Tag: Spike Spiegel

Pinkie Watches: Cowboy Bebop Episode 7 – Heavy Metal Queen

Hello again little lights!  Little by Little I am trying to get back into the swing of anime reviews! Well not so much reviews anymore as it is episode reactions! I hope to bring back an anime review every day sometime soon! Who knows by the time you see this we might be close already!  Of my seven anime I watched per week, Zombie Land Saga was the one I wanted to continue the most as it’s most in my style.. the second one I really wanted to pick up again was Cowboy Bebop! So here we go!  Let’s see how much I liked the seventh Episode.

Big Rigs In a shitty place

Unlike my review of Zombie Land Saga I completely watched this episode before I gave my reaction, I did not like the review format to much.. because it made me whiney or praise something I did not like at all, yet the as we go reaction causes a lot of pauses in the view , I get distracted and end up doing a lot of other stuff, so this is another way to try and approach it.  The Episode starts with a butch woman going by the name of V.T. She is a space trucker and she is walking into a trucker café.  She’s playing a lot of Heavy Metal on her speakers as she does. I don’t like heavy metal all that much but I must admit Cowboy Bebop uses it well.. I found the music annoying but it conveys that trucker atmosphere. The character design is quite gender ambiguous and since the voice kind of reminds me of Frieza.. that feeling was aided. Yet that is also kind of how I feel 80’s or 90’s  trucker women would be depicted and I don’t mean that in a bad way..there is this 80’s  action movie flavor to this episode and she fits right in it. 

There is a game going on to guess V.T.’s true name.. which no one does.. But I get it fairly soon as soon as I hear some bikers talk about rumors of a legendary bounty hunter… well her last name at least… but that one is SUPER complicated… so I forgot. Her favourite bar is crowded tonight as someone named Decker is on the planet and all these guys are Bounty Hunters… a great bridge is made to our no hung-over hero.  V.T. gets in a 80’s action fight with some ruffians and they spill Spike’s Anti hangover drink over him so he gets involved as well. I really like the choreography here, it really feels so 80’s.. including the narrative beats and music beats.. it really rocks! It kind of reminds me of Jack Burton from my favourite action movie!  He was a trucker as well!  Regardless the two bond a bit , she finds Bounty Hunters to be the worst people ever and of course this makes me know I have guessed the name right.  Spike plays along as she buys him a drink for helping.  She then withdraws that offer as she finds out the truth because of Faye.

Faye is sitting at a sort of Chuck E Cheese restaurant hoping to find Decker, who they only know has a Dragon Tattoo. When a big gorilla of a man walks in with a serpentine tattoo drawn on his chest she wastes no time and decides to confront him!  Obviously in typical 80’s fashion she got the wrong target and the real guy is a weasley nerd looking guy! Showing appearances can be deceiving. She chases him but with a little container he deals massive damage to her beloved ship!  Now he can get away freely so she has to call spike for help!  Those walkie talkies they have really cover some distance. I wonder where they got those!  V.T. wants nothing more to do with Spike and he leaves the “diner”  just to see his ship has been vandalised!  One of the Waitresses does the whole dumb blond thing that once again we see in 80’s movies. So much atmosphere!

Big Rigs in Space

Spike and Faye have to get towed.. and what better way to do that as with a truck. Spike catches a ride with V.T  so Jet can start working on their repairs.  Faye complains a lot about the heavy metal music but VT tells her to shove it basically because it is her ship! Which is completely fair. We also get a funny scene of Ein not eating Bean Sprouts which is the only food they have left.. showing money is scarce for the crew.. this means the bounty is probably going to get away again! Poor Ein! Going hungry like that!  This is a trope that I do kind of like but I also feel like we should at least be shown the crew making enough money to stay alive. I like dogs a lot so I kind of feel pained to see poor Ein be sold short! Last episode Faye ate his dog food as well.. What if that was his last can!  I would like to see them do a bit better at least.. if only for Ein’s sake. The whole atmosphere that we build up towards with the broken ships is pretty neat though! 

Having dropped off Faye and Spike, VT hears about a man in a space truck that rammed another trucker.. they had some dragon tattoo and some sort of buddhist art on their truck. VT knowing who it is seems to think she might be able to snag up a bounty and  deliver some street justice? I  am not really sure what her motivation is here.. I am bad at things like these. Truckers code maybe?! Who knows?!  She pursues the guy towards some Asteroid and Spike tells her not to go, thinking he is a stupid Bounty Hunter she ignores his call and we get a Truck Off!  Trucks ramming each other moving through asteroids and in general a pretty good space chase scene.. which kind of is reminiscent of … an 80’s action movie chase scene.  The villain however plays dirty and uses his weapon which turns out to be some advanced form of Nitroglycerin. VT is too skilled of a trucker to get done in by that and as she smirks, she realises the entire asteroid she is one is being used to mine some kind of explosive material and it has become totally unstable.  The villain meets his demise by his own doing.. which is quite conform.. that’s right 80’s action movies.

