Thank you so much to everyone that has joined me so far as I rant about things I love, primarily writing. I remember when I was hesitant to share my opinions on the internet because I wasn't "qualified." You have all shown me I was very wrong about that assumption. Also, if you want to support the channel, you can support on Patreon and get access to longer videos a week early. www.patreon.com/flyingwalrus
@Flying Walrus, i really enjoy the way you look at and explain what you see or feel with these series or movies. you just made me connect with a series i haven't even watched before. i thought it was strange for me to connect it to a personal level of hurt, but the way arcane and maybe vander in partcular hit you, it felt like someone else understood. your way of thinking and explaining made things clear for me, even removed some of the weight. i want to thank you for this and hope you're doing well.
I know why you were so hesitant about it. Most anime is shit. And it is an internet everybody is stranger and communication is limited. It is far more difficult to note when one is lying or trolling. You can have bad luck of meeting some sadist who would make you watch some shit like infamous Boku No Pico. But you reviewed some good films with love. There was no vain or any toxicity. So I think that you have built a good community the one you can trust.
I know it is slightly off topic, and I know you will never do this because it makes too many other people upset... But I wish you, and others, could stop putting in Spoiler Warnings. I feel that if you knowing some basics about a show, and it ruins the show for you, it likely was not a very noteworthy bit of entertainment in the first place. I don't tell people how awesome Full Metal Alchemist is, I just tell them its about some cool version of alchemy, with two poor boys trying to fix the world....... Then let them be crushed by EDO...WADO...EDO-WADO... EDWARD..... It is my personal little test. If somebody can get that far into FMA BH, and they don't have their soul absolutely obliterated and scattered across the abyss.....if they dont cry at that episode, they can't be a human. Clearly a lizzard person. But the show talks for its self. I cry still sometimes just thinking about how horrible that really truly was. The show talks for its self. I could literally run a play-by-play of the entire story...and the show would never be less fucking amazing. I know it is not your problem, nor your fault...I just get sick of hearing "spoiler warning" from everybody... YOU CAN'T TALK ABOUT A STORY WITHOUT REVEALING THE STORY. People are absolutely crazy, if "spoilers" ruin it for you.
There's a writing rule for dialogue that says characters should never say exactly what they mean. Everything they say should be filtered through who they are as a character. Nobody on the beebop ever says exactly what they mean. It's always a "story" they heard or a joke. Everyone is indirect. It's so well done
That's called "subtlety" and "subtext", and it's an incredibly effective method to use to get your point across without having to expend unnecessary and wasted resources just trying to get your audience to invest in themselves without them also feeling like you will just want to waste their time with exposition or bad jokes or nonsense and then lose them. Shows like Cowboy Bebop, Nickelodeon's Golden Age of SpongeBob and Courage the Cowardly Dog and more, along with Cartoon Network's Adventure Time, Steven Universe, and more that I would be spending all day here listing, several anime studios like Studio Ghibli's nearly everything including their work on Lupin the 3rd, The better parts of The Simpsons, the better parts of Disney movies, and just a whole lot of other stuff. Basically, my point is that when you get someone who understands how making stuff to get an audience invested should work, and how to appropriately get them invested without resorting to gimmicks, especially holding them hostage at Fear Of Missing Out gunpoint, then you get great shows that you can choose to watch, not content that you have to watch at their most necessary and content that you could play in the background to kill some time or to fill the quiet with while you cook or do your work.
Wanring to the wise, no rule in writing is universal. This is a very common thing in writing in America and even way more so in Japan, because these are conversation styles of those nations. Japanese love to say everything around the point, and so do Americans, but to a lesser degree. But in places like India, people say the point or they don't say anything. Its direct and to many from America or Japan, overtly blunt and even rude as a communication style...but it's a cultural thing. If you write for an American or Japanese audience, vagueness is useful, but if you are writing a character from another culture than those one's or writing for another audience...the rules you think are universal...fade away to nothing and in fact, could be considered bad writing. Keep that in mind.
@@brazenzebra9581 I think somethings are universal, humans are pretty similar across the globe. There is a reason why so much of bollywood or japanese or south korean cinema resonates so well with western audiences. I am of course including all french and british etc... as western cinema. Even the stories from some of the 3rd world countries that have been translated to English that I read in school. I think there are universal guidelines, no hard set rules though.
@@Lastofthefreenames Pretty wrong, my friend. I highly recommend reading old literature, I'm talking 2000+ years. The most popular of that era, doesn't even resemble something of quality in this one. Every convention, rule, guideline and concept is...completely turned on its head. Things that are now cliche and foolish, were then brilliant and new, things that are now over the top and silly, where then soohiscated and complex. There are no universal guidelines, only opinions and people desire to please them.
@@brazenzebra9581Then very few people were literate enough to enjoy Fictional Literature, even fewer could write it and even fewer were great at writing. But still they are a lot of timeless masterpieces from that period that still resonate. Art of war, The Tao, heck even the Bible. I think they are universal guidelines.
What I found most compelling about this show (though I didn't realize it when watching, tbf) was this theme of moving and moving without actually reaching your goals, being lost in the process and being fullfilled by that alone while still experiencing the loss of not accomplishing what you set out to do in the first place, but accepting it as part of life
yo fuck that I taught myself how to make websites almost 2 years ago and never accepted giving up, today I passed my 4th interview (1 with each of 4 different companies) and am gonna get the position.
@@BusinessWolf1 Congrats! This is why we don't give up; if we can make that dream happen, then we shouldn't stop until we accomplish our goals. If you need to re-analyse the approach or the path, then that's always fine. Just keep your eyes on the horizon for the eventual sunrise 🌅 ✨️
if i had a nickel for every cowboy bebop video essay titled “you’re gonna carry that weight”, i’d had 3 nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird it happened thrice.
The fridge episode is a one off, but it also showcases the main theme of the show in 20 some minutes. When you put things off for too long, they’ll catch up with you.
It's an Alien tribute too. Space Dandy has a Dawn Of The Dead tribute episode and the whole show is a tribute to John Carpenter's Darkstar + a remade version of Julie's theme by John Carpenter in John Carpenter's Assault On Precinct 13 renamed Napoleon & Bishop, the 2 main characters of Assault On Precinct 13.
To me they are all parts to a single person the grounding father figure, the rebellious teen, the self destructive stoic and the whimsical child. To me they represent the stages of growing up.
I think Ed has the most chances of changing her life. She is young and doesn't carry as many regrets and memories as the rest of the crew. I think, that's why her leaving Bebop felt so significant. The mood shifts immediately.
her leaving is because ed is ed, she set no roots, the rest of the crew leaned on each other but would never admit it, ed never needed to care, life is. life is ed. a 13yo taking a dog you won in a gunfight? lolz
Cowboy Bebop came into my life during THE darkest time in my life. 2003, I'd always wanted to see a "real" anime as the Dragonballs and Digimons of the world didn't appeal to me yet. Having started the series on Session 5 Ballad of the Fallen Angels, I was hooked. How a show could be melancholy but humorous with a soundtrack and provide characters that stood out above anything else that was on TV. Granted, I was only 13 years old at the time but a head above the rest so to speak. It was a soothing adventure with characters I was slowly growing attached to. Then I watched the Hard Luck Woman. See, I was essentially homeless at the time. Living in my aunt's garage, abandoned by my mother. So that sense of belonging really hit hard. REALLY hit hard. Cowboy Bebop was my rock from then forward. Many anime came and went but that was my mainstay. Rewatching in it's entirety 40 maybe 50 times, I kid you not. I was lucky enough to meet the cast a few years ago at a convention. They were fantastic. And at that point it felt like my life had come full circle. I was working, living on my own, looking forward to the future. Sorry for the boring story, but tremendous video and for some unexpected spilled tears remembering the weight I used to carry.
Watched Cowboy Bebop during a very dark period of my life too. At that time, it was hard to watch anything because it seemed to me that every story tried to teach me some morals and I was just too tired and vulnerable to listen. What was special about Cowboy Bebop is it didn't preach, it just let me walk along the characters. I think that journey impacted me a lot and brought motivation to do something about my life. Ironic, considering how the bebop crew is stuck in their past. I hope you're doing great in your life. Thanks for sharing your story.
Thank you for sharing tht with us. I'm sorry you went thru tht mental and emotional suffering. But you carried tht weight and did it well. I'm proud of you. I hope you're proud of yourself too, cowboy.
@@AFlyingWalrus this response had me bursting in tears from all my emotions over the years. of just wandering through life, not wanting to be a burden on anyone's busy lives by avoiding sharing my pain. though it may have been to someone else, it was soemthing i needed to hear. Thank you
This show really got me, it simply was and then simply wasn't, fizzling out as each got both closure and the melancholic acceptance that it will not and cannot be the same as it once was because regardless time will continue to move forward even while you yourself remain stuck in the past.
@@lomein9751 is it really similar?? I’ve put off watching the cyberpunk show but I’ve heard it’s really good, if it’s similar to bebop im putting it at the top of my winter break list lol
An old quote i recall from.. something i cant remember. "Life is always moving forwards with the eternal hands of the ticking clock. Where will you be when the clock strikes twelve?"
I think what really draws me into Bebop is how human the characters are. It’s a small step beyond just relatable. But really human and “real”, like I’m looking into their lives and how deep it all gets for them. From Faye literally missing out on her entire life, or Spike having to try to leave everything behind for the woman he loved, just everything. Absolutely love it.
I think a big part of that humanness comes from the fact that they do not have the characters constantly stew in their past on an obvious way, but instead give them the whole range of regular expression which is just informed by the past that weighs them down. I think a lot of series would have just made the tone of the show brooding to communicate the past the characters have, which is just not actually how people cope with the difficulties they have.
They also have realistic moments of weakness and flaws I don’t typically see shows expire. One I think ab often is when Faye runs away from the crew cause she’s scarred they’re going to abandon her. They’re insecure and emotional just like us.
When Ed joined the crew, me: what an annoying character. When she and Ein left: crying my eyes out. This episode, them leaving, Fay drawing and laying down in her imaginary bed, the silent egg eating massacre (with 5 plates!) and then, THAT song, must still be one of the most heartbreaking things I ever watched. And later, one of the best finales to any show I know.
I was much sadder watching Ed's dad being a neglectful parent. Her reaction to it crushes me. Nothing breaks me harder than Fae's receiving her message from the past though. Watching that basically requires therapy lol
I seriously can’t even watch that scene without getting emotional, it’s crazy! It seriously just has control of my heart and breaks me every single time I watch it! It’s weird too because I can listen to Call Me Call Me without feeling a lot of emotion but that scene!! Every single time I watch it broken instantly.
"Call Me Call Me" was my favorite song. I think it expresses the yearning for someone to call you home and ease the frustration of both having no place to belong to in the universe and not knowing how to find that place either. The way Faye tries to cling to her forgotten past is kinda like how someone might reminisce on foggy childhood memories and use the nostalgia to remember what home feels like. The song playing over the sunset scene hit me hard, as if it was a song I used to listen to long ago and had been longing to listen to again.
Call me Call me is one of the songs I used to like to smoke to, Reminds me of home that doesn't exist, reminds me of childhood long gone, reminds me of a love that can't be anymore, reminds me of loved ones that has left to not be followed, reminds me that feeling. And a little disclaimer: I didn't start smoking because social pressure, media, because it looked cool, to be a "rebel", I did it because in my personal case, because of my past, it smelled like home and kept me company in very dark times. Guys, don't smoke, is stupid, will kill you and it hurts your mouth/throat to breath hot smoke.
