AWTY 140 - Binging with Bebop (Cowboy Bebop with Matt Swain)

Obnoxious little frog.

Hello, and welcome to our weebly area in exploration and education and anime. I'm your anime idiot, patrick dugan.

I'm an anime expert, D hollander.

And I'm brenda mccullough. Your anime ragtime rock steady. Think about it.

Getting jazzy, I see. It is the swinging 20s after all.

Oh, God. Oh, it is by age.

Oh, shit.

Oh, my heart.

We're back. It's the roaring 20s, ladies and gents and everyone else.

Oh, boy. I hope the next 20 years are better than the last 40s.

Anyway, anyway, we have something exciting happening today. There's someone else here.

I locked the door on the way in.

Matt swain, my good friend and also popular twitch streamer, the Yurba mateo. Hello.

Welcome.

Is this door open? Should I walk in now? Hi, guys. I'm Matt.

Brendan always forgets to unlock or lock the doggy door so you can crawl in through there.

Yeah, that's how I got in. So. Thank God. I wasn't sure if that was acceptable, but that's what I did.

It's weird I don't have a dog. Yeah, I just keep that door around for some damn reason.

Just for the guests.

It's a power move. It's the show dominance. Right away, I not get a lot.

Yeah, we want this as hostile as possible.

I like it. I feel intimidated. I'm ready.

Perfect. So we are here today. I've brought my friend Matt, because we're going to watch one of his favorite shows, cowboy bebop.

Yeah, freddie to be a cowboy again.

God damn, my boots.

Yeah, we're all dressed up, right? I was like, full cowboy gear.

Not for cowboy gear. I got the assist chaps.

Okay, well, that's a bad.

Oh, no. I did a Teenage mutant ninja turtles cosplay. Oh, I got the wrong memo.

Beave up in rocksteady.

But yes. So I assume some of you might be familiar with this show. I just have that sneaking feeling like I know, I know. Like 90s anime. No one really talks about it anymore at this point. So, like, who knows? Who knows an old show like this, right? Right. We we haven't been dancing around it for almost 150 episodes.

It's a lot of episodes, actually.

I'm going to be real. I haven't seen it.

Really?

Obviously I know about it, but I've never watched it.

Interesting.

It's a small indie animal. Not many have talked about it, heard about it, seen it.

No. You didn't wait in a line for hours at Anime Los Angeles to get autographs.

I was wondering if we were going to mention that. No.

Let us single hand audience know how deep it runs in your vein.

That's true.

Yeah. This has been going out for years. That was to get a lot of signatures and get our car battery killed. I think it was worth it, honestly.

In the moment, I was like, of course this would happen. But also, yeah, that's like a once in a lifetime thing. On the 25th anniversary 20th.

Yeah, I think it was the 20th. I showed 20th on my stream constantly. It's still to this day, like my one most prized possession. So thanks for putting up with me. Yeah, it was like 4 hours long because there was like an hour presentation where all the voice actors went on a panel and talked and like, oh, remember when Dish happened? And it was really cool. And then there was the line to actually get the signatures and that took 4 hours and oh my god, it was worth it. But like yeah.

And you have it on like the coolest art.

Oh, yeah, it's fantastic. Oh my god.

You'll have to send a picture when we're done.

Yeah, I will.

I've waited longer for less cool shit. So totally understandable.

Stuff for dumber things.

It makes you feel a little bit better.

It's safe to say you've seen this show.

I've heard of it, yes, once or twice. I do think I've seen this anime more times than any other show. Possibly not just anime, but I'll just put it on one day. If I'm like, what do I watch? I'm going to watch an episode. And that's what I'll just do. I don't repeat watch a lot of things except for this goddamn show. Can't escape it, man.

It's an easy show to do that with because it's both pretty short. But then I didn't realize it until we were looking back on episodes. It's pretty episodic. There is like overarching plotlines. Yeah, but you could easily just grab any episode and just pick it up and go and you're like, yeah, I can follow along with this. It's pretty clear.

Yeah, like you can pick up your favorite episode and you don't have to watch the before and after to be like, cool, I got this plot in that episode. I like it.

It's really good.

Rare in anime where they don't have to have someone literally being like, oh, you don't know this blood feud that has been going on for centuries.

You don't know the lore. The five minute recap at the beginning of every episode and then the end of episode recap. So you only have ten minutes of actual new content.

I love hero academia.

But yeah, this was a show when I first started working in localization, I was like, okay, this is sort of like the pinnacle. Let me watch it. But I only, for whatever reason, tried the subd version. And at that point I was like, I'm not super into subtitles. That's why I work in localization. So I started the first episode. I think I didn't realize it was the subd version until dialogue started in the first episode. I was like, and then I stopped. We've already made fun of my hero. Can we bait the most hate storm from this episode? I mean, it's inevitable, but let's just set the standard. Any hot takes, any opinions, now's the time to put them in here about.

Cowboy bebop or anything.

Anything where?

Oh, shit.

I just said I turned off the first episode of the sub. Five minutes in that alone, we are going to get at least 30 tweets.

Just roasting us about how much we hated Pantian stalking. And people loved panty and stalking.

It's the internet's most favorite anime for some reason.

And you're still here, so that's good.

We tore the one piece and that's 1000 episodes and chapters.

Y'All are brave. Oh my god, we do. I love it.

We're not brave. I got stockholm syndrome. I'm in the one piece camp. I'm not happy about it. What else do we tear into? What cult classic bleach. Does that count? I don't know.

I think most people, even fans know that that's not great.

Yeah, they're like reluctant fans. Like, oh boy, new bleach is coming. I was like, oh god damn it, I'm going to watch it. But like, god damn it, I don't want to.

Oh, there's things I love that are objectively kind of garbo that I'm like. I love it. If you trash on it, I will probably agree with you. But I like it.

Oh, yeah, you're in my camp of paste.

Yes, exactly.

I don't know any hot tape that we haven't said already on the pie. Horses are vomitations and I do not care for their existence. Is that a hot tape?

That's not an anime. That's just an animal horse. I don't like horses.

Mad about Pretty Derby. The horse girl anime that we won't.

Oh, no.

Let's tell them over the break.

