(click on the picture for a full-sized version)

I had the chance to watch Cowboy Bebop back in 2000 when I was what, 14? I’m pretty sure I would have appreciated it then—my mind was a fresh slate, easily impressionable, without the weight of a decade of rich stories weighing on it. Too bad I didn’t, I’m sure I would’ve liked it a lot more then.

It’s been ten years since, though, and all I can note is how much anime has grown since then—how this particular work has stood still in comparison. It was significant for its time, I’ll give it that much. It’s anything but timeless, though. There are no twists, no subverted tropes, nothing to work with in this post-post age of tropes and archetypes and clichés. Not even served on the rocks, but neat.

Such is the fate of fans whose tastes are firmly rooted in the 00’s, but the last thing I’d do is pretend that I’m actually enjoying this so far—it’s the world’s most vanilla vanilla ice-cream, which is great if you like vanilla, but that episode with the fucking blob and the lobster and the fridge left a bad aftertaste in the mouth. Me? I like chocolate mint, and pistachio.

There will be a proper Secret Santa review when I’m done with the other half, but in the meantime, you over there frothing at the mouth that I don’t like the great majestic grand stupendous wonderful amazing fantastic critically acclaimed masterpiece a thousand times over ever that references a million things? Bite me.

(allusion means it’s good! like The Book of the New Sun, and American Gods! storytelling is overrated! we just need a slick edgy style with a cool soundtrack and they will love it. cart before the horse works every time.)