The preview for this episode is narrated by Spike and Jet. It’s a lot lighter than the rest of Session #1, prepping us for the first of many tone shifts in the series.
Session #2: Stray Dog Strut
Original Airdate: October 31, 1998
Written by: Michiko Yokote
Title Card Song: “The Egg and I” – A percussion only cut of “The Egg and I” is used here. The song shares its title with a 1945 humorous memoir by Betty MacDonald.
The episode’s title, “Stray Dog Strut,” is a reference to the song “Stray Cat Strut.” It was the most popular song on the Stray Cats self-titled debut album in 1981. This is the first episode to take place on Mars.
There’s no cold open this episode. After “Tank!” plays, we meet our bounty head in a public restroom. Abdul Hakim is at least partially inspired by Kareem Abdul Jabbar who played Bruce Lee’s antagonist in Game of Death.
We get some subtle clues about Hakim and his crime. He’s unwrapping bandages from around his face, and the suitcase he carries shakes when he puts it down. The men who run in and try to take him at gun point are all wearing stereotypical sci-fi scientist get ups. Hakim is set up as a potential threat for Spike pretty quickly when he brings his fists to a gunfight and the scientists don’t even get a shot off.
The quick travel sequence that follows gives us a little more worldbuilding. One of the space gates seen for less than five seconds is decked out with an elaborate Chinese dragon design. The automated “you are now arriving” messages come through in several different languages all at once.
We get our first broadcast of Big Shot, the bounty hunting news show. The theme song for Big Shot is called “American Money.” Big Shot can tell us a lot about the world of Bebop. This is a show aimed at bounty hunters. It’s a regular broadcast providing details on new bounty heads and the size of their bounties. But it’s set up like an adult version of Howdy Doody. The anchors are Punch and Judy, named for the characters in a classic puppet show. Punch talks in a ridiculous accent, and Judy is full-on fanservice. Outside the narrative, Big Shots provides some levity, and it delivers a bunch of exposition in a high energy, entertaining way. Inside the world of Bebop it just makes sense that the powers that be would commercialize life and justice and try to sell them using the cheapest forms of advertisement.
Punch and Judy’s details on Hakim reflect what we can guess in the opening. The picture we see of Hakim barely looks like the guy in the bathroom. Hakim is a notorious pet thief, and he’s kidnapped a lab animal. Punch also says that at 8 million WuLongs, the reward for bringing in Hakim is the biggest this season.
Money issues plague the Bebop as always so Spike is thrilled when a doctor acquaintance calls with information on Hakim. The doctor did the guy’s plastic surgery, and Hakim trashed his lab on the way out. The doctor recurs later in the series. He is one of those small details that makes the world of Bebop feel deeper and more interconnected. The series doesn’t name the doctor, and it never tells us how he’s acquainted with Spike and Jet. However, he’s still a unique design with personality and motive.
When we catch back up with Hakim, he’s stepping into a shop for a drink. He’s too tall for the door by several inches. I’m guessing cosmetic surgery in the world of Bebop can also change your height, because his info card on Big Shots says he’s 6 ft. 2 in. I’m about three inches taller than that, and while I do occasionally have to duck through older doorways, I don’t think I’ve ever been so tall I could see over the door jam. His info card also calls him a Negloid. I assume this is a deliberate mistranslation of the term “Negroid,” which probably isn’t seen as overtly offensive in Japan.
The kid who steals the briefcase from Hakim always reminds me of a character from a much later episode. The proprietor of Animal Treasures has an ostrich, and later in the episode she mentions feeding komodo dragons.
I love that the Bebop lands on water like an old seaplane.
Spike heads out to hunt down Hakim. He manages to score some information off a weapons dealer by showing off his knowledge of nunchucks, Bruce Lee’s signature weapon.
The English dub makes another Eastwood reference when Spike says Hakim is risking his life for a dog that’s only worth a fistful of WuLongs. When Ein jumps onto the boat and then onto Spike so that Hakim is carried away on the passing barge, we get a very subtle hint at why a team of scientists would be so interested in a corgi.
Check out the harbor scene when the show comes back from commercial. Above the Bebop, there’s a billboard with Bruce Lee on it.
The team of scientists in the van imply that once again our bounty head is on the wrong side of the law and of the criminal underworld. The scientist driving the van says that it would be very bad if the police got hold of Ein. He also calls Ein a “data dog.” This is never explained in the show. My assumption was always that Ein is a prototype for data dogs, and that he has somehow been modified to contain encoded information in biological form. Whether his advanced intelligence is a requirement for this process or a side effect isn’t clear. Or maybe they were just trying to make a dog with a genius intellect. The van, by the way, has a license plate number of NC-1702, which is probably a reference to the original Star Trek series, where the registry number for the Enterprise is NCC-1701.
After stating his distaste for children and animals, Spike loses the bounty while saving Ein who leaps out of a moving car and off a bridge. Hakim and the criminal scientists crash straight into police custody.
At the end of the episode, Ein becomes the first new passenger aboard the Bebop.
There are four separate tracks in this episode that have animal-themed titles. We hear “Doggy Dog,” “Cat Blues,” “Bad Dog No Biscuit,” and “Kabutoga ni kodai no sakana.” That last one translates to “The Horseshoe Crab, the Ancient Fish.”
Once again, we get the standard “See You Space Cowboy” card to close out the episode, and that’s a wrap.
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