So, I finally watched Cowboy Bebop... · 4:22pm Sep 6th, 2017
This article will contain spoilers of the series. Reader discretion is advised, you have been warned.
At last I've been able to watch this series after 2 years of promising to myself to do it. And I must say that, with all the comments said and made about one of the best animes of all time, I was surprised by what I experienced.
Cowboy Bebop is an anomaly for all the right reasons, it's very different from any other series I've seen (I don't watch a lot of anime, but I've seen enough to give me an idea of the medium) and it's a gem that probably won't be replicated again. And many of the messages it has are so vast and wide that I have to segment them all in the following categories.
1. If someone offers you a good future, sooner or later you'll want to return to your past.
Each of the characters is harmed by their past and, as the series progresses, we realize that this is what defines them. Spike is tied to his past and his actions are decided by it, Jet has overcome his and wants a new life, but part of what he was before still chases him, Faye wants to recover her past because she doesn't know who she is and Ed just doesn't care and lives up to date. All are perspectives on the past (and in some respects, nostalgia) with which each one can be identified. Thanks to all these details, Faye became my favorite of the group, although I connected with Spike for the most part.
2. The company may not be real, but it's quite real.
The problem with the company, wanted or not, is that you end up getting used to it, and when you lose it, that's when you start to see the boring part of privacy and think if the company was really bad. This is something that gave me directly. I need to reveal something about my private life. Someone like me, who is lonely, not used to hang out with other people and is constantly surrounded by people with whom I have to live daily (but not really since we don't talk much like before), identifies with this situation. None of the characters are considered friends or family with each, but that's all they have and they must appreciate it.
3. The only things that will last are your memories, the choices you've made and the people you've touched.
All the characters, even the secondary and tertiary, are done in a spectacular way, to the point that it manages to do what few can do: This is a series that makes you love them, makes you live adventures with them, makes you worry about them and when it comes the end, everything ends with a bittersweet note (in a good way). Any good screenwriter will tell you that beyond the story, the concept or the message, what matters most are the characters, ones you cannot do more than love them.
4. Sometimes the best thing you can do is learn to live with it.
Although the series doesn't reach the depressive levels of Serial Experiments Lain or Trainspotting 2 (thanks to the comedy and references to science fiction movies and low-budget series), it has a topic in which it really doesn't go deep and it has more of adornment, but it's there: Being an adult fucking sucks and sometimes the best thing you can do is learn to live with it.
The series never goes down in tone or pacing, even its worst episodes (Toys in the Attic and Wild Horses) have many qualities that save them. I loved everything about this anime: its soundtrack, its characters, its story and even its traditional animation that will never be done again. I definitely see why this is considered one of the best animes of all time. It's proof that a good story can be told in only 26 chapters. I've been waiting 2 years to watch it and after finally doing it in a week, and right at the most frightening and uncertain moment of life, I'm glad I saw it.
See you Space Cowboy...