VT however is now up a creek without a paddle!  Her “truck”  crashed on a more and more exploding asteroid and her only shot to get out of this alive is by relying on the help of Faye and Spike. Both of them are rather bummed out on having missed yet another bounty but that’s when I notice the dialogue in this episode is really to the point. There isn’t a lot of “fluff” dialogue going on, these characters talk to each other but it’s not a conversation persé , all the dialogue is in service of the action and the main story.  At least after the first bar meet up. The characters don’t joke around here or say stuff like “If I ever am going to see a sunrise again I will. … <blank> “  No there is no lesson these characters learn, no larger appreciation for life and no witty banter to pad out the episode. I feel they talk like how normal people would which is a credit to the amazing writing. They just help and coach each other through certain actions and it still feels vibrant and interesting. 

This Trucker shows her real Face

The rescue operation becomes a lot more complicated when the meteorite collapses due to explosions and the exit is blocked. Now they have to use some tricky actions to get some Nitro into the collapsed part. Spike decides to use a play using his escape pod which forces him to space walk without a suit.  Without a shadow of a doubt he does it and he leaps towards VT.. He knows how she really is! He knows she will help despite her claiming to hate Bounty Hunters with a passion! I loved this scene! Spike doesn’t tell what he is going to do.. he just does it.. and while he is doing it everyone realises what is going on giving them the focus to do what they need to do.. but also drop those masks they sometimes hide behind. VT is forced to drop that harshness and Faye has to stop pretending to be weaker then she actually is.  She often plays the damsel in distress to gain an edge or to let others do her work but right now she can’t! She is forced to step up!

Spike is saved by VT in a rather weird way.. he misses the jump and falls into a weird form of  gravity.. so he uses his pistol to create momentum?!  That seemed odd to me.. I know there is knockback to a gun but would it really give him that much lift? Among all the anime I have seen so far where beams and magic is used as propulsion this feels.. flimsy and it looks kind of silly. For a slight moment it takes me out of the episode. Not for too long though! With an amazing explosion the group  makes it out of the destroying rock… just like an 80’s movie and we get a great conclusion! Spike just floats on the spaceship.. his near death experience still very present in his system.. he lights up a cigarette and thanks VT by her original name.. something I had already guessed. She is the wife of  one of the greatest bounty hunters after.. she lost him during a job and that’s why she hates them so much. That was really easy to guess I would be a great bounty hunter! 

The predictable ending can be justified with the words that it was well set up! I never minded it being so obvious and the same goes for most of this episode! I really enjoyed the story that happened here with the exception that I would have liked it if they would at least be able to feed Ein.. I don’t mind them being poor but I really hate to see a dog go hungry! That might be a weird thing for me to be so concerned about .. but in episode 5 the stealing dog food really made me angry and this time not being able to feed the dog kind of makes me sad! Luckily Ein is engineered to be smart so maybe he will understand!  I do hope we at least see one successful bounty or at least see them get some income! This episode Spike won a ton of cash but he did not accept it. I do look forward to the next episode though! The 6th episode was a bit middle of the road for me but with this I got pulled back in!

Animini: Cowboy Bebop – Episode 6 – Sympathy for the Devil

Greetings my Dear Island Guests, today’s first content cocktail contains a lot of preservatives as we look at those who do not age!  These are served in a somewhat darker cocktail. Packed with both sweet and bitter flavours. This cocktail is best when you drink it at our poolside on a moonlit night! The episode in question is strong in atmosphere but doesn’t have the kick some of the others had so far! So let’s take a sip and enjoy our content cocktail.

The Summary

A nightmare , of what seems visions of the past,  place Spike on an operating table! It isn’t a very hygenic operating room because I am pretty sure I saw fish float with the organs.. or they put a tube with live fish between it.. which is just plain weird.. message received either way… these are probably not good guy doctors.  When Spike wakes up he is in a blues bar. A kid is playing Harmonica on stage, it almost seems as if he is cosplaying Lupin the Third.  The bar is seedy and smokey and just the perfect amount of grime! Yet then a horrible crime happens! Faye , who is back at the Bebop, is rifling through the fridge to find it empty, showing the group is still out of money.. The only thing in the fridge is dog food for Ein, who happily barks to receive this blessing!  Then Faye eats herself! She tells Ein to work for his food and looks at a bounty..pondering if she can make the guys get that money for her!  Faye loses lots of points from me.

