Years ago, I had read that Cowboy Bebop might have been one of the influences on the making of the TV show Firefly.\u00a0 Being a big fan of Firefly, you would have thought that I would have tracked it down and watched Cowboy Bebop long ago.\u00a0 And you would have been wrong.\u00a0 I never did. \u00a0Now this might have been because it was an animated series.\u00a0 Or maybe because it wasn\u2019t originally an English language show.\u00a0 Or maybe because I figured it wasn\u2019t as good as Firefly.\u00a0 Who knows?\u00a0 Anyway, I started watching the first few episodes last week.\u00a0 My first conclusion is that Joss Whedon definitely borrowed heavily from the look and feel of Cowboy Bebop.\u00a0 Secondly, it is an enjoyable show and stands on its own merits.\u00a0 Now let me qualify that second statement.\u00a0 It\u2019s a cartoon.\u00a0 The characters and the action are larger than life.\u00a0 When a gun fight breaks out bullets saturate every last square inch of wall space around the protagonist.\u00a0 Every fight has fists and feet flying in all directions and every facial close up has clenched jaw muscles and popping eyes.\u00a0 Basically, everything is exaggerated to cartoon level.\u00a0 Oh, and there\u2019s a Welsh Corgi as part of the crew of a space travelling bounty hunters.\u00a0 Suffice it to say that reality is in no way a condition for something showing up in this show.\u00a0 But the characters have consistent personalities, the look of the show is very well done, there\u2019s a fascinating backstory with terrible enemies and mysterious women and the plots although wildly unrealistic are (in my opinion) enjoyable.\u00a0 As I\u2019ve said, I\u2019ve only watched the first five episodes but I like it well enough to want to keep watching it.<\/p>\n
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Alright, now what\u2019s it about?\u00a0 Cowboy Bebop is a space ship that so far has a crew of three humans and one Welsh Corgi.\u00a0 They are bounty hunters who work for whatever government (or other organization) that can provide a large enough pay day.\u00a0 Like on Firefly the culture seems to be a combination of American and Chinese culture.\u00a0 Also, as on Firefly, humans inhabit a number on moons and planets (but this time within our own solar system).\u00a0 Cowboy Bebop seems to work on both sides of the interface between the criminal and legal spheres.\u00a0 Their biggest problems seem to be monetary.\u00a0 They are chronically short of funds.\u00a0 The protagonist is named Spike and seems to be a young man in his thirties who enjoys his job as much for the fighting as for the rewards.\u00a0 In his past, he worked for a very high-level mob boss.\u00a0 Spike\u2019s partner is an older man with a much angrier fa\u00e7ade but can also be depended on in a fight.\u00a0 The similarities to Mal and Jane Cobb in Firefly are pretty strong.\u00a0 The regularity with which the ship comes up empty handed after a mission is also a point of similarity to Firefly.<\/p>\n
I consider that I prefer live action movies to animation but I\u2019ll go on record as saying that Cowboy Bebop seems a highly creative show and has many features that make it interesting and entertaining.\u00a0 I look forward to seeing the remainder of the series and will report back on its qualities.<\/p>\n
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So now I know where Whedon got his inspiration.\u00a0 And maybe his own effort may not have been the superior to the model.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Years ago, I had read that Cowboy Bebop might have been one of the influences on the making of the TV show Firefly.\u00a0 Being a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[237,4,244,240],"tags":[312,310,48,311,43,44,309],"class_list":["post-1382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","category-sff","category-sff-tv-reviews","category-tv-reviews","tag-anime","tag-cowboy-bebop","tag-firefly","tag-japanese-animation","tag-movie-review","tag-sci-fi","tag-sci-fi-tv-review"],"yoast_head":"\n