Yeah, we'll catch you up. We'll watch them. Kelly bebop. Then we'll watch them a pretty derby for no fucking reason.

Are they like on the same level of like, quality and.

No, absolutely not surprising.

Weird.

Who would have thought?

Does that make sense?

Well, we should say we're doing something unique. We're watching episodes 117 and five, in that order.

Get in specific. Get in specific.

You first asked me, you were like, what episodes should we watch? The reason I did that, and I think you guys might know, is episode five is like, objectively one of the best episodes in the whole series. So I didn't want to put it in the middle. I'm like, nah, have them end on that one. And again, because they're all kind of their own individual stories. So you can watch them in any order you want. Which is cool.

Yeah, once I heard your picks for episodes, I was like, that makes sense because it's episodic. It works a lot better. As opposed to what we did for one piece, which was episodes 236, 278, and 405.

Oh my god. Wait, what?

Yeah, not even close from the beginning.

No, because I knew you weren't going to like it. So I just want a pretty visual. But this works. It works for bebop.

At this rate, we're looping you into so much of our own podcast floor. We'll just have you listen to the Inshire show on the break. We'll see you in about 150 hours. bye.

Okay, sounds good.

I woke up at 03:30 a.m. And have been wide awake since. And I was like, I don't want to watch anime today. And for me to like a show after those conditions oh, yes. ooh, refreshing.

Ooh.

Yeah, I needed the 7th.

Was the show for today, then?

Yes, because it's about to get now. It's good to hear that. I got worried, though.

Yeah, that hesitation had to be like, Go on. Say.

I set everyone up with let's share some hate. So here we go.

Let's talk about the cowboy beat. boop.

Yeah.

Sorry, just real quick, I want to know what people think of this show that have no context for it. Do they just think it's actual cowboys and, like, robots?

For a long time, I had no idea what it was about.

See, my only frame of reference is Firefly is, like, my favorite show. So just everyone being like, oh, yes. This is like, the Firefly anime, basically watching it. Yeah. Direct inspiration.

You know what's funny is people have always told me that I should watch Firefly because it's like, bebop, but live action. I'm like, okay, I should probably watch firefly then. Pretty good.

Sorry. We're now pivoting into a Firefly podcast. You waited so long for Cowboy bebop. I'm hijacking this in true space cowboy fashion.

Okay, so, episode one, we start off with some dramatic shots. It's raining. There's a church. We see Mr. Spike spiegel? Hello, Mr. Spike.

The titular spike spiegel.

Titular. He is the cowboy bebop.

He is the bebop.

It's black and white. A rose falls into a puddle. It's like an old French movie noir. I love it. And then we see him shoot a bunch of folks there's, shoot off. And that's cool and all, but then we get the best opening. Objectively.

Good. Really good.

It's decent. Decent. I hear it in my brain every night.

I mean, who doesn't love it? Obviously, I've heard the song. I've never seen all of the opening, but I've heard the song a lot. And it's just like, how is that an anime opening? But also it's the best anime opening.

Yeah.

And the visual issue is, like, a.

Very short film by itself.

Yeah.

And just, like, so parodied to shit that it's like, oh, okay, now I get a bunch of references.

It all makes sense now.

Oh, yes.

So that's very good. And then it's like bluesy. There's, like, harmonica playing over shots of space. There's ships flying around and stuff. We see a man cooking. This man's name is Jet, but I refer to him mostly as Chef Man.

Like, throughout the whole cinnati in my.

Notes, just like Chef Man. And we see Spike, he's doing some exercises, kicking, punching. Great. And then Jet comes to get him, and he says, it's dinnertime, and they're having beef and bell peppers.

Damn.

Delicious.

Yeah. And they're looking at their next target as they're eating. His name is asimov. Stolenson. But Spike can only focus on the fact that there's no beef in this. Beef and bell peppers.

Mostly bell peppers and onions.

Yeah.

Delicious. It's vegan.

Beef.

Wow. Space is so progressive now. Love it.

They talk about how they don't have any money because all this shit that Spike gets into. So all of that money has to go to fixing those things.

You're a loose cannon, Spike.

Ooh, he's a rebel. Even as like an outlaw.

He's a rebel.

So they say Asmov is hiding in tijuana and he's worth 2.5 million currency. What's it called?

The woolong long.

Wool longs.

Woolongs are the connecting thread between Cowboy bebop and Carol on Tuesday. Yeah, because Carol on Tuesday takes place on Mars and they have Wool longs as currency.

What can.

Yeah, it's it's canon. There's there's not much else other than them living on Mars and the the.

Currency, but that's about it.

Yeah.

It's canonically connected.

I love that.

Yeah. He's worth 2.5 million and they should go get him. But Spike is kind of like what that's? Not a lot. Whatever. Then we get just like a montage of very nice visuals as they're traveling and they get there and they're splitting up. Spike is going off in his cool red ship, and he's got driving gloves. And then we get a look at, like, a run down city. It's very I didn't know how else to describe it other than outlaw esque. There's just like thieves and dive bars. It's incredible, this environment. It's very well done.

Modern day western. Yeah, well, futuristic Western, but like, old and dirty old future, which makes it modern day.

Yeah.

Take the perspective of tijuana in the then put it in the future. Okay. Perfect.

Yeah, they nailed it.

We see some old dudes at a bar playing a game when a couple comes in and the man in the couple is asthma. And they sit at the bar and they order drinks. They ask for a Bloody Mary. They're talking in code.

Wink, wink.

And asimov flashes a small vial to the bartender. They go to the back room, and the thing in the vial is something called Bloody Eye. And the bartender says that asthma needs to prove that it's real. So to do this, Asmov holds the vial to his eye. I was very concerned because it looked like there was a needle, and I thought it was going to go in his eye. And I was like, thank you. But he sprays it so it's just like eye drops. It's fine.

Thank God. Yeah. He also hated that. Yeah.

We don't like eye stuff in this show.

We're not on take. We are anti stuff.

Yeah.

Salvador daly, I'm calling you out.

So he sprays it and his eyes go bloodshot and he goes nuts. Feral at this. People burst into the bar to attack, but because he's hyped up on this Bloody Eye, he's avoiding bullets. Like, he's seeing in slow motion. So he sees a bullet coming toward him, and he just dips out of the way. And obviously, this show is, like, stylistically great, and the way that we see through asimov's eyes and everything is, like, red tinted and pencily almost. It's more sketchy. Very cool.

