|
Session 22: Cowboy Funk. If it wasn't for Daran Norris killing it as Andy this is a character I could totally see Billy West voice with his Zapp Brannigan persona. Just a super fun episode all around. I like how Spike is so enraged by Andy just winging it when that's basically how Spike gets by in life. Also, Ein wearing Jet's wig was cute. As was City Hall being the Tyrell Building. And Jet being a mom and stitching up Spike's shirt for him. I also really like Teddy Bomber himself. Poor guy kept getting ignored and started lashing out over how hosed up the world was. That last scene with him and the cop in the van was sweet, because he finally got someone to talk to. Session 23: Brain Scratch This is the episode I've probably seen the least after Boogie Woogie Feng Shui. But it's a pretty good one. Again we come back to the underlying notion of people living in dreams and trapped in limbo by their circumstances in life. Most of the episode is fairly average but it has a great ending with the discussion on faith and control. Got some real Hideo Kojima vibes from Londes's talk about information control and manipulation. Also a pretty on the nose criticism of consumerism but it has the 90s kitsch selling it. I especially like Punch and Judy going crazy for the split second that Big Shots! got canceled. And again we get Jet and Ed being the best duo. Papa! Session 24: Hard Luck Woman And now we come to the endgame. Building off of Brain Scratch, we go from being trapped in limbo to breaking free and going to find out where we belong. In the end we get three outcomes: status quo, living in the past, and hope for the future. Spike and Jet can't really bear to have their way of life uprooted, so they sit in denial, unwilling or unable to go after what they really want. Spike continues to live in the moment, but I think of the two Jet is the one more hurt. I mentioned back in Mushroom Samba that Jet is a really lonely guy at heart and I think he definitely got better as a person with Faye and Ed on the ship. His dynamic with Ed was fantastic and even though Faye annoys the poo poo out of him, he still takes care of her. Faye runs to the past, and it gets her absolutely nowhere. That world is gone, and all that is left is a memory as hollow as the remains of her home. It's easily the best Faye episode of the show, even if it frustrates the audience as much as it frustrates Faye to never find closure in her life. She just needs to keep going, and find where she belongs. Edward leaving is really sad for everyone else, but for Ed herself, I find the end of the episode incredibly uplifting and optimistic. Faye's words about finding where you belong really seem to stick with Ed. It's not that she regretted being on the Bebop, it was just that she was ready to move onto the next thing in her life. Because life never stands still, and staying on the Bebop wasn't living for her anymore. She's following in her dad's footsteps figuratively and literally. It might be pointless to chart out every new meteor impact on Earth but it's emblematic of the underlying hope for the future that someone is doing something rather than just wallowing in the status quo. So it's a blend for me. It's a bittersweet ending, but one with optimism. Even the farewell text puts things on a happy note. "See you, space cowboy..." has always been an ambiguous phrase, but "See you Space Cowgirl. Some place, somewhere!" It's almost a promise that things will get better, at least for Edward. All of this leaves only two episodes left. Tomorrow, it's the Real Folk Blues. If you've seen it, you know what's coming. Arist, if you haven't watched it yet, I'll hold off posting my thoughts until you have. Then we've got the movie.
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2021 03:27
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 09:57 |
|
|
When I first got into Bebop it was on a DVD, a form of physical media that existed. They released like 6 episodes with enhanced audio or something because of how sweet DVD sound was compared to VHS, from memory Hard Luck Woman was one of those. Basically for nearly 20 years the shot of Faye lying in the ruins of her own bedroom has stuck with me since, it's a drat fine moment and sad as hell. Ed moving on always get me choked up when Ein turns around then comes with her, it's a happy sad but sad none the less. For a show that is about fun exciting adventures, it's those sad character studies that stick with me.
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2021 06:36
|
|
|
Hard Luck Woman is a fantastic episode on it's own but man it's elevated so much by Call Me, Call Me kicking in during the final scenes of the episode. A very strong contender for my favorite song from the show's soundtrack.
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2021 08:12
|
|
|
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj5zvVwAmQI
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2021 08:58
|
|
|
Good grief...just perfect. x-post from TVIV chat thread: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JDWm1f6-M0
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2021 15:24
|
|
|
Toxic Fart Syndrome posted:
Haha I can definitely tell that Cho is almost 50 from those jowls. Poor guy, the rest of his face has held up remarkably well.