Back in the bar Jet has joined Spike! It seems they are indeed after that Bounty… a man nicknamed Giraffe , he doesn’t have a long neck so it is quite random.   Another Bounty Hunter named Fatty River (yes I remember these types of names) , who IS fat is one the case as well. Leaving Spike to deal with Giraffe.  Giraffe is following the kid and some wheelchair bloke. Spike decides to pursue them in his fighter. Yet when he gets to the hotel they were heading , Giraffe ends up falling through a window with a huge gunshot wound. While Spike catches him.. he can’t prevent him from falling, the man dies anyway but not before handing Spike a ring and telling him to not be fooled by his looks and to protect him.

Having failed yet another Bounty Spike and Jet decide to do some more investigation into this. Apparently  the wheel chaired man is called Zebra.. they were partners in leading a group of raiders. While on a terf dispute.. things went awry and Zebra was said to have betrayed Giraffe. Thus him wanting revenge.  This happened ten years ago.. but when Zebra showed up again he was wheelchair bound and with this harmonica kid. When looking for info about the kid, Jet finds him in a 30 year old magazine. Spike follows them after a new concert and discovers the boy named Wen is actually well over 50 years old. Something in his body got changed when something called “The Astral Gate” accident happened. An event that seems to have devastated earth. The Astral gate blew up the moon and high powered meteors showered the earth charing Wen’s mother and father.. but their corpses shielded him from dying.

Now he is completely immortal.. even gunshots do not kill him, so Spike is out of his league. In a chase Wen dumps Zebra on him..showing the man to be in a completely catatonic state.  He is hooked up to a machine that can read his memories and we see Giraffe was trying to save his friend from Wen..instead of getting revenge. The ring is deduced to be a meteorite piece and with it..Wen can be killed..or so they theorise. A Bullet is made and Spike chases Wen into the desert by blowing up his taxi! The boy is completely unharmed. Spike uses the special bullet after being shot at a few times and shoots the boy in the head. The boy  rapidly ages (way more than 50 years)  and dies. Spike tosses his Harmonica and yells BANG.

The Positives

I have very mixed feelings about this episode,  which makes sense, coming after the incredible 5th episode. Self contained this episode was pretty great. There was a neat little mystery to unpack in the form of what’s going on. The Whole Zebra , Giraffe, Wen situation is pretty interesting.  Though somewhat obvious as well. It might be me.. but when I see a kid with raven black hair, cold eyes playing a Harmonica in a smoked up blues Café.. at the skill level he does…  you know he is evil. Blues should only be played if you have a pained heart and have experienced something..and he did. Yet that does show the power of this shows music. Regardless of the obviousness it was a pretty sweet little adventure to see unfold. I was fooled into believing Giraffe was just working with Wen so finding out he is basically a vegetable to be used as a doll to make the boy have a parent so he can get into places sounds quite cruel and exactly the type of stuff I want to see in Cowboy Bebop. Atmosphere 10/10.

I also liked the idea of the Astral Gate accident. Telling us what happened to earth by making it relevant to the plot is one of the better ways you can do exposition. The incident seems pretty gruesome and it opens up possibilities for some interesting effects. I really digged how gruesome it was depicted with Wen popping up on a devastated earth by having his fathers charred corpse on top of him. It shows both love and sorrow and makes the situation quite real. A parent would probably shield their kid, even though I would use kids as a shield, such trauma would cause the boy to go pretty bonkers.  I get where his Blues capabilities come from. It also gives so much flavour to earth!  Which I assume is mostly desolated.  I am not sure I have seen it yet.. I don’t think so.. but then we saw a lot of desert so maybe one of those. Unsure! Regardless, a very cool world event and credits for the amazing world building yet again. It makes sense that people would fan out after such an event resulting in this more nomadic and .. settlement based,  living style we see in Bebop. Pinkie is impressed.

The Negatives

That is also why this episode annoyed me quite a bit.  This show is great at it’s writing but Wen I found a pretty terrible character. Sure he is a pained “antagonist” of the episode.   But he acts as if he is hundreds of years old. In the end when he says “I can finally die” .. he is only like 60-ish.  Maybe late 50’s or early 60’s.  He lost his parents sure.. but so did many people seemingly.   He doesn’t seem to be off THAT bad that he has this deep desire to die at age 60 to me.  The heck is going on! It really confused me a lot.  Maybe being an 8 or 10 year old or whatever he is forever makes things annoying but I am just not buying he is this tired of life already. Even if he was , it made no sense to kill Giraffe who had the ring, let him kill you with it then?! I might have missed something here but Wen did not make sense to me at all.  The way he mummified at the end.. that’s not what a 60 year old looks like!! It seemed like they forgot just how old he was and just made him like 300 or something. I really did not believe the character.. I believed his music.. but something felt really off for me.

