Cowboy Bebop

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Template:Infobox animanga/Header Template:Infobox animanga/Anime Template:Infobox animanga/Movie Template:Infobox animanga/Footer Template:Nihongo (1998) is a Japanese anime television series and motion picture that follows a band of American-stylized bounty hunters thrown together by circumstance and necessity, but each with passionately disparate private agendas. Each episode tells the story of how the group tracks down wanted criminals in a futuristic setting while dealing with personal issues that arise by location, people they meet, or misgivings about the morality of the subject of their bounty. While every episode, or the movie, stands on its own, the back-stories of the characters and their growing intimacy together make the whole much greater than the sum of its parts.

Cowboy Bebop was popular in Japan and became one of the biggest adult anime hits ever in the United States, opening the genre to an audience that previously considered anything but live action to be juvenile. The unflinching adult themes of the show, along with the cool jazz tracks and political undertones, became a favorite of many Americans tuning into Cartoon Network's new late-night "Adult Swim". Pirated copies of the Japanese Cowboy Bebop movie, Knockin' on Heaven's Door, became available in 2002, dubbed with rough translations. By 2003, Sony Pictures released it to theatres, and eventually DVD, an official version of the movie using the voices of the original English-speaking actors. Two Cowboy Bebop manga comic books were created based on the TV show, and a Playstation 2 video game which as of now is unknown for a future release in the United States. (See also Licensing, authors, and publishers)

Cowboy Bebop is widely respected for its multiple layers and deep characters, combined with a very free-flowing feel to the story itself (heavily influenced by American culture, especially the jazz movements of the 1940s, hence "bebop") and a large number of well-choreographed action fighting sequences (from space battles to martial arts hand-to-hand combat).

Contents

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Longevity

Cowboy Bebop has remained a longtime favorite of anime fans in both Japan and the United States. A recent poll in the magazine Newtype asked the notoriously fickle Japanese audience to rank the "Top 20 Anime Titles of All Time"; Cowboy Bebop placed at number eight on a list that includes classics of the genre like Mobile Suit Gundam and Neon Genesis Evangelion.

In the U.S., Cartoon Network has dropped Cowboy Bebop from its Adult Swim line-up several times only to return it later due to its popularity. The network has also rotated Cowboy Bebop out of its anime lineup periodically in order to show other anime features such as Read or Die and Blue Gender. Cowboy Bebop is usually rotated out for a quarter of a year and then returned to the lineup due to its long-running success and high appeal among anime fans of all age groups. Critics of the series see it as preventing other series from airing on the Adult Swim block, one of the few widely-broadcast North American venues for anime. As of March 2006 the show is still on Adult Swim, the last show on the Saturday lineup. (1:30 am EST)

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History of Bebop

Cowboy Bebop almost did not make it on Japanese broadcast television due to its depictions of violence. It was first sent to TV Tokyo, one of the main broadcasters of anime in Japan. However, at the time it was cracking down on violence and sexuality in animes after the notoriously controversial broadcast of Neon Genesis Evangelion three years prior. The show had an aborted first run beginning on April 3, 1998 and running until June 19, 1998 on TV Tokyo, broadcasting only episodes 2, 3, 7-15 and 18. Some blame this on TV Tokyo, however, there is evidence to suggest the time slot after April 23rd was already booked. The episode XX is said to be protest by staff for the treatment of the show though. Later that year, the series was shown in its entirety beginning on October 23 and running until April 23, 1999 on the satellite network WOWOW. With this broadcast slot fiasco, the whole production schedule was completely shot enough that the last episode was in fact turned over to Wowow on the day of broadcast. Cowboy Bebop was popular enough that a movie, Cowboy Bebop: Tengoku no Tobira (Knockin' on Heaven's Door), was commissioned and released in Japan in 2001 and later released in the United States as Cowboy Bebop: The Movie in 2003.

Image:Cowboy bebop01.jpg In 2001, Cowboy Bebop became the first anime title to be shown as part of the U.S. Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block of programming. At the time, it was quite a risk for the fledgling network as a more "adult" anime had never been broadcast in such a mainstream venue before. However, it turned out to be a rousing success, continuing to be broadcast regularly until present. The success of Cowboy Bebop paved the way for Adult Swim's embrace of mature anime, including InuYasha, Lupin the Third, Trigun, Blue Gender, Fullmetal Alchemist, FLCL, Samurai Champloo, and Wolf's Rain.

