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| MFW watching "Asteroid Blues" |
"Asteroid Blues." Well I'm certainly not feeling too blue after watching that! Many, many times! Doubly so for the intro!! Let me come right out of the gate and say I think I'm going to really love this show. Last post, I lamented the possibility of not being able to connect with this anime for being too "foreign." The title should have been a dead giveaway, "cowboy" and "bebop" being two of the most western things imaginable. Even so, the occasional Japanese peculiarities were hardly jarring. Hell, Deadly Premonition is one of my favorite games, remember? I don't know what I was worried about! The only real hangup I had was with the subtitles and dubbing, so I looked up some info on the subject. I'll talk on that for a bit, but after that, I'm keeping outside influences to a minimum. Reason being, I may have been spoiled on a few things during my innocent search. Not to worry, I'm not a believer in spoilers "spoiling" my enjoyment of something. Still, I'll attempt to keep my noobish perspective pure, and avoid internet influence as much as possible from now on.
"Sub vs. dub" seems to be a hearty debate in the anime community. Nearly all the sources I found said that Cowboy Bebop's English dub was preferred to the original Japanese, much to my surprise at first. Although on subsequent viewings, I noticed the dub has a more noticeable flourish than the more minimalistic subs. The same goes for the sound effects. For instance, the addition of heavy breathing and grunts to Asimov's ridiculous pre-death face was admittedly kind of funny, perhaps taking me out of the drama a bit. I still may have laughed had I watched it with the Japanese dub the first time, but I assumed the creators wouldn't have appreciated the change. On the contrary, from what I read, they actually prefer the English dub to their own! Shows what I know. Well, enough preaching to the choir, let's get to the meat of the episode!
Cold open on Mr. Cool Guy - and what do cool guys always do? Lazily smoke in some shady alley. Indeed, so lazily, that he's surrounded by half-dragged cigarette butts. This is the first instance of Spike's sloth, which I believe will be a recurring trait. A rose falls from his bouquet, and a gun takes its place during the shootout. The rose's color is muted, as is literally the sound during this sequence, save for the church bells and music box. The rose gets its red color as Spike bleeds. Then, he smiles at what looks to be a grenade. I can't even begin to guess what this symbolism means, but for the sake of entertainment, I'll give it a shot in the prediction segment later.
Now, on to the intro... best thing ever. Watched it dozens of times already. I'm a sucker for that James Bond style and big band jazz, so this was made for me! From what I could parse from the bits of text, the show takes place in frontier space during 2071, following a band of bounty hunters. Their "machinery" includes the Bebop itself, Swordfish II, Hammerhead, and Redtail. One of these must be the red fighter, one's the buldozer used during the big hitmen fight, the last one I either missed or haven't seen yet. The history of the bebop music genre may be integral to the show, or it may just be a transcribed encyclopedia entry for the sake of having random English strewn about. The four main characters' full names pop up, as well as "Ein." From the bits of art I've seen of the show elsewhere, Ein's probably the little Corgi dog. Again, I know nothing else about these characters I haven't met yet, expect possibly a certain aspect about one of them. But I'll deal with that if and when we get there.
Now we're in space. Shades of Firefly, Halo, and Mass Effect abound. I'm guessing this takes place in another solar system from our own, as I don't recognize the red dwarf planet. Or it could be depicting Ceres or some other large body in the local Asteroid Belt, since Mars is mentioned later. Spike's doing tai chi (it's probably not tai chi, but I'm gonna call it tai chi) and Jet's cooking with shades on. Jet looks like he's seen a battle or twelve. And Spike's in good shape despite the smoking habit. Maybe they've invented a healthier nicotine-free substitute by 2071, though that would defeat the inherit self-destructive purpose of the act... but I digress.
Interesting bit of ambiguous Engrish on Asimov Solensan's rap sheet. No, not "breack into a bank robber," but the "bodily injury resulting in death." Does this refer to someone he killed, or himself? Spike mentions later that he was once killed by a woman. Was he being mystical, or is resurrection a part of this universe? As the two discuss the lack of menu options which came as a result from their previous botched job, the next instance of Spike's sloth appears. He gives an odd excuse of not wanting to chase a "small fry," despite the reward. But he perks up at the promise of some tasty beef in Tijuana. Mmm... double meanings.
Jet says he's checking with the cops for clues, so I suppose they have an okay relationship. Makes sense, they both want Asimov dead. Plus, they did pay for a cop's medical bill for the last job. Spike's back to the grind, but he's got a song on his lips. As seedy as Tijuana appears, it's also pretty laid back - a place after Spike's own heart? Speaking of seedy, some old musky Mexicans argue about nothing, then in strolls Asimov and his "sweet thing." She didn't have a name from what I could tell, so how about Mary? She orders a Bloody Mary - odd thing for someone looking like Mother Mary to do. The bartender quickly clues in to the wordplay, the deal goes down, and the hitmen drive up. They're either stormtroopers, and/or this drug is crazy-awesome, 'cause not one of them could hit Asimov from point blank. This will probably be one of the many instances of "style over substance," still, it got the point across of Bloody Eye being some scary stuff.
