I've used Cowboy Bebop as the ultimate "Here is what anime is" title to show people, and have never had anyone not love it. It really is a special thing.
I remember that I’d heard of the show before watching it but only having been referenced not being told if it was good or not. So when I stumbled across it and watched it for the first time I’m amazed I hadn’t watched it earlier.
I didn't have cable in the late 90s, so the movie actually is how I discovered this series. This movie is actually a great way to introduce yourself to the anime.
The same thing happened with me. My mum bought the film because I liked the cover (I was around 11-12 years old, and she didn't know that it was a more adult type film) and I loved it and watched so many times that I now know the film by heart. I never felt that I was missing something, and it made me appreciate the series even more later in life.
@@Snake4985 I didn't know that why didn't anyone tell me and who did she voice in the Naruto movie, that is so cool Tara strong needs to get some anime roles.
Cowboy Bebop: The Movie was the first anime movie I saw in an actual theater! I'll never forget the thrill and wonder of seeing anime for the first time on the big screen! Good times!
Bennet’s one of the few anime youtubers I actually like, he’s not overly pretentious or annoying like most of the anime youtubers I’ve seen here. And he’s one of the even fewer people who actually take a look at older anime, instead of constantly covering what’s new/popular this season.
I think there is a reason for that, and a lot of it isn't HIS fault, but some of it kind of was even though a lot of the problems was being stuck on CA for so long.
technically the story of bebop does something a lot of westerns loved to do, this whole "dyeing age of the west" where one foot is in the past and one is in the present, both with what the characters do, as well as with how the show does it's treatment of technology, like now'a'days you got people who love modern and future tech but then people who would still rather dig a ditch with a shovel and get their food from the forest than rely heavily on a machine or super market, and i think it comes from that same thing i pointed out in my comment about 5 centimeters, many people are on some level depressed because they don't live a life they ideally thought they would therefore they have this grandiose view of the past, like things where better, therefore many don't want to let go of it and because of that their are many places that thrive on that idea, their is also the fact that some people can't afford the future, like i love VR, but it's too expensive so I'll continue playing p.c. and console games for a while longer, that sort of thing, i'm sorry if this comment is chopped together I'm hammering this out five minutes before work, so forgive me if I sound like I'm regurgitating something sage already said about it, i just had this thought and needed to bang it out before it goes away
I've always given far more weight to characters than the story in terms of importance. My reason being it doesn't matter how well executed the story is regardless of scope or complexity if you can't stand the characters. That said, good characters can easily support a weak story, or even a relatively stupid one. Just look at the Cowboy Bebop episode Mushroom Samba. You could sure as hell argue its a weak episode considering the entire story is about the crew tripping on shrooms, but even then the episode is still watchable given how strong the characters are. And I'd say that's why the movie works so well. The plot is weak, but the characters and their interactions are what make people love it. On a side note, I'm so glad to know Mehuary isn't going anywhere. They are easily some of my favorite episodes.
After all these years, it still brings a smile to my face seeing Cowboy Bebop. Like a friend you haven't seen in years, but you pick up right where you left off like it was just yesterday you saw them. I grew up right at the perfect time of the first run of Toonami, and when Adult Swim first began airing, focusing mainly on anime. When the most likely way you'd come across new anime was through a friend, or taking a random chance on a title at Blockbuster Video, through advertisements in Animerica or Shonen Jump (when you weren't downloading torrents or catching the latest broadcast on the aforementioned networks). I recall all of the anime I was exposed to through these means; Macross Plus, Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040, Dragon Half, Slayers, Tenchi Muyo/Universe, Dragon Ball Z, Trigun, Bebop, Fushigi Yûgi, YuYu Hakusho, Outlaw Star, Excel Saga, Those Who Hunt Elves, Weiß Kruez, Gundam Wing, G Gundam, Ah My Goddess, Samurai Champloo... I could keep going. And while Cowboy Bebop is not my favorite anime of all time (that spot will always belong to Trigun), I still get that fuzzy nostalgic pang when I catch an episode, old AMV, or review involving the Bebop crew. It's these videos that remind me of how proud I am of the title "Oldtaku", and it brings a quiet joy when I run into others just like me, that help keep the memory of that bygone era alive. Here's to you, Space Cowboys. Cheers. 🍸
While Akira on VHS was the first anime I ever saw, being the son of a father who loved japanese animation during a time that was quite unheard of, it was Wolf's Rain and Cowboy Bebop that made me feel like I had found my own loves in the genre. I can agree with the sentiment that some timeless things are not meant for everyone, as my friend tried showing his wife Cowboy Bebop and she was completely uninterested, I do also feel that those same things are timeless for a reason, and to anyone who feels like "why do all the oldtimers love this?", I'd say if you can't find it on your own then search for context. Why do so many people regard 2001: A Space Odyssey as a work of art? Contextually remember that it came out not even a decade after space travel even became conceivably possible, a year before the moon landing, and a decade prior to Star Wars. So the only thing to really compare it with would have been 1950s movies like "Forbidden Planet" or the very early episodes of Star Trek. Safe to say, absolutely nothing came close to the look or feel of 2001. These are the kinds of things you can find in almost anything timeless, Cowboy Bebop included. Even if you can't appreciate it for what it is, there's still almost assuredly a reason that it is held in such regard and garners such praise, even if it may seem like bloated fanfare to you.
Cowboy Bebop is...an amazing amalgamation of music, visuals, characters, and storytelling that combines in a way that you rarely see in ANY medium. I can understand why some people feel it gets over-hyped, I got burned out on it myself when it had it's umpteenth run on AS, but I still love it.
You're video has encouraged me to rewatch it as well as the series. The last time I saw that series was when it aired on Cartoon Network years ago now. My husband owns it, just saw it on our library wall.. thanks for your review. Hope it's a good as I recall it being.
To me Vincent always felt like a gestalt made up of other bounty heads the Bebop crew went after. He's motivated by a dangerous substance like Asimov, everywhere he goes stuff gets broken like Hakim, (though where as Hakim leaves overturned chessboards and punched-out grooms, Vincent leaves piles of corpses,) the virus he has is kept in marbles, which feel like a throwback to that poker chip from episode 3, both being game pieces, his plan to spread a virus is reminiscent of the Space Warriors from episode 4, his general attitude and disregard for life reminds me of Wen, specifically, the way he executes a taxi driver is nearly identical to the way Vincent executes that one guy from in his car, he's identified by his tattoo like Decker, and both Vincent and Pierrot Le Fou were experimented on. Then there's Viscous. Both Vincent and Vicious act as a sort of dark mirror to Spike, and both are veterans of the war on Titan.
Only now do I make the connection that Doc Browns dog is named Einstein.... and the Corgie in Bebop is named Ein... "Yes... Well... I too am a slow reader" Prince George - Blackadder The Third.
It's bounty hunters in space that doesn't fall into harem anime/fan service tropes whats not to like? It's greatness comes down to the fact that you can show this to your parents and not feel embarrassed.... so that's why people say it is great..... unless you can explain why your favorite anime has a 300 year old ancient being who prefers to look like a 13yr old with a big brother complex who demands to bathe with the protagonist.
Hate to use this overused meme but this comment seems kinda weeaboomer thiers plenty of shows out thier that carry bebops weight (reference intended) that don’t have a harem or fan service
@@vandad13 Samuari Champloo is Cowboy Bebop .... same director/dub people just set in ye olden samurai days. Black Lagoon is straight trash.... the manic personality of the main female lead (Remi I think is her name)doesn't sort itself out until season 3 and she just ruins EVERYTHING with her bipolar outbursts in the meantime Hell Black Lagoon was my goto on how not to write a female lead example. Last two I haven't seen. Thinking hard on the subject I think maybe the Castlevania series is one I might say is fine to show.... outside of that... it's drawing a blank.
Wray Day for the record I don’t think any of the series I’ve mentioned (at least the ones I’ve seen) surpass bebop but more so that they have elements that bebop had or contain its dna
This actually started a trend with me, that come to think of it began with the Star Trek movies, I watched Cowboy Bebop: the Movie first before watching the show. Suffice to say, I'm still grateful for the experience. Starting with the movie, you get a framework of the characters for the most part fully formed and their interactions with each other although Jet, out of the crew's screentime, takes a back seat the most. Still, it was a nice taste of the show in a nutshell. Kinda like Serenity to Firefly.
