Cowboy Bebop #4

Bandai

100 minutes
English/Japanese
English Subtitles
08/01/2000

I warned you didn't I? I warned you about the chokers, but I don't think you listened. It figures that the only time I watch the previews to the next disc it'd work out to be the best night of my life. I mean, look she's wearing the choker, she's got the short hair and she's looking relatively perturbed. If this girl was slightly off-center then it would possibly be the best picture ever taken in the history of the world. But even the Mona Lisa is flawed, and so is my masterpiece (Though key animators might disagree on who exactly owns the rights).

I guess what I didn't warn you about, though, is that I was going to take a week off in writing this review. And what a week it's been! Well... that's what I'd say if anything had actually happened. As it turns out, I spent most of the week sitting on my ass doing nothing except going to work and watching TV. That's a lot more enjoyable than it'd seem, and considering that next week is Otakon I'll be sure to kick it into high gear with regards to reviews though. Only Silent Hill 3 is coming out in a scant two or three days and that's basically the trump card to any work I was thinking about maybe possibly doing. If the three reviews I post today are the last ones I ever post I wouldn't be too surprised.**

So enjoy these reviews while they last, I know I certainly will. Bebop is a show I genuinely like, and while I'll probably never feel entirely comfortable watching anime, I'd imagine that this is about as close as I'd get. And at four episodes it's a good length for the average consumer AND it's not so long as to make me consider ritual suicide while watching it (Unlike something else myself and the crew was watching last night, but that's something that'd probably be best kept for THAT review).
So yeah, Cowboy Bebop is one of the few shows in recent times that I've actually been able to sit down and enjoy watching. It's weird, I know, but Bebop is a pretty good show and as far as good shows go this is about the best disc you could ask for. "Why is that Dave?" I hear you ask me, and I know that you don't have an hour for me to go into all the specifics of the genre I most love so I'll make it brief. There's a flashback that involves Jett wearing some very 1930s detective wear and doing a lot of running around. And if you think that's not a recipe for success then there's definitely something wrong with you.

As if that's not enough, they're kind enough to throw us a bone with the ultra cool character Udai Taxim. Ex-syndicate sniper and all around badass, this guy goes around wearing glasses and slicing men's necks with his commando style hidden knives and he doesn't take crap from anyone. I'm pretty sure he's Muslim too, though after 80 years I'd imagine maybe they updated all the religions to signify mankind's recent foray into space and their exploration of new planets and the like.
But whether he be Muslim or SPACE Muslim the result is the same. Udai Taxim is one hundred percent hard-core asswhipping, and that's a check you can take all the way to the bank. I don't know if you know this, but I have a slight obsession with over the hill men who still manage to be total badasses and that's certainly what Jett Black and Udai Taxim exemplify. I mean, I never saw Jim Rockford use his robot arm to stop a bullet fired by a Space Muslim so it looks like Jett Black wins this round. I'm very sorry about saying that the fight scenes sucked last time. I guess I must've been hitting up the whacky tobbacky a little too much while I was watching it.

And rounding out the disc is the very excellent "Mushroom Samba" in which drug induced hallucinations and blaxploitation vllains are the order of the day. I remember some time ago I thought Ein was a talking dog. I don't recall how that got into my head, but I do remember trying very hard to convince Joel that at some point Ein would talk. Whether it be the subtitled line between him and a cow in this episode or his barked-out words during one of the previews, he sure as hell spoke in SOME definition of the word. And as such, eat it Joel! It might be three years after the fact but I'm still right.
And if you're talking about Cowboy Bebop how can you possibly be wrong? My only problem is there's a bit too much Faye-centric stuff on this disc. While I understand the message it's trying to convey, and can understand that a lesser man might've actually shed a tear at this, it really just had nothing on my beloved "Black Dog Serenade". Super-hot suspenders or not, I can't bring myself to feel bad for a girl so self-centered just because she lost her memories. Hell, you know... I'd GLADLY lose my memories if it meant I'd turn out that hot.
I... think I just said I wanted to be a woman.

**Not for any reason you might think. I fear that Andrew's "girl scream" might pop out during any bathtub scenes in Silent Hill and this will drive me into a rage induced murder suicide. Thus, no more reviews for you.