Noir in Space: Cowboy Beebop
Feb. 21st, 2006 12:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieI love it. (For anyone who is wondering, Cowboy Beebop is 26-ep anime, whose main character is Spike Spiegel, a bounty hunter (with the requisite mysterious past) in a futuristic space world. So far I watched two eps.
From the opening shot of the first episode, where everything is almost monochromatic and we see someone drop a rose into a puddle and walk away and slowly the rose turns red while everything else stays shadowed, and flashbacks to something that is as yet unexplained play, I was in love. And then came the uber-cool opening credits. And that first shot of Spike, silouetted in the dark, only the smoke of his cigarette curling in the air. This really looks and feels like so many noir movies I've loved over the years (down to the protagonist's crack of "I was killed years ago. By a woman." Femme fatales are a necessary and wonderful staple of the genre. Does the mysterious woman have anything to do with the dropped rose?)
I love the animation, but most of all I love the fluidity of movements, and the naturalness of the fights. When Spike fights, all his movements are spare and flow into each other. Love. Also am amused at the humor and love the bantering dialogues between Spike and Jet (I knew I was going to love them from their first bickering about where the money from their last bounty reward went. Answer? To pay for the collateral damage Spike caused while apprehending a wanted person).
Also, I love Spike (I love when he keeps insisting he hates dogs and yet is the one who brings one back) who is, in a word, a sweetheart.
So, it's noir. Only set in space. And anime. I am happy. And it's the closest to Trigun vibe I've gotten so far, so yay!
From the opening shot of the first episode, where everything is almost monochromatic and we see someone drop a rose into a puddle and walk away and slowly the rose turns red while everything else stays shadowed, and flashbacks to something that is as yet unexplained play, I was in love. And then came the uber-cool opening credits. And that first shot of Spike, silouetted in the dark, only the smoke of his cigarette curling in the air. This really looks and feels like so many noir movies I've loved over the years (down to the protagonist's crack of "I was killed years ago. By a woman." Femme fatales are a necessary and wonderful staple of the genre. Does the mysterious woman have anything to do with the dropped rose?)
I love the animation, but most of all I love the fluidity of movements, and the naturalness of the fights. When Spike fights, all his movements are spare and flow into each other. Love. Also am amused at the humor and love the bantering dialogues between Spike and Jet (I knew I was going to love them from their first bickering about where the money from their last bounty reward went. Answer? To pay for the collateral damage Spike caused while apprehending a wanted person).
Also, I love Spike (I love when he keeps insisting he hates dogs and yet is the one who brings one back) who is, in a word, a sweetheart.
So, it's noir. Only set in space. And anime. I am happy. And it's the closest to Trigun vibe I've gotten so far, so yay!