When asked, I always describe Cowboy Bebop as "A group of main characters, all from different genres, floating on a spaceship and doing side quests before completing their epilogues".
I think what makes this anime so particularly special is how well they make you feel melancholy sadness throughout the entirety of the show. The anime was so good I wish I never watched it. Now I have to live the rest of my life knowing how good it was and live with the fact that its over forever. We're all going to carry that weight.
A year late, but heres the thing we tend to forget in the age of never ending franchise opportunities for maximum profit: Stories, like life, end. They should end. Endings give us the demarcation to weigh what something meant to us. To feel the flow of time. To appreciate it. To borrow from another space traveler, Time is a friend who reminds us to treasure every moment, because they will never come again. Endings are part of how we keep time. Which is how we weigh what we carry forward.
Faye's video still makes me tear up. I never knew "You're gonna carry that weight" was referring to the audience. Bravo! Thanks for making me revisit feelings I didn't know I had for this show. I too was going through tough times and loved great shows like this to get me through.
@@dinogt8477 Yeah, it was a Texas public school system run by conservitards who hate knowledge and science. Thank you for your sympathy. Apparently your school failed you too. Never taught you capitalized letters and punctuation.
I have this electro blues/jazz mix that has snippets of the video mixed in brilliantly, and it gets me every damn time if i stop and listen. That haunting but also reassuring voice as one side desperately tries to encourage their future self, while the other desperately tries to cling to the past. And in a way, might have been the very words that helped keep her from falling deep into a hole she could never get out of. It actually gave me the idea to start sending small letters to myself in the future.
The reason why I love CB so much is the arrangement of characters. The four main characters are one confused by the past (SPIKE), one living in the past (JET), one searching for the past (FAYE), and one not caring about the past (ED). In the end, those who are confused by the past and look for the past make a break with their past, and those who live in the past and don't care about the past accept their past and move on. You can literally apply this to life. In your teenage, you barely remember things when you were kid, just like Ed did. Nothing struggles you, or you might not even understand what your past means to you. After you grow up, you become more like Jet, in which you need to deal with the past that haunts you, take responsibility, and more. Later on, you forget things just like Faye. The memories are lost, and the people you used to live with are no longer vivid in your head. And finally, life comes to an end. Seeing all those stages of life joined together really got me. Feels like we met different friends and finally went our separate ways, which is exactly how life goes. Because after all, we're gonna carry that weight.
A big point of Faye’s last conversation was her accepting and coming to terms with the fact that she was in love with him romantically not just that she considered him his family. The story he tells her about his eye and how he had died once before was his way of telling her that she wanted something he could not give her. It’s her accepting that which she already knew, the man she loved could not love her back the way she wished he would or could. Her sadness is about losing Spike in two ways. She knows that he’s not only not coming back but also that he doesn’t/can’t love her the way she loves him. It’s heartbreaking on multiple layers.
To me, Spike understood how important she was when she left the last time. He was concerned about her and how she left, and he was even relieved after seeing her ship arriving. He was split between both, and even tried to ignore Julia's invitation and only went for it after Jet encouraged him. Faye was, in a last desperate attempt, trying to make him realize he could try something new, but he felt he had to deal with his past before doing anything else, since it was haunting him for years. He wasn't going away to die, he was going to be sure he had a chance to be happy, and not just live a day after the other hoping for a day that could never come. Now Julia is dead, he had to put an end to it, even if it meant he was going to die. And he was sad for leaving, because maybe he felt something for her too. And Faye was even deeply sad because the only thing she build for herself after all these years was breaking apart...
@@einSky I think he most certainly cares about Faye and probably without a doubt had an attraction to her but I think it’s pretty obvious that he was completely devoted to Julia. Faye definitely was trying to let him know that there was another way and another life for him with her but I don’t believe that was ever a possibility for him nor did he ever think it was. I do believe that both of our theories are pretty damn close to being spot on though. Netflix obviously didn’t make this connection so they didn’t understand why it wasn’t a good idea to make her a lesbian. They tried to make it about homophobia but really they just changed the entire dynamic of the bebop crew and of Faye Valentine. They did not understand the assignment.
@jelly C you're right, this dinamic between her and Spike is really precious to the story and it got completely lost in translation. Their relationship creates cool existencial debates trying to understand such complex characters, cause they're hardly direct or even fair to their own thoughts and wishes. After Julia's death he came home as if a chapter of his life was coming to an end, and he made that explicit after he told the cat story and then mocks it saying he doesn't even like cats. As if her death didn't necessarily meant his own death. That's why I really think Spike could have hope for himself after he dealt with his issues.
@@einSky No. Spike said he hated cats because he wanted to defuse the tension of the situation. He was copying Jet, who earlier that day had shared a story with Spike and had then followed it up by stating that he hated that story. Spike did the same thing. Except that Spike was lying when he said that he hated cats. In episode 7, Spike spent some time with Zeroes the cat. There was no hate there. Spike even allowed the cat to sit on his head. The important thing to notice is that Jet was not fooled by Spike's cavalier attitude. The moment that Jet heard that Julia had died, he covered his eyes in devastation. In that moment, he understood the connection with the tale of the tiger striped cat. He understood that Spike was never coming back. *The official guide book described Julia's death as the death of Spike's future.* The song that played after Spike left the Bebop and thought of Julia was about joining Julia in the afterlife. Spike ultimately went from seeing Julia with his eye that saw his past to finally seeing her with his eye that saw his present. Moreover, the tale of the tiger striped cat and the story that Spike told about himself and Julia in the movie were intentionally written to mirror each other. Spike: Years ago, back when I was much younger, I was afraid of nothing. I had not the slightest fear of death. I was ready to die anytime. But then I met a special woman. She made me want to go on living. For the first time, I was afraid of death. A feeling I’d never had before. Elektra: Where is she now? Spike: She went away. Spike: There once was a tiger striped cat. This cat died a million deaths, revived and lived a million lives, and he was owned by various people who he didn’t really care for. The cat wasn’t afraid to die. Then one day the cat became a stray cat, which meant he was free. He met a white female cat, and the two of them spent their days together happily. Well, years passed, and the white cat grew weak and died of old age. The tiger striped cat cried a million times, and then he died too. Except this time, he didn’t come back to life.
another detail im lowkey obsessed with is how so many of the stories orbit around one major event: the the astral gate disaster. like it impacts everyone in some way, starting from the first episode where the old guys complain about having had to build it. and it just keeps getting mentioned in the background, with earth being mostly uninhabitable, impacting how ed grew up, why other characters lived on mars and ganymede (and why mars was so poor and crime-ridden and the issp came about.) its also why that kid was immortal. its the reason theres no info about fayes past. the gate explosions effects pop up so many times, and i think its such a cool world-building detail that really sets the vibe to the show of people just trying to survive the past however they can.
Great catch honestly. I noticed that my first complete watch through because it would come up so randomly but be given this immense weight. What made it really stick out to me is what it did to the Earth. I didn’t realize how similar the crew’s past was, or rather how they were handling it was until this video.
Out of all of them, I feel the worst for Faye. Jet and Spike may have their pasts, but they could settle them one way or another. Faye has... nobody. The few people she knew from her time are all old, and the only one she has left is Jet - no home, no family, no real friends either aside from him. Plus, it's a lot easier to settle your past when it doesn't involve a huge debt. It's been a while since I watched the show and really gave it the big think, but her story just felt like the saddest of them all to me.
Yeah, yes to all that. Can you carry the weight? The weight of the crime, the betrayal, the death of someone by your own hand? Can you carry that pain, metamorphose it into wisdom, even joy? Will you be able to move on? Or will it be a stone weight in your pocket, dragging you deeper into the quagmire of your existence as you add more and more stones in your coat - another man killed, another betrayed, the loss of your ethics, your code ... will you drown, pulled down by the weight of your mistakes? What will it be? Either way, You're gonna carry that weight.
Firstly, your video essay was fantastically structured, edited and presented. As someone who was only ever loved by and only loved one woman, her willingly leaving my life for reasons I couldn't control left me on a numb state for years, unwilling to live and at a point, being a literal step away from suicide. All my dreams and plans had vanished in the most horrible way, and the depression that I had been lifted from, had violently taken me back to the darkest depth I ever knew. Being a weeb, I was told so much about CB and it's main character and his get-go attitude derived from "whatever happens, happens" that it made hard for the entire show to entice with me despite it being an audiovisual _marvel_ Then the entire thing changed as Spike's attitude turned 180 fucking degrees when he learnt that Julia was alive. That Spike, _that_ Spike was the *true* Spike. And when I realized that people had awfully misinterpreted the meaning of him and his ways, _it all clicked together._ I had been there. I had lived that. I had, and then still was, feeling that. I spent years longing for a past that would never come back. To say that I understood him would be a huge understatement. Spike wanted to live again after his death. The death I too, lived. I've been carrying the weight for years. Debt, anxiety, brutal depression. It's a lot lighter now. No love since, but I've got out of debt, established in my job and career, grew, matured I'd have been a good fit in the Bebop. And I would hunt a few bounties and drink some beers the true bro, Spiegel. Thanks for your video and sorry if I went on too long - much like you said, it's uncommon for anime in particular to have this kind of story and it didn't hit close to home - it entirely demolished it. See you, space cowboy.
25:45 That was my favourite side episode. The writing was and symbolism was just top notch. The kid is someone out of time, who can't die. He's accepted his fate, and is just essentially living as an empty husk, waiting for the day that will kill him. He's symbolic of Spike, and when Spike finally kills him, he reaction forshadows spikes at the end.
i remember finishing this show for the first time and just feeling completely broken. i didn't understand why it hurt so much but you and the other two carry that weight video essays have helped me articulate it and really appreciate cowboy bebop
The show struck my soul because what the crew went through, is exactly what I did. Frozen in time, unable to accept and move on from the past. Stuck in a stoic nature, and floating across life as it had no meaning anymore. Showing you can't just live like that anymore, a conclusion I had to come to myself. Like Faye, just accepting the past is gone, and that it's better not to know the full answer. Like Jet where you learned to let go and moved on, and an old part of me that "died" upon letting go. It struck me deep when kt said "You're gonna carry that weight" because no matter what, you need to. It kinda made me realize the half decade I wasted frozen in time. This show cut like no other, and with that is definitely a toptier show for me. You're gonna carry that weight.
Bebop captured me immediately upon its American Release. I was a teenage outcast that loved jazz, modern art, westerns, and sci-fi...it was as if the entire Story was written just for me. I rewatch it every 18 months, like clockwork. You're gonna carry that weight... It is the seminal life lesson that shows what an objective moral basis can be, an understanding that no matter what you do, you will eventually have to carry the entire weight of your actions for good or ill. If pretend you aren't carrying that weight it will catch up to you. If you face that weight, accept it, you can die with a smile on your face. If you ignore it, it will crush you.
I was in college when this show on was playing on adult swim, early 00s. We had watch parties every time it was on. Basically the common room would get filled up while we watch. Yet nobody really spoke about the topics here. The show is so well done that you can get caught up in the absurdity and intensity to the point where these topics, as blunt as they are, can struggle to resonate. It took me a few viewings of the series to really focus on it and find out why I liked it so much. Most people can relate to holding onto the past in an unhealthy way, even when they don't realize that is what they are doing. Even when they don't realize how close to home the show might make them feel.