For some reason I also could not escape the idea that this episode was solely created to tell the story of the Astral Gate Incident. As much as I love this way of exposition I really got a feeling this episode happened for expositions sake. As if one episode later will be set on the moon or a destroyed earth and you need to tell us why it is in the state it is. I can’t fully explain it but this episode felt a bit cheap to me.  Giraffe and Zebra really felt throwaway.  The other bounties so far at least had connections to bigger gangs, or organisations this one feels so “random”.  Besides Giraffe , Zebra and Wen there is nothing behind it.. or at least we don’t get to see it at all. While Giraffe trying to get Zebra back is charming to see we never had any memories of how the two were buddies so his good guy act did not have THAT much impact either.  I love myself a good Bromance.. but when we have to assume Bromance solely on the line “give him back” it lacks that spark! I wasn’t even in a sour mood or something when I watched this episode.. I felt it was good on some levels but it just felt as SUCH an empty episode to me. I felt nothing for the trio this episode was about.

The Score

That is why I score this episode , just an Okiwi. I liked the elements in there and for the series a lot of cool things were established. I loved the music, I loved the lore but as an episode this did absolutely nothing for me. I wasn’t bored , I wasn’t THAT annoyed I just experienced nothing.  I saw some cool sets.. I do liked the headshot.. and the Bang in the end was enough to kind of make me smile but in comparison to all the other episodes this wasn’t it! It is weird though because I don’t think of this show any less. Normally I wonder stuff like.. could I be falling out of love with this show.. is this a turning point for me.. No.. this episode literally did that much of nothing for me. 

Had they just have Wen be dead by the headshot.. had he shown an intention to die or  something to make this tale feel more consistent this would probably be up there with my favourite episodes so far. I could just not get over that thing that I feel like he was overly aged.  Maybe because I watch so many vampire shows. 50 years feels so little. Heck even in anime we have seen so much older girls and boys who don’t complain about being 60. I just did not resonate with Wen.. . I did not understand him at all and it completely tanked this episode for me! Luckily.. I am pretty sure.. he is dead!

Animini: Cowboy Bebop – Episode 4 – Gateway Shuffle

Jolly good to see you all again steampunk people! Paradise’s week of anime concludes with an unexpectedly strange episode of Cowboy Bebop! I never expected monkeys to show up! While this episode to me may not be close to how amazing the third episode was , I had an amazing time and thus yet again the strength of the week was in the tailend of things. Join me as we see Faye join the Bebop crew in this fourth episode of an all time classic.

The Summary

Faye’s ship has run out of fuel and she is drifting in Orbit of a planet called Ganymede.. or well google shows it’s actually one of the moon’s of Jupiter. People mostly ignore her calls and pass her by.  When some debrief floats by however she spacewalks towards it hoping to loot some propellent but what she finds is much different. She finds a dying man who hands her a container with something unknown. Hoping it might be worth a lot, Faye goes back to begging for help! Breaking the man’s wishes to not look at the item. It is unknown however what exactly she has acquired.  A fun set up and I do love how Faye really fills the role of Femme Fatale including their classic shortcommings.  It really felt like I was reading or watching one of those classic noir scenes, where the tough woman finds herself in high water. Speaking of Water.. Spike and Jet are having breakfast… On Ganymede!  What are the chances! There they discover a potential bounty who orders some kind of sea creature.. in the rudest way possible. A few Eco-Terrorist lead by what looks like Josuke Higashikata (Jojo’s Part 4)  actual  mother..  a woman named Twinkle Maria Murdockc then murder him for it.

Jet realises the woman has a 25 million bounty and Spike takes her to his ship.  On their way into orbit to strike a deal they also happen to stumble across Faye Valentine and pick her up again! Two bounties?! That must be good to be true! And so it turns out to be.. while Spike tries to break open the container Faye has brought along, Jet discovers the bounty on Twinkle Maria has been lifted. Because she holds the planet hostage. She possesses a virus called monkey business.. a bio weapon that makes humans devolve back into a monkey like state… Super Mario Bros movie memories made this quite delightful.  Thus bounty hunters have to let the woman walk free… and since the government of Ganymede doesn’t follow her exact terms she launches a missile with Monkey Business towards them. The bounty now reinstated causes Spike and Faye to work together to stop the missile and capture miss Twinkle.  Going through a Hypergate thing when the missile goes off. The Ganymede people close the gate which would leave Spike and Faye trapped forever.  Dodging and trying to destroy the Monkey Missiles.. heroes barely manage to escape but not Miss Twinkle.. as she swears revenge.. the content of the container Faye was handed falls out of her pocket. Spike broke it earlier and saw her reaction and figured out what it must be.. thus leaving her to slowly turn into a monkey trapped in Hyperspace.