In the United Kingdom, Cowboy Bebop was first broadcast in 2003 as one of the highlights of the ill-fated 'cartoon network for adults', CNX.

In France Cowboy Bebop was broadcast during summer 2000 on [[Canal+]].

In Germany Cowboy Bebop was broadcast during 2003-2004 on MTV.

In Poland, Cowboy Bebop was broadcast several times by Hyper.

Bandai released a Cowboy Bebop shooter in Japan for the PlayStation in 1998 . A PlayStation 2 Cowboy Bebop video game has been released in Japan already and the Region One version is set for release in North America during the first quarter of 2006. [1]

In 2005, seven years after its original Japanese broadcast, Bebop was finally licensed and released in the European market by Beez, an extension of Bandai Entertainment.

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Plot

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In the year 2071, the crew of the spaceship Bebop travel the solar system trying to apprehend bounties. In the slang of the era, "cowboys" are bounty hunters, hence the name of the series. Each member of the Bebop crew contributes their own unique abilities to help catch bounties. Most episodes revolve around a bounty; however the real focus of the show concerns the pasts of each character, which unravel and connect as the series progresses.

Arguably, the main plotline focuses on Spike Spiegel, a former member of the 'Red Dragon' crime syndicate who is haunted by a past love triangle between his former syndicate partner, Vicious, and a mysterious woman named Julia.

The series also focuses on the histories of the other Bebop crew members: Jet Black, a former ISSP officer on the Jovian moon Ganymede; Faye Valentine, an indebted gambler recently awakened from cryogenic slumber; Edward, a genius girl computer hacker who can hack at 10 times the speed of an expert hacker, and Ein, a revolutionary "Data Dog" (a dog with data encoded within its DNA) capable of countless amazing acts.

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Background

In the year 2021, a series of ring-shaped hyperspace gateways were constructed across the solar system, allowing for easy interplanetary travel. Unfortunately, the gate network contained a fatal instability that was ignored by the contractors who built the system. The instability grew until a gateway near Earth exploded, releasing a powerful burst of energy that cracked the Moon. In a disaster referred to as "The Gate Incident", meteoric debris from the Moon destroyed much of Earth's surface, killing billions. People mostly live underground, as debris continues to rain down on the planet daily, although a sizeable number of people refuse to leave or simply can't afford to. Some of those that stayed behind are also hackers who sharpen their skills by training on abandoned communication satellites that still orbit the planet. Most, however, left Earth after the Gate Incident and spread out across the solar system, living in colonies on Venus, Mars, some habitable asteroids, and the Galilean moons of Jupiter.

It is interesting to note that the total population for the Solar System of 2071 is only about 1.3 billion. Assuming that the population of Earth in 2021 was greater than 6 billion (as on present-day Earth), the explosion of the gate was the worst disaster to ever befall humankind — at least 4.7 billion lives were lost.

Some of the colonies are more hospitable than others, but all planets and moons seen in the series except for Mars are terraformed. This situation points to the soft sci-fi nature of the series, since Mars is often considered the most easily terraformable planet, while terraforming the others, particularly within the next century is considered an impossible undertaking.

Mars is one example of bustling activity in the Solar System as its many domed impact craters were transformed into thriving metropolitan areas for those who can afford it. With the planet of Venus being terraformed, its aftereffects left many oxygen-providing plants floating around in the atmosphere. The spores of these plants ultimately cause “Venus Sickness” for some people. Not only do poor people live on Venus, but the unlucky that catch this sickness may eventually go blind or even die as a result. Many moons of Jupiter like Callisto, Io, and Ganymede have been terraformed and colonized, though some to more of an extent than others. Rough Callisto is a dreary, hostile, and poverty-ridden cold moon (with the city of Blue Crow having an all male population), Io is toxic, volcanic and an arid ball of sand, while Ganymede is almost completely surrounded by water and known for its fishing industry. Titan, Saturn's largest moon, is a barren desert world which has been at war since the 2060s (Titan War II in 2068 which was survived by veterans as Vincent, Gren, and Vicious). There is even a Solar System Penitentiary on Pluto. Lastly, some asteroids have been colonized for their minerals and other natural resources.

