Jupiter Jazz | Anime Review

[00:00:00]Oh, yay! You're all here.

[00:00:03]>> Madam, your appearance is harmful to the eyes. Or are you trying to entice us?

[00:00:09]>> Oops, you found me out.

[00:00:11]Just hold on a minute. If I don't put these on, I just might chip a nail, you know.

[00:00:17]Okay, here we go.

[00:00:21]>> [groaning] >> Hello everyone, I'm Johnny Johnson and today we're taking a look at Jupiter Jazz, >> [music] >> a powerful two-parter episode of Cowboy Bebop. One featuring our main antagonist and all the staples that make Cowboy Bebop oh so great.

[00:00:39]So, let's check it out.

[00:00:43]The episode starts with a scene of Laughing Bull who lives on Mars with his son. They see a shooting star. Laughing Bull calls the shooting star a tear of a warrior from a lost soul who has finished his battles somewhere on this planet.

[00:00:59]A pitiful soul who cannot find his way to the lofty realm where the great spirit awaits us all.

[00:01:07]It's all a bit cryptic and you can take whatever meaning you like from [music] it, but I think you could apply this to several lost characters in the episode, Spike being one of them.

[00:01:17]And certainly a new character introduced in this episode, Gren, [music] a former soldier who couldn't find peace.

[00:01:25]Either way, the quote sets the stage for an episode of gravity.

[00:01:31]Jupiter Jazz is a two-parter episode.

[00:01:34]It, [music] along with a handful of fragmented background episodes for Spike, provides that emotional context [music] and motivation for everything he does.

[00:01:45]The crew story starts out with Spike, Jet and Edward [music] discovering Faye has abandoned the ship. Not only did she desert them, she has also emptied their safe of what little was in it and drain the ship's coolant.

[00:02:00]Edward attempts to track down Faye on the web and while doing so intercepts a signal with the code name Julia [music] coming from the Blue Crow on Callisto.

[00:02:10]She gets cut off before she can discover any more information.

[00:02:14]However, [music] Spike is immediately drawn in believing the code name to be a reference to his lost [music] love by the same name.

[00:02:24]Meanwhile, our main antagonist Vicious [music] is heading to Callisto to do a red-eye drug deal representing the Red Dragon crime syndicate.

[00:02:34]Faye too has gone to the moon [music] in search of, well, anything to give her purpose or maybe just [music] to be alone.

[00:02:42]The storyline does get some criticism as it sees the separation and bringing together of several characters by sheer coincidence.

[00:02:50]>> [music] >> But at the same time, these are all characters that are either drawn to each other and or [music] want to be pursued by each other.

[00:02:59]Spike and Vicious, for example, yearn to fight each [music] other. Faye, sure she ran away, but you'll discover she wanted to be found, pursued, >> [music] >> anything to feel like people cared she was missing.

[00:03:13]The episode very much doubles down on one of the major themes of Cowboy Bebop, which is the crew's relationship with their individual pasts and the weight of these relationships.

[00:03:24]It's something everyone in the crew has in common >> [music] >> and it's something that causes them to isolate themselves.

[00:03:32]On the moon, Faye meets up with [music] a saxophone player named Gren who becomes a significant character in the storyline, [music] particularly in relation to Vicious.

[00:03:42]The two were former comrades and Vicious betrayed him.

[00:03:47]Gren is planning to confront Vicious during a drug [music] deal for red-eye.

[00:03:51]He wants to know why Vicious betrayed him.

[00:03:55]But, Vicious isn't a three-dimensional character, rather a cruel, cold-hearted, violent man, and a foil for Spike, representing what he could have become.

[00:04:08]I do think it's easy to get romantic about Cowboy [music] Bebop because of just how excellent the mood always is.

[00:04:15]I think episodes like these are open to interpretation, which is part of the beauty of Cowboy Bebop.

[00:04:21]You can, for example, [music] draw parallels between Spike and Gren and their relationship with Vicious, but you don't have to.

[00:04:30]You can watch [music] this episode and vibe out with the jazz and artwork. The music score is particularly exceptional [music] for this episode.

[00:04:38]You can enjoy the action sequences. You can enjoy the planet.

[00:04:42]Callisto is a cold moon in Jupiter's orbit, [music] and it's further in a state of depression.

[00:04:48]Few women live on the moon, and it has a rushocentric [music] culture.

[00:04:53]Everything about this episode has a very cool vibe.

[00:04:57]The episode further has one of my favorite fight [music] scenes in it, which is Spike against a handful of street thugs who dared to mistake him for [music] Vicious.

[00:05:07]This is also one of Spike's most intimidating punches ever, and it wasn't even against a person.

[00:05:12][music] It's a rare thing to see Spike fight so emotionally.

[00:05:20]The theme of the episode is clearest when Faye is talking with Gren. You can really feel the weight of Faye's past here, and she might [music] as well be talking for Spike and Jet as well.

[00:05:34]>> I tell you, instead of feeling alone in a group, it's better to have real solitude all by yourself.

[00:05:41]>> You were just afraid they'd abandon you.

[00:05:44]So, you abandoned them.

[00:05:50]The end is very bittersweet. [music] Despite the contention between our cowboys, even Spike and Jet had a falling out. Everyone is reunited on the Bebop [music] without conditions, proving their bonds of camaraderie are far stronger than they all realized or are [music] yet to realize. Faye looking disheartened speaks aloud Julia's name.

[00:06:13]I wonder if she wishes someone would fight so hard for her or if she could form such bonds [music] with people one day.

[00:06:28]All right, I'm Johnny. Thanks for watching this review of Jupiter Jazz. Do like, subscribe, or comment, or whatever, but most importantly, do take care. Have a nice rest of your day.