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U S R e l e a s e - V o l u m e 1 R e v i e w
Cowboy BeBop - unless you've been living under a rock for any extended period of time, you've heard of it. I mean, it's one of those anime shows that has appeared in almost every copy of Newtype for the past two years, and even hearing a brief mention of it you're sure to remember it's name. Not being sure what I would be in for (I mean, what exactly do you expect from something called Cowboy BeBop), I went into this title with little in the way of expectations. Right off of the bat, we are presented an intro with a design and feel that would be perfectly at home being the lead in to a 60's/70's detective drama. The coolness factor of the credits was unquestionable, and as I watched I was really getting pumped up to see what was about to come next. In fact, had I not watched the first volume of the Record of Lodoss War TV series recently - and witnessed the phenomenal opening credits that it has - I might have claimed CB as having the best intro this month. Once into the show, I found an anime, which was a combination of the traditional cowboy hero, riding in on his mechanical horse, in a world that is a mix of 70's cop show and New York jazz club. It's one of those worlds where it's the future, there's no question about that, but the people and places that inhabit this future all seem to have come from a different time, a different place. Sometimes this effect works, and sometimes it doesn't - I'm happy to say that the mix of robot and retro we have going on here not only does indeed work, but it works damn well. We are presented with the "BeBop," a ship owned by a small group of bounty hunters who are on a mission to capture the bad guys and collect the rewards, while doing it with their own style and flair. Our main hero, Spike, is the epitome of the "cool anime hero," with his laid back attitude and killer fighting moves, and don't be surprised if he (or the entire show, in fact) reminds you a bit at times of Lupin. And when I say that he can fight, can he ever. The first episode of Cowboy BeBop contains one of the coolest fight scenes I've seen in a while - the choreography of the fight and the angles used to enhance it are nothing short of stellar. Being completely blown away, I waited with baited breath for the second episode, only to be let down. Was it bad? No, not really, but it didn't live up to what I had just seen. The story was a bit sillier, the art and animation not quite as good, and the fight scene was a complete letdown when compared to the one from the first. Now, Cowboy BeBop has a strange story to it, which may or may not explain the inconsistency between the two episodes. Only half of the "sessions" (which is what the producers called the episodes of CB) were shown on television - the other half were only made available when the series was released at home on LaserDisc. The first session, "Asteroid Blues", didn't come along until the LD release, while "Stray Dog Strut" was what viewers saw as the actual first episode on TV. Maybe they had different production values between the TV run and the home run episodes, maybe they were made at different times, maybe they were asked to make the TV series more light-hearted than they wanted to (so they partially got around that by only doing that to half of them), or maybe there is just an inconsistency between the quality of these two episodes - that's happened on many a series. My reason for really wondering on this are, as I said, the different in quality between the two episodes, not only in direction and development but in overall animation and art quality. During the first episode, my friends and I were swearing that this wasn't a TV series, but come the second, that idea seemed more plausible.
A phenomenal first episode, an enjoyable but slightly less impressive second episode, and you've got a series that I think is without question one to keep your eyes on. With a mixture of awesome character designs (who have interesting personalities), art direction and animation that rival the best of them, a spectacular soundtrack, and a general "feel" that just oozes attitude and personality, everything in the mix is just right for the creation of an instant classic. There aren't any truly strong sci-fi anime titles currently making their run in the US, so Cowboy BeBop may just be the thing that fills the gap that Evangelion has left since it's finale.
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