The Philosophy of Cowboy Bebop – Wisecrack Edition

the director of cowboy bebop is the same as salaminho no appolon and Samurai champlooo, he may be a bit of an asshole but damn this guy isn't wrong

Yeah not using the dubbed footage was such a missed opportunity here. I wouldn’t say this about many other anime

It's a CULT CLASSIC, It starts like this 😎😁😂😂☺️😜😁and Ends like 😔😞🥺🥺😭😭😭😭😭SEE YOU SPACE COWBOY

I tried watching it but it's so boring. Couldn't get passed episode 1

“Judeochristian” isn’t a real thing and there are no specific ethics to be ascribed. The two are antithetical to one another.

I'd give my left nut for another series like this, with multiple seasons

DO SAMURAI CHAMPLOO

i learned which eye is fake and now i can actually tell. thats a beatiful amount of detail. just know artifical always looks more real

What really freaks me out about bebop is Mad Pierrot...jeez

No mention of Ein? That's it, I'm getting me mallet

Faye Faye Faye. Her excuse for using everyone is her perpetual victim hood.

I need to watch this show

Season 2? There is no season 2 of Cowboy Bebop!

Why didn't you use the absolutely phenomenal dub for the audio? Seriously it's so good that you're losing something from using the Japanese version in an English language video.

Great breakdown!

What is that thumbnail

Cowboy Bebop is such a lovable classic. Thank you for doing this! dubs

You forgot the postmodern element in cowboy bebop - represented by Ed

The philosophy of the series can be pretty well summed up by a quote from Jet in the Toonami promo; "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.. To tell you the truth, I don't really think a lot about what happened back then". Just go with the flow, exist in the moment and when that moment passes, you move on to the next, or you'll drown in the sentimentality. Regardless of what happens, you keep on pushing. It can be seen as a pretty pessimistic approach when you look at someone like Jet, who floats through life, without any real goal, he's just content in spending his days doing a job and treating his bonsai. As such, he doesn't have a character arc, because he's already gone through it, we're seeing the epilogue to his story, and there's a real beauty in that.

But also, it can be seen as very cathartic, the notion that you embrace the good when it happens, and forget the bad as soon as it passes, you go with the flow.. Just as Spike says: "be like water", although the irony there, is that he was never really flowing like water, because he was always hooked on the past, it was the proverbial stone that blocked the waters motion

Not you not including Ein the dog as on the team

No one tell them that the "create a new genre" thing was just a way to advertise the show.

Did she say Season 2????

Jet Black is still my favorite character in CB 🐾

The Jazzy and western style of Cowboy Bebop was so attractive and makes you want to join in the next journey to understand why Fay-Fay lost her memory, did Spike survive the final shootout etc.

Check out Shaman King to see how compassion, forgiveness and redemption can turn the worst of us into the best of us

Why don't make a Video about the Philosophy of Pokemon

Ya know I never comment on videos but it was very obvious your a sub over dub watcher but you honestly picked the worst case of a sub over dub because cowboy bebop is by far way better in its English dub and even the Japanese community agree that the voice actors from the English cast did a way better job portraying all of the characters than their Japanese counter parts

I believe you have the brains of a deer.

Wait what, you think it ain't sci fi enough? It's hard (realistic) sci-fi! Also it is the only show I've ever watched with a proper O'Neil cylinder!

Oceans 14 set in New Orleans or something?

The more things change, the more they stay the same...or become different. Whatever. Bobop Rocks! Chambara is just westerns with swords. Bebop showed me that cartoons could really be adult. The only American animation that came close to it was maybe, The Maxx.

To me the show is all about freedom!! A specielly spikes death in the end.

Whenever Spike brought up the idea of being asleep I thought of it more as existing without living. Sort of like Heidegger's idea of Dasein, or "being there." When Julia died, it snapped him out of this haze and even provided a morbid purpose for his continued existence since leaving the syndicate.

I see this show as a true representation of the old 40s or 50s detective/private eye movies. Always involved a gumshoe on a case following clues. Usually broke and drank a lot. Mostly failing but overly persistent. Heavy with dialog in the scenes discussing what the central character is thinking. Strong noir aspects with lighting and camera positions in black and white. Background music throughout like sax playing in the quieter part and full on brass/band when the action picks up. As a bass player, gotta say the Seat Belts absolutely kill, amazing band and exceedingly talented at painting a scene with music. Check out "Real Folk Blues" or "Tank" in it's entirety. Never saw this show as a western but I see it now.

what about firefly that is a show from the 2000s that is also a spiritual adaptation of cowboy bebop and not just killjoys

Lol I've been to the saloon you show, it's in a town called Goldfield near the Superstitions in Arizona. Cool tourist trap..

