A little thought about the last end card in the final episode... Every end card before that (aside from special ones as mentioned in the essay) as we all know, says SEE YOU SPACE COWBOY. But it's not just that. It's "SEE YOU SPACE COWBOY..." with an ellipses. The ellipses is more important than you think. Gramatically, an ellipses alludes to the continuity of a thought or a statement. In this case, it alludes to the continuation of the show, giving a viewer comfort with the idea that there is more to come. When the final end card appears, it reads, "YOU'RE GONNA CARRY THAT WEIGHT." PERIOD. As if the statement wasn't heavy enough already, the period represents finality. It constitutes a full, complete statement. There is no hint of something after like an ellipses indicates. It is the true end. And that finality makes it hurt all the more. It's absolutely genius.
@@Ladyknightthebrave oh my god you pinned my comment heuwueejhfueh I confess that I'm new to your channel with this video being my introduction, but I can absolutely say you've gained a fan. Your analysis was so incredibly well crafted and you showcase a lot of interesting information most others don't. I'm excited to look into what other video essays you've made! You're awesome!
@@ruralgoblin yea that last episode of bebop hits really hard especially since you know this is the end to something so amazing and unique. and it still to this day hurts me that Bebop ended period its got a very special place in my heart
That's not true, the phrase on the end cards changes quite a bit: "See you space cowboy" "Easy come, easy go" "The End" "To be continued" "Do you have a comrade?" "Sleeping beast" "Life is but a dream" "See you space samurai" "See you cowgirl, someday, somewhere" "You're gonna carry that weight"
I like to think that Julia being underdeveloped as a character is on at least some level a deliberate decision to highlight the senseless tragedy of Spike's death; Spike is a man who can't tell a dream from reality. He can't see that he's made a decent life for himself with true friends, and if one interprets their final scene together, a woman who loves him. He rejects that reality and chooses the dream. Julia represents Spike's ideal woman; no one ever actually describes her personality when they talk about her. Spike says she was "really alive" and "the piece of him that was missing", Faye calls her "a terrible kind of ordinary" and "an angel from the underworld or a devil from paradise", the bartender on Calisto calls her "a real woman", and these are all pretty words but they don't mean anything or tell us anything about her because she isn't a fully realized character; she's just this perfect, selfless and self sacrificing dream woman. Likewise, Vicious is a fairly flat character in that he's just a total bastard with no redeeming qualities whatsoever; he represents ultimate evil in Spike's mind. I think Julia and Vicious are both supposed to be contrasted with Faye & Jet respectively as the two major relationships in Spike's two lives. Vicious & Jet are both nostalgic traditionalist who were overly controlling in their relationships but where as Jet's old fashioned ways are longing for days of chivalry & honor that never really existed and an unhealthy dose of misogyny that comes with it, Vicious longs for the blood and guts, kill or be killed days of total war that forged the Syndicate, rather than the (relatively) peaceful times they're transitioning into. While their relationship is occasionally vitriolic, Jet is a true friend & brother in arms to Spike, where as Vicious was always a duplicitous, poisonous bastard. And while Julia is this perfect, angelic creature in Spike's mind, his good dream that he retreats to every time he gets the shit kicked out of him, Faye is a real person with flaws and failings, a hot mess of a human being who sings out of key. I don't think that's accidental, nor do I think it's accidental that they're even visually pretty opposite one another; Julia's long blond hair & conservative/practical/sensible black clothes contrasting with Faye's short dark hair, and bright yellow outfit that covers what it covers. I get why Ganymede Elegy might be someone's least favorite episode but I do think it's important in that it ultimately foreshadows the ending and highlights the tragedy of Spike through contrasting with Jet; Jet is reunited with his old flame, has to confront the fact that this past life he was so nostalgic for wasn't really as great as he remembers it being, and learns to let go and walk away from it. In the end, Spike's past comes running to catch up with him but even faced with the reality of the life he's actually living, even when the woman he idolizes telling him that what he had was only ever a dream, he can't bring himself to accept it, can't let go of his past like Jet did & like Faye was forced to by the harsh reality of her past just not being there anymore, and while he does settle up with it, it ultimately comes at the cost of his life and any possible future he could have had. Having said all of that, I will give you one out in regards to the star fading at the end & the story "being open to interpretation"; it could have been Vicious' star.
I actually agree with you on all counts. And Julia being such a mystery, helps us feel the situation from Faye's perspective. She knows Julia is important for Spike, but it all feels beyond understanding. He's dying for something that doesn't even exist anymore, that maybe didn't even exist to begin with. We aren't supposed to love Julia, or understand Spike's decision in the finale. It's SUPPOSED to feel like a senseless waste of life. Usually when the hero defeats the villain, even if they die in the end there is a sense of catharsis, completion and satisfaction, because they died accomplishing their goal and 'saving the world'. But Cowboy Bebop is a tragedy. Spike's goal was never to defeat the villain, he couldn't rescue the girl, and killing Vicious didn't really save anyone he knew or cared about or have any impact on the world at large. Vicious and Julia don't need fleshed out, because ultimately who they are doesn't matter, they are people who left Spike's life long ago. The fact that he chose his empty past over his colorful life on the bebop with a true friend and a romantic future is his tragedy.
@@M00nSlippers and it's not just Julia that points to it. Spike literally treats everything in his life as not real. He says he always sees the past with one eye - and I think it's significant it's the real eye that makes him see what is really there, but it's the fake eye that makes him stuck in the past. It's not realistic, but it makes a clear point that fits the themes of the story. Presumably, the eye should be functional, just like Jet's artificial arm works just fine. Spike is technically *able* to see the world as it is, but he refuses to do it, because his memories are more true to him than the "dream" of the present. Out of the three main characters, each has a different relationship with their past. Jet is a mix of nostalgic and bitter of his, Faye has lost hers and pretends it's not there, and Spike never let go of his. Julia is a stand-in for Spike's past, so while she's a real person in the context of the world, she's not a real person as far as the show is concerned. She's just an image in Spike's memory that has long since lost any connection to the real Julia. She's a mental crutch for him. And out of the three main characters, Spike has by far the most destructive relationship with his past. It's significant that it's what ends up killing him, while Jet and Faye manage to go on.
To me Cowboy Bebop captures a feeling of loneliness, even when the crew is together they are alone in carrying the weight of their own pasts and coming to terms with it.
and the character interaction throughout the series kind of supports this we start with just spike and jet on the bebop but their interactions while friendly and familiar have a certain distance about them, and there's not really a sense of how long they've known each other it could be 6 months could b 6 years then you get to the episodes where their pasts start catching up with them, they have to explain it, its not something the other person knows, its something both of them would rather forget than too talk about then you add in fay and ed for all intents and purposes a literal person out of time and an orphan(I know ed ain't one but they may as well be for most of the show) these aren't people who want to be together, these are people who are together because where else would they go? the verse ain't got nothing for them that travelling together in the bebop doesn't already have, the entire ship is listless and without rudder just going though the motions of saying alive rather than actually doing anything, sure there bounty hunters but that's just a paycheck not there goal in life
As others have said, the alienation we feel in relation to Julia is deliberate. Our perspective was always the crew's perspective. To see Spike throw his life away like that, for a woman we barely know, hurts. We want to see him stay with Jet and Faye, but he's got his own baggage. That plays a really big part on the finale being so heartbreaking.
"You're gonna carry that weight" is such a powerful fucking thing for a show to say. It's such a statement of confidence and power. This show meant something and with it's ending you, the viewer, *will* remember it. You're going to have to decide what it meant and what happened next. We've done our part, now it's your responsibility.
It's also rather wonderful for a show so in love with music, in particular western 20th century popular music, to end with a quote from some of the last music ever recorded by The Beatles, by many reckonings the center of that entire field. When Lennon and McCartney were figuring out how to end their own great artistic experiment, they chose to part with the sentiment "You're gonna carry that weight a long time" as well.
@@jeffpalaganas7404 Absolutely. Many of the episode titles (Honkey Tonk Woman, Sympathy for the Devil, Toys in the Attic, Bohemian Rhapsody, Wild Horses, etc.) are 60’s and 70’s song titles. It’s obviously a Beatles reference as well.
If I had a dime for every time somebody made a cowboy bebop essay called "You're gonna carry that weight", I'd have two dimes. Which isn't a lot, but it's funny that it happened twice.
I've never felt really sad by the Call Me Call Me scene. To me it's a really uplifting, life affirming moment. The ending card saying "See you space cowgirl, someday, somewhere!" reads to me as a promise that Ed will be alright. She was the only one to embrace the future rather than dwell on the past the way Faye, Jet and Spike are trapped by their own hangups
That’s one way to interpret it. But overall it’s melancholy. Uplifting for Ed and Ein’s story, but that song marks the official end of the Bebop crew and it doesnt help that Spike and Jet just eat their pain away. For me the song makes me feel uncertainty, but I guess at the same time hopeful.
I actually laughed out loud when you said Space Dandy was your least favorite, because while it is literally one of my favorite anime ever made, I COMPLETELY understand why people might not like it. I enjoy the pure, unhinged stupidity backed by some of the most visually interesting animation and production design ive ever seen, BUT like. Its one of those shows where im like. Yeah this is 100% not for everyone and many people will very justifiably not be able to stand this. Anyway, I didn't finish watching this because it made me realize I really should finally just go actually finish watching Cowboy Bebop, something I regretfully have never done. I wanna enjoy this video in full when I'm done catching up!
Aw snap! You're in for a good time! If you've watched it by now, hope ya liked it! Maybe report back on what you thought when ya get a little time later, eh?
Well it would be apparent from the criticisms of chapter 3 that it wouldn't be her type. I would say she lacks an appreciation of jazz as well but I love jazz and am bias for Kids on a Slope as jazz is chaotic and generally has an abrupt end. Though the whole anime has largely been pale criticism rubs me the wrong way as anime is largely marketed towards Japanese people with Japanese stories so I don't get the need for "representation" from an Asian person's viewpoint considering japan is a largely homogenous nation.
I couldn't get into it. Seemed super obnoxious and the boobies jokes got so old so fast... The whole show seemed like a fanservice weeb fever dream... I don't watch shows that are weeb fever dreams. I can't imagine what redeems the show. Only got halfway thru.
1:19:50 this is a great scene emotionally and symbolically, in some native American cultures a dog with two colored eyes was said to see both this world and the next world. And in the end that's what Spike was. A stray dog that could see his master, but she was just too far away
I love how this started when a bunch of animators were assigned to do an anime that had cool looking ships because they wanted to cash in on the potential Star War craze.
1:24:28 "As it stands, Spike is avenging a memory." I like what the show did with Julia. It is only because we feel distant from her that we don't want to see Spike try to avenge her. If I was attached to Julia at all, I would have been rooting for Spike to go and avenge her, but for me at least, the distance provided some perspective made me realize Spike was walking to his doom when he went to kill Vicious. This made me even more sad for Faye when she fired into the ceiling.
In the little time we have with Julia, she is shown to be intelligent, beautiful, deeply caring and a total badass. Just as Spike remembered her. She is described as a real woman. Jet: What kind of girl was she? Bartender: She was a real woman. Julia is the only thing that ever felt real to Spike and this point is emphasized multiple times. Early in the series Spike describes his present as an endless nightmare. It is no accident that Julia's face is shown on screen when Spike states that he can never reach reality. Spike: The music box is broken, or is it? It starts to play, and a haunting tune fills the air. I wake suddenly from my dream. There is no music box! And yet there it is. A tiny one nestled in my hand. And I awaken from my dream again. As if I were peeling an onion. It’s a dream no matter how far I go. I can never reach reality. Trapped in an endless nightmare. The music box belonged to Julia. Spike desperately wishes to return to her because she is the person who made life worth living for him. Spike: Years ago, back when I was much younger, I was afraid of nothing. I had not the slightest fear of death. I was ready to die anytime. But then I met a special woman. She made me want to go on living. For the first time, I was afraid of death. A feeling I’d never had before. Elektra: Where is she now? Spike: She went away. Laughing Bull tells Spike that he must open the eye of truth. That he must see beyond reality and touch the truth. Laughing Bull: Know this Swimming Bird, this blue eye perceives all things conjoined. The past, the future, and the present. Everything flows and all is connected. This eye is not merely seeing reality. It is touching the truth. Open the eye of truth... There is nothing to fear. Spike: Yeah... I know what you mean. In the finale Spike sees Julia and her blue eye with his eye that sees his present. Julia is thus framed as being what Spike sees when he finally looks with the eye that sees the truth. She is his truth. His past, his present and his future all at once. The parallels with Spike/Julia and Vincent/Elektra also frame Julia as the only thing that ever felt real to Spike. Spike says that he and Vincent have similar souls. Vincent says these words to Elektra before he dies. Vincent: Of the days that I have lived only those I spent with you seem real. Now that it's over I can see your face so clearly.” And of course Spike sees Julia's face before he dies. She is the woman Spike loves. He needs her. He considers her a part of his own being. Spike: She was a piece of me I had lost Aitsu wa ore ga naku shita ore no kataware sa あいつは俺がなくした俺のかたわれさ_ Spike: She is my other half that I had longed for ore ga hoshikatta ore no kakera nanda 俺が欲しかった 俺のかけらなんだ_ Visual symbolism is used to convey the truth of this to the audience. As Spike lost a red rose when he lost Julia and found a red rose when he found her again. A red rose is the universal symbol of true love. It is no accident that the final in-frame image we are shown of the couple is of them joined as one, giving weight to Spike’s assertion that Julia made him whole. Even the final song, which is about Spike's soul ascending to heaven states that his dream is really everything it seemed. Spike's good dream was always to be with Julia. Free Wanna be free Gonna be free And move among the stars You know, they really aren't so far Feels so free Gotta know free Please Don't wake me from the dream It's really everything it seemed I'm so free No black and white in the blue Everything is clearer now Life is just a dream, you know That's never-ending I'm ascending Julia was the person Spike needed. Faye and Jet never gave him what she did and they never could.
