

Hello, this is an analysis of Cowboy Bebop episode one and I want to keep this direct and concise since episode one is very dense. So this analysis might seem long but trust me once you see how cleverly structured this episode was I think you’ll have found it a worthwhile read. That being said, if you like this article and believe it has unique value please share it on Twitter and Pinterest or where ever. Let’s start.



Note: I explain everything in the order that it appears in during the episode.



0:00-4:03

The very first scene of Cowboy Bebop is very special because unlike every other episode in the entire series, it begins prior to the actual opening credits. So, not only should the opening scene be treated as the introduction of the episode but also as the introduction to the show in its entirety. This matters because since it functions as the introduction of the entire show then any meaning we derive from the scene should be kept in mind for both episode one and for every episode going forward.



Now the very first thing worth noticing about the opening scene is that prior to seeing an establishing shot or even getting any shot at all, the viewer is introduced to the sound of church bells. This is a clue that the director wants the viewer to focus on the idea of church bells and that they may even be the most important symbol in the scene. So symbolically church bells are associated with three things; wedding, funerals, and marking specific hours. Symbolically what we can extract from that is that the bells are a symbol for love, death and time. Since this is the first symbol the director is choosing to give us it means that it is probably safe to assume that the theme of love, death and time are going to be extremely important for understanding the rest of the show.









Next, let’s look at the background colors for the scene. It’s a blue, specifically like a sad blue and since the scene is completely covered in this blue hue the scene gives off an aged feeling similar to that of a black and white movie. So the background colors should be invoking a sense of “sad past” in the viewer. In addition to this, there is rain which is also a very common symbol for sadness and if you pay close attention you’ll notice that the raindrops themselves add to this “aged” look. The raindrops themselves look like the lines on a degrading film. So the viewer is again being reminded of both time and sadness through the use of rain.





In the next few shots, we see Spike smoking, then it cuts to the floor with a whole bunch of cigarettes on the floor and then we see him walk away with flowers. You take this all together it seems to imply that Spike was waiting for a romantic interest and he was waiting for a long time and once he heard the church bells he had decided he had waited long enough and left. Taken all together it seems like there’s some kind of romance going on here, a sad romance.





The next image we see is a rose that falls into a puddle and after a moment the scene starts to cut between the shot of the rose and a gunfight. As the scene cuts between the fight and the rose, the rose starts to turn red and thanks to the puddle the rose begins to look like it’s bleeding to death. In addition to this what’s interesting about this gunfight is that the only color we see again is red from their blood, so, now not only is the viewer is being presented with the themes of love and death but they are also being intertwined. Since red is the only color we see in the scene beside the blues and greys it forces the viewer to associate the color red with the themes of sadness, love, death and time.



The last aspect of this scene worth mention is its overall setting. Notice how there is absolutely nothing in this scene that lets us know we are in the future. This could be set at any time prior to like space travel. So later when we when the viewer realizes that this is a futuristic sci-fi show the “past and time” aspect of the scene will become more apparent thanks to the aesthetic they chose.

Now, all that I have covered so far may seem simple but in order to understand Spike’s character development during episode one, we are going to have to keep all of this in mind and connect it to the overall story of episode one. In other words, without understanding this opening scene you can’t understand what Spike is thinking during the final moment’s end of episode one.

8:00-11:16



Now in the next scene we get an establishing shot of space that is a stark contrast from the earlier scene in that there’s a lot of colors and we can tell that this is a sci-fi setting, and thanks to the contrast we get the sense that we are now in the present rather than being in stuck in the past. This contrast in scenes invites us to think about time as a theme and the subliminal feeling of knowing that you’re in the present rather than the past is introducing this idea that feelings and time are connected.



In this scene, we get a lot of exposition and characterization. First, let’s look at the way Jet is dressed. He’s wearing pink, he’s wearing an apron and he’s cooking for Spike. It’s almost like he’s Spike’s wife. The imagery here seems to imply that Jet is the kind of man that’s in touch with his feminine side. Because of this effeminate side of Jet, he’s a caregiver and enjoys taking care of people the way mothers take care of their kids and this trait of his is shown repeatedly throughout the show and further on into the show it’s going to come into play for his character arch.





The second thing I want to mention about the scene is the fact that Jet mentions that this bounty is worth more than the last one but despite this Spike has no interest in it. This matters because later when we want to understand exactly why Spike goes after Asimov we need to understand what motivates him in the first place and apparently it’s not money.

