Anime Review: Cowboy Bebop

Welcome to the end of part 2 of my look at the 90s fellow Otaku & Metalheads!

A week ago, I spoke about my time at Connecticon (Read here if you haven’t yet) & how much of a blast I had. Today, I conclude my look into the last great decade by talking about one of the most legendary anime of the late 90s. An anime that’s still talked about today by oldtaku, and discovered by newer weebs. It’s a show that I knew about for years, but only got into it when it received a re-release. So, get the biggest bounty you can find, load up your spaceship, and enjoy my review of the iconic Cowboy Bebop. Let’s begin!

Story/Setup
Taken from the DVD box:

“Explore the far reaches of the galaxy in this undeniably hip series that inspired a generation – and redefined anime as an indisputable art form. The Bebop crew is just trying to make a buck. This motely lot of intergalactic loners teams up to track down fugitives and turn them in for cold hard cash. Spike is a hero whose cool façade hides a dark and deadly past. The pilot Jet is a bruiser of a brute who can’t wait to collect the next bounty. Faye Valentine is a femme fatale prone to breaking hearts and separating fools from their money. Along for the ride are the brilliant, but weird, hacker Ed and a super genius Welsh Corgi named Ein. On their own, any one of them is likely to get lost in the sprawl of space, but together, they’re they most entertaining gang of bounty hunters in the year 2071.”

That description is incredibly simplistic than the full story. At it’s heart, Cowboy Bebop is about people. It’s about people, and how they interact with one another. They come from all walks of life, races, religions, etc. It’s about the best of people, and it’s about the worst as well. From the most positive of individuals, to the most cynical of souls, all kinds of people can be found throughout this show. In a twist that surprises me, Cowboy Bebop has a healthy dose of grey morality.....and I actually like it! Those of you who know me personally know that I’m not a big fan of grey morality, but that’s more to due how & why it’s implemented rather than the what. In this show, it’s allowed to occur naturally rather that being shoved into my face in an incredibly cynical manner. Granted, there are episodes where things are more cynical than they should be, but for a giant majority of the show’s runtime, reality is allowed to happen naturally rather than artificially. That’s a plus in my book!

Animation
Cowboy Bebop is a tale of two animation styles. 2d & 3d. One is really good, and one nowadays is awful. The 3d animation is the awful one! While it may have been impressive to look at in the late 90s, nowadays they appear incredibly dated and really cheap. Luckily, this is only during certain portions in space, so it’s limited in that regard. The 2nd animation, on the other hand, is incredible! It still is incredible to see in the decades since this came out, as the retro-futuristic nature of the series is displayed in incredible detail. There’s so much color & lights, the various characters move around really well, and even the various spaceships seem realistic as well. Like Outlaw Star from earlier this month, it’s amazing to think that Cowboy Bebop was animated during the time where things were moving from classic animation to digital animation, but it’s remarkable all the same.

Voice Acting
This is one situation where the English Dub is infinitely superior to it’s original Japanese voice acting. It’s not that it’s bad, because it isn’t. It just that the English voice actors did such a good job, the original voices are inferior. Steve Blum was perfect as the sarcastic yet dutiful Spike Spiegel, Beau Billingslea embodied the gruff Jet Black, Wendee Lee portrayed the femme fatale Faye Valentine, and Melissa Fahn fit right into place as the quirky yet diabetes-inducingly adorable Ed. The crew of the Bebop are just a few of the main characters that have great voices, and even the secondary cast have fantastic voices as well. This is all incredibly surprising, since this was a late 90s/early 2000s dub, and any old-school Otaku knows about that dubbing period well.

Characters
Equally as iconic as the voice acting & story are this series’s characters. Cowboy Bebop has a legendary roster of individuals, but what’s so incredible about this show is that sometimes a secondary character (Or characters) actually has a role to play. When many other shows treat secondary/background characters as window dressing, this series occasionally lets them pull some weight. There are still some secondary characters that are just around, but even then they’re still entertaining. My personal favorite are the 3 old guys that show up in the most random of places, as you don’t know how they show up where they are, but somehow it makes sense. Apart from that, what makes CB’s cast work so well is that they’re real. Not the cynical kind of reality in something like Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, or god forbid like the live-action Cowboy Bebop series Netflix did last year, but in the real world reality kind of sense. Everybody comes across like somebody you’d bump into in your day-to-day life, although some of the bad guys you would never want to meet.....for obvious reasons.

