Post by Melissa Foxworthy on Dec 1, 2007 20:21:36 GMT -5
As mankind stumbled through the 21st century, it began to reach out for greener pastures. After a number of early disasters, Astral Gate technology was perfected. Finally able to realistically approach the speed of light, the asteroid belt and beyond came within reach, and a new era of frontier expansion began.
But just like in the Old West of the past, among the first to head out are the dregs of society: crooks, drug pushers, hackers, and so on. At the same time, however, there was also another type of person: one who roamed the ranges looking for whatever was there to take. Taking another page from the Old West, they called themselves Cowboys. The year is now 2071, and the Cowboys are out on the range.
Cowboy Bebop is the story of the Cowboy starship Bebop as it be-bops its way through the solar system, hunting heads and making do in the wild reaches of space where anything can happen. Inspired by the free-wheeling style of Minston's Play House, a 1940's Harlem nightclub where Jazz players dueled each other with no regard for the rules of the times, Cowboy Bebop literally swings its way from mood to mood and adventure to adventure. It is a wild ride where jokes fly as well as lead, pretty faces can be hidden behind an ugly mug, and help and harm can come where you least expect it.
Cowboy Bebop is an animated film noir, first and last. It is the dark, rim, cynical, blackly humorous, morally ambiguous tale of four people struggling against uncaring meaningless random fate, in a situation they did not create; it's also the story of one man who is doomed to die because of his past. It's easy to imagine these characters dropped into "The Maltese Falcon" except for wardrobe--and the more I think about it, the more perfectly they fit. Even the overall look of the series has lots of darkness, lots of contrast, like those old films did.
Likewise, Cowboy Bebop is also one long love letter to John Woo. The harsh lighting, the frantic pace of the martial arts sequences and gun battles, the action scenes that would have been insanely dangerous to do with flesh-and-blood stuntmen, the body count, the pacing, the timing. For example, the gun battle in the cathedral from Episode 5, "Ballad of Fallen Angels," is obviously borrowed respectfully from John Woo's 1989 film "The Killer." And then there's the repeated bird imagery.
Lastly, I think I see more than a little of "Lupin III" in Cowboy Bebop, in the cynical humor and, especially, the character design. Femme fatale Faye Valentine is femme fatale Mine Fujiko (albeit with purple hair and wardrobe apparently borrowed from the Dirty Pair) to wisecracking daredevil Spike Spiegel's wisecracking daredevil Lupin. Jet Black bears more than a passing resemblance to Jigen as well, though he's older, beefier, and not as snappy a dresser (note how strong the resemblance is, though, when Jet Black puts on the fedora in Episode 23, "Brain Scratch"). I could attempt to stretch a point by claiming that Vicious was based on Goemon, but there's not really much those two characters have in common other than an idiosyncratic fondness for edged weapons.
There are other influences too--spaghetti westerns (though maybe it's more a case of film noir influencing both spaghetti westerns and this series), Bruce Lee movies, blaxploitation. Episode 11, "Toys in the Attic," is clearly a gentle parody of Ridley Scott's "Alien." And so on.
Spike Spiegel
Three years ago, Spike decided to abandon his past and strike out on a life of his own, so he left the Red Dragons (a Chinese Mafia group) and teamed up with Jet Black to roam the solar system in search of bounty and adventure. A lean, laid-back individual, Spike is nonetheless competent in his abilities. His idol is 20th-century martial artist and philospher Bruce Lee, and he is constantly practicing his own Jeet Kune Do skills. He has yet to lose a fair fight hand-to-hand (well, except to Ed's father). Combine this with proficiency with a handgun, and he is definitely not a man to mess with.
Though he doesn't really own it, Spike calls the Bebop home. Home life for Spike, though, is relatively tame. If he isn't practicing his martial arts, he's watching the TV. TV is the Space Cowboy's best friend because of Big Shot, a "Solar System's Most Wanted" for bounty hunters.
Spike also has a personal craft: his transit from home ship to planet. His "baby" is named Sword Fish II. Spike's personal ship was originally a Sword Fish asteroid racer (a notorius racing circuit in its day) but has since been customized to make it one of the fastest personal ships in existence. It is very maneuverable yet capable of incredible speeds, and it is able to fly both in air and in space.
Jet Black
A formner member of the Inter Solar Systems Police (or ISSP), an incident (of which he will not elaborate) cost him his left arm and partial use of his right eye, forcing him to retire from ISSP and to get a cyborg arm and implants to improve his damaged eye. That's when Jet turned Cowboy, getting his hands on a secondhand space trawler and converting it into the ship we know as the Bebop and eventually teaming together with Spike to form a bounty-hunting partnership. Jet frequently resorts to the contacts he established at ISSP to help locate potential bounties.