RE the Julia problem: I always felt like the audience was held at bay from Spike and the gang. Like we weren't immersed in the story with our new character friends, but rather given the privilege of looking through the window at their lives for a short while. So instead of feeling like I didn't care about Julia and therefore not getting that emotional punch, I more felt like I had the same distance from Spike as always - didn't really know his past because it was his, not ours, and we were lucky to get the insights we got instead of none at all. I felt sad not for Julia, but for Spike. And I really loved that about the series as a whole. I always felt like I was lucky to catch a glimpse of these strangers living their life, and that, like with people in the real world, I would only ever know about their past from the stories they told, or some photographs of moments in time. Like you can never wholly know someone, and if you think too hard about what you can never know about someone you hold dear it can really hit you in the heart.
I think Vicious and Julia being underdeveloped or underutilized is an intentional part of the narrative. Vicious and Julia are like memories. They're figments of Spike's past that don't belong in his current life. Over time memories can become vague and distant. If Vicious and Julia have a more active role in the series they become as much a part of Spike's present as they are his past. This would weaken the disconnect Spike has with his past. That disconnect is a core part of his character, Vicious and Julia need to remain mysterious in order to make that narrative work.
Same here. Julia represents the life that Spike wanted, but could never have, and a last chance at that life is taken away from him with Julia's death. Does this count as fridging? Probably. But it's still effective at conveying the tragedy of Spike: he's doomed to die a cowboy's death, gunned down and bleeding out in a defiant last stand, taking his enemy with him.
Food (and scarcity therof) plays a surprisingly substantial narrative role in cowboy bebop. That scene of the guys piging out on eggs ... that might seem trivial at first. But the food angle gives it more dimension. I need to rewatch this show.
You can't expand on Julia's character without weakening the audience's relationship with Jet and Faye. We are left in the same spot they are after Spike's death. Only vaguely understanding why he's doing what he's doing. If we loved Julia just as much as Spike did we wouldn't feel as empty as we do at the end.
I agree, the mystery surrounding her leaves it up to our imagination. However I imagine its somewhat different for viewers who are looking for female characters they can relate to.
Yeah I definetly think Julia being this vague figure is a feature not a bug. It adds to the poignancy of the end. The innevatiblity of Spike and the absurdism of it in the end. He was hung up in a past half seen, half remembered and could only half see his present, that even with its flaws was a good place. If Julia, and even Vicious and the sindicate, were explored more, the dreamlike quality of that past, of how it is only half there but always present, would deminish. And you can either accept it like Jet, not knowing the details but knowing that he had no choice, because he is the man that he is, or reject it like Faye, who cannot see why that past already lost is worth dying for.
Despite her limited appearances a lot of interesting things are shown and implied about Julia. She's an intelligent, badass lady.Arguably smarter than Spike, Vicious, Faye and Gren. She realized the threat Vicious posed to Spike's plan while Spike was too lovestruck and focused on the dream life he wanted to have with her. When she was given the ultimatum of either killing Spike or them both dying, she manipulated Vicious into believing she would comply with his order then escaped him, thus protecting Spike. When she ran into Faye, she extracted information from Faye without Faye realizing it. She realized that Vicious was spying on Gren and quickly deduced where the spyware had been planted. She had Shin feeding her information from inside the syndicate and she had info about Spike and the Bebop. I love Julia because from what we saw of her it was clear that she was a realistic and pragmatic woman who was deeply devoted to the man she loved and sacrificed everything to protect him.
To be fair, it's not difficult to be smarter than the Bebop crew. I think the whole outfit has only two brain cells, and they belong to Ed and Ein. I say this with absolute affection.
Yes. I understand where people get the idea that Spike’s love for Julia is meant to be superficial because she is described in such idealized terms, but I always felt there’s something else going on because *everyone* talks about her that way. Julia leaves such a strong impression on people who meet her that the barkeep at the Rester House still leaves the barstool where she sat apart from the others past closing time. She’s portrayed as so mysterious, elusive, and impossible to forget because she functions more as a symbol of something unattainable than a character, I think. Spike doesn’t necessarily die because he can’t do the healthy thing and let go of her, but because he can’t escape his past and there are consequences for the life he lived before. He has felt caught between two worlds, never fully present in the present, because his past is a part of him and he tried to be free of it. The show mirrors him and Vicious with similar images and they loved the same woman because Vicious is his shadow self and a part of him. In similar ways, Julia and Spike are shown to be inescapably linked. Her dying words echo Spike’s, showing she understands his experience of life while Spike has always been unable to truly connect to Jet and Faye and as heartbreaking as it is to think about, they’ve never been able to *really* know him. Julia comes across as similarly hardened by life, cool and composed in the face of danger, never showing much emotion. In these subtle ways they just *feel* like soul mates, even as we know so little about their relationship. I think there’s hope for Jet and Faye to confront and process their pasts and baggage in a way that’s constructive, and in that way the ending isn’t a complete tragedy to me, but Spike and Vicious and Julia all have to die together to be at peace.
@@sarachapman969 Spike was very aware that he couldn't escape the consequences of his past, yet he also had no intention of ever letting Julia go. He pretty much admitted to Elektra that Julia was his reason for living. _Spike: Years ago, back when I was much younger, I was afraid of nothing. I had not the slightest fear of death. I was ready to die anytime. But then I met a special woman. She made me want to go on living. For the first time, I was afraid of death. A feeling I’d never had before._ Spike’s relationship with Julia is paralleled with the tale of the tiger striped cat. _Spike: There once was a tiger striped cat. This cat died a million deaths, revived and lived a million lives, and he was owned by various people who he didn't really care for. The cat wasn't afraid to die. Then one day the cat became a stray cat, which meant he was free. He met a white female cat, and the two of them spent their days together happily. Well, years passed, and the white cat grew weak and died of old age. The tiger striped cat cried a million times, and then he died too. Except this time, he didn't come back to life._ The tiger striped cat was reborn after each death. A metaphor for how Spike faced multiple deadly situations and managed to cheat death every time. Yet, once the white female cat (Julia) died, the tiger striped cat (Spike) ceased to cheat death. He followed his love in death and never returned. This point is emphasized when Spike casts down his weapon the moment he sees that Julia has been shot. Spike also confided in Jet that Julia is his other half. Spike: She was a piece of me I had lost Aitsu wa ore ga naku shita ore no kataware sa あいつは俺がなくした俺のかたわれさ Spike: She is my other half that I had longed for ore ga hoshikatta ore no kakera nanda 俺が欲しかった 俺のかけらなんだ Julia is framed as being the part of Spike that he lost, as Spike lost a red rose when he lost Julia, and found a red rose just before he found her again. Spike walks away from the Bebop without looking back. A ballad of undying love plays as he thinks of Julia. He thinks of being in Julia's arms, their bodies joined as one. The lyrics explain that his love is eternal and that death itself cannot erase it, nor cause it to fade away. It's ultimately a song about reuniting with Julia in the afterlife. _"Everything is already over", You say with closed ears The words only flow Towards a tomorrow without peace "There's nothing that won't change" Even if my life ends This love will not disappear It's something that will live forever Even if dreams are hidden in darkness I got a rainbow Rainbow in your hands_ In the official Cowboy Bebop Anime Guide book, which Sunrise commissioned and released in 1998 to accompany the anime it says: _After a long time apart, Spike and Julia reunite. But their happiness is short lived at best. That which Spike has longed for slips through his fingers as easily as it came into his embrace. This is one man's fate converging on to death, as it were a predestine circumstance of his young life. Having lost his future, Spike is left only with his past. He confronts Vicious in a battle that should have taken place long ago. What does the right eye, left in a wounded body see at the very end?_ In the penultimate scene of the anime, Spike is shown finally seeing Julia with his eye that sees his present. He dies with a smile on his lips.
I think our impression of Julia supposed to be as faint as our impression of Faye's home. A past that no longer carry weight to anyone but the person who remembers it
Yeah, because it's supposed to be sad when the past is REALLY the past. This whole show is a meditation on loss...it can't leave you fulfilled, not by design. One must mourn, because you don't move on if you can't mourn.
I was born in Holland, parent are Berber/Moroccan. For a few places in Cowboy Bebop, they researched Morocco. They even featured Moroccan lyrics and vocals in the movie OST. I recognized the dialect immediately and dove into the making of. looking at the art and setting... it takes me back to my childhood visiting Morocco in the late 90s and early 2000s. This anime is part of my childhood and my culture.
"You're gonna carry that weight" is a lyric from one of the last tracks on the last Beatles album. End of an era. The series is very much about endings. Spike's death, the dissolution of the Bebop's crew, the implication that the age of the Cowboys is coming to an end (Andy changing his cowboy aesthetic for a samurai one, Big Shots getting canceled), the collapse of the Red Dragon after they, in their turn, had effectively taken over organized crime. These things are all of a piece.
I feel somewhat devastated that you didn't mention that the final scene with Spike and Faye when she shoots her gun is a reference to Point Break when Keanu's character does the same thing - because they both, in those moments, understand and accept the perspectives of those they were trying to catch/stop/ Otherwise, hi I love you and your love of the media you showcase on your channel
Ngl Point Break caught me off guard with how good it was. When I heard the plot was "Keanu Reeves infiltrates a surfer gang" I thought I was in for a weird but fun cop movie. Boy was I wrong.
I DONT feel like Spike’s death was meaningless. When he said: “I’m going to see if I’m really alive” It’s because Spike still doesn’t know if he’s alive. He doesn’t know if this family is a dream or not so he can’t just keep going with them. When he dies he smiles because he realizes that he has been alive this whole time, and that those connections he made were indeed, real. He was never dreaming.
The last few episodes of Cowboy Bebop makes me feel like I've been stabbed through the heart, yet here I am and I watched this whole essay. Its just so painfully realistic the relationship the crew of the Bebop have. Human beings are so often like Ships That Pass In The Night, brief moments of passing close by, a flurry of interaction and excitement, so short but yet so intense, all too quickly they move on once again alone on an empty sea. All that's left are memories.
It may be less up to interpretation than I think, but I always saw the "Julia problem" as intentional, she clearly _was_ very important to Spike's life, but he's not living that life anymore, he's tethered to it, mostly by Julia and Vicious, but he has been trying to move on and make his own way. She hugs him and he doesn't hug her back, she asks him to run away with her and he doesn't respond other than to get ready for a fight, it seems like she's still there, she still cares for him, but he is desperately trying to move on with his life, he just can't, because one eye is always looking into the past. I kind of explained it before I expressed my opinion but along with the obviousness that she used to be a major figure in Spike's life, there is that sense that the show gives that she isn't really part of this story, she's from the one that ended before this one began and Spike going back to kill Vicious is him making sure that it is well and truly ended, so that the world and he can move on, escaping "the dream" that broke that story up and getting on with his life, letting go of the past that kept moving on without him and kept pulling him back towards it.
Spike wasn't trying to move on. He tells Jet that Julia IS his other half the same day she died. And this is where only listening to the dub is a problem, because the dub uses "was" when he is clearly speaking in present tense in Japanese. “She is my other half that I had longed for” → ore ga hoshikatta ore no kakera nanda 俺が欲しかった 俺のかけらなんだ Also, Julia is literally what was keeping Spike tethered to life in the first place. Spike: Years ago, back when I was much younger, I was afraid of nothing. I had not the slightest fear of death*. I was ready to die anytime. *But then I met a special woman. She made me want to go on living. For the first time, I was afraid of death. A feeling I’d never had before. Spike: There once was a tiger striped cat. This cat died a million deaths, revived and lived a million lives, and he was owned by various people who he didn't really care for. The cat wasn't afraid to die. Then one day the cat became a stray cat, which meant he was free. He met a white female cat, and the two of them spent their days together happily. Well, years passed, and the white cat grew weak and died of old age. The tiger striped cat cried a million times, and then he died too. Except this time, he didn't come back to life. If it wasn't for her, Spike would have died three years prior to when the series began, and she is actively been protecting him the entire time they've been apart.
I think that Spike isn't really trying to move on and the tragedy is that he finds himself unable to. He's got this new life that's presented as better for him in almost every way. Spike is wrestling with whether he should even be in his new life all the way through the ending and that uncertainty is reflected through the "is it/is it not a dream" dynamic. The moment of Julia dying being Spike's real breaking point of "I'm not going to move on from the past, even though I should" and the point where someone explicitly says "It is all a dream" even though that's not really true.
@@jayknox8072 Spike's new life isn't even presented as better for him given he is miserable and literally describes it as an endless nightmare. “The music box is broken, or is it? It starts to play, and a haunting tune fills the air. I wake suddenly from my dream. There is no music box! And yet there it is. A tiny one nestled in my hand. And I awaken from my dream again. As if I were peeling an onion. It’s a dream no matter how far I go. I can never reach reality. Trapped in an endless nightmare.” -Spike Spiegel And the song that plays after he leaves the Bebop explains his feelings fully. "Everything is already over", You say with closed ears The words only flow Towards a tomorrow without peace "There's nothing that won't change" Even if my life ends This love will not disappear It's something that will live forever Even if dreams are hidden in darkness I got a rainbow In my hands... The voice that crosses the inside of my chest Tells me that there are also things that won't change or disappear On the morning when we pray before the truth Love will return here once more Love never dies Love never fails Love never ever fades away If someday my life ends This love will not disappear It's a thing that will live forever Escaping the darkness When we've passed the illusion Frozen in time On the other side of the rainbow, love will be waiting Thousands of lights will be waiting You got a rainbow Rainbow in your hands...