Most importantly to the general plot of the series, sometime after the advent of space travel, the bounty system of the Old West was reinstated by the government to help curb growing crime levels. Vigilantes are encouraged to capture bounties and return them (alive and relatively unharmed) to the authorities for a large reward. In addition, ruthless crime syndicates still have much influence in the Solar System, including bribery, murder, extortion, drug dealing, money laundering and other criminal offences. At some point between the present day and the events of Cowboy Bebop, the Woolong was established as a universal currency. Paper money is becoming less frequent as most people carry convenient money cards and rely on digital transfers.

The technology in the world of Cowboy Bebop has undergone advancements to accommodate 21st century life in the Solar System. In order to make travel between hyperspace gates faster and more efficient, a variety of spaceships are used. Most are designed to simply accommodate a single-pod cockpit that can be ejected and navigated independently of the ship itself. The system of operation for a majority of these spaceships is known as the “Machine Operation Navigation of Outer Space,” or simply, “MONO.” Medical advancements such as artificial organs and cryogenic freezing have been mastered and are in full use. Devices called “Alpha Catch” capture images and movies onto a monitor from the brain of a person that it is hooked up to. Virtual reality gaming is the standard and analog hardware such as videocassettes (VHS or beta) is obsolete. Finally, the Internet, once known as the World Wide Web, has evolved into a massive Solar System Web (SSW).

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Characters

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
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Spike Spiegel

Image:Soikebebopsftd.jpg

A 27-year-old bounty hunter who was born on Mars. In appearance, Spike is tall and thin, but with muscular shoulders. He has dark green hair and dark red/brown eyes, one of which is artificial and lighter than the other. A flashback in Session #6 revealed it was his fully functioning right eye which was surgically replaced by the cybernetic one (although Spike himself may not have conscious recollection of the procedure since he claims to have lost his natural eye in an "accident"). He is usually dressed in a blue leisure suit, with a yellow shirt and Lupin III inspired boots. Spike often has a cigarette between his lips, sometimes despite rain or "no smoking" signs.

Spike has many talents and abilities, making him an excellent bounty hunter. He has very sharp eyesight, and abnormally acute perception. Spike makes use of sleight-of-hand techniques to win card games, pick pockets, and even to slip things onto other people unnoticed. Where Spike really excels, however, is in combat. He is well versed in weaponry (such as his personal Jericho 941 as well as other guns and explosives) and hand-to-hand combat skills. He specializes in Jeet Kune Do, the style developed by Bruce Lee, though he has a penchant for high kicks, which Lee's disciples mostly eschew. Spike is also an excellent pilot, and flies a converted Asteroid racer called "Swordfish II."

When he's not working or practicing his martial arts skills, Spike is very laid-back and lackadaisical, often a source of consternation for his crew mates. Some members of the Bebop crew occasionally refer to him as a "lunkhead" due to his attitude, and generally Spike just takes life as it comes.

Several years prior to Session #1, Spike had been a rising member of the Red Dragon crime syndicate where he was partnered as a sweeper/enforcer along with his then best friend, Vicious. Badly injured after a shoot-out in the slums on Mars, Spike stumbled to the home of Julia, Vicious's one time girlfriend. The pair fall in love while she nursed him back to health. Spike decides to break from the syndicate and elope with Julia. Realizing that his best friend has essentially gone soft and fallen for his old girlfriend, Vicious gives Julia a painful ultimatum: to either murder Spike or face death for treason. Although only speculated as the actual incident, Spike managed to fake his own death by engaging in a gunfight alone in church against a rival syndicate, thus seemingly dropping from Red Dragon notice. He waited for Julia so they could escape and be free but she never showed.

Some time after his "death", Spike met up with former cop turned bounty hunter Jet Black, and the two men became partners. Spike moved onto Jet's ship, the "Bebop", and the two men worked together for about three years before being joined by the rest of the crew.

Spike supposedly died from his final duel with Vicious, and the fading star in the ending theme of the finale is thought to prove it. It has been up to debate whether or not he actually died. Intriguingly, Watanabe stated at the Detroit Film Theatre, Feb. 8th, 2006, that he didn't know why some viewers thought the ending was dark. His exact words were, "Spike could just be asleep."

