Ani-Me #15: Goin’ Out On Top With That COWBOY BEBOP (Ep 21-Finale) (Patreon)

Welcome to Ani-Me! The Series Where You Make Me Watch Anime! To be clear, you aren’t making me do anything because I have enjoyed every bit of this so far. And huzzuh! I have officially finished the entire series (don’t worry, next entry I’ll cover the movie) and am so ready to talk about…

Today’s Entry: COWBOY BEBOP (1998-1999)

21. BOOGIE WOOGIE FENG SHUI

So much of good television is about “foil-ing” characters in different ways.

I remarked that of the four main ones, Jet is probably the character that I gravitated to toward the least, even though he has important to the function of the group dynamic. He’s the gruff, no-nonsense type that was there to foil Spike’s devil may care irreverence. I think the series understood that he was fun to poke and prod with silliness, but I think there are two crucial errors in that regard 1) it was even more fun to poke fun at Spike and 2) Jet was missing this crucial little bit characterization where his “dad-ness” was something that also drives the characters / viewer to also seek his approval and admiration (think Coach Taylor or Holt McCallany’s character in Mindhunter or something). I’m not saying the instinct is always dramatized in a healthy way, but when done right it’s huge part of what makes those kinds of characters really click.

So, of course, the time I liked Jet the best is when a precocious daughter figure entered the mix to foil him in the exact right way (to be clear, Ed is too much of a galaxy-level oddball to make that dynamic work). So far we’ve had lost loves and ex partners for Jet, but those just reinforced the stoic demeanor. But here, I feel like we have a dynamic that really undercuts his sternness in the exact right kind of way. To me it’s the 100% shot of them eating ice cream and him being mad at them smoking near her, which is such a funny scene - though 1) the girlfriend / love child conversations feel so weird in the plainness and 2) the episode’s best gag is where Spike murders the dude and then the two kids immediately run up and steal his wallet.

And once again I was kind of coasting along with the episode until it i reaches those last emotional moments (which seems to be the new M.O.). Here it’s where Pao’s daughter has this last goodbye with the man who’s been running from her for so long. She says, “I despised you all this time, but… papa.” And it’s that incredible tone to her voice, the way the childish want and need just creeps into her last word - full of that understanding that behind all the despising was the very seeking of his love and support. I can’t remember the last time a line so summed up the entire arc of a character’s story, but it seems Cowboy Bebop is pretty darn good at that.

Also, hey remember America’s short-lived Feng Shui obsession?

22. COWBOY FUNK

Bahahahahahahahahhaah, of course. Just OF COURSE.

I remarked last time about the fact that Pierrot was such a good foil for Spike because of the way he ruffled his cool demeanor and overwhelmed him. But you want to talk about FEATHERS GETTING RUFFLED!!! Here we meet “Andy,” the rival cowboy / total fucking himbo idiot that could not be the more perfect character to show up and make Spike absolutely fucking lose his emotional cool. As the show notes, they’re the exact same in some ways. But with oh so crucial differences. Because Andy is rich, pampered, and just doing it for the posturing thrill of experimentation. Plus, he always has this decadent food (which also seems to be cooked poorly) and lives in a pretentious golden plated penthouse a la the last so-called President who shall not be named. All of this stunning lack of awareness just grates on Spike, turning him into a raving mess. Something best embodied by the moment he un-gracefully stoops to all fours running out the side of the building.

What makes it even more fun is how much the two of them are ALSO a foil for the terrorist bad guy (who definitely somehow hops into my list of favorite side characters). It’s not just the ways he gets upset about not being the center of attention, or the way he’s always poorly-disguising himself (“how did you know it was me!?” is almost always a great joke), it’s the fact that he ends up hitting his jailor with a fairly good anti-capitalist point about unnecessary waste. A point that gets tellingly lost in the moment of insanity that comes with watching a rich dude now pretend to be a samurai (I mean, Jeff Bezos IS going to space now). Ultimately, this episode lands every single beat and it’s so, so good.

Other favorite moments: Spike’s eye twitch / the way Faye puts up with Andy’s idiocy for a meal / YMCA - YOUNG MENS COWBOY ASSOCIATION / Jet the Hippy / the True Lies horse vibes / and I was gonna be like “did this show predict the Patronas towers with that one building design??/“ Because I remember the big hubbub when they were made “not too long ago,” then I looked up and realized they were indeed finished in 1998 and now I am an old pile of dust.

Avenge me.