I can't recall which episode it is off the top of my head, but Spike lays out pretty clearly why he goes to the tower. Julia isn't the reason. She's a catalyst, yes, but, given what else is going on, he'd end up in that confrontation anyway. It's also worth bearing in mind the influence Yakuza and Ronin stories have on Spike's characterization and the overall arc of his story. To whit; Spike considers Vicious to be everything Spike himself would have become had he not found Julia. Circumstance separated them and, now, Vicious is the monster Spike created. The literal embodiment of his past come to destroy him. He knows he's going to have to deal with it, permanently, sooner or later. The events of the last two episodes of the series can be summed up rather neatly as Vicious cleaning house on their shared past. Taking anything and everything Spike once cared for from him in order to flush him out. Force him to take a stand or lose everything. It's a fight he knows he can't win [edit: and survive], but honour and love demand he take up the gauntlet. Given all this, Spike's swan song is a triumph. He sacrifices himself and his present to his past to ensure his friends have a chance at a future that doesn't have Vicious hanging over it like a blood red shadow. He can't tell them that, though, so he explains the only way he can. With arguably tortured metaphors. Even that shows he does care quite deeply about the people he's leaving behind. He's demonstrated quite clearly that if he didn't, he wouldn't have bothered. He'd have just upped stakes and gone. But he does, and that's why he goes.
@@nathanrandall7003 Wrong. Even the Official Cowboy Bebop Anime Guide (1998) says he goes because of Julia. "After a long time apart, Spike and Julia reunite. But their happiness is short lived at best. That which Spike has longed for slips through his fingers as easily as it came into his embrace. This is one man's fate converging on to death, as it were a predestine circumstance of his young life. Having lost his future, Spike is left only with his past. He confronts Vicious in a battle that should have taken place long ago. What does the right eye, left in a wounded body see at the very end?" Spike is explicitly shown walking away from Jet and Faye and is never shown thinking about either after he leaves the Bebop. The last images that are shown of Spike with either character are of him with his back turned to them as he walks out of their lives. Yet Spike is shown having romantic and sexual thoughts of Julia almost immediately after he leaves. In the prior episode, Spike confided in Jet that Julia was his other half. It is no accident that the last in-frame image of Spike and Julia is of them joined as one. The song that plays as Spike is headed to the syndicate and while he is attacking the syndicate is a ballad of undying love for Julia. When Spike is fighting Vicious, he uses Julia's death as the justification to end it all. Spike: "Julia passed away. Let's end it all." Vicious: If that is your wish. [Spike does not deny it.] Seconds after Spike has killed Vicious, Spike looks up to the sky and sees Julia. The scenes of Julia's death and Spike killing Vicious are visually linked. Showing the causal relationship between the two. The triggering event and the resolution. In the penultimate scene of the series, Spike finally sees Julia with his eye that sees his present. An event that had been foreshadowed all series long. Yet the last time Spike ever looked at Faye, the eye that sees his past was featured. Julia is ever present is Spike's final scenes, while there is not one single mention of Jet or Faye.
I disagree about the Julia problem. It was never about her, it was about Spike's disembodied past, in all it's mysterious winding uncertainty. Spike's disconnection from reality was always about his distance from the dream he had, and the inevitability of him being torn from that fantasy. I don't think we're supposed to care about Julia. When they reunited I was confused because it didn't fit with the themes of the show up until that point. It almost seemed like they were going to say "love conquers all", but in the end the show smashed that fictitious dream in our faces with her death. Spike's reaction to Julia's death is what the show was building towards, not to their reunion. He finally connected with reality enough to have something live for - to die for. Until then, he was apathetically floating through life. The end of the show, for me, is trying to say that life itself isn't worth fighting for. If you have purpose, pursue it. If you want purpose, find it. But if you have no purpose, life is inherently meaningless and shouldn't be taken too seriously.
"I think it's time we blow this thing, get everybody and the stuff together. Okay, 3.. 2.. 1.. Let's jam!" I was wondering if you would ever cover Cowboy Bebop. I absolutely love this anime and love how you set up your videos so this should be a great morning.
The "Spike died" *sob* "isn't he just a cartoon character" "yes" *sob* wins for Most Relatable Content. In all honesty though, I'm mid rewatch with friends in prep for netflix, and find I can't watch many episodes all at once because so many of them just make me feel? Too much? Thanks so much for this video. Amazing research, and the in depth on Funk Orchestral Goddess Yoko Kanno was stellar.
I laughed doubly hard because I'm on the other side of this now. My own teen was morose for days over a sad anime, and I had turned into the adult who said "but... it's' just a show?"
I honestly hoping this analysis would’ve been more focused on this theme. The humanity rather than politics, which were interesting and glad I could learn about it. But yea I think the show just connects with ppl on a very primal emotional level . Like Faye’s past and the analysis is wow it’s heartbreaking just rather underwhelming. Rather than making a point of feminism, then like just make it a feminist analysis and title it that. I do appreciate the breadth of the analysis and it was amazing, but I feel like it lacked a thesis or depth to the ideas and themes
I never watched the American dub of cowboy bebop but gren is not non-binary. He's a man who's body was altered as a delayed side effect of his genetic experimentation that his squad went through. He hates what was done to his body, he isn't flaunting a space in between. It's a major cause of his emotional state when he's introduced into the story.
Every time I see the phrase "you're gonna carry that weight" tears form in my eyes because the show was that powerful and impactful for me. Bless you for another great video essay. Thank you.
I unintentionally watch Bebop and Trigun back to back as a teen nd ever since saw the two as a strange reflection of each other. Besides the stylistic similarities, how Spike and Vash in many respects had the same story, a similar tragedy, but simple chose to change and take different lessons, nihilism vs pacifism, revenge vs acceptance. Just a thought that's been stuck in my head for ages.
An excellent essay again! And again - by the end you made me cry with your thoughtful insights and the pieces of hope you put in your conclusions. Your way of analyzing pieces of media really shows a deep understanding of not only art but also the human condition and all the awful, messy and wonderful things it is made of. Love
22:23 this is about where I recall why I love this content. Lady Brave makes a plain point about Japanese culture/media, and how many perceive both in short sighted ways. That read, many will join me in pondering that diorama in light of different existences various beings have voiced their opinions about. Us Rainbow peoples aren't some brick house built by one family of bricklayers... We are all artists of our life times, loving all human experience while we enrich humanity. That's why we thrive, or suffer...
Yoko and Shinichiro were really playing jazz with each other across media. That’s the sickest shit I’ve ever heard and I need to watch the whole series all the way through even more now!
You did an excellent job on this, and I am really glad I could be a small part of it. Also to the audience I can confirm that LK does the squeaky part of the theme song every time because we watched the full series and movie together while she was writing the script. 💜
"Blue" is an insta-cry track for me...ditto for "Voices" (especially the cello version) from Macross Plus. She really does nail the emotional gut-punch, yeah?
32:46 I'm stopping at this moment to comment- so I don't know if it's about to be addressed - but at least from my understanding if someone is going to have a legal change in gender (where there are no third gender options) then medical transitioning is required. Even just the current modern day language in Japanese around gender queer ID is highly lacking. I'm not surprised to hear that in Carole and Tuesday that in the og Japanese that the term used would be translated into intersex rather then gender nonbinary or something similar to a gender term that we'd use. I'm sure that most of the vocab still have derogatory context to their uses. Also I just want to add that - with considering my own experiences as being non binary and living in more conservative America anyways - I'm also essentially forced to medically transition with HRT so I can have insurance coverage for confirmation surgery. So, I find this actually be validating and in some ways representative of my own lived experienced - in that being forced but still being comfortable with the results. It's always an echo chamber of absolute yes' or no's being the only way to answer how to express gender otherwise you're doing it wrong/are broken when it's just - No. I am non binary. I do not have a binary gender experience and I can not answer with those absolute yes/no like a gender binary trans person would. Anyways as it's said - No minority is a monolith anyways. ¯\(-_-)/¯
On top of this being a fabulous essay in it's own right, I was the same age when Cowboy Bepop was airing in the usa, and hearing you talk about watching it with your sister brought back memories of staying up to watch Toonami with my brothers back in the day and it gave me warm fuzzies in my heart.
This video essay is so well done! It was like watching a prime time documentary feature. Cowboy bebop (and DBZ) is what got me into anime. Thank you for sharing.
Another possible interpretation: you can't die if you never truly lived. Since Spike spent so much time being stagnant, when he returns to his past, he does so in order to reunite with that living of "life" feeling he has been missing out on. He had these amazing people who loved and cared for him, a family, who were providing that to him, but he couldn't fully feel like he belonged there because of his past. (They all sort of had this "belonging" issue. Ed moved on; Faye finally accepted her fam only to lose them all over again.) The people we love and care about have people in their lives who make them who they are. Those people might be rather meaningless to us, but to them, they are their foundation. When they are missing, people shut down or operate broken. While I would have liked to see Julia fleshed out more, the idea that she was just kind of this enigma does at least kind of land - she provides the role she was supposed to here. When Spike dies, he does so after he embraced "life." (Whether that life was worth throwing away the Bebop fam for is questionable...)
So I doubt you'll remember or even see this comment, but I really did watch all of Cowboy Bebop because i caught your announcement of this video on the UA-cam community tab. I'm so glad I did. This is a beautiful, remarkable series that truly lives up to the hype. The series made me cry, and yes, your video made me cry. Again, I assume youre not not going to see this, but here are some of thoughts, related to what you mentioned: 1. Faye's sexualization. Yes, her outfit and the way the camera leered at her was pretty ridiculous and somewhat off-putting if youre not into it. But I really liked that the other main characters never leered at her and no one ever belittles her sexuality. She's dumb and self-involved, but she is never called or treated like a "dumb slut". 2. Spike's death and "The Julia Problem". I think the fact that we don't know Julia actually adds quite a lot to the ending. Spike's death is a senseless one, something that even he can't seem to fully justify, outside of feeling like he should have died long ago. As the audience, we feel like Faye and Jet, who don't know Julia either and can't understand why Spike has decided to fall on this particular sword. It is a truly tragic ending, only extenuated by the fact that we feel like outsiders while it happened. Granted, I've only seen the two-parter once, and I haven't had to "carry the weight" of it for years, maybe I'll feel differently on reflection later down the line. Sidenote: The Movie was absolutely incredible. I honestly think its already one of my favorite animated films ever, the show transitioned to a feature film so well, I wish there was 5 more Cowboy Bebop movies. It was so exhilarating. tl;dr Great show, great video. The only problem is that I am now I will be very disappointed if the Netflix series is bad lol
I thought this was gonna be the one time I didn't cry at one of your essays, I was almost all the way through, but then you presented Ocean Vuong's quote... "I miss you more than I remember you," is gonna haunt me, in a good, but wrenching, way.
I've got to disagree with the examination of Gren's backstory. Gren isn't just nonbinary he's a prisoner of war. And he was forced to have a body he didn't want. Just because that may not be tasteful to one person, doesn't make the story any less valid
TBH I don't really get why gender is such an important part when it's meant to be about you and not your gender right? I guess if it changes anything Gren was also implied to be either gay or asexual.
Haven't gotten to Gren yet in this video, but I'm already put off by referring to Ed as "they." Beyond the very quirky adopted name she took on, there's no indication Ed is nonbinary. I really dislike this trend of assuming women/girls who aren't typically feminine have some kind of atypical gender identity. I'm going to watch the rest of this video, but this comment about Gren makes me think the content creator is going to insert her ideological bent where it isn't reasonable to do so.
@@gayvinmcginnes2508 I agree, if anything the live action was a BAD example of nonbinary since Gren was very clearly a male, and the live action only made Gren a stereotype of what a trans is
Feel like the important thing to know about Faye's last scene is she isn't crying cause she's in love with Spike. With surely learning by that point that Ed and Ein are gone, and now Spike will soon be too, she's losing a family all over again. And just when she could finally see the Bebop as home.
Years later, it is really weird that anyone reads any of this as Faye having romantic feelings for Spike. She never expresses anything at any point that could ever be read as attraction to him. So we think Faye would be shy about it, if she did like Spike? They don't flirt or anything like that. But he's basically her only real friend, and he basically died in the same week she got her memories back and learned she was never going to see her family again. It is hardly shocking she was somewhat emotional about this
Ok so about those magic mushrooms... little known fact is that till 2002 it was possible to find magic mushroom vending machines all over japan (especially often times close to or inside so called love hotels)
I can't get over how good this is. My husband and I were miserable at how bad the live action one was so we needed a pallet cleanser after watching it. And this was EVERYTHING! So detailed and insightful. I can't imagine how long it took you to put this together but holy hell. Thank you for giving us something brilliant to watch.
Thank you so much for breaking my heart over Bebop again. I finished the series again recently and listen to the soundtrack quite a lot. I was so excited when you announced you would be doing this show and as always, you did NOT disappoint. Thank you much, LK!
I loved how you recorded a couple cover tracks yourself. The show and music of the series are so intertwined, as you clearly point out. It makes it fitting for you to tie your own take on the music into your thoughts of the series. Thank you!
_"SEE YOU, SPACE COWBOY..."_ Spike Spiegel screwed me up from the first episode. Like, you got me hooked on this Bounty Hunter's _Han Solo_ personality. Which right then and there I had a feeling he was gonna get killed at some point in the anime. I guess I wasn't ready for the end until I actually watched the Season Finale. Even Faye Valentine didn't want him to leave, and she knew exactly why he was going back. Almost like the Leia to his Han Solo? Naw? Alright, well I love this show's 80's/90's Cyberpunk atmosphere. This really sets the depressing yet hopeful tone for the anime, in my opinion. It isn't a Ghost in the Shell. Cowboy Bebop has been and always will be its own title. Its own masterpiece. Oh, yeah, I love Ein. Thought I don't have a Corgi like the BeBop crew, I've got a different puppy who's just as smart and I love her!