Availability & Pricing
Cowboy Bebop is actually fairly easy to find for purchase, thanks to the re-release by Funimation back in 2013/2014 (Forgot the year). Over on Amazon, you have a few options: New copies of the Blu-Ray edition start at $34.95, and $36.97 for the standard DVD version. That’s not a huge price gap by any means, so pick whichever one you feel you want to get.

Overall Impression & Rating
Cowboy Bebop is a legend of the anime world. Even after all this time, it’s still remembered by it’s long-time fans, and the newer generation of Otaku who’ve discovered it in recent memory. It story is still top-notch, and there are people who cosplay many of the characters even now. While I find that some of the greyness within the show tries too hard, it’s one of the few times I actually like something that’s a little more realistic. If you’ve heard of this series but never had the urge to watch it, I highly suggest that you do.  

Cowboy Bebop gets a 9 to 9.5 out of 10.

And that was my review of Cowboy Bebop. A show that has weathered the sands of time, and remains standing strong among many of the old-school titans. Again, if you’ve only heard of this series, then give it a watch when you have the time. So, part 2 of my trip back to the 90s has come to an end, so join me in August for a wrap up of this last incredible decade when I’ll take a look at some classic 90s games. See you then!

Convention Review: Connecticon 2022

Another Connecticon is in the books fellow Otaku & Metalheads!

Once again, the city of Hartford, Connecticut, beckoned me to travel to it’s streets, and seek refuge in the monolithic Hartford Convention Center. To mingle amongst the numerous geeks, weebs, nerds, otaku, metalheads, cosplayers, etc. Okay, I admit that was a bit on the dramatic side a second ago, but this convention means a lot to me! I’ve been going for over a decade (Save for 2019......long story), and not at any time did I hate my experience. 2022 was no exception, so let’s not waste anymore time, and take a look at my review for Connecticon this year! Let’s begin.

Good Points ***
For starters, we got the venue & hotel. The Hartford Marriot was always a place I loved, and this year was no different. It has always given me a sense of awe stepping into the main desk area (Which is only eclipsed by the Gaylord Hotel for Katsucon), and it’s got a kind of energy I can’t quite describe. This translates over into the convention center, which is a titan in it’s own right. When I went to my first Genericon, I was definitely impressed, but when I came to Connecticon my 3rd eye opened (Once again, only eclipsed by Katsucon’s venue). The hotel was stocked with a lot: Starbucks, a bar, and a restaurant are just some of the things that were useful. As always, the breakfast buffet delivered on it’s quality, and the woman who was at me & my friend’s table was quite nice!

Next up is the Dealer’s Room & Artist Alley. As it has always been in years past, these two areas of the convention center are always filled to the brim with a giant variety of vendors selling all kinds of goods. Cosplay parts, figurines, anime, manga, MTG and D&D, etc. In the Artist Alley, there’s webcomic artists, jewelers, soap & tea makers, you name it! One of the best ways for a convention to succeed is having a varied and well-stocked Dealer’s Room & Artist’s Alley, and Connecticon always delivers in this regard!

Adjacent to the Dealer’s Room and the Artist Alley, the panels have always been a big plus for Connecticon. To this very day, the con’s “Everything But The Kitchen Sink” moniker is highly apparent in the massive variety of panels that are hosted. Cosplay tips, badass women in media, The Great Old Ones in RPG games, and Heavy Metal were just a tiny sprinkle of salt among an entire spice rack of panels. I actually made sure to go to as many as I possibly could this time around, when in prior years I didn’t go to as much. I did have one issue with the panels this year (More on that in a bit), but said issue in no way impacted the experiences I had in each & every room I entered.