Meanwhile, Spike's getting prophesied upon by Old Man Bull. The first part about the red-eyed coyote turns out to be right. The second part is interesting, because the events didn't go down exactly like the mystic said. Bird meets woman - check. Bird is hunted by woman - not really. And then... DEATH. Well, you could end any prophecy with that, and be technically right. But since it didn't go down like that, then this may come to pass later. What would be interesting is if the red-eyed coyote part and the woman are one event, and history will repeat itself in Tijuana. Or they were two separate prophecies, and the "hunted" part hasn't happened yet, or Bull could've just been wrong about it. Spike takes this with a grain of salt, or whatever Bull was dropping from his hands, not seeming fazed as he was killed once before. One last observation from Bull seems to be right as well, about Spike taking women too lightly - Spike does underestimate Mary. Again, if it turns out resurrection is a part of this universe, that would be so awesome...
Jet's looking for clues at the El Rey bar, but first helps himself to some Presidente. In walks mobsters hence dubbed Fake-nose and No-nose. Fake-nose gets a face-full of Presidente, No-nose gets interrogated. Spike is starving. Luckily enough, Bull's vague directions lead him straight to Asimov. It's apparent later that Spike was baiting Asimov into reaching toward the pocket with the vial, but he lets him off for the time being in order to talk to the woman. Interesting long con... I do not understand the clogged drain metaphor, or maybe it was just a non sequitur. Then Spike whistles his way out of the first act.
Intermission, then Spike "accidentally" bumps into Mary. Probably a common trick, but she's charmed enough. He pulls a Jughead on a fully loaded hot dog from a paper sack (what?) but promptly returns her boxes of "Pocky" and "Flake." More sleight of hand as he pulls a cigarette out of thin air. Perhaps having a soft spot for women, he apparently wants her out of the way before he collects the bounty on Asimov. His "small fry" excuse still seems like bullshit, but like Mary, I can't tell when Spike's joking and when he's not. His persuasion ultimately fails and he gets choked, but not before pickpocketing the vial. Impressive, for someone blacking out. He looks on helplessly as she flies off, for the first time.
Jet dumps some info that we mostly knew already, and Spike figures that Asimov needs to sell off the rest of the Bloody Eye before leaving for Mars. There is already a police blockade waiting for him, as well as cruisers on the ground. Spike somehow manages to set up a deal with Asimov. Maybe this is the prophesied "Zona Norte" and their first run-in was by chance, or Spike has connections in the Syndicate and set up a meet that way. He's selling 50 packs for 30 mil. W, while his own bounty is 2.5 mil. W, one-twelfth of that. Spike jokes once again about small fries, but he's here, isn't he? Sweet fight music! More indiscriminate shooting from baddies, so much so that one group fires into the first group fighting Spike. Everybody wants to be the first to the Bloody Eye and/or bounty. Mary loses some vials from her belly, and realizes just how much she's worth to Asimov. This shouldn't be that much of a surprise, since he apparently killed his own guys. Then Jet comes just in time with a friggin' bulldozer ship to bail out Spike.
So what was Spike's plan for collecting the bounty? Asimov must have been wanted alive, since he had plenty of opportunities to take him out. Jet did arrive late, but the hordes of hitmen threw a wrench in the works. Spike's kill count is now at least two, after he takes out the ships shooting at Asimov. Swimming Bird skirts the aqueducts on the hunt, but there's not much he can do as they run into the police blockade. Spike must not have known about this, because surely he would've tried harder to keep them on the ground, or wouldn't have bothered chasing them. Upon seeing Asimov's ridiculous hopped-up face, and without any chance at Mars, Mary finally sides with Spike at the worst possible time. Spike realizes this woman is not what she seemed, both with the fake pregnancy and being capable of murder. And now she's become a Bloody Mary. We wrap up on a return to the old routine and cuisine, and a return to Spike broodily smoking in rainy alleys during the credits.
PREDICTIONS: Next session/episode, I'll take a wild guess that house pets wreak havoc throughout the stars. Seriously, that "Coming Episode" segment was the most Japanese bit of the show so far. We'll probably meet at least one of the remaining two main characters. Another woman who's not what she seems will cross paths with Spike. Probably not next episode, but eventually the rest of Old Man Bull's prophecy will be fulfilled. Finally, I said I'd take a shot at interpreting the cold open scene, so here goes nothing: Spike has just discovered the woman he loves is sick or dead, represented by the falling rose. A gun takes the rose's place in the bouquet to replace love with violence. He brought a grenade thinking it would be a suicide mission. As the rose turns red, turns out she got better, making Spike's fight even more tragic.
Until next time, "I'll have a Bloody Mary Infactmakeitadouble!"
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| The thin line between terrifying and hilarious |
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