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Cinema Cowboy Bebop (1998) - Not Just One of the Best Animes, One of The Best TV Shows Ever Made

Arnox

Arnox

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Where to begin with this? Cowboy Bebop is hard to talk about because although many pieces of cinema focus on one or two themes and ideas well enough, Cowboy Bebop is about our entire lives. And I know just how pretentious that sounds, but it's true. Themes range anywhere from romantic relationships to trying to find out who you are to a soldier's horrific experiences of war. Love, money, corruption, art, science, philosophy, music... It's all here. Unifying it all together is a singular thread of companionship and how we all handle our past in deciding what to do with our futures. And unifying all THAT together is an incredibly well-written cast of characters with best of the best voice dubs, animation work, music, and an utterly timeless aesthetic with a jaw-droppingly perfect ending.

Cowboy Bebop is especially relevant to me in a lot of personal ways with some of the parallels being almost eerie. Some of them I can talk about and some of them I just can't due to anonymity reasons sadly. But nevertheless, this review is not about me. Perhaps the worst thing about Cowboy Bebop by far is how we'll probably never see this kind of quality on showcase ever again... I'd give it six out of five stars if I could. But this is also why I pompously cringe when I see someone is an anime fan but hasn't seen this show. It's like saying you're a Christian without ever even opening the Bible. What the hell is wrong with you? Get yourself checked out, sir/madam.

Speaking of other animes, I guess that's another problem with Cowboy Bebop. It absolutely ruins a ton of other anime for you as well. My Hero Academia? Garbage. Attack on Titan? Uncultured trash. Castlevania? ... Actually, that's pretty good. But more on that another time. So, if you were gonna watch one TV show in your entire life, this... This right here would be the one. But until next time... See you, space cowboy.
 
Vendor-Lazarus

Vendor-Lazarus

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Agreed on it being a truly great anime, but you really sullied it with dubs. For any potential readier out there, who haven't seen it yet, subs is the way to go. Original voices and words, plus meanings, as they where meant to be conveyed. There's one anime (Hellsing/Ultimate Hellsing) that's the exception to the rule.
 
Arnox

Arnox

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Vendor-Lazarus said:
Agreed on it being a truly great anime, but you really sullied it with dubs. For any potential readier out there, who haven't seen it yet, subs is the way to go. Original voices and words, plus meanings, as they where meant to be conveyed. There's one anime (Hellsing/Ultimate Hellsing) that's the exception to the rule.
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This is a bit of a strange take. Many people say the CB dubs are some of the absolute best in anime, right up there with Black Lagoon. (Although to be fair, the author himself, Rei Hiroe, made the english dub of Black Lagoon the canonical definitive version. Watanabe made no such declaration about any of the dubs of CB.)
 
Ogoid

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It really was.

I've recently re-watched it as well, and I honestly felt like slapping my 19-year old self, who would've told you something along the lines of "yeah, it's alright I guess, but there's better anime out there" in the face. It's one of the best pieces of narrative art I have ever come across, in any medium.

The only other anime from back then which I think holds up nearly as well is Serial Experiments Lain, and even so, its appeal is much more limited.
 
Vendor-Lazarus

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Ogoid said:
The only other anime from back then which I think holds up nearly as well is Serial Experiments Lain, and even so, its appeal is much more limited.
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You're missing out if you haven't watched Trigun then. Equally good, but different.
 
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Drathnoxis

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Meh, it was ok. Definitely not my favorite anime. At least it wasn't concentrated cringe like Trigun was.
 
Vendor-Lazarus

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Drathnoxis said:
Meh, it was ok. Definitely not my favorite anime. At least it wasn't concentrated cringe like Trigun was.
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You're just too young too appreciate deep stories without much action going on. Give it a few more years for some true-to-story visual remasters and you can enjoy them as well.
 
Battousai

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Drathnoxis said:
If you want something really good, watch the live action remake.
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The series? I forgot that blasphemy existed for a while there, John Cho as Spike was so forced lol, he said in his own words that to prepare for the role he started taking Spike's mannerisms and body language but at the same time tried to do his own thing. Did not work out clearly.
 
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