Everyone's trips were actually pretty meaningful and symbolic for their own personal character journeys, which I quite like: Jet happily taking care of his little family, all of them safe and sound; Faye tiny, lost, and drowning, taking her identity cues from those around her; Spike trying to climb that stairway to heaven but stuck in one place without moving forward.
I really appreciate how Avatar recontextualised this premise. In Cowboy Bebop, the adults are all high as balls to take them out of the action, letting Ed and Ein take centre stage, hijinks ensue. In that Avatar episode, Sokka is high as balls and taken out of the action so that Katara is left as the only one with her shit remotely together in a very dangerous situation, forcing her to hold the team together so they don't all die of dehydration, and his ramblings are the only source of humour in an otherwise pretty bleak episode. Same premise, recognisable reference, _completely_ different results. It's a good way to homage an episode concept from another show.
I live in the PNW and regularly go mushrooming (finding the tasty kind in the woods, that is) with some friends, and this song has to get played in the subaru* every time we head out into the woods. *the official unofficial mushroom hunting automobile. You should see the parking lot at the mycological society meetups.
My instinct about the mushrooms was they really were “special” mushrooms. Since we are in the future, I just assumed they were grown special and altered in such a way, that through testing, would appear like conventional mushrooms, while secretly being psychedelics. My only assumption for this is that the smuggler never really seems too worried about cops, and is only being assailed by other criminals and people that know him personally. So I don’t think he was ever really worried about getting stopped by a cop on the street, unless they have seen the bounty posters. So he’s just a regular guy with a random bag full of shiitake mushrooms. Strange but not illegal.
Whenever I see that a new Tank-Top BeBop episode has been posted, my day gets a little bit better. THANK YOU for doing them! 😁 I am both excited and sad that we’re getting closer and closer to the final stage of the series…
The background text in the intro is literally the personal manifesto of series creator/director shinichiro watanabe . The bits about creating a new genre is his explicit stated goal of creating a new genre of media with cowboy bebop . “And the work which will become a new genre unto itself will be called COWBOY BEBOP”. The man is a legit genius as a director and you can find the full manifesto online, some very dedicated fans have pieces it together . Edit: he’s also a big fan of drugs from his time hanging out in the US . In pretty much every show he does he has a “drug episode”
05:05 Oh yeah! Once ya'll finish the show, you could watch Mother Basement's Tank explanation video. He often dives pretty deep in what the meaning behind anime openings are. Though his interpertation is simply one of many.
I love that you actually GOT Ed Ein n Eddy with this episode. The pre-episode discussion is absolutely exactly what this episode gives you. This is one of my absolute favorite episodes of this show. Fantastic stuff.
