Anime: Cowboy Bebop
Year: 1998
Episode Count: 27
Sub. or Dub.: Both
Guestimated Audience: 13+
Genre: Western Sci-Fi, action/adventure, drama, comedy, crime fiction
Studio/Productions: SUNRISE, INC., and Bandai Visual
Animation Director: Shinichiro Watanabe
Writter(s): Keiko Nobumoto
Plot: Spike Spiege, a bounty hunter with a dark past, lives on bounty to bounty, barely making it each time, or not making it at all. His partners Jet Black, Fay Valentine, Ed and Ein the dog help him in his adventures from planet to planet.
Warnings: Blood, swearing, boobies, gun violence
Although CowBoy Bebop isn't an 'old' anime, it's still one of the most respected and classics you'll find. If you haven't seen or own this yet-you are really missing out.
Do you enjoy your sci-fi westerns with jazz and rock undertones? space ship battles? classic shoot-out? sassy/sexy girls with guns? Randomness? Small but great cast?
If you said yes to all of the above, WATCH THIS ANIME!
This takes place in the year 2071, when bounties are internationally advertised on T.V., Earth has becomes a bohimian waistland plauged with 'rock showers.' Mars is THE place to live, there has been wars on the Titain moon, Jupiter and Venus are both habitable, and drifting astroid/meteors are all gass stations for space ships.
One group of bounty hunters travels abode the space ship "Bebop." The captain, Jet Black, is a former cop/ISSP who left the force after loosing his arm in an accident. His partner, Spike Spiege, has a dark past that keeps catching up to him throught the show. Both call themselves cowboys and live off bounty-to-bounty. Thanks largly to Spike's tactise their bounties go to repare fees on Spike's ship "The Swordfish" or to the town they are bounty huting in.
Ein is a Whelsh Corgy known as a Data Dog, he was kidnapped by a bounty hunter but brought back to the Bebop by Spike who accinentaly let the bounty get away. Ein is a very smart dog who helps the crew in a few tight spots, though far from a guard dog, he's more of a helper.
Fay Valentine joins the group, before asking permission, because Spike and Jet are interesting and she know's she'll get better bounty if she joins a team. Too bad for her she gambles most of what she helps pull in at the casino's, instead of paying off her mountain of debt.
Ed, is a A+ class hacker who joined the crew of Bebop after she helped them find a hacker creating ancient animal drawings on the Earth's surface. Ed is called a 'her' but it's never stated what her gender really is. She's also a child, an inteligent one, but still a child so she never takes part in combat and always asks the others to bring her a suvener.
Een with only 27 episodes (26 that aired in America), this is still a great plot ane very character driven story. It sucks you in and keeps you going for more. Some plots in the show are for the joy of plot, others are deeply thoughtful, while a few are just plane sad-tearful almost.
There are backstories given on all three human characters, but not Ein-cours he's a dog what's there to say? Luckily the backstores give you info without taking up three or more episodes at once.
I really can't give too much info on the story itself though without spoilers, and really I'd rather you watch this to see what happens before I fully tell you.
To those who have watched this, how many of you have a welsh corgy named Ein? XD
Although the story ened on a sad not, in 2001 Sunrise released Cowboy Bebop the Movie: Knockin' on Heaven's Door. The story largly takes place on Mars with a bio-terroristum attack threat. All major characters from the TV series are in this show. I'll give a better review on this later when I hit the 2000 year shows in March.
With the Anime, two Manga (comics) where also released.
Cowboy Bebop: Shooting Star with 2 volumes that ran from 1997-1998 in Asuka Fantasy DX magazine. This was written by Hajime Yatate, illustrated by Cain Kuga, and the publisher in the mag was Kadokawa Shoten.
Later, Cowboy Bebop: A New Story was released by the same group from 1998-200 with 3 volumes.
It's also been announced that a live-action film of the famous show will be prodced and released here in America. 20th Century Fox will be the studio while Producer Erwin Stoff will takes the reigns and Peter Craig has been hired as the screenwritter. Lucky for the fans of the show Sunrise will be closely working on the development of the movie, with Kenji Uchida, Shinichiro Watanabe, and the sieries writter Keiko Nobumoto as associate producers. As far as casting goes, Keanu Reeves has been cast to play Spike, I have yet to find out about the rest of the cast.
The live action movie was orriginally set to be released this year (2011) but thanks to busget issues they are working on a new date and requesting for a script rewrite. They asked for the rewrite so the budget will fit. I don't know how they think they'll pull off a movie like this live action though without green screening the whole thing like Tim's Alice in Wonderland.
Here are clips to wet your appitite:
Cast:
Aoi Tada(JP) & Melissa Charles (EG) - Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV
Kouichi Yamadera(JP) & David Lucas(EG) - Spike Spiegel
Megumi Hayashibara(JP) & Wendee Lee(EG) - Fay Valentine
Unshou Ishizuka(JP) & John Billingslea(EG) - Jet Black
Useful Links:
http://www.cowboybebop.org/ (JP with an EG option)