Cowboy Bebop is among my favorite series, and it's a bit of an anomaly among those. It's by far the oldest series in my top 10 and the only one to really meander in its storytelling, since it doesn't so much tell a continuous story as it does wander through the lives of the crew of the Bebop. It also doesn't really stay there because of its set pieces - though it does have big moments and grand scenes, I think this show is at its best in its quieter, more introspective moments. Cowboy Bebop is one of those classic series that distinguishes itself by being something different, not in a huge, bombastic way but in its subtleties, in its characters, and in how they interweave throughout a story that should constantly pull them apart. Even as endings get bigger and more cinematic, it's the simplicity of this ending, as well as all the complexity behind it, that leave me feeling truly in awe of the series. Love it, and thank you so much for the rundown, brings back great memories. The ending is one of my favorites in any story.
It helps a lot to understand the weird story structure once you realize who the stories are actually about. In the majority of episodes, the crew aren't the actual main characters, despite most of it being told from their perspective. They're accessories to another person's story (usually the bounty target), as those are the ones who undergo an arc and growth or change. When the crew ARE the main characters, you notice their plot moves forward pretty rapidly. And the changes they undergo are very rarely externalized. So without major character change and character growth, while also still acknowledging the events happened, whats really changing is audience understanding. And what makes that have such a huge impact, is how it retroactively changes how you think about previous episodes on subsequent watches. Motivations and behaviors become more layered, despite how little attention the writing draws to it. It also makes it more depressing as you wonder if they could escape the tragedy by changing, but then realizing it probably couldn't happen without it. And throughout most of the show... until they reach a breaking the point and forced to face their past, the characters are basically the same people they started as. Thats why I think there are people who don't understand the show. Its not a normal story. If you don't understand a feeling like melancholy, or depression, or anxiety, that the show spends its entire runtime wallowing in, then little about the show makes sense to you. The time it came out in was basically perfect for an audience to find it. The tail end of an economic boom, as a whole generation was starting to realize their future might be in jeopardy. So in the end, when Spike takes action.... it doesn't feel like a triumph, or liberation, or even anything truly positive. All you feel is his drive to put an end to it, to feel forward momentum. For the first time in who knows how long, to feel motivated. If you found the show in a depressing point in your life, you'll notice those kinds of moments scattered all over the stories. Someone started something, and sometimes its on the Bebop crew to see it through to its end. Good or bad or stupid or reckless, the motivation to at least "see it through" is something that stuck with me about that show all these years later. And when its over, its effects are never really gone. "You're gonna carry that weight". Even as you're moving forward, its still a part of you.
I didn't cry a single time throughout the show. A lot of times I felt sad, but it all hit me when those last few words popped up. "You're gonna carry that weight"
I think the great thing about the final title slide "You're Gonna Carry That Weight" is that it can mean so many things. To me, not only did it represent the weight the past brings on to us until we can finally face it, but it also represent a sort of melancholy optimism. It feels like it's trying to say that it may be tough, and it may be a hard journey, but in then end you WILL carry that weight; it's a dual message I think myself and a lot of others really needed to hear at the time of watching the show. Side note, I can never hear "Blue" and not immediately begin at the very least tearing up if not outright crying, so I think that's pretty exemplary of how I feel about the show.
Same regarding Blue. I got the news when I was at work one day that a friend committed suicide. I started scrolling through my music library looking for something appropriate to that moment, and Blue almost immediately came up. It was perfect. And then at her funeral, I found out she had cerebral palsy and life had become unbearable for her. I had no idea. She carried that weight so well. I only knew vaguely that she had health problems and would always get worn down and duck out of gatherings early. It became even more perfect. Since then it's the most powerfully bittersweet song about death I know, even beating out Great Gig in the Sky. Whenever I'm thinking about dead friends or family or need a private send off for a new loss, it's the song I turn to every time. It so perfectly describes the only release from carrying that weight. I've always fantasized about going to one of those talent shows like American Idol (intentionally dating myself there) and doing a perfect soulful performance of Blue just to turn the judges and live audience into a blubbering mess and make several million people cry all at once.
If you've never watched Anime before. Watch Cowboy Bebop. It's just a breathtaking series but you only realise it after it all ends. Fey's episode made me cry and cry and cry. Words cannot describe the pure vision Watanabe has. He apparently had the end scene in his head and worked backwards. Thank you for this.
I have "You're Gonna Carry That Weight." tattooed down the underside of my left arm. I know what you mean, it's hard to put it into words, much less a TH-cam comment. Just know it's always nice to find someone else who gets it. Great vid 🙂
I work at a wedding venue sometimes and this perfectly illustrates it. We see ppls lives change and are unaffected all while floating through our own crap day by day and loving the crew even though were all fumbling our ways through and growing all to eventually leave and the story to end. I'm gonna share this with some of them
If you want a similar crushing, hopeless despair as Real Folk Blues pt2, where the writers twist the knife in your back while laughing, I would recommend Arcane. Different characters and setting but a really fundamental similar view on tragedy.
What I’ve always loved about the show was how there’s almost zero exposition. And the exposition there is is relating to things that just don’t really matter. It’s a show AFTER everything interesting has already happened. You just get to know about these people through what happened in their “after”. Their “Mexico” if you will. As someone whose gone through a bunch in life and is on their way to making their mexico, that always resonated with me as a kid. Before I even got out of all that. Now that I’m out, I need my ship, partners and dog I don’t like so to speak. Once I get there I’ll probably be able to let go of that weight. Maybe not. Either way whatever happens happens.
Thank you for this- it’s hard to put my love of this show into words, or explain to anyone WHY it’s so incredible- and you’ve made this so eloquent and compelling ❤ Now off to show this to my friends that are so tired of me trying to convince them to watch it😅
I watched the show on Adult Swim back when we chiseled letters into stone. There weren't even hipsters back then. I loved this show so much. It is both brilliant and funny that you have rightly explained what I loved so much when I wasn't aware of it to this degree. Thank you. I have to go watch the series again.
The show was there for me during some dark times in my life. At the time I was too young to fully understand all of its meanings. With every rewatch over the years I seemed to pick up on something new. This last round has been particularly emotional for me as I have been dealing with the loss of a spouse who had been my best friend since childhood.
The Edward Faye Ein segment made me cry it was legitimately moving.... Thank you for the experience. I am sending this video to my sister because I don't think she has taken in the ramifications of the series. You have done a great thing here. Never stop.
Ever since I heard that line "whatever happens, happens" I've loved it. Beacuse it's true for just about everything. Dwelling on it isn't going to change what happens, it just... Happens. No matter what you think of it.
I've always loved cowboy Bebop. But I never really understood that final line until my father died . Because God I'm carrying that weight now. Great video by the way
I liked Cowboy Bebop because it seemed ahead of its time with episodes about AI, intergalactic wars and corrupt police/government, and even the movie that had the airborne virus. It was like a futuristic action show and everything about it made it exciting especially Spike's episodes. The way you felt personally invested in finding out the mystery behind the character's lives and how they ended up made the show grab your attention. Also I liked the ending, it wasn't some cliche everybody lived happily ever after, achieved their goals and all the conflicts ended with a Disney resolution. It had a realistic ending and the characters were forced to make decisions about events that occurred in their past, whether good or bad. Even with the ambiguity of Spike's death, it felt fitting in a sense
What's crazy is just seeing the scene where the Woman and her Husband are fleeing in the ship with the Red Eye, For a second, literally triggered me to start crying.
Amazing that you caught me in the same place you were- a few months removed from watching the show, and feeling the longing to watch it again. This video is beautiful, thank you.
Beautifully put together 😢 Emotions ran through me with each passing minute of this video…and just as the final goodbye, left me longing for just one more time with the crew. To me it’s more of “I want to see them happy. I don’t want them to have a sad ending. I want them to stay together and be happy” but such is life.
I'm glad that I waited till I'm old enough to watch Cowboy Bebop. I know it's something that my younger self could not comprehend - love, friendship, compassion, and so much more. When I knew I had to carry that weight, I find myself listening to Green Bird, hopelessly bawling my eyes out, knowing that I had lost a fictional friend who had already made his mind on a journey without return.
nahhhh I first watched it at twelve years old and im glad i did. Was one of the first pieces of media to give me that "empty" feeling. And since i have watched it at least once a year since 2001 I find more and more little details with each viewing. You aren't meant to watch it once and get the entire message, you're supposed to watch it many times. And over the years my perspective on the show has grown along with my own personal growth.
@@mookiestewart3776 I really like this message and you know what I agree, it's a heavy show disguised as a 26 episode action-comedy anime riddled with meaning and one watch simply isn't enough to digest it all.
People who arent deep into anime dont realize its a culmination of some of the best anime talent up until that point. One of which is Watanabe, his pedigree is working on other great sci fi anime such as many of the Gundam titles and a Macross movie, very premiere and top franchise of the age, and still are today. He also a huge music enthusiast, especially western music, and a very good ear for it, even working just on the music parts of many anime shows in the future. Another thing many people gloss over is many of the animators of the show are animators of Gundam. The studio that made CB is Sunrise, the very same studio that has made the scifi mech space opera Gundam franchise since 1979, even to this very day. Many people outside anime dont realize how large this IP of Gundam is, one of the top 25 earning media franchises in the world. Without throwing unheard of names and events to you guys, their quality of their works has always been very high when they make a new show or movie, thats why Gundam has been so very popular over the decades to today. I dont want to go into a huge essay about it but trust me, we are fortunate that Cowboy Bebop is the culmination point of some of the greatest talent in the anime industry at that point in time.
@Flying Walrus - That final message was deeply relatable, It also helped me find peace between storms, thank you for putting it so eloquently and it was wholesome to watch, thanks!
Thanks for writing this. It's a pretty solid explanation of the "feeling" of the show, which is I think what attracts a lot of people. The drifting, the meaninglessness of life without love, the horror of knowing that every day thousands of people with whole lives and beautiful stories die and nothing about the world changes, like our little lives are nothing in the grand scheme of things. I still use the metaphor of each soul being like sand falling through god's fingers like it fell through the Native woman's hands while she decribes Spike's end. It captures that feeling of being indifferent to your own existence, searching for something that will finally remind you that you're alive, and that maybe that matters. Even if you never find meaning in existence, the search means something. I first watched Bebop on adult swim when I was about 8. I absolutely fell in love with it, but I wasn't nearly old enough to understand the show or why it struck such a chord in me. Well, it turns out I was already suffering from serious depression, n the show made me feel at home, like I was with people who understood what it felt like to drift listlessly through existence with no tangible meaning to hold onto until we find people who get it. We find others who are searching, or just drifting too, n at least there's comradery in the emptiness. We're all damaged in some way, n it's always related to our pasts. I don't know how I vibed with the show so much at 8, but as I got older, over and over, I found something new to relate to every time. Honestly, I think i started smoking at 12 because I identified so much with Spike. I was a depressed but romantic kid hiding from his own emotions. N waddya know? I fell for a girl who gave my life meaning for 5 years, n when we broke up because of my self destructive tendencies got out of control, once again, life lost all meaning. I'd do anything just to feel something. I don't know how many times I've watched the show. Pobably at least 10 times in 20 years. The older i get, the more i realize how magnificent it is. It's like a more self aware, Japanese Hemingway novel lol. On its surface it promotes this "devil may care" ideal of masculinity. One so many young men aspire to. When you dig deeper, though, it's a biting critique of stunted men who can't move on in life because we've lost the only thing we've ever felt safe enough to expose ourselves to. We're so all or nothing. These days I often play it for girls who are in love with me, or at least their idea of me. Maybe I'm in love with the idea of me that I built based on this show too lol. If they get it, if it at least resonates, I know I'm in good company. If it doesn't, we'll it's not a deal breaker, but I know they're not in love with my romanticized self destruction. Anyway, long story short, every time I rewatch the show, I find something new. To me, that's the mark of true art. I mean I'm sure it's been studied in literature classes before, but if not, it should be. Bebop is a masterpiece, n yeah you can call me an annoying hipster, but it will always be my favorite anime.
