Why Even Non-Anime Fans Should Check Out Cowboy Bebop

Anime is something I generally try to stay away from. This is mainly for two reasons:

One is the fact that, due to my love of video games and the fact that I'm studying Japanese, I'm always wary of being mislabeled as a member of that group of people. You know the ones. Those kids who are obsessed with anime and run around talking about how wonderful Japan is and spouting out random Japanese vocabulary without knowing what it means or anything else about the country outside of its pop-culture.

The other is simply that, like most American TV, most anime just isn't that good. Sure, it's often times novel and occasionally refreshing when you're used to American television, but compared to itself, it's comprised primarily of the same sort of mediocre derivative trash that we suffer through. However, just like some American television is just too good to miss, every now and then, there's an anime series that's a real gem. Cowboy Bebop is one such example.

To the anime loving public, and indeed, to more than a few of you who may be reading this, Cowboy Bebop is nothing new. You're already well aware of just how good it is, but there are a lot of you who most certainly need to give it a chance, and it's my mission now to explain to you why you should. The best way I know how to do this is to lay out in a straight forward fashion what Cowboy Bebop is, and what it is not.

Cowboy Bebop is a short series. It's only 26 half-hour episodes (or sessions). Cowboy Bebop is not a strongly connected narrative. With the exception of a few two-part episodes, each session is its own self contained story. What narrative there is is entirely character driven. When the series begins, we meet these characters, and their attitudes and dialog let us know that they have a past, but we don't know what it is. Over the course of the series, hints are dropped and information is revealed so that you begin to understand why they've chosen the paths they have.

Cowboy Bebop is not a space opera. It isn't epic or grandiose in any sense of the word. There's no climatic struggle between good and evil going on, and while the characters may be larger than life at times, they aren't out of the ordinary for the world they inhabit.

Cowboy Bebop is a space western. While it doesn't directly address the issue, it strongly shows the struggle of justice and injustice and the blurry line that forms between the two as one exits civilization. It's a story that shows how the pursuit of freedom affects people.

Cowboy Bebop is also about the ideals of jazz lived out. Its characters live within a thin set of rules that are made to be stretched and toyed with while new ideas are moved between freely.

Cowboy Bebop isn't preachy. There's none of the monologuing about honor, justice, friendship, or meaning that you find in so much mainstream anime. The Bebop's crew lead individually sketchy lives without any apology.

Cowboy Bebop is subtle. Through depiction of action, and not by words, it shows how people living outside of law and society cling to a law of their own making, no matter how fragile.

In many of these characteristics, Cowboy Bebop is a lot like Firefly, another show I'll probably write about later, even though most of you know and love it. Though completely distinct in style, their purpose is in many ways similar. The most important quality that both seem to share, though, is their desire to use their visual nature to show you their purpose instead of shouting it at you through a megaphone.

With its incredible sense of style; enjoyable characters; first rate soundtrack (Yoko Kanno and the Seatbelts are an amazing band and some incredible music was composed for this series); and even a near perfect dubbing (with very few painfully translated lines), Cowboy Bebop is a series that can be watched and enjoyed while missing all of these elements. I know that I probably watched the entire series twice before I picked up on just how nuanced the whole thing is. But, as is always the case, the whole subtle depth to the series is what makes it a true classic and something worth every discerning person's time.

See you later space cowboys...