23. BRAIN SCRATCH

So… not sure about the popular reaction out there, but, uh, this one isn’t quite up to snuff? It’s not really like it’s some hugely bad episode either, but it sort of breaks that weird rule about being really current with sci-fi being the thing that most dates you weirdly enough. Like, I can’t tell you how much 90’s had a certain kind of destructive cult on the brain (what with Heaven’s Gate, Waco, etc. always in the news). But while being really specific in its iconography, this also keeps trying to sideswipe different thematic targets along the way: television channel surfing, personal data, and the loss of a sense of reality - but it doesn’t quite crystalize in a way that makes it feel like a diamond bullet to the brain. Don’t get me wrong, the end is surprisingly effecting with it’s somber music and big villainous rug-pull, it’s even got some insightful words about the problems of murder-suicide instincts and taking “the dreams of others.” but it’s still a LOT bit convoluted, especially for an ending that seems like it’s stretching for direct nod to the ending of St. Elsewhere. It feels both too specific in reference and unspecific in theme at the exact same time.

But I dunno, Ed putting in “marshall banana” / pretending to be Jet’s kid were both really funny.

24. HARD LUCK WOMAN

I’m going to talk about all the emotional things in a second, but first I want to just single out the gags I loved. Like: Ed being tied to the ship, the creepy child who playfully asks if she can have Faye’s nails, the funny declaration of “father person,” and the incredibly casual showing that Ed’s dad might be the best damn fighter in the world? Also, they kept saying the word “sploosh” which is 100% impossible to hear without thinking of Archer. But either way, I wanted to get all that observation out of the way because this episode holds such a specific sense of tension.

It’s not the tension of some external drama, like bad guys rushing in with guns. No it’s something much more evasive. It’s that moment where you feel like something is about to change and really shift. Because deep down, you just KNOW that it is. So you look at everything around you like its a sign of how it will break one way or another… and why.

For starters, I love that we come back to Faye and the impact of that video tape. She keeps rewinding over and over and ultimately goes on a quest with Ed to find the specific spots within it. Bu tin doing so, it actually brings us back to small chapter from Ed’s life. And it’s only a small chapter because it she’s always has been the eternal vagabond. And her father who we meet suddenly and out of nowhere? Much the same. He’s there and quickly playing with Ed like two best pals in the world, then he’s suddenly darting off for the nearest meteor, leaving her behind. So much of this shines a light on Ed’s life, but once again, it’s more about how it foils Faye and makes her feel internally.

Because Ed is so damn casual about her rambling circumstance, but for all the tough fronts that she’s putting up, Faye is clearly struggling with it. She looks to the tape for a sense of answer, a sense of place. It’s something so deeply sensitive within her. When Jet casually chides her and says, “I don’t appreciate you doing things on your own!” We get such a specific glare from Faye in return. It’s not mean, or angry. It’s the look of pain, the conveyance that there is something deep there that should not be touched. And of course, that deep thing is how she is longing for a sense of true place.

A yearning which cascades into Faye’s memory finally returning, boiling into a moment of her running up the hill to her former home, as if a young girl again… only to find the ruins of a past life. But the crater is a perfect metaphor for the past, isn’t it? And the only thing more heartbreaking then the discovery itself is the way Faye draws a little outline of where her childhood bed use to be… and tries to sleep in it… Oof. Just oof.

Again, the show is about foiling. Faye now lives in a broken adulthood and wants to get back to the impossible past. Whereas Ed never had such a safe bed. Her entire life has been like the broken egg shell we see again and again. Meaning she’s the one who, like her father, will be off chasing the meteors (that will probably destroy someone else life, too). And so with an episode that we thought would be a goodbye for Faye, instead is bit of a bait and switch. For it is Ed and Ein who go off together… to where? Who knows. The moment is that exact combination of gutting because it plays into a simple dramatic irony.

More importantly, it is reminiscent of the simple fact of life: that at some moment in time you were hanging out with a friend or someone close to you… And totally unaware that it would be the last time you ever saw them… I said it before and I’ll say it again…

Oof.

25. THE REAL FOLK BLUES - PART I

Two part finale time. Here we go!

* * *

“You look so pitiful vicious, and you are.”

So this line was that way in the dub that I accidentally clicked on at first, but not the sub? Anyway, i think the difference actually speaks to something. Because as much as they say that about Vicious, he actually isn’t pitiful. In fact, he’s about to get one up on them. And truth be told, I don’t know what I feel about Vicious as a character at all. But that’s mostly because he’s a cypher. The posturing incarnation of malice, greed, and destruction and that’s all effective in the way that it “reads” clearly to the audience as those things, but I still don’t know what makes him human. At least not human in all the ways that other antagonists have been in this series. Without that - or even a clearer understanding of what drives his sociopathy - I don’t know how to fully embrace this as Spike’s arch-narrative. But despite that dynamic, we still hit the end game with the final bits of Spike’s backstory and so many other powerful things none the less.

Because it turns out Spike’s backstory is a rather classic one. It’s two lovers wanting to go on the run from trouble! We know it all so well, as it evokes the infatuation of only one other person in the world truly mattering. But it didn’t work out the first time - he thought Julia died. But now there’s maybe a second chance, after all. There’s just a little set-up in getting there. Chiefly based on a chance meeting. To that, I have to say, I LOVED everything about Julia’s scene with Faye and how much of it just works on pure instincts between them.

