8/23/21 -- I'm an alchemist, the beat is my base metal - Photo drop of the live action Cowboy Bebop. John Cho looks fantastic. You can see
more fabulous photos at The Verge. The live action show is set to begin on November 19th.
Unrelated, while I may from time to time make updates to this website such as this one, I'm probably not going to take the effort to make it updated to HTML5 nor to have
a responsive design. I would love for the site to be those things, I'm just not up for the effort! Maybe sometime I'll do it to update my frontend skills but at the moment I already
have a full plate.
3/30/21 -- We're getting pretty close to that gate accident, huh? Hey ya'll, been a while, eh? If you're visiting this site you should be aware that updates are not
really what I do here, but I have enough of a reason to do so now. I was asked to appear on a future episode of The Bebop Beat Podcast,
specifically their episode for Sympathy for the Devil, give it a listen if you'd like. Tangentially related to that, I have both the English UT
and the Japanese UT available here since I no longer own cowboybebop.org. Back in the day I used to long to know what the footnotes say on the
Japanese page, now Google translate gives me a pretty readable version (2001 Google translate was nowhere near this coherent, believe me I tried). One more thing, since I'm
updating anyway: I used to ponder how the hell Faye's suspender setup works. I know it's implied the suspenders attach to her shorts but NO WAY does that work with the type of fabric
they appear to be (they look very silky and drapey in most drawings). Well, someone invented a solution and Facebook tried to sell it to me - note that this is a lingere website
and therefore NSFW.
2/14/19 -- or maybe un-bang, like getting a secret a cyborg body?! A good buddy of mine put forth the hosting fee for this year! We're good
until 2020. Maybe I'll be making more money then or have less debts, and we can keep this going forward forever. Here's hoping!
2/14/19 -- Bang - Hey guys, it's short notice but I'm letting you know I don't have the hosting fees for this site right now (I've got a lot of
adult responsibilities these days, a mortgage, a husband, three cats, and a lot of bills) so I've opted to cancel the hosting. The site will continue
until 3/16/19 which is the end of my billing cycle. I want to thank all the friends and fans who I've met through this site, it's been a trip. I feel a
bit weird about panhandling, but I will say that I only need $48.00 to keep it going another year, so if you wanna donate the tip jar is still there in
the upper right hand corner.
3/15/13 -- Mass Effect Cowboy Bebop shout-out - Man it's been so long since I updated I don't even have Dreamweaver installed anymore,
I'm using a damn text editor. Anyway, been playing the greatest game ever made, which I'll be honest I didn't like much after the ending was released,
but it has fully redeemed itself with the newly released DLC, Citadel. I'm talking bout some Mass Effect 3 over here. Steve Blum was good enough to take
the opportunity to do a Cowboy Bebop shoutout during the DLC, and I have uploaded it for
your pleasure.
2/5/09 -- Restoration - I re-uploaded cowboybebop.org and started paying the hosting fee
again. It seemed appropriate since they're making a live action version. This way people searching for information about "that new Keanu
Reeves film", they might accidentally find out about an awesome anime instead.
12/17/08 -- Your Neutralness, it's a beige alert. - Live action Cowboy Bebop
has been officially confirmed. If I don't survive, tell my wife hello.
12/17/08 -- Bogus adventure. - Ain't it cool news has an interview with Keanu
"Stone Face" Reeves about the upcoming live action adaptation of Cowboy Bebop. So its looking more and more as though that, barring
Keanu's succumbing to his long struggle with Tetanus, live action Cowboy Bebop is go. Boo.
8/1/08 -- Party on, dudes? - Sorry I'm a bit late with this update, surely everyone has heard by now that
there is a live action
Cowboy Bebop on the way. This news has been reported in several places and for now seem legit. To be
perfectly honest, this news doesn't really fill me with glee, because I expect it to be miscast, misdirected, and
all around screwed with in ways not befitting it's legend. The first sign that perhaps Fox doesn't quite get
Cowboy Bebop is that Keanu
Reeves is set to star as Spike. Thanks to SXS for the article on the casting. Remember SXS?
