So my wife and I caught the movie version, very enjoyable. Can anyone fill me in on the japanese TV series? How long did it run or is it still running in Japan? What is the premise of the TV series? How popular(I ask cause my wife had never heard of it, though she hasn’t been home in 2 years) And lastly, who is the young girl/boy computer whiz and whats up with him/her?
It’s not currently running and there were a total of 26 episodes. There has been some talking about doing another series which would take place about the same time as the current series. The final episode is sorta a series ender.
The premise is basically bounty hunters in space with really cool animation and graphics 
Not to belittle it, I think Cowboy Bebop is one of the greatest animated shows ever.
Ed is my least favorite character so I’m not that up on here but she is a she.
I think Cartoon Network is currently running Cowboy Bebop at midnight. They’re always running it somewhere. If you don’t have cable, all the episodes are available on DVD. You can get them cheap on Ebay is you dont’ mind that they’re Hong Kong imports of questionable legality.
The series is 26 episodes long, though most of them did not air on its first run on Japanese television.
The premise is basically the same as the movie: there’s a group of bounty hunters looking for bounty…with some character development tossed in here and there. Most of the episodes are self-contained, though there are a few 2-episode arcs.
It’s really very popular among anime fans and, I suppose, among viewers of Cartoon Network. If you have that channel, you can catch episodes at 1 A.M. Eastern Sunday through Thursday. They are edited (at least they were during the first run, I haven’t really watched since), but it’s not too bad.
As for Ed, Ed is Ed. That’s really all you can say…other than she’s a girl and rather hyper. She has her own bit of character development if you ever get around to watching the series.
The Jazz Messengers is a good website for the series if you’re interested.
Thanks for the info and the link, I think I’ll try to catch the Cartoon network airing, should make for interesting Monday mornings.
http://katakirei.com/jazz/gallery/fayeval/wanted1.jpg
http://katakirei.com/jazz/gallery/fayeval/bwfaye1.gif
http://katakirei.com/jazz/gallery/fayeval/faye16.jpg
http://katakirei.com/jazz/gallery/fayeval/faye10.jpg
http://katakirei.com/jazz/gallery/fayeval/rose1.jpg
http://katakirei.com/jazz/gallery/fayeval/fa08.jpg
Bosda do i sense a thing for that saucy minx Faye Valentine??? I have to agree with your post in the coolest animation character thread her ship kicks major ass, whats the name of the episode with Faye and the beta tape? Broken tape player and Spike “NO NO DONT KICK IT” “well it works with my ship” lol.
Some character history (this is what i have gathered from watching the series and movie so any inaccuracies i apologise in advance for):
Spike Spiegel Once part of a shady organised crime group, romantically involved with Julia who was also involved with Vicious, much aninimity between Spike and Vicious
Jet Black Jet was once part of the ISSP the police of the CBBB universe but he left because he felt that force was corrupt, his past is often relived and mirrored throughout the series, in the movie he is seen speaking to an old comrade at the movies.
Ed(ward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV) is a super brainy over active hyper hacker weird wildchild. Her father maps the the surface of the earth as it is under constant bombardment from asteroids etc. She meets the CBBB crew on earth and indoctrinates herself into them, she has a very close relationship with Ein
Ein (Welsh Corgi) Ein is a welsh corgi but also a data dog, his exact point in existance is unknown but he was created as part of a clandestine esperiment and is extremely clever. He is liked by most of the group but is very close with Jet and Ed.
Faye I’ll leave Faye for someone else, and any gaps in the data feel free to fill im working from memory and my memory is no the best.
Bebop is the show that convinced me that anime should be taken seriously. It is, IMHO, the greatest animated action show of all times (supplanting the Batman series from the '90’s). The movie is good, but it really doesn’t do the show’s genius justice.
Bosda, thanks for that link to the image of Faye with the machine gun. It’s my wallpaper now.
I’d just like to add that it has, IMHO, the best music I’ve ever heard in a TV series of any kind. I particularly like Tank! for driving music.
The Cowboy Bebop music made my husband a Yoko Kanno freak. For a while, anywhere we drove it was all Yoko Kanno all the time. He bought the Macross Plus CD because it was her stuff. Then he had to get the DVD so he could see the pictures that went with the music.
I’ll second the sentiment about the music, supercool. Anyone know if the cartoon network episodes are edited? I see my local Sam Goody has most of the episodes on DVD and I’d like to catch the TV series from the beginning(with the orignal soundtrack, if it’s available in the US), maybe my next artfully dropped cash
Oh yeah, Bosda, Fayechan:D
IIRC, I can only think of one instance of editing being done to the CN episodes. In the episode on a prison ship, when the Bad Guy knifes somebody there’s a lot more blood on my DVD than when I saw it on TV. At least, I remember being surprised when I saw it on the DVD after watching it on CN. That, and the standard debates over dub/sub.
Though there appear to be different DVD sets floating around out there, so maybe the one at your store is different from mine.
The episodes on Cartoon Network are edited, mostly for language, nudity, and excessive violence. Also, a few episodes were pulled during the first run (mostly thanks to sensitivities from 9/11), but aired later. The edits are minimal, for the most part, and rather well-done.
And I love Yoko Kanno’s music. It’s always just fab, no matter what the series.
Yoko Kanno also did the music for the very good Vision of Escaflowne, the show that forced me to admit that not ALL the writers of ‘crossover’ fantasy should be brutally garroted. Just 98% of them. As well as a few shows that haven’t been released in the US yet. She did NOT do the music for the mediocre Record of Lodoss War TV show, though the previews for it implied that she did. (She did do the opening song, though)
I don’t think the soundtrack was ever released in the US, unfortunately, so you’ll probably have to import it.
Ed’s problem isn’t really explained, though it does seem to be genetic.
Oh, and a little warning. There was a new collection put out a few months ago that looks kind of like one of those ‘re-release the whole series on 4 disks for 50 bucks’ things, but it isn’t. It’s just six popular episodes. (Well, five popular ones and what’s generally accepted as the worst episode)
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And I’d just like to reiterate that Jet was criminally underused, both in the movie and the show.