This is one of the quotes you’ll be seeing during the eye catches of the show and it’s not far off from reality. Cowboy Bebop is an anime that mixes many genres to make one entertaining journey. Episodic in format, this anime contains many different story of many different lives while uncovering the main cast’s back story slowly. The show starts off with a glimpse of the Spike’s past, the anime’s lead. With a dark, mysterious opening, then to a fun, jazz-heavy theme, it won’t take long for someone to realize that this anime isn’t just one genre. From action-adventure, to mystery-drama, this anime hits on all of the genre without feeling weak on any sides. A classic to many, a masterpiece to some, this is Cowboy Bebop.
~{Story}~
Due to Cowboy Bebop being episodic, it doesn’t have its main story being continued one episode after the other. Instead, the main story is broken up into pieces, with smaller story arcs fill up the gaps. Normally I don’t like episodic shows unless they’re slice of life anime, but this show manages to present its story in a way were it seems a non-episodic format might have ruined it. The premise is a group of bounty hunters (Spike and Jet, then Faye and Edward being introduced later in the show) who try to capture bounties in order to, well, live. Almost each episode has their own story and you’ll notice very quickly how each episode has its own taste to it; each episode feels different from one another. Some will get you pumped up, others may make you teary. What Cowboy Bebop does so well is making sure these tiny stories don’t make the entire anime messy or unorganized. It manages to present each story it has to offer without making it feel disjointed. The main story however is simple but it’s just so well presented that you enjoy the story more than you do. Mentioning the main story in the review is spoilers because it takes place well in the anime. It’ll take a handful of episodes to know what the main story is. Let’s just say, it has something to do with Spike’s past, which you get a glimpse of in the first seconds of the anime. Just don’t expect the main story to be shown consecutively, as it is interrupted by many other, smaller stories. And as many said before, it’s not about the destination, but rather the journey.
Story: 9.5/10
~{Presentation}~
It was the one of the most westernized anime of its time for sure. Not many anime can properly be westernized without looking like a mess or without have a small audience. However Cowboy Bebop manages to have a westernized feel to it which helped it to get an audience outside of Japan, without losing Japan’s audience. Cowboy Bebop’s look to it is what helped anime become more popular in North America and Europe, therefore Bebop has achieved so much, and influenced so many thing is both Western culture and Japan’s too. Many anime tried to copy the westernized feel of Bebop, but fail to be as good as what it’s influenced by. Also, Bebop is one of the most stylish anime I have ever seen. The style is composed of many factors, such as it balancing many genres, its westernized and more modern feel, and it music-heavy presentation. Music isn’t just used in its, well, music, but in other things too such as the names of the episodes are called sessions and each name is some reference to music. Cowboy Bebop also has a very consistent pacing. It’s never too fast, nor slow. Each episode, being in an episodic format, flows perfectly from one another, even though they don’t connect from one another. The reason so is because each episode starts at a slow pace, build up to higher note, then slowly brings the pace down then ends its episode. The fact that each episode doesn’t end it a fast pace helps create a flow as the next episode needs to start in a slow pace in order to build up a different story. But in the end, all I can say is that the presentation cannot be compared to any anime because of how unique it is.
Presentation: 10/10
~{Character}~
The main cast consists of four people: Spike (the cool, chill bounty hunter who’s past comes back to him), Jet (the ex-cop now bounty hunter who is the most level headed of the bunch), Faye (the attractive, yet deadly bounty hunter who isn’t the most brightest), and Ed (the wacky little girl who is an expert hacker). Each character is so distinctively unique from one another, yet they together make the perfect combination. Each character is so well done, you just don’t notice it until the end. You start off with knowing nothing about these characters, yet you enjoy watching them. And as you progress through the anime, you learn more and more about these characters, you start understand they’re feeling, not matter how much they try to hide it. Each character has their own past and they are so well done. Even Ed’s backstory makes sense. These stories they hide makes them so real and convincing. They are by far the best cast of characters I have ever seen. Even the supporting characters are well fleshed out, even if most of them have only one episode to develop. When an episode makes you cry you’ll be wondering how a character that you’ve only met for minutes, made you so emotional so quickly. When the climax hits and you know about the characters more, the outcome just feels heavier.
Character: 10/10
~{Art}~
Since Cowboy Bebop takes place many years in the future, the world that is presented in this anime is much bleaker than you would expect from a future-heavy sci-fi. Crime rates are way too high, poverty in every corner, this is a future that is convincingly real and possible. The show’s art is very detailed as every detail is visible to everything, and objects far away have enough detail to not find it distracting. This anime has many details to objects that don’t need any, such as liquor bottles have labels that are sometimes readable. The show really shows the contrast between vivid colors and muddy, gloomy colors and use those colors to describe situations. The best example would be when Spike goes to Mars. Where the rich live, building are clean and the art’s glossiness helps show that and the lush green grass represents the life in the area. But other sections in Mars, such as where construction is still taking place, or ghost towns, darker, moodier colors are used to represent the area. The show doesn’t need words to represent situations as the art takes care of that. The details in the art makes me feel why can’t others do the same? Anime these days tends to take shortcuts but making background objects less detailed and not use the art to explain situation. Cowboy Bebop was way ahead of its time back then, and sadly it sometimes seems as if it’s ahead of time today too.