3/4/08 -- Are you missing the dearly bereft? - A funny thing, memory. Today I was listening to
some MP3s I had around, and one of them was Last Stop: This Town by The Eels. That song always irrevocably
reminds me of Cowboy Bebop, thanks to what I still consider one of the best ever Cowboy Bebop music videos,
Flash Before Your Eyes by
Cosmic Mule. Which led, naturally, to me watching that video again. There are so many lines in that song that
fit so perfectly with the series - "Will you take me where you're going if you're never coming back?"
"You're dead, but the world keeps spinning." Watching that video reminded me once again what an iconic and
beautiful series Cowboy Bebop is. Some say that it "shows it's age", and while I've always known that some
parts of the animation are less than smooth (but hey, I've noticed that in Miyazaki films, too), I don't think
it's dated at all. While thinking about the series, and how much I still love it after all this time, it
suddenly hit me: Cowboy Bebop is 10 years old this year. April 3, 1998 was the date the first episode of
Cowboy Bebop was shown on Japanese television, and the episode they played was "Stray Dog Strut." (CB, being
sort of "half OAV", didn't get all of the episodes show on the original airing, some appeared only on the DVD,
until WOWOW aired all the episodes starting later that year).
Happy 10th birthday, Cowboy Bebop. Anyone have any good ideas for something the site should do in celebration?
I don't think my email form works anymore, but you can reach me at jazzmess at gmail dot com if you'd like to
suggest something.
Also, I've fixed the download links, to videos and such. Hopefully they all work now.
2/14/06 -- Happy Fun Luck Candy, part 2 - An article and interview with Watanabe about his
visit to Houston's Museum of Natural Science may be found here.
Apparently, the reason he picked Houston was because it's the home of cowboys. Ha! He's charmingly
vague as usual, but he does discuss topics such as Spike's hair color (dark green, just like
I've always told you looneys), Spike's relationship with Faye (just that Spike likes her,
but pretends not to... this I've always known), the importance of music in his works, his future
projects, and whether Spike is truly HUGE SPOILER or not (well, he doesn't answer that one
directly, he just more or less says "if I answered that, people would hate me"... which sort of
does answer the question). He also mentions that one day there could be more Cowboy Bebop...
"maybe." However, I feel compelled to point out that Japanese love saying "maybe" in answer
to questions in order to avoid saying "yes" or "no", so that "maybe" could mean just about
anything. So don't get your hopes up. More importantly, don't start anymore retarded internet
rumors.
2/12/06 -- Happy Fun Luck Candy - Forgot to mention that there's going to be a bonus
event in Houston with Shinichiro Watanabe. (Thanks, GrinfilledCelt):
Shinichiro Watanabe will be present for a "Bonus Event" at the Japan Culture Day at
Houston's Museum of Natural Science.
The event will take place Sunday, February 12 Noon – 4:00 p.m. in the museum's Grand Hall.
Cultural events will include taiko drumming, face painting, ikebana and more. All of which will
be free.
Museum guests will also be able to get autographs from Shinichiro Watanabe betweem
1:00 and 3:00 p.m.
2/11/06 -- Well isn't that special? - Ha ha, you bastard non-believers thought I
wasn't around anymore, dincha? DINCHA!? Anyway, I have news, though it's not spectacular
or anything, but it's still news. Daikun kindly directed me to the following
news bite:
This May Bandai Entertainment will publish a full color Cowboy Bebop Film Manga ($13.95)
based on the anime TV series directed by Shinichiro Watanabe...
The first volume in Bandai's Cowboy Bebop Film Manga,, which features full color art based on
screen captures from the anime series, covers the first two episodes of the anime, and also
includes exclusive bonus material not available anywhere else.
Hrm, the exclusive bonus material might be cool at least.
Incidentally, if you live in or near Houston, Shinichiro Watanabe will be speaking
today at 6:30pm at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Sorry for the short
notice, I didn't think of mentioning it before.
9/4/05 -- Knock Knock Knockin' on Heaven's Door - Well, KoHD premiered tonight,
and they were pretty light on the edits, as far as I could tell. There was the predictable
editing of Faye boobie (during the shower scene), but surprisingly Electra boobie was deemed
acceptable. The end credits were also set on double speed. The most surprising "edit" of all,
though, was more of an un-edit. Rather than the lame "Cowboy Bebop TEH MOVIE LOLZ", they actually
put up the original title, Knockin' on Heaven's Door, with the kanji and everything.
