I had heard that Firefly might have been based on an anime series called Cowboy Bebop.\u00a0 So being a fan I rented it.\u00a0 And as I noted elsewhere, I tend to agree that Whedon borrowed many thematic and visual elements from Cowboy Bebop.\u00a0 This being the case I was intrigued by the idea that I might be missing a whole undiscovered land of creative stuff.\u00a0 I decided to try something else that was recommended by people who had liked Cowboy Bebop.\u00a0 I rented Ghost in the Shell 2.0.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll put down my impressions and explain my preferences.\u00a0 First off, the beginning of the story is an introduction to the protagonist.\u00a0 She is a woman who for obvious reasons is mostly topless.\u00a0 This while she is jumping off buildings and murdering bad guys with her bare hands.\u00a0 She\u2019s a cyborg who works for a government agency (I think).\u00a0 After this intro, there is an about 10-minute sequence of very intricate graphics of the heroine being assembled from molecular components all the way up to her synthetic skin being applied.\u00a0 So basically 10 minutes of naked girl.<\/p>\n
After that we go through the plot and meet her co-workers who are also mostly cyborgs and follow them as they track down bad people and fight them with guns and cyborg fists.\u00a0 There are all kinds of factions inside and outside the government agencies that are involved in the story line and I\u2019m not really sure who I was supposed to be rooting for.\u00a0 By the end of the movie all the main characters have been smashed and or dismembered pretty thoroughly but since they can be sent back to the factory for demand and periodic maintenance I guess it’s all in a day\u2019s work for your friendly neighborhood cyborg spy.<\/p>\n
I guess I haven\u2019t been subtle enough to leave you guessing which way my thumb is pointing.\u00a0 This was not a winner.\u00a0 Pretty girl with no clothes on is not a bad thing.\u00a0 But to what purpose?\u00a0 The graphics are well done and the action is occasionally interesting.\u00a0 But I didn\u2019t care about the characters or the plot at all.\u00a0 I think it was the flatness of the characters and the lack of humor.\u00a0 This is in contrast to Cowboy Bebop which includes lots of humor.\u00a0 Granted some of it is silly and not all of it seems relevant to the story line sometimes, but a certain style builds up which on the whole works pretty well.\u00a0 And the characters have some personality.\u00a0 You find yourself sorting out your favorites and enjoying the silly interactions that the crew go through together.\u00a0 Sometimes it\u2019s closer to Gilligan\u2019s Island than The Odyssey but it has charm.<\/p>\n
I will read some more reviews and see if any other anime movies sound like fun.\u00a0 But so far it looks like Cowboy Bebop has no cousins I want to meet.\u00a0 If anyone has any suggestions please leave them in the comments and I\u2019ll give it a shot.\u00a0 But for now the jury is still out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I had heard that Firefly might have been based on an anime series called Cowboy Bebop.\u00a0 So being a fan I rented it.\u00a0 And as<\/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":[239,237,4,243],"tags":[312,310,398,311],"class_list":["post-1510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","category-reviews","category-sff","category-sff-movie-reviews","tag-anime","tag-cowboy-bebop","tag-ghost-in-the-shell-2-0","tag-japanese-animation"],"yoast_head":"\n