

Of the main characters, Jet’s story is the most straighforward. There is tragedy in the story, but also hope and honor. The other, which posits that Cowboy Bebop is really a Ronin story, presents a very interesting perspective. One, the tragic point of view, sees almost no room for hope or happiness. Steven Den Beste has a long, spoiler-laden analysis of the series in which he looks at it from two angles. Actually, there’s a lot of room for interpretation, but if you give me that sort of opening, I’m going to insert hope. There’s some hope in the end, which is all I really ask. A lot of unpleasant things happen, but it’s not a total loss. In the last few episodes, we see a lot of conflicts come to a head.

In the first 23 episodes, what we essentially get is an introduction of characters, a little backstory on each, and some relationship-building between them all. As it is now, I keep straining to think of ways for Jet and Faye to run into Ed and Ein again and get back together. It doesn’t make much sense, and had she stayed, I think the series would have been more impactful to me. The thing that bothers me most about the ending of the series is Ed’s departure. More spoiler-ridden thoughts below the fold. It’s not a sucker-punch if you’ve braced for the blow, I guess. Perhaps a big part of that is that I was expecting bad things to happen, so when they finally did, I wasn’t particularly phased by them. There are a couple of things that bothered me and hold it back from true greatness, though I have to say that I didn’t especially feel sucker-punched.