Just found your channel through your 1917 video! Keep up the fantastic content and thank you for bringing light to all sorts of issues with your platform!
I think that kind of toxic masculinity/casual misogyny is a necessary part of Jet's character. He's a relic and inflexible, and he's also an idealist dedicated to doing the right thing. His uncompromising commitment to his ideals is what led him to working as a bounty hunter on the Bebop. He was too clean for the police, and rather than play ball, he quit; he lost his girlfriend due to his well-meaning but stifling paternalism. Without the flaw of his antiquated attitude, I think he stops fitting with the crew as well, because otherwise he's just this old professional who probably would do better for himself solo, as he so often gripes.
But I can understand why some women would not care much for a character that more than occasionally disparages most women, regardless of his reasons for doing so. Her main gripe with his episodes are that she finds them to be oddly boring. She can't really explain why she finds them to be boring, she just does. I think that it's more because she never really got to care about Jet from the beginning. it's hard to like character episodes if you just don't like the character.
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I first watched Cowboy Bebop age 30. I cried my eyes out at the end. And seeing "You're gonna carry that weight" again in this video just made me cry again. The show is incredible, and that sentence is spot on. I am going to carry that weight. Spike's death matters, to me. I don't think I've ever felt that way about a fictional character.
I never had an issue with Julia's late addition. In a regular story with a particular kind of pacing, I can see the complaint. This show always felt to me like it was about the members of the bebop living with one another, their past just glimpses of their history. It's not about us caring about Julia, or any of the myriad other villains, bounty hunters, and bystanders. Its about caring about the crew. We don't need to sympathize with her or feel anything for her, because we felt pain for Spike.
oh man…can’t even describe properly the way that “You’re gonna carry that weight” makes me feel so emotional. I remember reading that end card and crying because right - we know that the ending to cowboy bebop is bitter sweet. We don’t see the crew stay as this happy, found family. Everyone goes their separate ways and it’s hard to witness, as we the audience have come to love them and their interactions. Maybe it’s naive but we hope that they will find a reason to stay. To stay together, to lean on one another. But - as i think has been explain many a time - a central theme of cowboy bebop is confronting your past. To find peace and acceptance, so you may not one day feel so haunted by memories or constantly stuck in the past. The end card “you’re gonna carry that weight” to me is all about carrying your emotional baggage, your burdens, and memories. It’s always with you. And we must learn to live with it, learn how to carry it. And damn, i always love the line from spike when he says “i’m going to find out if i’m really alive” - like he wants to not feel like he’s dreaming or drowning anymore. It hurts because we want him to find what he’s looking for even if we may not fully understand it (ie the ambiguity around Julia’s character and her significance). That’s the powerful part of the show - we love this crew so much that even in this moment of breaking ties and walking away, we want them to find their resolution, whatever it may be, even now that they are not together.
To me I love the ending a cowboy Bebop if you're going to go out no matter what. Going down in a blaze of glory so awesome that it hasn't been topped in 30 years. With some of the most overwhelming catharsis I've ever seen is just so satisfied.
Fantastic piece. My favorite of your videos so far, although it helps that BeBop might be my single favorite anime of all time and is easily in my top five television shows of ANY type as well. Something about the exploration of loss, and coming to terms with regret, hits me where I live. Plus you included some absolutely hilarious clips and references (I actually DID laugh out loud instead of a little snort-breath when I saw Tom Cardy up there for a second). And also the song at the end of "Hard Luck Woman" damn near brings me to tears every time. You were absolutely correct to call it one of the most gut wrenching in the show. Just very, very well done all around.
57:50 This combination of sci-fi and jazz is what got me to finally watch Bebop after having it on my "classics I have to watch someday" list for a long time. I don't remember where I heard it, but someone said the idea of "Space Jazz" (as opposed to "Space Opera") was the main underlying concept of the show. As soon as that clicked in my mind, I went from feeling like I "had" to watch it, to being actually super interested. And yeah it didn't disappoint, should have watched it years ago.
1:00:41 Watanabe and Kanno were actually playing jazz while creating the show 🤯 her instrument is music, and his instrument is showrunning 10:08 Nakamura was another player, an animation virtuoso
Okay... hearing a woman define what happened to her previous, ridiculous, outfits as being "slurped up in various crevices" was something I didn't know I needed to hear. It was hilarious and informative.
I'd like to point out that one's popular style of drag is literally done for comedy. Hemer usually come from the ridiculousness of the situation and the ridiculousness that this situation is considered redickuless.
The final episode for the show is hands down one of the best ends for a series ever. I can't even imagine how they'll come close that that pure awesomeness in the live action.
When I saw this show, I didn't know there were other people crazy enough to write stories extending &/or adapting works they love or saw potential in... or just wanted things to go differently. Thx, now I have a new reading list!
Watched kanno live and it made me cry lol. Its fascinating to listen to the deep dives you did while writing this. Especially the totally canon Seatbelts lore.
For someone born and living in a highly socially conservative society like Japan, especially born more than 40 years ago, Watanabe is incredibly progressive relative to just about anyone else similar to his situation. Of course he can do better, but what he has reached is already crazy good.
1:23:15 This show was NEVER meant to be about character development, if anything it the opposite where all characters are static throughout the whole show either because of their fear to past or longing to past. It is only until the end when their conflicts are solved in the most tragic ways for all three of them: Edward goes back to chase their father, Jet gets back to be alone, Faye gets her past memories but that doesn't change anything since her future with the crew is non existent, and Spike well he faces off his past and ends up dying. The fact Julia doesn't get "character development" is no different than anyother character in the show and is just like life itself which almost feel like its never getting resolved until things somehow resolve in usually the worst way possible usually not by choice but mere inertia.
Unless I’m giving the show far too much credit, which is possible, the word Faye might have been trying to say was gadje, which is in fact a Rroma term! She butchered the pronunciation, but that’s about par for the course
I interpreted it as the mispronunciation being in-character. Like, Faye doesn’t know what her past is. How the hell would she know that she’s Romani or not? I’d bet that she used to give a different description of her origins to everybody she met, and that she just happened to have read about the Romani in a magazine that week, so she stuck with it, not knowing how it’s even pronounced.
Hands down, this is my favorite anime. There's real emotional moments in the show, and a lot of great action and humor that actually works. It's influenced so many creators and inspired them to do shows, ranging from in-depth breakdowns like your excellent video here, to simple reviews, to How To Drink recreating Jet's hangover cure. But follow me, if you will. Spike survived falling from the top level of a church. Do you really think he's dead? I say nay! My man Spike is alive and laying low, waiting for his opportunity. Awesome video!
I took SOOOO much from Gren that was not what was stated here. I genuinely thought Gren was a transcendent character that was medically experimented on, but through trauma (I.E. the medical experimentation, which to me seems to be an admittedly clunky way of saying "Do you think I chose these feelings and this identity? To be this different to the expectations of the societies that surround me?") loves themselves anyway, or at the very least has accepted who they are. They left behind those notions of gender precisely because it wasn't a choice for them. I'm not nonbinary, but have many familial ties with trans and nonbinary people, and especially at the time the argument that was being made around me (I'm not claiming to speak for any group here, just that this was the crux of a lot of sentiments that surrounded me) was one of a lack of choice. That they didn't CHOOSE this. And while we come to meet Gren long after the point in the story where they have found acceptance, possibly even a degree of closure (I always took the Vicious revenge portion as more of a challenge to accept who they are, killing the old him who clung to such notions, or killing their own delusions about themselves) Not trying to argue here, I quite like the take presented here, that Gren was always nonbinary and that the lack of choice was not part of the equation. I really don't think they gave Gren the gravitas in the remake that they did in the original. But I thought the remake was a trainwreck anyway, so :P I also think there's a degree of risk taking and bad decisions being inevitable when you're trying to tell stories about human suffering and the edges of human thought. The fails seem to me insignificant next to the risks and progress shown. I feel like one person is still allowed to write an imperfect story, attempting to but failing to represent experiences they have not lived, as long as they are attempting to do so in a sensitive light.
What can I say. That was so well done. Thank you. It brought back memories of late night watchings of adult swim and cowboy bebop at my mom's house, and her coming into my room to see what I was watching not understanding what it was or the language. But she would sit there with me. Love you mom, miss you. Your work is amazing thank you.
Tengo que dejar de ver tus videos en el trabajo, porque no tengo como seguir explicando el mar de lagrimas en el que me convierto con cada uno de tus analisis
theres a way the star going out when a person dies thing could work with both interpretations of the ending. 1. spike dies. the end. 2. spike stops the dreaming. the dream dies. the star goes out for the dream
and now i finally have to watch it. i've been watching anime since like 6 but cowboy bebop has suffered the too many recommendations for me to actually get to it BUT i've seen everything you have reviewed (if i can call your heartfelt researched entertaining amazing essays reviews) until now, so i really have no choice now, do i :)
MICHIKO TO HATCHIN! it's a beautiful anime about the complicated relationships between surrogate mother and daughter, racism, and a bunch of other things that make it very similar to Cowboy Bebop but it's more of a love letter to South America.
I really really love your videos and your ability to analyse and describe why these monuments of my childhood meant so much to me and still do. Thanks for making me think and ponder some wonderful things.
Cowboy Bebop is pretty popular amongst the gun community as the characters guns are all real guns. Spike - IWI Jericho 941 Jet - Walther P99 Faye - Glock 30 Gren - H&K USP Shin - SIG Sauer P226 Julia - Colt Combat Commander Cowboy Andy - Colt Single Action Army Hakim - Desert Eagle Fad - Smith and Wesson Model 29
I'm sleeping so well with the sound of your voice in the background as this video essay is running on repeat... Thank you! And of course it is just as good critique piece as you always do. I see that now when I'm fully rested and actually watching it. 👀
I'm sorry as a gay man who looked and acted almost exactly like that kid from kids on the slope. I find that character to be absolutely adorable. While most people forget that gay men are still men there are gay kids like that.
The thing that I think about with that last line is, “is this a warning or a benediction?” Does it tell us this weight can not be set aside? Or does it comfort us by telling us we CAN carry that weight? That we are stronger than Spike, that we can manage this burden?
Ooh, never thought of it like that. That's gonna be in my brain forever now. And tbh Blue starts out melancholy like we're carrying a weight and ends uplifted like we're gonna be fine.
is that cjthex I detect defining jazz? ps: I've had so many people try to get me into this show before, but the pressure to like the Important Anime Classic can be somewhat counterproductive to actually enjoying it. thank you for blazing such a clearly marked trail; I'm excited to explore further!
I adore Cowboy Bebop. So good, yet so utterly heartbreaking. Even though I'm not big into Anime, I could watch it over and over. In the original Japanese with subs is the only way to watch it. Great that you spent a chapter on Yoko Kanno. amazing soundtrack. - the Real Folk Blues breaks my heart and makes me blub almost every time. - CB re-kindled my interest in the Japanese Music scene..... Yes, little old me, here in the UK, with career and wife and family.... Listening to Japanese, rock, pop, hip-hop, shoegaze and everything from Japan, almost exclusively. TYSM LadyKnight. - You Rock!
A little thought about the last end card in the final episode...
Every end card before that (aside from special ones as mentioned in the essay) as we all know, says SEE YOU SPACE COWBOY. But it's not just that. It's "SEE YOU SPACE COWBOY..." with an ellipses. The ellipses is more important than you think. Gramatically, an ellipses alludes to the continuity of a thought or a statement. In this case, it alludes to the continuation of the show, giving a viewer comfort with the idea that there is more to come. When the final end card appears, it reads, "YOU'RE GONNA CARRY THAT WEIGHT." PERIOD. As if the statement wasn't heavy enough already, the period represents finality. It constitutes a full, complete statement. There is no hint of something after like an ellipses indicates. It is the true end. And that finality makes it hurt all the more. It's absolutely genius.
That's a rad point
@@Ladyknightthebrave oh my god you pinned my comment heuwueejhfueh
I confess that I'm new to your channel with this video being my introduction, but I can absolutely say you've gained a fan. Your analysis was so incredibly well crafted and you showcase a lot of interesting information most others don't. I'm excited to look into what other video essays you've made! You're awesome!
@@ruralgoblin yea that last episode of bebop hits really hard especially since you know this is the end to something so amazing and unique. and it still to this day hurts me that Bebop ended period its got a very special place in my heart
@@ruralgoblin ...Can you carry the weight of that pinned comment..
That's not true, the phrase on the end cards changes quite a bit:
"See you space cowboy"
"Easy come, easy go"
"The End"
"To be continued"
"Do you have a comrade?"
"Sleeping beast"
"Life is but a dream"
"See you space samurai"
"See you cowgirl, someday, somewhere"
"You're gonna carry that weight"
I like to think that Julia being underdeveloped as a character is on at least some level a deliberate decision to highlight the senseless tragedy of Spike's death; Spike is a man who can't tell a dream from reality. He can't see that he's made a decent life for himself with true friends, and if one interprets their final scene together, a woman who loves him. He rejects that reality and chooses the dream. Julia represents Spike's ideal woman; no one ever actually describes her personality when they talk about her. Spike says she was "really alive" and "the piece of him that was missing", Faye calls her "a terrible kind of ordinary" and "an angel from the underworld or a devil from paradise", the bartender on Calisto calls her "a real woman", and these are all pretty words but they don't mean anything or tell us anything about her because she isn't a fully realized character; she's just this perfect, selfless and self sacrificing dream woman. Likewise, Vicious is a fairly flat character in that he's just a total bastard with no redeeming qualities whatsoever; he represents ultimate evil in Spike's mind.
