The Cowboy Bebop Thread

[Weltall]

I just finished watching the series again, and it blows my mind how friggin incredible the series is. So I made a thread about it.

So let's discuss what is by far the greatest anime ever concieved, the incredible show and the incredible music.

Now!

[A Black Falcon]

Music? It's okay but i'm not a fan of jazz really... but Cowboy Bebop definitely is one of the best animes. I've only seen some of it actually but I really need to see the rest...

[Weltall]

The music is what got me interested in the series. I have every soundtrack and I'd say about 85% of it is great. It truly has some of the best jazz and blues that I've ever heard. And many of the non-jazz tracks are great too (Blue!)

But yeah, you need to see the rest. Especially the last three episodes, so you'll see not only some of the most emotionally moving animated scenes ever, but how much of that is because of the incredible choice of music...

What's your favorite session so far?

[A Black Falcon]

I don't really like blues either.

I think I've seen the first five or six and one from somewhere in the middle (that I saw even longer ago on Cartoon Network)... I was downloading them and I'd have the rest but I think I either ran out of space or something... it was a year ago. :)

[Great Rumbler]

Yeah, Cowboy Bebop is definitely one of the best animes out there. Just about everything is good about it. Incidentally I just started watching the series from the start as well.

What's your favorite session so far?

Mushroom Samba. :D

[A Black Falcon]

It has a lot of good ones... they are mostly self-contained though, with only a small connecting plot. Oh well, most serieses are like that...

[Great Rumbler]

The story over-all story starts to matter a lot more in the last episodes.

[Weltall]

I like the series for its episodic content. There is the underlying story arc, that of Spike/Julia/Vicious, but to have centered the entire series on that would have made it boring, I think. Instead, between those encounters, the characters develop independently of the main theme, and thus, when Spike and Vicious do face off, it's always special and exciting.

[OB1]

I agree with Weltall, Bebop is the best anime series ever created, with the best music an anime ever had as well. I love jazz & blues.

I wish someone would make a good Bebop game. An action flight game kinda like Privateer but not as deep would be awesome. You could fly around the galaxy, exploring and collecting bounties. They could also let you walk around your ship and talk to people, and to make it even better they could let you fly down to a planet and walk on foot, kinda like GTA. There could be a main story like Freelancer that you could follow or if you wanted to, just fly around collecting bounties and upgrading your ship. If done right it could be one of the greatest games ever.

Too bad it'll never happen. :S

[Great Rumbler]

Yeah, it won't.

[A Black Falcon]

I don't know why I still have the Bebop music... its several hundred megs (six hours) and I haven't listened to the thing more than once or twice since downloading it... just doesn't interest me much. But the show is great.

I like both the more focused on story shows and episodic... both ways can work. But anime is often more focused on the story... far more so than most forms of TV serieses.

[Great Rumbler]

But anime is often more focused on the story... far more so than most forms of TV serieses.

That's true, especially compared to American cartoons.

...

I'll try not to start a rant on how much better animes are than American animation [Action series for the most part], there are a hundred reasons though...

[A Black Falcon]

At least... :)

I don't hate American cartoons, though. I like plenty of them. Anime is just better... and much more adult. American cartoons are definitely not.

[OB1]

The original Batman animated series was really good, and very mature especially when compared to the movies. The first animated movie "Mask of Phantasm" is ten times more mature and a hundred times better than all of the live-action movies combined. And those animators went on to do cool stuff like Big O.

[Weltall]

There's no contest. American animation is horrible. Look what we have to show for ourselves lately:



It's not only the fact that the animation quality itself is awful, which it is, it's also that the shows are just stupid and unimaginative. Toy commercials for idiots.

And those that aren't (poorly) hand-drawn cels are usually shitty CG.



Or worst of all...


They try to rip-off and add an Anime style to their shitty writing and drafting!

That's not to say all Japanese cartoons are good either. Dragonball is the worst of the bunch, crappy animation coupled with terrible writing and the least-imaginative, most-repetitive story ideas ever, and I recently had the displeasure of sitting through an airing of Gundam SD, which made me dry heave at least four times.

[OB1]

Yeah, SD Gundam is really dumb. You should see Zeta Gundam or V Gundam. Really great shows.

[A Black Falcon]

There was some thread a while back where I had that list of anime shows I've seen...

that reminds me, I have a text file where I was keeping track of that but haven't updated it in quite a while... I'll go do that.

[Weltall]

I've seen a few eps of Z Gundam. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't to my tastes.

Honestly, Bebop is the only anime I LIKE. :)

I'm sure there are other great ones out there that I haven't seen, and I'll admit I haven't seen many, but I've found it hard to get into a series, cause it'll have four hundred million episodes and two dozen movies/features and I'll never hope to find them all. Nice thing about Bebop is that it's a small series, 26 sessions and a movie. Simple, and all of them good fun.

[A Black Falcon]

Erm... you know that most all animes are one season, right? It's the rare anime that's over 26 episodes (well, 26 plus if it did well movies of OVAs or something)...