W2,500,000





Now I want to focus on this image of Asimov and talk about this eye at the bottom left corner of the screen. This imagery repeats a few time throughout the show with different bounties and every time it does, it appears alongside a character related to Spike’s past. In addition to this, in this show, Spike also associates his eyes with the past. Because of all this, I believe in general Eye’s in Cowboy Bebop is symbolic of the past and this image is the first moment in the show that begins to establish this symbol. You might be thinking at this moment “but what does Asimov have to do with Spike’s past?”. Well, when Jet begins to describe Asimov he says that Asimov is running from a syndicate with his girlfriend…just as Spike did with his girlfriend in the past. We are being invited to notice the parallel between Asimov and Spike. This all might seem like it’s pointless considering at this point the viewer wouldn’t have enough information to connect these dots but I believe this episode was designed with repeat viewing in mind. By the end of this analysis, you’ll understand exactly why. For now, I’ll just say this episode was masterfully crafted.



We next get an introduction to the Sword-fish so I want to talk about it for a bit and the way it connects to Spike. Spikes mystical nickname is swimming bird and the Swordfish flies so it’s a flying fish. You can see they’re purposely making this connection between the swordfish and Spike the swimming bird; remember this because it will become very relevant in the latter half of the episode.





Worth mention as well is that when the bebop leaves it goes through a warp gate that also bears similarity to mechanical eye imagery. Finally, we get an image Asteroid setting that the episode is named after; Asteroid Blues. The asteroid itself also looks like a mechanical eye. You take the gate and Asteroid eye symbolism and it’s like Spike is literally flying into the mechanical eye and that could be interpreted as meaning Spike is literally flying into the past. All this eye imagery isn’t random when we take into the context of the rest of the episode we’re going to see the connection that the director wants the viewer to make. Remember all this because we are entering the middle portion of the episode and once we start comparing the first half of the episode with the second half the all this going to start clicking together.

15:20-17:58



One of the old mean-“Not this again!”

Theme being introduced: Repetition, Deja vu. This detail will become relevant in the second half of episode.

Here we’re introduced to the three men who are constantly in the background throughout the show and we find them reminiscing about their past. This should introduce the idea of three friends who are stuck in the past similar to the Bebop crew.

Close up shot- By using a close-up, while, leaving the old men in the background of the shot, the director is communicating to us that Katrina’s is very beautiful.



N

Bartender referring to Faye: “It’s been six months since I saw a woman in the flesh and two years since I saw a girl that good looking, trust me I wouldn’t make a mistake about….Julia used too sit in that same seat….about two years ago she wandered in out of the blue” He’s comparing Julia’s beauty to Faye’s.



As Katrina enters the bar we get a close up of Katrina’s breast and in the background we see the old men ogling her and this is notable because throughout the entire show the only two other woman’s whose beauty is ever mentioned out loud or focused on and they are Julia and Faye so, they’re trying to create this bridge between these characters and show that they have a connection. It’s not just that Katrina is pretty, it’s that she’s pretty like Julie and Faye. For us, that’s the connection we’ll make but for Spike, who hasn’t met Fay, the connection he’s going to make when he sees Katrina’s is “hey she reminded me of Julia”. And not only this but notice that she is a pretty girl at the bar stool. This imagery is used again in a future episode when referring to Faye and Julia.

This is called a cut, by cutting two images one after another you can creating meaning. This called the Kuleshov effect.



Here we have two frames that follow each other and one is of a cat that looks really ferocious and then there’s another one of Azimoff. A film cut like this invites the viewer to associates two separate images. So basically the cut is trying to imply here through the imagery that Asimov is animal or beast-like and this is important because later on, they’re going to compare Spike and Asimov.



In this scene we see Spike going to a Native American shaman it seems like for help and this is weird because the show is set in the future and you would think that he would use some kind of technology. The director enforcing this idea of Spike being the man stuck in the past and the Native Americans a perfect way of doing this because even for the viewer it’s something from the past. And we also see this in other parts of Spike’s life. For example, the way Spike trains his martial art is done in a very traditional manner. It’s an old way of doing it so again the show is always reinforcing this idea that Spike is a man stuck or living in the past.

(Insert image)

The shaman calls Spike swimming bird for the first time in the scene and that’s very similar to the idea of fish out of water so it seems to imply that Spike isn’t in his normal surroundings and this idea is hinted at again later on when as Asimov tells Spike that he would make a better thief than bounty hunter. So we as the viewers should be thinking “if he’s not a bounty hunter then what is he”. As Spike walks out he mentions that a woman once killed him in the past before and he’s not actually dead so now we know in this show death doesn’t necessarily mean literal death it could also mean some other kind of death. If we take a second to look at what he said it’s pretty obvious that he’s talking about heartbreak and if he’s comparing it to death obviously it was a big moment like he was it changed him he wasn’t the same afterward. For Spike, whatever happened to him, felt like death. This sentiment seems to be the same sentiment Spike share towards the final of the show in his cat story.



