*It’s raining outside once again. Nitsuj’s house is still setup like a bar. As you enter the bar you see that the bartender this this time is Isis. Shizuku and Seras are waitresses while Mira, Chibi Isis, and Yin-Yang are on stage playing some jazz music to set the mood. Mira on the piano, Yin-Yang on drums, and Chibi Isis on the bass. Upon closer inspection you see that the bar is filled with a lot of people and you can’t find Nitsuj. As you make your way through the bar searching for Nitsuj you see people chatting and laughing and see the Jack Brothers playing poker with a few of the patrons. Seras approaches you and tells you that Nitsuj is waiting for you in the VIP section up top. You thank Seras but as you leave she holds out her hand as if to demand something from you. You take the hint that she wants to get paid for her help so you take out $3 and give it to her. This displeases her a little so you take out two more dollars and give it to her. She walks away thanking you for your patronage. You finally make it up to the balcony where Nitsuj welcomes you and buys you a drink.*
(Nitsuj): Hey there kid. I see you’re back, I knew you be back you had to see how this cowboy’s story ended. Well it’s not the prettiest ending but it’s an ending that’s satisfying for this series. You got your drink so you’re good to go. Let’s continue reviewing Cowboy Bebop.
Episodes 14-17
In episode 14 the gang has captured a group of 20 thugs who hijacked an astral gate (good for them). The bad news is they can’t collect the bounty unless they catch the mastermind behind this operation (oh that’s bullshit) because this mastermind has hijacked 20 other gates. The only clues they have are 3 chess pieces so they head back to the ship and decide to work together to find the mastermind. During this time people are complaining that their savings have been stolen because of the gate robberies (not their problem). After much investigating they find out that all the hijackings were done the same way and the hackers used a program that was designed by a Piker who knew precisely how the gate system worked (we’re looking at an inside job here folks). As for Ed she’s busy playing internet chess against some guy called Chessmaster Hex (quite the condescending name if you ask me). After pulling all their information together Jet goes to the Gate Corporation to meet his friend Jonathan who works there and is one of the guys who got his money stolen (sucks to be him). Jet accuses them of knowing who the mastermind behind these hijacks are and says this was all planned (for what I have no idea but hey you know they say: //youtu.be/nXDwIo5_AMo). Jet gets kicked out but he bugged the room and finds out from the CEO that the mastermind is Chessmaster Hex who is still playing his chess game with Ed. Jet and Faye dig up data on Hex and find out that he’s an old man almost 100 years old and played a huge part in designing the astral gates when they were being designed. However, he had doubts on the project and wanted to run more test before the gates could be made but the higher ups said no, fired him, and built the gates anyway (that was a dick move). They find out that Ed is playing Hex and track him to a junkheap in space (I guess something’s never change) where Jonathan followed them because he wants to kill Hex. Spike and Faye go into the junkheap which is filled with animals, bums, and those 3 old men from the first episode. They find Hex with Jonathan where they see he’s just a senile old man who put this whole plan into action 50 years ago by setting up a program within the system to activate once the gates went through there major upgrade but during those 50 years Hex went senile and forgot why he wanted revenge in the first place. After seeing this Jonathan goes crazy becoming a bum and smoking weed all day, the bounty is called off on Hex since he’s no threat (never was in the first place), and after a week of playing the same game of chess Ed finally loses to Hex and he presumably passes away from old age.
