Cowboy Bebop (1998): Cowboy Bebop: Asteroid Blues Rewatch

July 27, 2014 2:08 PM - Season 1, Episode 1

Spike Spiegel and Jet Black, two down-on-their-luck bounty hunters, go to the Tijuana asteroid colony in pursuit of Asimov Solensan, a criminal who stole a cache of the dangerous drug Bloody-Eye from his former syndicate.
posted by Small Dollar (15 comments total)

This was such a good first episode; better than the movie, for sure.
posted by destructive cactus at 5:33 PM on July 27, 2014 [1 favorite]

So, there's a blu-ray now. I didn't think it'd be a big difference with an old show like this, one which I always remember as having a soft, almost painterly quality, but the new version is akin to recent Star Trek: TNG remasters—a striking difference. Maybe not something that would be universally seen as positive, like perhaps some of the softness of the broadcast version is part of its charm, but it does look incredible.
posted by Lorin at 6:27 PM on July 27, 2014

The visual of Bloody Eye in action is just...haunting.
posted by RainyJay at 6:41 PM on July 27, 2014

Is this streaming someplace? They're showing it on Adult Swim Toonami again early Saturday mornings, but the episodes available on adultswim.com are from later in the series.
posted by ob1quixote at 10:07 PM on July 27, 2014

Is this streaming someplace?

A previous MetaFilter post on CB with a link to a questionable streaming video source still works.

I didn't think I've seen the show that many times, but I've apparently watched it enough that seeing a few still images, brief descriptions and short clips brings the whole episode flooding back.

Question: is this a re-watch or a first watch thread?
posted by filthy light thief at 10:14 PM on July 27, 2014

And if you're just getting in the mood, here's SIX HOURS of the Bebop OSTs, with track-by-track links in the description.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:20 PM on July 27, 2014 [4 favorites]

Honestly, this probably should be labeled as a "rewatch," considering the audience is people who've seen it before.
posted by Small Dollar at 6:46 PM on July 28, 2014

I just rewatched Session 1 on DVD a few minutes ago, and it's even better now than when I first caught it 13 years ago. I've always shorthanded Bebop as "Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars", and the way this episode just drops us into the middle of the story with a minimum of exposition seems fully in keeping with both QT + SW. At times, it's almost as though the series is an actual TV show from 60 years in the future, which assumes that the viewers are fully up to speed with current events. There's some fairly huge things about the 2070's setting that we simply don't find out about until midway through the run, and the strong focus on the bounty-of-the-week means that we have to content ourselves with pulling in what we can from visual context and snippets of conversation.

I've always liked the lopsidedness of having Jet act as both the brains and the muscle of the team, doing all the necessary legwork and intimidation of lower-rung types, while Spike serves as a purely instinctual force, following his stomach and intuition to find Asimov seemingly by accident. It's that inherent asymmetry that propels the episode-to-episode metaplot of Spike & Jet's odd-couple partnership, and it'll be interesting to see how the addition of Ein, Fay, and Edward over the next few episodes either contributes to or lessens that basic tension.

There's so much more I want to say about the show, but I'll save it for next week. I'll leave y'all with the trailer for one of my favorite Bebop inspirations, Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye. If the Bebop creative staff didn't have Elliott Gould-as-Philip Marlowe in mind when they designed Spike Spiegel, I'd be very surprised to hear it.
posted by Strange Interlude at 6:56 PM on July 28, 2014 [4 favorites]

Lot of Robert Rodriguez Desperado imagery appropriated for this episode.
posted by valkane at 7:27 PM on July 29, 2014 [1 favorite]

...and I'm not saying that's a bad thing.
posted by valkane at 8:41 AM on July 30, 2014

destructive cactus: "This was such a good first episode; better than the movie, for sure."

Speaking of the movie, do we have it slotted in as an episode (Knockin' On Heaven's Door is supposed to take place between Sessions 22 and 23) or are we watching everything in produced/aired order?
posted by Strange Interlude at 6:18 AM on July 31, 2014

Depends on who has access to what. There's been a lull in posting, is Cartoon Network still running the series?
posted by filthy light thief at 6:19 PM on August 9, 2014

Session 2: Stray Dog Strut is on FanFare now.
posted by filthy light thief at 12:09 PM on August 12, 2014

Lorin: So, there's a blu-ray now. I didn't think it'd be a big difference with an old show like this, one which I always remember as having a soft, almost painterly quality, but the new version is akin to recent Star Trek: TNG remasters—a striking difference. Maybe not something that would be universally seen as positive, like perhaps some of the softness of the broadcast version is part of its charm, but it does look incredible.

I watched a HD rip on my tablet, and it's kind of weird. There are some CG elements that didn't stand out so much before, but now are very clear, because of how sharp and nuanced they are, compared to the flat cel shading of most of the show. Are there any keen features in the Blu-Ray?

Back to the episode - I forgot how it opened in a very noir/1950s crime drama scene, then the intro rolls, and you're in the (mostly) standard space-western setting.
posted by filthy light thief at 12:14 PM on August 12, 2014

Back on this wagon.

The scene when Azimov's girlfriend and Spike exchange glances, moments before another ship shreds Azimov's stolen ship with gunfire has always stood out to me, and perhaps, is one of those things in the first episode that began inserting the show's hooks into me. (I was gone for sure by the fourth episode).

If this had been just an episode about Azimov, then it might have been just good, but the use of his girlfriend representing more than a black and white dichotomy, pushed it a bit further to being a great episode.

Lastly, our first introduction to the three old men. May they complain forever.
posted by Atreides at 6:41 AM on February 5, 2015 [1 favorite]