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At midnight on September 3, 2001, Cowboy Bebop first aired on U.S. television as part of the very first Adult Swim broadcast (though it initially aired in Japan three years earlier), and in the twenty years since it has cemented itself as a bona fide classic. I’ve also never seen the whole thing! And as an excuse to get myself to just sit down and do it before that live-action series with John Cho comes out (which may or may not be a terrible idea, it’s too early to say), I’ve put together this rewatch thread. Why not do this in ADTRW, you ask? Well, considering the legacy of this show on American television and the status of the upcoming adaptation, I thought it might be more appropriate to put it in TV IV. Also, it really doesn’t matter! We’re going to start on Friday, September 3, the twenty-year anniversary of the Adult Swim premiere, and watch 3-4 episodes a week as well as the movie. Here’s the plan: September 3-9: Episodes 1-4 September 10-16: Episodes 5-8 September 17-23: Episodes 9-11 September 24-30: Episodes 12-15 October 1-7: Episodes 16-19 October 8-14: Episodes 20-23 October 15-21: Episodes 24-26 October 22-28: The Movie Cowboy Bebop is available to stream on Hulu and Funimation. The movie isn’t available to stream anywhere, which is a huge pain, but I’m sure you can figure something out (or just skip it, it’s probably not that important and I’m not your dad!). Arist fucked around with this message at 22:30 on Sep 9, 2021 |
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Aug 28, 2021 17:32
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Arist posted:Cowboy Bebop is available to stream on Hulu and Funimation. The movie isn’t available to stream anywhere, which is a huge pain, but I’m sure you can figure something out (or just skip it, it’s probably not that important and I’m not your dad!). Its also on adult swim and all episodes are free without requiring any login https://www.adultswim.com/videos/cowboy-bebop And yeah, the movie, while good, isn't really that important.
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Aug 28, 2021 18:16
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Sub or dub?
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Aug 28, 2021 18:18
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Whatever you prefer. I'm a dubliker and the dub is really good, but subs work too.
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Aug 28, 2021 18:23
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Arist posted:At midnight on September 3, 2001, Cowboy Bebop first aired on U.S. television as part of the very first Adult Swim broadcast gently caress, I'm old I have definitely watched it again since it first aired but it's been a decade+, so I'm in. It will definitely be hard to only watch four episodes a week though.
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Aug 28, 2021 18:30
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Get everybody and their stuff together.
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Aug 28, 2021 18:40
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Sanguinia posted:Get everybody and their stuff together. Ok.
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Aug 28, 2021 18:41
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I remember trying to watch this like 12 years ago and fizzling out rather early for reasons I can't even remember. Still have the opening on my phone though.
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Aug 28, 2021 19:33
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Nice, I've been meaning to actually watch this all at once, thanks for the excuse!
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Aug 28, 2021 22:59
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For the record, The Movie is available on Canadian Netflix, subtitles only.
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Aug 29, 2021 23:45
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 Wait, poo poo, wrong franchise. May Tank! live eternal and the Netflix version be good.
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Aug 30, 2021 08:52
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Zaphod42 posted:Its also on adult swim and all episodes are free without requiring any login It seems like Adult Swim actually lost the rights since you posted this, since this now directs to the world's strangest 404 page. Episode 1: "Asteroid Blues" I was actually in the middle of watching this series for the first time when I noticed the anniversary of the Adult Swim premiere coming up and decided to post this thread, so I've seen the first several episodes pretty recently. That relative familiarity doesn't dull the impact of the premiere at all. There's an underlying sense running through this episode (and indeed, much of the series) that almost everything that happens to Spike is just one huge farce, and it's that attitude that makes the moments where Spike is actually affected by something all the more serious (as when Asimov's girlfriend gets lit up by a police blockade, vials of the drug spilling from her "pregnant" stomach). I'm not really one for this type of "cool," disaffected hero, but the show already understands that he can't take everything in stride or there's nothing for the audience to latch onto--even if it's right back into the same old routine at the end of the episode. A good start, all things considered. What better introduction to this show's world than SPACE TIJUANA, right?
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Sep 3, 2021 22:19
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I love the fact that Asimov and his girlfriend are a not-so-subtle riff on Antonio Banderas and Selma Hayek in Desperado. Watching dubbed I also really appreciate how natural a lot of the dialogue sounds. Less anime grandstanding and speechifying and more bickering about the food situation. "You wouldn't really call it bell peppers and beef, would you? "Yes I would." "Well it's not!" "It is when you're broke, okay?" Just a lot of back and forth banter while Jet is trying to explain what is going on and failing to capture his audience of one.
