Welcome to another episode of Wow. Okay, so we have to go there,
We have to go. I realized what I was doing, Like everyone
must, everyone must see our sins. Welcome to another episode of Jeff Jeff's
Bizarre Adventure Guiding the Podcast within a podcast, where we go on a detour,
a shippoo, den, a ova, whatever you want to call it,
and check out another animal that we believe will contribute to the education of
one Jeff back a lot in his anime adventures. I am your host,
tomor Sain, joined as always by John aka super Ipatchwarf. It's more.
It's always great to be here, but this week I'm ecstatic start up a
brand new adventure, new conversations, new new things. Will learn about each
other. How could you not be how could you not be a ten on
this one? Yeah? Exactly. We're also joined by a professional podcast of
many, many years who knows exactly things like timing cues and went to speak
when not to speak, not talking over each other. Lucy James, Hey,
Tom, thanks so much. Yeah, guys, it's big. It's
big. Tossing to the weather, quality, quality energy. Yes, I'm
here outside, I love it. Thanks. Yeah. Also joined by anime
neophyt, but growing in his understanding of anime. Jeff Baccalah. That's right,
my friends. And look I've been containing myself so far. Yeah,
I'm about to explode before elde. Okay, I'm gonna pop. This is
hold. Let me let me just let me just say a couple of things
before you explode. Is this edging? Is this podcast edging in? This
episode recap was pulled from the Cowboy Bebop fandom wiki. Thank you very much
to everyone who contributes towards that. It's a very well maintained fandom wiki.
And yeah, so I have been using the episode breakdowns from there. Yes,
yeah, pop off with your top off. So Cowboy Bebop. I've
I had always heard about this show. I think, I want to say
like for a long time. It was probably played on Adult Swim. Does
that sound right? Yeah? Right? Uh, but never from the other
side of the world. He had him, Jeff, but I was able
to confirm it. So thank you for doing that. I man, I
just talk about like instantly falling in love with something. Uh, this show
is doing many things for me that like even Joe Joe's is not doing for
me. Whoa there I said it. That's right, I'm cheating on you
different different things. Who Yeah, uh, there is something about this show
that is like equal parts, like almost like Fifth Element and Blade Runner mixed
with like a jazzy kind of like bond dressing, if you will. That
I was not expecting at all. I think I got a good taste of
it watching the titles song at the finale of Start US Crusaders like we did
last time. But my goodness, Uh, my friends, you picked the
right show for me. I don't know what it is about this thing.
It's just it's just speaking to me in a way that even Joe Joe's did
not speak to me out of the gate. Like I'm just saying, my
friends says, talk about a strong start. This one's doing it for me.
I'm so happy you're enjoying it. Jeff's awesome. Oh it's great.
Oh to unfortunately bring things down a little, do you guys feel like maybe
Jeff's getting a little two into anime? Yeah? I would like yeah,
Okay, I walk back. We were having a conversation the other day and
he referred to Japan as glorious nipon. Oh wow, damn, I meant
it damn he's I I had Like the other day, I had a meal
with him and we were at the McDonald's and it was very, very weird
that he started his eating his happy meal with eata ducky mass and I was
not happy managing look like, I've always been a weeb. Everyone knows.
This just had to wake wake it out of me. I guess no.
I would have said that about Japan even before I went on my anime adventure
was pretty glorious and fairness. Yeah, I do have a Christism or Jeff,
that's of a cowboy bebo oh. Okay, this is the first time
I've watched the dub. I don't like the dub. Here's the thing I'm
going to clarify by saying, the voices are good, like really good,
like they are excellent. If you guys have already like SINCD with the sub,
it's very difficult to go by. The problem is I had I had
the subs on and I could see the difference is what they're saying, which
is not bad. But I have that thing where I know anime it's very
basic anime production where they need to say things to match the animation of mouths
and they to do that, they add extra words in that feel very unnatural
yeah, which is also it's like, hey, you don't do that,
yeah. Yeah. So it'll be like, hey, he's getting away,
and the lip syncing is still going, so it'll be like, hey,
he's getting away, he's getting in that car. Now let's go. It'll
be like, oh God, no one speaks like that. This sounds very
unnatural. Oh that's interesting. I've never really considered that that much about matching
up to the mouths of Yeah. I think like, if you don't know
or you don't care about it, obviously it's very easy. But like,
if you know that's what's happening, you notice every like clause or like a
few words that feels feels like it was placed in there to ensure that the
voice doesn't end before the animation of the mouth does, and it sounds quite
it's pulling me out of the experience. I would let it. I would
like to request we go to the Japanese voices. Well shit. Let me
just say, well shit, because I've watched the first two episodes with with
the Dubs. As per John's advice and other people who have also supported you
saying that The Doubs are pretty damn good as far as dubs go. And
now am I about to I feel like pop. Here's what I'm saying.
We are trying to educate Jeff back a lot on the joys of watching anime.
One part of the anime identity is being just absolutely freakish about dubs versus
subs. I feel like we owe it to we owe it to Jeff to
also turn him into one of these freaks by making him go to this.
Think about how much fun you have saying that's true? That has defined me,
Jeff, don't listen to these people this wait. Oh we're divided on
this, Jesus, I refuse to even engage in this conversation. The die
has been cast, the Doubles begun, and anything less now would just be
messing with Jeff's poor Jeff's fragile little brain. Oh my god, I how
about we do you do? How do you? How do you? How
does the sound of Rewatching those two episodes in Japanese sound like? Watch?
