Soft, hard and crazy

Review of the anime Cowboy Bebop

Forget everything you know about japanimation, forget everything you know about cartoons in general because "Cowboy Bebop" is a very singular series.

On paper is a series of science fiction telling the vicissitudes of bounty hunters inter-galactic, an interesting subject but that does not transpire the originality either more for the Japanese animation, rich space heroes.
But on the screen we have a joyful and unique cultural melting pot.
"Cowboy Bebop" builds his colorful personality around borrowings from America's 40-50 (the sumptuous BO Jazz, Black Film aspect), Chinese martial arts (the hero practices the Jeet Kune Do of Bruce Lee, Philosophical references), European pop culture (Western Spaghetti, English psychedelia) and, of course, the space opera.
An avalanche of heteroclite references that one might think indigestible but it is not.

Simply because these references never serve as crutches, they are digested, integrated and enrich a universe and a perfectly mastered narrative.
Each episode is conceived as a field of experimentation where everything is allowed that it is from a scenario or scenic point of view.
Thus one can witness an episode composed of hallucinations due to fungi, another where the crew of the Bebop (the vessel that serves as the base for the protagonists) is decimated by a lobster left too long in the fridge or To an epic duel with a killer as perverse as singular named Pierrot the fool. One jumps from the pure comedy to the film of action boosted passing by the sober introspective polar
It is seen Keiko Nobumoto is pleased with the scenario but Shinichirō Watanabe is not left to the realization. The camera is inventive and virtuoso but always at the service of the content, the drawing is sublime, the animation rich and the staging audacious. Again, from one episode to another, we will not see the same processes, since they always try to adapt to the story we are told.
One oscillates between the most absurd and the most tense drama. Whatever the tone and approach of an episode of "Cowboy Bebop" they are all different and all successful.

Rather than falling into the commercial ease of the extended series and the tedious filling that ensues, "Cowboy Bebop" only has one season, 26 episodes and that's all but 26 true stories to tell, 26 unique moments .
All this would be nothing without characters to attach themselves to. Besides character design very successful (and I do not speak only of the chest of Faye) the Bebop crew is inhabited by this same madness madness that inhabits the series. Jet Black, the taciturn veteran looking like big arms but borrowing a sweet melancholy. Ed the little genius of computing as skillful as carefree. Ein the most expensive dog in the galaxy.

And then there is Spike Spiegel whose bottomless stomach pushed him to accept bonuses, a casual and charismatic type but hides a wound that he does not mean. It is this wound that will serve as a red thread to the series at the turn of certain episodes including the fabulous final dyptic: The Real Folk Blues part 1 & 2. Episodes in which we meet the well named VIcious, Antagonist of Spike.
This joyful band will meet colorful characters ranging from the angry criminal ("Pierrot the Fool", "Sympathy For The Devil") to the bizarre and unpredictable trumpet ("Cowboy Funk", "Heavy Metal Queen").

The use and importance of music in "Cowboy Bebop" is found at all levels of creation ... nothing but the term "Bebop" refers to a popular musical style of the 40s and 50s.
Beyond the unforgettable main theme ("Tank!") Composed by Yoko Kanno the series is dressed by a soundtrack very jazz and sometimes blues or classic rock very elegant and percussive. An unusual choice for spatio-futuristic atmospheres but which works to perfection as the complementarity with the images jumps to the ears.
It is also interesting to note that the names of the episodes very often include a direct musical reference (such as those called "Bohemian Rhapsody" or "Sympathy for the devil") or indirectly recalling this spirit of Jam Session The episodes are called "Session") where musicians of different style improvise to make music. A free and boundless creation mentality that fits perfectly into what is "Cowboy Bebop".

A true folk UFO, "Cowboy Bebop" never ceases to affirm and to chisel its personality in the course of its 26 episodes taking us, between excitation and contemplation, until a finale as blowing as it is unforgettable.
This series draws a bridge between East and West and offers a surprising and surprising show.
If "Cowboy Bebop" is a cartoon "for adults" it is not in relation to the explicit nature of its content (as is often the case with this appellation) but rather by the maturity of it and by the l Excellence in artistic processing. "Cowboy Bebop" is not the kind of experience that one often crosses and it would be a pity (or idiot, of the choice) to deprive it.

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