And even if you just stick to the anime on US TV there's some good stuff... Hack Sign is on, I think (though you have to watch the whole thing from the start to really get it, like most animes)

Oh, all of this except four or five marked episodes they're all subtitled. It's really hard to get dubbed stuff from filesharing networks -- if you're there you're probably not a more 'casual' anime fan and thus must dislike dubs...

But I got used to it fast. :)

Oh, if anyone here wants to know where some good anime Direct Connect hubs are, I could tell you.

----------------------------------------------
Seen and Kept
----------------------------------------------

You're Under Arrest - 8
Love Hina - 1-25, specials 1 and 2
Love Hina Again - 1-3
FLCL - 1-3
The Vision of Escaflowne 1-26
Neon Genesis Evangelion 1-20
Abenobashi Mahou Shoutengai - 2-5, 8, 10-13
Tenchi Muyo OVA - 1-14
Voices of a Distant Star - movie
Vampire Princess Miyu OVA - 1-2
Vampire Princess Miyu - 1-7
Kanon - 1-13
To Heart - 1-12
Serial Experiments Lain - 1-13

-------------------------------------------------
Seen and Deleted (high interest in getting again)
-------------------------------------------------

.Hack//Sign - 1-22
Haibane Renmei - 1-2
Mahoromatic - 1-13 (13 is making-of special)
Mahoromatic: Something More Beautiful - 1-10
Ghost in the Shell - movie
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - 1-15 (and want rest)
Abenobashi Mahou Shoutengai - 1,6-7,9
3x3 Eyes - 1-7
Martian Successor Nadesico - 1-2 (and want rest)
Cowboy Bebop - 1-5 (and want rest)
Chobits - 1-2
Crest of the Stars - 1-2
I"s OVA - 1

------------------------------------------------
Seen and Deleted (mid interest in getting again)
------------------------------------------------

Angel Sanctuary - 1-3
Gundam 0080 - 1
Hand Maid May - 1-6
DNA^2 - 1-10
You're Under Arrest - 1-7,9
Gunsmith Cats - 1-3 (2 and 3 dubbed)
Night Warriors: DarkStalkers Revenge - 1
All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku - 1-2
Ayashi no Ceres - 1-2
Oh! My Goddess! - 1-5
Oh! My Goddess! - The Movie - movie
Agent Aika - 1-7
Ranma 1/2 - 1-6 or 7, ~3 eps from S2, 2-3 eps from S6(or was it 5?) (S6 episodes dubbed)

------------------------------------------------
Seen and Deleted (low interest in getting again)
------------------------------------------------

Video Girl Ai - 1
One Piece - 1-?(15? unsure -- just got ship, after saving town)
Transformers: Robots In Disguise - 16
Final Fantasy Unlimited - 1-10
Berserk - 1-9
Macross Plus - 1
Magic Knight Rayearth - 1, 16?
DiGi Charat - 1-2?
Kimagure Orange Road - 1-? (4-8 eps?)

-----------------------------------------------
Have and Haven't Seen
-----------------------------------------------
Cowboy Bebop - 8 (not for long, i'll watch+delete it soon)
To Heart - 13 (keeping)
You're Under Arrest - 10
Escaflowne the Movie: A Girl in Gaea - movie (watched first two thirds) (keeping)
Macross Plus - 2-4
Kanon: Kazahana - OVA (keeping)
Final Fantasy Unlimited - 11
Mahoromatic: Something More Beautiful - 10-14
Haibane Renmei - 3-13 (probably keeping, should reget 1 and 2)
Hack Sign - 23-28
Night Warriors: Dark Stalkers Revenge - 2-4
Crest of the Stars - 3-5
DNA^2 - 11-15
FLCL - 4-6 (keeping)
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - 16-17
.Hack//Sign: Liminality - 1-4
Hand Maid May - 8, 10-11
Vampire Princess Miyu OVA - 3-4 (keeping)
Vampire Princess Miyu - 8-13, 15-16 (keeping)
Neon Genesis Evangelion - 21-26 (keeping)
Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death and Rebirth - movie (keeping)
Neon Genesis Evangelion: End of Evangelion - 1-2 (keeping)

------------------------------------------------
Haven't Seen/Finished and Deleted
------------------------------------------------

Berserk - 10-11
Final Fantasy Unlimited - 12-13 (or 14?)

------------------------------------------------
DVD
------------------------------------------------

Labyrinth of Flames - movie
Spirited Away - movie
Princess Mononoke - movie
Ghost in the Shell - movie

--------------------------------------------------
TV (dubbed obviously)
--------------------------------------------------

misc. Tenchi - 1 ep
misc. Dragon Ball - 1 ep
Gatekeepers 2021(?) - 1-4
.Hack//Sign - 1 ep
Lupin III - ~2 eps
Trigun - 1 or 2 eps
misc. Gundam - several eps (1 Z Gundam? 1 08th MS Team?)
(more)

[Great Rumbler]

Dragonball is the worst of the bunch, crappy animation coupled with terrible writing and the least-imaginative, most-repetitive story ideas ever

The original Dragon Ball series is actually pretty good, but Dragonball Z is the epitome of all those things you listed.

