Cowboy Bepop is trending on Twitter, I’m just gonna assume this thread and my posts is responsible.
Against my better judgement, I started watching this last night even though the season isn’t over yet. D’oh! I love it, of course. It’s really well done.
Zylon
5548
Anime is a medium, not a genre, so this is like asking, “Help me with some TV show recommendations.”
Tell us what genres you like and you’ll get much more useful suggestions.
. . .
But yes you should watch Cowboy Bebop regardless.
CraigM
5549
It has legitimately one of the greatest soundtracks of any show, anime or otherwise.
Hell it has one of the greatest soundtracks period, including film. There are maybe, maybe, 2 other composers who have matched Yoko Kanno’s work on Cowboy Bebop.
Highly subjective opinion of course, but for me only John Williams, and Darren Korb (Supergiant Games), have matched it on the ‘I will listen to this as its own thing’ scale.
I’ve seen this intro hundreds of times. Doesn’t stop me from hitting play one more time.
CraigM
5553
God I’m going to do a series rewatch now, aren’t I.
Same! It was my ringtone for a while. The opening is perfect but the closing theme and sequence is also fantastic with a completely different mood.
ShivaX
5555
It’s been a while since I watched it, but as I recall it trends pretty hard towards serious as it goes on.
There are moments of silliness here and there, but overall it’s fairly dark at least for it’s genre.
Also, it has Roy Fucking Mustang in it.
Teiman
5556
Other good anime:
Konosuba (humour)
Chobits ( romantic drama )
Ghost in the Shell - The Laughing Man ( sci-fi / cyberpunk )
–all ghibli movies-- ( all public solid good movies )
Just from the top of my head, I am not a person that make lists.
Honestly, what is up with all these Isekai anime. Does Japan have an issue with people getting run over by buses and needing to relive life on some fantastical plane where only their understanding and insight can get them through?
I find the whole premise so utterly exhausting and uninspired.
Zylon
5558
Same thing that’s up with magical girl animes, or mecha animes, or VR game animes, or girlfriend who falls out of the sky animes-- something original comes out that’s hugely popular, then everyone else copies it into oblivion.
Those seem like broader categories than Isekai. Maybe I’m wrong about that though.
In any case, there is something off about the whole genre. The idea that a Japanese person will obviously rise to the top feels… Well, very White Man’s Burden sort of thing.
It’s a genre mostly build on facile wish fulfillment to pander the audience, that’s what is ‘off’. Even ignoring the terrible ones, they are the equivalent of disposable fast food.
There are a few exceptions as they are more comedy/parody oriented.
Zylon
5561
Well, a Japanese person plus whatever godlike powers they’re usually granted in the process.
There’s definitely a little nationalism involved in some of it I think. While not exactly an Isekai, Gate went pretty hard in that direction and was part of why I stopped watching it. There’s a lot of the JSDF is really the best army in the world stuff in that one as well as other nationalistic stuff.
I never got into Gate. I thought the premise was the superiority of having technology and a trained army in general, not the Japanese in particular.
If it was the latter, that is a bit of a misstep, since I think the show could have been set in Sweden, Korea, Australia, the UK or any other Modern power with similar results.
Good point. Which reminds me, I should sit down and read a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court some time.
Eventually other countries are interested in the gate and the JSDF fights off Russian, US, etc special forces groups.