Art: 10/10
~{Animation}~
Most of the anime is hand drawn except for a few areas. The parts that were computer animated were rotating objects in space, as to make them move smoothly, CG would be more helpful. But everything is hand-drawn and the effort is clearly visible. During fight sequences, for example the one at the end of the first episode, you will notice how fluid and crisp the animation is. When Spike gave a while sliding off a table, that’s when it hit me; it’s too fluid for its time. I’m not a 90’s kid, but I know how animation was back then. Never have I seen hand-drawn animation be so fluid from that time. But the animation has a style to. The cinematography is very impressive. The anime sometimes uses a top view to show the landscape of the area, and it works really well. And there are so many tiny details in the show to. Some anime are too lazy to animate the backgrounds, but Bebop puts in all they got. Some of the animations in backgrounds are subtle, yet noticeable. In today’s standard this may seem normal, but for 1998, it’s quite a lot. Even animations for character lip-syncing is much more impressive than anime today.
Animation: 10/10
~{Voice Acting}~
The Japanese voice cast is filled well-known artists. Kōichi Yamadera as Spike is fantastic, as he portrays coolness in Spike and emotions in him when necessary. Unshō Ishizuka as Jet is great, as he able to probably portray strength and matureness with his voice acting capabilities, but is also able to portray weakness too. Megumi Hayashibara as Faye is superb as she can do the fragile side and the weak side of Faye properly. Aoi Tada, who didn’t have much experience before Bebop, was able to capture the wackiness of Ed flawlessly. But this is one of the fewer anime where I found the English voice acting better than the Japanese voice acting, mainly because of Spike. Steve Blum as Spike is beyond words. Not only is he able to portray coolness to a next level, but his also able to add charm too. Not to mention, some of Spike’s lines sound way cooler in English. Beau Billingslea’s Jet isn’t as convincing as Ishizuka’s, but it’s still good enough. Billingslea’s lacked the emotions Ishizuka portrayed. Wendee Lee’s Faye was much more convincing than Hayashibara’s as she was able to sound more powerful and weaker than the original Japanese voice acting. Melissa Fahn’s Ed is on par with Tada’s although I did like the fact that Tada’s voice acting made it seem confusing at first what gender Ed really is. The supporting cast’s voice acting is fantastic, both Japanese and English.
Voice Acting: 10/10
~{Music}~
What Yoko Kanno created with Cowboy Bebop is beyond words; this has to be the greatest OST ever created for any media ever. The OP, “Tank!”, is outstanding. The perfect blending of jazz is just the best thing to hear and it really sets the tone of the show; it lets you know that a journey is ahead. The ED, “The Real Folk Blues”, is fantastic too. There are two other EDs, one being “Space Lion” (at Episode 13), and “Blue” (at Episode 26). In my opinion, these two EDs are way better than “The Real Folk Blues”, and they sound even better in the anime while you’re experiencing what is happening in the situation. Many other tracks, such as “Rush”, “Spokey Dokey”, “Rain”, “Words That We Couldn’t Say”, “Call Me Call Me”, are just some of the many tracks that makes Cowboy Bebop so special. With nearly 10 hours of OST, it’s obvious that there was a lot of effort put into the music. And many of the tracks were either not used or used very minimally. Many songs have been used of for the eye-catches, for example “Fantaisie Sign” is one of my favorite tracks from the OST, but was only used during the eye-catches of the anime. Another great thing about this anime is that besides the OP and ED, no track is repeated twice, not even for the eye-catches. Some people make a mistake thinking “The Real Folk Blues” was used for the final moments of the anime, but it was actually “See You Space Cowboy”, which used the same music, just the lyrics are different. With each track being used not more than once, there is no repetitiveness in the music. No matter how much you hate Bebop, you must love the soundtrack… unless you hate Jazz, or good music.
Music: 10/10
~{Enjoyment}~
With many different genres in this anime, there is something for everyone. Not everyone will love every episode because some may not come from their preferred genre, but there’s always some episodes that instantly become your favorite because it’s your type of episode. Once you finish the anime, you’ll feel like watch some episodes again, the ones that were your favorite. Also, due to the anime being episodic, it’s easy to just pick a random episode and watch it (once you’re done the anime that is), without losing the experience. Whenever I don’t have anything to do, I just select one of my favorite Bebop episode and watch it. If you want a lighthearted moment, or you want to fiddle around with your emotions, you know what episodes to watch. A little bit of action, watch this episode. A little bit of drama, watch that episode. There are many pop culture references in Cowboy Bebop, both Japanese and Western, so that’s a little extra for more enjoyment. Also, if you really enjoy the soundtrack, you can listen to it whenever you’re doing something, and maybe get addicted to it like I still am.
Enjoyment: 10/10
With all those 10s I’ve given, it doesn’t mean it’s a perfect anime, because nothing is really. It’s just that this the closest an anime can get to perfect. There are one or two hiccups in road, but nothing big enough to stop the ride. An anime I watched seven times (three times in Japanese, four in English), it still doesn’t get old. With it having a heavy influence of introducing anime in western culture, it surely is a classic, and a masterpiece.
+ Outstanding cast of characters
+ Enjoyable, small stories build up to one journey
+ Greatest soundtrack created for any medium
+ Japanese and English, both voice acting is superb
+ Stylish and properly westernized
+ Fluid, hand-drawn animations with great detail to every art
Overall: 9.9/10