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2021 15:28
|
|
|
Toxic Fart Syndrome posted:Good grief...just perfect. That actually looks a lot better than I thought it would.
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2021 15:54
|
|
|
Arc Hammer posted:That actually looks a lot better than I thought it would. John Cho is almost pitch-perfect for dub-Spike. Jet is really close, too. I love the style: the kickflip in slowmo does a really great job of accenting the length of his body and making him look lanky, like the anime. It honestly all looks so good I am waiting for the penny to drop...will this be the first, great live-action adaptation that both honors the original AND adapts entirely to the different medium?
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2021 17:11
|
|
|
I'd ask why Faye's actress is getting so much crap but I'm just going to go with 'because woman.'
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2021 17:27
|
|
|
Dawgstar posted:I'd ask why Faye's actress is getting so much crap but I'm just going to go with 'because woman.' ding ding ding
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2021 17:30
|
|
|
And not being an alabaster 6 foot tall goddess in gogo boots and a stripper outfit.
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2021 18:38
|
|
|
her response to the reaction she was getting online was the only thing i saw about that, and that video itself was kind of obnoxious, but i thought she looked pretty cool/funny in this trailer and suits faye. they all really seem to be aiming for the localisation performance as their mark which is strange in an enjoyable kind of way. the only problem i had with that trailer was that john cho looks too old to be playing spike. i knew he was old but i thought maybe it wouldn't matter. it does. but if they work with the fact he's an older guy, maybe it'll be fine. he just doesn't physically remind me of spike from the cartoon. roomtone fucked around with this message at 20:24 on Oct 19, 2021 |
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2021 20:18
|
|
|
Toxic Fart Syndrome posted:Good grief...just perfect. I appreciate that all the YouTube comments are "wow, this actually looks like it might be good", meanwhile the Reddit hivemind over on r/television is already spinning QAnon conspiracies because it can't process that people might actually be into this thing given what's been shown so far. If this thing manages to land in the same orbit inhabited by The Witcher of just "fun schlock that knows its schlock and gleefully owns the poo poo out of its B-tier lodging", I'd consider that an absolute win for Netflix.
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2021 20:28
|
|
|
I am liking the set design. That tow truck looking ship in the yard fight definitely fits the aesthetic.
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2021 20:34
|
|
|
I like that Jet’s got the voice down
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2021 20:40
|
|
|
Gosh that actually does look quite good. And props for "What Planet Is This" in the trailer!
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2021 23:03
|
|
|
Hard Luck Woman hit me like a truck. The Ed stuff was great on its own as it was both happy and sad to watch her move forward and leave the Bebop behind, but the Faye plot... good god. Watching her literally run up the hill to find the wreckage of her old life, nothing remaining, having rejected the present for the past and being rejected by her past in turn, all of it was just heartbreaking. In the end, she just lies down in the rubble. What else is there for her? I was shocked they brought back the Betamax tape, by the way. This show generally has so little continuity that it was very surprising.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2021 02:33
|
|
|
I finished. And I cried. A lot. I'll wait for Arist to finish watching, like I said I would. I'm happy we're watching the movie next. I'm gonna need it.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2021 03:30
|
|
|
The live action adaptation looks like it is going to be so much fun. Haters gonna hate though
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2021 04:08
|
|
|
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYHPDQpYe_c Ed Ein 'n Eddy
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2021 20:21
|
|
|
I watched The Real Folk Blues. Honestly, not too much to say about it. I think I watched part of the final episode on Adult Swim years ago and just kind of forgot about it, and I was already deeply aware of "Bang." and everything it entailed, so I'm left with the smaller, quieter bits, primarily Faye's final, tearful goodbye to Spike.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2021 00:42
|
|
|
The anime is coming back to Netflix tomorrow FYI. I also love when The Real Folk Blues starts up in the last episode and it's a nice signifying moment that this is the end of everything and you should realize that since you've watched 25 other episodes that ended with it.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2021 01:06
|
|
|