I thought that was pretty cool, myself. When I get the time, I'll do a page for the edits in the
film; I'm sure there are some that I'll only see when I watch the broadcast version side-by-side with
the uncut version.
Another thing I noticed tonight, which has nothing to do with CB but is neato
nonetheless, was the commercial for the Escaflowne movie. Now, I'm not a huge fan of the movie (
great visuals, poor plot), but I am a great fan of the Esca TV series. The nifty thing about the
commercial was that a song was used which was not on the movie soundtrack, but was on the
TV series soundtrack. Which means that someone at Adult Swim had imported that soundtrack to be
able to use it. Just another reminder that despite all the jokes, the folks at AS really are anime
fans.
8/23/05 -- Cowboy Bebop: The Movie television premiere - KoHD will premiere on Adult Swim on September 3rd at
12:00am EST.
7/18/05 -- Feeling like I've been punched in the gut - Ouch, J.K., you really know how to
hurt a girl. Disillusionment and grief aside, I actually do have some Cowboy Bebop news.
There's a new trailer out for the Cowboy Bebop
game. Bit creepy seeing them in 3-d, innit? Bullet-time is so overused nowadays, but it
could still be a good game.
7/15/05 -- Spike Spiegel and the Half-Blood Bounty Head - I actually knew this a few weeks ago, but
thanks to those who reminded me to post it: Cowboy Bebop is back on the airwaves Monday through Wednesday at
1:30am and 4:30am, EST.
7/6/05 -- Er, Ok, how about a moderate beating for bandwidth pirates, then. - Apparently,
the 'overages' on CowboyBebop.org were a mistake, so
it's back up. Also, you can now preorder Cowboy Bebop Remix vol. 1 from Amazon.com
and Rightstuf.com,
so whee.
7/5/05 -- Death to bandwidth pirates - It appears that someone has been siphoning off bandwidth
from CowboyBebop.org, and as a result it's reached
overages despite the fact that it's only 5 days into the month. That's a rather amazing feat
considering I get 40gigs of bandwidth transfer and I no longer host MP3s. Not sure what happened
as I can't get into the control panel at all. I'm happy it wasn't Jazzmess, but I'm still ticked
off. This, people, is why I tell you not to hotlink, but does anyone listen to me? Nooooo.
Anyhoo, in other news, there's now a working site for the CB PS2 game which contains screen shots
and the like, though it's in
Japanese. Thank you to the various sources who reported this to me, especially Skittle.
According to the Anime News
Network, August 8 is the date for the Japanese release, while the North American release is
set of October.
5/31/05 -- Remix release date - Bandai now has a release date for the upcoming
Cowboy Bebop Remix - September
13th. Thanks to Swordfish II for the info.
5/21/05 -- Spike and Jet at ACen. - The Anime
Central blog has a short but sweet article about the
appearence of voice actors Steve Blum and Beau Billingslea on a panel together at the
con. Beautiful stuff, and it includes a nice picture, too. Warning:
Mr. Billingslea includes a spoiler for the end of the series in his comments.
5/14/05 -- AdultSwim schedule change. - Of note is that tonight is the first iteration
of a schedule change that will affect CB. From this point on, CB is not on the schedule anymore.
I wouldn't worry about this too much, though; they always bring it back eventually. In it's place,
AS brings us Samurai
Champloo, which isn't half bad from what I've seen; also, one of it's stars is our beloved
David Lucas, so it's almost like having Spike back for a second round, you know?
5/14/05 -- Can you feel the excitement, Baby? - Was there ever a webmistress that took care of her
visitors as I do? Wait, don't answer that. Today, the adult's version of Santa Claus
(madam mailman) brought me the artbook Toshihiro Kawamoto:
Cowboy Bebop Illustrations - The Wind (which, ironically enough, I did't have mentioned on my
merchandise page until today). I only had a chance to flip through
it before work, but hot dog! it's beautiful. Oh yes, you will be seeing scans.
5/10/05 -- A long overdue fan art update. - I've finally added ALL the gift arts
that have been sent to me. Thanks to everyone who took the time to send me their artwork,
and sorry for the long wait!