I think Julia and Vicious are both supposed to be contrasted with Faye & Jet respectively as the two major relationships in Spike's two lives. Vicious & Jet are both nostalgic traditionalist who were overly controlling in their relationships but where as Jet's old fashioned ways are longing for days of chivalry & honor that never really existed and an unhealthy dose of misogyny that comes with it, Vicious longs for the blood and guts, kill or be killed days of total war that forged the Syndicate, rather than the (relatively) peaceful times they're transitioning into. While their relationship is occasionally vitriolic, Jet is a true friend & brother in arms to Spike, where as Vicious was always a duplicitous, poisonous bastard.
And while Julia is this perfect, angelic creature in Spike's mind, his good dream that he retreats to every time he gets the shit kicked out of him, Faye is a real person with flaws and failings, a hot mess of a human being who sings out of key. I don't think that's accidental, nor do I think it's accidental that they're even visually pretty opposite one another; Julia's long blond hair & conservative/practical/sensible black clothes contrasting with Faye's short dark hair, and bright yellow outfit that covers what it covers.
I get why Ganymede Elegy might be someone's least favorite episode but I do think it's important in that it ultimately foreshadows the ending and highlights the tragedy of Spike through contrasting with Jet; Jet is reunited with his old flame, has to confront the fact that this past life he was so nostalgic for wasn't really as great as he remembers it being, and learns to let go and walk away from it. In the end, Spike's past comes running to catch up with him but even faced with the reality of the life he's actually living, even when the woman he idolizes telling him that what he had was only ever a dream, he can't bring himself to accept it, can't let go of his past like Jet did & like Faye was forced to by the harsh reality of her past just not being there anymore, and while he does settle up with it, it ultimately comes at the cost of his life and any possible future he could have had.
Having said all of that, I will give you one out in regards to the star fading at the end & the story "being open to interpretation"; it could have been Vicious' star.
this is by far the best analysis of cowboy bebop I've ever seen
love this
I actually agree with you on all counts. And Julia being such a mystery, helps us feel the situation from Faye's perspective. She knows Julia is important for Spike, but it all feels beyond understanding. He's dying for something that doesn't even exist anymore, that maybe didn't even exist to begin with. We aren't supposed to love Julia, or understand Spike's decision in the finale. It's SUPPOSED to feel like a senseless waste of life. Usually when the hero defeats the villain, even if they die in the end there is a sense of catharsis, completion and satisfaction, because they died accomplishing their goal and 'saving the world'. But Cowboy Bebop is a tragedy. Spike's goal was never to defeat the villain, he couldn't rescue the girl, and killing Vicious didn't really save anyone he knew or cared about or have any impact on the world at large.
Vicious and Julia don't need fleshed out, because ultimately who they are doesn't matter, they are people who left Spike's life long ago. The fact that he chose his empty past over his colorful life on the bebop with a true friend and a romantic future is his tragedy.
@@M00nSlippers and it's not just Julia that points to it. Spike literally treats everything in his life as not real. He says he always sees the past with one eye - and I think it's significant it's the real eye that makes him see what is really there, but it's the fake eye that makes him stuck in the past.
It's not realistic, but it makes a clear point that fits the themes of the story. Presumably, the eye should be functional, just like Jet's artificial arm works just fine. Spike is technically *able* to see the world as it is, but he refuses to do it, because his memories are more true to him than the "dream" of the present.
Out of the three main characters, each has a different relationship with their past. Jet is a mix of nostalgic and bitter of his, Faye has lost hers and pretends it's not there, and Spike never let go of his. Julia is a stand-in for Spike's past, so while she's a real person in the context of the world, she's not a real person as far as the show is concerned. She's just an image in Spike's memory that has long since lost any connection to the real Julia. She's a mental crutch for him.
And out of the three main characters, Spike has by far the most destructive relationship with his past. It's significant that it's what ends up killing him, while Jet and Faye manage to go on.
Beautiful. Concise and very astute. I love the ending too! This is my new reality
The fact that Yoko Kanno wasn't a huge fan of jazz when she started out is all the more astonishing given her absolute grasp of the genre.
I mean, she studied music composition and got introduced to jazz way before she started scoring.
To me Cowboy Bebop captures a feeling of loneliness, even when the crew is together they are alone in carrying the weight of their own pasts and coming to terms with it.
and the character interaction throughout the series kind of supports this
we start with just spike and jet on the bebop but their interactions while friendly and familiar have a certain distance about them, and there's not really a sense of how long they've known each other it could be 6 months could b 6 years
then you get to the episodes where their pasts start catching up with them, they have to explain it, its not something the other person knows, its something both of them would rather forget than too talk about
then you add in fay and ed for all intents and purposes a literal person out of time and an orphan(I know ed ain't one but they may as well be for most of the show)
these aren't people who want to be together, these are people who are together because where else would they go? the verse ain't got nothing for them that travelling together in the bebop doesn't already have, the entire ship is listless and without rudder just going though the motions of saying alive rather than actually doing anything, sure there bounty hunters but that's just a paycheck not there goal in life
As others have said, the alienation we feel in relation to Julia is deliberate. Our perspective was always the crew's perspective. To see Spike throw his life away like that, for a woman we barely know, hurts. We want to see him stay with Jet and Faye, but he's got his own baggage. That plays a really big part on the finale being so heartbreaking.
"You're gonna carry that weight" is such a powerful fucking thing for a show to say. It's such a statement of confidence and power. This show meant something and with it's ending you, the viewer, *will* remember it. You're going to have to decide what it meant and what happened next. We've done our part, now it's your responsibility.
It's also rather wonderful for a show so in love with music, in particular western 20th century popular music, to end with a quote from some of the last music ever recorded by The Beatles, by many reckonings the center of that entire field. When Lennon and McCartney were figuring out how to end their own great artistic experiment, they chose to part with the sentiment "You're gonna carry that weight a long time" as well.
I would assume due to shinchiro Watanabes infatuation with music, it is a beatles homage to a degree.
@@jeffpalaganas7404 Absolutely. Many of the episode titles (Honkey Tonk Woman, Sympathy for the Devil, Toys in the Attic, Bohemian Rhapsody, Wild Horses, etc.) are 60’s and 70’s song titles. It’s obviously a Beatles reference as well.
Yeah that's a pretty standard thing to say.
If I had a dime for every time somebody made a cowboy bebop essay called "You're gonna carry that weight", I'd have two dimes. Which isn't a lot, but it's funny that it happened twice.
Is this just the phrase making the rounds at the moment? Keep seeing it everywhere.
It's from a Beatles song?
It's Phineas and Ferb. Dr. Doofienshmirtz said it and it became a sound on TikTok a while ago.
I assumed it was an intentional response but 25 minutes in and nothing yet.
@@riellehein7024 It got on TikTok? I was just pulling it from P&F. Sheesh.
I've never felt really sad by the Call Me Call Me scene. To me it's a really uplifting, life affirming moment. The ending card saying "See you space cowgirl, someday, somewhere!" reads to me as a promise that Ed will be alright. She was the only one to embrace the future rather than dwell on the past the way Faye, Jet and Spike are trapped by their own hangups
That’s one way to interpret it. But overall it’s melancholy. Uplifting for Ed and Ein’s story, but that song marks the official end of the Bebop crew and it doesnt help that Spike and Jet just eat their pain away. For me the song makes me feel uncertainty, but I guess at the same time hopeful.
I actually laughed out loud when you said Space Dandy was your least favorite, because while it is literally one of my favorite anime ever made, I COMPLETELY understand why people might not like it. I enjoy the pure, unhinged stupidity backed by some of the most visually interesting animation and production design ive ever seen, BUT like. Its one of those shows where im like. Yeah this is 100% not for everyone and many people will very justifiably not be able to stand this. Anyway, I didn't finish watching this because it made me realize I really should finally just go actually finish watching Cowboy Bebop, something I regretfully have never done. I wanna enjoy this video in full when I'm done catching up!
Space dandy is like when you take Cowboy Bebob, add free jazz, and remove plot continuity. Its like cowboy bebop pre-vicious upscaled
Same took me a years of anime delving to go back and Immerse myself in the craziness
Aw snap! You're in for a good time! If you've watched it by now, hope ya liked it! Maybe report back on what you thought when ya get a little time later, eh?
Well it would be apparent from the criticisms of chapter 3 that it wouldn't be her type. I would say she lacks an appreciation of jazz as well but I love jazz and am bias for Kids on a Slope as jazz is chaotic and generally has an abrupt end. Though the whole anime has largely been pale criticism rubs me the wrong way as anime is largely marketed towards Japanese people with Japanese stories so I don't get the need for "representation" from an Asian person's viewpoint considering japan is a largely homogenous nation.
I couldn't get into it. Seemed super obnoxious and the boobies jokes got so old so fast... The whole show seemed like a fanservice weeb fever dream... I don't watch shows that are weeb fever dreams. I can't imagine what redeems the show. Only got halfway thru.
1:19:50 this is a great scene emotionally and symbolically, in some native American cultures a dog with two colored eyes was said to see both this world and the next world.
And in the end that's what Spike was. A stray dog that could see his master, but she was just too far away
I love how this started when a bunch of animators were assigned to do an anime that had cool looking ships because they wanted to cash in on the potential Star War craze.
1:24:28 "As it stands, Spike is avenging a memory." I like what the show did with Julia. It is only because we feel distant from her that we don't want to see Spike try to avenge her. If I was attached to Julia at all, I would have been rooting for Spike to go and avenge her, but for me at least, the distance provided some perspective made me realize Spike was walking to his doom when he went to kill Vicious. This made me even more sad for Faye when she fired into the ceiling.
In the little time we have with Julia, she is shown to be intelligent, beautiful, deeply caring and a total badass. Just as Spike remembered her.
She is described as a real woman.
Jet: What kind of girl was she?
Bartender: She was a real woman.
Julia is the only thing that ever felt real to Spike and this point is emphasized multiple times. Early in the series Spike describes his present as an endless nightmare. It is no accident that Julia's face is shown on screen when Spike states that he can never reach reality.
Spike: The music box is broken, or is it? It starts to play, and a haunting tune fills the air. I wake suddenly from my dream. There is no music box! And yet there it is. A tiny one nestled in my hand. And I awaken from my dream again. As if I were peeling an onion. It’s a dream no matter how far I go. I can never reach reality. Trapped in an endless nightmare.
The music box belonged to Julia.
Spike desperately wishes to return to her because she is the person who made life worth living for him.
Spike: Years ago, back when I was much younger, I was afraid of nothing. I had not the slightest fear of death. I was ready to die anytime. But then I met a special woman. She made me want to go on living. For the first time, I was afraid of death. A feeling I’d never had before.
Elektra: Where is she now?
Spike: She went away.
Laughing Bull tells Spike that he must open the eye of truth. That he must see beyond reality and touch the truth.
Laughing Bull: Know this Swimming Bird, this blue eye perceives all things conjoined. The past, the future, and the present. Everything flows and all is connected. This eye is not merely seeing reality. It is touching the truth. Open the eye of truth... There is nothing to fear.
Spike: Yeah... I know what you mean.
In the finale Spike sees Julia and her blue eye with his eye that sees his present. Julia is thus framed as being what Spike sees when he finally looks with the eye that sees the truth. She is his truth. His past, his present and his future all at once.
The parallels with Spike/Julia and Vincent/Elektra also frame Julia as the only thing that ever felt real to Spike. Spike says that he and Vincent have similar souls. Vincent says these words to Elektra before he dies.
Vincent: Of the days that I have lived only those I spent with you seem real. Now that it's over I can see your face so clearly.”
And of course Spike sees Julia's face before he dies.
She is the woman Spike loves. He needs her. He considers her a part of his own being.
Spike: She was a piece of me I had lost
Aitsu wa ore ga naku shita ore no kataware sa
あいつは俺がなくした俺のかたわれさ_
Spike: She is my other half that I had longed for
ore ga hoshikatta ore no kakera nanda
俺が欲しかった 俺のかけらなんだ_
Visual symbolism is used to convey the truth of this to the audience.
As Spike lost a red rose when he lost Julia and found a red rose when he found her again. A red rose is the universal symbol of true love.
It is no accident that the final in-frame image we are shown of the couple is of them joined as one, giving weight to Spike’s assertion that Julia made him whole.
Even the final song, which is about Spike's soul ascending to heaven states that his dream is really everything it seemed. Spike's good dream was always to be with Julia.
Free
Wanna be free
Gonna be free
And move among the stars
You know, they really aren't so far
Feels so free
Gotta know free
Please
Don't wake me from the dream
It's really everything it seemed
I'm so free
No black and white in the blue
Everything is clearer now
Life is just a dream, you know
That's never-ending
I'm ascending
Julia was the person Spike needed. Faye and Jet never gave him what she did and they never could.
RE the Julia problem: I always felt like the audience was held at bay from Spike and the gang. Like we weren't immersed in the story with our new character friends, but rather given the privilege of looking through the window at their lives for a short while. So instead of feeling like I didn't care about Julia and therefore not getting that emotional punch, I more felt like I had the same distance from Spike as always - didn't really know his past because it was his, not ours, and we were lucky to get the insights we got instead of none at all. I felt sad not for Julia, but for Spike. And I really loved that about the series as a whole. I always felt like I was lucky to catch a glimpse of these strangers living their life, and that, like with people in the real world, I would only ever know about their past from the stories they told, or some photographs of moments in time. Like you can never wholly know someone, and if you think too hard about what you can never know about someone you hold dear it can really hit you in the heart.
Yeah, but for someone looking for women characters to relate to, "it made me feel emotions for the male lead" probably isn't the best response.
