After last week’s tangent — which is still one of Cowboy Bebop‘s best sessions — it’s time to get back to business. Vicious is on the move again and Spike can’t seem to let it go by. Everything converges on the Jupiter moon, Callisto, where the Bebop crew come across the mysterious Gren. This isn’t your normal jazz, it’s “Jupiter Jazz.”
As always, there will be spoilers for this session and all previous sessions.
1. Spike Goes Crazy
For the last twelve sessions, Spike Spiegel has been fairly cool and collected. He prefers small, flowing actions. His temper flares when the situations get excruciatingly frustrating or nonsensical. Despite a bunch of bad luck, he’s skilled at his job and we’ve been gradually watching him starting to accept other people into his orbit. All that goes out in the window in “Jupiter Jazz” the moment he hears the code word “Julia.”
I think if and when we make it to the Cowboy Bebop finale, “The Real Folk Blues,” we’re going to be able to see a lot of mirrors between these sessions. From Faye and Jet’s reaction to when Spike leaves (Faye goes to a bar to help kickstart the plot; Jet stays behind and bemoans what happened to him), to how he goes about conducting his investigation, to what all the other gangsters want to do with him. . . . These sessions are echoes of each other.
2. Identity Crisis
Callisto is inhabited entirely by men. It was apparently never fully terraformed and now exists as this tundra, livable but only barely. Faye’s presence obviously causes a lot of commotion and is rescued by Gren, a saxophone, who takes her back to their apartment. The big reveal is that Gren is neither fully male or female. Throughout his story, we learn he was once a war buddy of Vicious (who also happens to be on the moon conducting business for the Red Dragon Syndicate) but was betrayed. Because the name Vicious obviously doesn’t tip anyone off.
Watanabe and his Sunrise crew are drawing these parallels between Gren and Callisto in “Jupiter Jazz.” Both were subjected to radical experiments that were never finished, leaving them broken and just getting by. This goes back to reflect on our primary characters, all of whom have left unfinished business in their pasts. If there’s one thing Cowboy Bebop firmly believes is the past is a grotesque animal.
3. Departing Oh Brothers
Okay, but this session does make some odd story choices. For instance, that prologue with the Native American-like people. Not only is it a head-scratching inclusion into the story, but it’s also riddled with some stereotypical white Western romanticism of the Native Americans. “That star just fell from the sky,” a little boy says. “That was no star. That was the tear of a warrior,” says the grandfather dude. Now, we discussed moments where the subtitled version is the superior edition and moments where the dubbed version is better, but no matter how you experience it, this line is eye-rollingly weak.
Structurally, I don’t think the cliffhanger ending of the first part plays that well, either. That point-of-view shot as Spike takes a bullet moves too slowly and out of rhythm with the rest of the session.
4. The Callisto Twist
It feels like it’s been a while (especially because I forgot there was a chase in “Ganymede Elegy,” because I continually forget most things about “Ganymede Elegy”), but we’re given a solid space ship chase to close out the end of “Jupiter Jazz.” What makes this one stand out is simply the sheer amount of conflict going on in it. Spike chases Vicious who’s chasing Gren. Spike turns the tables, Vicious retaliates, Gren intercepts. The spaceships move in perfect synchronization in the sky.
This session also does far better at establishing stakes and relationships between the characters than the last chase (JET), and while we all know the inevitable races toward them, it’s still thrilling and sort of beautiful to watch.
5. “Space Lion”
Let’s just take a moment to give a shout out to another great Yoko Kanno piece — the forlorn “Space Lion.” It plays over the denouement of the session, though its primary theme is heard all throughout, one of those things that brings the characters all together. The piece is a sad smooth jazz thing, which I think makes it even more heartbreaking. Smooth jazz is supposed to be background music, calming and relaxed. This plays like a parody of that and it’s a standout moment on the soundtrack.
With “Jupiter Jazz” being two sessions, there’s a lot to unpack. How do you think it plays into the show’s overall themes? How do you feel about the Native American dudes and their weird cryptic bullshit? Where does this session stand out amongst all the others? Let us know in the comments and tune in next week for a “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Until next time, space cowboys.
