Tsao- Cowboy Bebop

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Cowboy Bebop was certainly an anime film that is worth noting. From just looks, it does seem like a simple hero-villain movie, but if closely looked at, some important worldly issues can be seen to be brushed upon this film.

For example, the idea of one’s purpose in life; like a post-modernism and existentialism philosophy of life, is brought up when Vincent, our antagonist in the film, questions who and what he really is. He does not remember his past, and does not know what he is doing; he is simply just existing and hoping to find the butterflies again. These butterflies are seen once someone is affected by the bio nano-machines that infiltrate one’s blood cells, used as a terrorist weapon to mass kill everybody on Mars. Vincent was one of the government’s test subjects for this deadly virus, and he was the only one left alive. Because of this, he feels as if he has died already and questions his existence, claiming that earth is a place called “purgatory”- in between heaven and hell. Maybe he thinks that by killing everyone, that he could feel like he is alive again, or that it would bring back the butterfly-euphoria feeling that he had once felt.

At the same time, Spike Spiegal, protagonist and fellow bounty hunter, also questions his own meaning of life as he fights to capture Vincent for him and his team so that they could get the prize of 300 million woolongs. His bounty hunter teammates include Faye, Jet Black, Edward, and their dog Ein. Spike is a carefree, tempered character who used to be a gangster. Throughout the whole film, the idea of loneliness is also brought up. Nobody wants to be alone; Jet Black got upset and really anxious when Faye and Spike went missing for a couple days, thinking that they left him behind and didn’t even “bother to call” when they were really captured and in their own troubles; Vincent wants to leave purgatory because he feels so lonely here, with no past and no assurance of who he is…

My last comment would be that this film portrays a cold, heartless government that is willing to show no mercy to protect their secret. With secret underground laboratories, etc, the government wants to kill off everyone who has knowledge of the virus. Electra, the government’s own people, and Spike are both put in jail and ready to be executed because they simply know too much. Such a cold brutal government is definitely portrayed through Cowboy Bebop.