Meanwhile, the rest of the episode leans so much into the John Woo element of the show and I’ll also be honest in that this might be my least favorite aspect? Like I was obsessed with Woo back in the late 80’s / 90’s too, but it’s not really where I’m at these days, especially when it comes to hardened, violent behavior. To wit, the moment where Spike takes the drink in the middle of the gunfight and says “too much vermouth” feels like something out of the first ten episodes. We’re just at the point now where he’s changed demeanor in a lot of ways and even come undone about him (this is post-Andy Spike, after all). Thus so much of it feels like returning to a pilot or plot-line that we have now evolved past. It’s honestly just hard to work up real care for gun-play affectation and the umbrellas in the rain once you’ve seen something like “Speak Like A Child.” My interests have simply changed.

Which is not to say this show is somehow bad at what it’s currently exploring. There’s a palpable sense of ominous dread to this. Plus the incredible bit of dramatic irony with most of Julia and Faye’s conversation. There’s also the insightful dialogue about “searching frantically for proof they were alive,” and the brutal moment of Vicious making someone cry “red tears.” All of this works. But most part ones of finale are all about setting up a crucial moment, some moment of transcendence that reshapes our endgame… and Julia getting there and pulling a gun on Spike?

Yeah, THAT’s how you do a “to be continued”

26. THE REAL FOLK BLUES - PART II

I kept saying early on that the power of Noir is the way that a lot of disaffection finally spirals out into desperate and hurtful ends. There’s so much I could say this episode, but it comes to that essential crux - and I think there’s three moments that speak to it best. Because for all that was made the gun-pull last time (which was really just a fake-out that coulda been done better), and for all the initial getaway planning, Julia dies pretty suddenly. Which is powerful enough, especially as you imagine it might be part of some climactic action beat - but really it serves as a set-up for aforementioned three other moments that have far more to do with our main characters.

One - The moment Spike shows up back at the Bebop with that smile on his face my immediate reaction was “ohhhhhh no.” For it’s the look we’ve seen so many times before and yet now has a context and meaning that makes you re-evaluate every single time you saw it before. Because it is the look of “I don’t care if I die today, in fact, I welcome it. So just point me toward danger.” He even requests his last meal, a bit of Jet’s terrible cooking that goes down perfectly because “hunger is the best spice” (oof). Even the last Tiger Cat parable story is interesting, because I’m not sure if it has a different translation somewhere, but it’s both so on the nose and rambling to a point of near incoherency. Despite that, we know what it all of this means and why it’s so gutting. But Spike just keeps smiling, not saying anything, and then gets up to leave. Which was all just set-up for…

Two - The subsequent interaction with Faye. Which was even more gutting. They’ve spent all this time in the show doing this distant dance with each other. But now she lets it out. Her memory came back, but nothing good came from it. There was no place to return to. She could only lie in the ruins of a former life. But now she’s here, on the ship, and she’s finally ready to be here. Truly be here. And who knows what that means. But it could mean something. For her. For them… But there is only the cruelty of timing. He’s ready to walk off to death. To forget this place. And when confronted on that cruelty, Spike let’s it out. Not anger. Not frustration. Just that absolute, morbid resignation toward death and the emptiness of his loss, all delivered with that uncanny, nonchalant, borderline smile. There’s something almost malevolent about it and Faye reacts accordingly: “You never told me anything about yourself! Don’t tell me stuff like that now!” But she simply wishes there was something else inside, something more yearning. But no, there is only the sweet release of death he has craved for far, far too long. Which gives way to…

Three - The final standoff, which is fatalism personified. Because for all the pomp and circumstance of the operatic setting, it’s not even really climactic. It’s more of a foregone conclusion. Spike and Vicious don’t even want the advantage of the other’s weapon in the fight. As quick as they move, their mutual assured destruction is set in stone, and so they both get their ultimate relief. Honestly, the final moment of Spike walking back is all the victory he needs, a moment of respite after the storm, and a cruel trick on the audience so that maybe they’ll maybe think he has a shot to start over, to face a life beyond his past… But Spike pulls out his finger, shoots “them,” (read: shoots us) with a playful pantomime and a clever wink, ever the carefree soul of our series… And dies… As he wanted.

I imagine much has been made of the reveal of Julia’s final works of it being “just a dream” and conjecture of what this gives the meaning of this series. But I tend not to get lost in the literalism of dream allusions, nor even the extended metaphor of its use in storytelling. I mean, of course, it’s all a dream: it’s a fictional TV show. And a damn great one. But what I realize I love most about this finale is not the power of the fatalistic end itself - but the fact that it made me care so damn much right before its inescapable end. Because what we’re really talking about is the deepest emotion of the show being a layer removed. For it is the feeling that comes with a realization - that in this oh so rousing tale of the disaffected space cowboys, the great tragedy is the fact with the smallest set of different choices…

They could have been affected.

… If only.

<3HULK