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Spring Anime 2012 | Welcome Home, Space Cowboy
- Thread starter iavi
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TTGL is one of my favourite anime ever but the first ep was boring as. I don't see how anyone can argue that.
Femmeworth
Banned
Keep your voice down, he hasn't posted in a long while. Let's keep it that way.
hosannainexcelsis
Member
I watched 3 episodes of TTGL and found it pretty unengaging.
Regulus Tera
Romanes Eunt Domus
Cliché doesn't necessarily mean boring. That first episode was nuts off the wall awesome.
It moves fast, and it throws the characters out into the world in just one episode while a big fight goes on for like half of that episode. I didn't really get a "boring" feel from it but I also enjoy the simpler desert stuff in TTGL the most.
I can live with the fact that I by nature despise episodic shows. There are a few exceptions by they are exceptions.
Regulus Tera
Romanes Eunt Domus
The Vicious/Spike shit is only given the centre stage for four episodes. They are filler just as much as the rest of the show.
KuwabaraTheMan
Banned
That stuff wasn't really filler, though. I wouldn't even say that the Vicious stuff was the strongest part of the series. Those episodic stories were what made Bebop, along with how we got bits and pieces of each of the main characters along the way.
You can't start ditching the 'filler' without ditching Bebop's soul. At that point, it might not even be called Cowboy Bebop anymore.
They burst through the ceiling of the world and see the sunset and moonrise at the same time and it's fucking rad as shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit
It wasn't done very well either. Seemed like a generic shounen show with the usual over-the-top exaggerated actions like the whole balancing pig tower thing. Also, Kamina came off as being too annoying and overbearing at first.
I do admit I absolutely despise cliche shows so my judgement may be skewed.
That was a pretty good moment but not enough to save the first episode for me.
It's an underlying thing for the entire show though and serves as motivation and understanding for the principle character. Like I said though, I would have preferred if they had spent more time on their relationship instead of some the other time-waster episodes. Also the show had a ensemble cast for the most part and spent a few episodes focusing on other characters like Faye or Jet.
I would say there is roughly 10 episodes that are important in regards to character backstory/plot progression. I would have much preferred it to been bumped up as I found them the more memorable pieces of the show. Certain things stick out from the show and it's ones like the church scene in "Ballad of Fallen Angels".
You dropped it just before the infamous Osamu Kobayashi episode, lol.
Regulus Tera
Romanes Eunt Domus
It had a clear structure that set the tone for the entire show (DO THE IMPOSSIBLE SEE THE INVISIBLE) while introducing the main cast very quickly. There was some wonky art during the Gunmen battle, but the rest was done efficiently and with a sense of motion in both animation and pacing.
I love that episode because of how quick it is. In fact, there's almost no bullshit in Gurren Lagann, recap episode aside.
actually it could have done without episode four
KuwabaraTheMan
Banned
Those 'time waster' episodes serve to fill out the backstories and personalities for Spike, Jet and Faye, as well as building out their personalities and painting a vision of the world they live in. They explore how Cowboy Bebop's world exists for people in all walks of life and give us a real look at a full formed world. The characters become further defined and developed as contrasts to the world that they occupy, and their interactions with all of these side characters are a key part of that.
The show would have been much worse simply focused around the Spike/Vicious revenge plot.
Regulus Tera
Romanes Eunt Domus
Cowboy Bebop is a lot about how the cast is a pathetic aimless bunch with no purpose in a life that is both dangerous and vice-inducing. Spike having to confront his past wouldn't work without all the so called filler.
Those core 10 filled out the backstory. The rest you might say fleshed out the personalities but that also could have been done in more serialized content anyway.
I completely disagree with that statement. The relationship between Spike/Vicious/Julia is the strongest thing about the show.
There are ways to tie that into a narrative in that using certain jobs to piece together a larger story or try to make more of the smaller jobs more personal.
I dunno, the first episode just rubs me the wrong way. There's got to be some reason I dropped it so many times before returning. Maybe my hate for cliche is just too strong.
I loved everything from episode 2 and on, and I agree the pacing is done quite well. I even marathoned everything from episode 2 onwards. I enjoyed the cast of characters, and the OST is godly. Animation was very stylish and daring.
I've got some kind of stigma against that first episode though.
The reason it's strong in the first place is because of it's calculated subtlety. It's not a story with a clear cut beginning, middle and end. Fleshing that out would ruin the reason it's great in the first place.
Your complaint is with episodic shows in general, not Cowboy Bebop. There's nothing wrong with making an episodic show.
That's a fair enough accusation. I suppose I'm guilty of wanting the show to be something it clearly isn't.
What? This is false.
None of those things had anything to do with the quality of the show though. Considering they were backed up with more-than competent execution.
Neko Mimi Mode
Member
Achoo.
Femmeworth, I didn't know you cared! Rest assured, any lapse in posting here is only due to a delay in uploading many massive screenshots for your pleasure.
First episodes are often little indicator of a show's overall quality (Looking at you Envelope), but TTGL stands out as one of those shows that pretty much lets you know what you're in for from the get go;
Over the top action sequences.
