This episode’s preview consists of Jet thoroughly dissing the episode. The last line is just “At first glance, it’s interesting.”
Session #18: Speak Like a Child
Original Airdate: February 27, 1999
Written by: Akihiro Inari w/Shōji Kawamori & Aya Yoshinaga
Title Card Song: “Adieu” – This song technically stops just before the title card, but it’s a deliberate lead in so we’re counting it. The version on the album Blue is sung by Emily Bindinger, but the version used in the episode is an unreleased operatic take sung by Jerry Knetig.
Many if not all the of the names that turn up in Cowboy Bebop‘s credits are associated with long careers on high profile series, but I think it’s particularly noteworthy that Shōji Kawamori, creator of the Macross franchise, is one of this episode’s co-writers.
The episode takes its name from a Herbie Hancock album from 1968.
Faye is gambling and losing on horse races while the Bebop is in a much more domestic scene. They’re docked in their favorite position on Mars, and Spike is fishing with no success while Jet and Ed do laundry. Jet is telling Ed a version of the traditional Japanese fairy tale Urashima Tarō.
The story is about a fisherman called Urashima Tarō who rescues a turtle and is rewarded with a trip to the Dragon Palace beneath the ocean. When he leaves, he is given a jeweled box and told never to open it, but when he returns to his village, he finds many more years have passed on land than beneath the waves. Forgetting the warning, he opens the box and is transformed into an old man.
This is a fitting story to parallel Faye’s own tale. A turtle-branded drone drops off a mysterious package for her, and the contents reconnect her with her past forgotten for decades. This episode is a major milestone for Faye. In a sense, she has been beneath the waves for decades, and opening that package reconnects her to her past, which she fears and then embraces.
I’m not quite sure what to take from Spike fishing in the opening. I also find it interesting that someone was able to mail her this tape. Bacchus claims to have named her when they revived her, and Whitney Haggis Matsumoto claims they don’t know anything about her past. This could just be a plot hole, but we know Matsumoto is a serial liar and Bacchus isn’t exactly honest either.
By keeping Faye in the dark about her own past, they exert what little control they can over her, and they keep her from connecting with anyone from her past or possible living family. If Faye were able to find people who know who she is, Bacchus and Matsumoto could be in even hotter water for what they’ve done.
The package has been shipped from one person to another for decades, starting before the Astral Gate accident that ravished Earth’s surface, which this episode implies happens in 2021 or 2022.
The television show the video antique collector is watching has production credits for Jason Preestly and Shanan Doherty, references to Jason Priestley and Shannen Doherty of Beverly Hills, 90210. The music that plays here may be library music, one of the few occasions the show uses music not specifically written for it.
The partially-underwater technology museum Jet and Spike go spelunking in is in Akihabara, and Jet is clearly a beast because he carries a big CRT TV over his head like it’s nothing after hours of spelunking. The ruins of Akihabara in the Bebop universe would make a great puzzle-based exploration level in a video game. Of course Spike and Jet ignored the explanations of the video maniac earlier in the episode, and they wind up bringing back a VHS player instead.
Betamax was already dead in the water by the late ’90s, usurped by VHS, and DVD would begin its takeover in 1999. Betamax recorders weren’t produced after 2002. New VHS tapes were in production in the US until 2008. Interestingly, both formats kept tapes in production in Japan until 2016.
The future of Bebop is an interesting mix-and-match of dead tech, tech that exists now but didn’t exist when the show was in production, and tech that still doesn’t exist. Personally, I’d take a world where the VHS vs. Beta battle persisted into the 2010s but we got functional consumer space travel complete with warp gates in the 2010s.
Of course a rabbit-themed shipping company delivers a Betamax player just in time for Faye to turn back up. So tied in with the Japanese fairy tale, we’ve got the Tortoise and the Hare in play, too.
Before we wrap this episode up, I wanted to talk about Spike in this episode. He casually rips open packages and wrecks equipment in the video maniac’s shop. After plenty of episodes where Spike is cool and insightful, this can seem a little out of character, but actually, Spike behaves like this from time to time throughout the series. Spike has these moods where he’s just checked out, acting on instinct and being stupid. It’s an interesting layer. I don’t think there are many shows or books or movies that build characters to the point where we can see that they have moods. They may have flaws and layers, but most characters don’t slip into different modes of behavior like this.
Now, as for the screening of the home movie, I wanted to note a couple of things. First, while this scene has always carried weight, it gains impact the older I get. The “don’t lose me” cheer is especially heartbreaking in Faye’s case, but as I age and watch younger people in my life turn from children into young adults, it really makes me take a moment. I also love the moments we linger on the adults’ reactions to the tape. Spike and Jet both look like they might cry, and Faye’s face transitions from what is essentially terror to this horrible, resigned sadness as she takes in the fact that she is watching part of her past happen and she can’t remember it. It is a beautifully animated sequence. I just wish we had Ed’s reaction.
If you’re looking for another dive into this particular episode, check out “Overthinking Cowboy Bebop.” It’s nearly a decade old itself, but there are some interesting insights into the episodes.
SEE YOU SPACE COWBOY.
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