Watch the watch the first two episodes again, watch one episode like what's theode?
Okay? Okay? And then and then you you watch Hebert. You
watch episode three subbed and then we'll go what you want to do? Yeah,
yeah, yeah, and then you can cool okay, ichfisode three sobbed
and then let us know in the discord. I want to watch it,
write your message so we can. Okay, that's how we'll play. I
spend that and then we'll go from there. That works from if you want
to stick with dubs, We'll stick with dubs and I'll mescilessly mock you for
the rest of your life. Yeah, I mean I want to stay on
a dub story. That's what I'll do from the stubs. I will respect
you for it. Sam. I'm going to say is that when people get
will say extremist about subs, those are not people I want to align myself
with. I get it. Listen. Yeah, but we need Jeff to
be aware of it and be you know, standing up it. But maybe
the watching of a dub would help him in that matter. Yeah. Yeah,
I feel like to know the roads you shouldn't walk, you need to
walk them at these once, I think, yeah, I think it's so.
I don't know. I think there's like this weird sort of thing that's
happening now where I do think it's important for me to experience a dub,
which I did with these first two, I didn't realize. I mean I
think I realized it. For like live action stuff, where it's like I
almost always recommend the subs. I think animation you can get away with it,
maybe because it's not as one to one. You know, everything is
being you know, fabricated in terms of like the fully work and everything right,
like you're you're having to put together this sort of string of of all
these rich elements, whereas like a live action thing, it's like you need
to hear the sound that was recorded in the room. I get that,
Yeah, yeah, okay, we'll move on to this or from this,
But like I also feel like the the audio English audio track feels slightly disconnected
from the like the audio of the rest of the show compared to the Japanese
one. It's the Japanese version feels like it's it was actually one incidental character
in this and it's like he spoke and I could hear like the background hiss.
Yeah you know, it's like like he had been recorded in a different
environment. Yeah, I can hear. It feels like an audio track has
been laid on top of this thing. In a way that is like transposed
and it's pulling me out of it. But again, we'll stick with the
plan. Jeff, watch the next one in Japanese and see how you feel
let us know, and then we'll go from there. Got it. Let's
begin the episode recaps of Cowboy Bebop, beginning with the premiere episode, which
is called Asta Royd Blues Harmonica and just Crooner. You know, this episode
was written by Keiko Nobu Moto and it is a banger of a open Oh,
like, you would be hard pushed to find a better opening episode.
Like it just encapsulates everything that is so fucking good about Killboy Bebop well also
revealing barely anything at all. Yeah, Like at the end of it,
I was like, oh, I've learned nothing except that I just want to
be more around these people, you know, and that's kind of all you
really need to accomplish with the pilot like this, I guess, Yeah,
before we move on, we should just do some like basic groundwork stuff as
well like this. This Cowboy Bebook is created by Shinuro Watanabe, who is
a beloved creator an enime of Manga World is also done Samurai Champloo, which
is another one that I would love for us to do. It's Samurai Western,
but instead of the jazz vibe, it's hip hop. Fucking rules rips
so hard. Yeah, I really want to go back and watch it because
I watched it when I was young enough that I think I have more of
an appreciation of hip hop and stuff now, so I think i'd like it.
Yeah. Yeah. Spaced Andy is another one that people like, which
is real, real good. It's like hard to explain what's spaced Andy,
Like, Jeff, you know, you know the way you get like the
Jojo itches, and you want to keep watching Jojo certainly do if you find
yourself getting the bebop itches. Space Dandy would be a good one to go
watch. Space very dandy. Yeah, very different thing to Bebop, but
like similar ish similarities. Yeah yeah, not really totally different five but kind
of like a similar aesthetic, a similar kind of thing. Yeah. And
then the other one that I really really like is Carol and Tuesday, which
is about these two girls who basically find each other and become friends through their
love of music, and it is wonderful and heartwarming. Are they gals being
pals? They're just girls being pals, nothing more, nothing those And so
can I And then can I give what I believe to be the sort of
like synopsis of what Cowboy Bebop is, even though I've only seen two episodes,
please, I feel like it's a fun experiment to maybe go through.
So Cowboy Bebop is about a bounty hunter named Spike and his sort of like
engineer fixerman Jet who roam the galaxy in search of collecting bounties. And it's
sort of like I think the show is sort of like, you know,
the bounty of the week kind of thing, where I don't think so far
there's going to be any kind of like overarching seasonal bad guy. Maybe there
is, I don't know. I mean, you know, I've only seen
two and I can't really draw that. And you know, they have like
a sort of nonchalant relationship with bullets and death, and they also never seemed
to catch the guy. They just seem to like get real close and at
the end just kind of like fumble on the goal line and like, you
know, go on with their day and they're kind of like scrap for cash,
strap for cash rather and yeah, this it's that's it. That's what's
so let me ask you a question. If this show was twenty six episodes
of what you just described and like nothing else, just Bounty of the Week
didn't catch him, Oh, well you'd be you'd be down for that.
I think I'd be okay with that. I'd start to wonder, like,
how are they surviving? Like how are they making ends? Meet that dog?
Well, no, they just talked about eating that dog. Please don't
tell me they eat the dog. Episode five gets grim Jeff, Okay,
well we'll get there. But anyway, I do think it is here's what
I also say that just at the top, and then we can get into
the granular episode. I think it's very interesting the musical bed right, the
choices that they use for all these action scenes where it's just sort of like
improv jazz and almost there's like a ska song almost in one of these episodes.