Spike's philosophy seems to be based on the ancient samurai ideals of immediacy: considering oneself as dead and the idea of death being an awakening from a dream are both elements of Bushido illustrated in the Hagakure.

Spike is voiced by Koichi Yamadera in the Japanese version and Steven Blum (as David Lucas) in the English version.

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Jet Black

Image:JetBlack001.jpg Jet is a 36-year-old former cop from Ganymede (a Jovian satellite) and acts as Spike's foil during the series. Where Spike acts lazy and uninterested, Jet is hard-working and a jack-of-all-trades. Jet was an investigator in the Inter Solar System Police (ISSP) for many years until he lost his arm in an investigation that went awry. His arm was replaced with a cybernetic limb (later revealed to be by choice, as biological replacements were possible, he wanted the fake arm as a reminder of what happened), yet his loss of limb coupled with the general corruption of the police force prompted Jet to quit the ISSP in disgust and become a freelance bounty hunter. Jet also considers himself something of a renaissance man: he cultivates bonsai trees, cooks, enjoys jazz/blues music, especially Charlie Parker's flavor, and even has interest in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. As a character, Jet is the quintessential oyaji or "dad" even though he often wishes people would view him as a more brotherly figure (so as not to seem old).

Jet is skilled with handguns, as well as the use of the netgun. He is good with hand to hand combat as well. Unlike Spike, Jet tends to use more raw muscle than technique. He is also a great mechanic and pilot. Aside from the Bebop, Jet flies a smaller ship called "Hammerhead." The Hammerhead appears to be a modified salvage-craft that uses a mechanical arm equipped with a harpoon as its main weapon, a metaphor for his own mechanical arm. Both the Hammerhead and the Bebop are able to land on water.

During the series, it is revealed that Jet once lived with a woman named Alisa, who left him because he was too controlling. Later they meet up again when Alisa's new boyfriend Rynt is wanted for murder. Jet then ends up in a situation somewhat similar to that of Vicious, where he must hunt down a woman who broke his heart, and her lover.

In a later episode, another Vicious/Jet parallel is set up when Jet finds out that it was his old partner Fad who betrayed him (though in Jet's case, there was no love affair involved). Fad arranged for Jet's death in a setup, but he survived with only a missing arm and a scar on his face.

Jet is voiced by Unsho Ishizuka in the Japanese version and Beau Billingslea (as John Billingslea) in the English version.

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Faye Valentine

Image:FayeValentine001.jpg By all appearances, Faye is a twenty-three year old woman in 2071. However, she was actually born in 1994 and was cryogenically frozen after the gate accident. Faye is confident, audacious, independent, and somewhat self-centered. She is also quite lazy, but takes time to care for her appearance. She enjoys gambling, and often loses a great deal of money doing so. Faye is a very competent bounty hunter, being skilled in flying and both hand-to-hand and firearm combat.

In truth, Faye's indomitable exterior hides a more fragile interior. Faye awoke from her cryogenic sleep with total amnesia in a mysterious world that she didn't understand, surrounded by people who were all-too-willing to take advantage of her naïveté, contributing to the hardening of her personality. The surname "Valentine" was merely a name given to her by the doctor who woke her; the circumstances of her accident, her previous life, and even her real name all remain a mystery, and are only gradually revealed as the series progresses. It has been hinted that she came from Singapore on Earth, and was the daughter of a very wealthy family, as the city's famous Merlion Statue features prominently in scenes of her childhood, and that memories and a film from her childhood showed her living in a large mansion.

Throughout the series, it is hinted that Faye may be in love with Spike Spiegel. Though this is never stated, her attraction is implied by her interactions with him (Pierrot Le Fou, My Funny Valentine, Speak like a Child) as well as her fascination with Julia (Jupiter Jazz, The Real Folk Blues). Though he comes to see her as a companion, Spike does not appear to reciprocate the romantic feelings, as is evidenced by his decision to seek Julia and face Vicious in The Real Folk Blues.

Faye is voiced by Megumi Hayashibara in the Japanese version and Wendee Lee in the English version.

