This preview is just the mad laughter of Tongpu.
Session #20: Pierrot Le Fou
Original Airdate: March 13, 1999
Written by: Sadayuki Murai
Title Card Song: “Eyeball” – This is a really creepy, subtle track released on the Cowboy Bebop Boxed Set album. This episode also features the Seatbelts covering Pink Floyd’s “On the Run.”
We’re in the home stretch now, and I’d argue that this is Bebop’s darkest episode. The Japanese title for this episode is “Dōkeshi no Chinkonka,” which translates to “Requiem for a Clown.” The English title is taken from the stock character Pierrot the Sad Clown in 16th century commedia dell’arte. There is also a 1965 film by Jean-Luc Godard of the same name.
Bebopedia compares Tongpu, or Mad Pierrot, to a combination of Batman villains Joker, Penguin and Tally Man. While I doubt there was any particular fusion in mind, Tongpu definitely fits among Batman’s Rogues Gallery. The episode’s style was inspired in part by Batman: The Animated Series, and Sunrise had done some work on that series. As Bebopedia rightly points out, the premise of a mad villain drawing the hero to an amusement park is straight out of The Killing Joke, and really, it’s a standard of Joker’s playbook.
I can’t tell for sure, but based on the depths of the blacks used in this episode’s color scheme, I think this was drawn on black paper like Batman: The Animated Series. The art direction in this episode is interesting. It’s darker than most episodes of Bebop, and there are some scene compositions that make use of camera angles and background shots that aren’t Bebop’s norm. I don’t have quite the artistic vocabulary to explain this.
There’s a lot of emphasis on unchanging faces between Tongpu and the various animal characters in Space Land. Spike is also often surrounded by unsettling mouths while he’s in the amusement park, and he has to go into and out of mouths multiple times. There are some subtle touches around the edges of the Space Land sequence that remind me of H.R. Giger designs.
Tongpu’s fear of cats was seeded at just the right time, and the fact that the cat from his past has two different colored eyes was a nice touch.
Thematically, Tongpu works for one of the same reasons Batman villains work so well. Gotham and the solar system of Bebop are film noir worlds. Organized crime, corrupt police, street violence and murder are common. But like Joker, Two-Face and Professor Pyg, Tongpu is a horror movie villain. He’s unhinged and ultra-violent, and that step beyond the dark norm makes him all the more terrifying. But like a lot of Batman villains, there’s a pitiful core to Tongpu. He’s a monster of someone else’s creation, and deep down, he’s just a frightened child.
This episode makes great use of Ed to keep it from being too abysmally dark. We also have the interesting development of Faye trying to prevent Spike from receiving Tongpu’s invitation to Space Land. Jet is also trying to save Spike in this episode. It’s a change for both characters, but I think after Spike’s second run in with Vicious, they’ve both realized Spike is a death seeker and are trying to stop him. The start of this episode is Spike’s second close call in a row after nearly burning up in orbit last episode.
SEE YOU SPACE COWBOY.
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