YES! THEY ARE ALWAYS STARVING

Thank you, I think this has enriched my experience of CB. In particular I never really "got" that Spike wasn't sure he wasn't dreaming. It's not as well-known as CB, but Texhnolyse probably has some interesting philosophy. Especially if you like nihilism.

I cry every time i watch the scene where jet chases his old flame on his home planet. That song knocks the wind out of my chest every time i hear it.

Spike as the malboro man lol thanks I can't unsee that now.

I love you helen.

So deep, meaningful, philosophical, artistic, and leaves it’s viewers with a message to part with. Why don’t anime have any of these elements anymore? A lot of older anime were so much deeper.

You can't live in the past. It will only end in sorrow. That's the basic lesson here.
That and don't eat magic mushrooms for food.

Why didnt Netflix hire Wisecrack team to make the live action or at least advice them... this was an amazing break down. Cowbow bebop is and will be my favorite anime, never gets old. The more i watched the learnt something new, but still missed something. Glad these breakdowns are made 😊

So this is what the netflix Remake missed the Characters, they fixed them too much.
You fix the cowboy out of a cowboy and it's just some guy.
You fix the Gambling, oversexual, conartist out of Valentine and you get some girl.
The Dog is not just some cheep food, it's a very expensive commodity ... lol the Dog was the only character that got upgraded ...
PS: They did not called Jet "Black Dog" but they called him literally "Black Mail" ... Rewatching the original to wash down the remake.

Im still blown away by the fact that this anime debut in 98'.. with a killer soundtrack ... CB was way ahead of its time!

Hi Wisecrack, great video! Thanks to You I've quickly started watching this Anime series and I absolutely love it.
I wanted to reflect on Ed's character as you've skipped what's her role and meaning in the show. Perhaps in thousands of comments there's already something about it, but I think it's worth mentioning, because isn't she representing the infantility and the powerlessness that drive the Japanese culture since the end of II World War and can be seen in Anime genres?
Ed can be treated by viewers, for most of the time, as a typical infantile, fun, humorous add on to the main plot and the tragic adventures of other main characters. Meanwhile I think it's very smart for the authors of the series to show through this genius teenager, that want's to play all the time and seems to be careless, the very sad outcomes of the catastrophe and trauma, which are the experience of Japanese culture (and the whole world population in 20th century I guess) and are visible in the universe of Cowboy Bepop as well. After all when we meet Ed she lives on post-apocalyptic, desolated Earth.
She's not talking about her self much, isn't she, but in one of the episodes we can learn more about Ed's life and it appears she'd been living in orphanage, because her father simply forgot about her. When she finally meets him in a very joyful, humorous scene the outcome of this meeting sadly cannot be different - the emotionally, immature man even doesn't remembers her name and if she's a girl or a boy and he leaves her, when he is suddenly triggered by another explosion of an asteroid on Earth, being obsessed by some bizarre, mad idea of saving the Earth by constantly updating the terrain map after every explosion. I admit that after a laugh on this situation I wondered about Ed's fate, as it is a very sad experience of a lonely child, that was left by a parent, was refused to be loved, and that had to deal with all of these on a devastated Earth, having only her own intelligence and great skills to help her.
What's the better way of retreating from and protecting against pain, powerlessness, cry, sadness, anger and hatred, than focusing on infantility, carelessnes, joyfullness, obbsesions? I've recently learned that an artist Takashi Murakami was reflecting on this characteristic of postwar Japanese culture in his publication and exhibition: "Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture". Please, I'm curious about your thoughts and other users comments on this. I'm not an expert on Japanese culture. I'm from Poland and perhaps my knowledge of the influence of tragedy and trauma in polish culture made me think about this in Ed's experience.

Is it bad that I like the dub better than the sub in this anime😭😭

I dont get why she says spikes death is debated. Like the show did everything but have a doctor takes spikes pulse and say hes dead. Like all the symbolism and literarry devices do all but scream its spikes death.

Who's here after watching the Netflix abomination?