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Answerman - Will There Ever Be A "Next Cowboy Bebop"?

Since going through this in real time in the late 90's early 2000's I still don't think Cowboy Bebop is this be all end all title people keep taking it as. As a whole it was good series, some episodes were very good and other where just OK. There is no denying that it had a huge impact on anime Fandom but that impact is mostly in the US. With that said it's pretty high handed to make the statement it will never be replicated.. By what standards? Honestly previously mentioned titles like Evangelion, and Escaflowne and the like were bigger overall then CB. Evangelion by itself was and still is the title to beat.
And if we are comparing its affects on US fans.. then where is the mention of Gundam W? Trigun? Both were equal if not Bigger then CB during the same time period.

Again I am not saying that CB was a bad show.. clearly it was not. But it's not what reading the people here talking about it say it is.

But I think Cowboy Bebop is a bit different. I think it's strength lies in the perfect storm of events which made it popular with a whole new generation of fans, introducing many more people to anime as a whole. In other words, its influence was not in technical details of animation, but rather it was in expanding the popularity of anime to many more people.

AkumaChef wrote:

But I think Cowboy Bebop is a bit different. I think it's strength lies in the perfect storm of events which made it popular with a whole new generation of fans, introducing many more people to anime as a whole. In other words, its influence was not in technical details of animation, but rather it was in expanding the popularity of anime to many more people.

Precisely! Thus, the argument over whether it was the "biggest ever" or "best ever" miss the forest for the trees. (Despite Justin going to great pains to head off those arguments.)

The attempts at refuting claims of "biggest ever" or "best ever" are (IMO) mostly strawmen and/or taking the claims of the few as representative of the whole. But since there's the undeniable facts... well, this is the internet and people gotta argue, and folks will argue over strawmen and trivialities if that's all that's available on the menu.

The discussion here is all about viewpoint, with the inclusion of some highly exaggerated viewpoints.

To go ahead and make the claim that Anime in the USA would be completely different without it is getting pretty out there.

So let's back this train up abit... if Cowboy Bebop was so important.. then what about that which proceeded it.. Rewind it to 1985 and we have Robotech/Macross. I would argue that the RT series had a much bigger impact on fandom then CB. It very likely paved the way for any anime let alone CB to even get a shot in the US.

I think the clearest way to make the point is merchandising.. and I will use Gundam W as my example in this reference. With the argument that it opened so many people into anime, where was the merchandise? Circa late 90's early 2000's CB had a handful of items on shelves.. they were and still are Rare. On the flip side GW or even the Gundam franchise in general and most of an isle in the toy section of Walmart... and if Wally World isn't main stream.. then I don't know what is.

I remember the first time Cowboy Bebop was mentioned in Animerica. There was a paragraph in an early 1998 issue about two new shows coming in April 1998 from Sunrise and the main focus of the paragraph was the *other* anime, Brain Powerd, which got more preliminary hype both because it was from Yoshiyuki Tomino, the creator of Gundam, and because of superficial similarities to Neon Genesis Evangelion

The paragraph also briefly described Cowboy Bebop but it seemed clear that it was Brain Powerd that was predetermined by the Animerica writer to be "the next big thing" because anime fans were looking for "the next Evangelion".

That you say "Robotech/Macross" clearly shows that you're aware of the difference.

Macross, like Power Rangers, was cut to shreds and the shreds re-arranged to hide their origin to make it palatable to Western audiences. And the audience it was aimed at was independent TV stations looking for cheap programming to fill the afterschool block. None of those stations gave a rat about anime fandom, even if they knew it existed.

Denigrating it because it's not important to current fans is a short-sighted mistake.

But I think Cowboy Bebop is a bit different. I think it's strength lies in the perfect storm of events which made it popular with a whole new generation of fans, introducing many more people to anime as a whole. In other words, its influence was not in technical details of animation or popularizing certain artistic styles, but rather it was in expanding the popularity of anime to many more people.

That's my thing and that's what I don't understand. Cowboy Bebop imo is not alone as being an impactful show that was really popular and greatly expanded the anime audience and introduced anime to a whole new generation of anime fan.

I think Cowboy Bebop was that for a certain generation, but I don't understand when people say things like when's the next one if "next one" is next mega popular show to greatly expand the audience and introduce a new generation of fans to anime.

In those days, a broadcast cable deal was everything, since new mainstream fans literally wouldn't be able to see the show without it. Any other persuasion had to be for the disks, and "No, really, go ahead and buy the disks, you won't be sorry!", which took a lot of doing at $29-35 for four episodes.

I wasn't buying blind but I'm in the minority who first saw Cowboy Bebop via VHS fansubs at an anime club in 1998 or 1999 rather than on cable (because, obviously, I couldn't have watched it on Adult Swim in Canada back in, when did it start airing on US cable... 2001, I guess?).

I guess I'm in the minority because Boogie Woogie Feng Shui is one of my favorite Bebop episodes. LOL I didn't realize that its supposedly hated so much.