Next positive this year was Cosplay Championship Wrestling. They first showed up last year, and made their return for Connecticon 2022. CCW is just pure geeky fun! Take characters from comics, video games, and a hint of anime, then dump them all into a 6-sided ring for some damn good fights! Cosplay Championship Wrestling definitely isn't WWE, AEW, or even Impact Wrestling. Instead, they're their own quirky little company, concerned with just putting on a fun time for those in attendance. The wrestlers do a damn good job in the ring, and really try to embody the characters they're representing (Some do have their own spin if a story needs to be advanced). I hope they come to Connecticon until the end of the world, because they're one of the few reasons why I still love professional wrestling!

And finally, there was the cosplay. Normally I’d talk about this earlier in this portion of the review, but there was something special. As usual, I saw a wide variety of cosplay from a wide variety of mediums. There was also a wide variety of quality, yet nothing was ever bad. However, the one particular cosplay trend I saw was a lot of people cosplaying as the precious metallic jellybean from Stranger Things season 4, Eddie Munson. Dudes, Chicks, and everywhere in between. I saw a lot of people dressed up as the wholesome Heavy Metal cinnamon roll, and it brought a smile to my face. Partially because his character brought back renewed interest in old-school Metallica (As we as other classic Heavy Metal bands), and also because for seemingly the first time ever, we got a positive representative of a metalhead in media. Eddie’s not an asshole, nor a meathead, but an honest-to-goodness human being. Practically everybody cosplaying him embodied this heavy ray of sunshine, and it warmed this old Heavy Metal fan’s heart.   

Okay Points
The one thing that surprised this year was the announcement that there was no vaccine card requirement, nor did you need to wear a mask within the venue. This was due to the local government, who said that since cases of the Plague have been down since the end of May (Someone correct me if I’m wrong about that time) I’m genuinely conflicted on this, as on the one hand it was nice to not constantly have a piece of cloth on my face during a gathering like this, and I appreciated not needing to bring along an important document that could potentially get lost. On the other hand, I admit I was a little nervous about it. I will say I did bring a mask along, and it was worn in certain areas I felt it was needed (Panel rooms, Dealer’s Room, Artist Alley, Game area). It felt weird & strange, almost like some mutant form of what things were before 2020 came. I can easily understand why some were scared by this, even infuriated, and I think because of this mix of feelings I felt putting this solitary point here.

Bad Points
There honestly isn’t that much wrong with Connecticon this year. The staff put on a hell of a con, and there was so much going right for it. Unfortunately, there is a little I found wrong with it. For starters, the lack of a physical conbook bugs me. To play devil’s advocate, I understand the need to save a little bit of money, and going for a digital guide is an easier route. Personally, I’m not a fan of this. I loved being able to flip through a con booklet, and writing out the stuff I wanted to do. Again, it’s easier to keep track of stuff digitally, but I had issues downloading the program for whatever reason.

The second issue is the severe lacking of games this year! In the case of gaming in the hotel, You still had the various card games & such, but there was absolutely no board games! It’s always been a tradition from among the group I come to the con with to sit down & play a board game or two (Betrayal At The House On The Hill in particular is a favorite). If there was an issue in this regard, such as logistics or not enough of a desire, then I never saw it anywhere. This is doubly so for the games room adjacent to the dealers. There was still plenty of console gaming both old-school & new, but the company that brought in the Japanese game consoles were not there this year. At first, I thought they just decided to bail out, but then I learned the last day that said company closed! I admit that I never frequented the machines that often, but when I did I hate a lot of fun! If this fact was announced on the con website or Facebook page, then I never saw it.

Final Thoughts & Rating
Connecticon 2022 was just fun. Pure, unadulterated fun. Yeah, it’s got a dent or two in it’s armor, but otherwise it stands tall as one of the best I’ve been too. With it’s mighty return last year, I can only hope that this con stays around for a very long time. If anyone reads this and hasn’t gone, do yourself a favor.....book a room, grab a 3-day pass, and take in the energies of one of the finest conventions hosted in the northeast. You won’t regret it!

Connecticon 2022 gets a 8.5 to 9 out of 10.

And that was my review for this year’s Connecticon. It was simply wonderful to walk along the hallowed paths & halls of the Hartford Convention Center once again, seeing all the sights & experiencing all I could. Much like last year, it was a hell of a time. So, I’ll see you all towards the end of the month, when I’ll take a look at another Sci-Fi anime classic. See you then. 

