The End of Cowboy Beebop. Oh My God.
Mar. 7th, 2006 11:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieWatched the two-part finale of Cowboy Bebop and Oh. My. God.
So amazingly good. Probably the best anime finale I’ve seen yet. My opinion on the show, after all this, is that I loved the characters (especially Spike), that I adored beyond the telling of it all the episodes that tied to the main arc, and found the rest fun but a bit too leisurely for my tastes. But the 6 or 7 eps that tied to the arc? Wow. And best ending ever.
Speaking of knowing, I am assuming the following happened, right?
Vicious and Spike were both high level mob enforcers. Vicious either liked or was dating a girl named Julia. Spike was badly wounded and Julia ended up taking care of him and they fell in love. Spike was going to leave the mob and fake his death and asked Julia to run away with him and meet him at the graveyard. But Vicious found out and told Julia that she will go and meet Spike and kill him. Her only other option was for both of them to get killed. So Julia tore up Spike’s note (and now that repeated image of pieces of paper floating down from the window makes sense) and went on the run. And he waited for her and she didn’t come. Close enough?
And so the closing credits shot, of a rose dropped in a puddle makes so much sense now. Because it’s when he was waiting for her in the rain and she didn’t come. It must have screwed him up pretty badly, the not knowing, even more than love. And I love that the last episode doesn’t have those credits. Because she did come.
Now that I know all the background (or at least as much as I ever will), so much makes sense. In fact, I am tempted to go back and rewatch the whole thing knowing what I know now. Because now, after seeing him go after Vicious full cylinders, I realize that he’s been not-alive the whole time, sort of sleep-walking, until he saw Julia again, because I see how good he really is when he goes at it full tilt.
I love how their situations are mirror-reversed. Last time he was the one who wanted to run and she told him it’s impossible, and this time, in a very noirish fashion, she is begging him to run away and he won’t. Of course, it’s a pretty pragmatic decision. He could have been able to hide when Vicious was just one of the mobsters, but now that Vicious is the Crime Overlord, he has no chance. And I do love that Julia then says she will fight with him because, I think that really returns something to Spike. But by the end, he has really found peace: he knows Julia didn’t betray him (as she took the only option she thought she had so he wouldn’t die), and now she’s come back for him, and says she will follow him to the end (and proves it pretty conclusively, unfortunately).
I think, rather ironically, his scheme of being ‘dead’ for the mob, worked out to be true, because he’s really been “dead” for the past 3 years. Otherwise he’d have gone for Vicious a lot sooner. But now he’s awake, he’s back to adrenaline junkie mode, I think.
I like how the motive of being asleep and dreaming carries through, a dream theme, really. It’s because in a way, they’ve all been in suspended animation (and of course, it ties up to Spike’s bizarre idea that he is only half in the reality because he only half sees it because one of his eyes isn’t real). And at the end, he and Julia and Vicious have all woken up. I love that Julia’s dying words are that it’s all a dream. It sort of underlines the unreality of their life.
I think the shot of her falling, shot, and with the doves, is so amazingly beautiful. And sad, of course, but you knew it couldn’t end well. And of course, with Julia dead, Spike has no reason to keep the brakes on. So his telling Jet that his going after Vicious is not for Julia is not all true. Because if Julia was still alive, even if she didn’t come after him or ran away again, or whatever, he might have still gone after Vicious, but his wanting to know what happened to Julia or to be with her would have given him some self-preservation instincts, some desire to hold back a bit. But now…
Of course, Vicious with a katana (taking on Spike with a gun!) is super cool. I think Vicious likes the katana because it’s more of a challenge (and he strikes me as a pretty nihilistic person anyway). Of course, the only reason he doesn’t die right away is because Spike is wounded so his aim is off…
You know, I think whether Spike is dead at the end (I think he is), or if by some miracle he survived the fight, doesn’t matter, because he doesn't have anything to do or live for any more: he got everything he wanted done and everything he lived for is gone. What would he do if he survived? Go back to bounty hunting and be not alive/asleep again? He killed Vicious at the end and that's what he wanted for ages, and he lost Julia, the one person who gave meaning to his life. So much of himself was wrapped up in the Julia/Vicious story that he has nothing now (sort of like Alex Rowe). So even if he survived, in a way he'd be dead: he'd have to reinvent himself so completely that even though he’d have the same looks, and the same DNA, he won't be Spike.
That last shot, of Spike staggering down the stairs, and the colors all washed up and light, and the music, and looking at all the mob goons standing at a loss, and sticking out his finger and whispering “bang” and falling down on the stairs, in one ungraceful heap? So noir, so amazing, and somehow, I wasn’t sad because it was so fitting. I think in CB, all the characters are at different points in their life: Ed is at the start, Faye is at the middle, Jet is in the later stages, and Spike is at the end. And they all intersect briefly, no complex plan, no grand destiny. Just chance.