I think Vicious and Julia being underdeveloped or underutilized is an intentional part of the narrative. Vicious and Julia are like memories. They're figments of Spike's past that don't belong in his current life. Over time memories can become vague and distant. If Vicious and Julia have a more active role in the series they become as much a part of Spike's present as they are his past. This would weaken the disconnect Spike has with his past. That disconnect is a core part of his character, Vicious and Julia need to remain mysterious in order to make that narrative work.
Same here. Julia represents the life that Spike wanted, but could never have, and a last chance at that life is taken away from him with Julia's death. Does this count as fridging? Probably. But it's still effective at conveying the tragedy of Spike: he's doomed to die a cowboy's death, gunned down and bleeding out in a defiant last stand, taking his enemy with him.
Food (and scarcity therof) plays a surprisingly substantial narrative role in cowboy bebop. That scene of the guys piging out on eggs ... that might seem trivial at first. But the food angle gives it more dimension.
I need to rewatch this show.
You can't expand on Julia's character without weakening the audience's relationship with Jet and Faye. We are left in the same spot they are after Spike's death. Only vaguely understanding why he's doing what he's doing. If we loved Julia just as much as Spike did we wouldn't feel as empty as we do at the end.
Wow, that's a really interesting perspective, never thought about it in that way before
My thoughts exactly.
I agree, the mystery surrounding her leaves it up to our imagination. However I imagine its somewhat different for viewers who are looking for female characters they can relate to.
You’re definitely correct.
Yeah I definetly think Julia being this vague figure is a feature not a bug.
It adds to the poignancy of the end. The innevatiblity of Spike and the absurdism of it in the end. He was hung up in a past half seen, half remembered and could only half see his present, that even with its flaws was a good place. If Julia, and even Vicious and the sindicate, were explored more, the dreamlike quality of that past, of how it is only half there but always present, would deminish.
And you can either accept it like Jet, not knowing the details but knowing that he had no choice, because he is the man that he is, or reject it like Faye, who cannot see why that past already lost is worth dying for.
Despite her limited appearances a lot of interesting things are shown and implied about Julia. She's an intelligent, badass lady.Arguably smarter than Spike, Vicious, Faye and Gren. She realized the threat Vicious posed to Spike's plan while Spike was too lovestruck and focused on the dream life he wanted to have with her. When she was given the ultimatum of either killing Spike or them both dying, she manipulated Vicious into believing she would comply with his order then escaped him, thus protecting Spike. When she ran into Faye, she extracted information from Faye without Faye realizing it. She realized that Vicious was spying on Gren and quickly deduced where the spyware had been planted. She had Shin feeding her information from inside the syndicate and she had info about Spike and the Bebop. I love Julia because from what we saw of her it was clear that she was a realistic and pragmatic woman who was deeply devoted to the man she loved and sacrificed everything to protect him.
What Julia lacks in air time, she made up for it in impact. She's "unseen awesomeness" tag
To be fair, it's not difficult to be smarter than the Bebop crew. I think the whole outfit has only two brain cells, and they belong to Ed and Ein.
I say this with absolute affection.
Yes. I understand where people get the idea that Spike’s love for Julia is meant to be superficial because she is described in such idealized terms, but I always felt there’s something else going on because *everyone* talks about her that way. Julia leaves such a strong impression on people who meet her that the barkeep at the Rester House still leaves the barstool where she sat apart from the others past closing time. She’s portrayed as so mysterious, elusive, and impossible to forget because she functions more as a symbol of something unattainable than a character, I think. Spike doesn’t necessarily die because he can’t do the healthy thing and let go of her, but because he can’t escape his past and there are consequences for the life he lived before. He has felt caught between two worlds, never fully present in the present, because his past is a part of him and he tried to be free of it. The show mirrors him and Vicious with similar images and they loved the same woman because Vicious is his shadow self and a part of him. In similar ways, Julia and Spike are shown to be inescapably linked. Her dying words echo Spike’s, showing she understands his experience of life while Spike has always been unable to truly connect to Jet and Faye and as heartbreaking as it is to think about, they’ve never been able to *really* know him. Julia comes across as similarly hardened by life, cool and composed in the face of danger, never showing much emotion. In these subtle ways they just *feel* like soul mates, even as we know so little about their relationship. I think there’s hope for Jet and Faye to confront and process their pasts and baggage in a way that’s constructive, and in that way the ending isn’t a complete tragedy to me, but Spike and Vicious and Julia all have to die together to be at peace.
@@sarachapman969 Spike was very aware that he couldn't escape the consequences of his past, yet he also had no intention of ever letting Julia go. He pretty much admitted to Elektra that Julia was his reason for living.
_Spike: Years ago, back when I was much younger, I was afraid of nothing. I had not the slightest fear of death. I was ready to die anytime. But then I met a special woman. She made me want to go on living. For the first time, I was afraid of death. A feeling I’d never had before._
Spike’s relationship with Julia is paralleled with the tale of the tiger striped cat.
_Spike: There once was a tiger striped cat. This cat died a million deaths, revived and lived a million lives, and he was owned by various people who he didn't really care for. The cat wasn't afraid to die. Then one day the cat became a stray cat, which meant he was free. He met a white female cat, and the two of them spent their days together happily. Well, years passed, and the white cat grew weak and died of old age. The tiger striped cat cried a million times, and then he died too. Except this time, he didn't come back to life._
The tiger striped cat was reborn after each death. A metaphor for how Spike faced multiple deadly situations and managed to cheat death every time. Yet, once the white female cat (Julia) died, the tiger striped cat (Spike) ceased to cheat death. He followed his love in death and never returned. This point is emphasized when Spike casts down his weapon the moment he sees that Julia has been shot.
Spike also confided in Jet that Julia is his other half.
Spike: She was a piece of me I had lost
Aitsu wa ore ga naku shita ore no kataware sa
あいつは俺がなくした俺のかたわれさ
Spike: She is my other half that I had longed for
ore ga hoshikatta ore no kakera nanda
俺が欲しかった 俺のかけらなんだ
Julia is framed as being the part of Spike that he lost, as Spike lost a red rose when he lost Julia, and found a red rose just before he found her again.
Spike walks away from the Bebop without looking back. A ballad of undying love plays as he thinks of Julia. He thinks of being in Julia's arms, their bodies joined as one. The lyrics explain that his love is eternal and that death itself cannot erase it, nor cause it to fade away. It's ultimately a song about reuniting with Julia in the afterlife.
_"Everything is already over",
You say with closed ears
The words only flow
Towards a tomorrow without peace
"There's nothing that won't change"
Even if my life ends
This love will not disappear
It's something that will live forever
Even if dreams are hidden in darkness
I got a rainbow
Rainbow in your hands_
In the official Cowboy Bebop Anime Guide book, which Sunrise commissioned and released in 1998 to accompany the anime it says:
_After a long time apart, Spike and Julia reunite. But their happiness is short lived at best. That which Spike has longed for slips through his fingers as easily as it came into his embrace. This is one man's fate converging on to death, as it were a predestine circumstance of his young life. Having lost his future, Spike is left only with his past. He confronts Vicious in a battle that should have taken place long ago. What does the right eye, left in a wounded body see at the very end?_
In the penultimate scene of the anime, Spike is shown finally seeing Julia with his eye that sees his present. He dies with a smile on his lips.
I think our impression of Julia supposed to be as faint as our impression of Faye's home. A past that no longer carry weight to anyone but the person who remembers it
Yeah, because it's supposed to be sad when the past is REALLY the past. This whole show is a meditation on loss...it can't leave you fulfilled, not by design. One must mourn, because you don't move on if you can't mourn.
I was born in Holland, parent are Berber/Moroccan. For a few places in Cowboy Bebop, they researched Morocco. They even featured Moroccan lyrics and vocals in the movie OST. I recognized the dialect immediately and dove into the making of. looking at the art and setting... it takes me back to my childhood visiting Morocco in the late 90s and early 2000s. This anime is part of my childhood and my culture.
Trust me.
I've watched FLCL several times. You're never truly "ready" for it lol.
The moment you think you're ready for FLCL, FLCL hits you with a South Park parody
"You're gonna carry that weight" is a lyric from one of the last tracks on the last Beatles album. End of an era.
The series is very much about endings. Spike's death, the dissolution of the Bebop's crew, the implication that the age of the Cowboys is coming to an end (Andy changing his cowboy aesthetic for a samurai one, Big Shots getting canceled), the collapse of the Red Dragon after they, in their turn, had effectively taken over organized crime. These things are all of a piece.
"A sad episode of Wolf's Rain..."
... Do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows it down?
Yes I absolutely do
Thank you so much for the photosensitivity warning! That genuinely means a lot to me.
I feel somewhat devastated that you didn't mention that the final scene with Spike and Faye when she shoots her gun is a reference to Point Break when Keanu's character does the same thing - because they both, in those moments, understand and accept the perspectives of those they were trying to catch/stop/
Otherwise, hi I love you and your love of the media you showcase on your channel
Ngl Point Break caught me off guard with how good it was. When I heard the plot was "Keanu Reeves infiltrates a surfer gang" I thought I was in for a weird but fun cop movie. Boy was I wrong.
Source? Never seen anything about that scene being inspired by point break.
I DONT feel like Spike’s death was meaningless.
When he said: “I’m going to see if I’m really alive”
It’s because Spike still doesn’t know if he’s alive. He doesn’t know if this family is a dream or not so he can’t just keep going with them.
When he dies he smiles because he realizes that he has been alive this whole time, and that those connections he made were indeed, real.
He was never dreaming.
You sure he died? 😉
Guess I'm canceling my plans for the next 90 minutes to hear you talk about one of the greatest things ever.
Ok we’ll just reschedule this old person’s brain surgery for next week 😜
The last few episodes of Cowboy Bebop makes me feel like I've been stabbed through the heart, yet here I am and I watched this whole essay.
Its just so painfully realistic the relationship the crew of the Bebop have. Human beings are so often like Ships That Pass In The Night, brief moments of passing close by, a flurry of interaction and excitement, so short but yet so intense, all too quickly they move on once again alone on an empty sea. All that's left are memories.
I'm halfway through this show- clearly a sign from the universe that I need to pick up the pace!
It may be less up to interpretation than I think, but I always saw the "Julia problem" as intentional, she clearly _was_ very important to Spike's life, but he's not living that life anymore, he's tethered to it, mostly by Julia and Vicious, but he has been trying to move on and make his own way. She hugs him and he doesn't hug her back, she asks him to run away with her and he doesn't respond other than to get ready for a fight, it seems like she's still there, she still cares for him, but he is desperately trying to move on with his life, he just can't, because one eye is always looking into the past. I kind of explained it before I expressed my opinion but along with the obviousness that she used to be a major figure in Spike's life, there is that sense that the show gives that she isn't really part of this story, she's from the one that ended before this one began and Spike going back to kill Vicious is him making sure that it is well and truly ended, so that the world and he can move on, escaping "the dream" that broke that story up and getting on with his life, letting go of the past that kept moving on without him and kept pulling him back towards it.
Spike wasn't trying to move on. He tells Jet that Julia IS his other half the same day she died. And this is where only listening to the dub is a problem, because the dub uses "was" when he is clearly speaking in present tense in Japanese.
“She is my other half that I had longed for”
→ ore ga hoshikatta ore no kakera nanda
俺が欲しかった 俺のかけらなんだ
Also, Julia is literally what was keeping Spike tethered to life in the first place.
Spike: Years ago, back when I was much younger, I was afraid of nothing. I had not the slightest fear of death*. I was ready to die anytime. *But then I met a special woman. She made me want to go on living. For the first time, I was afraid of death. A feeling I’d never had before.
Spike: There once was a tiger striped cat. This cat died a million deaths, revived and lived a million lives, and he was owned by various people who he didn't really care for. The cat wasn't afraid to die. Then one day the cat became a stray cat, which meant he was free. He met a white female cat, and the two of them spent their days together happily. Well, years passed, and the white cat grew weak and died of old age. The tiger striped cat cried a million times, and then he died too. Except this time, he didn't come back to life.
If it wasn't for her, Spike would have died three years prior to when the series began, and she is actively been protecting him the entire time they've been apart.
I think that Spike isn't really trying to move on and the tragedy is that he finds himself unable to. He's got this new life that's presented as better for him in almost every way. Spike is wrestling with whether he should even be in his new life all the way through the ending and that uncertainty is reflected through the "is it/is it not a dream" dynamic. The moment of Julia dying being Spike's real breaking point of "I'm not going to move on from the past, even though I should" and the point where someone explicitly says "It is all a dream" even though that's not really true.
@@jayknox8072 Spike's new life isn't even presented as better for him given he is miserable and literally describes it as an endless nightmare.
“The music box is broken, or is it? It starts to play, and a haunting tune fills the air. I wake suddenly from my dream. There is no music box! And yet there it is. A tiny one nestled in my hand. And I awaken from my dream again. As if I were peeling an onion. It’s a dream no matter how far I go. I can never reach reality. Trapped in an endless nightmare.” -Spike Spiegel
And the song that plays after he leaves the Bebop explains his feelings fully.
"Everything is already over",
You say with closed ears
The words only flow
Towards a tomorrow without peace
"There's nothing that won't change"
Even if my life ends
This love will not disappear
It's something that will live forever
Even if dreams are hidden in darkness
I got a rainbow
In my hands...
The voice that crosses the inside of my chest
Tells me that there are also things that won't change or disappear
On the morning when we pray before the truth
Love will return here once more
Love never dies
Love never fails
Love never ever fades away
If someday my life ends
This love will not disappear
It's a thing that will live forever
Escaping the darkness
When we've passed the illusion
Frozen in time
On the other side of the rainbow, love will be waiting
Thousands of lights will be waiting
You got a rainbow
Rainbow in your hands...