Artistic.

Yeah. And we see Spike, he's visiting, like, a mystic guy, like a shaman in a hut, and the shaman guy has got sand flowing from his fingers, and he tells Spike where to find the Blood Eye wolf and that he'll meet a woman who will kill him. And Spike says, I'm not that concerned. I've been killed by a woman before. And then he leaves to get killed.

By a woman, just casually. Yeah, I've been dead shot. Bang.

The dream. Okay?

The dream just by woman. Death by woman.

We get maki from fire force that just crush me in our biceps. Like, I'm fine with that.

So we see Jet at the bar where the attack was, and it's, like, completely trashed. And then he hides from a couple of guys that come in, and they say they got to take care of the damage before the cops find it. And one of them wonders why they don't just let the cops take care of asthma. But he's pretty unstoppable when he uses the Bloody Eye, so they got to get a handle on him.

He also stole all of the Bloody Eye they made.

Right, yeah, I was going to mention that later.

Sorry.

That's okay. I didn't know if they mentioned it before.

How dare you spoil this recent show?

Yeah, just a brand new show.

But we see Spike, he's flying around in a ship, and he's hungry, and then his ship needs fuel, too, and I'm I'm embarrassed. He said he said, I washed it. Dubbed, obviously, because the dub is really great, famously great. And he says, you hungry, too, baby? And I was just like, God, Steve bloom, I can't do this today.

Add a pause for a second, walk away, kind of take a shower real quick.

Let me just dump some ice on my face.

Thanks, Steve.

The worst part is, it's pretty similar to his regular speaking voice, so anytime you hear him talk, it's like Spike, no content. All right. No, yeah.

I mean, I know him best from Legend of korra, but he does he's he's got a little flavor in that one.

A little spicy.

Yeah, but so asimov and his lady friend are at, like, a rest stop, kind of, and he's, like, fighting off the Bloody Eye, and him and Spike have, like, a run in the bathroom, and Spike kind of he knows it's him, but he's not ready for his attack yet, so he leaves Planet off. Cool. Yeah. And he runs into Azimas lady friend, and she was carrying a bag and she drops it all. So he helps her pick it up. He stole a hot dog, among other things. But she's charmed.

Who isn't?

Yeah, I'm just going to right.

So they're at his ship and he says he's a traveling performer. She asks if he's been to Mars and he says he was born there. And she thinks it sounds like a dream, like everyone has everything they need. And he says it is if you're rich. So asimov and his lady want to escape to Mars, and Spike tells her that they should. But she's not dumb. She's not really falling for his charade. And she knows that he's a bounty hunter and that he's looking for them. And Spike says he's not worried about asimov, that he's a small fry. And then asimov sneaks up and chokes him. But she tells him to let Spike go. And they drive off and she says, adios, cowboy. So asimov asks why she stopped him, and she is just like, you have to stop doing this because I am pregnant and I want to live like, a good life with you and our child. And you're kind of making that not happen.

Being a real buzz kill is killing.

With your with your drug selling.

This is like the third guy you strangled in the last hour.

If you are on the run from both the police and your gang, you don't want to leave a literal trail of bodies behind you.

Yeah.

So, yeah, she just wants to be rid of this life, to go be happy on Mars. Jet finds Spike, he says he's on the ground and he just goes, I had a sweet dream.

He almost gets killed taking a nap.

Feeling good. Why is my mom calling me back?

We're doing animals, getting stuff here.

Hi, mom. I'm recording the podcast right now. I'll call you back, okay? I love you. My mom says hi, Matt.

Goodbye.

Love your mom.

I didn't realize you're getting two guests on this episode.

Yeah, she's been on the podcast before, briefly.

Returning guest?

Yes. Okay, so where was I? She wants to be happy on Mars. So Jet says that they should give up on asthma because he's too hard to fight and it's just not worth it at this point. And this is where I wrote that he stole every drop of bloody Eye from his gang, from his syndicate. So Spike says that he ran into them thanks to the shaman guy in the hut. He gave him the right directions and he even stole a vial of the bloody eye. And he says that they are trying to sell it all before they move to Mars. So we see asimov and his lady get out of their car. I never got her name. Does she have a name?

I don't think it's yeah, I don't think it was ever said in the episode.

Okay, lady friend it is. So the old men from the bar. They're there again, and I love it.

God, I love them.

Traveling gang of men. And Spike is there, too. He's undercover, pretending to buy Bloody Eye from asimov. And he reveals who he is. He tells asimov how much his bounty is just to prove that he's a small fry. And then he tosses the vial that he stole into the air and he shoots it.

Wasted product because drugs are bad.

Yeah.

God, wouldn't it be convenient if I was fighting this guy who was notoriously hard to kill? Let me destroy the one thing that'll even the off.

So then a fight ensues, and there's some really amazing music. And Spike is being all cocky, having one liners and shit, and I was like, oh, no, I'm simping.

I love it.

Who doesn't?

God, he's charming me to death. He's so good at what he does.

Kick me harder.

So asthma's lady friend is holding a gun to them, but she doesn't shoot because she doesn't want to shoot asthma. And then some other guy shows up, some other guys show up from his gang. And now it's like a whole thing. There's a whole thing going on. Jet shows up to save Spike. asimov and his lady have gotten into their ship and they're being tailed by the gang. Spike and Jet follow, and they end up shooting down the people from the gang. And they're just following them now. And asimov moves to use some bloody eye, but the vial breaks all over his face, so he's going nuts. And his lady friend is very upset, and she just realizes that they'll never escape this. They'll never get out of this. So they're in space, they've left planet, and she shoots asthma. And there's just delicious complete silence. That's one of my favorite things in media, when people just do that and there's just like a moment where everything is silent, and you're just like because you really feel the weight of what's going on. So she makes eye contact with Spike and their ship gets blown to bits. And then after all that happens, spike and Jet are back on their ship, the beebop, and it's time for dinner again. And that's how episode one ends.

Yeah.

Bell peppers again. Sands beef.

That's really what the show is about.