If this review doesn't credit *TOSHIHIRO KAWAMOTO* character designer behind Golden Boy, Ghost In The Shell PS1, Wolf's Rain and almost every Gundam imaginable including Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team and key animator behind every anime in history since Arion to Gosick to Noragami to Blood Blockade Battlefront, who's responsible for Cowboy Bebop's characters, for the love of *FUCK....*
Also kinda bummed at the lack of mention of Nobuteru Yuki in one of the many anime he's designed that Sage has already reviewed. He's pretty much the reason I think 90s fantasy anime looks so spectacular. Speaking of which RECORD OF LODOSS WAR PLZ SAGE.
Its only because this new generation doesn't understand its concept. Every member except Ed is trying to escape their past and is stuck in time. Near the end, everything falls apart and they are forced to move forward again. It's actually very well done. Each have to face their own past. There is even videos on it that explain the ending. Its very sad.
You know I get the whole “cowboy beebob is over hyped” mean I was in that camp when I first watched it 20 years ago. However over the years the ending line “you gonna carry that weight” has proven true and I find myself return to it in my mind.
I think that littlekuriboh summed it up perfectly in one of his things "They're a rare breed called forgettable movie villains. You've never heard of them and once you've finished fighting them you won't remember it even happened. But for the next 90 minutes you'll think they're the biggest threat you've faced in your entire life!" Every single noncanon anime movie XD ua-cam.com/video/Y7RK73YyPGU/v-deo.html
Perfectly timed, Bennett! I'm finishing an anime series I've never seen each month this year (New Year's Resolution; send recommendations, please!), and January's is Cowboy Bebop. It's like something was in the stars... (Or in the teaser from last Anime Abandon... XD)
I can see how Cowboy Bebop could be over hyped. Honestly, the series is alot like a river. Placid and easy on top, but with eddies and currents under the surface. If you want to watch it, and see a 26 episode action anime, where nothing really happens, you can. But then, if you want to watch it and notice the subtle noir hints, the way the music in a scene changes based on a character, the themes and motifs that are there, you can do that too. For example, Jett is the most realistic character, or should I say the most open. Yet, he's the one who's the most physically damaged ((A cybernetic arm and leg)) he'd also known as "The bull dog for never letting go" yet one of his arms is cybernetic, implying he held onto something so hard he lost it. Little thing, tiny things, but things like that are why Bebop is good. I feel like that is why it would be easy to watch bebop expecting transcendence, and being disappointed. I can also see why those who praise the series do so. Personally, I always preferred Outlaw Star. I'm not talking crap on Bebop, it is good, but while bebop is a samurai duel, Outlaw is a boxing match or bar fight. Ironically I saw Outlaw first, and I can't help but wonder if Bebop would hold the special place in my heart, if I'd seen it first.
Fun fact about Vincent, the films’s antagonist. He’s played in the dub by Daran Norris: Cosmo from Fairly Odd Parents. Yes. Seriously. Do what you will with this info.
Cowboy Bepop owes it's success to three things: Wider access than previous adult-oriented anime had thanks to [adult swim] airing it. The first great dub North America ever had. And the music. In 2003 watching Cowboy Bebop on [adult swim] was amazing to me. I loved staying up to watch it with my eyes closed, because I'd already seen all the episodes. I knew what they looked like. I just wanted to listen to them. To hear Faye's faux confidence and the falter in her voice when she screwed up. To hear the clink and clank of the machinery that made up the world. To hear that double bass lay down a rhythm that that the saxophone danced all over. Cowboy Bepop is so consistent in it's love of the lounge scene that it bleeds through into everything. And many since then have tried to copy it, or apply it's principals to other genres. Many seasonal anime don't really care about sound design, just choosing foley from a stock library and going with a '50s cinematic score or J-rock and J-pop for all of the music. The big projects that break away though, follow Bebop's example. And in a way, they dilute it. When you've seen all the variations on a thing, coming back to the original can feel like you're being deprived. And with anime being produced in higher amounts at faster rates than ever before, people making variations or retreading the same ground wears you out and jades you even faster. Fist Of The North Star, Slayers, Ranma 1/2, Tenchi Muyo, and Cowboy Bebop were all influential titans in their time. But we've had two, three, some of these shows close to four decades of people building on their legacies. Changing things. Raising the stakes. People who weren't around when they were new or near neaw are going to go back to them and notice everything missing. Notice how basic the shows are. How many frills they don't have. And those people may never get far enough into their appreciation of the medium to go back to those shows and watch them for what they are. Where those principals started. And I'm okay with that. Just so long as people know that's where things started from and keep the show alive, even if only as a historical marker.
a thing that makes cowboy bebop so good that people don't often touch on is it is extremely lacking in what i call "anime bullshit". someone walks in on you watching cowboy bebop and it's very likely you won't feel embarrassed by what's on the screen
@@naotatheendlessesper they have 15 meter tall magic constructs they pilot like G fighter Gundam. in the sequel theres a character that pilots an actual mech called the FTO.
From that thumbnail you appear that you would love a woman that could just crush you... 😏 Also I didn't know that a meme could feel so old and new at the same time. Also after that ending of your colorful review.... oh no....... 😳Oh no.... 😨........ OH NEOOOOOOOO 😱😱
The criticism of it being overrated could be due to generational tastes, as opposed to not seeing it when it first came out. For my part, it was not on my radar in 1998, and I wasn't exposed to all the praise bebop received at the time. I didn't watch bebop until much later. When I finally did, I was really impressed with the music, animation, lighting, voice acting, world building, and mature tone. Personally, I prefer Samurai Champloo, but that's mostly because I like "quest" type stories, plus the combination of hiphop and traditional Japanese music/aesthetic. That said, I'm not a huge fan of most anime on the market today, so if that's your primary taste, then I could see why bebop wouldn't strike a cord with you. In the end, I think the title will stand the test of time, like Hitchcock movies and Miles Davis music, fresh analysis notwithstanding. The opening title sequence alone... I mean, my God. Classic.
Well actually.. XD In Italy (and probably the rest of Europe) it is called Knocking on Heaven's Door. I think this is only America that was scared shitless of getting sued for the title. Which wouldn't surprise me considering what happens to Jojo stands XD
I saw cowboy bebop in a theater. As it turned out, there were only 2 theaters in my state that were showing it and one just so happened to be a 45 minute drive away but only offered a single midnight showing. Since its first release, a local theater has shown it a few times over the years. They do midnight showings of cult classic movies every Saturday during the summer. I got to see bebop again, space balls, and army of darkness.
Couple things: 1. I love this film in that intangible way one loves a Tarantino film or the Cornetto Trilogy. It’s a work driven by simple motivation, but surrounded by a world or scenario that has brushes of both familiar and inexplicable. From the world of Mars feeling like New York City, to the villain’s simple brutality disguised by ethereal dialogue (or as Jet would say “a wannabe preacher with a gun”), to the fact the English voice actors have cameos in their own film, right there in the intro credits. 2. The Miami Guns review is next, and I have been anticipating it since you name-dropped it at TooManyGames back in 2018. Having bought the DVD, all I can say is... it is certainly an anime.
@Cloak and Dagger So a subpar adaption that horribly misuses the otherwise good actors in its main cast, and thoroughly misses the point of each and every one of the individual story beats its trying to portray, so far so that they actively undermine one of their principle character's sense of agency by giving them a backstory that spits in the face of everything that made them admirable or even sympathetic?
@@vivecthepoet36 I've been hearing nothing but good things about the Witcher adaptation, apart from a couple people complaining about some of the romantic scenes between Geralt and Yennefer being dropped.
@@TheTaleForge You've heard utterly and completely wrong then. The Geralt/Yennefer scenes aren't even on the top 50 list of what's wrong with that show. They also tried to condense 2 1/2 book worth of plot into 8 episodes, while adding their own material.