I'm sure there are other great ones out there that I haven't seen, and I'll admit I haven't seen many,

Trigun. TRI-GUN. Watch it and I can all but guarantee that you will love it, and there's only one season of 26 episodes and no specials or movies to get in the way.

You might also try Excel Saga, but I'm not sure since I don't really know what kind of animes you like. But I loved Excel Saga, it's full of over-the-top zannyness and an insane amount of insanety that you can only find in animes.

but I've found it hard to get into a series, cause it'll have four hundred million episodes and two dozen movies/features and I'll never hope to find them all. Nice thing about Bebop is that it's a small series, 26 sessions and a movie. Simple, and all of them good fun.

Most animes that I have come across are 13 or 26 episodes, while there are a few that a more [Dragonball, Sailor Moon, Pokemon, ect] most of the better series stay below or at 26 eps.

[A Black Falcon]

As I've said before, I liked a lot of the animes I've seen... I'll try to make a short list of 'very good' stuff though. :)

Evangelion, Escaflowne, Lain, HackSign, Voices of a Distant Star, Love Hina, Kanon, Haibane Renmei, Cowboy Bebop... though there are a lot more I liked...

Abenobashi Mahou Shoutengai is... well, if you don't watch anime you'd probably hate it. LOTS of jokes about the various anime genres. I liked most of it... some of the humor was pretty stupid but overall it was good.

[Great Rumbler]

Why did you edit my post?

[A Black Falcon]

To fix your broken quote.

[Great Rumbler]

Ah, I thought that's what it might have been.

[Weltall]

I saw Trigun once or twice, I liked it. If it's that short I'll make an effort to track it down.

I also have a few anime movies on DVD,

Spirited Away
Escaflowne
Metropolis (god I love this one)
Cowboy Bebop :D

[A Black Falcon]

Metropolis... heard that one's good. Have you seen the classic silent film too? :)

[OB1]

Are you sure it was Zeta Gundam that you saw, Weltall? Because that hasn't been released in the U.S. But anyhow, you can't judge a 45-episode Gundam series based off of "a few episodes", especially if they're out of order. Z Gundam has dated animation but in terms of story it's tough to beat. V Gundam is more recent and thus has better animation, and the story is also very good.

[Great Rumbler]

I got Cowboy Bebop on DVD for $7.

Speaking of the Batman series, OB1, have you ever seen the Batman Beyond movie? It's a pretty good movie and is actually pretty dark, unless you get the cut version. The uncut version was rated PG-13.

[Weltall]

Are you sure it was Zeta Gundam that you saw, Weltall? Because that hasn't been released in the U.S. But anyhow, you can't judge a 45-episode Gundam series based off of "a few episodes", especially if they're out of order. Z Gundam has dated animation but in terms of story it's tough to beat. V Gundam is more recent and thus has better animation, and the story is also very good.

No, I just guessed, really.

But yeah, I can judge based on a few episodes. Hell, I judged CB based solely on it's soundtrack until I finally got ahold of some eps... :D

It wasn't really the animation that set me off, it was just that I didn't get what was going on, and yeah, that's probably due to getting on the ride halfway there.

ABF: Haven't seen the 1927 version, but the anime is very good (it's in a much older anime style, I think the anime itself is from the 40s or 50s). It's got a decent story (there was a lot that deserved some elaboration) and nice animation. Good music too. :)

[OB1]

Ah, you probably didn't see Zeta Gundam then. Probably Wing or G, or one of the OVAs.

[A Black Falcon]

ABF: Haven't seen the 1927 version, but the anime is very good (it's in a much older anime style, I think the anime itself is from the 40s or 50s). It's got a decent story (there was a lot that deserved some elaboration) and nice animation. Good music too.

Anime hadn't been invented yet then I think... and it's by the guy who essentially created anime with "Astro Boy", Osamu Tezuka, so yes, it does have an old style.

And the silent one is one of the sci-fi classics... the first great sci-fi film, I think.

[OB1]

Yes, Fritz Lang was the best of his time.

The Metropolis anime is based off of Tezuka's unfinished manga concepts, which is why it uses that old style. Since the manga was incomplete a lot was added for the movie. Tezuka died before the movie was made.

[OB1]

ABF, Astro Boy was created in 1951, so Weltall is correct. Anime didn't exist then, but manga did.

Speaking of the Batman series, OB1, have you ever seen the Batman Beyond movie? It's a pretty good movie and is actually pretty dark, unless you get the cut version. The uncut version was rated PG-13.

Yes, the uncut version of Return of the Joker is really good. Second only to Mask of the Phantasm as the best Batman movie ever.

[OB1]

Did you know that, ABF?

[A Black Falcon]

... know what?

[OB1]

When Astro Boy was created. Ryan was correct.

[A Black Falcon]

No, he said anime. Manga isn't anime. :)

[OB1]

He said that the Metropolis' style is based off of Tezuka's Astro Boy style, and you said that it wasn't invented until the 70's. The anime, yes, but the manga came out long before then and the art style was the same.

[Weltall]

So I flubbed a word.