Cowboy Bebop was one of the first few anime that I properly sat down and watched. After the horrible atrocity that was Fate/Zero I asked my friend to give me something "a little different", perhaps a little more "western" in its storytelling. Mainly because I had some pretty ignorant assumptions on cultural storytelling back then.
Well, he was nice enough to give me Cowboy Bebop. A show he described as, "the most western anime ever." Cool. I sat down and watched it in about a week.
I left with a few mixed feelings, but overall, it was a positive experience that I think many anime fans rightfully call a "classic" in the medium. Much like the show, i'll break up this review into small digestible chunks.
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PART 1 : The Purpose of a Genre
Television works in funny ways. Well, not really funny as much as generic, obvious, and pandering. Even in Japan, where the entire culture is different than America's, the way television (and film) is created is still similar. The demographic of the script is determined, the show/film gets its director and production company, it gets funded, and the shooting begins. That's one of the many ways something can get started.
The key term here is demographic. Everything is made for an audience, and that audience is everything for what's being made. Put simply, if no one is watching and buying; then your product is caput. The way you make sure that at least someone will watch and buy is by determining something called a demographic. Which pretty much means the sex and age range of an audience.
For example, a show like Sword Art Online is made with the 13-17 male demographic, however, it has reaches into the 18-27 male demographic as well. The show is adapted from the manga(or is it a LN i'm not sure) with the same key demographic. So a bunch of people come together and talk about what people in that age like.
Titties : Check
Loud anime yelling : Check
Self-insert wish fulfillment : Check
Flashy animation when fighting actually happens : Check
...
With these concepts they created the most generic and marketable show possible. Their show is the literal equivalent of oatmeal with nothing on it. Something that's easily edible.
But the point is that these people created this show with this audience in mind. This means that the show excels (hopefully) at these certain things. If you need fan service to appeal to a bunch of horny teenage boys, then you try your best to make it be some really damn good fan service! If you need loud moralistic anime protagonist, you better get the most generic possible self-insert wish-fulfilling protagonist you can!
So while this show may suck massive meat-wagons its still a show that excels at those things.
...
This leads me to Cowboy Bebop. A show that doesn't really excel at anything. A show that doesn't really fit in a base genre. Sure people sometimes call it a "space opera" but that's a horribly defined genre, in my opinion. It pretty much encapsulates every possible base genre. It has comedy, horror, drama, action, and mystery.
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PART 2 : Lack of a Flavor is More of a Flavor
So what exactly does "it just kinda does everything pretty good", mean? Well for one it means that I came out of the show thoroughly...fine. Nothing really stood out as mind-blowing or even great, but everything flowed decently well that I never really found the show to be a slog to sit through. The entire thing felt so harmless.
Its attempts at emotion were fine, its action was generally pretty good, the detours into more experimental one-off episodes was fairly pleasing as well. It had a decently designed cast with a cute little dog cause signature pets are cool to have. It had a story that flowed well, although wasn't given enough time to actually become something special. It followed an episodic structure that felt good to watch but ultimately didn't add much to the show... more on that later.
With this lack of focused genre, it really felt like the show was just middle-of-the-pack on everything. Which is why I can't really bring myself to criticize all too much. It quite literally does almost everything well enough that I don't have much to say on it.
Our titular protagonist is a charming semi-douche that is ultimately more like-able and interesting than most anime protagonists. His companions are all fairly engaging too. Faye has a great character design, Jet has a nice presence, Edward is ultimately the comedic relief and so on.
Point is, the show is just good. Throughout all the episodes, which play out very episodically, I found myself not having any disdain towards any of them. Sure most of them weren't all too memorable... the standouts being one with mushrooms, one with a fridge, and one with a fat man floating around like a balloon. But overall, they had some decent sci-fi storylines with decent execution.
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PART 3 : Story Without Story
So the one thing that bugged me about the show was its execution of the main storyline. While its episodic by nature, every half-way point we have a story-driven episode that revolves around our protagonist, Spike. I won't spoil what its about but it involves love and heartbreak, duh.
So with these story-driven episodes, the show shifts from meandering fourth gear to a full-out lore-mode fifth gear. The switch doesn't often feel natural, but the episodes themselves are all generally pretty good.
However, the biggest issue is that the writers don't give these stories enough time. I can think of a handful of disconnected episodes that could've been cut in favor of creating a more interesting and believable story.
Since this whole story-arc literally takes only five episodes to resolve, the other twenty one episodes are just kind of there. Five episodes is hardly enough time to create any believable characters or engaging interactions that lead to a very bombastic conclusion in a way that feels emotionally powerful.
Specifically, Spike's love from his past, Julia, gets a truly pitiful amount of development. This creates scenes that are meant to be emotional into yet another "ok" scene. It doesn't feel bad as much as it just feels "ok".
But the reason I feel like i can't give a show a pass for this is because they played this entire thing out like it was supposed to be something bigger. A big arc. But they didn't give it enough time. Why do an episodic series of twenty six episodes and only give the story five? Especially if you only want one season? It felt like a nonsensical idea to me.
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Conclusion :
Honestly, this review seems harsher than it needs to be. Saying the show is "mediocre" would mean its a 5.0/10. Its not mediocre. Its definitely above average, and the character interaction, for the most part, is good enough to elevate the show.
It has some very well choreographed fight sequences and some very genuine moments. Its overall a very pleasant show to watch. For me, it isn't the untouchable classic that many may call it, its still a good time that i'd recommend to any fan of television.
It may have not thought out its base storyline enough to make it something special, but some of the standout episodic episodes do more than enough to create a smooth and memorable experience.
See you in the internet, bubbo.