So amazingly good. Probably the best anime finale I’ve seen yet. My opinion on the show, after all this, is that I loved the characters (especially Spike), that I adored beyond the telling of it all the episodes that tied to the main arc, and found the rest fun but a bit too leisurely for my tastes. But the 6 or 7 eps that tied to the arc? Wow. And best ending ever.
Speaking of knowing, I am assuming the following happened, right?
Vicious and Spike were both high level mob enforcers. Vicious either liked or was dating a girl named Julia. Spike was badly wounded and Julia ended up taking care of him and they fell in love. Spike was going to leave the mob and fake his death and asked Julia to run away with him and meet him at the graveyard. But Vicious found out and told Julia that she will go and meet Spike and kill him. Her only other option was for both of them to get killed. So Julia tore up Spike’s note (and now that repeated image of pieces of paper floating down from the window makes sense) and went on the run. And he waited for her and she didn’t come. Close enough?
And so the closing credits shot, of a rose dropped in a puddle makes so much sense now. Because it’s when he was waiting for her in the rain and she didn’t come. It must have screwed him up pretty badly, the not knowing, even more than love. And I love that the last episode doesn’t have those credits. Because she did come.
Now that I know all the background (or at least as much as I ever will), so much makes sense. In fact, I am tempted to go back and rewatch the whole thing knowing what I know now. Because now, after seeing him go after Vicious full cylinders, I realize that he’s been not-alive the whole time, sort of sleep-walking, until he saw Julia again, because I see how good he really is when he goes at it full tilt.
I love how their situations are mirror-reversed. Last time he was the one who wanted to run and she told him it’s impossible, and this time, in a very noirish fashion, she is begging him to run away and he won’t. Of course, it’s a pretty pragmatic decision. He could have been able to hide when Vicious was just one of the mobsters, but now that Vicious is the Crime Overlord, he has no chance. And I do love that Julia then says she will fight with him because, I think that really returns something to Spike. But by the end, he has really found peace: he knows Julia didn’t betray him (as she took the only option she thought she had so he wouldn’t die), and now she’s come back for him, and says she will follow him to the end (and proves it pretty conclusively, unfortunately).
I think, rather ironically, his scheme of being ‘dead’ for the mob, worked out to be true, because he’s really been “dead” for the past 3 years. Otherwise he’d have gone for Vicious a lot sooner. But now he’s awake, he’s back to adrenaline junkie mode, I think.
I like how the motive of being asleep and dreaming carries through, a dream theme, really. It’s because in a way, they’ve all been in suspended animation (and of course, it ties up to Spike’s bizarre idea that he is only half in the reality because he only half sees it because one of his eyes isn’t real). And at the end, he and Julia and Vicious have all woken up. I love that Julia’s dying words are that it’s all a dream. It sort of underlines the unreality of their life.
I think the shot of her falling, shot, and with the doves, is so amazingly beautiful. And sad, of course, but you knew it couldn’t end well. And of course, with Julia dead, Spike has no reason to keep the brakes on. So his telling Jet that his going after Vicious is not for Julia is not all true. Because if Julia was still alive, even if she didn’t come after him or ran away again, or whatever, he might have still gone after Vicious, but his wanting to know what happened to Julia or to be with her would have given him some self-preservation instincts, some desire to hold back a bit. But now…
Of course, Vicious with a katana (taking on Spike with a gun!) is super cool. I think Vicious likes the katana because it’s more of a challenge (and he strikes me as a pretty nihilistic person anyway). Of course, the only reason he doesn’t die right away is because Spike is wounded so his aim is off…
You know, I think whether Spike is dead at the end (I think he is), or if by some miracle he survived the fight, doesn’t matter, because he doesn't have anything to do or live for any more: he got everything he wanted done and everything he lived for is gone. What would he do if he survived? Go back to bounty hunting and be not alive/asleep again? He killed Vicious at the end and that's what he wanted for ages, and he lost Julia, the one person who gave meaning to his life. So much of himself was wrapped up in the Julia/Vicious story that he has nothing now (sort of like Alex Rowe). So even if he survived, in a way he'd be dead: he'd have to reinvent himself so completely that even though he’d have the same looks, and the same DNA, he won't be Spike.
That last shot, of Spike staggering down the stairs, and the colors all washed up and light, and the music, and looking at all the mob goons standing at a loss, and sticking out his finger and whispering “bang” and falling down on the stairs, in one ungraceful heap? So noir, so amazing, and somehow, I wasn’t sad because it was so fitting. I think in CB, all the characters are at different points in their life: Ed is at the start, Faye is at the middle, Jet is in the later stages, and Spike is at the end. And they all intersect briefly, no complex plan, no grand destiny. Just chance.