Dude that final episode gives me goosebumps when it says you're going to carry that weight that stuck to me to this day ever since I finished the show rest in peace Spike you'll never be forgotten
i didn't think it was possible to for me to love cowboy bebop more than i already do, but you've done it. you've put into words things that were only feelings before, and thus given me an even deeper appreciation of something very meaningful to me already. thank you.
This video essay came at the perfect time for me. I just watched the finale of Cowboy Bebop for the first time last night, and safe to say I can feel that weight. Thanks for putting this out there to help me process it.
I’ve watched this show on repeat for years, never claimed it to be my top 3 but has been my consistent go to for processing pain and what ever suffering I am going through, as well as a nice lullaby before bed. Watching this video unlocked/articulated so much of my love for this show it’s eye watering good. As much as I may have known about Bebop it’s nice to see someone else’s perspective and appreciation as having a new take adds further to my own appreciation. Thank you for this, it’s fitting for this show.
Before even watching the video and only seeing bebop once…I felt exactly how you do about the show. Once I was done, I felt a sudden emptiness, same with champloo
going through a hell of a depression currently...thank you for reminding me how this show comforted me as well, time for a re-watch. amazing breakdown as well, hit all the right points
I felt this explanation in my soul...it's my all time favorite series, and the Bebop crew were there for me (for comfort, laughs, and lessons) whenever I didn't even have a friend. So glad you articulated this perfectly. I also believe, in addition to carrying the weight of these characters' stories, it's a lesson in life. What you do, how you treat others, and how you see yourself...it all comes back around...and no matter what, we all gotta carry that weight ❤💯
I've watched this show for so long, since adult swim late at night on cartoon network during college, all the way up to now as I try to figure out what I want next in life. Everytime I watch it, I think I have something memorized and understood, but then I see something old in a new perspective. Catching the subtle meanings of different situations, realizing how my early bias led me to ignore something significant, and experiencing the roller coaster of emotions with substantially more impact. Just hearing "call me" brings me to tears, seeing Ed meet her father again and playing chess with the chess master brings so much joy, and seeing Spike struggle on with that fake smile reminds me of the depression he's hiding... Can go on and on. Your video captures all of this.
If i hadnt seen this vid in my recommended I would have never watched this breathtaking philosophical journey. Thanks man. Im glad i got this new weight to carry around
We all carry the weight, it's the cost of living and memories. Cowboy Bebop has a special place in my soul too. I think it's truly perfection. But it also couldn't be without the music which has a huge responsibility of symbolizing what words can't. The heavy jazz, light hearted funk, opening & closing themes, it wouldn't be where it is in history without it. Thank you for your content which is incredibly thoughtful and composed. Edit: I'd love to know your thoughts on the movie. I thought it could have easily fit into the series and wonder if it was originally planned to be/that it was cut because it was too long for one episode.
Fantastic analysis, sir! I’ll always go back to this show for the lessons, experiences and emotions that come with it. There is something very special about the crew of the Bebop that you just can’t find anywhere else. Thank you for your work 🙏
Thank you for this man. Great play by play. One of my favourites growing up and i could never quite describe to people why they should get into it but i always remember the feelings the show gave me.
I am 74 and watch way too much anime. Thanks for this essay. I always consider Bebop to be about the concept of Home and what it means for different people. I really enjoyed your thoughts.
I’ve been doing a good bit or writing lately and I find it funny how much of it is inspired by this video. I’ve never seen the show mind you, and yet you’ve portrayed it in a way that’s very captivating. Thank you
Two things, and THANK YOU for this review. -The First is that when you said "Spike wants to know if his choices were worth it', especially in the world of silent outer space, I then thought back to Sir Antonius Bloch, the knight from The Seventh Seal (1957), who while playing chess with Death himself, is also asking 'were all my choices in life worth it?' That hit me hard, too. -The Second, is--can you do a review of Outlaw Star? I know, compared to Cowboy Bebop, it is kinda a shallow, wacky cartoon, and yet I've watched the series four or so times now (plus the edited one on Toonami) and I keep thinking to myself 'why the heck is this show so charming?' Unfortunately, I don't think I can sedge it out. So if you need any ideas, I suggest a review of Outlaw Star!
@@JulianCaesaro It's a wild ride; personally, it was a shock at first cause I watched the censored, dubbed Toonami run, then I found the uncensored English and Japanese editions. [Note: If you get it, I actually prefer the black undergarments on a certain character...]
I remember catching these episodes when I could as a kid. . Had very little idea what was going on but the music was great and the characters were intriguing. . . Watching it three more times when I got older and it only became more appealing to me . . Great job here!
Wow, this resonated with me DEEP.. I had almost the exact experience as you when I first watched CB. I saw it on adult swim and never thought too much about it until a few months later... After I binged it I was in tears that everyone went their separate ways and hated the creators for ripping my heart out. But after rewatching it a 3rd time everything clicked, the point of the show.. was that your past will have consequences on your future. you're gonna carry that weight. Thank you so much for putting this into words in the best way and letting me relive the feeling of the show.
Great video. Enjoyed every second of it. I couldn't agree more with you. Having just finished watching it for the first time I'm already experiencing that longing to go back to the BeBop. Thank you for this.
That pain, that yearning that you describe, is exactly what i feel at the end of Mass Effect 3. Wanting to spend more time in the Normandy with the crew. Also sidenote, form the moment Ed was introduced it bacame my favorite character. It is joy and happines taken form.
I wish there was a super like. Sometimes I feel alone in my overwhelmingly positive opinion of Bebop. This anime still remains, after roughly 14 years since first watching, my favorite anime to date. And that's saying something considering as of right now, I've watched ~400 anime. You made the same emotions I experienced upon first watch come flooding back. Thank you. Seriously.
I started CB january 2020, pre-pandemic but stopped halfway because I thought it wasn’t really going anywhere. A friend of mine encouraged me to keep watching and started back where I left. Now I finished the whole series and it hits hard after those three years that have passed … I can say it’s one of my favorite shows
Cowboy beebop encapsulates the saying i once heard for me " you may have missed the meaning, but your Brain sure didn't"; i had the same feelings the first time i saw the Cowboy beebop, then it sort of hit; funnily enough it hit when i was out doing grocery's with my parents then it clicked. everything came flooding in and i sat in a bench in Walmart for an entire hour; " Its china town jake"
This. All of this. Thank you. I've felt this way about CW since it first came out. I first watched this about 20 years ago, and nothing, absolutely nothing has come close. I even have most of the music in my commuter playlist, so I listen to it almost every day. ♥
This is the only anime/show in general that has almost made me tear up. That ending just hits, and I am not typically an emotional person when it comes to this type of stuff. 10/10 anime
Funny you use Edgerunner soundtrack to emphasize your point about the feeling of Cowboy Bebop, because everything you say can be transposed to this show as well, even if Cyberpunk ends in a more bombastic way for everyone involved, except maybe Falco and Lucy, I felt in David and his crew what you felt watching Cowboy Bebop. Few shows does this well, but they embark you in a family and witnessing this family destruction will absolutely demolish your soul. So I started it again, to re-live the good, the bad and the ugly and I started it again, and I stopped at the point where it seemed to me that the crew was the most happy, and then I stopped. Like a family picture in my soul, frozen in time at a point where I like it, before the catastrophe I know will happen... but has not happened yet. Also, my favorite episode is Mad Pierrot. I loved your video
Bebop and Firefly came into my life around the same time and hit me in the same way. Two shows that I still watch again and again and still move me every time.
Its the perfection of hardboiled film noir expanded into a whole crew but also its own thing with the pure sentimentality of it all. This and foolie coolie are my forever jams. Good observations, expressed well, good job bro.
I have tried three times to watch this show. I could never get into it or see the point. Finally, someone has given me the perspective I think will actually help me appreciate it. Thank you.
Just finished the series again for the 2nd time after about 7 years, felt like the first time again. Beautiful video and couldn't agree more about the feelings this show conveys in oneself.
It's a great review and adds more to a collection of commentaries of high quality and much feeling. I have a specific praise: your part "in defense of the clowns" so to speak, of Ein and Ed. Well done.
Thank you so much to everyone that has joined me so far as I rant about things I love, primarily writing. I remember when I was hesitant to share my opinions on the internet because I wasn't "qualified." You have all shown me I was very wrong about that assumption.
Also, if you want to support the channel, you can support on Patreon and get access to longer videos a week early. www.patreon.com/flyingwalrus
@Flying Walrus, i really enjoy the way you look at and explain what you see or feel with these series or movies. you just made me connect with a series i haven't even watched before.
i thought it was strange for me to connect it to a personal level of hurt, but the way arcane and maybe vander in partcular hit you, it felt like someone else understood. your way of thinking and explaining made things clear for me, even removed some of the weight. i want to thank you for this and hope you're doing well.
You can't qualify for something that has no qualifications.
I know why you were so hesitant about it. Most anime is shit. And it is an internet everybody is stranger and communication is limited. It is far more difficult to note when one is lying or trolling. You can have bad luck of meeting some sadist who would make you watch some shit like infamous Boku No Pico. But you reviewed some good films with love. There was no vain or any toxicity. So I think that you have built a good community the one you can trust.
I know it is slightly off topic, and I know you will never do this because it makes too many other people upset...
But I wish you, and others, could stop putting in Spoiler Warnings.
I feel that if you knowing some basics about a show, and it ruins the show for you, it likely was not a very noteworthy bit of entertainment in the first place.
I don't tell people how awesome Full Metal Alchemist is, I just tell them its about some cool version of alchemy, with two poor boys trying to fix the world.......
Then let them be crushed by EDO...WADO...EDO-WADO... EDWARD.....
It is my personal little test. If somebody can get that far into FMA BH, and they don't have their soul absolutely obliterated and scattered across the abyss.....if they dont cry at that episode, they can't be a human. Clearly a lizzard person.
But the show talks for its self. I cry still sometimes just thinking about how horrible that really truly was.
The show talks for its self. I could literally run a play-by-play of the entire story...and the show would never be less fucking amazing.
I know it is not your problem, nor your fault...I just get sick of hearing "spoiler warning" from everybody...
YOU CAN'T TALK ABOUT A STORY WITHOUT REVEALING THE STORY.
People are absolutely crazy, if "spoilers" ruin it for you.
Thanks man didn’t know I needed this video❤
There's a writing rule for dialogue that says characters should never say exactly what they mean. Everything they say should be filtered through who they are as a character. Nobody on the beebop ever says exactly what they mean. It's always a "story" they heard or a joke. Everyone is indirect. It's so well done
That's called "subtlety" and "subtext", and it's an incredibly effective method to use to get your point across without having to expend unnecessary and wasted resources just trying to get your audience to invest in themselves without them also feeling like you will just want to waste their time with exposition or bad jokes or nonsense and then lose them. Shows like Cowboy Bebop, Nickelodeon's Golden Age of SpongeBob and Courage the Cowardly Dog and more, along with Cartoon Network's Adventure Time, Steven Universe, and more that I would be spending all day here listing, several anime studios like Studio Ghibli's nearly everything including their work on Lupin the 3rd, The better parts of The Simpsons, the better parts of Disney movies, and just a whole lot of other stuff.
