This article originally appeared in Wizard Anime Invasion #5 * Winter 2003 Reprinted with permission. ------------------------------ Behind the Bebop Murder, Mars and All That Jazz. Cowboy Bebop is Hitting the Big Screen, and "Cool" Will Never be the Same. by Robert Bricken Fuse the most authentic sci-fi future with a Jazz-era hip your elders bowed down to, and you have today's hottest kind of cool. You have Cowboy Bebop. In one of the classiest anime series to be brought to America, four bounty hunters cruise aboard the spaceship Bebop in a sci-fi future that seems unquestionably true. Ex-mob hitman Spike Speigel leads disillusioned former lawman Jet Black, the beautiful but broke Faye Valentine, and one brilliant but nutty computer hacker girl named Ed -- through a deluge of dogfights, John Woo-esque shoot-outs and Bruce Lee-inspired martial arts scenes, all set to the best jazz music Japan can produce. Debuting in 1998, Cowboy bebop's 26-episode run was so popular in Japan that a movie was inevitable: Knockin' on Heaven's Door hit theaters in 2001 to rave reviews. In it, Spike and crew have to stop a lunatic from releasing a deadly nerve gas on Mars during Halloween night. Since debuting in America two years ago, U.S. fans have been starving for more Bebop. Thanks to Columbia TriStar, we'll get to see the movie this January. In the meantime, director Shinichiro Watanabe, character designer Toshihiro Kawamoto and score composer Yoko Kanno sat with Anime Invasion to tell us (through a Japanese translator) how this Bebop was composed. ANIME INVASION: We've seen the movie, and it's fantastic. Was it always your idea to do a Bebop movie? WATANABE: I thought we could still do more after the show was finished, even though I was technically done with the story. I had a lot of ideas left for the characters. KANNO: We received requests even before the show ended in Japan, both from viewers and the producers. AI: How did you decide what the movie was going to be about? WATANABE: Well, before this offer for a movie came I was thinking of creating some kind of episode featuring Spike's background. I was thinking of Spike as Yakuza, so I was thinking of making a mob show. But then I hinted at that in the TV shows, and the viewers already have their own ideas about his past. So I decided to leave it alone and do something else. And for me, the end of the TV show was the end, so I didn't want to do a sequel. KANNO: The producers wanted a movie that would feature Ein, the dog, on a vacation somewhere. They didn't want the film to be as serious as the TV show! AI: That would've been fun! Is there anything that you did with the movie that you weren't able to do with the show? WATANABE: While making the TV series I always had to cut out a lot of scenes. So the things that I couldn't do with the TV show because of time constrictions, I was able to do with the film version because of its longer length. That's why it's like a long episode of the TV show. KAWAMOTO: Because the film takes place between episodes 22 and 23 of the TV series, I couldn't do anything drastically different. I had to keep things looking like the show. Of course, the film version has a higher quality than the TV series. KANNO: I was given incomparably better conditions for the score, as far as budget and time is concerned. But that was because the TV show's CDs became such hits. AI: Music is such an integral part of Bebop. Not only has no other anime show used jazz, but the movie and TV episodes are all named after songs. Which came first, the music or the show? KANNO: Oh, the music came first, before everything else was created. Probably about a year before we started -- or even before the title was determined -- I already was composing and I gave Watanabe-san a couple of pieces. WATANABE: I created the show by using the first couple of pieces. But after we started the shows, she kept writing more music, so we used those too. KANNO: As you can see from the title "Bebop," the director likes jazz and we wanted to use it. In Japan, jazz isn't generally that popular, so I didn't think it would be a hit. AI: Could Cowboy Bebop have been made without Yoko Kanno's music? Or would it be something else? WATANABE: Hmm...I don't know. Of course, if, instead of her music, you attached very boring, unimpressionable music to this film, but the rest of the film remains the same, I'm sure you'll get a very different impression from it. You can try it, if you want. AI: The setting is very distinctive too -- although it's set in 2073, many of the locations look familiar, even places like Mars and Ganymede. KAWAMOTO: I didn't want it to look like most futuristic anime. I just wanted things where if I portray a street, viewers can feel that the street really exists. So as I was drawing Mars, I was looking at the pictures of present-day Mexico. I love it when viewers cant' judge if it's present or past. The scenes became more retro, which fit with the feel of the series. And it makes everything more real, because of it. AI: The fight scenes look incredibly real too, especially Spike's kung fu. How did you achieve such reality? WATANABE: Because I have the spirit of Bruce Lee! [everyone laughs] KAWAMOTO: Actually, Spike has the spirit of Bruce Lee -- he does Jeet Kun Do, the martial art Bruce Lee invented. In creating the action, we spent more time than other anime series. The production company that created Bebop already had staff who were experts in making films, so we could create that quality. WATANABE: And in the film version we had an action animation director, Mr. Nakamura, and he's an expert at this. AI: It certainly helped Bebop get its reputation for being cool, and the character of Spike in particular. How did Spike come about? WATANABE: The character of Spike I don't think emerged from this work itself. I think he already existed