Cowboy Bebop (1998): Cowboy Bebop: Waltz for Venus Rewatch
September 14, 2014 9:35 AM - Season 1, Episode 8 - Subscribe
While the crew hunts down a Venusian mobster, Spike meets Rocco Bonnaro, who is on the run from that same mobster the crew is tracking.
Roco gives Spike a package to hold on to for him. Spike later finds out that the package contains a plant that's suppose to be very valuable. Not only that but Rocco happens to have a bounty on him as well. Spike goes to find Roco and find out what this is all about.
Roco gives Spike a package to hold on to for him. Spike later finds out that the package contains a plant that's suppose to be very valuable. Not only that but Rocco happens to have a bounty on him as well. Spike goes to find Roco and find out what this is all about.
For whatever reason, the scene in the space shuttle/craft reminded me of the beginning of Planetes - something about the combination of people casually traveling in space, with the warnings of potential dangers, and the expectation for some catastrophe, I think.
The scene with two men in a bed together is something you could miss if you looked away from the TV for a moment. It's not a big part of the story, or even Faye's search for leads.
I agree, the world-building here was really neat. And in an interesting twist, having Spike walk through the ruins of a spaceship set to blues made the scene poignant and sad instead of creepy and tense, which could have happened if there was a different score for the scene.
Maybe I'm just a sappy guy now, but I actually found some of the scenes with Stella and Spike to be really touching. When watching the end scene, I jotted down "simple dialogue, like a simple melody, can open you right up." The music box theme was a great addition, and sparse in just the right way (for me).
Roco seemed like a naive kit who thought he could save his sister with quick money made with "bad men." Why those guys would add Roco to their group, I don't know -- maybe he was the kid no one would suspect of carrying stolen goods? I agree, not a character you can really buy into, but possibly more of a conduit for character development/ elaboration in Spike.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:32 AM on October 6, 2014
The scene with two men in a bed together is something you could miss if you looked away from the TV for a moment. It's not a big part of the story, or even Faye's search for leads.
I agree, the world-building here was really neat. And in an interesting twist, having Spike walk through the ruins of a spaceship set to blues made the scene poignant and sad instead of creepy and tense, which could have happened if there was a different score for the scene.
Maybe I'm just a sappy guy now, but I actually found some of the scenes with Stella and Spike to be really touching. When watching the end scene, I jotted down "simple dialogue, like a simple melody, can open you right up." The music box theme was a great addition, and sparse in just the right way (for me).
Roco seemed like a naive kit who thought he could save his sister with quick money made with "bad men." Why those guys would add Roco to their group, I don't know -- maybe he was the kid no one would suspect of carrying stolen goods? I agree, not a character you can really buy into, but possibly more of a conduit for character development/ elaboration in Spike.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:32 AM on October 6, 2014
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Something I had forgotten from the DVD version: When Faye busts in on the mob informant, she catches him in the middle of having sex with another man, which I did not remember from my Adult Swim tapes. Apparently, they digitally erased the bottom guy for the US TV version.
These two minor brushes with controversy aside, I wish this session had been a bit more substantial; During my past rewatches, this tends to be an episode that I put on while I'm doing something else in the room, which may account for my amnesia above.
Watching it a bit closer now, I like that CB sticks somewhat to the old Edgar Rice Burroughs pulp conception of Venus as a green sub-tropical world. The bones of Roco and Stella's storyline are basically sound albeit a little bit formulaic, which is fine for a pastiche series like Bebop.
I guess I just don't care for Roco as a secondary guest protagonist for the episode. I get that he's meant to be a sweet, dumb guy who's in over his head, but he doesn't seem to have the tiniest instinct about who he can trust -- he watches Spike and Faye apprehend three people who hijacked a plane he was on, and then acts surprised and betrayed when he finds out that Spike is a bounty hunter. And Stella just seems too passive to be true -- the saintly little sister blithely accepting her fate because, y'know, being blinded by Venusian spores is pretty okay too once you get used to it, and isn't Roco just the best?
Oh well, at least we finally get Edward's debut next week...
posted by Strange Interlude at 7:26 PM on September 14, 2014