Cowboy Bebop, life set to the blues....

For me, this is the one that started it all. I knew what anime was, at least the idea. I'd seen examples here and there. Then Adult Swim aired Cowboy Bebop, and I saw what anime COULD be. I wasn't the only one. Cowboy Bebop did for anime shows what Akira had done for anime movies 10 years before. It captured the attention of the west, and forged a path to expand the genre beyond the shores of Japan. Sure, there were die hard fans everywhere who had been exposed to anime, but it was far from mainstream. Bebop changed all that.

And now, even 20 years later, it's something special and a force unto itself. It's a show that doesn't just have music, the music is a part of the show. The episodes are called sessions, as in music sessions, and while it's got a mix of many different styles in different sessions, it's mainly Blues and Jazz that set the tone of the show. To be honest, I don't feel any show since has captured music within it as well as Bebop. It's a masterpiece really.

The show itself is somewhat episodic. Most of them are stand alone adventures. However there are arcs that span the entire 26 episodes. Spike's arc is really the core of the show, but each character get's their own mini-arc and origin story as it were. It's just that Spikes ends up being the most covered and fleshed out. The show does build on the stories from previous sessions, and has many throwbacks to previous events. It's a refreshing type of story telling I find much more enjoyable than simple stand alone type stories, while allowing each session to be entertaining without having seen the others. There are a few exceptions, the last two sessions really require having seen the whole show to enjoy the full impact of their events.

The show is set in the future, around 2071. Man has moved out into space, however a "jump gate" explosion has blasted Earth's moon into pieces and the constant bombardment from rubble has left the earth a ruined landscape. It's still livable, but most cities are destroyed, and the constant bombardment makes the landscape ever changing and dangerous. Mars is well terraformed and settled and Venus is settled as well. Many moons in the solar system have also been colonized. Human kind moves around using "jump gates" to quickly travel from planet to planet.

The core cast from the beginning are Jet and Spike. They are bounty hunters traveling the solar system living off the bounties they collect. As the series progresses they are joined by the con-woman Faye and the child hacker Edward. Oh, then we have Ein, the dog. The five of them round out the crew of Jet's ship, Bebop, for the majority of the sessions.

So let's take a quick look at the crew. 

First we have Jet Black. Jet is a former ICCP detective (cop) who lost his arm when his corrupt partner betrayed him. Jet owns the ship, Bebop, that serves as the home for the crew during the run of the show. He's a jack-of-all-trades who is also their chief mechanic. He also shows some computer skills and as well as as good knowledge of science. Most likely from his service in the ICCP. He's good with guns and his fist, but most of his fighting seems strength based verses skill based. He's 36 years old, but appears far older in the show. There is a passing reference to this in one of the episodes. He retired from the force and became a bounty hunter when he lost his arm, but the main reason seems to be his disgust with the corruption in the ICCP. He however still retains many contacts and sources from within the ICCP and he uses them throughout the show. He serves as the father figure to the crew as well as the voice of reason. He's also the cook, and seems to regard the crew as his family.  He tends to be the one trying to keep everyone together and as safe as he can. But he does often get fed up with everyone doing their own thing.

 Spike Spiegel is a former syndicate (mob) hitman who has left his former life behind. The syndicate seems to mostly assume he's dead, but it seems more likely from clues in the show that they are well aware he's alive, but the elders have chosen to turn a blind eye and let him go. His history, along with his love Julia and friend turned enemy Vicious, seem to be the main undercurrent of the entire show. Slowly their story is told, sometimes just in flashbacks, and sometimes in whole episodes. Spike is laid back and mostly carefree. He's an expert martial artist and is truly gifted at gun play. He's also an accomplished pilot. He doesn't seem to care about much of anything beyond his next meal, but he, like most of the crew, shows compassion for others who are down on their luck. Often giving up bounties to help the people they were sent to capture.

Faye Valentine is a con-woman whom Jet and Spike encounter early on in the show. She was frozen due to injuries she received during a shuttle explosion, but the story about why she was revived turned out to be a con that was played on her, so we're never sure exactly why she was frozen. During most of the show, she has no memory of her life before she was revived. She's a fairly good con-woman and thief, but she seems to be mostly playing at both. A number of times she steals from the crew, but always seems to come back, and they always seem to forgive her. She's a pretty good fighter, is good with guns, and seems to be a good pilot. She's by far the greediest of the crew, but it seems to be mostly for show. She'll dismiss caring for anyone but herself, but she often puts her life on the line for the crew. Not that she won't complain the entire time. There are hints she came from a well off family and was pretty innocent before she was frozen. And in her story more than any of the others, it shows how much the world changed when the moon and much of the earth was destroyed. There are vague clues that life got much harder, rougher, and dirtier for mankind after the jump gate explosion. In a way her before and after lives illustrate that.

 Ed, also called Edward and Radical Edward is an elite hacker from earth. She claims to be 13 years old, but it's impossible to tell if anything she says is real or not. Of if she even knows. She's often mistaken for a boy, and even her own father claims he can't remember if she's a boy or a girl. Faye establishes she is in fact a girl however, but the exact circumstances happen off camera. She lures the Bebop and crew to earth with the intent of joining them, however her reasons are never clear. In fact, it's doubtful she ever really knows her reasons herself. She seems to just do whatever strikes her at the moment, and just goes with the flow. She doesn't seem to ever have a plan or any reasons for her actions. Unlike many characters similar to her in other shows, this seems to be genuine moment to moment living. She really has no plans, and is like a leaf blowing in the wind. The crew take her in, and she becomes one of the family. She proves helpful in many of their endeavors, but strangely she seems more a force of nature than a person. She may be one of the oddest characters in a show I can remember. She's part of the crew, but also something unto herself. She's strange, that Ed.

It's hard to say exactly how much time passes during the show. It's never mentioned, and at times it seems that there are large spans of time between episodes. However, most of the show seems to happen in 2071. And as Ed doesn't seem to age, it seems likely most of the action passes in about a year. While the crew are bounty hunters, they more often find themselves helping those in trouble than they do collecting bounties. It seems, no matter how much they complain, they are happy just getting by and living their lives. They seem the most happy when they have just enough to be eating. In most episodes they end up forgoing any bounty to help those they encounter. But they have no problems busting those that deserve it. That pays for all the ones they let go, and the good they do.