Tag: cowboy bebop

A tall man wearing a blue leisure suit and a trench coat walks into a cathedral. He is a bounty hunter. His bounty hunting partner, a pale woman with dark purple hair, has just been kidnapped. She is being held hostage in the cathedral by an old acquaintance of the tall man’s, an old partner in a major crime syndicate. His old partner is a thin man with grey hair. The thin man also wears a trench coat.

The tall man is armed to the teeth with guns and explosives. He knows he is outnumbered. He knows he is entering a warzone.

In the cathedral, the tall man confronts his old partner, the thin man. After a brief pissing contest, the hostage makes her presence known. The pale woman is being held captive by several crime syndicate members. Her captor orders the tall man to drop his gun but is instead promptly killed by a bullet to the head. The tall man has been in this situation before. He kills the other henchman swiftly, allowing the pale woman to escape.

The tall man eventually races upstairs towards the thin man, killing people as he goes. On the stairs, the tall man is grazed by a bullet. He starts to bleed out, but he continues. He reaches a balcony next to a large stained-glass window. The thin man attacks him with a katana. The old crime buddies duel with gun and sword, both drawing blood. At a quick stalemate, the thin man manages to grab the tall man by the face and throw him through the 3^rd story stained glass window. While crashing through the window, the tall man deftly tosses a grenade behind him.

The grenade explodes in magnificent flame through the cathedral window. As the tall man falls to the ground watching the explosion, his former life flashes before his eyes. His old life in the crime syndicate, fighting alongside the thin man.

He remembers seeing the thin man in bed with their shared love interest, a woman named Julia.

The tall man then remembers walking with a bouquet of red roses. The tall man entered a building with the bouquet of red roses. The bouquet of red roses covered an automatic sub machine gun. He was sent on a mission to eliminate a crime syndicate target. The tall man opened fire on his target in the building, which resulted in a gun fight.

The tall man then recalls recovering from injuries at Julia’s place. She was humming a familiar tune.

The tall man is awoken from his near death induced memories. He is terribly injured and back at his bounty hunter base. It’s been three days. The pale woman saved the tall man. The tall man is awoken by the pale woman, coincidentally humming Julia’s tune. The pale woman tells the tall man he should be grateful for her. He mumbles through his bandages that her humming is off-key. The pale woman smacks him with a pillow and storms off.

This is the 4^th episode of one of my favorite tv shows: Cowboy Bebop. The episode is called “Ballad of Fallen Angels.” Cowboy Bebop is a show about bounty hunters in space, aka space cowboys. Cowboy Bebop is an anime. If you didn’t recognize the story, I’m assuming the image in your head was live action. The show isn’t live action. The show is animated. Cue large grandiose sigh from biased readers. Odds are animation makes you cringe. “Cartoons are for kids.” “Cartoons are stupid and predictable.” “I like to watch real people do real things.”

All these statements are fair and true. Most animated shows are catered to children. This usually makes them predictable. And if you prefer live action, more power to you. I’m not here to change your mind about animation.

This is more of a study on the prevailing stereotype. Why is most animation catered to children? In the rare instance animation is catered to adults, why is it considered inferior to other art forms? Why do some critics consider animation to be illegitimate?

Critics imply that animation is “unable to stand with the likes of literature, music, and its live-action counterparts.” Despite the James Bond inspired action above, Cowboy Bebop will never be taken as seriously as live action movies. It is solely judged on its medium rather than its content.

These questions baffle me and I want to answer them. But then again, I am a biased researcher. In reality, this might be an attempt to validate my obsession with animated television, but it’s an interesting topic nonetheless.

Cinematography and animation share the same history. In fact, cinematography owes its existence to animation. Innovations in what is generally referred to as “animation” created what we now know as modern cinema. And yet there is a divide, a social stigma for one and not the other.

There is a lot to unpack on this topic. I’ll save it for another post.

For now, enjoy this short clip of the Cowboy Bebop episode I described above, “Ballad of the Fallen Angels.” Or don’t. That’s right. You’re not a child. You do taxes and drink coffee and read the newspaper. Cartoons are beneath you.

Sorry. If you can’t tell I’m a little jaded on this topic. I’ll try to take a more unbiased approach in tomorrow’s post.

Probably not though.

Until then…

See you, Space Cowboy.