Beef and bell pepper cooking show.

Yeah. Starts and ends with beef and bell peppers.

God, imagine if Chad just had a cooking show and it's like, are you a poor college student and needs to scrap together anything in your cabinets? I'll tell you how it's like, oh, thank you.

Welcome to binging with bebop.

Oh my God. Wow.

I'd watch it then, as it's tradition. After episode one, we're going to episode 17. Of course.

Classic.

So we jump ahead of it. As soon as I saw this episode, I forgot which episode it was. As soon as I looked it up, I was like, ah, of course you picked this one. It makes perfect sense.

Yeah.

So we start off this episode with Ed and Iron. In the course of episodes one to 17, Ed and I joined the crew. ein is a little corgi, and Ed is a super sleuth hacker and also just the zany character. Ed is actually very fun. And we see them looking for food, scratching around the beef off, looking for any scrap of food they could find. And jet's pissed off. He throws down the empty box and he said, someone ate all the emergency rations. This wasn't like, hey, we're out of food and I'm hungry rations. This is we will die or we have to eat each other emergency rations. Like, this was dire Straits emergency rations, and someone went ahead and ate them. What the fuck? And this guy just interrogating the whole crew trying to figure out who did it. And he also says they were out of food and they're also out of fuel. So they're kind of just drifting through space waiting to run into a space station they can resupply on or a planet nice and just focus for the best. And suddenly, while they're trying to figure out who ate the rations, another ship crashes into them and jets, oh, shit. And it gets on the comment and tries to like, hey, you okay? Like, what happened? And the ship just backs up and it flies off. It's like, what the hell? And faye says, like, hit and run. faye is another member of the crew that joins at this point. She's the sassy swindler. She's the bounty hunter with all the charm that tricks people. So because they got hit by another ship, they go off their trajectory and judge like, oh, we're off course. And they're like, what course were we on? We're out of fuel. And they end up crashing on a nearby planet. And they decide like, oh, we crash. We're out of food and fuel. Time to split up and start looking for stuff or looking for any help they can get. And right as he says that, faye gets really sick. Turns out she ate the rashes. And then Jet picks up the rashes box and goes, ah, these expired a year ago. karma, karma. Here we go.

She got it.

So Jet and Spike are looking over the ship, trying to figure out what broke and how to fix it. Ed comes in and tries to help and ends up just ripping two handlebars off entirely. It's like, all right, that's not helping anybody. You and I go out, go look for food, and we get a little montage of them run around. It's just a barren desert. You just see a cactus every now and then, and that's it. So we got a little montage of Ed just running around, goofing off with the dog. And eventually Ed stumbles across the hit and run ship, the one that hit them, and also crash landed and while they're running after it, ed smells some food. I like that Ed smells the food before hein does. And hein is a literal dog. Just how feral Ed is. And they smell some food and they start following it. And it leads them to a truck that's selling watermelons. But they got no monies, so they gets no melons. dang it. And while they're talking to the melon, seller lady shows up and just a big old sporty car. She's got a big trench coat, huge afro and sunglasses. Looks bad as hell. And she buys a melon and asking for some information if they've seen this guy. She holds up a photo. She's looking for a dude and watermelon says seller says no. And she just buys watermelon and goes on with her day. And in classic Speed racer fashion, ed and I sneak into the trunk of the car.

Don't tell them secrets.

Secrets. So we see the lady goes driving back into town and she stops at the gas station to refuel. She's searching for what? She stops at the gas station to fuel up and cops her at the station as well. Asking her, seeing them to get search her car. They're looking for illegal mushrooms. There's an illegal mushroom dealer on the planet and they're after them. She's like, yeah, you can search my car. I got nothing to hide. And once they pop the trunk, they find a passed out child and a dog. And they say, hey, what the fuck is this about?

This is suspicious.

Ma'Am.

Hey, that's weird.

I like that they actually reacted. I'm like, hey, you have a human being your trunk. And it wasn't like wily kids, hey, what the fuck? They reacted appropriately for wanting an anime.

Yeah.

So they try to arrest the woman because they think she's human trafficking. And in the high jinks, ed and I just wander off as they're one to do. As they're wandering into town, they end up bumping into the mushroom dealer that the woman is looking for. And they go running after him because he has a hot dog, but he eats it before they get there. And they get all sad. And then at the same time, they're confronted by the youngest shaft brother. He's a guy in a disco suit, afro, really stylish. And he's just dragging around a coffin with him.

I love it.

And he says, I drag around this coffin because the mushroom you gave to my brother made him laugh so hard, his intestines twisted inside of him and he died. So I'm going to put you in this coffin. And then a truck drives by and distracts the coffin.

This was so good. I was so on board at this moment. Such a stylistic, like, badass assassin choice ruined.

Yeah.

Just embarrassed in front of the person you've been hunting for years.

Yeah. And like right as the coffins destroyed, the the guy mushroom dealer just kind of starts walking. Away like, well, I'm not needed here anymore. Tries to slip away. So the bounty hunter, he only calls himself the youngest chef brother. So I'm just going to go up. shaft tries to attack the mushroom dealer as he runs off. And as he run off, he drops some mushrooms. And ein notices. At first I was able to snatch it up before Ed eats it and just starts popping, just starts, like hopping down the street, dog, making a little hiccup noise, like a little wind up toy. And Ed is like, oh, these are bad mushrooms. I'm going to take it back to the ship. So we go back to the Bebop and we see Ed a little tent and leaves a plate out in front of it with just a single mushroom on the plate. And one by one, we see everyone else in the crew walk by and be like, oh, free food. And they all eat the mushroom.

They're just because every time each time it happened and someone ate one, I was like, no, Ed, no.

Someone has to say something.

Stop drugging your friends with bad mushrooms.

Listen, I can't say I wouldn't do the same thing as Ed.

You're like, well, let's find out.

Both feeding yourself.

You were hungry. I did give you what you wanted.

