(Story and plot twists discussed in explicit detail)
Shinichiro Watanabe's Cowboy Bebop is I think a bit different from most anime out there ("I think" because anime has over thirty major genres, everything from horror to science fiction to fantasy to competitive Chinese cooking, and one makes a definitive statement at one's peril). Where most science-fiction action anime focus on a hero with a definite goal-- the destruction of an evil power, liberation of an oppressed society, or whatnot-- I can't think of an entire series devoted to the art of doing nothing, or at least as much of nothing as you possibly can.
It's about Jet Black (voice of Unsho Ishizuka-- Beau Billingslea in the English version), former cop, owner of the spaceship Bebop, and full-time Cowboy (the planets have been colonized and the upsurge in crime is too much for police, hence the use of bounty hunters or 'Cowboys') and partner Spike Spiegel (Koichi Yamadera, Steven Blum), former member of the Red Dragon mafia who fakes his death to go independent.
Along the way the Bebop collects Ein (short for 'Einstein'), tailless Corgi and 'data dog' whatever that means (Ein betrays computer literacy once or twice in the series); Faye Valentine (Megumi Hayashibara, Wendee Lee), drop-dead gorgeous Cowboy fond of wearing barely-legal casualwear with a debt in the hundreds of millions hanging over her head; and Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV (Aoi Tada, Melissa Charles), legendary computer hacker and 13 year old girl. Ein, Faye, Ed aren't so much recruited as invite themselves aboard-- the Bebop acts like an electrically charged object attracting lost bits of odds and ends from forgotten corners of the solar system. 'Lost; is the operative word because every crewmember has lost something--Jet his arm, Spike his eye, Faye her memory, Ed her parents, Ein his purpose (he's an escaped data dog with no conceivable use for the data).
Relationships aren't always harmonious-- Spike and Jet are friends, but Spike can't stand Faye, nor can Jet (he's an ex-cop, she's a felon); Faye can't stand anyone (though there's an unspoken attraction between her and Spike), particularly Ein; Ed likes everyone, though only Ein seems to appreciate this. When hunting however the five work as a unit: Ed on computer keyboards, Faye and Spike on point, Jet directing general strategy; Ein acts as onboard early-warning device, and occasional telecommunications receptionist. Spike's past constitutes what there is of a story in Bebop: he's haunted by the memory of beautiful Julia (Gara Takashima, Melissa Williamson), and goaded by the memory of former Red Dragon friend Vicious (Norio Wakamoto, George C. Cole). The episodes dealing with Spike's past however make up only a fifth of the series--five total. While Julia and Vicious are major story elements (not to mention the inspiration for some of the more stylish episodes--"Ballad of Fallen Angels," "The Real Folk Blues, Part 1 & 2") they aren't the only one--perhaps not even the crucial one. Bebop is about more than just the usual anime fare of love or vengeance.
Take bounty hunting-- the Bebop almost never gets its man. I can recall three or four episodes where they actually catch their bounty, and the total cash awarded can't be more than ten or twelve million woolongs (which is likely equivalent to Japanese yen, roughly a hundred thousand dollars). It's not as if they were incompetent: Spike, Faye and Jet are all excellent shots and pilots and fighters (Spike's martial arts is based on Bruce Lee's Jeet Kun Do), Jet and Ed are computer experts, and Jet's police background has trained him in the art of detection and surveillance. They just seem to lose their quarry or find him dead or on at least two occasions ("Bohemian Rhapsody," "Brain Scratch") find further pursuit pointless.
There's food. Haven't seen an anime series (other than the one about competitive cooking) more obsessed with food or the lack of it. Jet serves Spike a plate of beef and bell peppers; when Spike asks how Jet can call the dish "beef and peppers" when there's no beef, Jet reminds him there's no money for beef. It's a constant theme, with one or the other crew either staring into an empty fridge or lying on the worn couch (the unofficial heart of the Bebop-- significantly, a spot for aimless lounging) nursing a growling stomach. When there's food it's rarely appetizing-- a suitcase of shittake mushrooms, a plate of bean sprouts, a hundred cans of indigestible stew; at one point food serves as sick-joke punchline to the episode ('Toys in the Attic'). Faye is strangely the butt of more than her fair share of food jokes, from being stranded in space for days starving to suffering severe stomach cramps from stolen rations that had expired a year ago ("must be karma," Spike observes). One episode has Faye opening a can of dog food in front of the hungrily waiting Ein; with rare satisfaction she wolfs down the contents, tosses the empty tin to the dog.
Actually, Spike and Jet could have solved their money problems as early as the second episode: in "Stray Dog Strut" a newscast reveals that Ein is worth a lot of money (Spike, unfortunately wasn't listening); that the crew of the Bebop scramble, shoot, and quarrel their way through twenty-plus more episodes with the equivalent of a fortune scrambling underfoot is one of the series' better running gags, an indication of where the series' true interests lies. Not in bounty, but fruitless bounty-hunting; not in success, but endless disappointment; not in action-adventure-- at least, not completely-- but in music and nostalgia.
If Ein is the running gag that defines the series, Spike-- its nominal protagonist-- is defined by the ironic complaint that his least favorite things are kids, dogs, and women with attitude, and all three are aboard the Bebop; which doesn't explain why, when Ein flings himself from a speeding car, Spike unhesitatingly dives his ship down to the rescue. What Spike possibly means is that he dislikes the helplessness of kids, dogs, and women, and the sense of protectiveness they inspire in him (which may be why Faye in particular provokes him so-- she's not the helpless type); he can't help caring, and his boorishness is camouflage to hide this vulnerability.
Not that dogs and kids are unaware of this, camouflage or no camouflage. When Spike points a reproving finger at Ein, Ein gives the finger a playful (if painful) nip; when Ed takes her leave, she gives only Spike a farewell present.
I mentioned that perhaps Julia and Vicious' storyline isn't crucial to Bebop; the life they represent does serve to contrast Spike's present circumstances. Spike tells Jet early on that he died once; he later tells Faye that his artificial eye can only see the past while his real one can only see the present-- likely a metaphor for the way the past haunts him, the present distract him. Julia's last words ("it's all a dream") must have come as a shock to Spike, must have thrown the reality of his former life and unreality of his present one in terrifyingly sudden doubt.
Julia's words are something Faye already knows-- when (in "Hard Luck Woman," one of the loveliest passages in the series) she finally remembers who she is and where she comes from, it's too late; her former life is gone. Spike undergoes a similar process of realization--this life aboard the Bebop of miserable striving and bitter bickering and constant starvation with a bunch of fellow losers (a bunch of fellow travelers who have lost something), this life that all along he's assumed was a dream from which he would one day wake up, this may be the reality his former life the dream. It parallels every viewers' (well maybe the more perceptive ones) experience, a gradual awakening to the series true intent-- and of course by the time Faye learns the score, Spike uncovers the truth, viewers receive their epiphany, it's too late.
When Spike armed to the teeth with guns and grenades confronts Vicious one more time it isn't so much for revenge (at least not completely) as it must have been to confirm, once in for all, which of his lives are real (he tells Faye: "I need to know if I'm truly alive"). What follows-- whether he succeeds or fails in killing Vicious, dies or survives to return to Faye-- is unimportant to the series' makers; far as they're concerned, we're all in this for the ride.
First published in Menzone, October 2003
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