Episode 15 is our first Faye episode. In this episode we find out that Faye is unlike the others (no she’s not a trap you pervert). Faye wasn’t born in the 21st century she was instead born in the 20th century (doesn’t look a day pass 25). Due to an unknown accident Faye was cryogenically frozen for 54 years and when she awaken she had a serious case of amnesia as she doesn’t remember anything about her pass whatsoever. To make matters worse she owes the hospital that revived her a huge debt of 300 million woolongs (hey we just revived a woman from the brink of death let’s charge her for our services). Totally alone, confused, and unsure what to do Faye receives help from a guy named Whitney who helps her adjust to the new world but unfortunately dies in an accident and Faye gets tricked into taking on his debt which is also a large amount of money (I’m starting to see why Faye has a hard time trusting others now). Spike hears her story (which he says needs editing. Lots of it I might add) and doesn’t believe her since she’s lied so much in the past so who’s to say she’s not lying right now. Jet returns to the Bebop with a bounty who just happens to be Whitney still alive and fat now. Faye wants answers from him and he explains that the doctor who revived her is a con man who Whitney owed a lot of money to and his plan was to leech off of wealthy women to repay his debt (wow you are a special kind of scum aren’t you? I would honestly piss on his grave if he was dead). Faye still wanting answers releases him and they escape the Bebop with Faye claiming rights on him and his bounty (women and logic. They just don’t work together in the same sentence). They fly out with Spike on their tail and have a dog fight in space which gets interrupted by the doctor and his assistant who tell Faye they know nothing about her past since all of her data got destroyed when the astral gate crashed. The police show up to catch Whitney and the doctor takes his leave cutting his losses and everything. Whitney gets thrown in jail and Spike tells Faye not to worry about the past but instead look towards the future.
Episode 16 is our second Jet episode. In this episode we learn a little bit more about Jet’s past as a police officer who was known as the Black Dog. We also learn that the reason Jet has a prosthetic arm is due to a guy named Udai an assassin from the European syndicate. In the past Jet and his old partner Fad were after him and when Jet cornered him a bright light flashed on him blinding him and allowing Udai to get a shot in on him. Despite getting shot Jet still managed to catch Udai and throw him in jail but now Udai and a transport ship of other prisoners have hijacked a ship and are trying to escape. Fad calls up Jet for help and agrees to help out. They find the missing transport ship and get attacked but they both manage to get onboard the ship. Jet finds Udai and they have a gunfight with Jet blocking the bullets with his prosthetic arm (nice thinking) and disarming Udai (now Jet, take his arm). They begin to talk about their past where Udai reveals he’s not the guy who shot him that night it was Fad. At the time Fad was on the syndicate’s payroll and shined the light on Jet that night as well as shot him (so he’s the reason Jet’s Saturday night fun doesn’t feel the same anymore). Fad comes in, shoots Udai in the head (headshot FTW) and points his gun at Jet but just before he can fire Jet makes a dive for his gun, grabs it, and shoots Fad killing him only to discover that Fad had no more rounds and was actually atoning for his past sins (you could of just given Jet a new human arm). ISSP forces begin surrounding the ship and Jet limps away after putting Fad’s gun back in his hands.
Episode 17 is our first Edward episode and like I said you either like this character or you find her annoying which means chances are you’ll either like this episode or hate it. The episode starts off in space as the crew is flying through it out of fuel and food (you think they would learn to save money by now. That or find a new profession). As they’re drifting through space a ship crashes into them and steers them off their original course where they crash land on the surface of Lo a planet that’s entirely a dessert (well the show does have cowboy in its title). While Spike and Jet repair the ship, and Faye takes care of business in the bathroom (not a pleasant image I assure you), Ed and Ein go out to look for food. They travel the dessert for sometime until they eventually see the ship that crashed into them and go chasing after it but lose track of it very quickly. They then run into a watermelon truck where they plead with the driver to give them watermelons but he says no since they have no money. However, a black woman named Coffee drives by, buys some watermelon, and Ed and Ein catch a ride in her trunk. When she arrives at a gas station the police ask her if she’s seen a man named Domino Walker (the not so crazy version of Christopher Walker) who she ironically is looking for as well. The police check her trunk, see Ed and Ein, accuse her of kidnapping and arrest her on the spot (racial profiling). As Ed and Ein explore the town they find Domino and get his mushrooms where Ein eats one and begins acting all. . .loopy (as Ed describes it). It turns out these mushrooms are drugs that give people hallucinations (I could have told you that from the get go). Ed realizes this after feeding the mushrooms to the rest of the crew where they each had their own weird and loopy hallucination. Faye thinks she’s submerged in water, Spike thinks he’s climbing the stairway to Heaven, and Jet has a conversation with his bonsai trees about the meaning of the universe (it’s some pretty deep stuff. Who knew bonsai trees were so informative). Ed goes after Domino where she catches him thwarting two other bounty hunters in the process (wow, if she actually knew what she was doing Ed would probably be the most dangerous person in this anime). Domino gives Ed more mushrooms in exchange for letting him go and Ed being the naïve girl that she is takes the offer (scene here: //youtu.be/Kbxq3_qDD5U) and thankfully the mushrooms this time aren’t drugs but instead shiitake mushrooms (a very popular delicacy in Japan).
