Cowboy Bebop

Okay, yesterday I finished watching the series but haven't seen the movie yet. I must say that considering how old this series is now, it's still very entertaining. I watched Black Lagoon before Cowboy Bebop and I think it has taken quite a few ideas from this series and put them to good use. Action scenes were nicely thought out, each episode was interesting as a stand-alone mission to catch a criminal and the cast of characters are quite colourful except for the extremely cheesy Vicious who has an equally cheesy name.

I personally think that Black Lagoon is a more enjoyable experience, mainly because Cowboy Bebop is starting to show its age a little where as Black Lagoon seems to have taken many elements from it and squeezed it into a less sci-fi world. Overall this is a quality series, and I'd definitely give it an 8/10, it probably would have scored higher if I had watched it on release, but right now comparing it to more recent anime it may have lost some of its spark.

PS. Mushroom Samba episode was quite amusing.
 
Sy said:
Personally I don't think Black Lagoon will stand the test of time in the long run like Bebop has.
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I agree!! First full series I ever watched. First series I bought too, AND the series I seen te most times.
COWBOY BEBOP ROCKS!! :D
 
Sy said:
Personally I don't think Black Lagoon will stand the test of time in the long run like Bebop has.
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Personally I think Black Lagoon isn't anywhere near as good as Bebop, I found Black Lagoon over-hyped and actually found it boring and no where as "epic" or giving me the "adrenaline" it was made out to give. ;/
 
Bebop has certainly stood the test of time very well in my opinion and I think that slightly older anime look better anyway. A lot of the newer stuff often looks too clean and clinical to me.

One of my favourite aspects of Bebop is the stand alone episodes. That’s what makes it one of the few anime I re-watch regularly. I reckon I’ve watched ‘Pierrot le Fou’ is at least half a dozen times.
 
harkins said:
Bebop has certainly stood the test of time very well in my opinion and I think that slightly older anime look better anyway. A lot of the newer stuff often looks too clean and clinical to me.
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With the transition to digital a lot of the 'warmth' and feel that I like about traditional cel animation is lost and that's a shame. It's not that digital animation is bad it's just it sometimes feels like there's something missing.

I agree with Lupus in that I couldn't really get into Black Lagoon as well. It just seemed to lack the fun factor I expected from it and it became rather tiresome to watch at points.
 
Sy said:
Personally I don't think Black Lagoon will stand the test of time in the long run like Bebop has.
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It's evident at this point that Bebop is standing the test of time, however I can't really say anything about Black Lagoon at this point as it's still newish. I personally found Black Lagoon more enjoyable out of the two, but this could have something to do with me watching Black Lagoon first. I did find the action scenes in Cowboy Bebop more unique compared to Black Lagoon though. Oh by the way, I watched the Cowboy Bebop movie and must say it was pretty damn sweet too, especially the hand-to-hand combat scenes.
 
Nemphtis said:
Sy said:
Personally I don't think Black Lagoon will stand the test of time in the long run like Bebop has.
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It's evident at this point that Bebop is standing the test of time, however I can't really say anything about Black Lagoon at this point as it's still newish. I personally found Black Lagoon more enjoyable out of the two, but this could have something to do with me watching Black Lagoon first. I did find the action scenes in Cowboy Bebop more unique compared to Black Lagoon though. Oh by the way, I watched the Cowboy Bebop movie and must say it was pretty damn sweet too, especially the hand-to-hand combat scenes.
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I also prefer Black Lagoon to Beebop, however I can attribute this to personal preference and it being more recent. Beebop is probably the better crafted of the two and has a broader appeal, so I suppose it deserves more respect in the long run.
 
Bebop is definitely a better and more consistent series than Black Lagoon, but I do think Lagoon will survive the test of time in the same way that say, Trigun has. When it's good, Lagoon is fantastically fun to watch, but it suffers from a fairly predictable couple of opening story arcs (Nazis etc, boring!) and only really finds its "this is ******* cool" gear from "Maid to kill" onwards.

On the other hand, Bebop is brilliant from the first episode to the last and actually cares to flesh out its characters and offer us moments of empathy, comedy and just pure madness - consider episodes like "Mushroom Samba" and "Toys in the attic"; the confidence of direction to write and produce episodes that literally achieve nothing yet remain totally entertaining really shows the talent of Shinichiro Watanabe. I just wish he was more prolific!

Nemphtis - I'd be interested to know why you think Bebop is "starting to show its age", is that a reference to the clunky CG or something more ingrained? Personally, I think it's a fairly timeless series with a wonderful soundtrack that only gets better with age. It's like Evangelion in that sense, the animation and sound is good enough to never look particularly old.
 
Paul said:
Nemphtis - I'd be interested to know why you think Bebop is "starting to show its age", is that a reference to the clunky CG or something more ingrained? Personally, I think it's a fairly timeless series with a wonderful soundtrack that only gets better with age. It's like Evangelion in that sense, the animation and sound is good enough to never look particularly old.
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I just feel as if watching Cowboy Bebop when it first hit stores would have had a much greater impact on me than watching all the new shows and going back to this. I think it's also partly the visuals though, it just doesn't look new to me, but it also wasn't bad to a point where it bothered me so I wasn't too worried. As a gamer more than anything else, I kind of have this assumption that you can tell how old an anime is by the visuals, as technology improves so does eye candy in multimedia. Also like the games industry, present day franchises can sometimes look poor even compared to an ageing series, this is usually when people find it to be poor effort. I've grown accustomed to the 'clean' visuals of anime such as Ghost in the Shell, so always seem to find it a little hard to watch anime which doesn't conform to this.

