none of this is heavy-handed, the show never has to explicitly tell you it’s explaining these things. The episodes end and you just realize you know it all, the tiny details strewn amongst all the little stories come together to create a cohesive and believable universe. The final episode ties up the package neatly and gives the viewer a feeling of fulfillment and closure, something that many anime fail to accomplish.

The characters of Bebop include some of the most beloved in anime history. Each one of them has a unique outlook on life and their situation and while the show never gets philosophical about any of their motivations it’s easy to see through their actions exactly what keeps them going. Each one of them brings a lot to the table and the show never loses speed, as some anime suffer from, because one character is less interesting then another but they both need screen time. The animation really brings the cast to life. From Spike’s deceptively awkward gait to Ed’s eccentric antics the animators really outdid themselves. The dub of Bebop is one of the best of any anime around, the dialogue is crisp and believable and awkwardly emphasized sentences are nowhere to be found. Anime dubbing has made significant strides over the years and it’s important to note that Bebop’s was one of the first to cause critics to question whether the Japanese cast always had to be superior.

The music and atmosphere of Bebop are arguable why the show is so beloved in the first place. Set to jazz, folk, blues, and in one instance metal, music Bebop’s soundtrack is unlike any other anime. The music fits the scenes perfectly as well, while an intense dogfight and a trumpet solo wouldn’t seem like a natural fit when you see it in action you become a believer instantly. The noir setting adds so much to the story and blends perfectly with Yoko Kanno’s soundtrack. The crew’s daily struggles are constant but never too overbearing to the viewer. The cast of Bebop handles it in an off-hand way like a college student realizing they’re on a shoestring budget but not letting it get them down. The bills provide a motivation for the characters and a necessary sense of urgency to the hunt without crushing you with a bleak feeling. From the brilliant opening theme to the bittersweet closing credits Bebop touts by far the most unique atmosphere of any serious anime.

In closing, Cowboy Bebop accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do. It meshes the seemingly opposite themes of science-fiction and noir and brings it all together with an amazing but equally curious soundtrack. Bebop is considered one of the finest anime series ever produced with good reason, it excels at everything and never lets up at any point. The show can be enjoyed both as individual episodes and as a whole. Bebop stands as one of the best examples of how anime can produce an experience equal to anything Hollywood can provide and in some cases do things that a live-action show could never accomplish. Highly recommended to everyone regardless of whether you are a huge anime fan or someone who simply enjoys good television.