Basically, my point is that when you get someone who understands how making stuff to get an audience invested should work, and how to appropriately get them invested without resorting to gimmicks, especially holding them hostage at Fear Of Missing Out gunpoint, then you get great shows that you can choose to watch, not content that you have to watch at their most necessary and content that you could play in the background to kill some time or to fill the quiet with while you cook or do your work.
Wanring to the wise, no rule in writing is universal.
This is a very common thing in writing in America and even way more so in Japan, because these are conversation styles of those nations. Japanese love to say everything around the point, and so do Americans, but to a lesser degree.
But in places like India, people say the point or they don't say anything.
Its direct and to many from America or Japan, overtly blunt and even rude as a communication style...but it's a cultural thing.
If you write for an American or Japanese audience, vagueness is useful, but if you are writing a character from another culture than those one's or writing for another audience...the rules you think are universal...fade away to nothing and in fact, could be considered bad writing.
Keep that in mind.
@@brazenzebra9581 I think somethings are universal, humans are pretty similar across the globe. There is a reason why so much of bollywood or japanese or south korean cinema resonates so well with western audiences. I am of course including all french and british etc... as western cinema. Even the stories from some of the 3rd world countries that have been translated to English that I read in school.
I think there are universal guidelines, no hard set rules though.
@@Lastofthefreenames
Pretty wrong, my friend. I highly recommend reading old literature, I'm talking 2000+ years. The most popular of that era, doesn't even resemble something of quality in this one. Every convention, rule, guideline and concept is...completely turned on its head. Things that are now cliche and foolish, were then brilliant and new, things that are now over the top and silly, where then soohiscated and complex.
There are no universal guidelines, only opinions and people desire to please them.
@@brazenzebra9581Then very few people were literate enough to enjoy Fictional Literature, even fewer could write it and even fewer were great at writing. But still they are a lot of timeless masterpieces from that period that still resonate. Art of war, The Tao, heck even the Bible. I think they are universal guidelines.
What I found most compelling about this show (though I didn't realize it when watching, tbf) was this theme of moving and moving without actually reaching your goals, being lost in the process and being fullfilled by that alone while still experiencing the loss of not accomplishing what you set out to do in the first place, but accepting it as part of life
yo fuck that I taught myself how to make websites almost 2 years ago and never accepted giving up, today I passed my 4th interview (1 with each of 4 different companies) and am gonna get the position.
@@BusinessWolf1ok nerd lol
You should contact Sir John Hippolight to help plan your financial future. He can speak with the dead.
you just described golf lol
@@BusinessWolf1 Congrats! This is why we don't give up; if we can make that dream happen, then we shouldn't stop until we accomplish our goals. If you need to re-analyse the approach or the path, then that's always fine. Just keep your eyes on the horizon for the eventual sunrise 🌅 ✨️
if i had a nickel for every cowboy bebop video essay titled “you’re gonna carry that weight”, i’d had 3 nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird it happened thrice.
True
True, but it does tend to happen when the most important line of the show is, "You're Gonna Carry that Weight."
@@AFlyingWalrus BANG
Really, stealing jokes from phinese and ferb. Kinda weird.
@@EladOSRS _You're_ wierd for not liking it, so shut the fuck up and quit your complaining. Some people like this shit.
The fridge episode is a one off, but it also showcases the main theme of the show in 20 some minutes. When you put things off for too long, they’ll catch up with you.
My favourite episode
It's an Alien tribute too.
Space Dandy has a Dawn Of The Dead tribute episode and the whole show is a tribute to John Carpenter's Darkstar + a remade version of Julie's theme by John Carpenter in John Carpenter's Assault On Precinct 13 renamed Napoleon & Bishop, the 2 main characters of Assault On Precinct 13.
To me they are all parts to a single person the grounding father figure, the rebellious teen, the self destructive stoic and the whimsical child. To me they represent the stages of growing up.
That's an interesting way to look at it
So that’s why it tore me apart when they split up fuck me.
Woah, nice way of reading it
and dog.
@@emilky2869 Your instincts
I think Ed has the most chances of changing her life. She is young and doesn't carry as many regrets and memories as the rest of the crew. I think, that's why her leaving Bebop felt so significant. The mood shifts immediately.
her leaving is because ed is ed, she set no roots, the rest of the crew leaned on each other but would never admit it, ed never needed to care, life is. life is ed. a 13yo taking a dog you won in a gunfight? lolz
Spoiler alert⚠️ she grows up to work in the sex trade to pay for her "red eye" 😳
Spoiler alert ⚠️
She ends up in the sex trade to pay for her "red eye"
Ed has no gender.
@@ianfarris9396 she specifically says in one episode "ed is a girl", when someone calls her a boy.
“See you cowgirl, someday somewhere”
I’m not crying 🤧🤧🤧🤧
Cowboy Bebop came into my life during THE darkest time in my life. 2003, I'd always wanted to see a "real" anime as the Dragonballs and Digimons of the world didn't appeal to me yet. Having started the series on Session 5 Ballad of the Fallen Angels, I was hooked. How a show could be melancholy but humorous with a soundtrack and provide characters that stood out above anything else that was on TV.
Granted, I was only 13 years old at the time but a head above the rest so to speak. It was a soothing adventure with characters I was slowly growing attached to. Then I watched the Hard Luck Woman.
See, I was essentially homeless at the time. Living in my aunt's garage, abandoned by my mother. So that sense of belonging really hit hard. REALLY hit hard.
Cowboy Bebop was my rock from then forward. Many anime came and went but that was my mainstay. Rewatching in it's entirety 40 maybe 50 times, I kid you not.
I was lucky enough to meet the cast a few years ago at a convention. They were fantastic. And at that point it felt like my life had come full circle. I was working, living on my own, looking forward to the future.
Sorry for the boring story, but tremendous video and for some unexpected spilled tears remembering the weight I used to carry.
Never apologize for sharing your story.
See you Space Cowboy...
cowboy bebop is such a great series, i've watched it many times myself
bang...😎👍
Watched Cowboy Bebop during a very dark period of my life too. At that time, it was hard to watch anything because it seemed to me that every story tried to teach me some morals and I was just too tired and vulnerable to listen. What was special about Cowboy Bebop is it didn't preach, it just let me walk along the characters. I think that journey impacted me a lot and brought motivation to do something about my life. Ironic, considering how the bebop crew is stuck in their past.
I hope you're doing great in your life. Thanks for sharing your story.
Thank you for sharing tht with us. I'm sorry you went thru tht mental and emotional suffering. But you carried tht weight and did it well. I'm proud of you. I hope you're proud of yourself too, cowboy.
@@AFlyingWalrus this response had me bursting in tears from all my emotions over the years. of just wandering through life, not wanting to be a burden on anyone's busy lives by avoiding sharing my pain. though it may have been to someone else, it was soemthing i needed to hear. Thank you
This show really got me, it simply was and then simply wasn't, fizzling out as each got both closure and the melancholic acceptance that it will not and cannot be the same as it once was because regardless time will continue to move forward even while you yourself remain stuck in the past.
I think that’s why edge runners was so good to many, it borrows that same feeling from bebop.
“Lex Fridman is dangerous” 18 min inspirational video on TH-cam ends w the poem “if” by R Kipling
@@lomein9751 is it really similar?? I’ve put off watching the cyberpunk show but I’ve heard it’s really good, if it’s similar to bebop im putting it at the top of my winter break list lol
@@raphaelpralong126 it’s similar in the emotions it evokes, but faster and more brutal, but not sadder. They are both equally depressing.
An old quote i recall from.. something i cant remember.
"Life is always moving forwards with the eternal hands of the ticking clock. Where will you be when the clock strikes twelve?"
I think what really draws me into Bebop is how human the characters are. It’s a small step beyond just relatable. But really human and “real”, like I’m looking into their lives and how deep it all gets for them. From Faye literally missing out on her entire life, or Spike having to try to leave everything behind for the woman he loved, just everything. Absolutely love it.
I think a big part of that humanness comes from the fact that they do not have the characters constantly stew in their past on an obvious way, but instead give them the whole range of regular expression which is just informed by the past that weighs them down. I think a lot of series would have just made the tone of the show brooding to communicate the past the characters have, which is just not actually how people cope with the difficulties they have.
@@tylerreed2409NJ. The. Zc c, b mm. Mo. N b
They also have realistic moments of weakness and flaws I don’t typically see shows expire. One I think ab often is when Faye runs away from the crew cause she’s scarred they’re going to abandon her. They’re insecure and emotional just like us.
When Ed joined the crew, me: what an annoying character.
When she and Ein left: crying my eyes out.
This episode, them leaving, Fay drawing and laying down in her imaginary bed, the silent egg eating massacre (with 5 plates!) and then, THAT song, must still be one of the most heartbreaking things I ever watched.
And later, one of the best finales to any show I know.
I was like, where is she going find food in that wasteland? And then Ein went after her and I was like oh whew.
@@sorenkair LMAO the implications!
I was much sadder watching Ed's dad being a neglectful parent. Her reaction to it crushes me. Nothing breaks me harder than Fae's receiving her message from the past though. Watching that basically requires therapy lol
I seriously can’t even watch that scene without getting emotional, it’s crazy! It seriously just has control of my heart and breaks me every single time I watch it! It’s weird too because I can listen to Call Me Call Me without feeling a lot of emotion but that scene!! Every single time I watch it broken instantly.
@@sorenkair S T O P
"Call Me Call Me" was my favorite song. I think it expresses the yearning for someone to call you home and ease the frustration of both having no place to belong to in the universe and not knowing how to find that place either. The way Faye tries to cling to her forgotten past is kinda like how someone might reminisce on foggy childhood memories and use the nostalgia to remember what home feels like. The song playing over the sunset scene hit me hard, as if it was a song I used to listen to long ago and had been longing to listen to again.
Call me Call me is one of the songs I used to like to smoke to, Reminds me of home that doesn't exist, reminds me of childhood long gone, reminds me of a love that can't be anymore, reminds me of loved ones that has left to not be followed, reminds me that feeling.
And a little disclaimer: I didn't start smoking because social pressure, media, because it looked cool, to be a "rebel", I did it because in my personal case, because of my past, it smelled like home and kept me company in very dark times. Guys, don't smoke, is stupid, will kill you and it hurts your mouth/throat to breath hot smoke.
lame
Same it’s such a emotionally pointe piece of music, and it’s why I’m honored to own the vinyl of the soundtrack.
@@joshshrum2764 ayo same
cowboy bebop is the only show that can be a western, sci-fi, mafia, bounty hunt, but every moment feels real
Firefly
When asked, I always describe Cowboy Bebop as "A group of main characters, all from different genres, floating on a spaceship and doing side quests before completing their epilogues".
The idea that the show was the falling action for their lives is genius
I think what makes this anime so particularly special is how well they make you feel melancholy sadness throughout the entirety of the show. The anime was so good I wish I never watched it. Now I have to live the rest of my life knowing how good it was and live with the fact that its over forever. We're all going to carry that weight.
A year late, but heres the thing we tend to forget in the age of never ending franchise opportunities for maximum profit:
Stories, like life, end. They should end. Endings give us the demarcation to weigh what something meant to us. To feel the flow of time. To appreciate it.
To borrow from another space traveler, Time is a friend who reminds us to treasure every moment, because they will never come again.
Endings are part of how we keep time. Which is how we weigh what we carry forward.
I watch this anime the most out of all my other favorites. It is replayable and the whole show makes you feel involved and in the setting they’re in.
Jesus, this is on point...
The first episode is one of the best tone-setters out there.
