I guess Trigun is making me realize just how.... ambiently good Cowboy Bebop is? Most episodes of Bebop don't work for me, but they're 'good'. They have a baseline quality in writing, aesthetic sense, direction, timing etc etc. It turns out it is in fact really easy to make a mess of a western. - ThreadSky

jaooooo.bsky.social • 4 days ago

I guess Trigun is making me realize just how.... ambiently good Cowboy Bebop is? Most episodes of Bebop don't work for me, but they're 'good'. They have a baseline quality in writing, aesthetic sense, direction, timing etc etc. It turns out it is in fact really easy to make a mess of a western.

Comments

marower.bsky.social•3 days ago

I dunno why Trigun is often lumped in with Bebop besides ”old and guns”, honestly. I still dream of the ideal adaptation of the manga, but it’s not remotely similar.

whemleh.bsky.social•3 days ago

90's space westerns that was on toonami at in or around the same time. outlaw star also there. 90's space western trilogy nostalgia venn diagram

marower.bsky.social•3 days ago

Ahh, that’d make sense. Honestly had no idea Outlaw Star was even popular until not too long ago.

whemleh.bsky.social•3 days ago

i think it's mostly a fun show (aisha klanklan is there) though it definitely has some clunkers (there's a space race arc that the production cannot makes feel really boring)

whemleh.bsky.social•3 days ago

ignore the "cannot" here

labmem765.bsky.social•3 days ago

unfortunately I cannnot

marower.bsky.social•3 days ago

whemleh.bsky.social•3 days ago

it's again more like it holds a lot of nostalgic value for people and is the kind of show you would find in around the 20-30 area on people's top best anime lists like 15 years ago

marower.bsky.social•3 days ago

My cynical take was gonna be ”ah, very american”, but yours is more romantic so we’ll go with that

whemleh.bsky.social•3 days ago

I've been trying to make sure to watch a lot of those "mildly popular in the 00's but becoming more and more forgotten" anime so it's one i tend to think about

bobduh.bsky.social•3 days ago

This was actually something that made my recent Trigun watch kinda interesting - Bebop's well-executed enough to achieve a certain timelessness, whereas Trigun demonstrates all the particular weaknesses of its creator, production team, and era of adaptation

jaooooo.bsky.social•3 days ago

One of the biggest things that struck me was 'This backstory episode is maybe the most important one in the show. Why does it /look so bad/? That doesn't seem possible' and that's just because I'm spoiled on shows with directors/producers that have a much greater handle on resource allocation.

jaooooo.bsky.social•3 days ago

Trigun is fighting a constant battle with itself not to look like shit. I'm very used to that from my weekly anime, less used to it from so called timeless classics.

legendary-boy-a.bsky.social•3 days ago

It's kinda just a regular anime series. Like not that it doesn't have it's strengths but I think almost any show that wound up with it's american timeslot would have become a classic in western otaku canon

bobduh.bsky.social•3 days ago

I feel like lots of shows are beloved not for what they were, but for what they gestured towards being. I’ve definitely got favorites of my own like that

whemleh.bsky.social•3 days ago

me @ the version of the show that exists in mind's eye

jaooooo.bsky.social•3 days ago

This... could have been the greatest idol anime ever made

This was... almost a sharp takedown of narou LN tropes and right wing imperialist leaning anime

This is... kinda a dense exploration of identity and sexuality growing up

This... might have been the greatest anti-war story ever told

iblessall.bsky.social•3 days ago

When we have shows consistently shooting themselves in the foot for all sorts of reasons, sometimes our imagining of what the show could of been is all we got 😭

keliratelian.bsky.social•4 days ago

The classic *sigh* "Trilogy" of Cowboy Bebop, Trigun and Outlaw Star has always been One Actually Good Show. One Extremely An Anime Show and The One With The Funny Gun Guy

junie-b-jones.bsky.social•4 days ago

Trigun is my fave

spiritusnox.bsky.social•4 days ago

Will go to my grave insisting that Outlaw Star is way more fun on the whole than Bebop, and the gap in production quality is smaller than you might think too.

jaooooo.bsky.social•4 days ago

I felt like I was going crazy watching Super Eyepatch Wolf's video for Outlaw Star where he described in giddy detail an anime he made me believe I *needed* to see and ended with 'And then I watched Bebop and that was much better'.

keliratelian.bsky.social•4 days ago

I would say that Cowboy Bebop is absolutely a more interesting show, but if you made me watch one of these three right now? Hell yeah I'd watch Outlaw Star

spiritusnox.bsky.social•4 days ago

Outlaw Star knows that it's a pulpy fun space romp and takes to it with Maximum Gusto from the start, whereas Bebop invites you to expect more narrative ambition but...I wouldn't even say "a lot" necessarily but A Very Noticeable Amount of that ambition ultimately amounts to pretense, I M H O

spiritusnox.bsky.social•4 days ago

Like I had spent years listening to dudes on twitter describe Bebop as having these profound meditations on like capitalism and shit and then I finally watched the show and its Big Social Thesis is basically just "money's a bitch, huh"

spiritusnox.bsky.social•4 days ago

And like that's not wrong! But the way people talk about the show and the way the show occasionally sets itself up makes you expect a *way* deeper cut lol

spiritusnox.bsky.social•4 days ago

Bebop remains one of the widest deltas between a show's script (average episode is like a B+ with occasional A+s and a couple absolute *stinkers*) and its execution (SSS Smokin' Sexy Style) I've seen.

spiritusnox.bsky.social•4 days ago

This is partly why the movie is *easily* the best complete package in Bebop IMO.

jargonscotty.bsky.social•4 days ago

Right?! 🥹

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