Very well put as ever, Mr. Sage. I agree that plot wise, episodes of the show are much stronger, but I also feel like there have been several that aren't as good, which is praise of the movie, not criticism of those, as I am of the opinion that even the "weakest" episodes of Cowboy bebop are still good and worth watching (except _Sympathy for the Devil_ ). I remember back then, I was just happy to see a movie version of the show that was just as good as the average episode of said show, and actually followed its style and themes, as even back then, I had already seen SO many movie adaptations of stuff I loved that just didn't seem to give a single shit about what the original was about. It's why I still want to hold out hope that the live-action show will be good, as so far Cowboy Bebop has never downright disappointed me (yes, even the mangas. They were nowhere near as good as the show but they were still decent in my opinion), even though I fear it's gonna be another case of "fuck whatever it was about, we know better than these stupid anime nerds".
Happy new years! I'm glad that you're taking on the New Year as both a reflection of the past and a fresh start, I'm really looking forward to seeing what this year's lineup has in store!
I love Cowboy Bebop, what I love the most since it's been this long, is how meta it is on it's culture. People believe that we'll live in a future without conflict, travel through space, barbarism in non-existent, and everything is given to us without effort, because the future will provide it to us. But they have it that the future may be now, but our habits never change, we could live in a different planet, but people that look for "diversity" may end up just still living with people, culture, religions they're familiar with, which nothing wrong with sticking to what you already have knowledge on than taking a risk that would affect your life, it's just these are the ideas what people are, and hoping for a future to create acceptance because intellect means bringing peace to all is a pipe dream. The future is what we create out of it, and if we want peace, we have to put the never-ending effort to it and create progress for the better, study the problems we have now and solve what can resolute it in the long run. Sorry for putting my 2 cents, it's the idea how we live today may also be how the future will be with futuristic appliances added, it's no Back to the Future, but a more realistic future that can still be debated
This comment brought back a flood of memories. memories of when EVERY anime was compared to Cowboy Bebop, and Outlaw Star was always unfairly compared to Cowboy Bebop!
I can certainly understand a younger person being let down or less impressed seeing Bebop after hearing that it is god tier before seeing it (personally I think it is God Tier) as thats simply the nature of expectations at times and not everything perfectly clicks with every person. But anyone that thinks Bebop sucks...is objectively wrong. There are things I don't personally like but can still understand their quality or value. Bepop is one of those things, it is inherently and definitively a good show on so many levels. Anyone that says it sucks is either full of crap, trying to be edgy, hasnt actually watched it, or simply has no concept or taste for quality entertainment.
The problem I had with the show itself was that the way people talked about it, you'd think it was some kind of weird experimental fusion of music and outer space action visual that did something new that you'd never seen before. Instead 15% of the show is its own interesting thing and the rest is like a less fun Outlaw Star, and the two tones that come with that don't mesh well whatsoever. I just really didn't care for it, and while I think it's a fine show it does deserve being called overhyped. That's actually where this movie succeeds, though. While it's not the experimental musical experiment I was hoping the show would be, it does bring the music to the forefront with actual musical sequences that were missing from the show itself and I believe it does successfully fuse the more serious tone of Bebop's actual plot with the Slice of Life Outlaw Star scenarios that were so awkwardly separate. Also, every member of the crew has something to do including Ed, who is underutilized in the actual series, whereas in the show it would usually focus on one or two characters and the others would typically leave or just do nothing the whole time and be unrelated. Here, everything is tied together for what is essentially the best episode of the series that is unrelated to the actual plot and if the show couldn't be all plot-relevant episodes, I wish it could at least be on the same level as this film most of the time. Either that or have every episode be random nonsense like the fridge episode or the mushroom episode. I would be down for that as well.
I first watched cowboy bebop back in 2015 based on your recommendation from your first adult swim month, So your revisiting of a classic gives me so many nostalgic feels.
great to see this and in regards to Bebop proper I find that depending on where you are in life depends on how good you find it when I watched it as a teenager I though it was good but the older I got it resonated more and more strongly if your someone who doesn't like it for whatever reason I would recommend waiting a couple of years and getting some life experience under your belt see how you feel about it then
Can’t really believe people being able to accuse Cowboy Bebop as overrated, but rather I can accept it not being everyone’s favorite. I think I’m more of a fan of Trigun over Cowboy Bebop, still counting it as a favorite. Kind of how everyone holds Citizen Kane as the height of cinema, I will not personally deny its impact, but there’s reasons why I even count Casablanca as a favorite of mine... everything isn’t made for everyone, even high art struggles against Jackson Pollock but the high art is not devalued by its sales price
Still the best anime of all time. It was cool, innovative, mature yet full of energy without being for super older folks, so anyone could watch it, and it was full of adventure and sci fi action! Still one of the only anime I will ever own.
Must be some sort of serendipity in the air, as there had suddenly been a resurgence of this series from reactors online watching this show and movie for the 1st time. With the opinions varying exactly the way Sage has said. Fascinating.
You really should review Space Battleship Yamato 2199. its a beautiful remake of arguably the most important anime ever made. Yamato changed everything in the East and West and created anime fandom, yet as time goes on, moreso in the west, its importance has been entirely forgotten. We need SOMEONE to talk about it for once, it is important Yamato is not forgotten when we remember the other classics like gundam and macross fondly.
I'm pretty sure the theatrical run WAS the first American release. I begged my parents to take me to see it three hours away in Washington DC. They obliged and I was one happy kid!
Ya know, I always look forward to your videos. They're highly enjoyable, and have informed me about so many new anime. By the way, are you gonna do an anime abandon on Area 88 (1980s OVAs)
I think Anime of the 1980s and 1990s will always be classics especially to those who grew up during that era of Japanese Animation when it used to be that we would rarely have VHS releases of Anime until companies like MANGA Entertainment in the UK, ADV in the USA and Madman Entertainment in Australia fully launched the Anime industry via VHS and eventually DVD releases of these classics. And there will always be those who first watched Anime in the morning shows whether it be during the 1960s with Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion and Princess Knight starting with the Tezuka classics. To the 1970s and 1980s with Battle of the Planets (Gatchaman) to Star Blazers (Space Battleship Yamato) or even Voltron (Go Lion) where American Localization version was completely different to the Japanese original. To the 1990s when even Anime itself became Japanese enough that Western kids like myself found out it was a Japanese Cartoon that we were watching. Samurai Pizza Cats for me made that connection. And of course there was the major Anime from the 90s like Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z and of course Pokemon that eventually started the Anime Boom of the 2000s with the Internet finally revealing to us what was changed in the shows we watched previously and we all wanted to have what the Japanese had. These days, it is today's younger Otaku who don't fully appreciate the lengths that we as older Otaku had to go through just to enjoy what we enjoy today. And even if the younger Otaku don't like the older stuff that we enjoy, it does not change the fact that the stuff the younger Otaku enjoy today are just as influential to them as the older Anime was to us when we were younger. That is at least my 2 cents on the issue of younger anime fans not fully understanding the anime from the 90s that was for us.
I have to confess. I've never seen the entirety of the show. I started watching it at a time when I was only watching anime that had at least 80+ episodes. I was more used to how western TV shows worked, if it's successful and there's a demand for more, you keep giving people more. So a show at only 25 episodes wasn't appealing to me. Ironically later the exact opposite started to happen. I rarely if ever watch shows that last as long as Bleach or Naruto or One Piece. But I still haven't sit down to complete Cowboy Beebop. As for the movie I've rented it back when my only access to anime was the very small quantity the local rental store had and a few classic series airing on TV on weekends. I enjoyed it mostly because of the style and animation but nothing really blew me away. As you said it felt like a long episode of an existing show so the impact it has on someone mostly depends on how much they loved the series.
What a great episode. totally agree that, while good, the movie can’t quite match the best Bebop episodes. Still a damn good movie, though. Also, how someone can think Bebop is overrated is truly beyond me.
You should review Sword of the Stranger. The final fight scene in that film along with the action scenes in Cowboy Bebop the Movie are pretty much what cement Yutaka Nakamura as a god of animation in many people's minds.
