Cowboy Bebop, by Sunrise Studio
Alright, I just finished this show a little while ago and it seems like a good way to start this whole thing, so, uh, yeah. I love this show. So dang much. The characters and the atmosphere combined with the loose worldbuilding make it an endlessly enjoyable experience to watch, and it took me a few days to cope with that 15-story fall of an ending. It’s very rare that a show has the guts not only to unequivocally end after it told the story it set out to tell, but to cap off that story by capping the main character of the show.
For those out of the loop, the show follows a band of four bounty hunters in the (not quite near, not quite far) future, trying and failing to make a living bringing in criminals amidst a developing solar system. Most of the emphasis is put on the main character Spike, a laidback martial artist with a mysterious backstory, and his longtime friend, Jet, a former cop with a metal arm. The story is mostly made up of unconnected episodes as the two, joined by a chronic gambler with an equally mysterious backstory, Faye valentine, and feral child/tech prodigy Edward. Over the course of the story, Spike’s past comes back to haunt him and periodically interrupt the usually fun vibe of the show, until it finally overtakes him in the season finale.
In terms of what I thought, The overarching story with Spike was masterfully done, and each of the intervening episodes had a fun concept and wonderfully creative side characters, but some elements of the other characters were handled a bit weirdly. I remember there were two episodes about characters from Jet’s backstory and they played out eerily similarly to each other, and Edward seems to entirely forget about their hacking skills the moment they join the party, leading to some annoying moments, but the only really serious problem I had with any of the characters was Faye.
Faye Valentine is not very well-written. I don’t know how else to say it, but she feels like a very lonely man’s impression of how a woman acts. Aside from her backstory, which was very interesting conceptually, her entire character can be boiled down to “whiny, but really cares about her friends deep down”, which is disappointingly shallow for a show with so many interesting characters. It’s not a huge problem, and all the other characters more than make up for it, but there were some times when I found myself surprisingly irritated when I had to deal with her for more than a few minutes.
Back to the good stuff though, that main arc was a transcendent piece of storytelling. The way that the brief and barely explained clashes with the shadowy syndicate from Spike’s perilous past is intercut with long swaths of happy-go-lucky adventuring shows you, in depth, the attempts our hero is making to escape his old life. After the mid-season showdown with Vicious almost convinced both Spike and the audience that he was finally free, it became all the more heartbreaking to see that struggle claim his life in the finale. It’s a truly special and impactful arc, and it deserves to be remembered as one of the best.
There are a few other elements that I don’t have much to say about but felt were worth mentioning, namely: Ein is cute, and makes for a good supporting character to Ed. Edward’s personal arc is sublime, and the way they parted with the party was believable and left me feeling genuinely sad. Edward is also heavily implied to be transgender, and that makes me immensely happy. That is all. So there are my thoughts on Cowboy Bebop, as of January 2021. It may have been a weird choice to start, but hey, I think it’s interesting. Thank you for reading this, to anyone who is.