Cowboy Bebop: Why is the dog the smartest one on the ship?

So let's derail some more!

Candyce refreshed my memory with some suggestions to throw on here because they NEED to be thrown on here. They just DO.

I figured I'd start these MUST NOTE series with a well-known head turner that was so stupidly popular it ran on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim for years. Since 2001, it has been a primary part of Adult Swim.

It's still showing up to this day!!!

It only has 26 episodes and one feature film.

YEARS!!!!!!!!

Let's all punt a genetically super-smart Corgi and take a look back on good ol' Cowboy Bebop!


(CB's infamous opening known as TANK!, a savvy, fast jazz instrumental piece to a cool backdrop detailing the characters and their respective vehicles.)

If you haven't seen this then you should kick yourself in the face.

Do it.

Do it now.

Cowboy Bebop is basically bottled cool. It has the budget, the music and the slick style in motion that distinguish it from the rest of the herd. It especially has the TALENT, which helps a LOT. The blokes (and blokesses) behind Macross Plus came in to kick ass and take names and lordy lordy LORDY they managed to do that and then some. In a series, no less!

Nothing this awesome can ever happen again. It's just a fact. No one will reach for the stars like this again because they know they will fail. I don't exaggerate, it is that awesome.

Well... I'm going to stop gushing and break this thing down.

Spike & Jet are a martian ex-mobster and an ex-cop respectively who put aside their pasts and partnered up to take on the greener pastures of bounty hunting aboard Jet's ship, the Bebop.

During their adventures they pick up a few strays. Namely, a femme-fatale con-artist/competitor named Faye and a juvenile, nonsensical super-hacker GIRL named Edward, as well as a genius Corgi named Ein that is typically the only rational mind aboard the ship.

Spike is the series protagonist, which isn't as cool as it could be because we're stuck watching ALL of his flashbacks and each of the big plot points always manage to revolve around him. The other characters achieve closure in their lives through evolving storylines that flow with the series progression, but Spike's baggage dogs him until the end of the series and forces everyone in the Bebop to join him in the ride.

Speaking of which, Spike's biggest article of luggage is tied to his ex-girlfriend and his mafia rival. On the plus side, this leads to awesome action scenes and intriguing plot twists. Problem is Spike isn't exactly a likable or necessarily intelligent character that is pleasant to follow, while his bloodthirsty, power hungry rival is entertaining to follow for what little you are actually allowed to see of him.

In fact, most of the conflict in the show is a result of his poor decisions, particularly his piss-poor taste in amazingly stupid/crazy women.

On that note...

Let's talk about Julia.

I HATE Julia.

Spike is the dictionary definition of "Mr. Cool" until something reminds him of Julia or someone mentions Julia or he recalls the style of plumbing he familiarized himself with during his time with Julia... Anyway, his "cool" sputters and dies, his comparatively semi-rational mind instantly erodes into pure idiocy and his actions become childish and spiteful. At least more than usual.

While I can relate to a woman making me "twitterpated" and brain dead, the sheer scale of Spike's stupidity as a sprinkle of instant conflict for the plot is the primary weakness of the series. Julia's a paper tiger of a woman whose reputation doesn't do her a lick of justice when the real thing actually presents itself at the end of the series.

Who's Julia? Oh... right, I didn't really touch on her yet.

She's the woman between him and his mafia rival, Vicious, that he's following a flimsy trail after by word of mouth, hearing bartenders and street vendors sputter and gush about how she's a "real woman" or some such babble, and then she only shows up in the second to last episode and proves her worthlessness in a moment that still makes my jaw drop. The resolution of her story ties directly into Spike resolving things with Vicious, his rival who at that point has seized control of "The Syndicate" causing uprisings from within and mafia civil war across the galaxy.

Now Vicious is a fun character because he's an extremely active antagonist and a real bastard to boot. Why is he named Vicious...? Well, without embellishing his personality too much, that's his basic personality characteristic! He's vicious! And that's why we love him. He's the kind of brash asshole that compliments Spike's goofy antics in an EVIL way and he also embraces weird taboos by bringing a sword to gun fight! WOO!!!

CB balances a lot of normally difficult things like plot, action, music, style and story making a vaguely noir-ish, epic romp through a space-age gangsterland with a broad spectrum of music accompanying their dark voyage through space. You see an almost Blade Runner-esque dirty, dismal view of the bright and shining future as our Cowboys scour the stars looking to score bounties and endure moments of gorgeous scenery peppered with wanton dogfighting, bars being redecorated with bullets and colorful local eateries being smashed up in frenzied street fights.

Without putting too fine a point on it, the show is TOO GOOD for television and yet, THERE IT IS.

This is the obvious no-brainer to have in your collection. It's been printed, reprinted, re-reprinted and it still sells damn well for a show that should have otherwise been run into the ground by Cartoon Network, but they only made it more powerful.

Speaking to its unusual powers, Bandai is usually so-so in their dub quality and this is probably one of their finest adaptions ever. Spike Spiegel's actor in particular can't STOP working these days as he's become the semi-official voice of Wolverine in animation for Marvel Comics in addition to the tons of video game voiceovers and anime dubs he still participates in to this day. Hell, he seems to voice half the characters in Batman: Arkham Asylum, mind you I mean he's the voice of every other guard and criminal wandering the place.




Knockin' on Heaven's Door, The Movie

To satisfy fans hunger for more and without spoiling any of the reasons that certain characters couldn't be part of a follow-up series or movie, a film was made that detailed the efforts of a madman to murder millions of people over the course of their Halloween celebration on Mars and our heroes efforts to stop them.

They abuse the length of the film in order to wax artistically too far, but aside from that the entire thing just feels like a high budget, feature length episode of the show. Which is exactly what we wanted anyway!

It's value isn't really appreciated, but then it doesn't tie into the main story and serves as little more than a distraction to those of us who had already watched the show to its conclusion. It's worth watching, but if you pay more than $10 for it you're being swindled. Check it out used or on Netflix, but whatever you do, make a point to check it out if you enjoy the show.


If you haven't come across this series yet, make every effort to do so. It's insanely awesome and wickedly fun. Amusingly, Cowboy Bebop did brilliantly in the USA, but didn't do so well back home, which probably explains why only the movie was made to satisfy western audiences.

The TV show is is still pretty easy to find in piecemeal form on separate discs, but most commonly available are select episodes. Any way you slice it, if you're a fan of anime you should be collecting this show. Now.