Even though I have been watching other anime these past years. Every time I go back to Bebop I'm like yup still a classic. The movie was really good too. Yeah it's just an overlong episode but you can say that about any movie based off a series. I swear that Netflix series better be worth it and not turn out like to be like death note. I'm gonna rage so hard if it fails. Even though I like John cho I would have liked to see Keanu Reeves. I know he was a disliked choice by fans but ever since I saw him as John wick it changed my mind on him. He played a complete gun toting martial arts badass just like spike. But we'll see what John cho does
Yeah, this is one of the few anime roles that I think could've gone to a white dude without much fuss. I don't think Spike Spiegel was supposed to be Asian (just a shot in the dark), and the show is based on jazz and cowboy culture. Keanu would've been a better fit.
I’m willing to give things a benefit and will accept being wrong if I prejudge (did that with _Avatar: The Last Airbender_ ) and I’ve watched the latter portion of this movie of this movie out of context to anything of the series and found positives in it. But I don’t think _Cowboy Bebop_ will ever truly strike a nerve for me that I would be so enamored with it as say you or another though, I could be wrong... And I’m someone who can extol the positives of something that others couldn’t bring themselves to see. It’s like that bald asshole you used to work with said to irritable gamer guy, “I will never understand how you can like it...but just because I can’t how, doesn’t mean I can’t understand _why..._ “ And that’s a good message for understanding fandom between insiders and newbies.
I agree that there had been better story lines and Bebop than this movie but at the same time this movie does a damn good job with what it does use I had to wait a while as in almost a decade to see Bebop the movie and I was more than pleasantly surprised after watching the series cover to cover more than a few times. And I will see if you have watched the series this movie is definitely pleasant compliment to it as well as being a fun ride in its own right
Personally, I always felt the show as "Solidly Good, Periodically Great", which is a much more difficult level of quality to achieve than most think. I've rewatched chunks of the series over and over. That's something I've not done with most other shows. However I did have problems with it. Some episodes just weren't for me, but that was usually when it was an episode paying homage to a film genre I just had no interest in. Also, Spike's story could had been so much more fleshed out. I always felt like I was watching a few random episodes in like Season 3 to 5 of a show, and then suddenly... a climax occurs. I wanted to see more, which is a good criticism for a show to have; but at the same time it REALLY could had done more. I felt like I just got a solidly good sampler but was denied the actual entrées. And I want those entrées, dammit.
Ya, I'm 30, and have been an anime fan since I learned what anime was around age 11. Back when I first saw Cowboy Bebop, it was a beautifully animated show, fantasy soundtrack, with a compelling plot, and great voice acting, in a landscape where that was....rare... Is it one of my favorites. No. Well. Not technically. I will always be glad to watch it, sing it's praises, and recommend it. It's like Citizen Kane in that way. It's great, I enjoyed it, and as a former film student I can discuss why its legacy is important. But also, it's not one of my favorites. My favorite animes are all probably significantly more flawed, they just scratch my particular fan itches.
Usually, the second generation's perspective is deformed and spoiled. They expect great hype, overall constant action and fan service forgetting it's the storytelling that matters most.
After revisiting it one of the understandable complaints I get from new viewers is that despite the events they go through the characters don't show much change over the series. Maybe in the final episode a bit with Faye, and I would like to say that was intentional, but for such deeply emotionally impactful situations you could pretty much watch past the 5th episode in any order. Basically a product of its time where long character building series weren't as prevalent.
I went to see a special screening of the Cowboy Bebop movie in theater in the last year or 2, actually saw it twice for the subbed and dubbed version and seeing this movie on the big screen is pretty amazing, but its kinda weird to see some of the differences made between both versions like the dub has a tiny part of a scene thats cut out but that part is in the sub version of the movie like why cut out that little bit of the movie, but this movie is definitely worth going to see in theater if the chance ever comes up again
I am late for this anime when it aired because It came on late and I have to watch adult swim on my parents' room (middle school) And I got the complete series on blu-ray for my boyfriend either for anniversary or his birthday (not sure which) and I did wanted to watch it but like you said Sage for the reasons you list for the next generation however when I got around to watch the series finally I really enjoy the series; I can see why its praise for being 'the' best anime of all times. Its one of those series that is timeless; and if someone ever reboots it (hopefully not and I'm willing to give the live action one a chance since YES I do enjoy the american Death Note and live action Fullmetal Alchemist; you heard me!) even they did a good job; the anime can never be topped.
The fact that someone just told Watannabe ‘Eh,just do whatever’ shows to me that sometimes lighting can hit the right spot
the right man, in the right place can make, all the difference, in the world... issint that right....
It was the same story with Anno and Evangelion.
"2019 was a very challenging year, I can't wait what lies ahead."
Oh boy, statements like this haven't aged well now XD
Ok three, two, one let’s jam
James Knighton (Jazz Playing)
Encore!
MUSHROOM HUNTIIIING! lol Nah but that song was fun too though. Intro still great though!
Watching this in December of 2020, it feels sad to see the hopefulness for the year in retrospect. Kinda fitting for a Cowboy Bebop review
Here's a funny tid-bit: the same guy who played Vincent, Daran Norris, also played Cosmo in The Fairly OddParents.
Wow your right lol
Well, that sounds like a redub waiting to happen.
Well, there's two images that are really hard to reconcile.
Manah's Watcher voice in Drakengard. Nuff said.
And Spotswoode in Team America: World Police.
I find Sage's insight into the art of reviews more interesting than his reviews of art sometimes.
You're spot on with the notion of the movie being a long episode, Bennett. Every time I watch the series I watch the movie between episodes 22 and 23.
It's a shame that it is the worst episode
Generally most movies that follow an anime series 10 years later all just do an extended episode.
It's mostly for fan service and nostalgia.
I've used Cowboy Bebop as the ultimate "Here is what anime is" title to show people, and have never had anyone not love it. It really is a special thing.
Truth be told it's more of "What anime can be" than anything else.
I remember that I’d heard of the show before watching it but only having been referenced not being told if it was good or not.
So when I stumbled across it and watched it for the first time I’m amazed I hadn’t watched it earlier.
I didn't have cable in the late 90s, so the movie actually is how I discovered this series. This movie is actually a great way to introduce yourself to the anime.
The same thing happened with me. My mum bought the film because I liked the cover (I was around 11-12 years old, and she didn't know that it was a more adult type film) and I loved it and watched so many times that I now know the film by heart. I never felt that I was missing something, and it made me appreciate the series even more later in life.
@@Ojarnside So, how long was it until you saw the TV series?
@@Optimegatrongodzilla I saw it just a few years ago, honestly!
@@Ojarnside Okay.
"Knockin' on Heaven's Door"
* Rohan Kishibe has entered the chat ranting about his Stand name causing copyright issues outside of Japan *
Vust Valeo *Fumes* Great minds think alike.
@sage the Movie itself: Good
Next Time: Oh dear
That shouldn't have mattered since its definitely a different genre from the song. Or any other live action movies.
I bet the reply below me will be the unavoidable jojo reference joke
@@dragonsword7370 Also; in Copyright law, Titles cannot be copyrighted
Oddly, I think his name was one of the ones NOT changed in the Dub.
It's so weird that Jennifer Hale voiced Electra here. She rarely does anime, with her only other anime role being at a Naruto movie.
@Toni J They were also in Mass Effect 2. As FemShep and Grunt
Jean Grey and Wolverine in Marvel vs Capcom 3 and Wolverine and the X-Men.
Wait Jennifer hale voiced a anime character
@@sonicathehedgehog7488 Yeah, she's only done 2 anime roles. This and one of the Naruto movies
@@Snake4985 I didn't know that why didn't anyone tell me and who did she voice in the Naruto movie, that is so cool Tara strong needs to get some anime roles.
Cowboy Bebop: The Movie was the first anime movie I saw in an actual theater! I'll never forget the thrill and wonder of seeing anime for the first time on the big screen! Good times!
Somehow, you're still the most overlooked anituber on the site
It's crazy, right? And he's been doing the show for so long!
He is the reason I checked out fist of the north star
right, he has been a staple of my youtube viewing for years
Bennet’s one of the few anime youtubers I actually like, he’s not overly pretentious or annoying like most of the anime youtubers I’ve seen here. And he’s one of the even fewer people who actually take a look at older anime, instead of constantly covering what’s new/popular this season.