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Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV

Image:Ed001.jpg The assumed (read "self-given") name of an elite netdiver from Earth, Ed is a very strange young girl assumed to be about 13 years old. Ed could be considered a "free spirit"; she is fond of silly exclamations and childish rhymes, easily distracted, and the show's primary source of physical humor. Over the course of the show she rarely walks anywhere, preferring to run, crawl, flip, roll, or even just saunter. She always refers to herself in the third person. Not much is known about her origins, only that she spent some of her earlier childhood in an orphanage. (A man named Appledelhi Siniz Hesap Lutfen eventually claims to be her father and calls her Françoise, suggesting she might be Turkish, as this man's name means "check, please" in Turkish.) Ed's primary use to the Bebop crew is as a hacker; she is widely known to be a genius behind a computer (and possibly unparalleled, save for Ein the dog). Ed has a strong rapport with Jet, who acts as a surrogate father, and Faye, who acts as something of a big sister (much to Faye's chagrin). Ed also seems to be the only person who can understand Ein. In the end of the series, at Faye's prompting, she leaves the Bebop to (presumably) look for her dad, taking Ein who chose to leave with Ed, rather than remain on the Bebop with the others.

Ed is voiced by Aoi Tada in the Japanese version and Melissa Fahn in the English version.

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Ein

Image:Ein001.jpg Ein is a Pembroke Welsh Corgi brought aboard the Bebop by Spike after a failed attempt to capture a bounty. Ein is a "data dog": while the televised series never explains what this means, the manga shows Ed accessing data stored in Ein's brain via a virtual reality-type interface with which she has a conversation with a human proprietor. It is obvious that Ein is abnormally intelligent, as he is able to answer the telephone, use the Internet, and generally do a number of other things that an average canine shouldn't be able to do, but he never talks in English during the show. He does, however, speak during one of the previews. He also 'speaks' to a cow (subtitled bark of 'Thanks', to which the cow has a subtitled moo back of 'No Problem') in episode 17, "Mushroom Samba". Ein is apparently also able to hack computers via a brain wave interface (demonstrated in episode 23, "Brain Scratch"), further indication of his abnormal capabilities. It is likely that Ed is the only crew member with any idea of Ein's capabilities, as the other crew members are quick to dismiss Ein, and never seem to acknowledge him as more than a pet. Ein initially takes a shine to Jet, but when Ed joins the crew, he comes around to her as well. Frequently the two trade roles, with Ein expressing very human sentiments via facial expression and Ed regressing to a feral state. He went with Ed after she left the crew, probably because of his attachment to her. His name is a pun on the Japanese word for "dog" (inu) but is also German for "one". 'Ein' may also be short for 'Einstein', after Albert Einstein, because of the extraordinary intelligence he expresses. It should also be noted, however, that "ein" is also Japanese for the perineum, but this epithet is highly doubtful, as the German pronunciation (which in Japanese would technically be phoeneticized as ain) is used.

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Vicious

Image:Vicious001.jpg Vicious lives up to his name: he is ruthless, bloodthirsty, cunning and ambitious, willing to do anything in order to secure a position of power. He is often referred to or depicted as a poisonous snake. His weapon of choice is not a firearm, but a katana which he wields skillfully, even against gun-wielders. However, he was an infantry rifleman during the Titan War and is shown firing an automatic pistol in a Session #5 flashback.

Vicious was Spike's partner in the Red Dragon crime syndicate until they fell into conflict either over Julia or Spike's rising of importance within the syndicate. After Spike's supposed death, Vicious also leaves the Red Dragons briefly to fight in the Titan War of 2068 although his precise motivations for enlisting remain a mystery. The blood feud between Spike and Vicious is an ongoing storyline throughout Cowboy Bebop. Vicious believes that he is the only one who can kill, or "awaken" Spike, as Spike is the only one who can do the same for Vicious.

