Cowboy bebop

Cowboy Bebop (カウボーイビバップ, Kaubōi Bibappu ^?) is a Japanese animated series developed by studio Sunrise and production company Bandai Visual in 1998.

Its 26 episodes are set in the year 2071; The series is about the adventures, misadventures and tragedies of a group of bounty hunters who travel aboard the Bebop, their spaceship. Cowboy Bebop explores philosophical themes such as existentialism and its emptiness, loneliness, and influences from the past.

The series aired in Japan on TV Tokyo from April 3 to June 26, 1998, airing only 12 episodes due to its controversial content. Later, the series was broadcast with all its episodes on the WOWOW pay channel, from October 24 to April 24, 1999. The anime was adapted into two manga that were published in the Asuka Fantasy DX magazine. , from the publisher Kadokawa Shoten. Later in 2001, a film released worldwide was made and in November 2021, a live-action American television series was made, with real actors who embody the characters, which is distributed on the platform streamingNetflix.

It became a critical and commercial success worldwide, often being considered a masterpiece in both the Japanese and international markets (particularly in the United States).

Plot

The year is 2071. The crew of the ship Bebop, initially made up of Spike Spiegel and Jet Black, travel throughout the solar system in search of rewards. Throughout his adventures, three new characters join his crew: Faye Valentine, Ed, and the pet, Ein. During his adventures, the tortuous relationship between the protagonist Spike and his old comrade Vicious is revealed, which leads to the denouement of the series. Spike's relationship with the other co-stars, and their backgrounds, are revealed in the middle chapters of the series.

Background

In the year 2022, a series of hyperspace gates are built throughout the solar system, facilitating the creation of colonies on other planets and trade between them. One of these gates, very close to Earth, suffers some instability that leads to an explosion of great proportions.

This explosion literally rips apart half the Moon and obliterates the surface of planet Earth, killing billions of people. Most of the population chooses to emigrate to colonies on other planets. The inhabitants who decide to remain on the planet are forced to live underground due to the constant fall of lunar fragments on the Earth's surface.

The colonies are:

• Venus: This is a planet full of vegetation and an architecture based on Arab culture. Its inhabitants are mostly African, Arab and Indian. The floating spores usually cause the so-called "Venus syndrome". In most cases it produces only an acute passenger voice, although it can evolve to total blindness or death in certain individuals. Treatment is expensive and is within reach of very few.
• Mars: The most inhabited planet in the system. The inhabitants live in cities-crater, located in the craters of the meteor impacts, with a shield barrier surrounding them and providing the necessary oxygen. Its architecture is similar to the large land cities such as New York, Hong Kong, Paris or Tokyo. Its population is descending from Europeans and Chinese.
• The Tijuana asteroid: Mostly populated by settlers from Mexico and the rest of Latin America, is a place frequented by criminals and fugitives. The black market is very present in this city, which attracts more criminals. However, a large number of bounty hunters also come from this colony, always provoking disputes.
• Jupiter's Moons: Calisto, a satellite gélido filled with polluting and abandoned factories, is populated almost exclusively by Caucasian men; Ganymems, the second most populous colony of the system, with a large fishing industry that exports mainly the sea mouse of American Ganymede, a delicacy of high cuisine; and Europe, a moon almost totally covered with water but with a part of land bark, where the inhabitants of the Arizona.
• One of Saturn's moons, Titan: This anciently prosperous satellite has been the scene of a bloody civil war since 2060. In the absence of combatants, thousands of volunteers enrolled in both factions (including some secondary characters). The war ended by sweeping the moon and turning it into a desert of rock and sand where soldiers should dress in desert clothing like terrifying tuaregs.
• Pluto Penitentiary: It is the place where the ISSP (Inter-Solar System Police; Intersolar System Police) leads the captured criminals, where they will work forcefully extracting the minerals of the frozen asteroid, especially deuterium, uranium, oil and gas.

The universal currency of the Solar System is the Woolong (symbol: ₩, pronounced ūron in Japanese). Physical money is barely used, since most people make credit cards through terminals or exchange points.

MAIN CHARACTERS

Cosplay of the main characters of the anime

The series features a crew with different main characters. Initially there are only two of them, Spike Spiegel and Jet Black, who work as bounty hunters. Throughout the story the Bebop crew increases with the arrival of Faye Valentine, Ed and Ein, the group's mascot.