I think there is a reason for that, and a lot of it isn't HIS fault, but some of it kind of was even though a lot of the problems was being stuck on CA for so long.
technically the story of bebop does something a lot of westerns loved to do, this whole "dyeing age of the west" where one foot is in the past and one is in the present, both with what the characters do, as well as with how the show does it's treatment of technology, like now'a'days you got people who love modern and future tech but then people who would still rather dig a ditch with a shovel and get their food from the forest than rely heavily on a machine or super market, and i think it comes from that same thing i pointed out in my comment about 5 centimeters, many people are on some level depressed because they don't live a life they ideally thought they would therefore they have this grandiose view of the past, like things where better, therefore many don't want to let go of it and because of that their are many places that thrive on that idea, their is also the fact that some people can't afford the future, like i love VR, but it's too expensive so I'll continue playing p.c. and console games for a while longer, that sort of thing, i'm sorry if this comment is chopped together I'm hammering this out five minutes before work, so forgive me if I sound like I'm regurgitating something sage already said about it, i just had this thought and needed to bang it out before it goes away
DragonBall Z, Cowboy Bebop, Fullmetal Alchemist, Sailor Moon and Gundam are all the Animes that got me into Anime.
21:43 oh how naive and blind we all were. I miss 2019.
I've always given far more weight to characters than the story in terms of importance. My reason being it doesn't matter how well executed the story is regardless of scope or complexity if you can't stand the characters. That said, good characters can easily support a weak story, or even a relatively stupid one. Just look at the Cowboy Bebop episode Mushroom Samba. You could sure as hell argue its a weak episode considering the entire story is about the crew tripping on shrooms, but even then the episode is still watchable given how strong the characters are. And I'd say that's why the movie works so well. The plot is weak, but the characters and their interactions are what make people love it.
On a side note, I'm so glad to know Mehuary isn't going anywhere. They are easily some of my favorite episodes.
After all these years, it still brings a smile to my face seeing Cowboy Bebop. Like a friend you haven't seen in years, but you pick up right where you left off like it was just yesterday you saw them. I grew up right at the perfect time of the first run of Toonami, and when Adult Swim first began airing, focusing mainly on anime. When the most likely way you'd come across new anime was through a friend, or taking a random chance on a title at Blockbuster Video, through advertisements in Animerica or Shonen Jump (when you weren't downloading torrents or catching the latest broadcast on the aforementioned networks). I recall all of the anime I was exposed to through these means; Macross Plus, Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040, Dragon Half, Slayers, Tenchi Muyo/Universe, Dragon Ball Z, Trigun, Bebop, Fushigi Yûgi, YuYu Hakusho, Outlaw Star, Excel Saga, Those Who Hunt Elves, Weiß Kruez, Gundam Wing, G Gundam, Ah My Goddess, Samurai Champloo... I could keep going. And while Cowboy Bebop is not my favorite anime of all time (that spot will always belong to Trigun), I still get that fuzzy nostalgic pang when I catch an episode, old AMV, or review involving the Bebop crew.
It's these videos that remind me of how proud I am of the title "Oldtaku", and it brings a quiet joy when I run into others just like me, that help keep the memory of that bygone era alive.
Here's to you, Space Cowboys. Cheers. 🍸
The 2020 speech at the end.......well didn´t age too well....but 2021 will be great, I FEEL IT IN MY BELLY!!!!!!!!!!!
My sweet summer child 🥺💀
I had this movie on dvd and UMD for psp when I was a kid. That's how much I love this movie!
While Akira on VHS was the first anime I ever saw, being the son of a father who loved japanese animation during a time that was quite unheard of, it was Wolf's Rain and Cowboy Bebop that made me feel like I had found my own loves in the genre. I can agree with the sentiment that some timeless things are not meant for everyone, as my friend tried showing his wife Cowboy Bebop and she was completely uninterested, I do also feel that those same things are timeless for a reason, and to anyone who feels like "why do all the oldtimers love this?", I'd say if you can't find it on your own then search for context. Why do so many people regard 2001: A Space Odyssey as a work of art? Contextually remember that it came out not even a decade after space travel even became conceivably possible, a year before the moon landing, and a decade prior to Star Wars. So the only thing to really compare it with would have been 1950s movies like "Forbidden Planet" or the very early episodes of Star Trek. Safe to say, absolutely nothing came close to the look or feel of 2001. These are the kinds of things you can find in almost anything timeless, Cowboy Bebop included. Even if you can't appreciate it for what it is, there's still almost assuredly a reason that it is held in such regard and garners such praise, even if it may seem like bloated fanfare to you.
Cowboy Bebop is...an amazing amalgamation of music, visuals, characters, and storytelling that combines in a way that you rarely see in ANY medium. I can understand why some people feel it gets over-hyped, I got burned out on it myself when it had it's umpteenth run on AS, but I still love it.
“Make 2020 a year of learning and growth” that statement didn’t age well.
I think 2020 is teaching us a lot. Just maybe in a "school of hard knocks" kind of way...
I'll never be as big a fan of CB as most everyone else who likes anime, but I cannot deny it's quality and importance.
You're video has encouraged me to rewatch it as well as the series. The last time I saw that series was when it aired on Cartoon Network years ago now. My husband owns it, just saw it on our library wall.. thanks for your review. Hope it's a good as I recall it being.
Love watching you and Phelous because while you’re funny, you also research the heck out of what you’re reviewing
I still can't hear "Green Bird" without getting a little emotional. I used to correspond with Emily Bindiger, who sang "Flying Teapot" and "Adeiu"
Fun Fact: Vincent was voiced by Darran Norris
That's Right, Cosmo and Mr. Turner voiced the Villain of Cowboy Bebop the Movie
To me Vincent always felt like a gestalt made up of other bounty heads the Bebop crew went after. He's motivated by a dangerous substance like Asimov, everywhere he goes stuff gets broken like Hakim, (though where as Hakim leaves overturned chessboards and punched-out grooms, Vincent leaves piles of corpses,) the virus he has is kept in marbles, which feel like a throwback to that poker chip from episode 3, both being game pieces, his plan to spread a virus is reminiscent of the Space Warriors from episode 4, his general attitude and disregard for life reminds me of Wen, specifically, the way he executes a taxi driver is nearly identical to the way Vincent executes that one guy from in his car, he's identified by his tattoo like Decker, and both Vincent and Pierrot Le Fou were experimented on. Then there's Viscous. Both Vincent and Vicious act as a sort of dark mirror to Spike, and both are veterans of the war on Titan.
Can you review Carole and Tuesday since it’s by the cowboy bebop director.
Only now do I make the connection that Doc Browns dog is named Einstein.... and the Corgie in Bebop is named Ein...
"Yes... Well...
I too am a slow reader"
Prince George
- Blackadder The Third.
It's bounty hunters in space that doesn't fall into harem anime/fan service tropes whats not to like? It's greatness comes down to the fact that you can show this to your parents and not feel embarrassed.... so that's why people say it is great..... unless you can explain why your favorite anime has a 300 year old ancient being who prefers to look like a 13yr old with a big brother complex who demands to bathe with the protagonist.
Hate to use this overused meme but this comment seems kinda weeaboomer thiers plenty of shows out thier that carry bebops weight (reference intended) that don’t have a harem or fan service
@@vandad13yet you decided not to name any of those shows .... so, kind of leaning back to my point.
Wray Day samurai champloo black lagoon baccano darker than black (a personal favorite of mine) megalo box psychopass probably space dandy
@@vandad13 Samuari Champloo is Cowboy Bebop .... same director/dub people just set in ye olden samurai days. Black Lagoon is straight trash.... the manic personality of the main female lead (Remi I think is her name)doesn't sort itself out until season 3 and she just ruins EVERYTHING with her bipolar outbursts in the meantime Hell Black Lagoon was my goto on how not to write a female lead example. Last two I haven't seen. Thinking hard on the subject I think maybe the Castlevania series is one I might say is fine to show.... outside of that... it's drawing a blank.
