It had to be around 2 a.m. in a Carolina suburb. Random Adult Swim programming kept my red-eyed buddies and me glued to the screen. Suddenly, an assault of trumpets blared over conspiracy theory wallpaper visuals, immediately arresting my attention. A silhouette of a man smoking. Sinister, sexy bass notes joined by a voice calmly suggesting that we skip town and … jam. Things were moving too fast. Not enough time to take it all in. Cigarettes, guns, girls, kung-fu, spaceships.What. Was. Happening?
Cowboy Bebop, this show — thisanime— was like nothing I’d ever seen before. I wasn’t a fanboy at the time (too busy wearing black and listening to Korn), but mostly because the anime genre and I hadn’t been properly introduced. Like any first step into a new world, a cool gateway drug helps to move things along. That fateful night on my friend’s couch, Cowboy Bebop opened a door for me. Now, 25 years later, the series is just as potent, and the effects have yet to wear off.
Just to establish some context, the1990s were a heydayfor anime, a golden age that remains sacred among fans. With killer hits like Sailor Moon,Neon Genesis Evangelion,Pokémon, andBerserk, clearly there must have been something in the Tokyo water. In 1994, a series called Macross Plus (think a dystopian Top Gun with a love triangle) was directed by sunglasses-aficionado Shinichiro Watanabe, written by Keiko Nobumoto, and featured original music by composer Yoko Kanno — the holy trinity all in one place. Due to Macross Plus’ success, the three would collaborate on an even more ambitious anime in 1998, but you probably knew that already.
Cowboy. Bebop. Two nouns seemingly thrown together like they were produced by the coolest random-word generator ever. It was just a blast to say. They also succinctly encapsulated the show’s biggest themes. In the future, solar systems — even galaxies — were likened to the “Old West”, where crime ran deep beneath law enforcement, thereby enabling opportunistic individuals like bounty hunters, contractors, and hackers to bring justice to the New World on their own terms. Within those fertile parameters lied all the space (literally,allof outer space) needed to create a dystopian world full of 3D empathetic characters and a mesmerizing soundtrack that still stands on its own two feet.
While re-watching the series, I was able to put my finger on a number of elements that weren’t on my radar when I was younger. At its beating center, Bebop was always a “space-western” (nothing has come close before or since) infused with enough neo-noir and melodrama to subconsciously stretch out its appeal to multiple demographics. And, like fellow film-buff Quentin Tarantino, Watanabe’s influences are written all over the show’s interstellar sleeves.
RELATED:Starfield Developer Names Cowboy Bebop Among The Game’s Inspirations
References to hard-boiled detective films are the easiest to spot. The interior of the Bebop must smell like one massive metal ashtray with all the cigarette smoke. One can almost sense Phillip Marlowe’s spirit being channeled as Spike, Jet, and Faye puff away nonplused. Just as this was a cool cinematic prop in celluloid days of old, so it works here. Through the medium of anime, the animated smoke languidly billows out from our heroes lips, taking its time without a care in the solar system. Call me shallow, but smoking just looks so damn classy on the screen.
So many of the show’s scenes hinge on mood, most prominently when nothing major is happening. These happen to be my favorite moments in the show. The amount of detail that was put into setting certain tones underscores the importance of creating a truly unique atmosphere. Not just the Bebop herself, but entire planetary colonies and major cities are given room to display their own personalities. If you cut out all the plot and its dialogue and were left simply with images of ships flying and people eating, drinking, and smoking, they would still be just as impactful. Similarly to Scorsese’s anarchic noir tribute, Taxi Driver, in which the streets of New York become their own entity, Bebop’s locations pulse with life.
Watching the show again today, I’m still enamored with the first episode. No subtext, no explanation — its refusal to break and provide context is a testament to its cool. Just roll with it. A harmonica lazily sets the tone while starcraft routinely take off via super advanced space discs. However, at this point in mankind’s history, the charm of space exploration is long gone and has become just another mundane part of the daily grind. Similarly to the wild west, everyone’s just trying to make a living, too broke to take in the landscape.
The characters are still some of the most diverse and iconic figures in anime. Spike Spiegel, suave impetuous martial-arts master/chain smoker, is appropriately paired with level-headed ex-cop and pilot/cook, Jet Black. It was like meeting them for the first time with opened eyes. The two bounty hunters obviously have history and are dynamic enough to hold the show together on their own — bickering about what actually constitutes bell peppers and beef, or their collective financial woes, but then Cowboy Bebop would’ve been restricted to a “buddy” show, a Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. But it’s the inclusion of the show’s subsequent — initially incongruent — faces that bring the splash of needed diversity to the Bebop’s small table, sending it into a completely original realm.
Even 25 years later, it sounds like the start of a bad joke: three adult bounty hunters (one in hot yellow shorts), a super-intelligent Pembroke Welsh Corgi and wunderkind teen hacker with a comically long name walk into a bar. By the time Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV rounds out the Bebop crew in Episode 9, the dysfunctional family feels complete, but, on brand for the Bebop’s aloofness, things never get maudlin. In fact, the crew’s bizarre living situation is broached only once in an exchange that I love.
Like the kid with sunglasses who leaves a party early, Bebop’s cool is further enhanced by its brevity. The ephemeral anime diamond squeezed out just 26 episodes and a feature film wedged in towards the end. Despite its short run, the show took home the prestigious Kobe Animation Award in 1998, and the even more erudite Seiun Award in 2000 for best science fiction work. That’s about as good as you can get. Any attempt to ring out extra juice from the franchise would feel desperate, with the end result a pale facsimile (cough cough, Netflix…live actioncough).
There’s a quote from Raymond Chandler’s “The Long Goodbye”, one of Watanabe’s touchstone films, that goes something like, “I was as hollow and empty as the spaces between stars.” Beautiful imagery, but it also sums up the ethos of Bebop. The show is essentially the journey of people longing for that missing piece, struggling to make the best of their situation Earth-less situation. After 25 years, nowhere has this been more imbued with detached coolness than within the lives of a few bounty hunters, their dog and a whizkid.
So hit the engines and fire up some bell peppers. I hear there’s a guy who’s hiring on Mars. And, on the off chance this is the end, see you, Space Cowboy.
NEXT:The Fuse Ability Could Be The Star Of Tears Of The Kingdom