It's the monkey Paul of food. It's like, Man, I'm hungry. It's like, I'll give you food. It's hallucinogenic as hell, but it's food. So we see them all eat it, and yeah, a few minutes later, they all hiccup, which is the visual cue of the drugs kicking in. And we see Spike is walking around the ship, and we see him all of a sudden appear on just like, infinite staircase. He looks in front of him, he looks behind him, and it's just a staircase and nothing else. He's like, all right, I guess this is what I'm doing today. Meanwhile, faye is in the bathroom, and she's just kind of ivan for a bit in the bathroom. She seems to be doing all right. And we see Jet talking to his bonsai trees. He's having a good time. He seems like he had the best trip because he talked to his trees conversation. Yeah. And we go back to Spike and we see while he's on the staircase, he runs to a frog that says, this is the stairway to heaven. Spike just basically says, like, Cool, go away.

I love soul.

We see in reality, Spike is just on a staircase and he's just in place. He's not even walking up the stairs.

It's the best.

And Ed is just sitting there like, wow, just staring at it like you go, fascinating.

This guy loves stairs.

Ed is young. They have to learn that drugs are bad. So this is a good example.

Exactly.

We see faye still just kind of freaking out in the bathroom, and she's just surrounded by water and a bunch of fish. So she's just swimming in the bathroom, like, in place. And Jet still just talking to his trees. He's just having a good time. And Ed, sure enough, after watching all of them freak out, like, yeah, these mushrooms are bad.

Experiment done.

Science, science.

After that, Ed and I sit down and watch TV. The only thing that apparently is ever on TV in the Bebop universe is Big Shot, which is the Bounty Hunter TV show where they talk about the highest bounties of the week. And like, here's your info, bounty hunters, go and get those vigilantes. So this one actually does have, like, a cowboy aesthetic to it, which is fun. And sure enough, the mushroom man that everyone's hunting's got a bounty on them. Pretty high one. And Ed and Ian are like, all right, let's get some money. Then we can buy food. Meanwhile, back at the police station, the woman's being interrogated by the police because she had a child in her trunk. That's fair.

Yeah.

And sure enough, while she's being interrogated, she sees Ed and Ian fly by on, like, a motorized scooter. And I love just any shot of Ian in the little backpack just like, ragging behind it.

It's a little corgi.

He's so good. And the woman sees it. It's like, oh, cool. And gets out of the interrogation with the police because the police distracted by phone call and idiot. And then we see the youngest chef brother. He's just had a little cafe, eating some shaved ice with the three old geezers that I think are in every episode of Bebop, or at least a lot of them. They're like a Reoccurring Creek chorus of the series.

Yeah, they're like, as reoccurring as the main cast, I think.

Yeah.

So he's eating shaved ice and he sees Ed fly by on the scooter, and he's like, it's the kid that made me lose my bounty. I'm going to get them, but first. And he eats as much shaped ice as he can. Then he gets a brain freeze, and the old guys come by and like, oh, yeah, I can't eat it too quick. And he's like, fuck, this guy is supposed to be a badass, like, bounty hunter. And it's just like, this guy sucks. He's so lame. I love it, though. Ed ends up finding the ship that hit them in the hit and run. And he found that he crashed, landed a little further away from their ship. Turns out it's the mushroom man's ship. He's grown a bunch of mushrooms in there, and Ed sneaks in and corners him. But Ed only has these stink gas guns and doesn't do anything. ed's in there, like, sprays them with the guns. But it's a small confined area, so Ed also gets hit with it. What did this accomplish?

Also, like, you're in a spaceship just covered in mushrooms. I assume it doesn't smell great. anyways, how effective is this?

And it's been sitting in a desert.

Yeah, it's outstanding. Hot mushroom. stank.

Stank.

Ed and I start chasing the Mushroom man. And as they're chasing them, a train pass. They see shaft across the way on the road, and a train cuts them off. And when the train passes by, the mushroom guys not there, but Ed and I are. They notice that he hopped on the train. shaft runs over, finds the watermelon salesman hijacks his car, and starts chasing after the train. Ed and I get back on their scooter and start chasing after him. And at the same time, the woman bounty hunter showing up in her snazzy car. So everyone's chasing the train and the bounty on it. And shaft gets on the train and starts fighting with the guy a bit. And what happens exactly? They're fighting on top of the train, and Ian is able to get mushroom bad and shaft off the train. During this episode. What happened? Ed tells iain to go ahead and try and get him on the train. So Iron is on top of the train wrestling with everyone and is able to scare off shaft from the train, who falls on top of the woman's car cheating behind them. And they both spiral off and crash. So those two bounty hunters are gone, and Ed is able to get on top of the train now and is cornering the mushroom guy. And sure enough, as the train is going, there's a cow on the tracks, so the train has to stop. And that causes that's, right? As Ed jumps at the mushroom guy. So they go flinging off of the train, and Ed lands on top of them and has him cornered. And he says, like, no, no, no. You don't want me. My bounty is small. But these mushrooms, each one of these mushrooms is worth 100,000 woolong. That's way more than my bounty. So if I give you these mushrooms, I'm free to go. It's like, all right, that's easier for me. I'll take that.

I was going to use the money on food anyway.

Ed takes a bag of mushrooms and runs off. And then we see back at the ship, everyone's kind of sobering up coming out of their trip. And Ed tells them all about everything that happened and how expensive these mushrooms are. And it's like, well, you didn't get the bounty, but you got something worth more. So, like, I guess it works out.

Let's sell some drugs.

Yes. The gangs become drug dealers. And then, right, like, hewitt cop shows up saying, like, hey, we're this cop just shows up to, like, a crashed spaceship in the middle of the desert. Like, I'm going around the neighborhood. I heard to stop it's in the middle of nowhere.

Just actively walking into a car accident.

Scene and being like, oh, evening.

Have you seen this person?

I'm just doing my usual 500 miles patrol around the desert.

I assume this was a controlled crash landing and you are all fine. So back to my business.

Back to me. He's asking about the mushroom dealer, trying to find them, and everyone plays it on Earth, playing off like, I don't.

Know what's going on.

Mushrooms. Never heard of them. And eddie's like, oh, yeah, I met that much. Yeah. And trying to keep Ed quiet, but right on Q, Spike just wanders out of the ship holding the bag of mushrooms. I think he's still kind of high, so he's just kind of spaced out. And the cop is like, oh, I see what's going on here, and goes up and scans one of the mushrooms, and he's like, oh, you guys just really like, shiitake mushrooms. All right, good luck, have fun, and walks off. That's when the gang realizes they got duped. irregular mushrooms.

