The Cowboy Way

Since they seem to be making a live-action remake, I figured we had better watch the original Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (2002) first. I’m glad we did.

This Japanese anime starts with a convenience store robbery. Outside, a security force gathers. One wanders in through the front door listening to headphones and ignoring the robbers - then taking them all out. Except one comes out of the back room and takes a hostage. Our “hero” explains that he isn’t here to save lives. He is a bounty hunter, and gets the same price whether the hostage lives or dies. Then he shoots the guy.

This cool man is Spike, the type of guy who habitually wears a suit, a shirt with a popped collar and a loosely knotted tie. Also on this team of bounty hunters is Jet Black, a serious guy with an anime goatee who is always getting deflated by Spike. Then there’s Faye, a cute girl who seems like a bit of a bimbo. I’m not sure if that was intentional or just sort of anime default. Finally, Ed is a teenaged girl who is off the wall. She is a computer hacker who waves her arms, types with her feet and speaks in an odd sing-song voice (we watched in Japanese, and it sounded familiar, but I can’t figure out the source). Finally, there’s a corgi who is mostly around for surrealistic effect.

One day while Faye is out chasing a bounty, someone exploded his own car in the middle of the freeway, releasing some chemical or biological agent. Faye is close enough to see the tattoo on his wrist, but doesn’t seem to follow up. That’s what I mean about her being a bimbo. The team decide to get the terrorist and the people behind him for a big bounty.

That’s the setup and it’s a good one. There is corporate espionage, visits to the shady souk in Moroccoville for contraband drugs and tech, and plain old fight scenes. But that’s not what makes this great. First, there’s the anime style: The artwork and camera angles and other tricks (multiplane animation with shallow focus, for ex) are just beautiful. The characters are fun, quirky and funny. But maybe the best part is the music. It isn’t bebop (maybe one piece is), but there’s hip hop, pop and metal. It seems to have been mostly written by Yoko Kanno.

Now, we’re psyched for the live-action movie and also we kind of want to watch the series.