Cowboy Bebop # 1

... Oh.



I don't believe I've ever been as conflicted as I am right now. Many times, I've struggled with deciding upon a rating. Many times, I've warred with myself to find a balance between penalizing egregious elements and praising entertainment value in something I've read. But never, not once, have I faced this dilemma in relation to something I consider literally sacred - something I hold so close to my heart that I revisit it almost every year and have been doing so since the year 1999 when I first experienced it as a child.

That beloved thing is, as you may have guessed, Cowboy Bebop - the anime, to be precise. (For those unaware, the anime was created first, counter to what seems to be the usual order of events.) Oh, it isn't perfect, but it is an amazing and engaging piece of art which has had a huge impact on my life. I mean, twenty-two years is a long-ass time to love something, y'know?

I put off reading this manga for literal years, despite having access to it, for fear it would sully something that, to me, is as close to perfect as anything can get. Then the Netflix live action adaptation came along and mutilated my beloved. Nothing could butcher the source as much as the live action writers did, I decided. Surely, at least the (seemingly?) official manga would be close enough to feel nostalgic instead of disrespectful.

To quote an iconic poster from another of my nearly-lifelong faves: I want to believe... in this manga. And, at times, I did. But other times, I just felt my heart drop to the ground in tiny, disappointed shards.

Sharp shards. Which I then stepped upon accidentally.

01. It's Showtime - 3.5/5

This chapter feels quite a bit like one of the lighthearted interludes from the anime - something that would happen as a background plot to ease the impact of an otherwise emotionally heavy episode. True to form, the Bebop crew bicker with each other about money and step on each other's toes while on the job - three separate jobs, to be precise. Though some of the dialogue is clearly not translated with the same delicate attention to intention and tone as the English dub of the anime, everyone feels in character and this is a fun romp in the world of Cowboy Bebop with an ending which feels perfectly suitable.

The main complaint I have is that it lacks any substance. Even the silly plots in the anime had some kind of deeper meaning, but this is just like a one-shot drabble fanfic. The characters are decently written, but the content is shallow.

02. We Will Rock You - 1/5

This chapter made me want to turn it into a sentient entity just so I could kick it so fucking hard. It violated one of my favourite characters then turned him into a transphobe, all for the sake of what I assume they expected to be amusement.



This one starts out fine enough, feeling very much in character while also exploring a unique, new adventure. The crew have discovered a high-level bounty has been arrested under an alias and want to pull an inside job to capture him for the reward. The logistics are iffy at best, but I was willing to run with it for funsies.

Unfortunately, things quickly took a sour turn.

CW: allusions to sexual assault, abuse of police power - Spike gets arrested and strip searched. Then the head of the facility makes a big deal about having to cavity search him to make him 'pay for his crimes.' One cop/guard puts on gloves, but Spike distressedly complains for them to "get that thing away from [him]" (emphasis mine), which does not imply hands at all. The next thing we see is him doubled over in pain saying no bounty was worth what he endured. So, uh. Yeah... Even if there's a little bit of translation error going on, there's no way the English writer didn't know what they were doing and leave it that way deliberately.

CW: transphobic stereotypes, dehumanizing pronoun usage, casual misgendering, potential deadnaming, attempted rape played for laughs - (Names and pronouns are inconsistent in the chapter, but I'll be using neutral pronouns in attempt to be respectful.) Spike asks for Julio, the alias he knows. He's instantly inferred to be gay and led to a masculine person in feminine clothes and makeup who goes instead by Marilyn. They think Spike's there for a hookup and won't take no for an answer while he struggles and tells them to stop. He grumbles about how strong "it" is, meaning Marilyn, then finally manages to convince them to stop. Later, despite finding out he's not interested in sex, Marilyn keeps making moves on Spike. They insist he can't know he isn't interested until he tries a hookup, force him to be their new cellmate, and become protective in the way which stereotypes Spike as basically their prison bitch. Additionally, everyone keeps referring to Marilyn as a man with he/him pronouns - and, in the case of Spike and friends, calling them by their birth name - despite the obvious female presentation and name preference.