Oh, man.

Dwindled, bamboozled hoodwinked. And yeah, sure enough, they're shit out of luck. They got no bounty, and they got a bunch of regular, plain mushrooms. So for the next couple of days, they cook nothing but mushrooms.

Hey, problem solved, right? Happy ending.

It's the second finger on the monkey paw curl. And that's episode 17.

Mushrooms.

Mushrooms, man.

So, yeah, you know, naturally, we jump back to episode five. We start out, we see some businessmen. ooh, some sinister deeds are being done. Contracts are signed in blood. Well, this will end the war between two crime families, I believe. And they're like, yes, finally, peace. We will unite and be a better empire together. Done. betraying each other. Perfect.

Cool.

Bye. So they go their separate ways, but of course, naturally, immediately, the leaving ship explodes and the crime lord mao is being attacked. So we see a silhouetted killer coming in, and mao is like, oh, it's you. You can't do this. You wouldn't do this if Spike were here. And the man is like, But Spike ate here. Kill.

I love that mic.

Yeah, pull directly from the die.

You know you're about to die anyway. You don't have to roman like, if your boyfriend is here, I would be. You really had to say that, didn't you? Now you're definitely dead.

So, yeah, we jump to the bebop and we see Spike and Jet are arguing on the ship. I couldn't tell if this was, like, connected to a previous episode. It seemed more hostile than their usual dynamic. Is that something I mean, it doesn't super matter. They are just extra mad at each other. This episode cool.

It's about what they're arguing. gent knows Spike has a history.

Got you. But yeah, so they're arguing about back stories. We'll get to it at some point. And we see valentine, who seems like a new member of the crew. This was probably not the best episode for me to cover because it seems to have the most, like, plot relevant stuff.

Yeah, this is the overarching plot stuff.

But yeah. So valentine still getting settled on the ship, walks in and is like, hey, what's going on? They're like, none of your business. Is like, okay, fuck you.

Shit. Fine.

I see we got a bounty for Big Boss mao yenri. And they're like, no good. You can't do it. And they get all huffy and leave. And she's like, all right, fuck you. I'll do it myself. I don't know. Jet and Spike are mad, and they sulk and go away. And as valentine is sitting there, a call about the bounty comes in. Info only. She gets she's on the case. So we see. She's walking into the opera. She's swaggering in, going undercover, gets to the usher, and he's like, Tickets, please. She's like, oh, are you going to keep my man waiting? You know who it is? wink. You know, the crime man.

Big boss crime lord.

Oh, no.

And he's like, okay, all right. You can go through. And she tosses him her keys, and it's like, park my car just full on. I mean, if you're going to play the part of a snooty opera, goer, we got to lead into it.

Just love the phrase park my spaceship for me. valet. Yeah, every now and then you forget it's in the future. It's like, oh, right.

Space valet. If you're not addicted to the valet, then you're not in character.

You're not at the opera.

But yeah. So she she goes up to the box and goes to the garden. Is like, I'm supposed to be in there. I'm the arm candy. And he's like, oh, yes. Walk right in. But first someone walks up behind her. Another guard puts a gun to her back, and he's like, hey, maybe don't throw your car keys where we can trace who you are to someone, because we know you're not supposed to be here.

Rookie move.

Dam it fucked up.

So we see two kids looking at porn in a convenience store, and they try to shoplift it, but the woman behind the counter sees them and starts chasing them. And they run out of there and run right into Spike, who steals the poor he's just looking at. He's like, but yeah. So he gets it back. The woman runs out and sees them, and oh, no. History backstory know each other. This is annie. They go way back. She says, like, oh, you're supposed to be dead. And he's like, But I'm not. And he's like, but you're supposed to be. So I think she's.

All right.

Fine.

Let me go be dead.

But I want you to be dead, annie. But he's like, you know why I'm here? I need the info on Yen rai. And she's like, oh, we we don't we don't talk about that. So we go back to valentine, captured by the guard. She's she's stuck in the booth and told to be quiet, don't draw any attention. And she looks over, and Yen rai is dead. He's propped up in the booth. It was all a trick, a trap.

It was a weekend at bernie's.

I should have got it from the sunglasses in the opera. There's a different set of eye where you have here, but it's a trap for Spike because the killer, the mafia killer Vicious is here.

What a vicious name. He got a bird.

He too got a bird. What's he got? He got a bird.

He got a bird.

How Vicious?

But backhead. annie is having a rough time. A dead man walked into her store and the person she knows is also a recent dead man. So she's having a time. So she's like, yeah, now is definitely dead. It's Vicious. It's all a trap for you. And spike's like, yeah, I figured it out. I'm a smart cookie.

And.

Everyone knows it's a trap. But he's like, yeah, it's worth it. So he goes back to the ship and Jet also is like, oh, hey, it's a trap, idiot. I'm still super mad at you. I'm not going to help you. But it is a trap. And Spike is like, yeah, I know. You can also fuck off.

I'm going to keep doing this.

He's in it to find Vicious. He has his own motives. Everyone has ulterior motives.

Cool.

So at this time, valentine calls in and is like, hey, guys. So I know I know he didn't want me doing this, but I got captured. So if you could, like, come rescue me, that'd be pretty sick. Funny story. Yeah. You know the old burned down church? Yeah, I'm there. We're just chilling, hanging out, have a good time.

He's got an Xbox, only his FIFA.

Though it came with the Xbox when he bought it. Yeah.

Not even a recent FIFA.

It's like years out of date FIFA 17,017.

He spikes like, yeah, got to go confront Vicious. So just strolls right in again, I'm kind of going through it because there's a lot of plot here. But the mood, the ambience, the the themes, just delicious. Just a feast for the sense. But he steps in and confronts Vicious, and he's like, ah, a long time coming. You fell for my trap. And he's like, no, I did not. Nice to see you.

It's upset like this for I'm like, oh, yeah, spikes at him, but he's kind of an idiot. I was like, no, he's actually really smart. And I wanted him to just be like, I fucking knew it was a trap. Everyone stopped telling me it's a trap.