The Positives

I love how Bebop is a show that isn’t afraid to have fun with itself. Eco-Terrorists that try to turn humanity into monkeys? I really love the idea!  Faye Floating in her ship with just bags of chocolate, salt sugar.. and chicken with rice floating around seems so mundane yet funny at the same time.  Like it’s a joke on astronaut food, all in the most basic of brown bags. It makes this world feel so “lived in”. It’s sci-fi but it deals with the same trouble we have.. an overzealous PETA or .. whatever those guys from Whale Wars were called, car trouble and trying to flirt your way to being saved. It is quaint, just pushed into a hyper caricature of itself  by adding cyberpunk sci-fi elements to it. Added with a lot of Film-Noir tropes. I can not fully describe it but every scenario just feels so “right”.. like “this is the correct way to tell this tale for “this series’. The twists, the dysfunctionality it is like watching one of those youtube videos of seeing a machine cut playdough in super neat chunks.  I am just so intensely satisfied. Another big thing that is really catchy is that the main characters nearly always seem to have fun.. sure there are goals  they pursue for other reasons as well.. but they are also having fun and that emotion really carries over.   We have fun “WITH” them rather than having fun because we see them do stuff.

I really liked the animations in this episode as well, the way Spike charges up his little electrical beam, the way the missile splits into several pieces.. because Maria made a weapon that can defend against typical weaponry. There is a level of mechanicalness to it!  Beams charge up, gun turrets need to move into aim,  a missle detaches a lid before it splits up into tinier parts.  Yet that energy seems to come from somewhere, the move of the turret isn’t exactly fluid as it might not move from a neutral position but revolve back from a less fortunate position. There is  something really satisfying about seeing Spike and Faye lean onto their dashboard to make their vehicle go faster.. while of course it doesn’t make any difference. It all feels real and thought out and because of it you can really get into the action not just because it is epic but because it has impact as well. Motion not only serves the scene but is subject to the world and it really makes it seem more lively and believable.

The Negatives

The episode does not escape a few flaws, my main gripe is the whole.. “oh look at the chances we end up in the same place as Faye” thing. Lots of anime do this.. but  off alll the moons on Jupiter you just happen to go to the same one she is orbiting. And on  your way out of orbit you stumble across here? While earlier it is established she has been there for a while?! It’s a bit lazy and I know this show can do better. The whole convenience thing could have been solved with a single line like “It has been months since you escaped”  or  “We heard rumors you might be around here”  but instead they wonder how she could have spent all the money from last episode already. While this also signifies a passage of time it is not defined as a long time.. rather as a short time.. making the convenience feel more real. It is super common in anime or western media to see but in something as large as our solar system I would love to see at least some sort of explanation. 

I also think the eco-terrorists are a bit over designed. While they eat with Mamma Maria they have their faces revealed and it is the faces of people that fit the stereotypical eco terrorist. I am totally on board with that, however when they take out their guns and prepare to kill they have these weird seel helmets or whatever the creature is. That felt slightly too much for me . Twinkle Maria’s design is nice but doesn’t seem to eco-terroristy to me, to be fair she is ruling it more like a mob-boss and that she does look like but I would have loved to see a bit more of an eco-terrorist in her rather than just a money hungry mob-boss using eco-terrorists on her behalf. The way she steps up in the beginning to defend animals was fun.. but she lets go of that behaviour  later in the episode which I think is a bit of a shame. 

The Score

Cowboy Bebop is once again among the best episodes I have seen this week.  The plot may border on being  too silly, but for me it is something filled with nostalgia and a cheeky little charm, where the creator isn’t too afraid to have fun. The way Faye is reintroduced to the group requires you to suspend your disbelief quite hard.. but it is worth it to see how well see interacts with the group and how in her place she feels. The twist ending of the space fight feels like a bit of an afterthought.. with a fake out that doesn’t do anything but that comes as fast as it went and when push comes to shove we got a whole lot more positive things than negatives causing a high but not perfect score.

While in the large scale of the show I probably will not think about this episode a lot.. the inner workings of the show are very much shown are at it’s best here. Like an amazing tech demo telling me that the journey that will follow is absolutely amazing and I just had such a great time at watching things move,, seeing spaceships go  woosh and big beams go mmzzaappp! It’s like one of those Lego Technic bulldozers or cars. I do not care that much about the package as a whole.. it’s fine but kind of forgettable.. but if I stare at the loose parts and admire how everything works.. I can stare at it for hours and just be mesmerised and entertained..admiring how well everything is put together.