before I started making Bebop. I think he was just hanging around inside me all of the time. That doesn't mean that I'm paranoid or anything. I feel that to create this work I just asked this person who was in me to come out. KAWAMOTO: Actually, design-wise, I just tried to make sure the characters all contrasted each other. But for Spike, in order to show his cool, I had to make him look uncool. When he's sitting or standing he's very hunched. And his expression is very sad or tired. That way when he starts doing something, he looks extra cool. AI: Even though he has that big hair, which shouldn't be cool, but somehow is. What about the others? KAWAMOTO [chuckles]: Of the four main characters -- Spike, Faye, Jet and Ed -- only Ed had a model, based on what the director said. I had to follow that direction. AI: Watanabe-san? You had someone in mind for this? [Everyone stares at Yoko Kanno. Everyone laughs] WATANABE: She's the one. It's not really the outward appearance I wanted, but the... the inner behavior. AI: Really?! KANNO [laughs...just like Ed]: I've never been aware of it, but when I see a portrayal of Ed, I realize I do a lot of things like her that I'm not even aware of. Like during a recording session, I may decide to take a nap on the couch in the middle of it -- I never thought that was like Ed, but everyone thinks it is! AI: That solves Ed, but we have another mystery -- what the heck is that thing on Jet's cheek?! WATANABE: [In English] I have...no idea. [laughs] KAWAMOTO: [laughs nervously] I didn't want the character to be symmetric, so I added a little something. I put it there without thinking anything. I was hoping the director would put some kind of meaning to it later on. He didn't. AI: Is there any chance of another movie? Pretty please? WATANABE: I just wanted to stop when it was still interesting. I'm sure in Japan and the United States there are shows which last much longer, and the makers worry that they should have quit before it got dull. I didn't want to end up like that. But somehow everyone keeps telling me to make more Bebop. AI: Count us in. It's one of our favorite anime. Do you each have a favorite part of Bebop? KANNO: [In English] I love Spike and dog! [In Japanese] Spike is portrayed as a typical old- style Japanese man, where the man says, "Don't complain, don't say anything, just follow me. And watch me do things." And it's a very old-fashioned aesthetic of how a man should be. In Japan all of the girls are big fans of him. KAWAMOTO: My favorite show is when everyone is chasing after Ein the dog. I love it whenever Ein does things. I would repeatedly tell the director to make sure to put the dog in the show. He doesn't really allow that stuff. [in English] He says it's not "animal-mation." WATANABE: I usually like minor characters. And the characters that don't have any contribution to the story. When I first used the three old men who appear in the first episode, I thought that they were interesting, so I kept putting them in episodes. But they never really do anything, so I felt bad for them and put them in the movie. Then I thought it might be a good idea to have these three old men actually end up saving the world. AI: Right before and after the TV show's commercial breaks, there's a screen which reads, "Cowboy Bebop is a new genre unto itself." What is that genre? WATANABE: [laughs] I don't know! That was just the sales pitch I wrote on the project proposal. And a designer inserted it into the show without my permission! I have to regret it's exaggerated. But because it was a good design, I just kept on using it. And since we can't really read English, we didn't pay attention to what's written there! Now it's in America, and we sound conceited! AI: Maybe, but it's true -- Bebop is unique. Do you think that's why the show's been so popular both in Japan and America? WATANABE: There are many cultures, many countries in the world but essentially the basic things are the same. When you see funny things, you laugh. When you see something lonely, you get sad. These things are very common to everyone. Bebop is pretty cool too. So that may help. -------------------- Urban Cowboys Meet the crew behind the crew of the good ship Bebop Name: Shinichiro Watanabe Position: Director Born: 1965 Past Works: Storyboard artist for Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory. Made his directorial debut with the critically acclaimed Macross Plus OVA seris. Hobbies: "I like listening to old, vinyl records. That's the real reason I came to promote the movie in New York: to buy records" Fun Fact: Although his name sounds really unique, it's really common in Japn. It's like the American equivalent of "John Smith!" Name: Toshihiro Kawamoto Position: Character Designer/Animation Director Born: 1963 Past Works: Key animator on Moble Suit Gundam ZZ and Patlabor; became key animator on Gundam 0083: War in the Pocket. Also character designer for Gundam 0083, Golden Boy and Gundam 08th M.S. Team. Hobbies: "I like watching movies but I don't have much time. Things like adventures and Hollywood movies. I like big, flashy entertainment." Fun Fact: In order to figure out how to best animate Ein, the dog, Kawamoto bought himself a Welsh Corgi and watched it all the time. He used to bring it to the Bebop studio offices to inspire the other animators. Name: Yoko Kanno Position: Score Composer Born: 1964 Past Works: Has scored everything from Coca-Cola commercials to video games. Rose to fame with the fan- favorite scores for Macross Plus, the Vision of Escaflowne TV series and movie, and Turn A Gundam. Hobbies: "I go to zoos. I touch animals. I love animals. I like taking pictures. I want to quit music and become a photographer!" Fun Fact: Kanno made up her own band, the Seatbelts to do almost all the music in Bebop, in which she plays the pianos and keyboards.