In episode 18 we get our second Faye episode. A package was delivered to Faye unexpectedly (which begs the question why people have a hard time tracking down Faye when she owes so much money). Faye doesn’t open it but Spike comes across it and opens it to discover a tape inside (for those of you who don’t know what a tape is you are far too young and need to do some serious research on the 90s). Spike and Jet go on a wild goose chase since it’s the year 2071 and VCR players have pretty much become obsolete (way to predict the future Watanabe). They eventually find one in an abandoned mall on Earth going through a lot to get it and finally play the tape where we get probably the saddest moment in this entire anime (and given what we’ve seen so far that says a lot. Scene here: //youtu.be/bn-uxaIZVXI).
Nothing much to say about episode 19. Spike takes his ship the Swordfish II to Earth to get it repaired by Doohan an old mechanic who was the original owner of the Swordfish. While the repairs are being done Jet and Faye are after a bounty on space pirates who use a cable to infect their ships with viruses that cause them to open fire on each other and severely injure their ships. Luckily the group finds them again and this time Spike joins the hunt for them and immobilizes them however he runs out a fuel and is being pull to oblivion by Earth’s orbit (damn you science). Doohan overhears Spike’s distress call and launches his pet project a remodeling of NASA’s Columbia space shuttle (which ironically was destroyed upon re-entry in 2003. 2 years after this episode aired in the US). They use the shuttle to rescue Spike and we get a pretty cool image of space to end the episode.
Episode 20 is probably the darkest episode in the series. It opens up on a city at night where Spike leaves a bar and comes across the scene of a brutal shootout in the back of an alley (Batman? Is that you?) where he gets entangled in it (scene here: //youtu.be/mrdKi1wOb4A, as much as this episode is considered the darkest in the series I have to admit the scenes are well done in this episode). Spike barely manages to get away and we find out later that the man Spike faced was a man called Mad Pierrot a killing machine who used to be human but through experiments became the ultimate killing machine (well mission accomplish guys. Except he can’t tell who’s good and bad so he kills everyone in sight. Scene here: //youtu.be/uI1XDWFdXZQ). Later on Spike receives an invite from Mad Pierrot to a party at Space Land (where fun and safety is their number one priority. Caution, be weary of psycho killers). So Spike goes out to face Mad Pierrot again where the fight ends on a very disturbing note (scene here: //youtu.be/AUyuKicalyw). Jet contacts Spike with information on Pierrot (you’re about 10 minutes late Jet) and Spike tells him he doesn’t need the information and that he hates amusement parks (you hate everything don’t you Spike?).
Episode 21 is our third and final Jet episode. Jet is on Mars to track down an old associate of his Pao Pu-Zi said to be one of the greatest Feng-shui masters on Mars. For those of you who don’t what Feng-shui is Feng-shui is a philosophical system in China. The idea of the system is to harmonize everyone with the surrounding environment such as nature, animals, people, planet, etc. In order to do this they study the three chis of the universe and see how they interact with each other. The chis are the chi of heaven which comes from the sun, the chi of earth, which comes from the planet that people live on, and the magnetic chi that comes from living organisms. Back to the episode, Jet received a message from Pao a few days ago telling him to come to Mars (you still owe him money) but the only problem is Pao has been dead for 10 years now. We find out later he died in a transport accident to Jupiter caused by a hyperspace fluctuation (that’s some way to go). He finds Pao’s grave where he gets shot at by some assassins but gets saved by Meifa, Pao’s daughter. They ditch the assassins and Meifa requests Jet’s help in helping her find her father which he agrees to do (he just can’t say no to the ladies). The only clue they have is a sunstone which has something to do with her father’s disappearance (that or an idea that Pokémon will steal in the future). Following Pao’s clues and learning a little more about Feng-shui they find the location of the sunstone hidden in the mouth of a statue near a hotel. They go back to the Bebop and analyze the stone to discover it’s a part of the