I get out. It's obvious you all think so lowly of me if you don't think I see this obvious trap is a trap.

Just because I'm hot doesn't mean I'm not smart.

Like a phrase.

I got so much I use my.

Hotness as a shield so you think I'm dumb but don't fall for it if you're my friend.

So little on me.

A goon comes out with valentine as a human shield and is like, all right, drap your gun or I kill the girl.

Spike kills on the pipe.

It's just pretty pretty easy shot. And then the the shootout commences, whereas everyone's trying to kill everyone else, and valentine just gets the fuck out of there immediately. Their hands are still bound. So not super helpful here. So she just gets out of the way. But yeah, more shootouts. valentine calls Jet and he's like, all right, I guess I'll help. I'll stop killing these bonsai trees. So we see the shootout keeps going. Just a beautiful woo film. And we see they get to a stalemate. Vicious has a sword up to spike's heart and Spike has a gun to his face. So who's going to make the first move? They both do. As you know, they're trying to kill each other, so.

That'S what they do.

Imagine if one didn't was like, I didn't know we were actually going to hell there.

I have a sword, man. You have a gut. Why would you think I'd be serious about it?

Tag, you're it. But yeah. So they both move, but they both injure each other. But not fatally. And Spike rolls out the stained glass window, but not before he drops a grenade. So as he's falling, hurt as hell, about to land like 40ft below on the stairs outside the church, we get the flashbacks, we get the memories, we get their history. Is it clear what their actual relationship is? Not really. They fought together. They mention the same blood. Are they family? I don't know. At this point, I assume we'll we see his first, quote unquote, death, I guess, as he in the flashback, gets severely wounded and a woman takes him in and all that sort of stuff. And we see the explosion. There's a lot going on here. It just is rapidly cutting back and forth to stylistic broken glass art shots of him falling out the window and extremely plot relevant stuff. So not the easiest to follow in this moment.

This is one of those things where it's like, wow, this is great to watch. Hard to take notes on.

How do I describe this?

And that's only episode five. What the hell? Am I supposed to know what's going on? No.

But yeah, so the grenade explodes. It's going to hurt even more now. And then everything goes black. And then he wakes up bandaged head to toe. He's been asleep for three days, but his teammates saved him. They came to his rescue. What a what a great friendship they all have. And he's like, valentine, come closer. Your singing sucks. Your notes are off. And she hits them. And all the dynamic is back, baby.

No more drama.

No, it sits back to comedy.

And that's episode five.

Yeah, we made it.

That's the bebop, baby.

You got a heavy episode.

Yeah.

Arguably the heaviest out of most of the show.

I picked episode 17 because I'm like, oh, we'd be far ahead. And it's a lot about ed and Iron, which we didn't know in episode one. So I'm like, I'll take that because I know their stories already. And I was like, Fuck, I should have taken five. In hindsight. Yeah.

Already in a bad mental state today. And I'm like, yes. brooding plot points. My favorite.

I'd say, throughout the show, we do get more back to itself, like everyone's. But I think the thing between Spike and fishes is the overall plot of the whole series, so yeah, it's good for episode five. It's good early on for us, getting an idea of what the overarching story is. Even though 80% of all the episodes are pretty episodic and self contained.

Yeah. Everyone has their main episode. Spike has a couple, which is cool. Yeah.

He is the main character.

The main character. Yeah.

And this definitely does work as a standalone because it just drops enough hints. It gives you the relevant info to follow the plot of the episode without being like the vague incident, the past, the mysterious stranger we won't name for another twelve episodes. It's like, no, we'll give you the details so you can follow it and actually be interested. But you can tell there's a lot of weight in this.

Yeah. Going back and watching episode five after you finish the show is like, yeah, makes more sense. That's what all the pretty visuals looked like, and makes sense. Got it.

Okay, so you were setting us up to want to watch the Rest game.

Did that on purpose. I gave you the Mushroom episode in the middle.

Nice.

It's all fun and games, right?

No, it's comedy. And then it's depressing noir, and then it's comedy again.

Even with all the characters, once you find the backstory, it's like, these are all a bunch of sad, broken people living together. It's not just Spike. It's like, oh, man, they all got shit. They all got baggage.

Yeah, that's kind of the show is like you're watching them after they've already lived their lives. That's why they just kind of meander around, because they're not getting character development. They've already done their shit. Yeah, they're done. You're watching the post live story of these people. It's cool. They don't really chain from episode one to the very end. When you meet them, they're pretty much the same exact character at the very end of the show. Which doesn't seem good, but yeah, when you get their backstory, you're like, oh, that's why they're all kind of depressing.

The way they are.

Yeah, it's not developed that they're already developed. Interesting.

They already went through their shit.

Yeah.

It's weird watching an anime about adults dealing with adult things.

Yeah.

Like, we have the bingo card. Most of it I didn't even touch because most of the bingo card relates to high school. Because that's what most anime is like, all right, this is great. It's just a show about adults for fucking ones.

Yeah. I heard someone say that that it's like the most adult anime. Not because of the blood and the whatever, but it's just adults dealing with their shit. And then this is how you live your rest of your life. It's like, oh, my God, I'm sad now. In a poop.

It's the most adult anime.

Sad cool. And then it's funny because he eat mushrooms. Sometimes the silly dog goes, yeah, Ed and I are just like, but it's also fun.

There's enough levity here that you're not just going to, after every episode, go like, I got to sit in the.

Shower for myself because of Steve bloom.

For multiple reasons. Yeah, we're cleaning up and cooling off. We didn't say it, though. Are we there yet? Yeah.

As I mentioned, going into it, I was not feeling anime today. I was like, I need to just curl up in a ball and do nothing. And I can see why this is very much considered, like the best anime of all time because yeah, I get it. It definitely helps that I was already on board with what I'm now realizing is just Western cowboy bebop a firefly. They're both westerns. But yeah, you get it. Yeah. So I was already on board for the style, the found family dynamics, and having actual fun, like domestic ship troubles. And not just like, we're hemorrhaging air. We need a patch and the fantasy coil, whatever. And like, just so refreshing. You actually feel there are relationships and dynamics between these characters beyond, like, their military capacity. So, yeah, very good. Each episode has that satisfying ending of like, they didn't get rich, but they're still just skating by. And it's like, I can't stay mad at you.