(Updated on 7/19/2022, 10:45 PM, Eastern Standard Time)

Anime Review: Outlaw Star

Fellow Otaku & Metalheads.....welcome back to the 90s!

After a pretty depressing post last week, I’m getting back to some good vibes with today’s review. As I said on the Fourth Of July, I would be taking a look at the Sci-Fi classic Outlaw Star. A late 90s classic in Japan, American audiences would get a taste of it in the very early 2000s on the anime block that shaped many of our tastes, Toonami. I actually wouldn’t watch this series until well into the summer of 2013, but none the less that I loved the hell out of it all the same. So, find yourself a dependable crew, get your Caster Gun loaded, and take a look at my review for Outlaw Star. Let’s begin!

Story/Setup
From the Funimation re-release box:

“From the studio behind Cowboy Bebop comes a classic space western that brings all the adventure, gun blazing action, and seriously hilarious hijinks.

Gene Starwind is a jack of all trades responsible for odd jobs and bounty hunting with his partner, Jim Hawking, on a rundown planet. The work is simple and relatively uneventful until a bodyguard job goes sideways, and they get wrapped up in a fight against space pirates! Between gunshots, naked women in suitcases, and much more, Gene has to face his worst fear—going into space.

The vastness of space is the least of Gene's worries when he winds up as the owner of the Outlaw Star—a sophisticated space ship wanted by the Kei Pirates and undesirables everywhere. Luckily for him, he's got a crew made up of a boy genius, an android who seems more human than not, a beautiful but deadly assassin, and a feline warrior from the Ktarl Ktarl Empire! A ragtag team for sure, but this group will work together to get to the sought after Galactic Leyline and uncover the mysteries of the universe. If they survive, that is.”

And that’s pretty much it. Compared to the other show I’ll be looking at this month, Outlaw Star has a simple story behind it. It’s not until the final 3 episodes that things take a turn for the surreal, and actually disrupts the flow of everything else before it. Outside of that, this series is nothing more than a really fun space adventure that’s fairly lighthearted (Apart from a couple serious moments). Nothing gets truly soul-crushing, but it’s not diabetes-inducingly sweet & colorful also. This is definitely a Sci-Fi series if you want something easier to watch.     

Animation
Despite being a late 90s series (It was around this time that computer-assisted animation began to crop up), everything here looks like it was done purely by human hands. Outlaw Star, despite it’s age, still manages to look fantastic to this day. Great usage of color, detailed backgrounds & settings, and the movement of characters & other objects still feels as slick as it did when it original came out back in 98. There are moments where it seems like things may have not been drawn or animated as strongly as everything else, but the overall appearance of the entire show is a feast for the eyes.

Voice Acting
Outlaw Star has pretty great voice acting behind it’s cast. Though some of the secondary characters are merely good (Nobody is truly terrible in this show), everybody puts in a lot of work when it came to their respective role. Bob Buchholz embodies the tough yet mildly vulnerable Gene Starwind, Brianne Siddall was perfect as the lovable & plucky Jim, Emilie Brown brought a great deal of sweetness & innocence to Melfina, Lenore Zann commanded the goofy yet fierce Aisha Clan-Clan, and Wendee Lee was perfect as the stoic yet sensual Twilight Suzuka. Nobody ever slips up during the 26-episode run, and everything sounds great overall!

Characters
The characters of Outlaw Star are simultaneously it’s biggest strength.....and it’s biggest weakness. On the one hand, this is a great cast. Good guys, bad guys, primary characters, and secondary characters. The characters that are likable are really likable, and the ones you’re supposed to hate you really hate. Everybody has a distinct personalty, and like I said above the voice acting adds quite a bit of life to them. The problem with the cast is that.....they’re not the deepest. If anything, the characters don’t really evolve over the entirety of the show’s run, outside of some small upgrades to their personality. There is one time a few episodes in where Gene has a moment of crisis, but it seems to be quickly swept under the rug by the time that episode is done. If there’s one good thing I can say about this, it would be that secondary characters don’t suffer from this.