Faye's video still makes me tear up. I never knew "You're gonna carry that weight" was referring to the audience. Bravo! Thanks for making me revisit feelings I didn't know I had for this show. I too was going through tough times and loved great shows like this to get me through.
your school failed you
@@dinogt8477 Yeah, it was a Texas public school system run by conservitards who hate knowledge and science. Thank you for your sympathy. Apparently your school failed you too. Never taught you capitalized letters and punctuation.
I have this electro blues/jazz mix that has snippets of the video mixed in brilliantly, and it gets me every damn time if i stop and listen. That haunting but also reassuring voice as one side desperately tries to encourage their future self, while the other desperately tries to cling to the past. And in a way, might have been the very words that helped keep her from falling deep into a hole she could never get out of. It actually gave me the idea to start sending small letters to myself in the future.
@@DaMoniable That sounds delightful.
I fucking broke down during that, and the ending i didn’t cry at the end i just felt shaken up, but happy for experiencing it.
The reason why I love CB so much is the arrangement of characters.
The four main characters are one confused by the past (SPIKE), one living in the past (JET), one searching for the past (FAYE), and one not caring about the past (ED).
In the end, those who are confused by the past and look for the past make a break with their past, and those who live in the past and don't care about the past accept their past and move on.
You can literally apply this to life. In your teenage, you barely remember things when you were kid, just like Ed did. Nothing struggles you, or you might not even understand what your past means to you. After you grow up, you become more like Jet, in which you need to deal with the past that haunts you, take responsibility, and more. Later on, you forget things just like Faye. The memories are lost, and the people you used to live with are no longer vivid in your head. And finally, life comes to an end.
Seeing all those stages of life joined together really got me. Feels like we met different friends and finally went our separate ways, which is exactly how life goes. Because after all, we're gonna carry that weight.
A big point of Faye’s last conversation was her accepting and coming to terms with the fact that she was in love with him romantically not just that she considered him his family. The story he tells her about his eye and how he had died once before was his way of telling her that she wanted something he could not give her. It’s her accepting that which she already knew, the man she loved could not love her back the way she wished he would or could. Her sadness is about losing Spike in two ways. She knows that he’s not only not coming back but also that he doesn’t/can’t love her the way she loves him. It’s heartbreaking on multiple layers.
To me, Spike understood how important she was when she left the last time. He was concerned about her and how she left, and he was even relieved after seeing her ship arriving. He was split between both, and even tried to ignore Julia's invitation and only went for it after Jet encouraged him. Faye was, in a last desperate attempt, trying to make him realize he could try something new, but he felt he had to deal with his past before doing anything else, since it was haunting him for years. He wasn't going away to die, he was going to be sure he had a chance to be happy, and not just live a day after the other hoping for a day that could never come. Now Julia is dead, he had to put an end to it, even if it meant he was going to die. And he was sad for leaving, because maybe he felt something for her too. And Faye was even deeply sad because the only thing she build for herself after all these years was breaking apart...
@@einSky I think he most certainly cares about Faye and probably without a doubt had an attraction to her but I think it’s pretty obvious that he was completely devoted to Julia. Faye definitely was trying to let him know that there was another way and another life for him with her but I don’t believe that was ever a possibility for him nor did he ever think it was. I do believe that both of our theories are pretty damn close to being spot on though. Netflix obviously didn’t make this connection so they didn’t understand why it wasn’t a good idea to make her a lesbian. They tried to make it about homophobia but really they just changed the entire dynamic of the bebop crew and of Faye Valentine. They did not understand the assignment.
@jelly C you're right, this dinamic between her and Spike is really precious to the story and it got completely lost in translation. Their relationship creates cool existencial debates trying to understand such complex characters, cause they're hardly direct or even fair to their own thoughts and wishes. After Julia's death he came home as if a chapter of his life was coming to an end, and he made that explicit after he told the cat story and then mocks it saying he doesn't even like cats. As if her death didn't necessarily meant his own death. That's why I really think Spike could have hope for himself after he dealt with his issues.
@@einSky No. Spike said he hated cats because he wanted to defuse the tension of the situation. He was copying Jet, who earlier that day had shared a story with Spike and had then followed it up by stating that he hated that story. Spike did the same thing. Except that Spike was lying when he said that he hated cats. In episode 7, Spike spent some time with Zeroes the cat. There was no hate there. Spike even allowed the cat to sit on his head. The important thing to notice is that Jet was not fooled by Spike's cavalier attitude. The moment that Jet heard that Julia had died, he covered his eyes in devastation. In that moment, he understood the connection with the tale of the tiger striped cat. He understood that Spike was never coming back.
*The official guide book described Julia's death as the death of Spike's future.* The song that played after Spike left the Bebop and thought of Julia was about joining Julia in the afterlife. Spike ultimately went from seeing Julia with his eye that saw his past to finally seeing her with his eye that saw his present. Moreover, the tale of the tiger striped cat and the story that Spike told about himself and Julia in the movie were intentionally written to mirror each other.
Spike: Years ago, back when I was much younger, I was afraid of nothing. I had not the slightest fear of death. I was ready to die anytime. But then I met a special woman. She made me want to go on living. For the first time, I was afraid of death. A feeling I’d never had before.
Elektra: Where is she now?
Spike: She went away.
Spike: There once was a tiger striped cat. This cat died a million deaths, revived and lived a million lives, and he was owned by various people who he didn’t really care for. The cat wasn’t afraid to die. Then one day the cat became a stray cat, which meant he was free. He met a white female cat, and the two of them spent their days together happily. Well, years passed, and the white cat grew weak and died of old age. The tiger striped cat cried a million times, and then he died too. Except this time, he didn’t come back to life.
IT HURTS LIKE HELL DAMNN!!!!!!!!!!!
another detail im lowkey obsessed with is how so many of the stories orbit around one major event: the the astral gate disaster. like it impacts everyone in some way, starting from the first episode where the old guys complain about having had to build it. and it just keeps getting mentioned in the background, with earth being mostly uninhabitable, impacting how ed grew up, why other characters lived on mars and ganymede (and why mars was so poor and crime-ridden and the issp came about.) its also why that kid was immortal. its the reason theres no info about fayes past. the gate explosions effects pop up so many times, and i think its such a cool world-building detail that really sets the vibe to the show of people just trying to survive the past however they can.
Great catch honestly. I noticed that my first complete watch through because it would come up so randomly but be given this immense weight. What made it really stick out to me is what it did to the Earth. I didn’t realize how similar the crew’s past was, or rather how they were handling it was until this video.
As a great author once said, "Every good setting fucks up the moon."
Out of all of them, I feel the worst for Faye. Jet and Spike may have their pasts, but they could settle them one way or another.
Faye has... nobody. The few people she knew from her time are all old, and the only one she has left is Jet - no home, no family, no real friends either aside from him. Plus, it's a lot easier to settle your past when it doesn't involve a huge debt.
It's been a while since I watched the show and really gave it the big think, but her story just felt like the saddest of them all to me.
Yeah, yes to all that.
Can you carry the weight? The weight of the crime, the betrayal, the death of someone by your own hand? Can you carry that pain, metamorphose it into wisdom, even joy? Will you be able to move on?
Or will it be a stone weight in your pocket, dragging you deeper into the quagmire of your existence as you add more and more stones in your coat - another man killed, another betrayed, the loss of your ethics, your code ... will you drown, pulled down by the weight of your mistakes?
What will it be?
Either way,
You're gonna carry that weight.
Yo, you could make a whole song with that 😮🎉😂
Yeah. You are a wordsmith. Well said.
this is very well put, almost makes me sad to have to correct your use of "your" instead of "you're" lmfao
@@BranNextDoor973 okay, fixed it 🙄
Firstly, your video essay was fantastically structured, edited and presented.
As someone who was only ever loved by and only loved one woman, her willingly leaving my life for reasons I couldn't control left me on a numb state for years, unwilling to live and at a point, being a literal step away from suicide.
All my dreams and plans had vanished in the most horrible way, and the depression that I had been lifted from, had violently taken me back to the darkest depth I ever knew.
Being a weeb, I was told so much about CB and it's main character and his get-go attitude derived from "whatever happens, happens" that it made hard for the entire show to entice with me despite it being an audiovisual _marvel_
Then the entire thing changed as Spike's attitude turned 180 fucking degrees when he learnt that Julia was alive.
That Spike, _that_ Spike was the *true* Spike. And when I realized that people had awfully misinterpreted the meaning of him and his ways, _it all clicked together._
I had been there. I had lived that. I had, and then still was, feeling that. I spent years longing for a past that would never come back. To say that I understood him would be a huge understatement.
Spike wanted to live again after his death.
The death I too, lived.
I've been carrying the weight for years. Debt, anxiety, brutal depression.
It's a lot lighter now. No love since, but I've got out of debt, established in my job and career, grew, matured
I'd have been a good fit in the Bebop. And I would hunt a few bounties and drink some beers the true bro, Spiegel.
Thanks for your video and sorry if I went on too long - much like you said, it's uncommon for anime in particular to have this kind of story and it didn't hit close to home - it entirely demolished it.
See you, space cowboy.
thanks for sharing your story, it was a wonder to read.
See you Space Cowboy...
See you, space cowboy.
25:45 That was my favourite side episode. The writing was and symbolism was just top notch. The kid is someone out of time, who can't die. He's accepted his fate, and is just essentially living as an empty husk, waiting for the day that will kill him. He's symbolic of Spike, and when Spike finally kills him, he reaction forshadows spikes at the end.
I can't fathom watching Cowboy Bebop and thinking "meh that was ok." I barely consider it a cartoon. Cowboy Bebop is art.
i remember finishing this show for the first time and just feeling completely broken. i didn't understand why it hurt so much but you and the other two carry that weight video essays have helped me articulate it and really appreciate cowboy bebop
The show struck my soul because what the crew went through, is exactly what I did. Frozen in time, unable to accept and move on from the past. Stuck in a stoic nature, and floating across life as it had no meaning anymore. Showing you can't just live like that anymore, a conclusion I had to come to myself. Like Faye, just accepting the past is gone, and that it's better not to know the full answer. Like Jet where you learned to let go and moved on, and an old part of me that "died" upon letting go. It struck me deep when kt said "You're gonna carry that weight" because no matter what, you need to. It kinda made me realize the half decade I wasted frozen in time. This show cut like no other, and with that is definitely a toptier show for me.
You're gonna carry that weight.
I don't know what to say except... never have I cried by watching an video essay. great job man
Glad to know I reached you
Bebop captured me immediately upon its American Release. I was a teenage outcast that loved jazz, modern art, westerns, and sci-fi...it was as if the entire Story was written just for me. I rewatch it every 18 months, like clockwork. You're gonna carry that weight... It is the seminal life lesson that shows what an objective moral basis can be, an understanding that no matter what you do, you will eventually have to carry the entire weight of your actions for good or ill. If pretend you aren't carrying that weight it will catch up to you. If you face that weight, accept it, you can die with a smile on your face. If you ignore it, it will crush you.
This video gave me chills along the way. It sure did change my perspective of the show. I love this very much.
Happy to be of service
“Lex Fridman is dangerous” 18 min inspirational video on TH-cam ends w the poem “if” by R Kipling
I was in college when this show on was playing on adult swim, early 00s. We had watch parties every time it was on. Basically the common room would get filled up while we watch. Yet nobody really spoke about the topics here. The show is so well done that you can get caught up in the absurdity and intensity to the point where these topics, as blunt as they are, can struggle to resonate. It took me a few viewings of the series to really focus on it and find out why I liked it so much. Most people can relate to holding onto the past in an unhealthy way, even when they don't realize that is what they are doing. Even when they don't realize how close to home the show might make them feel.
