Star Cowboy: A journey to complete life that connects the past, present and future

"Star Cowboy" is known as the last romance of the Japanese animation celluloid era, this space western adventure directed by Shinichiro Watanabe not only achieved great success in terms of plot, original painting, soundtrack, etc., "Star Cowboy" successfully portrayed characters such as Spike, Jet and Faye, with excellent storyline and wonderful character dialogue as the carrier, exploring the values of people in the era of interstellar travel, and asking questions about the problems between people and between people and society. Let the audience participate in the BEBOP crowd to find the past, cherish the present, and start the future life to make up the journey.

Star Cowboy (カウボーイビバップ, Cowboy Bebop) is an original television anime produced by Sunrise Animation under the direction of Shinichiro Watanabe and written by Yarise, a collective pen name for sunrise planning headquarters. Broadcast on TV Tokyo and WOWOW from April 3, 1998 to April 23, 1999, the Anime Western won the Anime of the Year Award for Best Television at the third Kobe Animation Awards in the same year and the Nebula Award at the Japan Science Fiction Convention in 2000. The theatrical version of the anime Star Cowboy: The Title of Heaven was released on September 1, 2001. Discussing this last romantic work of the celluloid era 20 years later, not only because of its outstanding achievements in plot, structure, painting and music, but also because of the spiritual core it expresses in the animation: "a one-dimensional life journey that connects and completes the past, present and future in the vast space", which can still lead people to think deeply about personal growth, between people, and between people and society in the 200s.

First, look at the eyes of the past and the present

The story of Interstellar Cowboy unfolded in 2071, when the invention of the space gate of bit difference enabled interstellar travel, and human habitation expanded throughout the solar system. 50 years ago, the Earth and the Moon were fatally hit by a major accident in the development of phase space gates, and part of the Moon fell to the Earth, and the Earth was no longer suitable for long-term human habitation. The destruction of the earth's surface has led to the flight of human beings to other planets, the demise of countries, governments, and international organizations or the transformation into new forms of more interstellarization, and people around the world have been dispersed and integrated, forming a new interstellar community and culture. With the passage of time, The Earth has become a distant memory, autonomous organizations, emerging nations are in the ascendant, and a power vacuum has flooded the galaxy with chaos, drugs, and crime, and the Inter Solar System Police (ISSP) was established to fight interstellar crime together. Born along with the ISSP is the bounty boss system (cowboy law), which is simply a bounty hunter system that arrests wanted criminals in exchange for a bounty, and the protagonist of the story, Spike Spiegel, is one of the 300,000 bounty hunters, Spike and his partner Jet Black fly the spaceship BEBOP through the universe, and get to know Faye Valentine, a beautiful woman who is heavily indebted and money-hungry. and computer prodigy Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV and adopted Ein, a smart corgi with a high IQ.

A plate of green pepper stir-fried meat without shredded meat is the first impression of many people's "Interstellar Cowboy", just as the green pepper stir-fried meat without shredded meat is incomplete, the three adults on BEBOP are "incomplete" individuals, they all have an inseparable past, and they cannot allow themselves to focus on the present and imagine the future until they look for fragments of the past. Spike once said to Phillips, "Look closely at my two eyes, because of the accident, one of them is a prosthetic eye." Since then, I have looked at the past with one eye and the present with the other. What the eye sees is not real, I thought. "Staring at the past (left eye) and the present (right eye), only not looking at the future Spike, once a member of the Red Dragon Organization, wanted to escape from the organization with his lover Julia, but was framed by his friend Bishas, rejected by his lover, escaped at the cost of losing one eye, was saved by Jet in a lingering struggle, and spent his days in bebop, and he could only wake up again when he heard the news of Julia and Biscias. The eye is an important symbol of Theodromedichiro Watanabe's expression of the character's psychological activities in this game, and when Spike recalls the past, the camera focuses on Spike's left eye, and in spike's first duel with Vicious, Spike's left eye reflects the image of his former girlfriend refusing to escape from the organization and seek freedom with himself. At the beginning of the story, Spike, after solving the incident of a pair of outlaw mandarin ducks who escaped from the gang and was killed in the end, muttered in front of the porthole: What if he escapes? It was his left eye that reflected in the porthole, and the plan to escape from the organization with Julia three years ago came to mind again.

