Auto Pilot: Cowboy Bebop

Widely considered one of the greatest anime series of all time, Cowboy Bebop follows the adventures of bounty hunter Spike Spiegel and his ever increasing crew of miscreants aboard the spaceship Bebop.  Fueled by the smoothest of jazz, the show blends a ton of genres and tones, going from humorous to insanely violent and dark in the blink of an eye.  All of that is captured in the show’s first episode.

Episode Title: “Asteroid Blues”

Original Airdate: September 2, 2001 (US on Adult Swim)

Did I Know Anything Going In?:  I’m not really an anime guy, I’ve seen the Animatrix, Afro Samurai and that’s about it but I knew Cowboy Bebop’s reputation and that the soundtrack was incredible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqvsUs-iQvg

Even with just the title screen, a lot of pop culture references fell into place watching the first episode of Cowboy Bebop.  Venture Bros and Archer clearly are paying homage to that opening sequence and things like Firefly are also apparently very much in debt to the show.

The first episode follows Spike and his partner Jet Black as they track down the gangster Asimov, who is wanted by the mob for killing his own men and stealing a massive cache of a drug called Bloody-Eye, which gives the user what seems like enhanced agility and strength but also makes them insane.  There’s a really awesome effect in the episode where you are seeing from Asimov’s view and it feels like everything is being filmed by a handheld camera, even though it’s animation.

The tone of Cowboy Bebop is kind of crazy, as there’s lots of humor and wacky things happening but then when things blow up, people are getting their entire face blown off or getting their face punched into a pulp.  What makes it crazier is that most of the action is set to smooth jazz.

Spike chases Asimov throughout space Tijuana and eventually Asimov and his girlfriend, Katerina, are faced with an impossible to escape police barricade.  Asimov is about to use a deadly amount of Bloody-Eye but Katerina kills him and then basically commits suicide by cop as the their ship is destroyed by the entire police force.  Again, vastly shifting tone.

Cowboy Bebop is as great as everyone says and I’m definitely going to try and finish the series and maybe branch out into some other anime series.  I watched it on Hulu but it’s probably all over the place.