I can't recall which episode it is off the top of my head, but Spike lays out pretty clearly why he goes to the tower. Julia isn't the reason. She's a catalyst, yes, but, given what else is going on, he'd end up in that confrontation anyway. It's also worth bearing in mind the influence Yakuza and Ronin stories have on Spike's characterization and the overall arc of his story.
To whit; Spike considers Vicious to be everything Spike himself would have become had he not found Julia. Circumstance separated them and, now, Vicious is the monster Spike created. The literal embodiment of his past come to destroy him. He knows he's going to have to deal with it, permanently, sooner or later.
The events of the last two episodes of the series can be summed up rather neatly as Vicious cleaning house on their shared past. Taking anything and everything Spike once cared for from him in order to flush him out. Force him to take a stand or lose everything. It's a fight he knows he can't win [edit: and survive], but honour and love demand he take up the gauntlet.
Given all this, Spike's swan song is a triumph. He sacrifices himself and his present to his past to ensure his friends have a chance at a future that doesn't have Vicious hanging over it like a blood red shadow. He can't tell them that, though, so he explains the only way he can. With arguably tortured metaphors. Even that shows he does care quite deeply about the people he's leaving behind. He's demonstrated quite clearly that if he didn't, he wouldn't have bothered. He'd have just upped stakes and gone. But he does, and that's why he goes.
@@nathanrandall7003 Wrong. Even the Official Cowboy Bebop Anime Guide (1998) says he goes because of Julia.
"After a long time apart, Spike and Julia reunite. But their happiness is short lived at best. That which Spike has longed for slips through his fingers as easily as it came into his embrace. This is one man's fate converging on to death, as it were a predestine circumstance of his young life. Having lost his future, Spike is left only with his past. He confronts Vicious in a battle that should have taken place long ago. What does the right eye, left in a wounded body see at the very end?"
Spike is explicitly shown walking away from Jet and Faye and is never shown thinking about either after he leaves the Bebop. The last images that are shown of Spike with either character are of him with his back turned to them as he walks out of their lives.
Yet Spike is shown having romantic and sexual thoughts of Julia almost immediately after he leaves. In the prior episode, Spike confided in Jet that Julia was his other half. It is no accident that the last in-frame image of Spike and Julia is of them joined as one.
The song that plays as Spike is headed to the syndicate and while he is attacking the syndicate is a ballad of undying love for Julia.
When Spike is fighting Vicious, he uses Julia's death as the justification to end it all.
Spike: "Julia passed away. Let's end it all."
Vicious: If that is your wish.
[Spike does not deny it.]
Seconds after Spike has killed Vicious, Spike looks up to the sky and sees Julia.
The scenes of Julia's death and Spike killing Vicious are visually linked. Showing the causal relationship between the two. The triggering event and the resolution.
In the penultimate scene of the series, Spike finally sees Julia with his eye that sees his present. An event that had been foreshadowed all series long. Yet the last time Spike ever looked at Faye, the eye that sees his past was featured.
Julia is ever present is Spike's final scenes, while there is not one single mention of Jet or Faye.
I disagree about the Julia problem. It was never about her, it was about Spike's disembodied past, in all it's mysterious winding uncertainty. Spike's disconnection from reality was always about his distance from the dream he had, and the inevitability of him being torn from that fantasy. I don't think we're supposed to care about Julia. When they reunited I was confused because it didn't fit with the themes of the show up until that point. It almost seemed like they were going to say "love conquers all", but in the end the show smashed that fictitious dream in our faces with her death. Spike's reaction to Julia's death is what the show was building towards, not to their reunion. He finally connected with reality enough to have something live for - to die for. Until then, he was apathetically floating through life. The end of the show, for me, is trying to say that life itself isn't worth fighting for. If you have purpose, pursue it. If you want purpose, find it. But if you have no purpose, life is inherently meaningless and shouldn't be taken too seriously.
Will never shake the feeling that Bebop's ridiculously good (imo) dub is part of why it caught on here.
"I think it's time we blow this thing, get everybody and the stuff together. Okay, 3.. 2.. 1.. Let's jam!" I was wondering if you would ever cover Cowboy Bebop. I absolutely love this anime and love how you set up your videos so this should be a great morning.
The "Spike died" *sob* "isn't he just a cartoon character" "yes" *sob* wins for Most Relatable Content.
In all honesty though, I'm mid rewatch with friends in prep for netflix, and find I can't watch many episodes all at once because so many of them just make me feel? Too much? Thanks so much for this video. Amazing research, and the in depth on Funk Orchestral Goddess Yoko Kanno was stellar.
I laughed doubly hard because I'm on the other side of this now. My own teen was morose for days over a sad anime, and I had turned into the adult who said "but... it's' just a show?"
I honestly hoping this analysis would’ve been more focused on this theme. The humanity rather than politics, which were interesting and glad I could learn about it. But yea I think the show just connects with ppl on a very primal emotional level . Like Faye’s past and the analysis is wow it’s heartbreaking just rather underwhelming. Rather than making a point of feminism, then like just make it a feminist analysis and title it that. I do appreciate the breadth of the analysis and it was amazing, but I feel like it lacked a thesis or depth to the ideas and themes
I never watched the American dub of cowboy bebop but gren is not non-binary. He's a man who's body was altered as a delayed side effect of his genetic experimentation that his squad went through. He hates what was done to his body, he isn't flaunting a space in between. It's a major cause of his emotional state when he's introduced into the story.
Every time I see the phrase "you're gonna carry that weight" tears form in my eyes because the show was that powerful and impactful for me. Bless you for another great video essay. Thank you.
I unintentionally watch Bebop and Trigun back to back as a teen nd ever since saw the two as a strange reflection of each other. Besides the stylistic similarities, how Spike and Vash in many respects had the same story, a similar tragedy, but simple chose to change and take different lessons, nihilism vs pacifism, revenge vs acceptance. Just a thought that's been stuck in my head for ages.
An excellent essay again! And again - by the end you made me cry with your thoughtful insights and the pieces of hope you put in your conclusions. Your way of analyzing pieces of media really shows a deep understanding of not only art but also the human condition and all the awful, messy and wonderful things it is made of. Love
I was just going to leave a comment saying something very similar. You said it much better than I could’ve though!
22:23 this is about where I recall why I love this content. Lady Brave makes a plain point about Japanese culture/media, and how many perceive both in short sighted ways. That read, many will join me in pondering that diorama in light of different existences various beings have voiced their opinions about. Us Rainbow peoples aren't some brick house built by one family of bricklayers... We are all artists of our life times, loving all human experience while we enrich humanity. That's why we thrive, or suffer...
Yoko and Shinichiro were really playing jazz with each other across media. That’s the sickest shit I’ve ever heard and I need to watch the whole series all the way through even more now!
You did an excellent job on this, and I am really glad I could be a small part of it. Also to the audience I can confirm that LK does the squeaky part of the theme song every time because we watched the full series and movie together while she was writing the script. 💜
Imagine both of us in the room. Squeakies in stereo.
Facts.
@@thesister3606 Yep, LK told me about it(I may or may not have also done some squeakies when we were watching)
@@Aranock Welcome to the family lol
Yoko needs to stop giving me all these emotions already. Just thinking about her sad songs makes tears well up.
"Blue" is an insta-cry track for me...ditto for "Voices" (especially the cello version) from Macross Plus. She really does nail the emotional gut-punch, yeah?
32:46 I'm stopping at this moment to comment- so I don't know if it's about to be addressed - but at least from my understanding if someone is going to have a legal change in gender (where there are no third gender options) then medical transitioning is required. Even just the current modern day language in Japanese around gender queer ID is highly lacking. I'm not surprised to hear that in Carole and Tuesday that in the og Japanese that the term used would be translated into intersex rather then gender nonbinary or something similar to a gender term that we'd use. I'm sure that most of the vocab still have derogatory context to their uses.
Also I just want to add that - with considering my own experiences as being non binary and living in more conservative America anyways - I'm also essentially forced to medically transition with HRT so I can have insurance coverage for confirmation surgery. So, I find this actually be validating and in some ways representative of my own lived experienced - in that being forced but still being comfortable with the results. It's always an echo chamber of absolute yes' or no's being the only way to answer how to express gender otherwise you're doing it wrong/are broken when it's just - No. I am non binary. I do not have a binary gender experience and I can not answer with those absolute yes/no like a gender binary trans person would. Anyways as it's said - No minority is a monolith anyways. ¯\(-_-)/¯
On top of this being a fabulous essay in it's own right, I was the same age when Cowboy Bepop was airing in the usa, and hearing you talk about watching it with your sister brought back memories of staying up to watch Toonami with my brothers back in the day and it gave me warm fuzzies in my heart.
Ganymede Elegy is one of my favorites, but I guess I can still respect and love everything you say. I just love Jet so much.
This video essay is so well done! It was like watching a prime time documentary feature. Cowboy bebop (and DBZ) is what got me into anime. Thank you for sharing.
Another possible interpretation: you can't die if you never truly lived. Since Spike spent so much time being stagnant, when he returns to his past, he does so in order to reunite with that living of "life" feeling he has been missing out on. He had these amazing people who loved and cared for him, a family, who were providing that to him, but he couldn't fully feel like he belonged there because of his past. (They all sort of had this "belonging" issue. Ed moved on; Faye finally accepted her fam only to lose them all over again.) The people we love and care about have people in their lives who make them who they are. Those people might be rather meaningless to us, but to them, they are their foundation. When they are missing, people shut down or operate broken. While I would have liked to see Julia fleshed out more, the idea that she was just kind of this enigma does at least kind of land - she provides the role she was supposed to here. When Spike dies, he does so after he embraced "life." (Whether that life was worth throwing away the Bebop fam for is questionable...)
So I doubt you'll remember or even see this comment, but I really did watch all of Cowboy Bebop because i caught your announcement of this video on the UA-cam community tab. I'm so glad I did. This is a beautiful, remarkable series that truly lives up to the hype. The series made me cry, and yes, your video made me cry. Again, I assume youre not not going to see this, but here are some of thoughts, related to what you mentioned:
1. Faye's sexualization. Yes, her outfit and the way the camera leered at her was pretty ridiculous and somewhat off-putting if youre not into it. But I really liked that the other main characters never leered at her and no one ever belittles her sexuality. She's dumb and self-involved, but she is never called or treated like a "dumb slut".
2. Spike's death and "The Julia Problem". I think the fact that we don't know Julia actually adds quite a lot to the ending. Spike's death is a senseless one, something that even he can't seem to fully justify, outside of feeling like he should have died long ago. As the audience, we feel like Faye and Jet, who don't know Julia either and can't understand why Spike has decided to fall on this particular sword. It is a truly tragic ending, only extenuated by the fact that we feel like outsiders while it happened. Granted, I've only seen the two-parter once, and I haven't had to "carry the weight" of it for years, maybe I'll feel differently on reflection later down the line.
Sidenote: The Movie was absolutely incredible. I honestly think its already one of my favorite animated films ever, the show transitioned to a feature film so well, I wish there was 5 more Cowboy Bebop movies. It was so exhilarating.
tl;dr Great show, great video. The only problem is that I am now I will be very disappointed if the Netflix series is bad lol
this show left me questioning my goals and the difference between living a life instead of just drifting along
I thought this was gonna be the one time I didn't cry at one of your essays, I was almost all the way through, but then you presented Ocean Vuong's quote... "I miss you more than I remember you," is gonna haunt me, in a good, but wrenching, way.
I've got to disagree with the examination of Gren's backstory. Gren isn't just nonbinary he's a prisoner of war. And he was forced to have a body he didn't want. Just because that may not be tasteful to one person, doesn't make the story any less valid
Exactly what I was thinking this whole time and his character in the live action was completely butchered
TBH I don't really get why gender is such an important part when it's meant to be about you and not your gender right? I guess if it changes anything Gren was also implied to be either gay or asexual.
Haven't gotten to Gren yet in this video, but I'm already put off by referring to Ed as "they." Beyond the very quirky adopted name she took on, there's no indication Ed is nonbinary. I really dislike this trend of assuming women/girls who aren't typically feminine have some kind of atypical gender identity. I'm going to watch the rest of this video, but this comment about Gren makes me think the content creator is going to insert her ideological bent where it isn't reasonable to do so.
@@gayvinmcginnes2508 I agree, if anything the live action was a BAD example of nonbinary since Gren was very clearly a male, and the live action only made Gren a stereotype of what a trans is
Not just forced by it was put onto him by vicious if I remember correctly someone he thought he could trust
Your documentary really encapsulates what makes Cowboy Bebob so uniquely great. Brought back many memories. Thank you :)
Feel like the important thing to know about Faye's last scene is she isn't crying cause she's in love with Spike. With surely learning by that point that Ed and Ein are gone, and now Spike will soon be too, she's losing a family all over again. And just when she could finally see the Bebop as home.
Years later, it is really weird that anyone reads any of this as Faye having romantic feelings for Spike. She never expresses anything at any point that could ever be read as attraction to him. So we think Faye would be shy about it, if she did like Spike? They don't flirt or anything like that. But he's basically her only real friend, and he basically died in the same week she got her memories back and learned she was never going to see her family again. It is hardly shocking she was somewhat emotional about this
@@TheJadedJames 💯
This is an immediate watch, I just got through your back catalogue of videos and am very excited to see your thoughts on my second favourite anime.
whats your number 1?
@@atideva3385 Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.
Ah, I was just thinking I needed some dopamine. What a treat, I love your videos and this show!
Straight outta nowhere. This is gonna be a good one!