Unlike Marcus's one-dimensional narration, what binds everyone in "Interstellar Cowboy" is not the ideology, technology and institutions of developed industrial society, but simply the "past". The bondage of the past for three adults makes it the main line of this journey to the west of space, Spike has to make a break with Julia, Bishas, and the gangsters, Jett can't forget his girlfriend's farewell, And Phil has lost his memory because of the explosion of the space gate, in this journey linking the past, present and future, the three are one-dimensional, and can only solve the past first, otherwise they can't start a new life. For the first three, the past is always untouchable, a secret that can only be carefully solved by themselves, and as the journey progresses, the past of the crowd begins to gradually become clear. Searching for Phy's past together, gossiping jet, smoking together, the feelings between Phil and Spike heat up, at which point spike's right eye begins to increase. After Spike singled out Bishass and fell from the building, when he fell down the building, his left eye reflected Julia who rejected him, and when he woke up, his right eye reflected the Phillips who cared for him, and the reference here has become clear that BEBOP has become everyone's home for healing, no matter what kind of past he carries, but life will continue. But the happy life on BEBOP is short-lived after all, the journey of the bounty hunter cannot completely heal the scars of everyone, nor can it bridge the rift between the past and the present and the future, and everyone will eventually face their own past, so it is only a matter of time before they are separated.

Second, the referential meaning of "dream" and the discussion of reality

"Dreams", like "eyes" in Star Cowboy, are also important clues to understanding the work. For Jeter, the pocket watch that appears in the "dream" and a note that says "Goodbye" are the painful memories of his girlfriend's resignation, and for Fei, the hometown and childhood playmate that appear in the dream are distant past. For Spike, "dream" appears in a large number of character lines, and how to understand the meaning of "dream" is the key to understanding the spiritual core of "Star Cowboy". In spike's first showdown with Bishas, there was a discussion of "dreams," with Bishas saying, "Angels banished from heaven will eventually become demons, right, Spike." Spike's answer seemed to be concerned about it: "I'm just having a dream that I can never wake up." In The mouth of Bishas, the angel Spike, who was exiled by heaven, acted like a demon for revenge on Bishas in the past, acting like a demon, out of hatred and hatred, but in Spike's view, it was not because of betrayal, the loss of an eye, and the rejection of his lover that he came to the real Bishas, but the cutting off of the past with Bishas was the beginning of a new life, and the past life in the gang made Spike feel the same unreality as "living in a dream". This unreality began to surround Spike, it was The appearance of Juilliard that made Spike gain a sense of true existence for the first time because of love, but it was also Julia who personally tore up Spike's letter begging her to escape together, so the "dream that never wakes up" here refers to Spike even if he escapes from the gang, but he can't cut off the past, and the past with Bishas, Julia and others still makes the gangster era have a "sense of unreality" hanging over him, making it impossible for him to start a new life, just like living in a dream. In his dreams, he could fantasize about what would have happened if he and Julia had escaped from everything three years ago, imagined being happy with his companions forever on BEBOP, and fantasized that the refrigerator that had bred alien monsters was spinning in the depths of the universe with the rhythm of the Flower Circle Dance.

The unforgettable events that require adult growth again occur, Julia and Spike reunite again in the rain, Julia says to Spike three years later, "Let's run away together, go to no one's place", but by this time Spike's dream has gradually awakened, how they escaped all this after three years, escaped from Bishas' pursuit, escaped from BEBOP's partners, and how to live without hearts and lungs in spite of everyone. Reality gradually shone into Spike's right eye, and as the pursuit approached, Spike reached the moment when he had to face the past. If Spike was still hesitant to wake up from his dream at this time, Julia's death shattered Spike's dream that he could never wake up, and the moment he witnessed Julia being hit was Spike's left eye, looking at the dead Julia in his arms was Spike's right eye. Man always has to face reality, for different people reality has different meanings, for Jeter reality is his cherished and discarded pocket watch; for Phillips reality is her confrontation with emotional cheaters, her old teenage buddies and home that has long been reduced to ruins; for Ed reality is her careless father; for Ein reality is that it is a corgi no matter how clever it is. For Spike, the reality was that no matter how much he didn't want to remember everything about gangster life, those memories eroded him like a tidal wave, making it impossible for him to open his heart to his partner, letting him know that BEBOP was just a healing habitat for him, and no matter how much he wanted to be happy and carefree, the news of Bishas and Julia would immediately irritate his nerves as soon as the news of Bishas and Julia appeared. So before the final showdown with Bishas, facing Phi who liked each other, Spike said, "I wanted to have a dream that would never wake up, but I woke up from it at some point." "When the camera is fixed on Spike's right eye, he is determined to face reality in his heart, will not be hit again, will not get PTSD, and now what should be done is to make a break with the past and start a new life."