Also style has a big role in my preference of Black Lagoon over Cowboy Bebop, I just like the time period and characters from it compared to Bebop's. Ultimately when I put aside production, soundtrack, plot etc. the factor which plays the largest part in my decision of what's better than what is in fact style. Take the Z.O.E anime for example, it's not really a well-known IP compared to other mecha franchises but it's most definitely my favourite because of the style, regardless of the lame dubbing.

Also speaking of the Cowboy Bebop OST, it's one of the best I've heard in recent months. I've been enjoying the Kino's Journey OST lately, and one thing which I think Cowboy Bebop does way better Black Lagoon is the music. I have the Black Lagoon OST and personally there aren't many tunes of interest in there for me, but Cowboy Bebop has a large variety of genres and they sound good too!
 
When it comes to the look of anime I can see what you mean about the older series having that warmer feel, more intimate, less artificial.

Digital is no bad thing though, I love the many advantages it lends and have practiacally zero complaints.

Look at the likes of ghost in the shell and ergo proxy, both beautiful, then consider for instance, Akira and jin-Roh, all are nice to look at in their own way and the feeling of emptiness some newer shows exude is nowhere to be found in any of these, its all down to the heart and soul put into the production:)

is ranting.
 
I love Cowboy Bebop. It's one of the all-time classics, with good animation, tight characterisation and awesome soundtrack (Yoko Kanno FTW).

I find it therapeutic to dip in and out of Cowboy Bebop; like a filler between other shows. I also highly recommend the movie. I saw it before the series, and loved it.
 
Cowboy Bebop was the first series I saw from start to end in sub and dub. The dub actually wasn't that bad however the sub was awesome which is usually the case anyway like. I give it 10/10 for being a fantastic series and for pure nostalgia.
8)
 
Dunno what to think about Cowboy Bebop tbh, I found it quite boring :p, and too many little events before a big one. Compared to Chrono Crusade for exmaple, which had it's main plot kick off straight away. But yeah it's worth recognition, I mean, episode 13 alone is worth that for the scene they done (check it out again, goosebumps alert).

Ed was my favorite character though haha, I just loved her voice, and the way she said Fayefaye.

7/10?
 
Wow I'm actually surprised that I've never posted a comment on this topic.

My Opinion on there Series is as follows, Possible Spoilers - You have been Warned:

The whole series is fantastic from start to finish. Each character had their own story to tell & throughout the series you pick up on that when you see episodes Like "Black Dog Serenade" to "Hard Luck Woman" to the Best episodes of the all "Real folk Blues Pt 1 & 2".

The other characters that you see throughout the series like Punch & Judy, Antonio Carlos & Jobim, who were mainly there for comic relief on occasion did have some other uses like pass on information that they may not have gotten anywhere else. And in the Case of Punch He makes one Final appearance at the end of the series when he says in passing that his show had been cancelled, which could be sign that Cowboy Bebop was Due to finish.

The Way the Story starts & ultimately ends, you cannot be exactly sure whether or not the start is before the main story were spike has "left" the Sindicate like as we hear in "Jupiter Jazz Pt 1 & 2" or is it at the end of the series & Spike is Thinking through everything that he had been through for the last year or 2.

Also when you look at the end you cannot be exactly sure that spike has died, as with many of the episodes in the series Spike Has been almost been completely destroyed Physically &, in the case of "Real Folk Blues", emotionally and is still able to struggle on. This IMO leaves it open to interprate that Spike could potentially still have survived the attack from vicious

People have suggested, which i have seen their point that The Star that fades out at the end of the Credits of the last episode symbolises Spikes Ultimate Demise & that he achieved what he needed to do.

All in all one of those Must See Animes that will make you watch over & over again.
 
Voddas said:
Cowboy Bebop was the first series I saw from start to end in sub and dub. The dub actually wasn't that bad however the sub was awesome which is usually the case anyway like. I give it 10/10 for being a fantastic series and for pure nostalgia.
8)
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DUB >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> SUB

1. Spike has a generic middle aged japanese guy voice.
2. I prefer watching it in dub, because subs occaisionally hurt my eyes.
 
Lelouch said:
Voddas said:
Cowboy Bebop was the first series I saw from start to end in sub and dub. The dub actually wasn't that bad however the sub was awesome which is usually the case anyway like. I give it 10/10 for being a fantastic series and for pure nostalgia.
8)
Click to expand...


DUB >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> SUB

1. Spike has a generic middle aged japanese guy voice.
2. I prefer watching it in dub, because subs occaisionally hurt my eyes.
Click to expand...
Well I wasn't saying you all must prefer the sub to dub like. That's your own choice. Just saying I prefer the sub coz I prefer watching originals.
:roll:
 
Voddas said:
Lelouch said:
Voddas said:
Cowboy Bebop was the first series I saw from start to end in sub and dub. The dub actually wasn't that bad however the sub was awesome which is usually the case anyway like. I give it 10/10 for being a fantastic series and for pure nostalgia.
8)
Click to expand...


DUB >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> SUB

1. Spike has a generic middle aged japanese guy voice.
2. I prefer watching it in dub, because subs occaisionally hurt my eyes.
Click to expand...
Well I wasn't saying you all must prefer the sub to dub like. That's your own choice. Just saying I prefer the sub coz I prefer watching originals.
:roll:
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Okay, i'll let you off this time. :p
 
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