Kamina being awesome.
Breasts.
Allegorical references to fighting spirit (drill) and passing your limitations (breaking through the heavens)
Epic soundtrack.
Insanity.
TTGL's first episode is great, a much better introduction to the series than Cowboy Bebop's first episode is.
Yes, I went there
Determined to drive that car straight off the cliff, I see.
I heard all these negative comments about Steins;Gate's first episode, then when I watched I didn't have any problem with it at all. It's been a while since I saw it so I don't remember the details, but I know I didn't have any strong negative reaction to it anyway. I remember wondering what the fuss had been about.
Regulus Tera
Romanes Eunt Domus
But I don't wanna watch Midgarzolom.
All you people are being feisty today. Maybe you should watch some ponies in order to unwind yourselves.
Neko Mimi Mode
Member
Like playing Russian Roulette with a full chamber.
Or maybe you provide actual arguments for why you disagree with me!
TTGL 1 introduces the characters and world and plot far better than Cowboy Bebop 1 does. Now, you can easily argue that TTGL's characters lack the depth that Cowboy Bebop has, but as far as first episodes go, TTGL > Cowboy Bebop.
Basileus777
Member
More people need to experience the vocoder engrish from the show's OP.
Even hearing about it beforehand I was not prepared. I couldn't stop laughing at first.
Infinite Justice
Member
So i come back and see people shitting on Cowboy Bebop and TTGL in the thread?
WTH? :/
WTH? :/
You don't even have any kind of basis to make those statements since you never watched past episode 1 of Bebop.
Regulus Tera
Romanes Eunt Domus
Because Medaka dresses like a whore.
True. I don't know why I hate the first episode even if it's the embodiment of what happens later, and I love all the episodes after episode 1, aside from the recap.
I'm going with having an allergy to cliche first impressions or something...
oh you.
There could not be a more apt analogy.
Basileus777
Member
For whatever reason, I can't remember much about the Bebop film. I should probably rewatch it, I don't think I've seen it more than once.
Regulus Tera
Romanes Eunt Domus
It's filler anyway. You are not missing much.
All i remember are golden butterflies and a middle eastern market scene.
and I don't remember liking it as much as the series.
I'm used to it.
;_;
Your vision of Cowboy Bebop that lacks Toys in the Attic, Pierrot le Fou, and the first episode is not a Cowboy Bebop that I want.
I don't feel like there are any wasted episodes of Bebop. They all flesh out the world and the characters in different ways. Some may reveal more than others, but it's weird to call any of it filler, when there are very few "main" plot threads that go longer than two episodes.
The show you're asking for is a totally different kind of show.
Once is enough.
Not even that, as much as Bebop is a show about not about the past--which is what a furthered delving into Julia would actually work against, but getting past it, and dealing residual emotions from it, with the help of new found camaraderie, of course. Think of every crew-member's arc;
Jet with his former partner and ex-wife, Fey and her amnesia, Ed's... I can't actually remember Ed's--aside from it dealing with her father, and Spike, who was written the thematic antagonist, and, ultimately, used an example of what happens when you not only never get over it, but let the past consume you,
a viable alternative that Spike literally walked away from to go and have himself killed--down to a 'brother' in Jet, and an implied love interest in Fey--obvious fill-ins for Viscous and Julia, imo. Ed had left by that point.
It's a Mami Kawada song? *youtubes it*
I actually like Mami Kawada. The OST and her song, Hishoku no Sora, were the only redeeming things about Shakugan no Shana.
edit: Borderland is not particularly good or bad. meh.
For those commenting on Cowboy Bebop "filler" and how there are "core episodes" and so on, how would it make you feel knowing that when Cowboy Bebop first premiered in Japan, TV Tokyo actually refused to air the series as it was? Instead they aired ep2, 3, 7-15, and 18 as a 12 episode series, and threw in a recap edit somewhere in the middle too.
That was the way people first experienced Cowboy Bebop. Four months after that debacle, the pay network WOWOW broadcast the entire 26 episode series on their station. Of course being a pay network, it meant that for a lot of people relying on free-to-air broadcast, they never got to see it.
Why did this occur? Because TV Tokyo is a shitty TV station which overreacts to every little incident. At the time there were knife attacks among youngsters in Japan, and the station also got flake for the Pokemon episode causing epilepsy problems. So they started to self-regulate all their programs, and they deemed the bulk of Cowboy Bebop to be excessively violent and inappropriate for air. Lolz.
That was the way people first experienced Cowboy Bebop. Four months after that debacle, the pay network WOWOW broadcast the entire 26 episode series on their station. Of course being a pay network, it meant that for a lot of people relying on free-to-air broadcast, they never got to see it.
Why did this occur? Because TV Tokyo is a shitty TV station which overreacts to every little incident. At the time there were knife attacks among youngsters in Japan, and the station also got flake for the Pokemon episode causing epilepsy problems. So they started to self-regulate all their programs, and they deemed the bulk of Cowboy Bebop to be excessively violent and inappropriate for air. Lolz.
Infinite Justice
Member
It struck me as absurdly overproduced.
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