Third, face the past in a romantic way

Many anime fans will evaluate "Star Cowboy" as the last romantic work of the celluloid era, and the romance of "Star Cowboy" is not only exquisite blues music, or the courage to go to the soup for companions and lovers, but also the combination of Spike, Jet, Fei, Ed and Ein. When Jeter reunites with his girlfriend, there is no hysterical roar, no unreasonable entanglement, and all the dialogue unfolds in the incredible calm of adults. Obviously the abandoned party, Jeter had to pluck up the courage to ask the question that bothered him, drank the last wine in the glass, and took out the pocket watch she had left behind: I don't hate you for not saying goodbye, nor do I come to blame you, on the contrary, I am very grateful for the past days, I come to you now, just want to know why you left me at that time. Time will dilute everything, and the original resentment, confusion, and irritability will be left with only one problem after several years: the reason to leave me, that's all. After settling the incident that happened to his ex-girlfriend, Jeter is relieved, knowing what the reason can be, the past is irretrievable, just knowing that she is living well now is enough, and all the memories about her are reduced to a dashing loss, with the pocket watch sinking into the bottom of Ganymede. Fei returned to the earth after recovering his memory, due to the fact that Fei was frozen for decades after the explosion of the space gate in place, the hometown has long been a human being, the teenager's playmate has long become an old man, with the fragments of memory on the way home, what comes into view is the former residence that has long become rubble, the parents have long been killed in the explosion, relatives and friends have no longer survived, leaving themselves alone in front of the ruins to bear all this past. There was no imaginary howling and crying, no shouting at the sunset, Fei just drew the shape of a bed with a branch in the position of her former bedroom, and lay quietly on it. The dead are long dead, the old cannot make them old, and all the sorrow and pain can only choose to bear and dissolve as soon as possible.

Before spike's final showdown with Bishas, the companions were puzzled by Spike's decision, which was actually the confusion of many viewers and even the staff about why Spike chose to "send him to death". Director Shinichiro Watanabe answers the audience's questions here with several conversations between Spike and Jet and Fei, in which Spike tells a story about cats: "Do you know this story? There was a cat with a tiger skin pattern, this cat had been raised by various owners, but it did not love its owner, a million deaths, and then a million resurrections, the cat was not afraid of death. One day it became a free wild cat, met a white female cat, the two cats lived happily together, after many years, the white cat died, the tiger skin pattern cat cried a million times and died, never resurrected. Jeter said, "It's a great story. Spike replied, "I hate this story, I hate cats." The story here can easily connect Spike to Julia's experience, and Spike hates this story by telling Jeter that I may have imagined living and dying with the person I loved, like a cat with tiger skin patterns, but now that this is no longer possible, what is the point of crying. Perhaps fearing that the audience would not understand it thoroughly, Jeter then asked, "Spike, can I ask you one thing?" Is it for women? Spike's Q&A here is very classic: "For a dead person, there is nothing that can be done for her." Unlike Jet and Fei's past, Spike's past can neither be laughed nor gently put down, saying goodbye to the past may cost you life, but if you can't cut off the past, what is the difference between death and death? So in the end, when Fei tried to keep Spike, he asked him, "Are you going to die?" Spike replied, "I'm not trying to die... Just wanted to confirm if I was really alive or not. So it was necessary to make a decision with Bixias, not only for himself, but also for Julia, but also for the companions on BEBOP, after killing Bishas, Spike made a pistol shooting action with his hand in front of the steps, and a "bang" in his mouth was a proof that Spike had successfully broken the past.

If it was just the way three adults treated the past, it wouldn't make Star Cowboy get such a high rating among anime fans. The only little kid on BEBOP, Ed has no past in his eyes, only the present and the future. For the past things, Ed always "forgot", no one knows why Ed got on the ship, no one knows why Ed left, maybe the role of the double buff of women and children, the blessing of the sixth sense lets Ed know that the great war is imminent, she will become a burden to stay, or simply feel that it is time to start a new life, Ed's departure is so unexpected, in a child's way, leaving his most precious gift and a spray on the deck "bye-bye" plus a big smiley face, Let the two men swallow silently in the face of the egg dinner left for themselves, Phillips, Ed, and the puppy. I have to say that Ed's way of saying goodbye to the past is the most dashing, in the eyes of children, everything is a new beginning every day, and there is no need to indulge in the past, because he has no past.

epilogue

As Spike sailed the Swordfish to the final battle, Yoko Kanno's "See You Space Cowboy" rang in his ears, "It's all over, I cover my ears and hear you say this; words pass in vain, flowing to a tomorrow where there is no stability; even the night when prayers have faded, what to trust, where you will go... This love will not disappear even if life is exhausted, it is eternal, even dreams are hidden by darkness, I got rainbow in my hands". After the decisive battle, the man carrying the past sounded a hymn-like melody in his ear as he fell, "How free I am, I really want you to know; don't let me wake up from my dreams, everything here seems to tell how free I am; there is no black and white in this blue, everything is now more pure, and I am slowly rising into the air." ”

Author: Yimu