Honestly on the rewatch it is those small things that add up rather than the big moments most people remember. Stuff like the guy who played Punch on Big Shots meeting his mom at the starport, Faye collapsing into a wreck being her final scene, Jet's unspoken farewell to Spike for the entirety of part 2, Shinn's brief but interesting dynamic with Vicious or Annie's death. They're just these small snapshots of the larger world that keeps on turning even as Spike's life comes to a close. It's a great two parter and like I said I still cry at the end. Spike was dead from the beginning and that's his ultimate tragedy. From every goofy moment in the show to dramatic turn, he was never able to grow or move on, and even his final confrontation with his past only amounted to him finally dying. He went to find out if he was truly alive, and only found freedom when he left the dream behind and ended up dead. If he'd just listened to Jet or to Faye, two people who clearly do care for him even if they never admitted it until it was too late, he could have moved on. But he never did, and he ran headlong back to his past. The past holds nothing for people in Bebop, no reason to live. So he dies. And the world does not care one bit. It's an ending that leaves me feeling incredibly hollow but also fulfilled. It's complete and incomplete because the world moves on while life just ends. And that's both sad and comforting. Spike got the answer he was searching for, and for the rest of the world there's still the inevitable march of time to grow and move on with our lives. But again, it's those little moments that add up and really make Cowboy Bebop special. Everything feels so alive when you've got random non sequiturs, lived-in worlds, little visual or verbal tics and the massive amount of language conveyed through vibe without a word of dialogue. And it is these little moments that also make Cowboy Bebop The Movie such a massive treat and I'm really happy we're finishing off the rewatch with it rather than Real Folk Blues.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2021 01:20
|
|
|
Arc Hammer posted:the guy who played Punch on Big Shots meeting his mom at the starport oh my god was that what that was, lmao I'm dumb
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2021 01:22
|
|
|
Arist posted:oh my god was that what that was, lmao I'm dumb Just means you're like Faye. A face you can't quite place outside of its context.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2021 01:49
|
|
|
Arist posted:oh my god was that what that was, lmao I'm dumb Goonfaceblindness strikes again! It's a subtle moment, but I love that he has completely dropped his character and affect. Arc Hammer posted:But again, it's those little moments that add up and really make Cowboy Bebop special. Everything feels so alive when you've got random non sequiturs, lived-in worlds, little visual or verbal tics and the massive amount of language conveyed through vibe without a word of dialogue. And it is these little moments that also make Cowboy Bebop The Movie such a massive treat and I'm really happy we're finishing off the rewatch with it rather than Real Folk Blues.  Very much  . More than anything, I remember the little moments from episodes that aren't really my favorites. It's the attention and worldbuilding that they put in that makes this great scifi. While there are times Jet has to monologue for the audience's sake, the world never really stops to explain itself. The elements of the world all exist before the show really dives into a topic or deigns to explain itself.Also: how the gently caress am I supposed to watch this movie??? You can't buy it or stream it anywhere in the US. Is there a German copy on youtube or something? Yeesh! 
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2021 05:24
|
|
|
Toxic Fart Syndrome posted:Also: how the gently caress am I supposed to watch this movie??? You can't buy it or stream it anywhere in the US. Is there a German copy on youtube or something? Yeesh! Check your local library, you'd be surprised the kinds of things they have.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2021 18:39
|
|
|
And with that, I've finished watching Cowboy Bebop: The Movie. Aka "Heaven's Door." What a great movie and a great moment to end on. Real Folk Blues might be the finale that ends out the story but The Movie is capstone in my mind. For the record, if you are a stickler for chronology, the movie takes place between Cowboy Funk and Hard Luck Woman (you see the twin towers where Teddy Bomber blew up the connecting section and Cowboy/Samurai Andy gets a cameo during the Halloween parade.), but it doesn't really matter too much. The great strength of the film comes from Bebop's episodic nature. Where other series might have big movies that are ultimately irrelevant because the super dangerous one-off villain isn't a regular series antagonist, Cowboy Bebop treats it as just another episode, same way that the characters treat the events as just another bounty. So you can really watch the movie whenever you want and it works just fine. But I treat it as an ending because the movie shows the other side of the choice that Spike made during Real Folk Blues by focusing on what you leave behind when you treat your life like it's a dream. Where Real Folk Blues ends with Spike's death and closes out his story, here we see what happens after Vincent dies. The world keeps on turning, and Electra is the one left to carry that weight. It was the defining moment of her life and the ending to Vincent's. For the rest of Mars it was Tuesday. Vincent discovering the truth about dreams and reality right as death takes him is what happens to Spike. And it's a really cold dose of reality to discover that it was real in the end, and you've just pissed it all away because you couldn't move on from your past wounds. It's not a life worth living if you can't see reality for what it is. So I love that the last song we ever hear from the world of Cowboy Bebop is