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Sep 3, 2021 23:02
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Episode 2: "Stray Dog Strut" A lotta fun stuff in this one. The debuts of both Ein and Big Shot, a target who Kirk Lazarus'd himself as a disguise, and Spike injecting himself into a strange series of malfeasances involving a dog--a bizarre situation played fully for laughs by the episode's ultimate refusal to clarify just what the hell was ever going on here. Shout out to the member of the three-man team trying to recover Ein poorly attempting to cover up his ignorance of how a dog whistle works: "Is it on? I can't hear it." "It's too high-pitched. Only animals can pick it up." "I knew that. I was testing you." Seriously, that exchange feels like it come out of a gag dub, not an actual show, and it's amazing.
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Sep 5, 2021 20:49
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Arist posted:Seriously, that exchange feels like it come out of a gag dub, not an actual show, and it's amazing. "Seems that way."
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Sep 5, 2021 20:53
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Arist posted:Episode 2: "Stray Dog Strut" Arc Hammer posted:"Seems that way."
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Sep 5, 2021 21:06
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Arc Hammer posted:I love the fact that Asimov and his girlfriend are a not-so-subtle riff on Antonio Banderas and Selma Hayek in Desperado. Yeah absolutely.
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Sep 5, 2021 23:46
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JT Jag posted:To this day I still say "seems that way" in the exact same tone as that one scientist in conversation whenever the opportunity comes up Lol same here.
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Sep 6, 2021 03:08
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I reminded of how much Firefly stole its entire oeuvre from this show.
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Sep 6, 2021 03:19
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Firefly didn't have a Ducktales reference it is therefore inferior.
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Sep 6, 2021 03:32
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Toxic Fart Syndrome posted:I reminded of how much Firefly stole its entire oeuvre from this show. Don't forget the lady-in-a-suitcase taken directly from Outlaw Star! To be fair, Bebop, Trigun and Outlaw Star all have a lot of overlapping style, (And the Trigun and Outlaw manga predate Bebop) and all of which also came from some other sci-fi before them. Zaphod42 fucked around with this message at 04:02 on Sep 6, 2021 |
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Sep 6, 2021 03:59
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Zaphod42 posted:Don't forget the lady-in-a-suitcase taken directly from Outlaw Star! Back when Bebop was new, I recall a bunch of people saying how much of a knockoff of Lupin III it was. I never really saw the similarities myself, aside from "a main cast of four that usually ends up losing the big score at the end"
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Sep 6, 2021 07:22
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Bebop isn't a carbon copy of Lupin as in "these characters are just Lupin characters renamed" but it's a riff on Lupin, such that it really could not exist without Lupin having come first. Spike's not exactly Lupin and Jet's not exactly Jigen and Faye's not exactly Fujiko and Vicious isn't exactly (early, antagonistic) Goemon, and there's no Zenigata because the gang is on the side of the law, but the whole general vibe and how it is able to effortlessly include both charming, irreverent slapstick comedy and hardcore ultraviolent action thriller and have both feel like the same show is extremely Lupin.
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Sep 6, 2021 07:45
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Had a great time rewatching ep 1-3. It is shocking how much I've forgotten with time and the colourful use of music is just something else.
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Sep 7, 2021 12:02
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God I love this show so much and I cannot wait for the Netflix version. The music, the semi-serialized episode structure, the characters, just all of it works amazingly and I treasure the memories of watching it on adult swim and then going out and spending $60 on each DVD.
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Sep 7, 2021 13:55
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I have also rewatched 1-3 and had a good time. I have decided to use the dub, which I have never done with an anime before! Faye Valentine really is like…..the perfect femme fatale name. God drat
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Sep 7, 2021 14:05
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IIRC Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (The Major in Ghost in the Shell SAC and Julia in Bebop) was recovering from a hospital stay when they were dubbing Cowboy Bebop so she spent more time around the office. Ended up being that she helped out a lot with the dubbing process by fine tuning the English script which is why a lot of the dialogue in the dub is more Tarantino "conversationalist" than the typical speeches and proclamations style of dubbing.
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Sep 7, 2021 14:19
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Escobarbarian posted:I have also rewatched 1-3 and had a good time. I have decided to use the dub, which I have never done with an anime before! Cowboy Bebop and Fullmetal Alchemist are probably the only two animes where I think the dub is superior.