But I wonder, like, I think it is insane how much that
colors a show, right, how much that sort of like really defines the
tone of a show. And I wonder, like, man, if you
just ripped out like the whimsical jazz that plays underneath all of these like chases
and gunfights, you'd have a much different show on your hands. So I
think that's truly fascinating, especially what I've extracted this early on. Yes,
so distracted an incredible phrase. How why bob Up takes place in a world
where Earth is basically uninhabitable. So people have taken to the stars and they've
colonized various other planets, and as a result of that, there's been kind
of like a crime epidemic, and there's an interest like solar system police and
bounty hunters which are called cowboys, and basically it is what you explained.
They chase criminals, bring them in and such as the life of a cowboy
Our's story. Asteroid Blues, Episode one begins with Spikes Eagel. He's in
a church of some kind. There's church bells ringing and a bouquet of flowers
is being carried down this streets. But that Bokay also hides inside it a
gun, and pretty immediately we see several people being killed. There's a there's
a when he runs out of bullets, and when he does that, like
there's a he does he pull out a grenade? Is it grenade? Yeah?
Yeah? He pulls the pin on one and kind of gives a bloody
smile. Yeah, he does a little smile, and that's all we see
of that moment. Cut to another scene, and we've got the Bebop traveling
through hyperspace. It's kind of like near Mars, and we're introduced to Jet
Black, one of the supporting characters or key characters main characters of the show,
who tells Spike that dinner's ready. Spike ass ways, he's currently like
practicing martial arts. He's like stretching and limber Spike very spelt man. Yeah,
very scene boy. Yeah, yeah, but clearly familiar were of self
defense and martial arts. Ready to replenish his muscles, and he's told that
Jet has made his specialty, which is bell peppers and beef. Jet also
kind of once they go into like their seating area, he tells Spike about
their next target, Asimov Solinson Asthmov being a reference to Isaac Asimov, the
author who's part of Asimov is part of a syndicate who killed his own men
in a confrontation between his group and an enemy syndicate. Spike is like,
uh, yeah, cool, but there's no meat. There's no beef in
this spell Pepper didn't know what's going on? Would you actually eat that?
Yeah, Bell Pepperson beef like it sounds okay, but not wouldn't like a
stir fry. Sure. I feel like when you live in a world where
food is like space, food is probably shits something like Bell Pepper and beef
is a staple. Yeah, but like you seem like there are onions in
there too, Like I think I can get down with that. I want
to turn it down. Some high quality olive oil in there yet, Yeah,
you're gonna be okay. Yeah. So Spike complains that they should have
loads of money from their last bounty to you know, avoid having situations like
this, but Jet is basically like, well we did, but then you
cause a whole lot of damage to cruiser ships and there was medical bills and
police officers got injured, so we had to pay for that ship. So
that's why they're having the money. It's a really simple scene, but when
you look at how much community or how much information is being communicated about these
characters with like every fucking sentence, it's like it's kind of masterful and it
doesn't feel like yet, Like it doesn't feel like an exposition dump, but
just feels like a conversation between these two people. But it's so like,
oh, this is their dynamic Spike does this, Jet does this? Jets
responsible one, Spice kind of like it's all in there. It's really cool
comprehension rather than saying which I really appreciate because I think, you know,
in a lot of modern media especially, it's something we've lost, like there's
always a tendency to over explain everything, and so for them just to be
like, oh no, this is you just dropping in on them. This
is what a regular day for them looks like, is something I love.
Certainly troubling Spike doesn't seem to understand that there are consequences to actions, so
that's one into their relationship. But okay, that's one of the main things
we learn about Spike is like he seems to be kind of aloof in a
lot of ways. We also learned the things that we learn is like he's
clearly quite fit and versed in martial arts. Yeah. Yeah, we learned
that kind of their ongoing struggle is with money and making ends meet, and
Spike is also a bit reckless. So the next bit Jet carries on kind
of briefing him on the next target, and Asimov has gone to Tijuana TJ.
Spike says that he doesn't want to do small jobs, having looked at
as the most bounty of two point five million wolongs. But Jet is like,
we we gotta do this, and he convinces Spike to go to TJ
by telling him that the Karnetas are out of this world and so so Earth
exists, like people are there, I exists. It's not particularly great to
be I believe it mostly has become uninhabitable. And culture, the same cultures
that we have now have kind of like exploded into space in a lot of
way. So you get to see things like you'll see Japanese and you'll see
like Western staff mashed with Chinese, and yeah, even even the way like
a lot of the characters dress. It's like there there's mission smash of like
different fashions and different cultures, and it's like it's so good. Is there?
