See you, Space Cowboy

By conventional reasoning and modern logic, Cowboy Bebop is something that shouldn't work. It's a contradiction in terms - a sci-fi, film-noir inspired anime with a soundtrack dominated by Jazz, Beat music, the Blues and not an insignificant amount of crooning. But it does work, and it's beautiful. And it is quite possibly one of my favourite things in the universe.

I have intersected with Shinichro Watanabe's Cowboy Bebop three times in my life.

The first time I was quite young and honestly just enjoyed a cartoon set in space and in the future (I wanted to be an astrophysicist). It was on television at random times and if I came across it I would watch it. I didn't have the presence of mind to schedule it into my day (which involved large amounts of play-dough).

The second time, I was in high school. Some of the "Remixes" (remaster volumes) were sitting on the DVD shelf of the library, and seeing it there reminded me that it was a show that I liked as a little'un. I watched whatever I could find, and I was hooked. I couldn't explain why - I just did. I liked the stories, the details, the character quirks. I liked Spike - he was a fun guy. After I went through the library's two volumes (totalling 8 episodes), I tried to find the others. But they were rare in the life I was living at the time. So I let it be and continued on doing other teenagery things.

The third time was rather fortuitous (or not depending on how poetically you choose to view life). I was a rather bored (and somewhat hermit-like) uni student on holidays with nothing to watch on TV. I remembered that Cowboy Bebop was something I enjoyed and figured it couldn't be a bad way to pass the time. This time I did it properly - I 'acquired' the entire series and sat down and started watching from episode one.

Jet, Spike, Faye, Ed and Ein

The premise of Cowboy Bebop is quite simple - Spike, a layabout with a shady past, and Jet, an ex-cop, have teamed up on the good-ship Bebop in the year 2071. Bounty hunting is in vogue and the duo go about trying to earn a meager existence by catching as many wanted thugs as possible. A set of rather entertaining circumstances mean that they come across a femme fatale who only thinks her name is Faye, and a dog who's technological genius is rivaled only by a young, androgynous girl called Ed.

It's possible make an entire blog full of entries on the different aspects of what makes this anime so good. The stories, the richness of the characters, the animation, the sensational music and even the framing of the shots in this series not only stand by themselves as exemplars in anime but come together and just fit in beautiful and poetic way.

The first thing that literally smacks you in the face is music of this series.

Veteran Anime composer Yoko Kanno put together her now well respected big band, "The Seatbelts" in order to first perform the soundtrack that would score this anime. It's opening theme ('Tank!', in the youtube clip above) sets the scene for how much of a bizzarely entertaining ride this anime would be. Its loud, over the top and a surprisingly complex big band piece that excites you and makes you think of those old 1970s cop shows - but with more energy and more power.

And this is the essential underlying theme of the music. Unlike a lot of the scores of modern television shows (don't get me started on Smallville), the soundtrack subtly and unobtrusively suggests a feel and set of emotions to you. Where else would you find a high speed and emotionally charged hovercraft chase happen to the sound of a gentle and rambling piano ballad? And who else would only use the sparse tinkering of a music box in the most heartbreaking scene of the entire series? It's beautiful not only because it's good music, but because its used in such an artistic and considerate way.

This subtlety is mirrored by the film-noir inspired characterisation of Spike, Jet, Faye and Ed. Where a lot of modern story telling in popular media is akin to being smacked in the face with a large "narrative" hammer, Bebop holds back on telling you exactly what's going on. Of course, the events in a particular episode unfold in a straightforward manner like good storytelling does, but the characters themselves, their stories and what motivates them is shown to you, not told.

Spike's hurt over his old flame is only talked about as much as he would like to

The effect of this is two fold and almost contradictory. You grow intrigued by the mystery of the characters (as any good film-noir would do), and yet you grow closer to these characters because you're forced to feel what they feel instead of being told what they feel. Spike, Jet, Faye and Ed initially all seem like personality types put together for sit-com-esque fun. But even at the beginning you sense that there is something more underneath the surface - that the characters are much more three dimensional than they're initially presented. And this is all because of good writing, voice acting and animation.

The end result of this is a rather emotionally charged-yet-understated final set of episodes. As the tragedies of each of the characters is revealed to each other and to us, you start to feel the sense of loneliness that those itinerant wanderers must have to carry all the time. The sense of loss and pain that have driven these 4 people to be so emotionally closed becomes more and more prevalent. And you can't help but be fascinated by the way they have ended up growing so attached to each other.

In a lot of ways I'm still in the middle of my third encounter with Cowboy Bebop. It has now been 2 years since that bored stretch of holidays, and I still listen to the soundtrack late into the night, still think about Spike and Julia and I will immediately suggest it whenever anyone who is remotely cartoon inclined tells me they're bored. It's only 25 episodes - a relatively small fraction of your life.

Watch it. It's good. I liked it.