Cowboy Bebop: Asteroid Blues

Cowboy Bebop is one of those animes you hear about all the time even if you don't watch anime. Everybody calls it a transcendent experience and the best anime of all time. I've finally given in to peer pressure and have decided to do a short review of each episode of Cowboy Bebop as I watch it.

The first episode, "Asteroid Blues", introduces us to a space bounty hunter named Spike Spiegel as he tracks down a drug dealer for a huge bounty with his partner Jet.

I want to get the positives out of the way first; Steven Blum's performance as Spike is great, mostly because his voice is so low and gravely, but also smooth. The over the top anime detail is fun to watch and all the fight scenes are animated smoothly. I also like the visual style of this anime. The people all dress like they're in the old west in the Blade Runner universe. All the ships look dirty and hand made. It feels very genuine.

With all that being said, this episode isn't perfect. The story doesn't really add up to much except that a woman does that right thing. That's it. Spike doesn't get his bounty, he doesn't even acknowledge the loss at that end. We just see him training in his ship, we see the ship fly away and then the episode is over. There's not much of an ending and it just feels lackluster. Also, even though I love Steven Blum's voice, I'm not sure he was the right choice to play Spike. His voice is way too cool for the sometimes lazy, food obsessed ruffian we see onscreen. Time will tell if he was truly a good or bad choice.

"Asteroid Blues" is serviceable, I suppose. It's actually kind of confusing because if this was meant to be an introduction to the series, why didn't they show the rest of the cast? If it was supposed to set up a season long story, why didn't they allude to it here? I guess I just have to wait and watch the other episodes.

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