I always get nerdy about this. Is there like any indication of like
what year it could possibly be? Yeah, it takes place in twenty seventy
one, twenty seventy one. Yeah, I mean there's a bit where you
see. No, I don't think it's this place. I think it's the
next place. But he walks up to It's like this place is established in
twenty twenty five. Yeah, obvious important thing to keep in mind is like
that was felt much further away when this show was of course aginally made,
and we're like, of course approaching it. Yeah, this is it's that
same sort of back to the future effects, also a kind of beautiful future
where the Internet kind of doesn't really exist. Yeah, it's it's it's almost
alternate history no Internet. You can have an alternate history and an alternate future
no Internet. But Bell, Pepper and Beef is absolutely normal, which is
well. Yeah, so the ship comes out of hyperspace and and Jet is
like he's he's like gathering information still, and Spike hops in a ship,
the Swordfish, and away he goes He's going to see Laughing Ball. Meanwhile,
on Tijuana, Asimov enters the l Ray Bar with First alone, and
then we see he's with a woman who is pregnant. Her name is Katrina
Dolinson or Katarina. In the bar, there's three older men who are sitting
there talking about building a wall, was it or building wall Yeah, they
were, Yeah, they were. They were like reminiscing about like it's okay,
it's a it's a space wall. Let's to keep everyone together. Yeah,
to keep space everyone from flowing away. Yeah. One thing that really
like struck me just in this whole sequence is like, how beautiful. So
many of these drawings are oh my god, no, amazing, even like
those old men. Each of those old men are wearing clothes that they've had
way too long, that are all stretched out and that they can't really fit
into write anymore. And even the way that's illustrated, so you know that
those are these kind of guys. Like, I think that's what made me
think ful element is like that attention to detail, with the painstaking amount of
like you know, stuff crammed into every frame. You know, I think
it's awesome. I did. I definitely think like I can understand I see
that fifth element like world building detail. Yes, and this scene is actually
an homage to Robert Rodriguez Desperado. Oh okay. The bar in this that
they go to el Ray is a replica of the bar in that movie,
which was phil filmed in Akuna, Akuni, Acuna. That's apologies, obviously,
Asimov looks a bit like El Mariachi played by Antonio Bandius. He's got
the long hair, he's got a dark colored wardrobe, and he's traveling with
a Hispanic woman who looks a little bit like Salma Hike. And he goes
on to basically defeat single handedly a bunch of mercenaries, which is almost the
same thing, pretty much the same thing as Desperado, but rolling back a
bit, so he goes to him and his girlfriend approached the bar. Old
men are talking about, you know, who helped build this wall, and
kind of like these whipper snappers wouldn't be here today if if we didn't do
this hard work. Asimofsis Down makes an order for vodka and tomato juice.
Bartiner says, don't have any tomato juice, I believe, which is basically
them talking in code to begin a deal of some sort. You guys like
a bloody Mary drink, gross, I'll taste it every now and then because
I feel like they do differ from bartender to our tender. But it is
not a drink of choice by any stretch. I mean, the only time
I would try one would be what if I'm on a plane and my my
taste buds are dull. I'm not a big fan of tomorrow, Like in't
that? What's what do you guys go to drink? To the people who
drink, well, usually a beer, but a cocktail drink. I'm a
vodka dirty martini. I love a glass of wine. I live a glass
of white wine. I if I'm out and about and it's a cocktail man,
you'll probably get a meal. I don't mean like drinking beer if I'm
out in public, because it makes me gassy, but I do enjoy it
same. I can drink three beers and I'm so ghassy, like I'm going
to bed. Yeah, bloody Mary is one of those drinks. As someone
who doesn't drink that occasionally how to look hot and go like that seems like
it could be interesting. I do like, but that's based on a visual
of it, and it seems like it's like kind of spicy and a little
bit. Yeah it can be. Yeah, that's I really love a good
whiskey seur. But the line between good whiskey seur and bad whiskey seur it's
really thin, and a lot of places do not do them right. I
don't think a lot of places doing good non alcoholic cocktails these days. Oh
yeah, it's real good. Yeah, we went to that place in San
Francisco. Didn't mean that man was a mango drink that was Yeah, that
was really good. There's also a place in San Francisco that does non alcoholic
like champagne, wine like whiskey and that kind of stuff, which is wild.
I went in there and did try the non alcoholic wine and it was
what I imagine wine taste like. And the lady who was working there was
like, the only thing that we haven't figured out is how to give it
body yet, which is like, that's interesting. It's like slightly thinner to
drink than most wine. Probably doesn't have that thickness. Probably, like we're
working on it with the non alcoholic alcoholic is figuring out. H So the
the kind of conversation is a signal to go around the back and talk about
a deal. Bartender goes around the back and they start a transaction to buy
and sell something called bloody eye. And as the bartender requests a demonstration of
the bloody eye, he kind of like whips it out and and starts to
take it by He like sprays it into his eye did not like that.
Yeah, I thought we were going to get I mean, I've seen it
before, but I always forget that it's like a spray, but the way
that it goes, I thought we were going to get the like the dead
space too. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, they tease you at the top
there, They're like, this is going right in there, you know,
really interesting way of taking a drug, right. I don't think i've seen
any other fiction at you remember in Eyeball Pool No what's that from Kevin and
Perry Go Large, which was a movie that was always played on like ITV
two in the middle of the night. There was a guy called Eyeball Pool.
It's not a good film, and I think it will hold up terribly.