Availability & Pricing
This is one of the weirder aspects of Outlaw Star, for there are 2 editions of this out there. The original Bandai Entertainment version, and the Funimation re-release from a few years ago. The Bandai version has been out of print for quite some time, as new copies on Amazon go for a whopping 139 dollars ($29.99 used), but the re-release goes for the considerably more humble $24.99 across both new & used copies. Unless you’re a collector, it’s obvious which one you should get.

Overall Impression & Rating
Outlaw Star.....is just a fun time. This is the kind of anime you watch if you’ve had a rough day, and you want to see a mostly lighthearted series about good guys on a fantastical journey through space. You don’t have to worry about real world problems, heavy grey morality, or characters that you don’t really care for because they’re such jerks. There may be a scratch on the paintjob of this show, but it doesn’t distract from the sheer awesomeness of the whole package. You definitely don’t want to pass this series if it ever crosses your path!

Outlaw Star gets a 9 out of 10.

So that was my review for the iconic Outlaw Star. It was a hit back in the late 90s/early 2000s, and it’s still a hit today. Well, I got another classic 90s anime to review towards the end of July, but beforehand I got a review of a convention that you all know of quite well. See you soon!

Food For Thought/Thought For Food No. 26: No Celebration Today

I was originally going to do a 2nd “Top 5 Badasses Of World War 2” list to celebrate today, but I was too lazy to even remotely start it. I was then thinking of doing a review on the DN3D expansion Duke It Out In DC, but what happened late last month has taken precedent over all of what I was planning. As you can tell by the first picture in this, I’m gonna be speaking about the recent murder of Roe v Wade at the hands of the supposedly neutral Supreme Court of the United States of America. The safeguard for women against unsafe abortion, Roe V Wade was a shield for all of the female gender in this nation, but horrifically that is no longer the case. Now, it has been taken behind a shed, given a bullet to the head, and left to rot. Already, states in the country that claim to “love” life & Jesus have implement fascist laws against women, making it illegal for a woman to terminate the grown fetus within her. Whether it’s because of rape, incest, or health issues, it doesn’t matter. Women’s bodies are further not their own, and it’s all due to the highest court of this land.

To be perfectly honest.....I’m actually not surprised by this. If anything, the seeds were planted during the entirely of the Trump presidency, when the justices that he personally picked were nothing more that absolute jokes who don’t know a damn thing about the law. Instead, all they know about is ignorance & religious extremism, as well as having no scruples or honesty. From the day they were interviewed they did nothing but lie. They lied to who asked them questions, and they lied to every single person in this country. Their kept their dark ambitions hidden & close to their chest, revealing it when the time was unfortunately right. That “Leak” about Roe v Wade on the executioner’s block back in late April or early May (I can’t recall) was the perfect opportunity for them to unleash the evil that they wanted to spread. Sadly, they were successful.

I’m genuinely still stunned by this. This decision to kill the protection that women were rightfully deserved is nothing more than that catering to an extremist religious minority that wishes to transform this land into their own rigid theocracy, who in turn are catering to a rightfully deposed despot that doesn’t even give an absolute shit about them. If this was all about the sanctity of life, then laws would be put down that allowed women to take paid months off from work to raise their newborn. Women wouldn’t have to pay a dime out of their wallet so they can give birth. However, none of this exists. At the end of the day, the execution of Roe v Wade was an obvious & direct attempt to assert their own beliefs on a group of people within the United States. This was done to further erode the boundary of Church & State, inching us further & further until we become something akin to China, Russia, the Middle East, or England like in V For Vendetta. We are inching ever closer to where we will become almost indistinguishable from those that we criticize.  

Right now, God & Jesus are weeping. Weeping because their names are once again being dragged through the mud by the grifters, swindlers, and con-men on the supreme court. Hell, I would completely understand why the heavenly red reset button. If Jesus suddenly showed up back on this world, and by sheer coincidence popped into our neighborhood, he would be shunned by those that claim to love him. He’d be declared a pussy, labeled a socialist, and be considered a traitor to the white race by the worst of the worst in the United States. We are so far backwards, that even he would throw his hands up in the air, turn his back, walk away, all the while screaming “DAD!? FUCK EM ALL!!”

