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The whole feeling I get from Cowboy Bebop is just amazing, I dunno what it is about it but it might be the way it approaches life in the future so casually and normally. Strange Anecdote Ahead: Years and years ago I found a Phantasy Star Online video on youtube, which had music from Daft Punk in it. It was the first time I'd ever heard Daft Punk and it stood out to me so much I began to listen to them more and more, and eventually told a friend about them (this would have been roughly 2007-ish). He too enjoyed them and it turned out that his father who was, and still is, really into collecting Vinyl (especially funk vinyl) had their Discovery album on vinyl. I remember being over at his house and having it going full blast, simply because we both loved the shit out of it (and to this day we both still do). I eventually watched the anime styled film that Daft Punk directed 'Interstellar 5555', which has no voice acting, instead using Daft Punk's music as all the sound it in, and it reminded me of that initial Phantasy Star Online video I saw because the whole aesthetics of both the film and the game seemed so connected, despite not being connected at all. Both PSO and Daft Punk/Interstellar 5555 have been pretty constant ideals for my personal taste when it comes to anything sci-fi related, and then after everyone and their mum talked about how good Cowboy Bebop was, last year I thought I'd finally sit down and give it a watch. Something about it just clicked, and slotted in perfectly to what I loved about PSO and Interstellar because they all seemed to have similar traits, and it reminded me so much of how much I loved them. The jazz soundtrack was similar enough to Daft Punk's music and the visuals were similar enough to PSO to make me love it, albeit not until I had finished the series. What Raz says about nothing really happening is something I can certainly agree with though, the story involving Julia and Vicious especially confused me. Looking back on it now I find it strange how there were episodes setting the story revolving Spike's past with Julia and Vicious, but as I recall they were scattered through the series. I guess it makes for more realistic story development, but the fact that it wasn't in one large arc at the end (a la Clannad, the last show I watched seriously before Bebop) made me seriously worried that I had missed out some really important plot element about the characters. Edit: Got to looking around at Bebop stuff after posting this, someone stitched together the panoramic shots in it and it looks fucking amazing. This picture from episode 10 is exactly what I mean by the feel of PSO, Bebop and Interstellar.

edit: this just got featured on http://bestofexpanddong.tumblr.com/

Spoiler

Nothing Hitler about that. I know plenty of people who don't think much of Cowboy Bebop. The funny thing is, Cowboy Bebop is not considered a particularly stand-out anime in Japan. In fact, it is only really popular in the west, which means it completely missed its intended audience. I'll bet you that if you went up to Japanese anime fans and asked them what they thought about Cowboy Bebop, a good percentile of them would probably not even know what it is. The reason it is popular in the west is most likely because it was aired in a manageable timeslot on TV, had a good dub and wasn't as "Japanese" as many anime are. Cowboy Bebop has many western influences and for that reason it becomes a lot easier for people in the west to watch and enjoy it. Hell, Shinichiro himself is basically a massive Westaboo and spent time of his life travelling the US. That is also why it is considered a good "gate-way" anime (A good anime to begin with if you want to get into the medium) for westerners. Personally, I just enjoy the all-encompassing feeling the show has. It manages to touch on a lot of themes and morals in a short time and to me, that made the episodic nature of it really interesting. Quite a few references to western media in there too, which is neat. Not to mention that Spike Spiegel has the cool-factor. The soundtrack is also excellent and I personally got pretty emotionally invested in the characters of the show, which made the ending even more powerful to me. I am pretty biased though, as Cowboy Bebop was the anime I decided to tabula rasa my entire perception of anime with and give it an honest try without just immediately dismissing it as stupid crap. It really impressed me at the time. I will say though, that I think that saying "nothing ever really happens in it" is a bit of an understatement. It's very episodic, but not without a story and progression.

"I know it feels sort of unfair to people who bought all of the content in the original PC release of the game to have to buy a completely new version of the game if they want the graphical and online overhaul,” explained Crawford, “But we know real gamers like Dark Souls II so much that they would buy all thirty of the re-releases we could eventually put out. It’s not our fault people are impatient." This is an official statement from NAMCO's marketing manager. I don't think I'll be buying any of FROM SOFTWARE's new games.

So I've finally gotten around to playing Dragon Age: Origins, and I'm enjoying it a lot so far, but damn it Morrigan, NOTHING PLEASES YOU. Me: You look nice today. Morrigan: Fuck you. (Morrigan disapproves -50)

Oh fuck Raz what are you planning?