I’ve finally completed watching Cowboy Bebop. Like most other anime, I came to know of Cowboy Bebop through Animax when I was in school. Late night telecast schedule and curfew for sleep at home ensured I couldn’t watch it while I was in school. In a sense, I’m glad that it was that way because I’m not sure I would have appreciated the show as much then.
I must admit that I’ve previously tried to watch the show only to give up 2 or 3 episodes in, due to the slow pace of those episodes. But this time around, after having had more experience with slow screenplay (watching movies like The Godfather, Everest etc), I got around to completing the entire anime. I haven’t watched the movie yet. I’ll probably watch it over the next weekend.
Spike’s encounter with members of the Red Dragon syndicate, Jet’s connections in the ISSP and Faye’s struggle to stave off her unknowingly accumulated debt keep the plot vivaciously gripping. To have made characters to likable in 26 episodes with a plot that doesn’t dabble much with righteousness or panache as it does with realism is commendable.
Jet Black’s episodes Black Dog Serenade and the one with Alisa were good, but they didn’t strike a chord with me. He's my least favorite character among the lot. Megumi Hayashibara has done a fantastic job of voicing Faye Valentine. Faye is my favorite among them all(yup, even more than Spike). Ed was the most fun character I've seen in a long time.
While rummaging through the interwebz about Cowboy Bebop, I found that there was a plan to make a live action movie of it, starring Keanu Reeves. After having seen him in John Wick, I’m not entirely sure how I feel about his being cast as Spike Speigel. But if it the project does make it off the shelf again, I’d definitely see it.
My favorite episode of the bunch was originally Pierrot Le Fou (Oh, how it changed my opinion about CowboyBebop being slow!), but it was later replaced by Hard Luck Woman. I enjoyed watching Cowboy Bebop. Would recommend, if not for anything else, for the soundtrack!