• Spike Spiegel (أعربية, Supaiku Supīgeru^?)

He was born in Mars. Spike is an ex-member of the criminal union Red Dragon who is persecuted by an ancient love triangle between his former union partner, ViciousAnd a mysterious woman called Julia. Despite his unbelievable and ironic appearance, he is an expert in jeet kune do. According to him, there are three things in the world that hates more than anything: children, women taken advantage of and dogs (referring to Ed, Faye and Ein, respectively).

• Faye Valentine (・ounding blood sugar, Fei Varentain^?)

An amnestic woman who woke up from a 54-year-old cryogenic lethargy after an accident. She was deceived and assumes the debt of the man who awoke her, because of it constantly tries to earn the money in the bets to quickly solve her monetary problem, giving the impression of being a ludopata. Her past and true name are a mystery even to herself (the name "Valentine" was given to her by a doctor), and are gradually discovered through the series.

• Jet Black (أعربية Русский أعربية, Jetto Burakku^?)

His homeland is Ganymede. It is the most “serious” of the group, the one with the most experience and owner of the Bebop ship. Jet is an ex-cop who lost an arm in a fight with a criminal while exercising his profession. He left the organization for the corruption in it. He knows that Spike belonged to the mob of the Red Dragons, but he never gets into his affairs, unless he claims to be in danger. Jet is the most demonstrative of the group in terms of his emotions. He is very fond of cooking, as well as cultivating bonsai.

• Ed (◊ oriented oriented oriented oriented oriented oriented oriented oriented oriented oriented oriented oriented oriented oriented oriented oriented ・ ・, Edowādo Hau Peperu Chiburusukī Yon-se^?)

Pretty strange terrestrial girl, physically looks like a boy and his real name is Françoise. He's a genius. hacker who always troubles the police with their mischiefs; he managed to join the Bebop by hacking his computer system and controlling the ship itself when he tried to flee. Go without direction to where life takes her. Ed doesn't care about the future or anything that makes sense to anyone, he only lives life a day, so he's very impulsive. Her father is the same as her and although she loves her, she cares very little about her daughter's whereabouts. Ed, in fact, was raised in a land orphanage organized by a nun.

• Ein (¶ ¶ ¶ ¶ ¶ ¶ ¶ ¶ ¶ ¶ ¶ ¶ ¶ ¶ ¶ ¶ ¶ ¶ ¶ ¶ ¶ ¶ ¶ ¶ ¶ ¶ ¶ ¶ ¶ ¶ ¶ ¶ ¶ ¶ ¶ ¶ ¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶, Ain^?)

Ein (Strut in the Spanish fold) is a Welsh corgi of Pembroke and laboratory exanimal identified as "data lining" by the scientists who created it. The terminology used for this title was never explained; however, it was suggested that it possesses superior intelligence (which even exceeds that of humans), since almost at the end of the series appears hacking a computer with great ease, while the previous attempts of their companions failed. Despite their superior intelligence, the Bebop crew does not capture these qualities. It is often shown by making habits of a normal dog, and it is usually seen spinning around the ship.

Ships

Bebop

The Bebop is the ship, captained by Jet, that gives its name to the series and that serves as the nerve center of the lives of Spike, Faye, Ein, Ed and Jet himself. old and her busy life makes her break down every now and then.

Swordfish II

• Pilot: Spike Spiegel
• Width: 13,3 m
• High: 4.8 m
• Length: 13.8 m
• Weight: 8.4 t
• Armament: Plasma Canyon, 2 machine guns.

The Swordfish II, a ship piloted by Spike, is a high-speed plane/spaceship fusion that possesses the aerodynamic characteristics of a supersonic plane on the front, combined with a sci-fi ship.. The ship has the engine in the back and in the center it contains a removable spherical dome, this can be smoked or, failing that, automatically transparent depending on the environment, or manually controlled by the pilot. The dome is made of reinforced fiberglass with three layers, the first is transparent, the second is smoked and the third is a bulletproof layer (not very effective). All three are airtight.