And here's the thing: it's not a dark story. This content is all played for laughs. Marilyn's not a bad person or a villain. In fact, they befriend Spike, crush on him, and want him to see them in their female identity. The transphobic stereotypes are just how the creator of the chapter seems to think trans (and/or crossdressing?) people behave, apparently.

It blows my mind, because in the anime Spike had complete respect for an intersex man with a feminine body and was not transphobic toward a man dressed in drag very similar in appearance to Marilyn. The latter was thrown in for laughs, which ugh, but the former was an important character with a full story arc, treated as a respected warrior and not a freak of nature the way Marilyn is treated here. Talk about a disgusting regression to go from that to this!

Take the transphobic, rapey stuff out, and I'd probably enjoy this prison break storyline. Hell, take away only the transphobia and leave the Bad Touch implications with the police, and I'd accept it; dark stuff goes well with the noir aspect. There was so much potential and I like the character of Marilyn when I ignore the transphobic elements. But I just feel sick with what's actually here.

I don't have the mental energy to ignore so much garbage just for the sake of pretending only the good parts exist. This chapter is dead to me and I hope I soon forget it.

03. Cheap Trick - 4/5

A seemingly rich guy gets bored and puts a bounty on himself, hoping for a little excitement when the cowboys come after him. The one caveat? He only wants female bounty hunters to try. This means it's Faye's time to shine!

The guy is, predictably, a misogynistic piece of crap. In fact, he's basically a Nice Guy from the dredges of the internet. Faye challenges his sexism and generalizations toward women who choose to be bounty hunters, but unfortunately does so with some toxic masculinity (mocking him for being a man who cries) attached. It's a push and pull between me frowning and smirking, but overall I thought this one was entertaining and kind of fun. But then, I'm biased because I love when Faye gets a chance to show her skills.

Does it feel like Cowboy Bebop, though? Eh... somewhat. From the mediocre visuals to the use of a more slapstick-feeling style of humour, it just doesn't quite fit the expected tone, but I did enjoy reading it. Once again, I find myself comparing it to fanfic, but I don't have anything against a well-written fic. I'd say this was alright, and it has more substance than the first chapter.

04. Black Diamond - 4.5/5

Faye steals from the wrong person and brings wrath upon the entire crew. They uncover a money laundering scheme which leads Jet back into elements of his past - particularly, the corrupt police force involved in the laundering. With bogus bounties on their heads, they have to solve a small mystery and uncover the corruption before it's too late.

This is a quick chapter, and it feels a little off in tone at first, but by the end it feels suitable as an actual episode of the anime. Aside from Ed's speech patterns being too repetitive, everyone feels in-character and the plot feels like something that would fit in the anime itself. I enjoyed this one a lot - especially getting to see Jet in action. He's so underrated!

Overall

Three of the chapters are good enough that I'd give them kudos if they were fanfiction. I can't expect a medium with no animation or music to hit the same, high bar of quality for me as the original anime. However, there's clunky dialogue in places, which I suspect is a questionable translation. There were also a few moments where things like “to” instead of “too” or a word which wasn't even translated into English - but was written in English lettering - popped up without context to help decipher it.

Combine that with the lack of atmospheric scenery in the visuals, the often wonky-looking character portrayals, and the travesty that is the second chapter. Now, I'm left with a situation where I want to give it three stars for mostly being a decent effort, but I can't in good conscience rate this ‘alright' as a whole, because the transphobic mess is part of the whole. The average of my ratings is 3.25 stars, which does round to three, but even then...

Simple truth: I have no clue what to do. I agonized over this decision. And in the end, I'm just gonna go with my gut and remove one star to penalize the fact that a quarter of this volume is an out-of-control dumpster fire at risk of setting the entire town aflame.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I still have two volumes left and I'm scared of what awaits.



But this is still better than the Netflix adaptation. I mean, the characters still have the right personalities and backstories, so...