The good and bad times roll as the Bebop rockets back and
forth from one end of the galaxy to the next.
From psychotic man weapons gone rogue, to a reckless old school cowboy
to your average starship pirates, it’s an interesting group of characters
heading the way of Spike and the gang.
And some of them will push the crew to the limit. Are there foes not even the lucky as hell
Spike can defeat?
As the wind down to the finale begins, we get a nice
string of stand alone adventures for the Bebop crew this week, some more
entertaining than others but none really terrible overall.
Spike got tossed up against some great opponents this
week. From the Earth’s gravity to a
cowboy bounty hunter enthusiast to a psychotic man child killer. La Pierot is the one nemesis thus far who has
managed to give Vicious a run for his money.
Spike could literally do almost nothing against this tank of a super
weapon with bullet proof shield and an arsenal that is tear worthy. Though for all of his menacing and ability to
beat the tar out of Spike, Pierot has one of Bebop’s most fleshed out
backstories for a one off villain. As
Jet and Ed perform a hack that is slightly difficult, even for Ed, we get a
chilling sequence of events showing just what happens when humans are pushed
way too far and the bloody cost of the results.
Though it is pretty cool to see that Spike’s eye of the tiger and handy
blade manage to win the day and give Pierot a fitting, if actually a bit sad,
end. I do like how Spike’s joking morbid
quip to Faye about actually biting it this time prompted her to help out a
little bit, nice to see that these two actually care about each other…sort of.
Spike other opponent of the week was a bit more
lighthearted. In fact it’s not hard to
agree with Jet and Faye that aside from a different hair color, Andy could be
Spike’s clone…well almost. Andy’s drive
and thrill of the chase and penchant for property damage may mirror Spike to a
T, but intellectually…eh…Spike’s definitely cooler and a bit more methodical
when he wants to be. Either way, Spike
and Andy’s distaste for each other leads them to ignore a bounty head (who
doesn’t want to be ignored) and engage in an old fashioned duel that is comedy
gold. And the ending, totally fits
Andy’s unpredictable personality, trading his cowboy hat for a samurai sword
(which Jet and Faye believe is better than being a cowboy). Speaking of their bounty head, the attention
seeking Teddy Bomber, interesting tidbit.
As I mentioned a while back, when Bebop first aired on Cartoon Network’s
Adult Swim block, three episodes were cut from the initial airing following the
9/11 attacks. Episode 22, Cowboy Funk,
is the last of those three episodes as Teddy does manage to bomb some sky
scrapers throughout the episode.
The other stories this week are fair though not as good
as the mentioned two. Poor Jet seems to
get short end of the story stick as, save for the amazing Black Dog Serenade, his
stories seem to either be boring or just not as interesting as Spike or Faye’s
backgrounds. And Spike detour to Earth
to get his ship overhauled lands some nice moments with a cool engineering duo,
Doohan and Miles (bonus points if you get the nod they went for with those
names).
Can the fun keep going for the Bebop crew? If Spike’s encounter with Pierot and his quip
about death are any indication, then it’s looking likely we may be heading into
a darker final act for the series. We’ll
find out next time as we head right into one of the best finales of any
Anime.
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