Wednesday, May 5, 2004

Cowboy Bebop report...
Cowboy Bebop: how it works…

If you read my review of Martian Successor Nadesico: Prince of Darkness, you would have seen how it was a dismal failure. As a better alternative, I suggested Cowboy Bebop the Movie: Knocking on Heavens Door. It is exactly the same length as Nadesico: P.O.D but unlike Nadesico, K.O.H.D (Knocking on Heaven’s door), works. The principle reason for this is that the directors followed the same format as every other episode of C.B.: It does not follow a set plot. That is to say, Cowboy Bebop has not sub-plot, no storyline. There is the little thing of Vicious and Julia, but that dictates maybe five episodes out of the entire series. Each episode follows the format of: find a bounty head. Catch a bounty head. Do it with style. Or don’t do it. Each episode is set apart from the rest. Few episodes actually relate to one another. The movie is just an extra large episode that can fit in anywhere between Edward joining the crew to Edward leaving the crew. It actually fits between “Brain Scratch” and “Cowboy Funk” I think. So point one: It doesn’t conform to a set story line, whereas P.O.D had to be set after the series and had to fit with the events of the original story.
Hot the heels of point one is point two: The general feel of the story. P.OD was dark and should not be dark. K.O.H.D was dark in places, but had humour as well and just general all round coolness. Like the series. The series wasn’t set to a single tone. Like the freelance style of the Bebop jazz musicians, the C.B series was free and footloose. I can’t quite explain it, but C.B can be dark, it can be sad, but it can also be funny and bright. It works in any format.
Point three: Character development. Nadesico has about a dozen or so main characters in the series alone. Of course, a whole series is ample enough time to get to know them all. But in the movie, there is hardly enough time to give each of them a significant focus plus introduce any new characters. This leaves the movie very poor on the character front. C.B has four main characters. This leaves a 90 minute movie open for two new major players, Vincent and Electra, plus a few supporting characters like Lee Samson and Rasheed. This gives all the characters equal focus (although it could be argued that this is a Spike film) and thus it makes the story have more depth, we can see why Vincent wanted to do what he did, unlike P.O.D where we barely see the bad guy.
Other Points why C.B works, and is one of the coolest animes around:
The Music: written by the one and only Yoko Kanno, the music is the coolest part of Cowboy Bebop. The movie itself has several genres of music. From rock (“Knock on the sky,”) and pop (“Cosmic Dare,”) to country (“Diggin”) and the blues (“Gotta Knock a little harder,”) and these don’t even include the cool “Ask DNA,” and the ultimate in chase music “What Planet is this?” And im probably forgetting a few. The music of Bebop is the best out there, and I wouldn’t want to listen to anything else.
Misc: Did you know that Spike’s movie V.A is different from his V.A in the TV series? I still can’t tell the difference. Also, does anyone else find Jet’s name amusing? Jet Black. As in the shade of Black? Very Droll.
C.B is the best anime I’ve ever seen, with the possible exception of Evangelion (although the Eva movie was a bit…well…let’s just say it scarred me for life.) but it’s close. I really can’t say which I prefer. The Bebop movie however is a real piece of movie candy which I would watch again and again in Japanese (which is what I watched it in when I first went to see it in London) or in English. It just shines through and through and if anything better ever comes out I will personally shoot myself in the leg. Twice. What are your views?

P.S. Don’t worry about me shooting myself. In the unlikely event that anything better than K.O.H.D does come out, I will have to actually get a gun first, then if I do find one, Im useless at anatomy and end up shooting myself where it doesn’t hurt. Say, my head. But im dead already so it won’t matter.

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