moon which was destroyed in that Astral Gate accident years ago (man this accident just keeps coming back again and again. It almost makes you think they’re building up to something). Meifa says that thanks to the accident the stones carry tremendous power inside of them which can be amplified by the sun but she still has no idea what her father intended to do with the stone or how this will lead them to him. Ein places the stone on Meifa’s Luopan (a compass in Feng-shui philosophy) and it begins to spin wildly despite the fact that the magnets been removed from it. Meifa realizes that the sunstone has a twin which is in the possession of her father and that her compass should lead them to him (or was left of him. I’m just saying chances are he could be dead). Following the coordinates of the Luopan (which is weird when you say it out loud) they leave Mars and as they fly we find about Pao’s past. It turns out he wasn’t really a family man and neglected the others chis focusing only on universal Feng-shui. This caused his wife to leave him and since then he’s never attempted to make contact with them at all (//youtu.be/EYWbatgKN4g). We also find out the assassins who were after them earlier are a part of a syndicate that Pao used to work for but wanted to leave. Pao told Jet everything about the syndicate in exchange for Jet promising him a way out but since Pao knew too much about the syndicate escape for him would be impossible. Jet tells Meifa that the reason why Pao didn’t contact her and her mother was because of the syndicate and out of the fear that they would harm them. They finally reach an astral gate near Mars and go into hyperspace where the sunstone centers itself indicating that Pao is somewhere in the stream. As they search the syndicate shows up to fight and Spike and Faye (yeah they’re underused in this episode) engage the enemy where Jet comes up with the idea that if they hit the sunstone with a powerful beam it should open up a vortex which will lead them to Pao (how did you come to this idea?). Edward flushes the stone into space (where nobody can hear it scream) and Spike shoots it with his plasma ray which opens up a vortex showing Pao and his ship. Jet says they have to get him out of there but Pao says it’s too late as his ship will run out of oxygen soon and escape from the vortex is impossible. He tells Jet that he sent the message to him in the hopes that he could reunite with his daughter before he died. The two reconcile and the vortex collapses cutting the transmission and leaving Pao to die. The episode ends with Meifa returning to Mars living a normal life and Jet saying he no longer has an interest in horoscopes.
Episode 22 is probably my favorite episode in the series. It’s just so funny. The episode starts off with Spike cornering this mad bomber named Teddy. Before Spike can apprehend him he gets interrupted by a man riding a horse named Andy who mistakes Spike for the terrorist and captures him while the real terrorist gets away. After pulling him up in the database the crew discovers that Andy is a bounty hunter who got banned from the YMCA (Young Men’s Cowboy Association) and bears a striking resemblance and mannerism to Spike which Spike denies (yeah, Spike is more cool. Andy is funnier. They would make a pretty funny buddy cop movie together. Spike and Andy: Cowboys on the Run. Coming to a theater near you. Yeah, I would definitely see that movie). Spike and the others try to catch Teddy again but once again Andy keeps getting in the way causing them to lose Teddy and watch him blow up another building. Everyone decides to give up but Spike refuses to let Andy get the better of him so he decides to face Andy and end their supposed rivalry once and for all. He goes to the park to wait for Andy and the funny thing is Teddy is also in the park right next to Spike who completely ignores him (that is funny). Andy finally shows up and the two exchange banter (scene here: //youtu.be/AGRJuLPZY_s). Angry after being ignored Teddy sets off a bomb and runs away being chased by Spike and Andy where they get trapped in an elevator and are heading towards a bomb set up by Teddy. They survive the trap and Teddy gets captured by Faye and Jet who just happened to be in the area. With Teddy captured all that’s left is for Spike and Andy to settle their differences (scene here: //youtu.be/sJ6a5kjR3sc). The episode ends with Andy becoming a space samurai (this needs to Watanabe’s next project. Space Samurai. The title alone makes the show great).