Jet is a throwback to the older, more civilized days when things are taken more slowly and methodically. Jet maintains operations aboard the Bebop, and he's also the ship's cook, though a lack of money makes the pickings slim at times. Besides the Bebop, Jet also has his own personal craft called Hammerhead, originally a Sack Fish catcher boat. He's also capable of flying Spike's Sword Fish II. In his spare time, Jet tends to his collection of Bonsai trees.
In the episode titled "Black Dog Sarinade", it is revealed that Jet lost his left arm in a take down of Udai Itaxin. He was set up by his partner, who was on the syndicate payroll, and was shot in the arm.
Faye Valentine
Much of Faye's past is a complete mystery. Apparently, she was placed in cryogenic stasis when disasters befell Earth and precipitated the great exodus. Many records that would've provided answers were destroyed, leaving gaping holes in Faye's life that no one (not even herself) apparently can answer. If memories are her least plentiful asset, debts are her most plentiful: amounting to a total too large to state.
She becomes familiar with the mismatched crew of the Bebop and occasionally makes herself at home...if only to relax and await a scoop on a big bounty or easy money. Half the time she's on board, she's in cuffs while they rummage through her stuff. The one member of the crew she hates is Ein. She's never gotten along with the dog and frequently torments him.
Most of the time, Faye is calm, confident, sometimes even thingyy. She is an expert gambler and a sharpshooter to boot. But every so often, a softer, more timid side of her emerges: that part of her still looking for answers to her mysterious past, lost and bewildered.
Though really a rival, Faye becomes as much a part of the Bebop as everyone else. Like Spike and Jet, Faye is an experienced huntress. Her personal jewelry is in reality an assortment of electronic devices, including a summons bracelet for her personal craft, Redtail. Redtail is based on a patrol ship design. Like Spike's Sword Fish II, Redtail is built to be fast yet maneuverable, and it also possesses a notable array of weapons
Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV
Born on Earth, a loner practically throughout her short life, Ed's life experience has been probably 90% virtual. A self-taught genius hacker, this tomboy lives for the Net, going by the pseudonym "Radical Edward" and amassing one of the most legendary reputations in the Net.
Having had very little outside contact, Edward's behavior can only be described as bizarre. She acts much like a wild child, never addressing herself in first-person (a sign of her social immaturity). About the only time she's coherent is if she's working with something electronic. She either knows or can figure out the ins and outs of practically anything she sees, and there probably doesn't exist the computer that Ed can't hack. Hacking into machines happens to be her favorite hobby. She gets a real kick out of leaving her calling card (a smiley-face) on a victim's machine before letting loose a little bit of chaos.
She's been a fan of the Bebop for quite some time, so she is more than happy to assist the crew when it arrives on Earth in search of a bounty. She's so fond of the ship that she hacks into it and makes it pick her up before heading out again.
According to the Cowboy Bebop The Movie DVD, the character of Edward was originally meant to be a boy, but at the last minute it was decided to change Edward into a girl in order to better offset the crew of the Bebop.
Ein
Ein is a dog who Spike and the rest of the crew kind of just got stuck with. He's kind of mysterious, as he was developed at some sort of illegal research laboratory. He's a handful to the crew, and isn't a major character.
Ein was rumored to be a super-intelligent, genetically enhanced canine. The people doing experiments on him were probably testing a method to genetically enhance humans.
Julia
Julia was originally Vicious's girlfriend. When Spike showed up on her doorstep, badly injured, she nursed him back from the brink of death. Eventually, Julia came to love him. When Vicious learned of Spike's plan to get out of the Red Dragon syndicate, he felt betrayed... and Vicious doesn't take betrayal very well at all.
When Vicious learned that Spike was planning to take Julia with him, Vicious ordered Julia to kill Spike during their next meeting, which was to take place at the graveyard. Vicious made it clear that if she didn't, he would kill them both, so she never went to meet him.
Eventually, their paths crossed again when Vicious attempts a takeover of the syndicate. When someone attempts to take over the syndicate, everyone associated that person automatically becomes a target, and that includes Spike and Julia. The syndicate kills Julia when she and Spike attempt to get to Vicious. Vicious does successfully take over the syndicate in an unexpected coup d'état.
Vicious
This Cowboy Bebop antagonist was once Spike's comrade and partner in mercilessly doing the dirty work for the Red Dragon Crime Syndicate. However, a woman named Julia shattered their comradeship and they are now the bitterest of enemies.
A violent, cold-hearted man, Vicious continues to lethally wield his katana for the syndicate while secretly plotting to kill the current incompetent leaders and take over himself. Oddly enough, he keeps a coal-black cormorant (a predatory sea bird that is really nasty) as a pet, and it is a constant foreboding presence on his shoulder. Cormorant used to be trained similarly to training birds of prey (i.e. falcons and hawks).