Cowboy Bebop
About The Series
Genre: Action-adventure comedy-drama
Producers: Sunrise/Bones (Movie)/Bandai Visual/ZRO Limit Productions
Director: Shinichiro Watanabe
Medium: Japanese 2D animation with a few 3D sequences
The Skinny: A quartet of bounty hunters search for the next big bounty and a little money for food while trying to forget their pasts.
Think: Lupin III with a Lupin/Goemon hybrid in the lead role . . . in space!
Rating: 13+ (Series) R (Movie)
Where Found: Series - In video stores courtesy of Bandai Entertainment and currently seen on Cartoon Network
Movie - In video stores courtesy of Columbia/Tri-Star Entertainment
For more about the world of Cowboy Bebop, read The Real Folk Blues.
The Sessions
The Sessions are used to label both the episode breakdown as well as the DVD chapters. The sessions are broken down into 26 episodes and one movie, which fits between Sessions 22 and 23. Each session, with the exception of Session 26, is broken down into three segments in addition with the opening, closing, and preview of the next episode: the Avant Title (more or less a cold opening), the first part, and the second part. The final episode had no regular opening nor an Avant Title.
For your perusal, the Sessions of Cowboy Bebop:
Session 1: Asteroid Blues (DVD Session 1)
Synopsis: A drug dealer posesses a powerful drug called Red Eye, which creates paranoid, almost animalistic fits of rage when injected in your eye. Meanwhile, this dealer is currently being pursued by a pair of bounty hunters, a straggly, reckless charmer named Spike Spiegel and a gruff, methodical pilot named Jet Black. With a flirtatious pregnant woman catching his eye, will Spike remain focused on his bounty?
My Thoughts: A dark, yet comical introduction to the universe of Cowboy Bebop. It's not an introductory tale that would normally signal a series premiere. With a definite Western feel (both the cowboy-and-Indian and American meaning of the word), Asteroid Blues was one of those episodes that helped create the dynamics of what the show is going to be all about . . . and how it'll end if you pay attention to all the clues. Look out for the odes to Robert Rodriguez's Desperado in this episode.
Session 2: Stray Dog Strut
Synopsis: After a research laboratory is ransacked, a mysterious project known as a "data dog" is stolen. Spike and Jet are on the case running through the streets in search of both the thief and the "data dog," which is revealed to be . . . a Welsh Corgi?
My Thoughts: This was the first episode to air in Japan, and it's no question why it was the first episode. It had kinetic energy, great action sequences, and many comical elements. This is one of the many episodes in which Spike's comical expressions and reaction shots shine through. This episode introduces Ein, the lovable, huggable dog that's smarter than a lot of humans.
Session 3: Honky Tonk Women
Synopsis: Enter the Gypsy, Poker Alice. She prefers to be called Faye Valentine. She's up to her eyebrows in debt, so she has to cooperate with these background players who have a more serious agenda in mind. All she has to do is get a chip from an unlucky schmo. Unfortunately for Faye, the description of the schmo fit an individual named Spike Spiegel who isn't willing to fall for her feminine wiles. At least not yet.
My Thoughts: Every show needs a strong female character, and anime fans know that one of the strongest characters to ever grace television screens is Faye Valentine. She's sweet, bitter, salty, spicy, and if you press the wrong buttons, very toxic. In fact, Faye's the completely antithesis of Spike's character. She's rough while Spike is smooth. A rivalry is born in Honky Tonk Women.
Session 4: Gateway Shuffle
Synopsis: The Space Warriors, an eco-terrorist group formed to protect a space rat that has become well-known as a delicacy and on the brink of extinction, plans to turn an entire world into a planet full of damned, dirty apes with this virus that affects only humans. Of course the virus was nowhere to be found. Meanwhile, Faye discovers a mysterious package in a briefcase. Spike takes apelike measures to find out what's in the package. Ook, ook!
My Thoughts: Let's just pray that PETA doesn't take the Space Warriors' route to achieve their goals. Gateway Shuffle is the episode that turned Faye into a freeloading part of the Bebop crew, closely connecting herself with Jet and Spike. Yeah, she's a freeloader, but she's eye candy. This episode is a great episode on its own, but it seems a bit off course in the general direction of the series.
Session 5: Ballad of Fallen Angels
Synopsis: A mysterious figure from Spike's past makes a dramatic entrance, and our hero faces his demons before facing his long-time nemesis.
My Thoughts: If I could pick one episode to personify what Cowboy Bebop is all about, this is it. Cowboy Bebop is all about a guy who lives a dangerous life who walked away from an even more dangerous one. When that former life came back to haunt him, instead of running away from it, Spike ran out of the rain and into the fire and nearly loses his life in the process. This episode was one of the few Spike-centered episodes that describes what kind of man the lead protagonist really is and the code in which he lives by. The pivotal fight scene between Spike and Vicious was inspired by Brandon Lee's iconic final film, The Crow.
Session 6: Sympathy For The Devil (DVD Session 2)
Synopsis: There's something strange about that kid playing the blues. His mysterious wheelchair-bound guardian who kills the person Spike and Jet are currently trying to collect the bounty on. After finding out a shocking revelation, Spike decides to take on his seemingly immortal foe.
My Thoughts: After Ballad of Fallen Angels, the action quotient really cranked up a bit. This was one of the first episodes that showed a softening of the relationship between Spike and Faye, but it's short-lived. It's a dark episode in the vein of Asteroid Blues and not for the squeamish, especially after witnessing the foe's final fate.
Session 7: Heavy Metal Queen
Synopsis: VT doesn't like bounty hunters for some reason. She's a no-nonsense space trucker who drives the highways and bi-ways of space. She also finds herself friendly with that eternal charmer with the crumpled-up suit, Spike Spiegel. When VT finds out Spike is a bounty hunter, she becomes cold towards him until they realize they're both after this weasely punk who hurt one of her friends. Someone Faye is also trying to find.
My Thoughts: After a pair of dark-themed episodes, this episode is kind of lighter-fare. You get that feeling when you see Spike totally "faced," hungover but ever vigilant trying to keep his egg from breaking. As the title suggests, you do hear a very unintelligable heavy-metal song played in the background of the pivotal scene. A humorous episode filled with a lot of great scenes.
Continue on to the next batch of episodes right here.