There can be speculation as to Vicious's exact sexual orientation. He may be a repressed (non-practicing) homosexual. Although it is indisputable that Vicious has had a physical relationship with Julia, it is implied by both himself and Gren in Session #13 that they may have been more than simply "battle" comrades on Titan. Also, from Session #12, it is apparent that Vicious knew Julia had been on Callisto, yet he did nothing with that information other than save it for taunting Spike with at a later date. This would imply that Vicious either believed Julia murdered Spike as ordered or that Vicious was never all that interested in Julia to begin with. In contrast to Spike, whose suave and idle manner breaks into passionate whenever he hears Julia's name, Vicious remains cold to Julia throughout the series. The love triangle would therefore not be Spike x Vicious = Julia. It would actually be Julia x Vicious = Spike. More likely Vicious is too cold-hearted for any type of relationship; as stated by the Red Dragon elders, his heart was colder than any planet. Vicious once stated, "There is nothing in this world to believe in." Nothing most likely includes relationships.

Vicious is voiced by Norio Wakamoto in the Japanese version and Paul St. Peter (as George C. Cole) in the English version.

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Julia

Image:CB-Julia001.jpg Julia is a beautiful and mysterious woman from both Spike and Vicious' pasts. A love triangle among the three caused Spike to leave the syndicate rather than challenge Vicious. Spike had wanted to take her with him when he left the syndicate, but she was blackmailed by Vicious into almost shooting Spike. Vicious found out they were planning to run away together and confronted Julia, telling her she would kill Spike, or both of them would be killed. To protect not only herself but also the man she loved, she ran away, never meeting Spike at the cemetery as both of them had planned. (Spike himself was never aware of her reasons for not meeting him until the very end of the series.) Julia only appears in flashbacks until the final two episodes of the series. Julia acts as a stark contrast to the world around her — her blonde hair and her bright red umbrella and automobile standing out in the otherwise drab environments that she inhabits.

Julia's name comes from the Beatles song "Julia" on The White Album.

Julia is voiced by Gara Takashima in the Japanese version and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (as Melissa Williamson) in the English version. McGlynn also directs the voices in the English version, also as Melissa Williamson.

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Punch and Judy

Punch and Judy are the characters of the TV show Big Shot. The show provides information on various bountyheads, but is often unreliable. The Bebop crew often has the show playing in the background, but seldom pays close attention (they usually get their information from close contacts). Punch and Judy play the "cowboy" persona in a characteristic, "over the top" fashion. Punch adopts a mid-western drawl mixed with a Mexican accent (both faked), and uses random old-West sayings. Judy plays the stereotypical dumb blonde, and always appears in an open bolero jacket with nothing underneath. Big Shot gets cancelled towards the end of the series, and Punch (lacking accent and costume) makes a brief cameo revealing his and Judy's fates.

Punch and Judy are voiced by Tsutomu Tareki and Miki Nagasawa in the Japanese version, respectively, and Paul St. Peter and Lia Sargent in the English version, respectively.

The character names and the loose concept of Big Shot are most likely a tongue-in-cheek reference to the British style of puppet-show known as Punch and Judy.

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The Three Old Men

Throughout the series, and the movie, three old men make frequent appearances, as speaking characters, or in the background during scenes. They make various claims about what they did before becoming oldtimers, including bounty-hunting, building the stargates, farming, piloting planes in a war, and crop-dusting. They seem on speaking terms with many supporting characters, and though they run into the main characters often there is not much attention paid to them (or even that the main characters have seen them before). According to the movie credits, they are called Antonio, Carlos, and Jobim (a reference to the Brazilian musician Antonio Carlos Jobim). This is a common concept in some anime, also occurring in Love Hina.

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Weapons

This is a list of real-world weapons that appear in the series:

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Sessions (episodes)

See main article: List of Cowboy Bebop Sessions Template:-Template:- The Cowboy Bebop series consists of 26 episodes, referred to as "sessions." Also included in the continuity is the Cowboy Bebop movie, placed between sessions 22 and 23. Many episodes are named explicitly for famous songs — "Honky Tonk Woman," "Heavy Metal Queen," "Jamming with Edward," "Sympathy for the Devil," "Bohemian Rhapsody," "My Funny Valentine," "Speak Like a Child," "Wild Horses," "Hard Luck Woman," and "The Real Folk Blues," the show's ending theme. Titles which do not name a specific song generally combine some plot element of the episode with a broader musical style — "Jupiter Jazz Pt. 1", "Jupiter Jazz Pt. 2", "Mushroom Samba," "Cowboy Funk," and "Waltz for Venus," for example. "Ballad of Fallen Angels", which was the title of session #5, was never released on any of the albums.