Wray Day for the record I don’t think any of the series I’ve mentioned (at least the ones I’ve seen) surpass bebop but more so that they have elements that bebop had or contain its dna
This actually started a trend with me, that come to think of it began with the Star Trek movies, I watched Cowboy Bebop: the Movie first before watching the show. Suffice to say, I'm still grateful for the experience. Starting with the movie, you get a framework of the characters for the most part fully formed and their interactions with each other although Jet, out of the crew's screentime, takes a back seat the most. Still, it was a nice taste of the show in a nutshell. Kinda like Serenity to Firefly.
If this review doesn't credit
*TOSHIHIRO KAWAMOTO*
character designer behind Golden Boy, Ghost In The Shell PS1, Wolf's Rain and almost every Gundam imaginable including Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team and key animator behind every anime in history since Arion to Gosick to Noragami to Blood Blockade Battlefront, who's responsible for Cowboy Bebop's characters,
for the love of *FUCK....*
Also kinda bummed at the lack of mention of Nobuteru Yuki in one of the many anime he's designed that Sage has already reviewed. He's pretty much the reason I think 90s fantasy anime looks so spectacular.
Speaking of which RECORD OF LODOSS WAR PLZ SAGE.
remember waiting for bebop movie to hit theaters, but damn i cant believe its been that long already. wow : P
Its only because this new generation doesn't understand its concept. Every member except Ed is trying to escape their past and is stuck in time. Near the end, everything falls apart and they are forced to move forward again. It's actually very well done. Each have to face their own past. There is even videos on it that explain the ending. Its very sad.
You know I get the whole “cowboy beebob is over hyped” mean I was in that camp when I first watched it 20 years ago. However over the years the ending line “you gonna carry that weight” has proven true and I find myself return to it in my mind.
I think that littlekuriboh summed it up perfectly in one of his things "They're a rare breed called forgettable movie villains. You've never heard of them and once you've finished fighting them you won't remember it even happened. But for the next 90 minutes you'll think they're the biggest threat you've faced in your entire life!" Every single noncanon anime movie XD
ua-cam.com/video/Y7RK73YyPGU/v-deo.html
Well, unfortunately, Sage, those hopes about the CB Netflix series aged like cottage cheese - because bad heads turned it to shit.
Edit: typos.
Perfectly timed, Bennett! I'm finishing an anime series I've never seen each month this year (New Year's Resolution; send recommendations, please!), and January's is Cowboy Bebop. It's like something was in the stars...
(Or in the teaser from last Anime Abandon... XD)
Knock-knock-knocking on Heaven's door
Coming out during star wars hype probably help it alot aswell
I can see how Cowboy Bebop could be over hyped. Honestly, the series is alot like a river. Placid and easy on top, but with eddies and currents under the surface. If you want to watch it, and see a 26 episode action anime, where nothing really happens, you can. But then, if you want to watch it and notice the subtle noir hints, the way the music in a scene changes based on a character, the themes and motifs that are there, you can do that too.
For example, Jett is the most realistic character, or should I say the most open. Yet, he's the one who's the most physically damaged ((A cybernetic arm and leg)) he'd also known as "The bull dog for never letting go" yet one of his arms is cybernetic, implying he held onto something so hard he lost it. Little thing, tiny things, but things like that are why Bebop is good.
I feel like that is why it would be easy to watch bebop expecting transcendence, and being disappointed. I can also see why those who praise the series do so. Personally, I always preferred Outlaw Star. I'm not talking crap on Bebop, it is good, but while bebop is a samurai duel, Outlaw is a boxing match or bar fight. Ironically I saw Outlaw first, and I can't help but wonder if Bebop would hold the special place in my heart, if I'd seen it first.
Fun fact about Vincent, the films’s antagonist. He’s played in the dub by Daran Norris: Cosmo from Fairly Odd Parents. Yes. Seriously.
Do what you will with this info.
He also did Tasuki from Fushigi Yuugi, Dark Schneider from Bastard!, and Piros from the Dot Hack games.
And Spotswoode in Team America: World Police
Cowboy Bepop owes it's success to three things: Wider access than previous adult-oriented anime had thanks to [adult swim] airing it. The first great dub North America ever had. And the music.
In 2003 watching Cowboy Bebop on [adult swim] was amazing to me. I loved staying up to watch it with my eyes closed, because I'd already seen all the episodes. I knew what they looked like. I just wanted to listen to them. To hear Faye's faux confidence and the falter in her voice when she screwed up. To hear the clink and clank of the machinery that made up the world. To hear that double bass lay down a rhythm that that the saxophone danced all over.
Cowboy Bepop is so consistent in it's love of the lounge scene that it bleeds through into everything. And many since then have tried to copy it, or apply it's principals to other genres. Many seasonal anime don't really care about sound design, just choosing foley from a stock library and going with a '50s cinematic score or J-rock and J-pop for all of the music. The big projects that break away though, follow Bebop's example. And in a way, they dilute it. When you've seen all the variations on a thing, coming back to the original can feel like you're being deprived. And with anime being produced in higher amounts at faster rates than ever before, people making variations or retreading the same ground wears you out and jades you even faster.
Fist Of The North Star, Slayers, Ranma 1/2, Tenchi Muyo, and Cowboy Bebop were all influential titans in their time. But we've had two, three, some of these shows close to four decades of people building on their legacies. Changing things. Raising the stakes. People who weren't around when they were new or near neaw are going to go back to them and notice everything missing. Notice how basic the shows are. How many frills they don't have. And those people may never get far enough into their appreciation of the medium to go back to those shows and watch them for what they are. Where those principals started. And I'm okay with that. Just so long as people know that's where things started from and keep the show alive, even if only as a historical marker.
a thing that makes cowboy bebop so good that people don't often touch on is it is extremely lacking in what i call "anime bullshit". someone walks in on you watching cowboy bebop and it's very likely you won't feel embarrassed by what's on the screen
Can you review Magic Knight Rayearth. Since they finally got into SRW.
HUH ?!
WHAT ?!
@@naotatheendlessesper yeah Magic Knight Rayearth is in Super Robot Wars T.
@@barrybend7189 but they're girls who use magic
How did they got into a game about mechas ?
@@naotatheendlessesper they have 15 meter tall magic constructs they pilot like G fighter Gundam. in the sequel theres a character that pilots an actual mech called the FTO.
@@barrybend7189 it's just G Gundam, not G Fighter Gundam
From that thumbnail you appear that you would love a woman that could just crush you... 😏 Also I didn't know that a meme could feel so old and new at the same time.
Also after that ending of your colorful review.... oh no....... 😳Oh no.... 😨........ OH NEOOOOOOOO 😱😱
The criticism of it being overrated could be due to generational tastes, as opposed to not seeing it when it first came out. For my part, it was not on my radar in 1998, and I wasn't exposed to all the praise bebop received at the time. I didn't watch bebop until much later. When I finally did, I was really impressed with the music, animation, lighting, voice acting, world building, and mature tone. Personally, I prefer Samurai Champloo, but that's mostly because I like "quest" type stories, plus the combination of hiphop and traditional Japanese music/aesthetic. That said, I'm not a huge fan of most anime on the market today, so if that's your primary taste, then I could see why bebop wouldn't strike a cord with you. In the end, I think the title will stand the test of time, like Hitchcock movies and Miles Davis music, fresh analysis notwithstanding. The opening title sequence alone... I mean, my God. Classic.
Bennett, can you please cover Serial experiment Lain?
10/10 pronunciation. You pulled off the end of north cadence too. Lovely
Can’t wait to watch at lunch! Keep up the great work!
Well actually.. XD In Italy (and probably the rest of Europe) it is called Knocking on Heaven's Door. I think this is only America that was scared shitless of getting sued for the title. Which wouldn't surprise me considering what happens to Jojo stands XD
I saw cowboy bebop in a theater. As it turned out, there were only 2 theaters in my state that were showing it and one just so happened to be a 45 minute drive away but only offered a single midnight showing.
Since its first release, a local theater has shown it a few times over the years. They do midnight showings of cult classic movies every Saturday during the summer.
I got to see bebop again, space balls, and army of darkness.
Couple things:
1. I love this film in that intangible way one loves a Tarantino film or the Cornetto Trilogy. It’s a work driven by simple motivation, but surrounded by a world or scenario that has brushes of both familiar and inexplicable. From the world of Mars feeling like New York City, to the villain’s simple brutality disguised by ethereal dialogue (or as Jet would say “a wannabe preacher with a gun”), to the fact the English voice actors have cameos in their own film, right there in the intro credits.