Cowboy Bebop is among my favorite series, and it's a bit of an anomaly among those. It's by far the oldest series in my top 10 and the only one to really meander in its storytelling, since it doesn't so much tell a continuous story as it does wander through the lives of the crew of the Bebop. It also doesn't really stay there because of its set pieces - though it does have big moments and grand scenes, I think this show is at its best in its quieter, more introspective moments. Cowboy Bebop is one of those classic series that distinguishes itself by being something different, not in a huge, bombastic way but in its subtleties, in its characters, and in how they interweave throughout a story that should constantly pull them apart. Even as endings get bigger and more cinematic, it's the simplicity of this ending, as well as all the complexity behind it, that leave me feeling truly in awe of the series. Love it, and thank you so much for the rundown, brings back great memories. The ending is one of my favorites in any story.
I love everything about this comment
It helps a lot to understand the weird story structure once you realize who the stories are actually about. In the majority of episodes, the crew aren't the actual main characters, despite most of it being told from their perspective. They're accessories to another person's story (usually the bounty target), as those are the ones who undergo an arc and growth or change. When the crew ARE the main characters, you notice their plot moves forward pretty rapidly. And the changes they undergo are very rarely externalized.
So without major character change and character growth, while also still acknowledging the events happened, whats really changing is audience understanding. And what makes that have such a huge impact, is how it retroactively changes how you think about previous episodes on subsequent watches. Motivations and behaviors become more layered, despite how little attention the writing draws to it. It also makes it more depressing as you wonder if they could escape the tragedy by changing, but then realizing it probably couldn't happen without it. And throughout most of the show... until they reach a breaking the point and forced to face their past, the characters are basically the same people they started as.
Thats why I think there are people who don't understand the show. Its not a normal story. If you don't understand a feeling like melancholy, or depression, or anxiety, that the show spends its entire runtime wallowing in, then little about the show makes sense to you. The time it came out in was basically perfect for an audience to find it. The tail end of an economic boom, as a whole generation was starting to realize their future might be in jeopardy.
So in the end, when Spike takes action.... it doesn't feel like a triumph, or liberation, or even anything truly positive. All you feel is his drive to put an end to it, to feel forward momentum. For the first time in who knows how long, to feel motivated. If you found the show in a depressing point in your life, you'll notice those kinds of moments scattered all over the stories. Someone started something, and sometimes its on the Bebop crew to see it through to its end. Good or bad or stupid or reckless, the motivation to at least "see it through" is something that stuck with me about that show all these years later. And when its over, its effects are never really gone. "You're gonna carry that weight". Even as you're moving forward, its still a part of you.
@@freelancerthe2561 A great summary, I appreciate your detailed thoughts on the series and agree with you completely!
I didn't cry a single time throughout the show. A lot of times I felt sad, but it all hit me when those last few words popped up. "You're gonna carry that weight"
That was the most impactful, succinct yet thorough, honestly best Bebop essay. Amazing job
I think the great thing about the final title slide "You're Gonna Carry That Weight" is that it can mean so many things. To me, not only did it represent the weight the past brings on to us until we can finally face it, but it also represent a sort of melancholy optimism. It feels like it's trying to say that it may be tough, and it may be a hard journey, but in then end you WILL carry that weight; it's a dual message I think myself and a lot of others really needed to hear at the time of watching the show.
Side note, I can never hear "Blue" and not immediately begin at the very least tearing up if not outright crying, so I think that's pretty exemplary of how I feel about the show.
Same regarding Blue. I got the news when I was at work one day that a friend committed suicide. I started scrolling through my music library looking for something appropriate to that moment, and Blue almost immediately came up. It was perfect. And then at her funeral, I found out she had cerebral palsy and life had become unbearable for her. I had no idea. She carried that weight so well. I only knew vaguely that she had health problems and would always get worn down and duck out of gatherings early. It became even more perfect. Since then it's the most powerfully bittersweet song about death I know, even beating out Great Gig in the Sky. Whenever I'm thinking about dead friends or family or need a private send off for a new loss, it's the song I turn to every time. It so perfectly describes the only release from carrying that weight. I've always fantasized about going to one of those talent shows like American Idol (intentionally dating myself there) and doing a perfect soulful performance of Blue just to turn the judges and live audience into a blubbering mess and make several million people cry all at once.
basically one of the best video essays ever?! u rly capture what makes bebop so special, which is an accomplishment anybody should be proud of
I appreciate it
If you've never watched Anime before. Watch Cowboy Bebop. It's just a breathtaking series but you only realise it after it all ends.
Fey's episode made me cry and cry and cry.
Words cannot describe the pure vision Watanabe has. He apparently had the end scene in his head and worked backwards. Thank you for this.
I have "You're Gonna Carry That Weight." tattooed down the underside of my left arm. I know what you mean, it's hard to put it into words, much less a TH-cam comment. Just know it's always nice to find someone else who gets it. Great vid 🙂
Underside of my right forearm 🫡💯
I work at a wedding venue sometimes and this perfectly illustrates it. We see ppls lives change and are unaffected all while floating through our own crap day by day and loving the crew even though were all fumbling our ways through and growing all to eventually leave and the story to end. I'm gonna share this with some of them
If you want a similar crushing, hopeless despair as Real Folk Blues pt2, where the writers twist the knife in your back while laughing, I would recommend Arcane. Different characters and setting but a really fundamental similar view on tragedy.
Welcome to the channel. Just scroll back a few videos to find my answer to this haha
What I’ve always loved about the show was how there’s almost zero exposition. And the exposition there is is relating to things that just don’t really matter. It’s a show AFTER everything interesting has already happened. You just get to know about these people through what happened in their “after”. Their “Mexico” if you will. As someone whose gone through a bunch in life and is on their way to making their mexico, that always resonated with me as a kid. Before I even got out of all that. Now that I’m out, I need my ship, partners and dog I don’t like so to speak. Once I get there I’ll probably be able to let go of that weight. Maybe not. Either way whatever happens happens.
Thank you for this- it’s hard to put my love of this show into words, or explain to anyone WHY it’s so incredible- and you’ve made this so eloquent and compelling ❤ Now off to show this to my friends that are so tired of me trying to convince them to watch it😅
By all means, just be aware of all the spoilers haha
@@AFlyingWalrus I don’t know if I’ll ever get them to truly cave so the spoilers will be fine lol Thank you again! See you, Space cowboy
Can’t put it into words but I can put it into a picture 🗑
@@santi_super_stunts2573 then move on to something else and leave us alone
“Lex Fridman is dangerous” 18 min inspirational video on TH-cam ends w the poem “if” by R Kipling
I watched the show on Adult Swim back when we chiseled letters into stone. There weren't even hipsters back then. I loved this show so much. It is both brilliant and funny that you have rightly explained what I loved so much when I wasn't aware of it to this degree. Thank you. I have to go watch the series again.
Finally someone able to put into words the invisible and intangible feeling this shows lingers us with
The show was there for me during some dark times in my life. At the time I was too young to fully understand all of its meanings. With every rewatch over the years I seemed to pick up on something new. This last round has been particularly emotional for me as I have been dealing with the loss of a spouse who had been my best friend since childhood.
My condolences. 🖤
May you find mental tranquility. 🧡
I’m glad I’m not the only one that this show is special too, cowboy bebop is the greatest show ever not just anime
The Edward Faye Ein segment made me cry it was legitimately moving.... Thank you for the experience. I am sending this video to my sister because I don't think she has taken in the ramifications of the series. You have done a great thing here. Never stop.
Ever since I heard that line "whatever happens, happens" I've loved it. Beacuse it's true for just about everything. Dwelling on it isn't going to change what happens, it just... Happens. No matter what you think of it.
Ive heard it so many times but I still cry when Call Me Call Me plays. Drawing the bed in the rubble...
I'm with you, I've rewatched CB soooooo many times. And every time I do, I feel something new.
I've always loved cowboy Bebop. But I never really understood that final line until my father died . Because God I'm carrying that weight now. Great video by the way
Cowboy Bebop for me hits so hard, because just like them, i can’t let go of the past...
Dude i’m fucking crying ...
i cant either
It's a prison of our own making. One that follows us wherever we go. The worst part is we have the key...
I liked Cowboy Bebop because it seemed ahead of its time with episodes about AI, intergalactic wars and corrupt police/government, and even the movie that had the airborne virus. It was like a futuristic action show and everything about it made it exciting especially Spike's episodes. The way you felt personally invested in finding out the mystery behind the character's lives and how they ended up made the show grab your attention. Also I liked the ending, it wasn't some cliche everybody lived happily ever after, achieved their goals and all the conflicts ended with a Disney resolution. It had a realistic ending and the characters were forced to make decisions about events that occurred in their past, whether good or bad. Even with the ambiguity of Spike's death, it felt fitting in a sense
I’ve never been able to put exactly how this show makes me feel into words. Thank you for doing that wonderfully.
What's crazy is just seeing the scene where the Woman and her Husband are fleeing in the ship with the Red Eye, For a second, literally triggered me to start crying.
Amazing that you caught me in the same place you were- a few months removed from watching the show, and feeling the longing to watch it again. This video is beautiful, thank you.
It's an odd feeling, and one that you can't shake
Beautifully put together 😢
Emotions ran through me with each passing minute of this video…and just as the final goodbye, left me longing for just one more time with the crew.
To me it’s more of “I want to see them happy. I don’t want them to have a sad ending. I want them to stay together and be happy” but such is life.
I'm glad that I waited till I'm old enough to watch Cowboy Bebop. I know it's something that my younger self could not comprehend - love, friendship, compassion, and so much more.
When I knew I had to carry that weight, I find myself listening to Green Bird, hopelessly bawling my eyes out, knowing that I had lost a fictional friend who had already made his mind on a journey without return.
nahhhh I first watched it at twelve years old and im glad i did. Was one of the first pieces of media to give me that "empty" feeling. And since i have watched it at least once a year since 2001 I find more and more little details with each viewing. You aren't meant to watch it once and get the entire message, you're supposed to watch it many times. And over the years my perspective on the show has grown along with my own personal growth.
@@mookiestewart3776 I really like this message and you know what I agree, it's a heavy show disguised as a 26 episode action-comedy anime riddled with meaning and one watch simply isn't enough to digest it all.
Watching it as a kid then an adult was even better imo. Cuz you see how your perspective changes, and see the real message.
@@mookiestewart3776 I see, it seems I've missed an important experience. Anyway I'll rewatch Cowboy Bebop some time in the future 🥲
@@architectsxiii5379 🥲
There is an obscure Stones' album titled 'Jamming with Edward'... its proper jazz, a 45-minute set of wild expression.
Makes it make sense.
People who arent deep into anime dont realize its a culmination of some of the best anime talent up until that point. One of which is Watanabe, his pedigree is working on other great sci fi anime such as many of the Gundam titles and a Macross movie, very premiere and top franchise of the age, and still are today. He also a huge music enthusiast, especially western music, and a very good ear for it, even working just on the music parts of many anime shows in the future. Another thing many people gloss over is many of the animators of the show are animators of Gundam. The studio that made CB is Sunrise, the very same studio that has made the scifi mech space opera Gundam franchise since 1979, even to this very day. Many people outside anime dont realize how large this IP of Gundam is, one of the top 25 earning media franchises in the world. Without throwing unheard of names and events to you guys, their quality of their works has always been very high when they make a new show or movie, thats why Gundam has been so very popular over the decades to today. I dont want to go into a huge essay about it but trust me, we are fortunate that Cowboy Bebop is the culmination point of some of the greatest talent in the anime industry at that point in time.