Yeah. Almost. But there's a character who would have a shot of
vodka and he just put it in his eye. Ibaw pol another another kind
of that, that horrifying thing outside. This is like another good bit of
world building for Cowboy beep up. The administration of the drug. It's a
little attention to details, striking like stays in your mind as much of this
show does. Yeah, And there's so many little like mechanical things like that
in the show, like even just like how the like panels on the ship's
work and how like all the gears and switches. Yeah, I really like
that. There's one scene where you can see the panel of the ship that
Asimov is in and you can see like the squares laid on top of each
other to almost show like the ideal flight path that you need to be in
when you're flying. It's like really cool and like in my brain, I
was like, I really want to pilot a ship through they'll skate the squiz,
but it's it's not happening. There's there's some it's like this are appreciation
of like machinery going on, like just like vents opening, like flaps,
you know, just that kind of stuff like such a like you can tell
right away that the people behind this and I don't know because I know,
like a rock it was like a one man show kind of thing, right,
but like there's got to be some kind of wildly cohesive agreement and shared
vision that is being executed here. That's like I was well done. In
all likelihood, there's probably one person on that staff and they love machinery more
than you love whatever you love. Yeah. Yeah, Often, like it
does come down to one person, as John indicated, like the creator and
like especially with the way manga and then like an anime can work, it's
like it's always comes from the mind of one person and they have a team
to help execute on that vision. But who knows with this one glad to
hear that the flaps are exciting. You love those flaps, baby, Yeah.
So while that's happening, there's like a group of men that are surrounding
the bar and they just open fire. Immediately the bartender is shot through the
head. But Asimov is at this point, he's under the influence of bloody
Eye or in the dub they call it blood Eye, which I'm not fan
of, and it basically his vision goes completely read but everything looks slow motion
to him, and he's like physically more powerful. So he just starts tearing
through all these people. He's like dodging punches. He's like last minute getting
out of the way of bullets and recks this bar elsewhere complete contrast to what's
happening in that bar, Spike's Bagel is sitting on the ground with a pipe
in his mouth smoking, his stomach is growling, and he's sitting in front
of bull who is like doing some sort of kind of like reading bullet outstretches
the hands, pouring sand on the floor, and then tells Spike that he's
going to find a red eyed coyote at the north end of the town and
that he will be targeted by a woman and death will follow, which is
an ominous prediction. But Spike is really concerned. He's like, I've already
died once because of a woman, which is an interesting yeah, which is
like I paused on that for a second. I was like, Okay,
that's just say out loud. I guess that's important. Did like this man
is cooler than we can an then we could ever dream. I'm noticing,
like all of our heroes have been cool. Spike Spiegel is the coolest anime
man speak. His last name is Spiegel Spiegel. Yeah, he's he's I
have a figure of it behind me. I bet you didn't, And like
he is number one cool guy oka of anime? Did that that? What
is that triggering you, Jeff? That he was Jewish? Well, you've
been dieing once from a woman means that you're Jewish? Oh no, Spiegel,
Okay, Spike Spiegel sounds like a Jewish guy. Yeah, what did
that kind of like throw it? Oh, like that he died already,
Like I don't know, like he's certainly I don't think it's a throwaway line
or maybe it's sort of like never just just throw that into a casual conversation
like I never go up to someone and being like I've been dead before and
it's because of the opposite sex. I don't know. Hey, no,
no, I was literally in a car with someone yesterday. We were chatting
and he's talking about this like fun trip he went on, and he just
threw in and I was dying at the time, and the ChIL is fine.
He had it, sow it, but it was, you know,
one of those you couldn't be dying and then not die and then you know,
make a great recovery. We're all dying. But didn't. But it
didn't start to connect any thoughts for you. Not, I mean, the
opening scene didn't come to mind. No, well, well there you go.
We watch it in Japanese, yeah, because I mean it starts with
him in a rough spot, so you know, oh man, you now
I'm starting to put together things and you're okay, don't don't don't spoil it.
That was the spoiler that it's on the screen. It's in the apisode.
I most scene. Dumb dumb brain didn't put it together. Yeah,
maybe that's what happens when I watched something in the morning, I guess.
But did you try watching this with Stacy watching this? Yeah? Uh,
the time of day that I'm watching it, she's sort of just like out
having her coffee. Yeah, I feel like she she'll probably enjoy this.
Yeah, Like I would love to hear her opinions, especially in contrast to
the things that she's seen you all the way she's seen you consume jojo and
what she knows of it. I'd love to hear her because this is like
almost secondhand smoke anime learning or like amibi and anime learning for her, though,
I don't know. Yeah, maybe she'd be a little more considered and
adjustice so she can enjoy something with her husband. Yeah. I was like
beaming about it to her in between episode one and two, But now you
got me thinking about the fucking like with the wedding and stuff, and it's
like, oh shit, yeah, what happened? Okay, Well, look,
sometimes I'm really persiptive, like so much information times. Yeah, aren't
we all? Yeah? Right, And then sometimes I'm just like, oh,
maybe Bruce Willis is dead the whole time, So actually I got that
pretty early. But spikeheads out and balls like me, may he be blessed
by work on tanker. Jet meanwhile arrives at the bar where Asimov went on
his rampage and grabs up drink and he's like, I'll take this on the
house and starts drinking. Then two more Syndicate people arrive and they're like,
oh shit, Asimov has been at it again. We need to He's unstoppable.
Basically, Jet has hidden behind the bar and he's like just listening to
what they're talking about about Asimov and his plan and and like they them needing
to get the Bloody Eye back. And I feel like this scene is kind
of like like they've showed you that Jet's like responsible, like you know,
you see that on the ship, and then here it's like he sees like
a massacre and the first thing he does is just lifts some drinks from the
bar, and it's like it's it's through the show saying to you, this
guy's cool too, Yeah, Yeah, he's cool. He's seen some shit.
