After learning that Cowboy Bebop is getting a live-action remake, I decided to revisit the much-beloved anime series from the 90s (although not aired in the U.S. until the early 2000s). Many people think of it as the best anime series ever, and with good reason. My episode reviews will contain spoilers, so be sure to watch the series before you read this.

Session 6: Sympathy for the Devil

Spike dreams that he’s on an operating table. Is this a premonition or part of his back story? He wakes up in a club listening to a kid playing the blues on a harmonica. On the Bebop, Faye opens a fridge which is empty except for one can of dog food. Ein whines to be fed. Faye opens the can… and eats it herself! At one point, Jet says betrayal comes easily to women, but men live by codes of honor, so he’s a bit misogynistic.

Continue reading →

After learning that Cowboy Bebop is getting a live-action remake, I decided to revisit the much-beloved anime series from the 90s (although not aired in the U.S. until the early 2000s). Many people think of it as the best anime series ever, and with good reason. My episode reviews will contain spoilers, so be sure to watch the series before you read this.

Session 4: Gateway Shuffle

Faye is out of fuel, adrift in orbit around Jupiter. There are food wrappers floating around her, so she’s a bit of a slob. She comes across a shipwreck and finds a mysterious package…

Continue reading →

After learning that Cowboy Bebop is getting a live-action remake, I decided to revisit the much-beloved anime series from the 90s (although not aired in the U.S. until the early 2000s). Many people think of it as the best anime series ever, and with good reason. My episode reviews will contain spoilers, so be sure to watch the series before you read this.

Session 2: Stray Dog Strut

Spike and Jet watch a TV show for bounty hunters called Big Shot. The hosts, Punch and Judy, are dressed in old west outfits and tell bounty hunters about criminals with bounties on their heads. The bounty this episode is Abdul Hakim, an animal thief and a good fighter. He’s had plastic surgery, so no one knows what he looks like now. Abdul bears a resemblance to Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s character in the Bruce Lee movie Game of Death and one of the fight scenes is lifted from this movie. Spike, of course, is a Bruce Lee stand-in for most of the series. So while last episode was based on a Western, this episode is based on a kung fu movie.

Continue reading →

After learning that Cowboy Bebop is getting a live-action remake, I decided to revisit the much-beloved anime series from the 90s (although not aired in the U.S. until the early 2000s). Many people think of it as the best anime series ever, and with good reason. My episode reviews will contain spoilers, so be sure to watch the series before you read this.

Session 1: Asteroid Blues

The opening scene shows Spike chain smoking, waiting for someone who doesn’t show. He drops a rose in the street that he presumably got for a woman. He ends up in a shootout in a cathedral. He smiles as he’s shot by several gunmen. We’re left to wonder if this is a flashback or a flashforward as the opening credits begin to play.

Continue reading →