And so.....I’m not really planning on doing any celebrating today. I would find it hypocritical to celebrate the birthday of a country that claims to support freedom, yet take away the rights of a giant portion of the nation in order to cater to a minority extremist cult, who in turn are catering to a deposed cult leader that doesn’t like his own fucking cult! When you have a country where women can’t always get proper healthcare when it comes to abortion, yet the access of guns of 50x easier, our priorities are screwed up (This is coming from a WW2 gun nut, btw). Given that clarence thomas (Not bothering to capitalize his name) said that he and the rest of SCOTUS might “look” at contraceptives & gay marriage, that is further proof that we truly don’t have rights. In the immortal words of George Carlin:

“We have a series of privileges. A series of temporary privileges.”

So before I end this brain spasm of mine, I want to address some people. For starters, to the Democrats, because unfortunately they’re part of this fiasco. When they had the opportunity to ratify Abortion into the constitution back in 2009, this was their mentality:

“It’s not an issue at this point in time.”

I’m sorry, but that pattern of though alone puts them into the same shitpile as the Republicans. Yes, they apologized for that, but you know what would have been better? ACTUALLY RATIFYING ABORTION INTO THE FUCKING CONSTITUTION! An empty apology is just that. Empty. There are still people (Too many, to be honest) that think that the Democratic Party still believes in the little guy, but it’s stuff like this that keeps me dissolutioned......and that’s coming from a Democrat. 

To the GOP & 90% of Republicans that dwell out in the open, showing off their true colors to not only people like me, but to the rest of the world. Thank you for continuing to prove that you don’t give a shit. Thank you for continuing to show to the rest of the world how much of a joke this country has truly become. Thank you for showing off your blind belief in the Evangelical way, when we weren’t even founded on religious beliefs to begin with! Like I said above, if this recent decision to end safe abortion for women was truly about life, you would have implemented free & incredible maternal care. You would not have women pay to push a kid out. You would have implemented paid maternity leave that would last for months. However, this decision wasn’t about life. It was about control. It was about domination. It was about further establishing an extremist religious theocracy in a country that wasn’t founded as such to begin with! You claim to treasure life, but when you cheer when someone you don’t like gets executed, or when people with maybe a different skin pigment gets hurt or worse, you show that you don’t care about life. You are pro-birth, and nothing more. 

To the remaining 10% of all Republicans in this nation. The ones that continue to believe in people over party. The ones that continue to celebrate country over politics. The ones that are actual religious people! Thank you for showing your soul. Thank you for standing up against the rest of the MAGA infested body of the GOP, and thank you for raising hell against the recent injustice against the women of America! You are the true conservatives & right-wingers of the United States, not some fanatic that can’t (Or won’t) realize that the last guy that ran this nation wouldn’t lift a finger to help them. Next time you see someone online or in public fellating the deposed orange orangutang......do me a favor and slap the jackass out of them! 

To the men. I’m not talking about the idiots that stormed the capital, or so called “Patriots”. I’m talking about the good men, great men, amazing men. The men that stand by their women (Mother, Grandmother, Daughter, Sister, Aunt, Girlfriend, or Wife), who know what’s going on is completely wrong, supporting them with all they got. You beautiful bastards rock! Even the gay guys that none the less love their female friends & family! You are the real men of this country, showing off actual masculinity & strength! Not some fat fucker that waves around a rifle, claiming he’d be able to defend “Muh Murica” from whatever phantasms that lurk in their empty skull. Stand by your ladies dudes!

And perhaps mostly importantly.....to the women that read this. Whether you were born a woman, or you became a woman.....raise hell. March, protest, send letters & e-mails to your politicians both local and national, unite, and make the “Supreme” Court, GOP, Democrats who didn’t raise a call to arms, and Evangelical “Christians” shit their pants. And if any of you lovely ladies just so happen to be a witch, voodoo priestess, or a practitioner of another magical belief......well, I don’t think anyone is going to mind a bubbling cauldron or two.

I want to end this rant on a very simple note. In the immortal words of Captain America:

“This Isn't Freedom, This Is Fear.”

Next week, I’ll return to the 90s with a review on Outlaw Star. See you then.