Yeah, this guy has been through enough shit that this is normal for
him. And it's also kind of like a thing where it's like, oh,
when he's out in the world, he'll have some fun as well,
and because he like pops up and he knocks one of them out with a
bottle of water and then grabs the other and a headlock and he's like,
tell me more about this planet, which is fun. So Asimov basically stole
the Bloody Eye and from a syndicate and legged it and the goal was to
sell it and move on. Spike, meanwhile, is stops at a gas
station and he takes a purse and when he comes out to wash his hand,
Asamof is standing there, and there's a real tension in this scene where
Asamof is like shaking from the calmdown of the Bloody Eye and he's like on
edge, still ready to attack, and he's trying to figure out whether Spike
is a threat or not because he they've not met before and he doesn't know
that Spike is about he hard nut. Spike is being cool as fuck.
It just comes out, washes his hand and says something like it's better to
leave the tap running. So there's something about that exchange. I like,
I first saw this episode like twenty years ago or something like long long time
ago, and this little exchange in the bathroom. I don't know why it
has always just stood out to me so clearly. Yeah, I think it's
how do you mean clearly? What do you mean? As in I just
remember so much about it, Like you know, like the drawings of like
Asimoth like all kind of shaky over this scene, and I guess the kind
of like the subtle tension to it, but most of all the line where
Spike's like, if you leave the water running stops it getting because it's like
it's such a mundane thing to say, but I guess it's nearly kind of
like that. It kind of relieves the tension of the scene a little bit.
It does. It's also kind of like a distract. It's like so
much again, like so much is happening in this scene. One we get
to see like how Spike is good at reading people. But I also feel
like it's a kind of small it Maybe I'm interpreting it in my way,
but I feel like it's a it's a nod to Bruce Lee because we see
him earlier and he's like practicing, and he's got very Bruce Lee like vibe
to him, and it was the most well known Bruce Lee quotes is like,
be water, my friend, you know what you need to flow,
et cetera. When he's talking about fighting, And the rest of this episode
is kind of them showing how Spike is able to like stand his ground as
well as being about hunt. So that's what I kind of read it as
a little bit. But I think he also in one of the later episodes
he literally says be water. Yeah. Yeah, he references it again,
but so that that bit of advice was to not clog the drains. Spike
walks away whistling, nothing's going on, No, no fight happens. While
walking back to the ship, he runs into Katrina and kind of bumps into
her and helps her pick up a food and starts applying what the kids call
the riz. Oh man, Spike's got riz coming out. He's not even
trying, and it's just everywhere man's. By the end of this yeah,
he's raise. No, there's the mopping part of the little graphic, but
that's okay. They're laughing together Asimov is watching from Afar. I really like
Katrina about her, like, yeah, it's there's something so fucking tragic about
her, I think because she's wait, hang on, Jeff, what what
were you going for there? Boobies? He's looking at boobies. She's very
she's very sexy. I don't know what else to say, like, Jeff,
and this is like, but that's not it. I don't used to
be salacious. Okay, yeah, I don't like her, like I don't
like her pregnancy bullets. But other than that, likes, uh, there's
there's one bit of read like earlier when it's asim off and the bartender go
in and she just kind of leans over it and just like steals a little
bit of the foam from the beer. Not the titty shot, Jeff.
She gives a little beards so cute. It's great. I love that.
John. Lucy and I are like, she just wants to escape this life
and get to Mars, and you know, she's unfortunately fallen in love with
someone who's you know, a unwholesome person and it's a tragic like almost kind
of doomed to failure and kind of story. And meanwhile, Jeff is like
boy yo yo yo yoo. Yeah, female Jeff is turning into the fucking
techsage very well. Yeah, first of all, I'm very sparing with those
comments, but sometimes they need to be said. That's that. Yeah,
Yeah, it is tragic though tragic story, especially the end. It's tragic.
After bumping into Katrina and putting a rise on her, he's kind of
like helping her put her groceries back into the thing, and he turns and
walks away and see you later, and she looks down and goes and and
Spikes turns around and he's got an entire hot dog in his mouth again food
motivated, doesn't have much opportunity to eat, is always hungry well, and
is a bit of a thief. This is to show that he has slight
of hand, which will come into use later on. He like takes the
hot dog out, and then a bunch of packets of cigarettes also, and
he's like, you want these as well, and she like laughs at him
a little bit. They talk about like a she they walk to Spike's ship,
right, and he's like telling her about the ship a little bit,
and she's talking about how she wants to go to Mars and it will be
nice. And then Spike is like only the rich are truly happy, and
which is a kind of hint at the hierarchical structure of the world that will
be more delved into later on, hopefully. And then the conversation eventually takes
a turn when his Spike changes his tone and reveals that, you know,
she's not going to get anywhere, and he's like the tone change is enough
for her to realize that he's a bounty hunter and yeah, he Asimov appears
from behind and like starts strangling him early. Yeah, it was pretty narly,
and for a minute it looks like it's over, Like it looks like
he's done. Katrina basically begs him to let go, and asimof does,
but as he's falling. As Spike is falling to the ground, we see
his hand kind of just brushed by Asimov's jacket, which is sick. He's
like barely conscious and he's just sort of like you oink. Yeah. Yeah.
So again almost an immediate payoff for the sleight of hand thing that we
see in a comedy context us in a serious context. Again, like Jeff
said, like he although he's a goof, he's also got presence of mind
and understands the assignment and we'll stick to it. Yeah, it's got rised
as well. Asimov is talking to Katrina and he's jealous because of the way
she interacted with Spike and the fact that he didn't let her kill him.