Episode 23 is a cult episode (yeah, an anime about space, bounty hunters, and noire is tackling cults. Probably the one thing you never would expect to see in an anime like this). Faye has joined a cult known as SCRATCH which believe that humans are destined to leave their bodies and join (as they call it) “the infinite sea of electrons” (//youtu.be/OVqIIIYEpng, okay when your beliefs are crazier and make even less sense than scientology than we have a serious problem). Spike and Jet investigate the cult and find out that the leader Dr. Londes has a 38 million woolong bounty on his head and decide to go after him. We cut to Faye who in actuality hasn’t join the cult and is actually trying to get the bounty on Londes herself (figures, that woman’s too clever to fall for such beliefs). Spike and Jet go door to door looking for Londes while Ed surfs the web hoping to find his whereabouts. All of them come up short and members claim that Londes no longer has a physical form. Still determined to find Lordes, Jet buys a Brain Dream Device from SCRATCH in order to hack the site and find Lordes location while Spike goes to rescue Faye who has been acting strange (she got captured again). As Jet goes deeper and deeper into the SCRATCH website he begins to lose consciousness (white noise) but gets waken up by Ein and removes the device before having his conscious uploaded. He tries this again only this time they have Ein do it and they manage to hack the site (good boy Ein) only to discover that Lordes isn’t a real person (//youtu.be/N4vIBijzg4w). They find out that the origin of this false identity came from Alles Valley Hospice on Mars and Jet and Ed sneak into the place pretending to be father and daughter. While that’s going on Spike finds Faye in an abandoned building filled with screens playing white static (ominous). Lordes voice begins to speak to Spike and he begins to fall unconscious from all the white noise. Back in the hospice Jet and Ed discover Lordes true identity Rosny Spanngen a young hacker who fell into a vegetative state due to a medical accident two years ago when he was 13. Ed shuts the program down saving Spike and Faye and they decide not to turn Rosny in and take their leave with Ed wishing for him to have sweet dreams from now on.
Episode 24 is the second and final Ed episode. Faye is studying that video from episode 18 in the hopes that she can remember her past while the group is tracking a bounty on Earth. Ed recognizes a few of the landmarks on the video so she and Faye go out to investigate. While investigating a nun spots them who recognizes Ed since she runs an orphanage that Ed grew up in. They go to the orphanage where the nun shows Ed a holographic image of her father Appledelhi who came by recently looking for her. Faye continues to search the area for clues about her past where she comes across an old lady named Sally who recognizes Faye but the scene really doesn’t go anywhere. They return to the Bebop where Ed decides she wants to meet her dad and puts a fake bounty on him to get Spike and Jet to go after him. Faye starts to remember her past more vividly and runs off the ship saying she knows where she belongs now (yeah, on the ship and in doujins). Spike and Jet find Appledelhi where Spike fights him and we see that he’s a pretty good fighter able to hold his own against Spike. However their fight gets interrupted with the appearance of Ed (scene here: //youtu.be/GFVicWdXI08, I can see the family resemblance). Appledelhi offers Ed the opportunity to join him but before she can answer another meteor crushes and Appledelhi goes to investigate leaving Ed and the others behind (bad parent much). After that we get the saddest ending in the series (scene here: //youtu.be/eoL2RzCGwms).
Episodes 25 and 26 are the last episodes in the series. The beginning of the end starts with Julia receiving a message that the Red Dragons are making their move on her and trying to kill her. Why? Because Vicious’ coup d’etat failed and he is now in holding waiting to be sentence to death (big mistake) while anyone who might have ties to him or the coup d’etat are being hunted down. This includes Spike who is at a bar with Jet drinking their sorrows away after Faye, Ed, and Ein left them (ungrateful bitches). A shootout between them and the Red Dragon begins where they get saved by Shin the brother of Lin. Jet gets his leg shot and Spike tries to get Faye to come back and help but she says no. She then runs into Julie and saves her from the Red Dragon and Julie quickly figures out that Faye knows Spike and tells her to tell him that she’ll be waiting for him. Faye flies back to the Bebop where we get two awesome scenes back to back with each other (scene here: //youtu.be/W_mLw25nyyQ, one of the best dogfights I’ve seen). Spike flies off to the graveyard to meet Julia who pulls a gun out on him (well this is some reunion) and hugs him (sending me mix messages here Julia). She tells Spike to runaway with her and go someplace where no one will find them and they’ll be free to live together (at this point in the game it’s impossible). They stop by Annie’s place to see that she’s been shot and is slowly dying. A shootout begins between them and the Red Dragon where they try to escape but Julia gets shot and dies. Spike flies back to the Bebop to give what viewers like to think is his final farewell to his friends and is about to go face Vicious one last time but before he leaves he gets stopped by Faye (scene here: //youtu.be/CSLfBR4D0Hg, now a lot of people have actually called Spike a hypocrite for this scene but here’s the difference, Spike tried to move on from his past and live a new life. However, no matter what he did his past always came back to haunt him and he has no choice but to face it himself. Faye on the other could have forgotten about her past and moved on with her life). After that Spike takes off to give us the final moments of the anime (scenes here: //youtu.be/x_ll_l1o7t4 and //youtu.be/K5PBITg6Cr0. Now a lot of people think Spike died at the end of series and when Watanabe was asked this he said it was open for interpretation saying that those who believed that Spike was just simply sleeping were “probably right” hinting that Spike didn’t die at the end).