Now before we move on to the next scene I want us to take note of the details of this bar scene. We have a bar, the 3 old men, a bartender, a cat, and a drug deal gone wrong. In addition to this remember opening shot of this scene that includes a poker hand and the line of dialogue “not this again.” All these details are going to be used to create a sense of Deja Vu and to serve the themes present in this episode; remember them.

22:35-26:50

Here they make a connection between spike and the swordfish by showing that Spikes is hungry and that the swordfish is empty on gas which is a kind of hunger. I think they’re doing this on purpose because later on in this same episode there are going to be more subtle connections between characters and their spaceship so I doubt this emphasize between the swordfish and Spike is simply for sake of the plot.

A strange and long Close up shot of Spike reflection while Asimov looks at the mirror. A possible visual que that Asimov is a foil to Spike.



Something I want to mention because is I think its relevant is Spike’s last name. Spiegel means mirror in German and I suspect part of the reason this name was chosen for Spike is that the director likes to use other characters throughout the show as a kind of reflection of Spike so that the viewer can understand certain things about him and in this bathroom scene we have an example. The camera angle we’re getting here is from the point of view of the mirror and what we see are Azimoz and Spike. If we were standing on the opposite side what we would see is Spike’s and Asimov’s reflection so when Spike is staring into that mirror, thanks to the shot angle, it’s almost like he’s seen Asimov in his reflection. In other words, he sees Asimov in himself and remembers we associated Azimov with the pass so, it’s like saying what is true of Asimov is also true of Spike in the past. And this makes sense because remember they try to compare Asimov to a beast and in future episodes, we get vicious calling Spike a beast. There was a dark part of Spike in the past; he wasn’t a good guy.





We also get a few clues as to what motivates Spike here because if we pay attention we’ll notice that Spike sees that Asimov is sick and it is the perfect time to capture him as far as bounties go but despite that Spike still decides to leave. At this very moment, Spike decided that he wasn’t going to fight with Asimov due to the fact that he was sick so money is most definitely not what motivates Spike so later on in the episode when Spike is fighting with Asthma we should be wondering why exactly is he changing his mind and attitude.





During this moment between Spike and Katrina, we get an example of Spike’s character flaws. Notice how he’s talking with Katerina, he’s flirting. He’s charismatic, he’s got this like mysterious thing going on and he’s probably handsome in real life so it’s kind of like strange that he’s single right. What is a guy doing living with another guy in the middle of space and has no girlfriend when he obviously could get one. It’s because he’s hung up over Julia. So in a very literal sense, his past stops him from being able to connect with people and this attitude extends to the rest of his life and to the way he relates to his surroundings.





These few fading away frames are very important because when Spike says things like “I feel like I’m dreaming”, it is this sensation right here that he is referring to. What we’re seeing, this fade away, is him feeling like he’s in a dream. The reason we know that is because Asimov choked him out but he stopped so spike never went unconscious and he never got punched in the face so he’s very much awake right now but he’s choosing to go to sleep. And that sounds weird but the reason it’s weird is that what the directors are doing is going into “art house” mode. So, Spikes actions are to demonstrate that at that moment Spike feels nostalgic. That everything he’s gone through with Katerina and Asimov reminds him so much of himself and Julia that he’s entering this dream state where his past and present are mixing. When Spike wakes up in a few moments and he tells Jet “I was having a sweet dream” it is this nostalgic sensation that he’s getting at this very moment and an understanding that we know why spike decides to continue chasing them after this moment when it was obvious before he didn’t want to. It’s because he’s chasing after that nostalgic feeling when he goes to fight Asimov. It’s almost like an addiction for him. He’s putting everything aside just so he could feel this nostalgia and that seems like a very strange problem because nostalgia is not your typical addiction in real life but for Spike, it’s a very real problem. So in a very literal sense, he lives for the past because he’s chasing after this nostalgia and what that means spiritually or ethically is going to be explored in the rest of the show.



33:46-36:42

Asimov- “I think you liked him, didn’t you. You left me there for so long Asimov. I was just waiting for you to dig me out”



The dialog here seems to imply that a Asimov is jealous and Katrina never says no to liking Spike so it seems she does in fact like Spike. This dialogue may seem superfluous at first but when you put it into the context of everything I’ve mentioned so far it starts to become apparent that what the director is trying to do is make another connection between Katrina and Julia. Julia cheated on Vicious with Spike and that is reminiscent of Katrina flirting with Spike while Asimov was not around.