He wanted to kill him. Katrina is just like, I just want to
go to Mars. I don't want to draw any more heat. Spike,
meanwhile, is just on the ground. He's taken the opportunity to just have
a little nap even though he's not. Yeah, and he's covered by a
shadow which is Jet, and then Jet is telling Spike about Asimov and everything
that he's learned and how he's trying to get a bloody blood eye bloody eye,
and then Spike, in a very very cool way, just kind of
like pulls out the bloody eye and like flicks it around on his finger and
he's like, yeah, he's gonna setle some of this. So it's just
like the two threads are now being tied together in a really cool, elegant
way. Spike gets up and he's like stretching, reveals all that, and
then says and repeats bulls phrasing about on the north side of the city and
a meeting a woman. In the actual Japanese they called the area that they're
going to meet a Zona Norte, but in the subs they just or in
the actual or dubbing they just say north Side. No one seems to ever
mention Zona Norte in the English version, less I missed it. The ice
asp the cops basically are such for Asthma as well as the syndicate men and
Spike and Jet as well. So we've got three person or three group collision
about to happen. There's a bit later where they appear at another bar and
he's like staging a fake drug deal, so he's wearing Spike is like sitting
down on a bench and he's wearing a poncho and he's got his hat very
low over his head and he's wearing a sombrero and a poncho ya, and
that is a sombrero I think is a reference to the Man with No Name
trilogy, the Clint Eastwood Sergio Yeah, which obviously a huge, huge influence
on this. And it ends with a Spike throwing the revealing that he's about
a hunter to Asimov asim of being surprised he's still there. He throws the
bloody eye into the air and then pulls out a gun and shoots it out
of the air, which looks again cool as fuck, And then a fight
begins, a hand to hand fight, which I think is one of the
greatest scenes in anime history. Like you just think, did the table flip
bit flip? The animation that goes crazy? Watched it? Like the way
Spike is moving, like yeah, and like he's moving the camera is moving
almost the opposite way, and his like poncho is like swaying in the wind,
the hat coming off, and like the reveal at the same time as
that song coming in. Oh my, it's crazy because like if you compare
it to like a lot of modern animation, not all like there is really
good modern stuff being made as well, but a lot of modern animation,
there's a very like float charted approach to making a scene feel epic, and
it's a lot of lighting, it's a lot of compositing, it's a lot
of like you know, moving camera, and it's just fucking incredible how a
scene like this, which is really little more than just a camera and some
animation blows it all away. Like this is so hard to like come up
with scenes that are better than this. Yeah. The song that plays is
one of my favorites. It's called Rush on the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack ost One,
So if you want to listen to that, you can find that very
easily on YouTube or whatever. Just search for Rush. Yeah, it's on
Spotify as well. And it slaps so hard, Oh my god. Yeah,
So we get that fight, and this is where he tells Asimov that
he's not focused and that he's not a chameleon, so he can't see everything,
which goes back to that vision of his eyes popping out when he takes
the bloody eye, and of his creams have their eye eyes raised and they
can swivel them to see more. And Spike just handles him like so badly.
Like compared to the last fight where it was like overwhelming and strength,
we actually see how how nimble Spike is. He's like leaping over table,
using it as leverage to spin kick and delivering these like rapid fire jabs and
it is brutal. Yeah, and it's so cool because like you can really
feel Asimov's like desperation, like he's so close to getting out of here,
but Spike's just so chill, so easy going. Yeah, and he's like
he can't keep up with Spike either, which is world. There's there's almost
like there's almost like a some of the animation made me think of like late
like seventies Disney animation, you know what. Yeah, when it's like hand
animated, lots of frames drawn together, right, we're like like snow snow
white. It's like it's always like the forties, right or something crazy.
But like, I mean they used to use a lot of human referenced stuff,
right, Like there's just there seems like there's so many cells, like
so many you know, I don't know how they measure that in animation,
but like it's the mixture of like it looks so smooth the animation, but
there is obviously a hand drawn quality to it. Yeah, so it looks
like, you know, the human. It feels and looks like a human,
did it, Like especially in the paper right, and with Asthma's like
eyes too, and like the sort of flow with the hair, Like there's
something it's very disney asque, like old school disney asque about him and the
way he was drawn. It's really really cool. While this fight is happening,
Katrina is there, and she's trying to like we see the viewpoint from
down the barrel of her gun. She's trying to find a point to shoot
out Spike, but isn't able to do it because he's moving really fast and
he's almost like it looks like he's pivoting in a way to keep Asimov like
in the frame as well, so she can't get a clear shot at him,
which is really cool. And then as that happened is happening, we
get the third party in this kind of struggle appear. The gang members show
up and they start getting in on the fight, which makes Asimof and Katrina
leggate. They grab a vehicle and just start to bail, but before Katrina
is able to get in, she is shot in the belly, and we
finally see that she's not actually pregnant. That bump on her stomach is just
holding all the bloody eye that Asimov stole from. Oh it's the bloody eye.
Yeah, I thought, like, bumpy, is that what you said?