5/10/05 -- So, you want to hear the vocal-less version of Dijurido they played
in KoHD? - Thanks to Kief
Nilsson, now you can.
5/9/05 -- Game site and KoHD for the PSP. - There's now an official
site for the Cowboy Bebop game
coming out in a few months. There's nothing there now except some boring Flash,
but I'm sure it will be updated with more eventually. Also, did you know that
KoHD was coming to the PSP on the
seventeenth?
4/28/05 -- Nine-fingered Spike and the gigantical update of DOOM.
- At long last I've created a real page for the Cowboy
Bebop Movie! Yay! Like all the other sessions pages, it has a cast list, references,
a summary, and a gallery. In addition, I've included a review, and of course I still have the
KoHD news page attached. I really went crazy on the gallery - I made nearly 200 screen caps
from the film. In addition to that, I've fixed every download listed on the site - now they
ALL work, the AMVs, the commercials, etc. If you find one that doesn't let me know. I also
did a little bit of cleaning and additions here and there. I'm planning to do more updates when I
have the time.
In the news, the special edition remix of Cowboy Bebop will be released this summer, according to
the Anime News Network. As previously
announced, it will have remastered audio and video, supervised by Watanabe. There are some other news
updates, but I'll have to post them later.
10/26/04 -- The earth is mine to annihilate! - Come visit the the Chat sometime. It's on
sorcery.net, channel #jazzmess. Don't let the oldbies scare you. Their bark is worse than their
bite.
10/18/04 -- ???? - http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=VICL-61543
(Thank you, fanbeck)
10/10/04 -- And babe, won't it be fine. - Fashionably late as always, I point you to the
latest (relatively speaking) news of CB as discovered by Daikun on the boards - Cowboy Bebop: Ze Film
will debut on Cartoon Network in the fall of 2005. The specific announcement can be found on the
Adult Swim boards here
(registration required). As for this site itself, I finally renewed Cowboy Bebop.org (though it still needs to be re-uploaded) and
weeded the links section again, as some old favorites went under the wayside. The loss of all this
information and community makes me realize just how much I want to keep this site running and useful.
I really need to add a page of analysis for Knockin' on Heaven's Door, don't I?
8/24/04 -- CB to be remixed in Dolby Digital. - From Anime News Network:
The Cowboy Bebop TV series is being re-mixed in Dolby Digital 5.1 for a new Japanese release due out on
December 23rd. Previously only 6 episodes had received the 5.1 treatment, but now the entire series is
getting the 5.1DD upgrade.
The entire 26 episode series will be released on 7 discs and will retail for 42,000 yen (US$384). The
5.1 chanel sound remix was produced under the supervision of director Shinichiro Watanabe and original
staff.
Thanks to Daikun for the information.
8/1/04 -- Bebop Cola GOOOOOOD! - Some minor updates today. There were certain
downloads not working, and those have been fixed. I hope you guys look over my downloads
from time to time if you haven't already, because some of them are quite nifty. And in case you thought
that all my MP3s were gone, I'd like to remind you that the Live DVD tracks are still up and they will
remain so as long as this site remains. I also did a little weeding in my links section.
7/11/04 -- OMG TEH PIMPING - I'm a little strapped for cash these days and believe it or not
this site does take some of my pocket money each month, so I only feel slightly guilty for pimping
my auctions here: TEH
EBAY. Almost all of it is anime or manga, and one auction is even a Cowboy Bebop item, so
it's not as bad as advertising a lawn mower or something. ^_^;
In an almost-related-but-not-quite news tibit, it seems that Japan is finally starting to crack down on those Chinese
bootleggers. Yay!
6/13/04 -- Late Updates King - Big Big Truck reports
the guest list of AnimeFest will include two familiar
Cowboy Bebop favorites. Please do not e-mail me in
confusion about Spike's VA's name, or I will... er... do something mean. You'd have to be really out of
the loop to have not heard about the upcoming Cowboy Bebop PS2 game, but I felt that
the news of it should be somewhere on the page, even if I was too lazy to update sooner. My lack of
enthusiasm on this subject has a lot to do with the fact that games based on anime rarely ever pan out
to something worth playing. But let us hope, at least.