Now in this scene, you might not be able to tell right away but we’re actually at a bar and you know this because of the signs in the background and also notice that the three old men are there. In addition, there is a waiter that looks like the bartender from earlier and there’s a cat there right there in the front and the first piece of dialogue that we get from the scene is “this again” from the old man, Plus we get the same kind of card hand close up. And finally, just like the last bar scene, Asimov is making another drug deal that is about to go wrong. By making both drug deal/bar scenes so similar the director is trying to invoke a feeling of dejavu in the viewer. What’s especially interesting is that you can almost take this whole episode and fold it in half and the beginning and the end will match up and so would the two middle scenes as where describing right now.



“This Again”



“This Again!”



Pay special attention to the close-up shot of the playing cards in both scenes, they are reversed shots of each other. The first playing hand is from the PoV of the cardholder and the second hand is from the PoV of the opposite players. This choice to maintain the close-up on the same object but reversing it’s POV lets the director play with the theme of repetition while at the same exact time emphasize the symmetry/reflective nature of the scenes. The reason the director is doing this is that in order for us to understand how Spike feels at the end of this episode we need to understand how nostalgia and dejavu feel.



Remember earlier when I said that the episode tried to emphasize the connection between Spike and the swordfish, well this frame right here is why. The getaway vehicle that Asimov and Katrina use looks like a fish. It looks like a stingray almost or a hammer shark so again they’re in a “flying fish” the same way Spike is. This is a visual clue meant to guide the viewer into thinking that “Asimov is like Spike”.







Here we see Katrina kill Azimov and that is extremely similar to the way Julia killed Spike’s heart. Notice the imagery of the Swordfish and the blue ship. We are getting literal parallel art. The shot is emphasizing symmetry through the composition.





And then when Katrina dies we also get this beautiful but strange image of bloody eye pouring out of Katrina. It looks almost like Katrina is bleeding. This image is very reminiscent of the bleeding rose image from the very beginning episode and Spike’s past. By the director giving us two images that aren’t literally bleeding but instead alluding to it, we are being lead to subconsciously compare Asimov and Katrina’s fate with Spike’s past.





So their two situations are almost exactly the same. The only difference is that Katrina and Asimov actually ran away while Julie and Spike never did they just separated but the results were the same. They both ended in death, different kinds of death, but death nonetheless.

37:35-39:34

” it’s ready what is it special bell peppers in B “

The first piece of dialogue in the scene is “huh” from jet implying that situation’s a bit weird and when we cut to Spike it actually does, in fact, look like he’s visibly upset and given everything we’ve seen up until now we could safely infer that Spike is thinking about what he experienced with Katrina and Asimov and while he’s doing this look at the imagery.



He is literally looking at himself in the mirror so while he’s thinking about Asimov and Katrina he is reflecting on himself both figuratively and literally. From this I think we can infer that what Spike is thinking at this very moment is if he and Julia had run away from the syndicate the way he had intended would he have ended up dead like Asimov and Katrina.



Episode folded in half, it’s all symetrical:

Opening Scene: Bell pepper/Martial arts

Closing Scene: Bell peppers/Martial Arts

1st Middle Scene

2 middle Scene

Spike and Julias Fate

Katrina and Asimovs Fate

So, the structure of this episode is very symmetrical. Spikes past scene and Asimov and Katrina’s deaths, the first and the last scene, and both middle scenes all reflect off of each other. This isn’t random, it serves the purpose of making you feel Deja Vu so that you can relate with Spike’s nostalgia at the end and understand what exactly it is that he’s feeling. Spike’s character flaw is that he’s always pining for the past he’s unable to get past it. He’s always grabbing to it trying to hold on but because of Asimov he’s reconsidering his past and for someone like Spike to think of the idea that maybe the past isn’t as great as I thought, it’s a step in the right direction for him. This moment of contemplation is the very first piece of growth that we get from Spike and he still doesn’t know what to make of it just like the viewer, he’s still growing.

End.

-Zlink64/MurderousJohnny



If you enjoyed this you should know I’m going to give the same treatment to episode 2 . If you don’t feel like waiting for me to type it up then you can see a video version of it here. I’m basically made a video analysis of episode 2 and the final draft version of it will appear on my blog/site. If you like the vid or this post then sub or follow me because I’m working on episode 3,4, and 5 at the moment.