Bebop Den Beste
Steven Den Beste has written a
lengthy and insightful review of Cowboy Bebop, number 8 on my
Anime Top 25. As is his wont, where I said
And, unavoidably, each of them runs into his or her past and has to deal with it.
Den Beste runs into several dozen paragraphs of detailed analysis.
I don't agree with him entirely; I think that Faye in particular was doing better with coming to terms with what she was than he gives her credit for. But then, he's seen the series much more recently than I have, and as a more coherent whole, since I was watching it two episodes at a time as it was first released with subtitles. I mean to watch it again; number 8 out of 25 may not sound very special, but that 25 is itself selected from over 200 anime series that I have seen. And that's ignoring the 500 or so that I read about and decided not to waste my time on. So, number 8 out of 700, really.
Warning: His review gives a lot of spoilers, so go watch the series first, and then read it. Pixy Misa says so.
Update: Steven Den Beste (!) writes in the comments:
Thank you for the kind words. I'm curious to know what you think of my second explanation.
The second explanation is the viewing of
Cowboy Bebop as a
Ronin saga, that is, the story of masterless Samurai.
This rings true to me.
Now, I haven't sat down and analysed the motivations of the characters in Bebop the way SDB has; nor have I studied Japanese history in any great depth, but I have been exposed to at least the popular version of the Bushido code and the life of the ronin (as in, masterless Samurai, not youths studying for their college entrance exams).
But when I watched Bebop, I had a visceral understanding of Spike and Jet (and Faye and Ed too, but they are less relevant to this discussion). With Jet, this is not difficult, because his actions are not that far from what a certain Western archetype in the same position might do. Watching Spike, though, the only answer to some of the questions of why would he do that? is that he is following a code of honour, that there are certain things he must do to redeem this honour, and that the consequences - even his death, if need be - are less important than that these things are done.
Is it truly Bushido? I don't know; I'm no expert on Bushido, and except for the movie, it has been years since I watched Cowboy Bebop. But nothing in this interpretation strikes a wrong note to my ears.
Update: Untold Millions write in the comments that Bebop is not a classical tragedy, lacking the necessary elements of hubris and nemesis (hubris plus nemesis gives exegesis, if I recall correctly). They (the Millions) also suggest that Spike's code of honour is not Bushido at all. Anyway, since U.S.S. Clueless (quite understandably) lacks comments, feel free to debate the point here.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
06:46 AM
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1
Thank you for the kind words. I'm curious to know what you think of my second explanation.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Sunday, October 19 2003 07:22 AM (CJBEv)
2
Steven Den Beste calls Cowboy Bebop, "a classic "tragedy", in the dramatic sense of that term" without identifying the crime of hubris or the action of nemisis. It is unlikely that he could find those defining elements of classic tragedy in the story. So he begins by assigning the wrong form and drifts farther afield as he speculates about the meaning of it all.
His second (and contradictory) claim that CB is a ronin epic is somewhat more plausable. Alas, Spike had never been a samurai...he was a gangster. Confusing yakusa values with bushido is as absurd as equating mafia ethos with martial values in the West (even though all four are concerned with honor).
Posted by: Arthur Fleischman at Sunday, October 19 2003 09:03 AM (7jCXK)
3
Aha, the Bebop fans come out of the woodwork :)
Yes, your point in regards to Spike is well taken, that he has a code of honour but not the
Samurai code.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sunday, October 19 2003 09:16 AM (jtW2s)
4
A few things:
1) The Shinchiro Watanabe who did
Cowboy Bebop and worked on
Macross Plus is *not* the "Nabeshin" of
Excel Saga - that's Shinichi Watanabe. Very confusing, I know. There's a hell of a lot of Watanabes in the anime industry these days. It's a common name.
2) Personally, I don't try to get too deep into the plot of Cowboy Bebop. It's sort of like doing plot studies of On the Road. I mean, yes, there is a plot, and there is some thematic resonance with the plot, but it's a placeholder. Cowboy Bebop is a pure exercise in style - in interview after interview, the production team have indicated that they approached the project in terms of an aural/visual image - "jazz in the cathedral".
In the end, the plot got away from them, mostly because the default storytelling mode in the modern anime industry is serial, rather than episodic.
Posted by: Mitch H. at Sunday, October 19 2003 10:55 AM (tVSJJ)
5
The Freeza Saga in DBZ: An argument for the bicameral parliamentary system? Discuss.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sunday, October 19 2003 11:03 AM (jtW2s)
6
Watanabe is known as Nabeshin on a purely personal level ... never on a professional level. That was the one thing I wanted to clear up but couldn't be bothered writing mail about.
Posted by: Alex at Sunday, October 19 2003 12:49 PM (IPR3A)
7
I think Steve's analysis of Jet is very close if not right on the money...I disagree with a few of the other things though.
Spike's statement "To prove I'm alive" is his most important line in the series. I disagree with Steve's call that Faye doesn't understand what that means...it obviously means that life on Bebop (which includes Faye) are not important. Basically, Spike is miserable.
I agree with Jet following a type of bushido, but Spike doesn't follow that type of honor system. I think Spike placed all his eggs in the love basket and lived to meet Julia...then after she died, he died to meet Julia. I think his last smile was the thought of being together with Julia once again.
Traditionally, the "kataki" is extremely important to Japanese. This means if someone takes what's dearest to you, not allowing them to live unharmed bumps up to the top of your priority list. Spike, on his way to joining Julia, took out Julia's kataki. Spike won big time in his final gamble.
Posted by: Ken at Sunday, October 19 2003 05:38 PM (oOiGs)
8
Wow, this is like reading a conversation written in Klingon or something.
What the heck IS Anime anyway? Movies? TV series? Whenever I think of Anime I think of Speed Racer. Guess I'm just hopelessly out of the loop on this stuff.
Posted by: Tuning Spork at Sunday, October 19 2003 09:23 PM (tbCA7)
9
Re: Turning Spork
Anime in is Japanese animation (both TV series and movies).
Speed Racer is over 30 years old, so you need to get a more updated frame of reference by watching something newer.
Cowboy Bebop the series in question is an excellent starting point to modern
anime. Watch it, and come back for discussion.
Posted by: BigFire at Monday, October 20 2003 05:49 PM (qWZ1s)
10
I've read Den Beste's comments to do not find them out of line...based on his point of view. However, I think that there is one other angle to evaluate Bebop by: Hong Kong cinema.
I have been a serious fan of that genre for almost as long as I've been an anime fan. Perhaps I'm imagining things, but I plenty of themes/storylines/hero-villian interactions in Bebop that I have seen before...in HK films.
If John Wu would do anime, it would resemble Bebop. That's not say there aren't Japanese cultural themes in Bebop...there are. But the plot dynamics, and the characters have HK roots.
That's my 2 cents...fire away.
Posted by: CPT. Charles at Wednesday, October 22 2003 12:11 PM (Hgn8p)
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