1/8/04 -- Goodbye, MP3s - I've tried for a long while to continue hosting the soundtracks
to CB, but it now seems that I'm completely out of options. My latest host, Single Reel, is unable
to host them. I'm actually cool with this - I don't really care that much anymore. I know you
guys do, though, and I'm sorry. Even though it's a kind thought, please don't e-mail me
offering hosting. Even if you think you have the capacity for all the bandwidth (which I really doubt),
I just don't want to mess with it any more. The only songs I will keep up are the live DVD tracks
(linked to in the Downloads section), since those are something you can't really get legally. All other
dowloads will remain intact, including the music videos (which will be back up soon).
12/7/03 -- David Lucas and Steve Blum - I'm sick and tired of getting asked about these
"two" actors. If you carefully examine everything on my site in regards to voice actors,
you'll know the answer. I'm not going to give it to you. If you send me an e-mail
asking about either actor in any respect, I'll either decide to be polite and ignore you, or I'll be
rude and send you an e-mail filled with vulgarities. I'm just warning you now. Ignorance of this post
is not an excuse.
11/21/03 -- MP3s and music vids currently down. - Due to server problems at Singlereel,
certain downloads will be offline for an indefinite amount of time. E-mailing me about this
will cause you to be ignorned.
11/20/03 -- Well, I wasn't really expecting it to win, but still.
- Cowboy Bebop The Movie has been deemed ineligible to be nominated for an Oscar due to
it's release date in Japan (Sept. 1 2002). source: Anime News Network
11/17/03 -- Vive le Cowboy Bebop, part deux. - The
Real Folk Blues is back. No more e-mailing me about it. :p Also, rumor has it that Cowboy Bebop: The
Movie will get nominated for an Oscar. Time will tell. Thanks to faience and Daikun for the
news.
11/6/03 -- Vive le Cowboy Bebop!
- In this world of slowly diminishing Bebop websites, it's nice to know that at
least one has reopened. BBT was
good enough to point out the triumphant return of LOVIN's
Cowboy Bebop site. It's in Japanese, but you need to check out that fan art.
Moreover, there are now official Bebop sites for Italy
and France.
11/5/03 -- Why must we always hurt the ones we love?! BANJOOOOO!
- sigh. Another Bebop site gets taken down. The lovely Asteroid
Blues is gone from the web as we know it.
11/03/03 -- Mooch the night away. - The
albums available for download this month are the movie
soundtrack, Ask DNA, and the
Cowgirl Ed OST. I also want to point
out something I failed to before: the live
DVD tracks stay up continuously, they aren't part of the "rotation."
10/26/03 -- For Science. - It seems that my problems are not copyright in nature, but
are instead bandwidth related. I had hoped by moving to Singlereel that I would be able to
avoid this problem. Fat chance. ^^; The only way I can deal with it is by rotating the downloads
of the various albums on a monthly basis. For the rest of October, the album is: the CD box set
(only the previously unreleased tracks).
10/29/03 - He's so brave. He's so brave. He'll be her love slave. - Completely off the
topic of my site, but: Tonight, watch Cartoon Network at 12:00am EST/PST, 11:00am CST. There
you will find a strange, curious, and ultra cool show called FLCL. Don't worry if it doesn't make
sense, just sit back and let the tingling sensation do it's work.
10/26/03 - For Science. - It seems that my problems are not copyright in nature, but
are instead bandwidth related. I had hoped by moving to Singlereel that I would be able to
avoid this problem. Fat chance. ^^; The only way I can deal with it is by rotating the downloads
of the various albums on a monthly basis. For the rest of October, the album is: the CD box set
(only the previously unreleased tracks).
10/23/03 -- All downloads back in action. - Whatever the problem was before, it's worked out
now. All the MP3s and video downloads should be working.
10/20/03 -- Hmm... maybe not. - I think I have the MP3 problem worked out with my ISP.
Apparently the worry was about Sony, who has the rights to the Bebop movie. Seems a little roundabout
and odd to me, but what do I know? At any rate, the MP3s ought to be back up soon. Maybe. Thank
you all for your support.
10/17/03 -- The RIAA strikes again. - I'm sorry to disapoint you all, but
it seems that I won't be allowed to keep the music files up after all. According
to my ISP:
"A RIAA internet search traced the music files you have posted
using your acount with us. They have asked our ISP to freeze the
account until this matter is dealt with."