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Sep 7, 2021 14:26
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Bebop is about a lot of things but one I don't see discussed enough is how the world is used. It's essentially the inverse of most stories. Instead of the world changing by the actions of the protagonists, the show is instead about how the world changes on its own terms and the protagonists have to move through it or fall behind getting hung up on the past. The world doesn't care what happens to Spike, Jet, Faye, Ed, Ein or anyone. It'll still be there in one way or another long after we've all left it. The solar system in Bebop has so much life and character to it. It's a mishmash of old and new and hundreds of cultures haphazardly slammed into one another by humanity's loss of cultural identity and history. So you've got stuff like the Eiffel Tower transplanted into Manhattan on Mars, or you've got old world ruins like Singapore that has been flooded out and people live in big pavilions above the water. Or you've got places like Morocco Street or Tijuana where old world cultures are a bit more pronounced, even if they're not quite accurate to the real thing. But everywhere you go there's people all trying to get by, and each of them are just as important and insignificant as the Bebop crew. It's why I'm not too worried about the cast of the live action series being older. The world of Bebop isn't defined by the crew of the Bebop itself. It could be about anyone really, and most episodes are about randos and the time they cross paths with Spike et al. It's just the way the world works and people are defined by how they deal with the world, whether they find some peace or fall behind.
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Sep 7, 2021 17:28
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Spike no, that's not for eating
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Sep 7, 2021 18:00
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What you don't swallow cigarette butts?
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Sep 7, 2021 18:27
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Arc Hammer posted:Bebop is about a lot of things but one I don't see discussed enough is how the world is used. It's essentially the inverse of most stories. Instead of the world changing by the actions of the protagonists, the show is instead about how the world changes on its own terms and the protagonists have to move through it or fall behind getting hung up on the past. The world doesn't care what happens to Spike, Jet, Faye, Ed, Ein or anyone. It'll still be there in one way or another long after we've all left it. 100%. The setting is my favourite part of Bebop. Music second favourite.
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Sep 7, 2021 21:47
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My only problem with episode 3 is the conceit needed to put Faye and Spike together. Why would the Big Bad choose such an elaborate ploy when he could just have the courier deliver it to him without involving an indebted octogenarian with questionable loyalties? Like, you were willing to launch enough ordinance to rival a major war just to take out Faye, but weren't willing to just pay some goon to walk the chip to your office? Each of those missiles definitely cost more than whatever fee the Spike-look-a-like would have been paid...Arc Hammer posted:What you don't swallow cigarette butts? He spit it back out.  ONE YEAR LATER posted:God I love this show so much and I cannot wait for the Netflix version. The music, the semi-serialized episode structure, the characters, just all of it works amazingly and I treasure the memories of watching it on adult swim and then going out and spending $60 on each DVD. The bluray sells for ~$30USD new.
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Sep 7, 2021 23:51
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Toxic Fart Syndrome posted:The bluray sells for ~$30USD new. I've had the collectors editon blu ray for years now, but back in 2002 anime DVD were expensive as gently caress and you got 3 episodes per disc and you enjoyed the gently caress out of it or else
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Sep 8, 2021 00:02
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raditts posted:Cowboy Bebop and Fullmetal Alchemist are probably the only two animes where I think the dub is superior.
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Sep 8, 2021 00:02
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ONE YEAR LATER posted:I've had the collectors editon blu ray for years now, but back in 2002 anime DVD were expensive as gently caress and you got 3 episodes per disc and you enjoyed the gently caress out of it or else I think that's still the case for many/most things. I just remember seeing this at Best Buy a few years ago on Bluray and it was $30 and I regretted not buying it until I remembered Jeffery Bezos exists in this timeline...
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Sep 8, 2021 01:06
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raditts posted:Cowboy Bebop and Fullmetal Alchemist are probably the only two animes where I think the dub is superior. I'll always respect the El Hazard OVAs because the writers clearly had the philosophy of 'It's okay to twist the translation in service of a joke.'
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Sep 8, 2021 02:57
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They're older because the series is revealed to take place after the finale of the anime and Spike survived 
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Sep 8, 2021 03:30
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Everything is clearer now Life is just a dream you know That's never ending I'm ascending
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Sep 8, 2021 03:36
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Arc Hammer posted:Instead of the world changing by the actions of the protagonists, the show is instead about how the world changes on its own terms and the protagonists have to move through it or fall behind getting hung up on the past. I've been trying to come up with a good summary of Bebop's' overarching themes, and I think you put it a lot better than I could. Every character-focused episode has fixation on/re-entanglement with the past as its narrative focus, and the two major character arcs over the course of the series culminate in a final confrontation with the need to put it all behind them. It's even present, though not as obvious, in Asteroid Blues- in retrospect, Asimov is trying to do the same thing Spike did and leave the syndicate life behind him, and the parallels between the two are probably not pleasant for Spike to think about.
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Sep 8, 2021 08:10
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