a desperate plea to Spike, to Vincent, to loving everybody, to break down that door and find what is real before it's too late. Because the world will pass you by if you don't do it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT6u0bE6vTw A simple message to find life and live it, rather than being trapped in dreams. A good message to end the series on rather than Real Folk Blues' "I've found what's real, and now it's too late." ending. Spike is ultimately the center of a cautionary tale. Don't be like Spike, or Vincent. Just live. The movie also has hands down the best music from the entire series, which means that it has one of the best movie soundtracks of all time. Not much more needs to be said. It blends in perfectly with every scene and it leaves us on a note of fulfillment. Being a movie with a longer runtime, the story can also indulge in the small moments that bring the world alive. Some of the best parts of the film are just Spike, Ed or Jet wandering around Mars and chilling. It's definitely a Spike-centric story, but Ed wandering around looking for Lee makes me giggle. Or Spike, not being able to confess to his friends, instead finds a way to finally talk about Julia to a complete stranger. It's a softer side of Spike that you never see, and it's a great moment to flesh him out further. Props to Jennifer Hale, too, since she's great as Electra. This was her first anime role and her only one for twenty years until she did the Witcher Anime earlier this year on Netflix. The lady is prolific as hell and probably way too busy with other work to do more anime voiceovers, but she was quite strong like she always is. I also liked the return of Laughing Bull. I have no idea how the live action show will handle him, if they even try to at all. A Lakota man in space tossing out wisdom at bounty hunters is a weird concept to begin with and I'm worried that they'll cut him entirely to avoid any online outrage about representation. But I do like Bull's moments in the anime and in this film. He's cryptic, but he's well meaning and his speech in the movie about the interconnectivity of all things is a good metaphor for Bebop. It's just life. And speaking of cryptic, Spike's dream. I used to be one of those guys who was convinced Spike was alive at the end of the show because only one star faded away instead of two (one for Spike and one for Vicious and Vicious was obviously dead right?!?) and the dream Spike had with Jet telling him he was dead from the beginning was vague enough that I thought it was meant more for the series rather than the train fight against Vincent. Nowadays I'm more okay with Spike being dead at the end. It's a sad, cold reality, but it's also an appropriate ending for show. Okay, maybe part of me still believes that Spike is alive and his dream in the movie is proof. Just a little bit. And holy poo poo do I love the look of the movie. Alba City is like if New York, Morocco and Paris got slammed into each other and then planted on Mars and it looks gorgeous. It's a ton of disparate visual styles blended together and my god does it ever work. Kinda like the rest of Bebop, blending genres, music and modes and creating something wholly unique. I've recently been watching Carole and Tuesday and I was surprised to learn that it kinda takes place in the same city as this movie, and it still keeps that New York vibe to it by having Carole's apartment in a Brooklyn neighbourhood. So that's cool. This was fun. It's been a few years since I watched the series all the way through, and I'm happy? that I did. Maybe not happy, but fulfilled. You take the goofy with the dramatic. Now to watch other things until the Netflix show comes out.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2021 21:57
|
|
|
Sankara posted:Check your local library, you'd be surprised the kinds of things they have. Yooooooooooo I’m so embarrassed I didn’t think of this because they totally have it!
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2021 22:29
|
|
|
Toxic Fart Syndrome posted:Yooooooooooo I’m so embarrassed I didn’t think of this because they totally have it!  The movie is so good! It's wild, anime movies are supposed to be bad! It feels wrong somehow. I have an actual physical copy of the soundtrack, and I'm proud of it.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2021 06:41
|
|
|
The fact that it isn't a cash in, and has some of the most iconic scenes and music really make it special. And it's main themes fit in nicely: They all go off and do their thing, and unite together at the end to succeed as a family. I mean, personally, the convenience store at the start, the spike as a janitor scene and the dogfight at the end are some of my favorites.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2021 08:29
|
|
|
Finished my rewatch of the show last night, it was as good as I remembered it. Going to watch the movie tonight and when I went to pull the DVD out of my box set (the original set from the early 2000s) I had forgotten at one point I printed out a custom cover that was in line with the TV series DVDs: 
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2021 18:46
|
|
|
Ballz posted:Finished my rewatch of the show last night, it was as good as I remembered it. Going to watch the movie tonight and when I went to pull the DVD out of my box set (the original set from the early 2000s) I had forgotten at one point I printed out a custom cover that was in line with the TV series DVDs: drat that's a cool cover. Are the Electra and Vincent profiles from an official source?