The look is inspired by a streamlined Pointy red plane with long wings that fold over the fuselage to save space. To make this possible, each wing is attached with a sliding joint so that it hinges in the middle, so that it can be folded about a quarter turn and then folded up over the body of the ship; the wings are powered by a space engine that rotates at the forward rear of the ship's engine and is operated manually from the outside by a pulley and automatically from the cupola by means of a switch. Although the wings appear similar, they are in fact asymmetrical at the base; one bends 45° forward while the other bends 45° backward. Each wingtip is encapsulated with two large rudders that are connected to each other by a thin pylon anchored to a hub; there are the sparrow wing style missile launchers and just below a machine gun with short barrels and 110mm bullets. The lower rudder on each wing supports a tiny nestable landing gear (a thin rubber-like gray bar molded into the wheel). Each wing has a landing gear track on its inner face. The landing gear has a piston that moves the wheels. The wings are VTOL Underwing model.

The panel has many lines and rivet holes. Beneath the fuselage is a large plasma cannon, capable of firing several meters away, and its charge time is 5.5 seconds. The Swordfish II possesses, like one of its brakes, a "parachute" in the part of the rear propellant that uncaps by means of a hook in the upper part of the central dome when it is pushed down; this disengages the lock on the hatch and the parachute detaches and slowly brings the craft to a stop with the force of the wind. The ship is extremely light to such a degree that it is possible to modify its trajectory by means of movements of the pilot in the cockpit.

Red Tail

• Pilot: Faye Valentine
• Width: 7.2 m
• High: 5.4 m
• Length: 8.6 m
• Weight: 7.2 tons
• Armament: 2 30 mm machine guns and multiple cannons capable of shooting a wide variety of missiles and grenades.

The Red Tail is an extremely maneuverable attack vehicle much like an underwater pod with robotic arms, armed with two high-calibre missile launchers and two Vulcan cannons, as well as possessing ECM equipment and of survival. Faye can call Red Tail whenever she wants using a pager and radio control that she carries hidden in her jewelry. It is noteworthy the similarity in the general structure with the Batwing ship from the recent Batman movie (2012) The Dark Knight Rises.

Hammerhead

• Pilot: Jet Black
• Width: 12.3 m
• High: 7.7 m
• Length: 21.5 m
• Weight: 15.3 t
• Armament: Brazo and mechanical claw; anchor.

The Hammerhead is a long, huge, rugged fisherman's ship. Armed with a harpoon, this ship was not invented to be used in combat. Rotating motors allow you to go faster through forward and reverse turn signals. Jet's vehicle of choice is usually used for towing or cargo mostly in water, in the air and on land and rarely in space although it is not advisable.

Content of the work

Anime

The series has been created by Hajime Yatate, a collective pseudonym that includes various members of the company Sunrise, the studio in charge of the animation of the series.

Shinichiro Watanabe was in charge of directing, Keiko Nobumoto was in charge of series composition, Toshihiro Kawamoto was in charge of character design, and Yōko Kanno was in charge of music composition.

Cowboy Bebop almost didn't air on Japanese TV. Its first broadcast on TV Tokyo was cancelled, with only episodes 2, 3, 7–15, and 18 airing from April 1998, due to the content not being suitable for broadcast on broadcast television. At the end of that same year, the WOWOW satellite station broadcast the complete series until April 1999.

The series was dubbed into English by Animaze and ZRO Limit Productions, licensed by Bandai Entertainment in North America, and currently by Funimation. It was licensed by Beez Entertainment for airing in the UK and later by Anime Limited. Madman Entertainment is licensed for broadcast in Australia and New Zealand. In September 2001, Cowboy Bebop aired in the United States on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block, and was a complete success.

The Locomotion channel licensed the broadcast rights to the series from Sunrise at NATPE in 2001 and announced its broadcast for Latin America; the premiere took place in November of that same year with a Spanish dubbing made in Mexico. The series was re-released pan-regionally by I.Sat on the Adult Swim block on January 9, 2016, with the American dubbing and subtitles, but for unknown reasons, the series was withdrawn after episode 6. The series was licensed for a DVD edition for Argentina and Chile by DSX Films in 2012, being distributed by A.V.H. San Luis S.R.L. and Editorial Edisur respectively. In 2005, channel Cuatro broadcasts it in its entirety and open-air for the first time in Spain at a national level, after having done so at the regional level on Canal 33 (Catalonia) and Canal 2 Andalucía, where it obtained a remarkable reception.

On August 25, 2021, Funimation announced that the series had received a re-dub in Latin Spanish, which premiered on September 9. Following Sony's acquisition of Crunchyroll, the re-dub was moved to Crunchyroll.

