Forum - View topic

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

Nearly everyone hates Boogie Woogie Feng Shui, and personally aside from the funny restaurant scene, I've never cared for Heavy Metal Queen.

I find it weird Justin didn't mention its longevity on Cartoon Network in the U.S. as that really seems to have fueled its reverence. (snip)

I thought Bebop came over in 01, it could have come out in the year 2000, but I do know that it did not come over in 99.

MarshalBanana wrote:

Nearly everyone hates Boogie Woogie Feng Shui, and personally aside from the funny restaurant scene, I've never cared for Heavy Metal Queen.

"Hate" is a strong word. BWFS is certainly the weakest episode of Bebop, but it's not BAD. It's just not as good as the others. I'm willing to bet that it was still the best episode of any anime that aired that week.

I like Heavy Metal Queen even though it's probably below average for Bebop. The use of a different music genre (which not everyone watching Bebop is going to be a fan of) is a bit jarring, but that's kind of the point.

Toonami returned a year before AoT came out so not quite. However streaming was becoming huge that time and i would say that, Kill La Kill, Sword Art Online and other shows definitely gave anime another huge boost in the West

This was a really interesting, enjoyable article, but I wanted to add one thing that may have been implied yet not said. One of Bebop's secrets toward its long-lasting appeal and impact was because despite being so Western, it brought a lot of Eastern sensibilities, particularly in the way it is reflective and contemplative amidst all its crazy/stylish action and comedy. While not as cerebral as a Ghost in the Shell, if you think about the often quiet, gentle ways it handles delving into characters' emotional pasts, with scenes like Faye watching a tape of her younger self or Jet going back to visit the woman who left him, it goes pretty deep into the human condition in a way that leaves room for the viewer to think about it compared to the average Western production--where, even if/when they try these things, they want to either gloss over them or hit you over the head with them. The whole way the series is about a makeshift family and their issues, without ever fully spelling that out, plays into this as well. It does so many subtle things with these themes that you often don't see in Western productions, and truthfully, a lot of anime that have tried to follow in its footsteps focus more on the action or comedy without trying to capture Bebop's contemplative and interpersonal heart. Cowboy Bebop, while not perfect, was just a perfect storm for the medium, and remains such a classic because of its artistry and competent mixture of elements.

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.

This. Its run on a national basic cable network really helped people notice it. I remember the brief period of time before it aired on American TV and while it was talked about in anime circles, its following was a lot smaller.

Is it the best anime ever made? No, not by a longshot.

Zalis116 wrote:

Remember when Coyote Ragtime Show was hyped as the Next Bebop? How'd that work out for the folks at ADV?

Was it so much that Coyote Ragtime Show was being hyped as being "the next Cowboy Bebop" by western anime distributors or was it just that Coyote Ragtime Show exactly duplicated Cowboy Bebop's title convention with the first word being an icon of southwestern America and the second word being a musical genre associated with jazz?

Much like Big O, Cowboy Bebop was another show that really only the west embraced and because of that you probably won't see another show like it as it wasn't really successful in Japan so much. To them it was probably just one anime show out of many that happen to catch on outside of their own country. Kind of also like Outlaw Star, Trigun, Vision of Escaflowne.

MarshalBanana wrote:

I thought Bebop came over in 01, it could have come out in the year 2000, but I do know that it did not come over in 99.

I said earlier in the thread that the North American release of the "1st Session" (Volume 1) on DVD had a street date of April 4th, 2000, which is the date given by both Amazon and eBay.

I was, however, forgetting something really obvious about North American anime distributors around two decades ago: they were still releasing anime on VHS back then and, quite often, the VHS release preceded the DVD release.

The first release of Cowboy Bebop in any format in North America was the two episode VHS tape "Asteroid Blues" for which Amazon lists a street date of September 14th, 1999, so Justin was right,

Then again, the Amazon listing for this tape also lists the language as being "English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Tagalog", which would be an impressive feat for a VHS tape. I think it was technically possible to have two different mono audio tracks playing simultaneously on a VHS tape if you split the stereo but most VCR's didn't give you the option of playing only one audio channel.

Quote:

Is it the best anime ever made? No, not by a longshot.

Based on...?

The only thing we can discern is our favorite anime, because nobody has seen every anime ever made, and therefore "best anime ever made" is an entirely useless designation.

Cowboy Bebop is still, after a couple decades of anime fandom, my favorite anime. But I agree that it's foolish to chase the "next Bebop" dream, because Bebop is Bebop, and other anime are other anime, and none of them should try to be Bebop.

I was going through a post-Bebop depression, at least as anime was concerned, for a while, but then I saw Fullmetal Alchemist. And Fullmetal Alchemist wasn't Cowboy Bebop, but it was really, really good, and in a different way than Bebop was.It didn't have to imitate the popularity of it, it had its own merits.

If you keep chasing Bebop's shadow, you'll never find anything different that casts it. You end up missing out on a lot of great anime that way.