They never get away. Yeah.

Definitely something I need to finish because I enjoyed this.

Yeah. I've always known that it's like one of the best shows and whatever, but I've just never watched it because hearing about it like, oh, it's Spaced outlaws. That's not really my thing. But after watching it, it's like, yes, okay, I'm into it.

You got me sad character studies.

Yeah, that was the thing that also kept me away for a bit because my only point of reference was firefly. I'm just going to keep talking about it. I like that because it is more chill. It's not combat, combat, combat. It's like, hey, sometimes we got a smuggle. Sometimes we're doing a heist. Sometimes the mix up is good. And not just combat every episode. So I was kind of wary. I was like, anime. I know the genre typically is just combat for most of each episode. So I'm afraid this is just going to be like chases and spaceflights and lasers and all that stuff. It's like, oh, no, this is very grounded and enough variety that you're not going to find it repetitive.

Yeah.

And there are episodes like that, but it's like spaced out. Like every three or four of slow, methodic chill episodes, and then there's, like, a big action you want.

Yeah. I would say episode five is one of the most actiony episodes. And when I was first picking what episodes, obviously, most of them are, like, incredible episodes, but some of my favorites are really low key, kind of laidback. Like, most of the episode is just relationship building and character dialogue. And then there's, like, a fight scene at the end. But, like yeah, the character dynamics, that's what carries the show all the way. And really, they're just kind of like the side characters to most of these episodes. Like, the main characters, so to speak, are mostly the people in the background from the main cast that are, like, having actual plot, and they just are kind of there along for the ride of whatever's going on in the episode except for Spikes main episodes. But yeah, like, the mushroom like, it's about the mushroom dealer and the people hunting the mushroom dealer, and that's like a plot going on. Meanwhile, they're just getting high and eating mushrooms. That's what they're doing all episode.

Yeah. I find that we tend to like anime that feel less like anime.

Yeah.

Interesting.

Also, we didn't talk about it enough. We talked about it in the break, but we didn't talk about it enough. The dub is amazing.

Yeah.

Why do they consistently watch it?

Yeah, even Watson Abu shade chair was like, yeah, the English one is just really good. I know we made the Japanese version, but, man, the English voice actors kill it. They're like, okay. And it's funny because when I was watching, I was, like, midway. I was like, oh, I really hope they're watching the English version. And I'm glad that that's wide knowledge. But I actually watched this Japanese subbed first. I watched the whole show subbed, and I was kind of like, okay. weirdly enough, like, I felt immersed, but it was so much that I was I literally watched the show from start to finish again. The second I finished it in sub and watched it in dub, and the second time is when I fell in love with it. I didn't even fall in love with this the first time. I was kind of like, okay, that was kind of a broken, disconnected story. And then I watched it again and I was like, It's fucking brilliant, man.

Oh, my God.

Requires that second watch, I think.

Yeah. Having the context for the stuff with, like, Spike and Vicious really adds up more with a second viewing. But it's still compelling and interesting the first time.

Yeah, I'm excited to watch the rest of it now.

It is very good.

And now we won't be crucified.

I was about to say we don't need to cancel the podcast for being the one show that didn't like cowboy beaver.

Yay.

Good stuff, man. I'm excited for you guys to see every other episode. There's so much in there, and it's. Cool because each episode kind of has a different genre. Like, the mushroom one is like a black exploitation. Like, his name is shaft, literally. And then there's a whole rock and roll episode. There's a noir black and white episode. There's a horror episode. It's like, what the hell? This show goes all over the place. There's actually two horror episodes where it's like there's like a slasher horror, and it's like, whoa, what the fuck are they doing? I like it.

I'm so pumped. Now.

List of all the episodes. And every episode I look, I'm like, oh, yeah, that episode ended up they're all so memorable, unique. They're all unique to themselves. It's great.

Bangers, bangers, bangers. That's like, his life.

Well, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for bringing a good anime. We've needed this oasis in the desert of cringe.

Yay. I'm so glad.

Why are you looking at me when you say that? dugan?

I'm always looking at you.

When I got to keep an eye.

On me, I'm wily on my screen. Your little character icon is looking up at him. So that's.

Very appropriate.

Silently judging.

I deserve it. It's fair.

Well, Matt, thank you so much for joining us. Where can people find you online?

I am on twitch mainly. I'm mostly a Twitch streamer, so yurba. mateo, it's like a yerba mate with an O on the end. The same name on Twitch. On YouTube, on Instagram, on Twitter. If you type it and I'll maybe pop up, you can find me. I play video games. I play jrpgs on piano. I do a lot of things.

Damn. Damn.

But thank you guys for having me. This is any opportunity to just yell about bebop. I'm like, yes, please.

Absolutely. Well, if there's a show you the listener would like us to check out, you can send your recommendations to us. Our email is my brain didn't want me to say that.

Almost there.

So close. The finish line is right there. If there's a show you the listener would like us to watch, you can send your god damn it.

Okay, just raise it. Come on. All right.

Powering through. If there's a show you the listener would like us to watch, you can send your jesus Christ. You can send your recommendations to us. I'm not even going to cut this. I'm not going to edit this.

Everyone's going to hear it. How much is struggling?

And you will know.

You can hear the 03:30 A.m.

In your voice. You can hear the Mac beach ball spinning. Every time I get to saying our own email, I've said 140 times. Our email is, Are we there yet@gmail.com? It's literally the name of our show, and I cannot say it. You can also find us on Twitter and Instagram at rweep there yet on both. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram and Mr. Patrick dugan and listen to my newest podcast.

Besides, now you can find me on Instagram at honey.

Period.

D on Twitter at Honey. dh and honey dart or on Twitch at honey underscore D and honey is.

Spelled H-U-N-N-I-E. Find me on Twitter at abts. Brendan it stands for Almost Better Than Silence, which is a video game podcast.

I also do thank you to camille ruley for our artwork, and thank you to Louis zong for themed song stories. You can find all of louis's music at Louisong bandcamp.com. Thank you, and we hope you'll join us next week as we learn to live with anime.

Excuse me while I update my simplest stop recommending Beebob.

We watch it already. bebop.