The Cowboy Bebop movie carries the subtitle Knockin' on Heaven's Door. However, due to a trademark dispute over the title, Columbia Tristar released it in America with the shortened title Cowboy Bebop: The Movie.

The title of session 2, "Stray Dog Strut", references the song "Stray Cat Strut." The title refers to Ein's daring escape of the lab and running throughout the city, Spike in pursuit.

Due to the violence portrayed in the Cowboy Bebop world and violence in Japanese schools, the series was briefly cancelled and an extra session was created as a final episode to the first thirteen episodes aired. Called "Session XX: Mish-Mash Blues," a compilation of clips from previous episodes, it aired on June 26, 1998 on TV Tokyo. The episode was never released on DVD. In it, the characters provide a philosophical commentary and end with the words: This Is Not The End. You Will See The Real "Cowboy Bebop" Someday!

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Soundtrack

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One of the most notable elements of Cowboy Bebop is its music, mostly performed by Yoko Kanno and her band, The Seatbelts. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the jazz-and-blues-themed soundtrack defines the series as much as the characters, writing, or animation; many fans find the soundtracks enjoyable to listen to as albums on their own merits.

Besides the three original soundtracks (Cowboy Bebop, No Disc and Blue) there is a mini-album (Vitaminless) and a greatest-hits collection (TANK! The! Best). The remix compilation, Music for Freelance, purports to be a broadcast from the pirate radio station Radio Free Mars. Finally, there is a CD box set, which includes a variety of tracks from the first original soundtracks, as well as rare/new versions of certain songs and dialogue tracks from the Japanese version of the show.

Yoko Kanno and The Seatbelts team with Tim Jensen for lyrics on songs:

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Staff

The series was created by "Hajime Yatate," a collective pseudonym for members of the staff at Sunrise, the animation studio that also developed Mobile Suit Gundam, Big O, Outlaw Star and Vision of Escaflowne. Cowboy Bebop was directed by Shinichiro Watanabe, who also directed Macross Plus, Samurai Champloo and the two short films A Detective Story and Kid's Story from the Animatrix. The music of Cowboy Bebop was all composed by Yoko Kanno, who also composed music for Earth Girl Arjuna, Macross Plus, Vision of Escaflowne, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Wolf's Rain.

The Cowboy Bebop movie was animated by Studio BONES, a new studio created by many former employees of Sunrise, and was one of their first projects. They have since developed other popular series like RahXephon, Wolf's Rain, and Fullmetal Alchemist.

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Influences

Cowboy Bebop's influences are many and varied.