This is the first time I've had to deal with this particular problem. I'm not sure if it's
due to my ISP or if it's just a sign of how rabid the RIAA has become. Either way, no more
MP3s. Sorry again. The music videos will still remain, and I'll add more of them if I find
some that I like enough to host.
10/11/03 -- For your viewing pleasure. - I've finally been able
to add a section that I wanted to for some time - music
videos. After asking the artists' consent, I'm now hosting what I consider
to be the best Cowboy Bebop videos on the web. The AMV section can be found by
going to the downloads page. Hope you like them.
10/6/03 -- Let the good shine. - The MP3s are back, baby. Yes, you
read that right. Thanks to Singlereel.com,
I actually have a place to put them. They won't be there long if they get abused,
however. Therefore, do both of us a favor and please do not directly link to the
MP3 files. Period. If you're on a message board and want people to know about
a song, link to the HTML page for the song instead. The same goes if you have
a website. Also, if you piss and moan that the MP3s are encoded at FM radio quality,
I'll have a jolly laugh at your expense. These sound files were never intended
to replace the CDs; they are here only as a sampling to allow you to decide which
CD(s) you want to buy. In other news, a member of the Bebop Boards posted this site, and
I must say that I admire the analysis. It's very well written, interesting and
entertaining. To be honest I'm a little jealous. :3 Be sure to check it
out.
9/21/03 -- Happy Birthday Jazz Mess - It's been two years to the day since this site was
launched. Here's to you guys for keeping it going. Sorry, no door prizes this year.
9/1/03 -- Adult Swim expansion. According to Animation
Insider, Adult Swim will be expanding it's Sunday block to six hours, with
an encore presentation of it's programming. This is terrific news for night owls
like myself who work late. Not so good for those of you who need to get to bed
early, but still a boon in my opinion. Two Cowboy Bebops a day is not a bad thing.
:) There's no mention of whether the regular weekly block will also be expanded.
7/16/03 -- Finally, a good looking DVD cover. - If you're like me,
you hate the movie DVD cover for the R1 release with a passion. Lucky for all
of us, Gooieduck has created something
much more worthy of Bebop. He's kindly letting me host them on my server for all
to see. A small preview may be found here.
A link to these covers is in Miscellaneous, in case
you need to find them later. Enjoy. I know I will. (Apologies, Guy, for taking so long to put these
up. I've been on vaction. ^_~)
7/16/03 -- Plagiarism where it should not be. - One finds bebop news in
the most unexpected places. I was browsing the site of a plushie artist
that I admire, when I came across an interesting and disturbing news story. As much
as I've wanted one of Hatsuko Mitsumori's Ed and Ein plushies, I'm going to opress
the urge to buy this knock off. In the interests of not promoting plagarism, I
hope you do the same.
6/24/03 -- DVD release - Don't forget to buy your copy of Cowboy Bebop: The Movie. (lensflare
to the groin not withstanding.)
6/18/03 -- Cowboy Bebop movie DVD - The movie DVD is just about
to be released (June 24), and I'm sure you've all got your preorders in. Interestingly,
I preordered the disk from Deep Discount
DVD, and they've already shipped it. It won't arrive before the street date
- it'll probably arrive right on the day of - but I thought it was a nice gesture.
The real news for today is that Sony has released clips of some of the extras
on the disk. You can find the complete story (and the clips) here, care of ANN.
6/12/03 -- Long time, no update. - I'm a lazy bum, aren't I? Well, in all honest there
really hasn't been that much to update, but there were a few things and I should have kept on it.
My apologies. First of all, as many of you know, June 12th is the last day that Cowboy Bebop
will be on Adult Swim at this point. We do know that at some point in the future Adult Swim will
play the Cowboy Bebop movie, so this removal needn't be permanent. Also of interest: the
Animatrix came out recently, and on it were some profiles of each of the individual creators.
Watanabe's profile included scenes from Cowboy Bebop. Finally, don't forget to preorder your copy
of Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (aka Knockin' on Heaven's Door). Preorder it now from Amazon.com or your
retailer of choice. That's all I've got for now. I'll try and be more punctual in the future.