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2021 19:53
|
|
|
Arc Hammer posted:drat that's a cool cover. Are the Electra and Vincent profiles from an official source? No idea. I'm pretty sure I downloaded it from some fan-made DVD cover depository, circa 2003. Unfortunately I'm unable to find the original source image that I printed out.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2021 22:34
|
|
|
Ballz posted:No idea. I'm pretty sure I downloaded it from some fan-made DVD cover depository, circa 2003. Unfortunately I'm unable to find the original source image that I printed out. Time to delve into the depths of the ruins of earth to find a
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2021 06:21
|
|
|
Roach Warehouse posted:Time to delve into the depths of the ruins of earth to find a The designer's name is printed at the bottom. I looked it up and I think I found his Linkedin. I may or may not network with him over this.  In other news, we got an official trailer for the live action show: https://twitter.com/bebopnetflix/status/1453139638307205130
|
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2021 01:41
|
|
|
Just finished the movie. Liked it well enough but it didn't really come together for me. Loved the opening convenience store scene though (iconic for a good reason), and the soundtrack was just consistent bangers. I'll make a separate thread for the live-action series in a bit.
|
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2021 02:13
|
|
|
Trailer looks good. Movie comes together for me by being all it needed to be: more Bebop in an extended package. And the ending cinches it even if there are individual episodes I enjoy more.
|
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2021 02:31
|
|
|
So, some final thoughts: I really enjoyed this opportunity to see the whole series for more-or-less the first time. The themes hit for me despite not being very new at this point; my immediate comparison is the original Blade Runner, which was so formative a work in its genre that its own thematic work feels almost cliché when revisited now. That's not to say Cowboy Bebop (or Blade Runner, for that matter) is bad or rote or trite, merely that I've seen it before. That said, I don't think I've seen it done nearly this well, so it definitely holds up. Nearly every single episode deals with the theme of one's past, be it in the form of mistakes, memories, family, love, or unfinished business. Even the basic dichotomies between characters tie into this: Spike can't escape his past even if he tried, while Faye just wants her own past back. A couple years back I watched all of Shinichiro Watanabe's other Steve Blum-led series Samurai Champloo for the first time, and while that was a lot of fun I don't think it's nearly as strong as Bebop. Few individual episodes of Champloo stuck in my memory like Bebop's (which is not at all a fair comparison given that I just finished the latter series, after all), and the characters felt a lot more thinly sketched. But more than that, Champloo just never had nearly the heart-wrenching pathos of the truly stellar Bebop episodes, most of which came from Faye. The biggest surprise of Bebop was that Faye ended up as probably my favorite character. Her big focus episodes in Speak Like a Child and Hard Luck Woman (and to a lesser extent, My Funny Valentine) are some of the best episodes of the show, episodes that hit me like a truck. I'm not trying to rag on Champloo, I'll probably rewatch it eventually now that I've done this so I can properly compare the series, but I think Bebop is a lot better. For one, Faye gets to actually occasionally do something in Bebop, unlike Fuu who just gets kidnapped constantly (though Faye also has to be rescued a lot). I'll stop comparing the shows, but they absolutely invite the comparison; Watanabe loves his familiar style and narrative structure, after all. There's a few small quibbles here and there (it's a little weird to me how late in the series My Funny Valentine is considering there's no real window into any of what Faye's deal is until then, and the show's a little too in love with introducing a character and then killing them off for cheap heat without giving me much time to care about them like with Gren or Shin), but I really loved it. Jet and Ed's weird little relationship was very cute, also. Best episodes for me are backloaded: Speak Like a Child, Cowboy Funk, and Hard Luck Woman.
|
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2021 20:25
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 09:57 |
|
|
Also I threw together a thread for the live-action series if anyone cares: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3983222
|
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2021 20:55
|
|