@Flying Walrus - That final message was deeply relatable, It also helped me find peace between storms, thank you for putting it so eloquently and it was wholesome to watch, thanks!
Damn! I don’t know why, but most video essays about Cowboy Beebop I watched somehow hit hard but in a good way.
It's just one of those shows that brings that out in us
Thanks for writing this. It's a pretty solid explanation of the "feeling" of the show, which is I think what attracts a lot of people. The drifting, the meaninglessness of life without love, the horror of knowing that every day thousands of people with whole lives and beautiful stories die and nothing about the world changes, like our little lives are nothing in the grand scheme of things. I still use the metaphor of each soul being like sand falling through god's fingers like it fell through the Native woman's hands while she decribes Spike's end. It captures that feeling of being indifferent to your own existence, searching for something that will finally remind you that you're alive, and that maybe that matters. Even if you never find meaning in existence, the search means something.
I first watched Bebop on adult swim when I was about 8. I absolutely fell in love with it, but I wasn't nearly old enough to understand the show or why it struck such a chord in me. Well, it turns out I was already suffering from serious depression, n the show made me feel at home, like I was with people who understood what it felt like to drift listlessly through existence with no tangible meaning to hold onto until we find people who get it. We find others who are searching, or just drifting too, n at least there's comradery in the emptiness. We're all damaged in some way, n it's always related to our pasts. I don't know how I vibed with the show so much at 8, but as I got older, over and over, I found something new to relate to every time. Honestly, I think i started smoking at 12 because I identified so much with Spike. I was a depressed but romantic kid hiding from his own emotions. N waddya know? I fell for a girl who gave my life meaning for 5 years, n when we broke up because of my self destructive tendencies got out of control, once again, life lost all meaning. I'd do anything just to feel something.
I don't know how many times I've watched the show. Pobably at least 10 times in 20 years. The older i get, the more i realize how magnificent it is. It's like a more self aware, Japanese Hemingway novel lol. On its surface it promotes this "devil may care" ideal of masculinity. One so many young men aspire to. When you dig deeper, though, it's a biting critique of stunted men who can't move on in life because we've lost the only thing we've ever felt safe enough to expose ourselves to. We're so all or nothing. These days I often play it for girls who are in love with me, or at least their idea of me. Maybe I'm in love with the idea of me that I built based on this show too lol. If they get it, if it at least resonates, I know I'm in good company. If it doesn't, we'll it's not a deal breaker, but I know they're not in love with my romanticized self destruction.
Anyway, long story short, every time I rewatch the show, I find something new. To me, that's the mark of true art. I mean I'm sure it's been studied in literature classes before, but if not, it should be. Bebop is a masterpiece, n yeah you can call me an annoying hipster, but it will always be my favorite anime.
love this response =][2
god this show is a beautiful pain.
The best kind
Dude that final episode gives me goosebumps when it says you're going to carry that weight that stuck to me to this day ever since I finished the show rest in peace Spike you'll never be forgotten
It's true that Everytime you watch it, you feel more, just more. I believe this is the first time I cry watching an essay. Not embarrased, though.
i didn't think it was possible to for me to love cowboy bebop more than i already do, but you've done it. you've put into words things that were only feelings before, and thus given me an even deeper appreciation of something very meaningful to me already. thank you.
Thank you
This video essay came at the perfect time for me. I just watched the finale of Cowboy Bebop for the first time last night, and safe to say I can feel that weight. Thanks for putting this out there to help me process it.
I’ve watched this show on repeat for years, never claimed it to be my top 3 but has been my consistent go to for processing pain and what ever suffering I am going through, as well as a nice lullaby before bed. Watching this video unlocked/articulated so much of my love for this show it’s eye watering good. As much as I may have known about Bebop it’s nice to see someone else’s perspective and appreciation as having a new take adds further to my own appreciation. Thank you for this, it’s fitting for this show.
bebop is special. As dark of a story it is still a story about love.
Before even watching the video and only seeing bebop once…I felt exactly how you do about the show. Once I was done, I felt a sudden emptiness, same with champloo
going through a hell of a depression currently...thank you for reminding me how this show comforted me as well, time for a re-watch. amazing breakdown as well, hit all the right points
I felt this explanation in my soul...it's my all time favorite series, and the Bebop crew were there for me (for comfort, laughs, and lessons) whenever I didn't even have a friend. So glad you articulated this perfectly. I also believe, in addition to carrying the weight of these characters' stories, it's a lesson in life. What you do, how you treat others, and how you see yourself...it all comes back around...and no matter what, we all gotta carry that weight ❤💯
I've watched this show for so long, since adult swim late at night on cartoon network during college, all the way up to now as I try to figure out what I want next in life. Everytime I watch it, I think I have something memorized and understood, but then I see something old in a new perspective. Catching the subtle meanings of different situations, realizing how my early bias led me to ignore something significant, and experiencing the roller coaster of emotions with substantially more impact. Just hearing "call me" brings me to tears, seeing Ed meet her father again and playing chess with the chess master brings so much joy, and seeing Spike struggle on with that fake smile reminds me of the depression he's hiding... Can go on and on. Your video captures all of this.
If i hadnt seen this vid in my recommended I would have never watched this breathtaking philosophical journey. Thanks man. Im glad i got this new weight to carry around
We all carry the weight, it's the cost of living and memories. Cowboy Bebop has a special place in my soul too. I think it's truly perfection. But it also couldn't be without the music which has a huge responsibility of symbolizing what words can't. The heavy jazz, light hearted funk, opening & closing themes, it wouldn't be where it is in history without it. Thank you for your content which is incredibly thoughtful and composed. Edit: I'd love to know your thoughts on the movie. I thought it could have easily fit into the series and wonder if it was originally planned to be/that it was cut because it was too long for one episode.
Yep, Yoko Kanno is a genius
Fantastic analysis, sir! I’ll always go back to this show for the lessons, experiences and emotions that come with it. There is something very special about the crew of the Bebop that you just can’t find anywhere else. Thank you for your work 🙏
Thank you for this man. Great play by play.
One of my favourites growing up and i could never quite describe to people why they should get into it but i always remember the feelings the show gave me.
I am 74 and watch way too much anime. Thanks for this essay. I always consider Bebop to be about the concept of Home and what it means for different people. I really enjoyed your thoughts.
I’ve been doing a good bit or writing lately and I find it funny how much of it is inspired by this video. I’ve never seen the show mind you, and yet you’ve portrayed it in a way that’s very captivating. Thank you
This is probably the best breakdown as to what the show is that I’ve ever seen. Good job
Two things, and THANK YOU for this review.
-The First is that when you said "Spike wants to know if his choices were worth it', especially in the world of silent outer space, I then thought back to Sir Antonius Bloch, the knight from The Seventh Seal (1957), who while playing chess with Death himself, is also asking 'were all my choices in life worth it?' That hit me hard, too.
-The Second, is--can you do a review of Outlaw Star? I know, compared to Cowboy Bebop, it is kinda a shallow, wacky cartoon, and yet I've watched the series four or so times now (plus the edited one on Toonami) and I keep thinking to myself 'why the heck is this show so charming?' Unfortunately, I don't think I can sedge it out.
So if you need any ideas, I suggest a review of Outlaw Star!
Outlaw star? Did I just come across the comment with the name of the other show that I could never remember the name of 👀👀😁 I gotta look this up!
@@JulianCaesaro It's a wild ride; personally, it was a shock at first cause I watched the censored, dubbed Toonami run, then I found the uncensored English and Japanese editions. [Note: If you get it, I actually prefer the black undergarments on a certain character...]
I remember catching these episodes when I could as a kid. . Had very little idea what was going on but the music was great and the characters were intriguing. . . Watching it three more times when I got older and it only became more appealing to me . . Great job here!
There isn't a series that leaves me with a stronger desire to see what happend afterward
Wow, this resonated with me DEEP.. I had almost the exact experience as you when I first watched CB. I saw it on adult swim and never thought too much about it until a few months later... After I binged it I was in tears that everyone went their separate ways and hated the creators for ripping my heart out. But after rewatching it a 3rd time everything clicked, the point of the show.. was that your past will have consequences on your future. you're gonna carry that weight. Thank you so much for putting this into words in the best way and letting me relive the feeling of the show.
Great video. Enjoyed every second of it. I couldn't agree more with you. Having just finished watching it for the first time I'm already experiencing that longing to go back to the BeBop. Thank you for this.
That pain, that yearning that you describe, is exactly what i feel at the end of Mass Effect 3. Wanting to spend more time in the Normandy with the crew. Also sidenote, form the moment Ed was introduced it bacame my favorite character. It is joy and happines taken form.
I wish there was a super like. Sometimes I feel alone in my overwhelmingly positive opinion of Bebop. This anime still remains, after roughly 14 years since first watching, my favorite anime to date. And that's saying something considering as of right now, I've watched ~400 anime. You made the same emotions I experienced upon first watch come flooding back. Thank you. Seriously.
I started CB january 2020, pre-pandemic but stopped halfway because I thought it wasn’t really going anywhere. A friend of mine encouraged me to keep watching and started back where I left. Now I finished the whole series and it hits hard after those three years that have passed … I can say it’s one of my favorite shows
Cowboy beebop encapsulates the saying i once heard for me " you may have missed the meaning, but your Brain sure didn't";
i had the same feelings the first time i saw the Cowboy beebop, then it sort of hit; funnily enough it hit when i was out doing grocery's with my parents then it clicked. everything came flooding in and i sat in a bench in Walmart for an entire hour; " Its china town jake"
This. All of this. Thank you. I've felt this way about CW since it first came out. I first watched this about 20 years ago, and nothing, absolutely nothing has come close. I even have most of the music in my commuter playlist, so I listen to it almost every day. ♥
This is the only anime/show in general that has almost made me tear up. That ending just hits, and I am not typically an emotional person when it comes to this type of stuff. 10/10 anime
Funny you use Edgerunner soundtrack to emphasize your point about the feeling of Cowboy Bebop, because everything you say can be transposed to this show as well, even if Cyberpunk ends in a more bombastic way for everyone involved, except maybe Falco and Lucy, I felt in David and his crew what you felt watching Cowboy Bebop. Few shows does this well, but they embark you in a family and witnessing this family destruction will absolutely demolish your soul. So I started it again, to re-live the good, the bad and the ugly and I started it again, and I stopped at the point where it seemed to me that the crew was the most happy, and then I stopped. Like a family picture in my soul, frozen in time at a point where I like it, before the catastrophe I know will happen... but has not happened yet.
Also, my favorite episode is Mad Pierrot. I loved your video
I have never cried harder in my life.
This show means so much to me and I'm glad there's people who still love it as much as I do
Bebop and Firefly came into my life around the same time and hit me in the same way. Two shows that I still watch again and again and still move me every time.
Its the perfection of hardboiled film noir expanded into a whole crew but also its own thing with the pure sentimentality of it all. This and foolie coolie are my forever jams. Good observations, expressed well, good job bro.
I have tried three times to watch this show. I could never get into it or see the point.
Finally, someone has given me the perspective I think will actually help me appreciate it. Thank you.
Just finished the series again for the 2nd time after about 7 years, felt like the first time again. Beautiful video and couldn't agree more about the feelings this show conveys in oneself.
It's a great review and adds more to a collection of commentaries of high quality and much feeling. I have a specific praise: your part "in defense of the clowns" so to speak, of Ein and Ed. Well done.