Manga

There is a publication of three volumes, approximately 186 pages each volume, with stories that tell various adventures of the characters. These three volumes have a style that manages to convey the same atmosphere as the one seen in the anime. The first and second volumes consist of four stories each, while the third only two. At the end of each volume there are final comments in which the director, producer and people who helped make the manga participate. They were published in Japan in the year 2000 by Kadokawa Shoten publishing Co. Ltd. Tokyo. They were original works of Yatate Hajime. The stories in the three volumes are by Dai Stou and featured contributions from Watanabe Shinichiro and Sunrise. They were published in Spain in mid-2004, and also in Mexico at the end of 2005 and beginning of 2006.

Video Games

A video game simply called Cowboy Bebop (カウボーイビバップ, Kaubōi Bibappu ^?) was published in Japan by Bandai for the PlayStation on May 15, 1998.

The second game was released exclusively in Japan on August 25, 2005 under the name Cowboy Bebop: Tsuioku no Yakyoku (カウボーイビバップ 追憶の夜曲, Kaubōi Bibappu Tsuioku no Yakyoku^?). It was published by Bandai for the PlayStation 2 console. It follows the original story of the anime.

Movie

The success of the series led to the making of a feature film called Cowboy Bebop: Tengoku no Tobira (in English Knocking on Heaven's Door) in 2001. However, the distributor TriStar Pictures shortened the title to Cowboy Bebop: The Movie due to legal problems with the original title.

The film was produced by Sunrise, Bandai Visual, and animated by BONES. The plot revolves around the Bebop crew, who learn of a huge bounty of 300 million woolongs. Apparently someone is handling a very powerful chemical weapon and the authorities are at a loss to stop him. The criminal is dangerous and the crew faces a real madman who wants to release a virus.

Project in real image

On July 22, 2008, iF Magazine published an article according to which a Cowboy Bebop film would be in preparation that would be endorsed by 20th Century Fox, produced by Erwin Stoff and starring Keanu Reeves as bounty hunter Spike Spiegel.

In an interview with Collider, actor Keanu Reeves has said that 20th Century Fox currently has something forgotten about the project. This is because the production cost was too high, where the budget figure was close to 500 million dollars.

Finally in November 2018, Netflix announced that it is preparing a ten-episode series based on the anime. Christopher Lee Yost will be in charge of the script for the first chapter, while Shinichiro Watanabe will play the role of main consultant. The adaptation premiered worldwide on November 19, 2021, but the Netflix platform announced a few weeks after its premiere, and after despite the fact that at the end of the 10th chapter he had hinted at it, that it was canceled indefinitely.

Soundtrack

One of the most notable elements of Cowboy Bebop is its soundtrack, composed by the artist Yōko Kanno and performed by the band The Seatbelts, and other collaborators, including the voices of Mai Yamane, Ilaria Graziano, Steve Conte, among others. Most of the songs are in the bebop jazz style, although it is also possible to find blues, pop, classical music and heavy metal. The content is very prolific and although many of the songs are purely instrumental, a good part contains lyrics in languages such as Japanese, English and French.

The soundtrack was released in eight albums:

1. Cowboy Bebop: OST 1 Original Soundtrack I
2. Cowboy Bebop: VITAMINLESS
3. Cowboy Bebop: NO DISC Original Soundtrack II
4. Cowboy Bebop: BLUE Original Soundtrack III
5. Cowboy Bebop: ASK DNA
6. Cowboy Bebop: FUTURE BLUES
7. Cowboy Bebop: COWGIRL ED O.S.T. Limited Edition Mini-CD
8. Cowboy Bebop: MUSIC FOR FREELANCE: It is a set of remixes of the songs of the previous albums.
9. Cowboy Bebop: CD-BOX: Collect the most famous songs of albums in expanded and improved versions.

Notably, the double disc "Future Blues" and the mini-CD "ASK DNA&# 34; compose the soundtrack of the film Cowboy Bebop: Knockin'; on Heaven's Door.

Opening

• Episodes 1 to 25: "Tank!" for The Seatbelts.

Endings

• Episodes 1 to 12 and 14 to 25: "The Real Folk Blues" for The Seatbelts feat. Mai Yamane.
• Episode 13: "Space Lion" for The Seatbelts.
• Episode 26: "Blue" for The Seatbelts feat. Mai Yamane.