Bullet pregnancy? Bullet pregnancy. Yeah, so they look like shotgun shells,
yeah, they do, kind of. They do telegraph it quite so
stupid. Why I would think, why, like why would she be like,
she's just the criminals, Like Lucy is right, it looks very the
bump looks very smooth for what's in there. Oh totally, yeah, yeah,
totally. So they get into the car that look, the bloody eyes
are spilling out of her. She's doing her best to keep it in keep
as many as she can. They get in and Asimov turns to her and
starts berating her for losing the bloody eye and not like being worried that she
was shot at and hit, which you can see her realize something in that
moment, and it seems like she's realized that they're both too far gone and
he's only in it for the deal, and he's been overcome by the they've
at various points they referenced that he's been using his own supply. He's been
getting high off his own supply, and it's impacting him. So whoever Asimov
was before this hole happened, the person that Katrina fell in love with and
try to escape with, we don't see that. Yeah, we don't see
the full on the include story. We just see the ending as it's just
about to use that. It's really interesting, Tim because like I always view
Cowboy Bebop as like, like we we haven't met all our main characters yet,
but for the three main ones, it really feels like this entire series
in a way is really like an epilogue to the rest of their lives.
Yeah, you know, like they're not going on a big quest. It's
not that it's something else. We'll come back to that later. I'm sure
I was. I was surprised that, like she had to go too,
you know, yeah, yeah, I mean, like, this is gonna
get arrested, is what happens. So we're gonna power through this part ending
it which jet arise with the Hammerhead and to save Spike in this whole thing,
and Spike is able to get away and retreat because of that, asim
Off takes more bloody Eye and a Spike is on their tail and they go
into space and there's a massive blockade of ISSP cruisers that they just know they
will never get through. As they're trying to leave the astral gate of Tijouana,
and she realizes that it's not going to happen, and she pulls out
a gun and then we see from the outside of a ship just the sound
of a gun shot and the flash of it and it stops. Yeah,
it's so good. It stops. Spike in like he's he's like horrified by
what he's just heard. And then like they he kind of like his ship
slowly drifts to catch up to theirs and she you see that a Katrina is
cradling a dead asthm off in her hands and she's looking at Spike and then
and then she says, is it see you spasically and then she just says
adios. She says adios, and then that's it. We hear we see
that they're done. Cut back to the Beebop, get a real nice shot
of her as well, like kind of drifting, yeah, yes, rough.
We cut back to the Bebop and Spike is once again practicing his martial
arty in a different part of the ship this time, and we see Jet
going to tell him that the Pep Bell Pepper and Beef is ready. And
I think that move of move of scenario scene is really important because it shows
you that he is trying to come to terms with what happened. He's in
a area which is like more exposed to the to the space and the stars
around him, which I guess in my mind made me read it as like
he's trying to find a place where he can think and try and recenter and
gain balance, and like seeing the vastness of the space while also doing his
like martial Larst routine really helps him with that. So a lot of nuance
to Spike and being really explored here in what feels like on a perfunctory superfocus
level, just a romp with an action heroic type of thing after everything he's
seen, we kind of go back to the very first beat of the episode
where it's like well, bell peppers and beef, and it's like it's like
like where everything Spike has seen, it's kind of just another fucking day for
him, and it's like wow, god damn. Yeah, I mean,
I gotta imagine this is like it's the closest thing to a perfect pilot.
I think agree, Like I just think you sometimes you stick the landing and
like so blatantly obvious to me. We're like, I'm just yes, like
everything I would say not not even close to my favorite episode. Okay,
wow, that's that's that's awesome to hear. I yeah, I'm just I
know, and like I said, maybe top five, but it's good.
I just know what I need to know, you know, And and it
got me so excited to just like keep keep going and maybe I will watch
the pilot with subs as well. Just do it to be so good,
really good, really good. All right. So that was the premiere episode
season opener for Cowboy Bebop. Ordinarily, it would cover multiple episodes in an
episode of jeff Bizarre Adventure, but this time due to time constraints, and
also we went pretty deep into this episode because like the establishing one way,
we want to kind of get our initial thoughts. The fact that we could
and we're nearly left to it like no choice only speaks to the strength of
the show exactly. Yeah, for sure, And I don't want to give
any episode short shrift, and given the time constraints that we have, we
thought it is better to just focus on one episode this time and then come
back to it next time with a little more time to work with the other
episodes that we work on. There may be a slight delay in releasing those
episodes because we will be traveling a few of us we have like some commitments
that we need to figure out, but rest assured we will be back soon
as always, John, thank you for joining us, Thanks for having me,
guys. I love doing this podcast. I'm so glad. I'm so
glad you're enjoying. Can we be buck, Jeff? Hell yeah, people
can find me a dipatch sore super picture, but be there. Also just
dropped a new merch collection over at ipatch wolves dot com. Yeah, oh
yeah, it is real cool. I've been thankfully getting samples of it,
and yeah, you worked your way into a real good deal. Good.
We get on that very easily. You know, it's good. You know
I'm closer geographically. If you're sending it from where you are, it's gotta
be cheap. But yeah, I've got a review as I you know,
so, oh yeah, I didn't do that for a big part of my
life. We've all seen that switching. Uh, Lucy, I'm everywhere,
Lucy James Games. No free merch over here, but it's fine. I'll
go to ipatch wolves dot com and buy it myself. Jeff Bacalo, I'm
at Jeff Baclar, come come hang out and talk to me. And I'm
at Timore Hitch everywhere and we will see you next time. Jeff. Jeff's
Bizarre Adventure is hosted by Tamore Hussein, Lucy James, John super ipatch Wolf
Walsh and me Jeff bacalar. Our post producer and editor is Jean Luke Sepki.
Our logo is designed by Justin Vashon and Jess O'Brien. Thanks so much
for listening anime