A Nostalgic Anime Moment

I’m not a big anime fan at all. In fact, I don’t even really know what you would classify as anime these days and the only reason I’m aware of the term is cause I have an Akira action figure and a friend once asked if I enjoyed screaming someone’s name from across a field, jumping 6 miles into the air and shooting some kind of light towards… anything. I proceeded to respond with, “Um no. But I do believe Japanese animators were onto something with the way they create the most un-proportionate looking human bodies….”

Anyways, back to the matter at hand. I recently started watching really old episodes of Cowboy Bebop. I’d seen a few episodes when I was a kid, but didn’t completely understand it beyond the cool looking space ships and the animated violence. I have to be honest, the show isn’t much better now and with the news of a live-action movie starring Keanu Reeves as the lead character, I don’t have high hopes. What does still impress me is the opening sequence. The song “Tank,” is an absolute perfect choice for a show like this and the animated sequence really sets the tone for the show. I think Cowboy Bebop had a strong influential hand in a show like Firefly which, like Cowboy, melded the old west mentality with a sci-fi twist.

But the opening sequence specifically reminds me of Quentin Tarantino‘s Kill Bill Volume 1. The punkish pop music playing in the background of action sequences gives it a unique feel and after watching a few episodes of Cowboy Bebop, I can see exactly what QT was going for with a lot of his fight scenes.