Cowboy Bebop
The two episodes we are dealing with today. They are very similar but different at the same time. Why don't we waste no time and jump right in.
Jet Black: "Damn that blues harp sounds sweet; I knew it would."
Spike Spiegel: "I thought you liked jazz."
Jet Black: "Don't be dense. I started wailing the blues when the doctor whacked by bottom on the day I was born."
Spike Spiegel: "A baby hipster, very cool."
A bounty takes Spike and Jet to a blues club and a harmonica playing child prodigy. When their bounty gets shot out of the window of the hotel room where the prodigy and his guardian are staying, things take an interesting turn. The bounty tells Spike not to be fooled. It turns out the prodigy is the real trouble, a non aging assassin who may be the one to finally take Spike out.
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| This kid |
The first five episodes of "Cowboy Bebop" is pretty great. And it's not that "Sympathy for the Devil" is a bad episode, it just doesn't necessarily hit the mark of the previous episodes. And that is fine.
We can't talk about an episode of "Cowboy Bebop" without talking about the music. It has been very jazz focused but we get a little bit of the blues this episode. And honestly, it feels like the blues fit this series a little bit more than jazz. The harmonica that plays throughout the episode is mournful and soulful at the same time. I'm not a huge harmonica fan, but I loved hearing it over and over again.
I don't have a ton to say about this episode good or bad. It has everything that you like with "Cowboy Bebop." The banter between Jet and Spike is on point, case in point, the quote that I used to open this post. I enjoyed the relationship between Jet and Fatty River. Though, this is a great example of anime not always being the most sensitive. Fatty is called Fatty because he is pretty overweight and the next time we see him he is eating a lot of sweets. So, there's that. I definitely felt attacked.
The action is fine. I really liked the part when Giraffe is shot out the window. Spike catches him on the hood of the Swordfish, but it is too late, Giraffe is already dead and that is when he gives Spike the warning to not be fooled by the way he looks.
The rest of the episode is just OK. It's nothing special. Faye is barely in the episode at all. She pops up to eat Ein's dog food in front of him... which is weird. And I don't really get the point to it. Are they just trying to show that she's awful? Or extra awful? I don't know.
The biggest issue with the episode is Wen, the supposed child prodigy. He's just not that interesting. It's not a surprise when you find out that he's actually the bad guy. It's pretty telegraphed from the moment we see him playing in the club. The backstory of how he becomes ageless is simple but also weirdly complicated. A stargate exploded and the rays showered down killing most but keeping him alive and never aging. He can't be killed except there's a ring with a gem that can kill him. And that's what he's trying to get back from Spike. He doesn't want to die, but when Spike shoots him with the bullet he made from the stone, he's happy to die. It just doesn't hit the way they want it to.
See you, Space Cowboy.
Grade: B-
Fake Decker: "I got a thing for eels."
It feels like every bounty hunter is looking for a bounty named Decker, including the Bebop crew. After a case of mistaken identity, Faye finds herself chasing Decker. It turns out that the rig that Decker is driving is full of powerful explosives. Spike and Faye go after him, teaming up with a trucker named VT who loves heavy metal and hates bounty hunters.
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| This is what a bad bitch looks like. |
"Sympathy for the Devil" wasn't as successful as it could have been because Wen wasn't as strong a character as he could have been. The story for "Heavy Metal Queen," much like the story for "Sympathy for the Devil," doesn't re-invent the wheel, but it does have one of the strongest one off characters in the history of "Cowboy Bebop," the heavy metal queen herself, VT.
VT is great. You love her from the moment she shows up onscreen and if you don't, well, there is definitely something wrong with you. VT is charming. She has an amazing cat named Zero who is never on a leash and is adorable when it is floating and trying to orient itself in zero gravity. None of her fellow truckers know her real name and they take bets on it. So, VT has a fat stack of cash for whoever gets it right. The only thing that seems to really make her angry are bounty hunters for a reason we don't find out about until the end of the episode.
As always, we will have a little chat about the music in the episode. "Heavy Metal Queen" is full of the titular music. It's what VT blares in the cab of her "truck" as she delivers her payloads. It's a major shift from the music that we usually hear in "Cowboy Bebop," but it's very fitting and it is another thing that makes this episode special.
It's not a shock that VT runs afoul of Spike, I mean, he is the main character of the show. They have an easy rapport as they beat the crap out of the bounty hunter gang that is harassing the cute waitress at the diner they are at. Spike is impressive since he is the most hungover we've seen since the show began and all he wants to do is make a hangover remedy called a prairie oyster, which VT's husband also used to use when he was hungover.
Like I said, the episode isn't doing anything outrageous storywise. It's not a surprise that VT's husband was a bounty hunter that got killed on the job and that is why she hates bounty hunters. Of course, Faye fingered the wrong guy. But it's the way that everything comes together. VT is a great character. Her chemistry with Spike is great. The concept that truckers that still exist in this future and that the people who do the job and the rigs they drive are just as colorful as they are in our world is great.
The final action of the episode with Spike ejecting from the Swordfish and using the escape pod to blow a hole in the asteroid so they can escape is great. It's thrilling watching him try to get to VT's outstretched hand before he suffocates. The icing on the cake is Spike figuring out VT's name and only taking the money he put in. Just a really great one off episode.
Grade: A-
Next up, the crew meet a man on the run from the mob and the final member of the Bebop crew makes their debut.
What do you all think of these episodes? Where my VT lovers at? Sound off in the comments.
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