2. The Miami Guns review is next, and I have been anticipating it since you name-dropped it at TooManyGames back in 2018. Having bought the DVD, all I can say is... it is certainly an anime.
I'm hoping for another Witcher as opposed to another Death Note or FMA
To be Fair, the FBA movie was not made by Netflix, merely published outside Japan by them.
Netflix has no hand in why that movie was bad.
@Cloak and Dagger So a subpar adaption that horribly misuses the otherwise good actors in its main cast, and thoroughly misses the point of each and every one of the individual story beats its trying to portray, so far so that they actively undermine one of their principle character's sense of agency by giving them a backstory that spits in the face of everything that made them admirable or even sympathetic?
@@vivecthepoet36 I've been hearing nothing but good things about the Witcher adaptation, apart from a couple people complaining about some of the romantic scenes between Geralt and Yennefer being dropped.
@@TheTaleForge You've heard utterly and completely wrong then. The Geralt/Yennefer scenes aren't even on the top 50 list of what's wrong with that show. They also tried to condense 2 1/2 book worth of plot into 8 episodes, while adding their own material.
@@TheTaleForge By the way, huge fan of your content.
love the new style for the episodes , music design is also mood enhanching . You have evolved .
Have you ever heard of Highlander search for vengeance
Good movie. Wish Spoony was still making content instead of self destructing so that they could do a co-review on it.
@@tassadarc8069 Yeah......yeah.
At least he's been a tad more active lately, he's been doing more streams.
Very well put as ever, Mr. Sage. I agree that plot wise, episodes of the show are much stronger, but I also feel like there have been several that aren't as good, which is praise of the movie, not criticism of those, as I am of the opinion that even the "weakest" episodes of Cowboy bebop are still good and worth watching (except _Sympathy for the Devil_ ). I remember back then, I was just happy to see a movie version of the show that was just as good as the average episode of said show, and actually followed its style and themes, as even back then, I had already seen SO many movie adaptations of stuff I loved that just didn't seem to give a single shit about what the original was about. It's why I still want to hold out hope that the live-action show will be good, as so far Cowboy Bebop has never downright disappointed me (yes, even the mangas. They were nowhere near as good as the show but they were still decent in my opinion), even though I fear it's gonna be another case of "fuck whatever it was about, we know better than these stupid anime nerds".
Happy new years! I'm glad that you're taking on the New Year as both a reflection of the past and a fresh start, I'm really looking forward to seeing what this year's lineup has in store!
Steve Blum autographed my Blu Ray
I love Cowboy Bebop, what I love the most since it's been this long, is how meta it is on it's culture.
People believe that we'll live in a future without conflict, travel through space, barbarism in non-existent, and everything is given to us without effort, because the future will provide it to us. But they have it that the future may be now, but our habits never change, we could live in a different planet, but people that look for "diversity" may end up just still living with people, culture, religions they're familiar with, which nothing wrong with sticking to what you already have knowledge on than taking a risk that would affect your life, it's just these are the ideas what people are, and hoping for a future to create acceptance because intellect means bringing peace to all is a pipe dream. The future is what we create out of it, and if we want peace, we have to put the never-ending effort to it and create progress for the better, study the problems we have now and solve what can resolute it in the long run.
Sorry for putting my 2 cents, it's the idea how we live today may also be how the future will be with futuristic appliances added, it's no Back to the Future, but a more realistic future that can still be debated
General opinion: I like Outlaw Star more, but Bebop had a much better ending.
This comment brought back a flood of memories.
memories of when EVERY anime was compared to Cowboy Bebop, and Outlaw Star was always unfairly compared to Cowboy Bebop!
People who love outlaw star more than Bebop generally just want to fuck the wife who characters
You know what? I kinda agree.
Not the first time I've heard someone say they like Outlaw over Bebop. They were pretty much competing off each other on the Adult Swim block.
Only if you're a fan of tragic endings. I personally am NOT. lol But yeah, strongly prefer Outlaw Star. Bebop's so damn gloomy.
"I love the kind of woman who will actually just kill me"
I can certainly understand a younger person being let down or less impressed seeing Bebop after hearing that it is god tier before seeing it (personally I think it is God Tier) as thats simply the nature of expectations at times and not everything perfectly clicks with every person. But anyone that thinks Bebop sucks...is objectively wrong. There are things I don't personally like but can still understand their quality or value. Bepop is one of those things, it is inherently and definitively a good show on so many levels. Anyone that says it sucks is either full of crap, trying to be edgy, hasnt actually watched it, or simply has no concept or taste for quality entertainment.
The problem I had with the show itself was that the way people talked about it, you'd think it was some kind of weird experimental fusion of music and outer space action visual that did something new that you'd never seen before. Instead 15% of the show is its own interesting thing and the rest is like a less fun Outlaw Star, and the two tones that come with that don't mesh well whatsoever. I just really didn't care for it, and while I think it's a fine show it does deserve being called overhyped.
That's actually where this movie succeeds, though. While it's not the experimental musical experiment I was hoping the show would be, it does bring the music to the forefront with actual musical sequences that were missing from the show itself and I believe it does successfully fuse the more serious tone of Bebop's actual plot with the Slice of Life Outlaw Star scenarios that were so awkwardly separate. Also, every member of the crew has something to do including Ed, who is underutilized in the actual series, whereas in the show it would usually focus on one or two characters and the others would typically leave or just do nothing the whole time and be unrelated. Here, everything is tied together for what is essentially the best episode of the series that is unrelated to the actual plot and if the show couldn't be all plot-relevant episodes, I wish it could at least be on the same level as this film most of the time. Either that or have every episode be random nonsense like the fridge episode or the mushroom episode. I would be down for that as well.
DNA remains the best intro to any anime, movie or otherwise, to this day.
I first watched cowboy bebop back in 2015 based on your recommendation from your first adult swim month, So your revisiting of a classic gives me so many nostalgic feels.
great to see this and in regards to Bebop proper I find that depending on where you are in life depends on how good you find it when I watched it as a teenager I though it was good but the older I got it resonated more and more strongly if your someone who doesn't like it for whatever reason I would recommend waiting a couple of years and getting some life experience under your belt see how you feel about it then
Can’t really believe people being able to accuse Cowboy Bebop as overrated, but rather I can accept it not being everyone’s favorite. I think I’m more of a fan of Trigun over Cowboy Bebop, still counting it as a favorite. Kind of how everyone holds Citizen Kane as the height of cinema, I will not personally deny its impact, but there’s reasons why I even count Casablanca as a favorite of mine... everything isn’t made for everyone, even high art struggles against Jackson Pollock but the high art is not devalued by its sales price
Written our for Finale for Ed and Ein seems harsh. Not onwarded but I agree needed. Recent viewer looking at past updates admittedly
Still the best anime of all time. It was cool, innovative, mature yet full of energy without being for super older folks, so anyone could watch it, and it was full of adventure and sci fi action! Still one of the only anime I will ever own.
I of course mean the show was great; a masterpiece 10 outta 10.
The movie was...okay but pissed me off. 6 outta 10 at best. R.i.P. SPIKE! O>o
Must be some sort of serendipity in the air, as there had suddenly been a resurgence of this series from reactors online watching this show and movie for the 1st time. With the opinions varying exactly the way Sage has said. Fascinating.
You really should review Space Battleship Yamato 2199. its a beautiful remake of arguably the most important anime ever made. Yamato changed everything in the East and West and created anime fandom, yet as time goes on, moreso in the west, its importance has been entirely forgotten. We need SOMEONE to talk about it for once, it is important Yamato is not forgotten when we remember the other classics like gundam and macross fondly.
I'm pretty sure the theatrical run WAS the first American release. I begged my parents to take me to see it three hours away in Washington DC. They obliged and I was one happy kid!