Animini: Cowboy Bebop – Episode 3- Honkey Tonk Woman

Konichi…Wooohooo! This was such an awesome episode of anime to experience! After knowing more or less nothing of this show before.. This was the first episode I truly had expectations off…  I wanted to see something with gambling, seedy crime ..smuggling stuff!  The underbelly stuff of Mars that we established in the last episode.. Okay so we weren’t totally on Mars but it was darn close.. I got so much of what I asked and I got so much more in the third episode of Cowboy Bebop.

 The Summary

We do begin our adventure in the streets of Mars.. at least I think it mars.. it looks like Macau with all the chinese lettering and I feel that’s what they were going for with Mars, plus the planet is red.  So yes.. A woman is heading into a herbal store.. just to find herself being attacked by goons.. But this is not an ordinary woman. She comes prepared.. she takes out a machine gun and shoots at the shadowy figures outside the store.. teaching the friendly store keeper a lesson in violence. In response.. The henchmen shoot up the guys store with a gatling gun and the woman finds herself captured. She gets taken as a space variant of a cruise ship that has this rotating roulette wheel as an engine thingy.. lot’s of spaceships have these spinny things…but this one is a roulette table.. It feels so campy but just the right amount. On that ship is a Mafia boss who calls the girl Poker Alice who is allegedly over 200 years old. Is she an android?! Why am I so obsessed with Robots lately! .. Regardless she allegedly has a huge gambling debt which she can pay with one job.. it just happens that Spike stumbles upon that job

Spike and Jet are having a nice relaxing night out.. .. Jet sticks to slots .. and things mechanical while Spike’s sharp mind draws him to the Black Jack table.. the girl is the dealer of the table and uses her cheating skills to scam him.. thinking it is part of her job!   A guy in an outfit like him.. and looking kind of but really not all that much the same was supposed to lose everything and hand over a final chip.. that is actually A CHIP .. that unlocks some super hacking thing. Spike catches her cheating and has some fun and walks off the table with his last chip.. Thinking she somehow blew it and wanting to repay her debt she follows him and Spike ends up bumping into the guy he is mistaken for.. they end up swapping chips in the old.. duplicate item falls on the floor sjtick. The girl chases Spike and ends up getting captured by him..  getting locked up in the bathroom.. Ein the dog .. Now the named guards her while the other two investigate the chip and discover her name is Faye Valentine.. a woman with a 6 million bounty on her head. Trying to decide whether to give her to the police or sell the chip to the crime lord type.. they end up going for the latter which obviously ends up being a trap. We get an awesome space scene.. Faye escapes and after some more epic space action we see Faye take off and Spike still having the chip. I assumed she would join the crew by the end of this episode but looks like we need more time! And I like that.

The Positives

Without a shadow of a doubt in my mind, Cowboy Bebop was the best thing I watched this week! And I watched the finale of Flip Flappers so that is saying a lot. It encapsulated my love for the OLD Star Wars ( I really enjoyed the prequels but none of the sequels did it for me.. I liked Rogue One and Solo well enough) . I deeply enjoyed the atmosphere,  the action, the characters and the amazing will  sets and action pieces. Faye Valentine is a really interesting character, there is a mystery of her age.. her violent tendencies, at the beginning there is so much to unpack. I do feel like she will join the team but I am not sure yet.. but I think I saw a shadow of her ship in that funky little intro! She kind of fills the function of a rogue of the party with stealing and sleight of hand. It works well with Spike who is the muscles of the group punching and kicking his enemies. She seems more heavy range based.  So I already like the sense of diversity! Ein was a good boy in this episode though it did not seem not nearly as intelligent as the last episode. Jet in a white suit looks pretty amazing. 

The Zero G/ Gravity Boots fight  on top of the casino spaceship was something else.. so many moving pieces are utilized.  Spike throws the chip in low gravity.. uses the gravity  boots to have a very different momentum, to  dodge bullets, he uses the mechanics to defeat an enemy all while there is a little ship floating around that is being attacked by missiles. I really loved that action scene.  I also very much enjoyed the casiono chase as well, the use of colour in that scene.. the way Faye froze when she was revealed to be a cheater.. unable to repay her debt.  There’s a way the motion has been done that really sold the scene for me. The show caters HEAVILY into tropes.. and yes even for an anime that was released in 1998.. these tropes we get might be older than me.. yet for some reason it really works. For some reason I want those Film Noir tropes to happen. I also love how everything is just oddball enough.. the world is quite grim and raw.. but it is also funny and charming.  The Bebop might feel cold and grey but by seeing Ein run around in it.. it’s quite cute.  There are plenty of jokes that relieve the “dark” and keep things consumable for me.

