Session #3 Honky Tonk Women (4 out of 5 stars)
Honorable mention: villain and death
Highlights:
One of the reasons I like this episode so much is Gordon. I find him to be one of the best villains in Bebop. I think it might be because he's probably the most stereotypical, cliched, Hollywood movie, James Bond type villain and in Bebop where we don't really see that it works. His great evil, calm voice, the way he goes about plotting things, flipping out at the end. Just really good stuff. And the way he dies in the end is just awesome. The scene where is own missile gets send back at him is one of my favorites. It caps a great scene and what a total Hollywood style, super flashy death to send Gordon out on.
Other thoughts:
This episode seems to have different pacing from the first two. More moments of just sitting around, not much happening, taken it slow with a few intense moments thrown in where things really pick up. Also something that can be said for the next episode as well, but a lot of coincidences in here to make this episode move along. Spike looking exactly like the guy, Spike and the guy bumping into each other, dropping chips, but hey it works. We get to see both Faye and Jet wearing something outside their usually clothes which is different for bebop. The ending scene is just awesome, I just try and not think about how a gun can fire in space, but oh well doesn't hurt that scene at all. Also my anime cel for Bebop comes from this episode. It's the moment where Spike is dodging the second punch thrown at him from the bounces early on in the episode and he has that smug, I can totally take these guys, look on this face. This episode does a great job of showing of Spikes cool and calm demeanor. He's cocky and confident, but not overtly so. He presents it in a way so that everyone around him knows, but without actually saying it. Also while not one of the best music episodes this episode does utilize a lot of different songs and work them in well with Piano Bar 1 and Black Coffee just nailing the mood of this episode.
Session #4 Gateway Shuffle (5 out of 5 stars)
Honorable mention: villain and ending
Highlights:
What an awesome, action packed, cool episode. It has an almost sci-fi / horror feel to it with the scheme that Murdock has going. Love how it starts things off with a bang as we get the restaurant scene. Great seeing Spike and Jet just remain cool with people getting mowed down all around them. And it closes with one of the best scenes in the entire show with the phase gate case scene. I will never get tired of that scene no matter how many times I see it. I find it great seeing the panic in Spike as he speeds along and very, very slowly moves pass the missiles that Murdock released, as the Prime Minister is panicking even more trying to find a way to stop the missiles all while accompanied by Too Good Too Bad. Murdock is such a great foil in this episode. Seemingly the pure evil, single minded, stop at nothing for her quest villain. Works well with the Bebop's quest for cash no matter the risk. And the finish is great. We get to see what exactly Spike did with the virus as Murdock gets a horrible surprise to find out it's over for her, than Spike complaining about Faye and Jet just being totally indifferent. It's interesting to see how easy going Jet is about everyone. Seems he likes a full ship with having no problems with all the additions that come along.
Other thoughts:
Again a nice coincidence works out well for the group as they stumble across Faye. Something I noticed is that in the earlier episodes we seem to get a lot of random gadgets that are used once to maybe four times. In episode 3 and one or two others we get that chip scanner, in about four episodes we get those special glasses, episode 6 has that dream machine. Something I've always loved about Bebop is that there's all of this crazy future tech like these items, the phase gates, terra forming other planets, but Bebop never wastes the time of actually going into detail to really explain how and why everything works. It's just there, makes sense when you see it and that's that, perfect.
After this second pair of episodes I became totally hooked. Gateway Shuffle was probably my first "oh wow, this show is REALLY good" fanboy-ish moment with bebop. By now I'd assume that most people were either thinking that Bebop was great like me or an ok show worth maybe checking it. These two episodes I feel only helped the show out, but the next pair is where Bebop starts to become more then just another show.
Cowboy Bebop Retrospective: 10 years after pt. 1
http://www.animevice.com/profile/madpierrot/cowboy-bebop-retrospective-10-years-after-pt-1/107-8055/