Final Thoughts
So that was Cowboy Bebop a masterpiece of animation that still holds up to this day. There’s no doubt this anime is one of the best animes out there. It’s inspiring, groundbreaking, and the opened the eyes of viewers to just how great anime can be. Spike has that it factor that just makes him an amazing one of kind character that no one can mimic. He’s a very realistic character who refuses to change for anyone and lives his life the way he believes it should be lived while trying to move on from his past. The other characters Jet and Faye are good too with each one having their own story arcs that add to their characters and makes them unique. As I said before you’re either gonna like Ed or hate her. Personally I like her. I like how she adds a little bit of life into an already somewhat dark anime. She’s always moving and doing something not worried about what’s to come but instead living in the present and enjoying it. I also like how even though she was a kid she contribute to the group from time to time and wasn’t just a freeloader who held the team back like most kid characters. The one character I wish they would of focused more on was Vicious. He’s considered the main villain of the show but we never get a chance to explore his character as much as we should have. While he’s on screen he definitely delivers on being a cold-hearted and vicious character but I really do wish we had more time to explore his character and his relationship with Spike and Julie. Actually that’s kind of the main problem throughout this anime, they don’t explore the characters as much as they should. We get a few backstories from them but we never really get to know them as characters and explore their pasts. They’re already great characters but I really do wish we got to know how they got to this point in their life.
The animation for this anime is beautiful for it’s time and even today it still holds up. The shots of space are amazing to look at and the locations they go to leave you hungry for more and wishing you had a chance to explore these locations. Music is also outstanding focusing on jazz to match the feel of the anime and setting the tone of the anime amazingly well. It never feels out of place and matches the noire setting that the anime is going for. The fight scenes and gunfights are cool too. I love Spike’s fighting style. As a big fan of the Bruce Lee films I was thrilled to see Spike’s fighting style was a homage to Bruce Lee and the gunshots in this anime sound incredibly real. When you hear a gunshot go off you feel like it’s a real gunshot and when a character gets shot and dies it looks and sounds real to you. The stories in this anime are great. I like how each character has a few episodes dedicated to them while still progressing the main story of the anime and leading to an epic finale. Most shows are content with just being episodic but this show took a risk and showed us that you can tell a great story while still developing your characters and making them more engaging and relatable.
Final Score
The final score for Cowboy Bebop is a 9/10 with a must watch stamp of approval. This anime definitely lives up to the hype and talk that everyone gives it and is one of those animes that everyone should watch at least once in their lifetime. Don’t let the fact that it’s an old anime from the 90s turn you off if anything be happy that it’s an old school anime. This is an anime that treats you like an adult, doesn’t talk down to you, and gives you a smart and engaging anime that never leaves your mind. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj. Now let’s enjoy our drinks and enjoy the performance of tonight’s guest singer the lovely Luka Megurine: //youtu.be/3xKeriVE0ds?t=28s
*All videos, pictures, and music are not owned by me and belong to their respected owners. All rights reserved.*
Thanks for reading. As always feel free to leave a comment, feedback, or request down belong or send to iamprojectnitsuj@gmail.com