The Negatives

I have very little negatives about this episode . and when I saw few I kind of mean none.. So it’s nitpicking time! I found the roulette wheel on the big cruise ship a bit too garish and cheap. It’s a fun effect  but the way these space ships are built no one would see it.. yep .. that’s about all I have as a negative. I still really want to see more of Mars as it looks so cool.. but for now I can’t really use not seeing that as a negative either because it looks like we might see more of Mars in the next episode so yeah.. I am honestly unsure how to fill this  segment.  I just loved this episode that much.

Thematically Cowboy Bebop might not be my show entirely.. but there is just a way that it is presented that makes it so appealing and a delight to watch. The cyberpunk atmosphere,  is normally not something Pinkie enjoys..  and I do have issues with seeing cliches  be used at times.. it can make a series predictable .. as if I know the blueprint. With Cowboy Bebop it’s not the cliches that drive the plot it’s the personality of everyone and the world.. The cliches happen in the world as a reward. To strengthen that atmosphere.. let’s compare this for example to  let’s say.. Sailor Moon or more so Pretty Cure.. In Pretty Cure.. we get a monster of the week and one monster does fears, the other creates strife in a group.. the cliché is the engine. Here Spike is the engine..  the cliché just makes it more enjoyable and delightful. It’s a testament of how strong the writing in this show is. 

The Score

While watching this I remember a time of my live I really love, when western film making did not bore me when everything was predictable.. but in a bit of a different and more satisying way.  This episode has a level of campiness that makes this show so great to me. We aren’t the only ones having fun with this.. the maker is having fun with this.. the writer is telling a tale they really want to tell.. or at least that’s how I experience what is shown in this episode. It’s not made just for us.. it’s made  out of a love, a passion project. It’s just one of those episodes where goodness oozes from every pore!

I think it’s a great thing if all you have to nitpick about is thinking a certain spaceship is slightly garish! Oh! And I just thought up of a second one.. you for people who really want to burn this episode to the ground because they want to hate on it! When Ein Barks at Faye .. there is no Echo in a room that clearly should have an echo! You know that is a great reason to drop this show if you want. Oof I am really catching steam right now with finding the negatives so let me stop this review before I burn this episode to the ground… or think about Ein so much that I want a Corgi!

Animini: Cowboy Bebop -Episode 2- Stray Dog Strut

If you have read my latest Natsume Book of Friends  review you’ll know I often have issues with second episodes of anime. These are usually exposition dumps that have very little interesting stuff to tell in favor of fleshing out the world.  Cowboy Bebop takes a bit of a different approach and I like it!  It isn’t a flawless second episode but we got no exposition dump here.. instead we get Corgis. 

The Summary

Spike and Jet travel to Mars where a new bounty rests on the man named Abdul Hakim! Using Bounty Hunter TV we discover the universe knows roughly 300.000 Bounty Hunters and an 8 Million bounty is sure to attract some attention right?!  Hakim allegedly stole a precious lab-animal. Spike decides to go to shady pet-shops to track the man when he eventually wants to unload the precious pet.  Spike quickly slips up however when  Hakim seems to have used a proxy to make the sale. Seeing a “worthless” Corgi sitting in a box the petshop owner with a turtle on her head values it at just 200k which apparently in this world is nothing… maybe it’s even just 200.. I am not sure how much the currency of this world is worth and heck it might even be called K… *Checks around if she accidentally summoned a movie blogger* 

Hakim walks into the store and tries to take the dog back.. but Chaos ensues.. the dog escape and Spike pursues Hakin.. eventually the dog Jumps of a bridge onto a boat and when  Spike leaps in to pursue.. the dog latches onto his face causing him to miss the jump and the dog escapes from Hakim.  Jet and Spike don’t care much for worthless Corgis so they use the dog as bait.. only to lose it  to some scientist who made a super sonic dog whistle van.. as all dogs in town chase the car, Hakim steals a car and Spike goes in pursuit with his airship.  The scientist snare up all the other dogs but the Corgi escapes, it seems super smart..almost like a person.. it can not escape Hakim however.. who basically  Chloroforms it with an Aerosol (And I know Chloroform doesn’t actually work like that.. but it’s a detective novel/film noir trope,, that I think fits the setting)  The scientist start using guns on Hakim and Spike.. who tries to use his landing gear to bash the roof of Hakim’s car open. This makes the Corgi wake up who jumps on the wheel.. pushes some buttons and then falls out the window once Hakim’s car gets harpooned by the dog whistle van. Spike chooses to save the dog and forsake his bounty. Hakim turns himself in.. and Spike gets himself a genetically engineered super smart Corgi…even though he dislikes dogs.