Ok so about those magic mushrooms...
little known fact is that till 2002 it was possible to find magic mushroom vending machines all over japan (especially often times close to or inside so called love hotels)
I can't get over how good this is. My husband and I were miserable at how bad the live action one was so we needed a pallet cleanser after watching it. And this was EVERYTHING! So detailed and insightful. I can't imagine how long it took you to put this together but holy hell. Thank you for giving us something brilliant to watch.
Thank you so much for breaking my heart over Bebop again. I finished the series again recently and listen to the soundtrack quite a lot. I was so excited when you announced you would be doing this show and as always, you did NOT disappoint. Thank you much, LK!
I loved how you recorded a couple cover tracks yourself. The show and music of the series are so intertwined, as you clearly point out. It makes it fitting for you to tie your own take on the music into your thoughts of the series. Thank you!
_"SEE YOU, SPACE COWBOY..."_
Spike Spiegel screwed me up from the first episode. Like, you got me hooked on this Bounty Hunter's _Han Solo_ personality. Which right then and there I had a feeling he was gonna get killed at some point in the anime. I guess I wasn't ready for the end until I actually watched the Season Finale. Even Faye Valentine didn't want him to leave, and she knew exactly why he was going back. Almost like the Leia to his Han Solo? Naw? Alright, well I love this show's 80's/90's Cyberpunk atmosphere. This really sets the depressing yet hopeful tone for the anime, in my opinion. It isn't a Ghost in the Shell. Cowboy Bebop has been and always will be its own title. Its own masterpiece.
Oh, yeah, I love Ein. Thought I don't have a Corgi like the BeBop crew, I've got a different puppy who's just as smart and I love her!
Just found your channel through your 1917 video! Keep up the fantastic content and thank you for bringing light to all sorts of issues with your platform!
I think that kind of toxic masculinity/casual misogyny is a necessary part of Jet's character. He's a relic and inflexible, and he's also an idealist dedicated to doing the right thing. His uncompromising commitment to his ideals is what led him to working as a bounty hunter on the Bebop. He was too clean for the police, and rather than play ball, he quit; he lost his girlfriend due to his well-meaning but stifling paternalism. Without the flaw of his antiquated attitude, I think he stops fitting with the crew as well, because otherwise he's just this old professional who probably would do better for himself solo, as he so often gripes.
But I can understand why some women would not care much for a character that more than occasionally disparages most women, regardless of his reasons for doing so. Her main gripe with his episodes are that she finds them to be oddly boring. She can't really explain why she finds them to be boring, she just does. I think that it's more because she never really got to care about Jet from the beginning. it's hard to like character episodes if you just don't like the character.
I first watched Cowboy Bebop age 30. I cried my eyes out at the end. And seeing "You're gonna carry that weight" again in this video just made me cry again. The show is incredible, and that sentence is spot on. I am going to carry that weight. Spike's death matters, to me. I don't think I've ever felt that way about a fictional character.
“A sad episode of Wolf’s Rain.”
Girl, that’s every episode of Wolf’s Rain.
I never had an issue with Julia's late addition. In a regular story with a particular kind of pacing, I can see the complaint. This show always felt to me like it was about the members of the bebop living with one another, their past just glimpses of their history. It's not about us caring about Julia, or any of the myriad other villains, bounty hunters, and bystanders. Its about caring about the crew. We don't need to sympathize with her or feel anything for her, because we felt pain for Spike.
oh man…can’t even describe properly the way that “You’re gonna carry that weight” makes me feel so emotional. I remember reading that end card and crying because right - we know that the ending to cowboy bebop is bitter sweet. We don’t see the crew stay as this happy, found family. Everyone goes their separate ways and it’s hard to witness, as we the audience have come to love them and their interactions. Maybe it’s naive but we hope that they will find a reason to stay. To stay together, to lean on one another. But - as i think has been explain many a time - a central theme of cowboy bebop is confronting your past. To find peace and acceptance, so you may not one day feel so haunted by memories or constantly stuck in the past. The end card “you’re gonna carry that weight” to me is all about carrying your emotional baggage, your burdens, and memories. It’s always with you. And we must learn to live with it, learn how to carry it. And damn, i always love the line from spike when he says “i’m going to find out if i’m really alive” - like he wants to not feel like he’s dreaming or drowning anymore. It hurts because we want him to find what he’s looking for even if we may not fully understand it (ie the ambiguity around Julia’s character and her significance). That’s the powerful part of the show - we love this crew so much that even in this moment of breaking ties and walking away, we want them to find their resolution, whatever it may be, even now that they are not together.
To me I love the ending a cowboy Bebop if you're going to go out no matter what. Going down in a blaze of glory so awesome that it hasn't been topped in 30 years. With some of the most overwhelming catharsis I've ever seen is just so satisfied.
Fantastic piece. My favorite of your videos so far, although it helps that BeBop might be my single favorite anime of all time and is easily in my top five television shows of ANY type as well. Something about the exploration of loss, and coming to terms with regret, hits me where I live. Plus you included some absolutely hilarious clips and references (I actually DID laugh out loud instead of a little snort-breath when I saw Tom Cardy up there for a second).
And also the song at the end of "Hard Luck Woman" damn near brings me to tears every time. You were absolutely correct to call it one of the most gut wrenching in the show.
Just very, very well done all around.
57:50 This combination of sci-fi and jazz is what got me to finally watch Bebop after having it on my "classics I have to watch someday" list for a long time.
I don't remember where I heard it, but someone said the idea of "Space Jazz" (as opposed to "Space Opera") was the main underlying concept of the show. As soon as that clicked in my mind, I went from feeling like I "had" to watch it, to being actually super interested. And yeah it didn't disappoint, should have watched it years ago.
1:00:41 Watanabe and Kanno were actually playing jazz while creating the show 🤯 her instrument is music, and his instrument is showrunning
10:08 Nakamura was another player, an animation virtuoso
I actually just finished the series for the first time this weekend, great timing!
“[the fabric] got slurped up in my various crevices” what a fucking sentence to say, holy shit. That made me snort water almost.
Okay... hearing a woman define what happened to her previous, ridiculous, outfits as being "slurped up in various crevices" was something I didn't know I needed to hear. It was hilarious and informative.
your essays never fail to leave me feeling emotionally wrung out. my heart swelling and shattering in turns. thank you.
I cannot say how happy I was that I randomly clicked on this show on Hulu, it’s become one of my favorite shows of all time.
I'd like to point out that one's popular style of drag is literally done for comedy. Hemer usually come from the ridiculousness of the situation and the ridiculousness that this situation is considered redickuless.
The final episode for the show is hands down one of the best ends for a series ever. I can't even imagine how they'll come close that that pure awesomeness in the live action.
every time i see the "you're gonna carry that weight." end card i simply burst into tears
When I saw this show, I didn't know there were other people crazy enough to write stories extending &/or adapting works they love or saw potential in... or just wanted things to go differently. Thx, now I have a new reading list!
Watched kanno live and it made me cry lol.
Its fascinating to listen to the deep dives you did while writing this. Especially the totally canon Seatbelts lore.
For someone born and living in a highly socially conservative society like Japan, especially born more than 40 years ago, Watanabe is incredibly progressive relative to just about anyone else similar to his situation. Of course he can do better, but what he has reached is already crazy good.
1:23:15 This show was NEVER meant to be about character development, if anything it the opposite where all characters are static throughout the whole show either because of their fear to past or longing to past. It is only until the end when their conflicts are solved in the most tragic ways for all three of them: Edward goes back to chase their father, Jet gets back to be alone, Faye gets her past memories but that doesn't change anything since her future with the crew is non existent, and Spike well he faces off his past and ends up dying. The fact Julia doesn't get "character development" is no different than anyother character in the show and is just like life itself which almost feel like its never getting resolved until things somehow resolve in usually the worst way possible usually not by choice but mere inertia.
Unless I’m giving the show far too much credit, which is possible, the word Faye might have been trying to say was gadje, which is in fact a Rroma term! She butchered the pronunciation, but that’s about par for the course
you know the subtitles say "Gorgio" but I googled gadje and yeah so maybe everybody butchered the word??
I interpreted it as the mispronunciation being in-character.
Like, Faye doesn’t know what her past is. How the hell would she know that she’s Romani or not? I’d bet that she used to give a different description of her origins to everybody she met, and that she just happened to have read about the Romani in a magazine that week, so she stuck with it, not knowing how it’s even pronounced.
Hands down, this is my favorite anime. There's real emotional moments in the show, and a lot of great action and humor that actually works. It's influenced so many creators and inspired them to do shows, ranging from in-depth breakdowns like your excellent video here, to simple reviews, to How To Drink recreating Jet's hangover cure. But follow me, if you will. Spike survived falling from the top level of a church. Do you really think he's dead? I say nay! My man Spike is alive and laying low, waiting for his opportunity. Awesome video!
I took SOOOO much from Gren that was not what was stated here. I genuinely thought Gren was a transcendent character that was medically experimented on, but through trauma (I.E. the medical experimentation, which to me seems to be an admittedly clunky way of saying "Do you think I chose these feelings and this identity? To be this different to the expectations of the societies that surround me?") loves themselves anyway, or at the very least has accepted who they are. They left behind those notions of gender precisely because it wasn't a choice for them.
I'm not nonbinary, but have many familial ties with trans and nonbinary people, and especially at the time the argument that was being made around me (I'm not claiming to speak for any group here, just that this was the crux of a lot of sentiments that surrounded me) was one of a lack of choice. That they didn't CHOOSE this. And while we come to meet Gren long after the point in the story where they have found acceptance, possibly even a degree of closure (I always took the Vicious revenge portion as more of a challenge to accept who they are, killing the old him who clung to such notions, or killing their own delusions about themselves)
Not trying to argue here, I quite like the take presented here, that Gren was always nonbinary and that the lack of choice was not part of the equation. I really don't think they gave Gren the gravitas in the remake that they did in the original. But I thought the remake was a trainwreck anyway, so :P
I also think there's a degree of risk taking and bad decisions being inevitable when you're trying to tell stories about human suffering and the edges of human thought. The fails seem to me insignificant next to the risks and progress shown. I feel like one person is still allowed to write an imperfect story, attempting to but failing to represent experiences they have not lived, as long as they are attempting to do so in a sensitive light.
What can I say. That was so well done. Thank you. It brought back memories of late night watchings of adult swim and cowboy bebop at my mom's house, and her coming into my room to see what I was watching not understanding what it was or the language. But she would sit there with me. Love you mom, miss you. Your work is amazing thank you.
I love Jet episodes. They are rooted in noir classic double-crossing.
Great video, thanks.
Absolutely tremendous video. Well scripted, narrated, and edited. Mad respect for the time and effort you put into this. Cheers! 🥂
Tengo que dejar de ver tus videos en el trabajo, porque no tengo como seguir explicando el mar de lagrimas en el que me convierto con cada uno de tus analisis
theres a way the star going out when a person dies thing could work with both interpretations of the ending.
1. spike dies. the end.
2. spike stops the dreaming. the dream dies. the star goes out for the dream
Alternatively, it could be Vicious' star.
and now i finally have to watch it.
i've been watching anime since like 6 but cowboy bebop has suffered the too many recommendations for me to actually get to it
BUT
i've seen everything you have reviewed (if i can call your heartfelt researched entertaining amazing essays reviews) until now,
so i really have no choice now, do i :)
Speaking of Birds of Prey, Harley Quinn wears Fay Valentine's iconic white shoes in several scenes including the police station shootout.
MICHIKO TO HATCHIN! it's a beautiful anime about the complicated relationships between surrogate mother and daughter, racism, and a bunch of other things that make it very similar to Cowboy Bebop but it's more of a love letter to South America.
I really really love your videos and your ability to analyse and describe why these monuments of my childhood meant so much to me and still do. Thanks for making me think and ponder some wonderful things.
Cowboy Bebop is pretty popular amongst the gun community as the characters guns are all real guns.
Spike - IWI Jericho 941
Jet - Walther P99
Faye - Glock 30
Gren - H&K USP
Shin - SIG Sauer P226
Julia - Colt Combat Commander
Cowboy Andy - Colt Single Action Army
Hakim - Desert Eagle
Fad - Smith and Wesson Model 29
I'm sleeping so well with the sound of your voice in the background as this video essay is running on repeat... Thank you! And of course it is just as good critique piece as you always do. I see that now when I'm fully rested and actually watching it. 👀
Oh jeez I don't know if I'm ready for this *grabs popcorn and begins watching intently*
I'm sorry as a gay man who looked and acted almost exactly like that kid from kids on the slope. I find that character to be absolutely adorable. While most people forget that gay men are still men there are gay kids like that.
The thing that I think about with that last line is, “is this a warning or a benediction?” Does it tell us this weight can not be set aside? Or does it comfort us by telling us we CAN carry that weight? That we are stronger than Spike, that we can manage this burden?
Ooh, never thought of it like that. That's gonna be in my brain forever now. And tbh Blue starts out melancholy like we're carrying a weight and ends uplifted like we're gonna be fine.
This is such a clever way of thinking about it omg!
is that cjthex I detect defining jazz?
ps: I've had so many people try to get me into this show before, but the pressure to like the Important Anime Classic can be somewhat counterproductive to actually enjoying it. thank you for blazing such a clearly marked trail; I'm excited to explore further!
I adore Cowboy Bebop. So good, yet so utterly heartbreaking. Even though I'm not big into Anime, I could watch it over and over. In the original Japanese with subs is the only way to watch it. Great that you spent a chapter on Yoko Kanno. amazing soundtrack. - the Real Folk Blues breaks my heart and makes me blub almost every time. - CB re-kindled my interest in the Japanese Music scene..... Yes, little old me, here in the UK, with career and wife and family.... Listening to Japanese, rock, pop, hip-hop, shoegaze and everything from Japan, almost exclusively. TYSM LadyKnight. - You Rock!