  • Cowboy Bebop is strongly influenced by Chinese culture: from the Red Dragon Syndicate (Chinese dragon), Spike's Jeet Kune Do martial arts techniques and philosophy, and the numerous Chinatowns present on Mars and other planets.
  • Cowboy Bebop is also heavily influenced by American culture: from cinema, including mobster movies, film noir, and westerns, to the jazz music out of the Harlem nightclubs of the 1940s. It is referred to as Space Jazz by its creators - as opposed to Space Opera, although it has strong similarities to the character-centered action-packed genre - probably for its lighter side, as it is more humorous than the standard Space Opera, often poking fun at the genre.
  • Cowboy Bebop has marks of Bruce Lee and his martial arts, fighting philosophy, and his martial arts movies. Spike's fighting style (Jeet Kune Do) is borrowed directly from Bruce Lee. Also, the name of the bounty in the second episode is Abdul Hakim, borrowed from the Bruce Lee film Game of Death that co-starred Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who played a character called "Hakim." On two other separate occasions, Spike also mentions Enter the Dragon and Way of the Dragon, two more Bruce Lee movies.
  • Spike's lanky and laid-back character was heavily influenced by the charismatic thief Lupin the 3rd, from the anime and manga Lupin III, and they have similar characteristics. Likewise, Jet was influenced by Lupin's partner Jigen. Tributes to Lupin are peppered throughout the show, including characters wearing clothing worn by the cast in the Lupin series, and some of Lupin's cars, especially the famous yellow Fiat 500 from the movie The Castle of Cagliostro, appearing in scenes or in the background.
  • Spike's character had mainly been attributed by creators to the Japanese actor Yusaku Matsuda from the Japanese TV series and movie entitled Tantei Monogatari. It is from Matsuda that Spike is credited for receiving his unique hair style and other physical features.
  • As suggested by the series' title, westerns play a major influence on Cowboy Bebop. Like most westerns, the main characters are nomadic, self reliant individuals with personal moral codes, the weapon of choice for most dramatic scenes is a handgun, and episodes often revolve around codes of honor and themes of morality. There are also more explicit western influences such as Spike Spiegel's character's influence from the Man With No Name, a cowboy bounty hunter played by Clint Eastwood in the Dollars Trilogy by Sergio Leone, and one of the funniest antagonists in anime, Cowboy Andy, the naive poseur cowboy/bounty hunter with steed who contrasts with Spike's darker antihero cowboy.
  • According to mechanical designer Kimitoshi Yamane's notes, Spike's Swordfish II MONO racer was inspired by Britain's Fairey Swordfish torpedo-bomber of World War II. The Cowboy Bebop movie includes a cameo of the Fairey Swordfish along with a dialogue reference to the sinking of the Bismarck battleship (Fairey Swordfish bombers were crucial to the sinking of the Bismarck). There is also fan speculation that the Swordfish II is based on the Swordfish, an experimental airplane in Edgar P. Jacobs' comic series Blake and Mortimer, although the creators have not stated this.
  • Many of the stories of Cowboy Bebop and even cinematic stylings were lifted from other movies. These include influences from or homages to 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Crow, John Woo, Alien, blaxploitation movies, Star Trek, Desperado, and Dirty Harry.
  • In the episode "Ganymede Elegy", Jet's past relationship with Alisa is similar to that of the husband's and wife's from Henrik Ibsen's play The Doll House. Alisa's lover even borrows money from a loan shark just like the wife from "The Doll's House".
  • Allusions to external works are often made to hint at some of the darker themes. In episode 25, Jet makes reference to the Ernest Hemingway classic The Snows of Kilimanjaro. Spike also recites the Japanese tale Hyakumankai-kai Ikita Neko ("The cat that lived a million times") in the final episode as an explanation of his life, although he claims to hate the story because he hates cats.
  • Many sessions take their titles from Rolling Stones and other classic rock songs, i.e. "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Toys in the Attic."
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Controversial episodes

  • Shortly after the terrorist attacks on 9/11, Cartoon Network decided not to air episode 6, "Sympathy for the Devil" (due to the depiction of a gun wielding 'minor' who also gets shot in the wake of the Columbine High School massacre), episode 8, "Waltz for Venus" (which features criminals hijacking an airplane), and episode 22, "Cowboy Funk" (which features a terrorist who blows up tall buildings, including one that looks remarkably similar to the World Trade Center). Eventually, the episodes were put back into the regular rotation. The terrorist attacks and subsequent anthrax scare were also credited with delaying the release of the Cowboy Bebop movie in the United States by Sony Pictures, which featured a terrorist using nanomachines as biological warfare agents.
  • Following the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, Cartoon Network decided not to air episode 19, "Wild Horses", in which the Columbia shuttle is featured as a prominent plot point in the story. The episode had been shown in previous airings of the series, and has since been put back into the rotation.
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Content ratings

The certifications for Cowboy Bebop are TV-14 in the USA, M and MA in Australia, PG in Singapore, 13+ and G in Quebec, Canada (different episodes on video received different ratings), and 12+,15+, and PG in Britain (different episodes received different ratings).

Cowboy Bebop contains adult language, violence, and brief nudity. The language (anything past damn, hell and bastard) and nudity has been edited out of the English translation aired on Cartoon Network, but not on CNX. It is retained in the DVD releases.

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Licensing, authors, and publishers

  • Cowboy Bebop is licensed by Bandai in the United States.
  • The following manga series were published by Kadokawa Shoten in Japanese and TOKYOPOP in English:
  • A Cowboy Bebop game for PlayStation 2 was released in Japan, but as of now it is unknown if Bandai will do so as well in the United States since the official US website and info at Bandai Games have been removed.
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See also

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External links

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