The Positives

For those who have followed me for a while and actually read what I write, you probably know I love randomness. It’s a big elementi I try to incorporate in my life as much as I can… so when I see what i believed to be a dark Space Western with some dandy elements ..be all about chasing a Corgi I was amazed. It felt so random and nothing like a second episode normally is. We get no long tales of Spike’s tragic past, we get no flashback to how he and yet met.. no we get a guy who goes and tries to earn some money and ends up with hyper intelligent Corgi instead. I love it! The weird pet shop lady, calling all the animals her babies but looking like a heavy smoker and boozer  felt almost out of place.. but also not.. THere is a turtle on her head that nobody questions.. which is kinda amazing and seeing a Corgi do that classic bridge leap to land on some canvas instead of the human characters?! I certainly haven’t seen that before! This episode was entertaining with a capital E.. Maybe a capital N as well. 

The character designs were amazing as well. Abdul had so much flavour, the Petshop lady even more.. even the random mook who had to sell the Corgi had this design element to him.. kind of looking like a young Leorio from Hunter X Hunter. Last week I complained that the grunts looked a bit like “video game mooks” which instantly told you how easy they would be to deal with.  This week we have some new grunts but there is a sense of design in them, unique hairstyles different body types even a bit of personalities.. as a result you can push them way further and get a much more interesting chase in the end. I also love the design elements in Mars so far.. taking a more Chinese like approach in design it feels a bit like Macao City… the Chinese Vegas but more seedy and filled with underhand deals and earlier .. opium trade and the likes. It is also established as such.. on Mars “Everything” is for Sale. Under the counter shops are everywhere , and people don’t take kindly to you asking questions.. unless you show you are a cool guy. I like that money isn’t the only rule here.. Spike adresses an arms dealer based on his passions and it works, it lifts these characters from cartoon characters in a stereotypical town to something a bit more real.

The Negatives

I really enjoyed this episode but it also does feel a bit sloppy at times, because of how weird the plot is.  The Corgi can bend his shape to operate a steering  wheel but can also latch onto a face and for whatever reason Spike and Jet have a dog collar in it’s size on board..while they don’t really seem to like dogs. Jet seems to be fine with him.. but he calls the Corgi a Mutt anyway. When it hopped onto the steering wheel it kinda felt to “liquid” also Hakim not yanking it off his steering wheel feels off! If I was driving a car.. and Arceus have mercy on the soul who is in the car with me,  I would not allow a dog to make me crash let alone push it several buttons on the wield why I just quietly tell it “stop it”. I would punch the dog of my steering wheel.. and No that doesn’t make me cruel I am driving on a bridge while being shot at that just makes me sensible.. and sometimes this episode misses that sensibility making the characters cartoony… it’s very entertaining but it isn’t “ engaging”.

I am willing to believe this dog is hyper intelligent.. I just don’t think ti can change size… To make this episode a bit more powerful I would have at least liked to see Spike and the dog bond a bit… I am pretty sure they are going to keep it..but now it staying on Bebop feels kinda un-earned.. I would have loved a brief scene where the dog found Spike a half eaten Peking Duck in  one of those take away boxes that he could finish.. or stealing him some actually food out of a restaurant.. heck even a look would have been fine! Just something that makes Spike want to save the dog when it falls out of the car later on..That is not really a negative though ..but more of a suggested approvement. 

The Score

I really liked this episode a lot LOT more than the first one, and that already was great.. yet I have to give this episode the same grade. This episode is a lot muddier than the first one and a bit more clownish. It is really something I want to see in this series.. the ability to have fun with itself  but I can not escape that feeling that there is a lot of rickety parts either. It’s kind like comparing A Tardis with Bell and Teds Payphone time machine. I’d probably have more fun with Bill and Ted but if you ask me which is the better time machine it will be the Tardis. The payphone is a bit of a joke so it lacks that same wow factor and I think that is a good summary of those episode as well.

I loved this episode and I am super excited to see if they will keep the dog and name the dog. I am super curious to see if the dog will live and heck.. I am also super curious to what other worlds are out there.. what else Mars has to offer and what is in store for the crew of the Bebop. This is quickly turning out to be one of  those cases that Science Fiction really works out for me and Mari pointed me out why. One of the few sci-fi shows I really like is drawing HEAVY influences from Bebop to a point where I now feel that Firefly really copied HARD.  The way these characters are, the banter, the level or airiness and the whole Cowboy/Space world building it clearly was a love letter to this. So seeing a prequel to one of the greatest Sci-Fi shows ever seems to become quite an enjoyable ride.. but who knows.. which of these two will be my favourite Sci-Fi Serial in the end?!