Cowboy Bebop Rewatch Podcast Session #03: Honky Tonk Women

cb_spike

As Cowboy Bebop has become this evergreen ambassador of anime, we decided to go back and re-watch the show now that is has gotten a beautiful Blu-ray box set. Every week we will share our memories and then re-evaluate these stories with 16 years of experience and distance. Which episodes are just as we remember, which have major flaws, and which have aged like a fine wine. At the same time, we will also look back on the music, cultural references, and holistic connections contained within each episode. Plus, we will judge if there in an appropriate amount of Ein.

Does Cowboy Bebop hold up as a classic or was its reputation all a dream? Let’s rewatch Cowboy Bebop together and find out!

Session #03

Manga of the Month: OPUS

OPUS by Satoshi Kon

hisui_icon_4040 The death of Satoshi Kon has left an ever-present hole in anime fandom. He was unique visionary that was able to create movies that impacted the international film community in a way that transcended the medium. Movies like Paprika and Perfect Blue will surely be universally looked back on as masterpieces decades from now. So when he died far before his time due to cancer it only exasperated the loss of such a genius due to the knowledge that there was clearly so much more he could have done had he not died so tragically.

In response people  have gone back and tried to mine his career for anything that have gone overlooked before he died. While the first thing people looked for was any anime projects he worked on it was not to long before fans started to delve into his time as a manga artist. While Satoshi Kon has always been extremely humble about his career as a mangaka an audience that is extremely hungry for anything else from him has eagerly started digging into his work from that time. Partially to see where he came from as a creative artists, partially to understand his work as a whole, sometimes to guess how he would have grown, and mostly to just capture something from someone who was no longer here.

Opus is a manga that shows his transition from manga artist to an anime director. As it was his last full manga series that he worked on during Perfect Blue so it is the clearest picture of him in-between both mediums. So you your interested in learning more about Kon as a creator it is a unique insight to his development. You see not only see his influences on his sleeve but the strong direction that the rest of his work would take.

Continue reading

Cowboy Bebop Rewatch Podcast Session #02: Stray Dog Strut

cb_spike

As Cowboy Bebop has become this evergreen ambassador of anime, we decided to go back and re-watch the show now that is has gotten a beautiful Blu-ray box set. Every week we will share our memories and then re-evaluate these stories with 16 years of experience and distance. Which episodes are just as we remember, which have major flaws, and which have aged like a fine wine. At the same time, we will also look back on the music, cultural references, and holistic connections contained within each episode. Plus, we will judge if there in an appropriate amount of Ein.

Does Cowboy Bebop hold up as a classic or was its reputation all a dream? Let’s rewatch Cowboy Bebop together and find out!

(Cowboy Bebop VHS tape 1 that we mentioned)

Session #02