Ya know, I always look forward to your videos. They're highly enjoyable, and have informed me about so many new anime. By the way, are you gonna do an anime abandon on Area 88 (1980s OVAs)
I think Anime of the 1980s and 1990s will always be classics especially to those who grew up during that era of Japanese Animation when it used to be that we would rarely have VHS releases of Anime until companies like MANGA Entertainment in the UK, ADV in the USA and Madman Entertainment in Australia fully launched the Anime industry via VHS and eventually DVD releases of these classics.
And there will always be those who first watched Anime in the morning shows whether it be during the 1960s with Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion and Princess Knight starting with the Tezuka classics. To the 1970s and 1980s with Battle of the Planets (Gatchaman) to Star Blazers (Space Battleship Yamato) or even Voltron (Go Lion) where American Localization version was completely different to the Japanese original. To the 1990s when even Anime itself became Japanese enough that Western kids like myself found out it was a Japanese Cartoon that we were watching. Samurai Pizza Cats for me made that connection.
And of course there was the major Anime from the 90s like Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z and of course Pokemon that eventually started the Anime Boom of the 2000s with the Internet finally revealing to us what was changed in the shows we watched previously and we all wanted to have what the Japanese had.
These days, it is today's younger Otaku who don't fully appreciate the lengths that we as older Otaku had to go through just to enjoy what we enjoy today.
And even if the younger Otaku don't like the older stuff that we enjoy, it does not change the fact that the stuff the younger Otaku enjoy today are just as influential to them as the older Anime was to us when we were younger.
That is at least my 2 cents on the issue of younger anime fans not fully understanding the anime from the 90s that was for us.
did anyone else with Sword or Shield name their Yamper “Ein”?
I did.
Same
Ooooooh, that pokemon looks like Ein...
sandal in mouth nope, I called mine Zwei. Extra points if you get the reference
@@lamcb.9476 RWBY
I have to confess. I've never seen the entirety of the show. I started watching it at a time when I was only watching anime that had at least 80+ episodes. I was more used to how western TV shows worked, if it's successful and there's a demand for more, you keep giving people more. So a show at only 25 episodes wasn't appealing to me. Ironically later the exact opposite started to happen. I rarely if ever watch shows that last as long as Bleach or Naruto or One Piece. But I still haven't sit down to complete Cowboy Beebop.
As for the movie I've rented it back when my only access to anime was the very small quantity the local rental store had and a few classic series airing on TV on weekends. I enjoyed it mostly because of the style and animation but nothing really blew me away. As you said it felt like a long episode of an existing show so the impact it has on someone mostly depends on how much they loved the series.
I kind of want to see you go over Trigun again in this new style
This was the first time I saw Cowboy Beebop. Especially that dog fight.
What a great episode. totally agree that, while good, the movie can’t quite match the best Bebop episodes. Still a damn good movie, though.
Also, how someone can think Bebop is overrated is truly beyond me.
You should review Sword of the Stranger. The final fight scene in that film along with the action scenes in Cowboy Bebop the Movie are pretty much what cement Yutaka Nakamura as a god of animation in many people's minds.
Cowboy Bebop is honestly one anime that could make like 10 movies and would be perfectly acceptable.
Can you do the review of Magical Girl Spec-ops Asuka on Valentine's Day, please?
You new here? Sage very rarely does new anime. He has a 10-year minimum cutoff date.
Even though I have been watching other anime these past years. Every time I go back to Bebop I'm like yup still a classic. The movie was really good too. Yeah it's just an overlong episode but you can say that about any movie based off a series. I swear that Netflix series better be worth it and not turn out like to be like death note. I'm gonna rage so hard if it fails. Even though I like John cho I would have liked to see Keanu Reeves. I know he was a disliked choice by fans but ever since I saw him as John wick it changed my mind on him. He played a complete gun toting martial arts badass just like spike. But we'll see what John cho does
Yeah, this is one of the few anime roles that I think could've gone to a white dude without much fuss. I don't think Spike Spiegel was supposed to be Asian (just a shot in the dark), and the show is based on jazz and cowboy culture. Keanu would've been a better fit.
I’m willing to give things a benefit and will accept being wrong if I prejudge (did that with _Avatar: The Last Airbender_ ) and I’ve watched the latter portion of this movie of this movie out of context to anything of the series and found positives in it. But I don’t think _Cowboy Bebop_ will ever truly strike a nerve for me that I would be so enamored with it as say you or another though, I could be wrong...
And I’m someone who can extol the positives of something that others couldn’t bring themselves to see. It’s like that bald asshole you used to work with said to irritable gamer guy, “I will never understand how you can like it...but just because I can’t how, doesn’t mean I can’t understand _why..._ “ And that’s a good message for understanding fandom between insiders and newbies.
thank you bennie boy, cant wait to see what you bring to the table this year .
I agree that there had been better story lines and Bebop than this movie but at the same time this movie does a damn good job with what it does use
I had to wait a while as in almost a decade to see Bebop the movie and I was more than pleasantly surprised after watching the series cover to cover more than a few times.
And I will see if you have watched the series this movie is definitely pleasant compliment to it as well as being a fun ride in its own right
I still love the movie even if it’s not on the same level of greatness that TV show is on.
It still rises above a good chunk of the episodes, a good compliment I think :)
I have to admit that watching Sage troll himself was the highlight of my day.
Personally, I always felt the show as "Solidly Good, Periodically Great", which is a much more difficult level of quality to achieve than most think. I've rewatched chunks of the series over and over. That's something I've not done with most other shows.
However I did have problems with it. Some episodes just weren't for me, but that was usually when it was an episode paying homage to a film genre I just had no interest in. Also, Spike's story could had been so much more fleshed out. I always felt like I was watching a few random episodes in like Season 3 to 5 of a show, and then suddenly... a climax occurs. I wanted to see more, which is a good criticism for a show to have; but at the same time it REALLY could had done more. I felt like I just got a solidly good sampler but was denied the actual entrées.
And I want those entrées, dammit.
Ya, I'm 30, and have been an anime fan since I learned what anime was around age 11. Back when I first saw Cowboy Bebop, it was a beautifully animated show, fantasy soundtrack, with a compelling plot, and great voice acting, in a landscape where that was....rare... Is it one of my favorites. No. Well. Not technically. I will always be glad to watch it, sing it's praises, and recommend it. It's like Citizen Kane in that way. It's great, I enjoyed it, and as a former film student I can discuss why its legacy is important. But also, it's not one of my favorites. My favorite animes are all probably significantly more flawed, they just scratch my particular fan itches.
*fantastic soundtrack
Usually, the second generation's perspective is deformed and spoiled. They expect great hype, overall constant action and fan service forgetting it's the storytelling that matters most.
Another good video just have a question is Gabe ever coming back or did you just kill him off screen 📺
Gabe is not coming back and last I heard it's her now
USAFace666 ya just googled it and now I know the story she seems to be doing well now so that’s good for her
After revisiting it one of the understandable complaints I get from new viewers is that despite the events they go through the characters don't show much change over the series. Maybe in the final episode a bit with Faye, and I would like to say that was intentional, but for such deeply emotionally impactful situations you could pretty much watch past the 5th episode in any order. Basically a product of its time where long character building series weren't as prevalent.
Imaging having this on blue ray
I do.
Me as well.
I own it on Bluray
I went to see a special screening of the Cowboy Bebop movie in theater in the last year or 2, actually saw it twice for the subbed and dubbed version and seeing this movie on the big screen is pretty amazing, but its kinda weird to see some of the differences made between both versions like the dub has a tiny part of a scene thats cut out but that part is in the sub version of the movie like why cut out that little bit of the movie, but this movie is definitely worth going to see in theater if the chance ever comes up again
Daren Norris and Jennifer Hale are amazing in this dub
I am late for this anime when it aired because It came on late and I have to watch adult swim on my parents' room (middle school) And I got the complete series on blu-ray for my boyfriend either for anniversary or his birthday (not sure which) and I did wanted to watch it but like you said Sage for the reasons you list for the next generation however when I got around to watch the series finally I really enjoy the series; I can see why its praise for being 'the' best anime of all times.
Its one of those series that is timeless; and if someone ever reboots it (hopefully not and I'm willing to give the live action one a chance since YES I do enjoy the american Death Note and live action Fullmetal Alchemist; you heard me!) even they did a good job; the anime can never be topped.