Cowboy Bebop Appreciation

In 2003 I was incredibly pumped up about Wrestlemania XIX (19) and it was only my 3rd PPV I had ever booked on skys box office service. It also happened to be the same day as Armageddon Expo 2003 in aucklands Aotea Centre. Even now when I look back this is one of the most favourite days ive ever had. It was April 12th 2003 and I got up very early to line up for Armageddon, we eventaully got in and had a blast. Its an expo once a year for 3 days where animation guests, sci fi guests, guests from star wars, star trek etc come to meet fans. I really appreciate the work they do to put on a quality show each year.

I got into town at like 7 am and didint leave til 4pm, 8pm that night was the 4 hour Wrestlemania 19, one of the best WM shows ever rated by many fans, was totally enjoyable.

I was still feeling the exciting buzz from wrestlemania, this was at like 12:30am. I tuned into Cartoon Network and went to check out the lineup, It was the AS (Adult Swim) hour with cartoons targeted at Teens and adults. One show in particular caught my eye and I later found out it was named Cowboy Bebop.

It was a really good anime, I’m not sure what hooked me in at first, but I liked the story of bounty hunters scanning the galaxy for their next cash, and their adventures were very funny at times.

I tried to watch as many episodes as I could, whats great about them is that except for 6 or 7 of these episodes they dont connect together much, which means you could watch 5 different ones and not be out of the loop story wise. After a while I knew this was the anime I had to watch. By Christmas I had most of the box set complete and was completely into it. I truly believe this is what caused my love of Jazz music and good anime.

I later found out it was one of the top 5 animes ever made as rated by one of the top anime publishers Newtype USA. It came in at number 2 behind Neon Genesis.

About a year and a half later the movie came out on DVD and I had completed the box set, I fully recommend this series if you are considering getting into anime at all.

After I had become hooked on the series I was super excited for Armageddon 06, where I learned that Steve Blum, the voice of main character Spike would be here, meeting him was highlight of the weekend for me. I also met another woman there, Jennifer Hale. I did not know this at the time but she was the voice of Naomi from Metal Gear Solid, was so glad to meet both of them. To see even how far Jennifer has come since then made me really glad to meet her, she along with Steve were so nice and it really made my day to see them.

It made me think in a way that it all came full circle. I started watching Bebop that day after Armageddon 03 and there I was at Armageddon 06 meeting one of my favourite Voice Actors who was the main character of Bebop.

I wanted to show my appreciation for this series because it was the first anime I watched all the way through and I loved every minute of it. If I didn’t see it on CN 5 years ago maybe things would have been different, I’m glad it turned out like this.

–James–