All That Jazz

Alright….I’ve finally accomplished it! What is this "it" that I speak of. Seeing Cowboy Bebop’s ever elusive "Jupiter Jazz Part 2". Now Yukino, you may say, don’t you OWN all of Cowboy Bebop. And I say yes, yes I do. But only recently have I actually acquired it, and only recently have I begun sitting down with my newly acquired box set and watching the whole of it from the beginning. Mind you, all my talk of love of Bebop isn’t just words. I’ve seen ALL of it. EVERY SINGLE EPISODE except that one. Why?? I just don’t know. But well, now I have. And I must say……it disappointed me. Ok. I still love Spike. I will always love Spike. There is nothing in this whole entire world that can take away my love for Spike. But he lost a few badass points on this one. OKOKOK! Now I know that the reason for my letdown is that I DID see all the other episodes, most of them more than one time, and that it’s been about 4 years since I first saw the first half of this episode. I’ve been waiting for FOUR YEARS, playing out the many situations in my mind that my dearly beloved Spike Spiegel could have recovered from a point blank gun shot THIS TIME. This hidden mystery where I keep thinking to myself…….man, Spike is the most badass of all badasses. He recovered from gunshot AGAIN! And then (sorry to anyone who hasn’t seen this, maybe stop reading…..or stop reading anyway cause you haven’t seen Bebop and you should be taken and flogged.) I finally get to witness how my love got out of it…..and they open….and Spike is laying on the ground……..and I know he’s not dead……and then he moves……and I’m like SPIKE!!!!!!!!! And he says, "Tranquilizer guns." And I say….."WHAT?!?!?! That’s fucking it??? Screw you guys!!!" All hyped up….and he didn’t even fricking really get shot. What a letdown. I mean….as episodes go, it was a good episode, but Spike didn’t even get shot and here I had spent all these years thinking about how badass he was to recover from it. Had I not seen the rest of the show and without the knowledge of the fact that Spike IS in fact the most badass of badasses, I would probably not have checked myself when the thought "That’s not badass…..even I could do that shit." came into my head. I admit, I was actually a little mad for a few minutes. But, like I said, it’s cause I’d had it hyped for so long. It’s the same principle as how I didn’t think Eva was all that at first either. It’s just how it goes when legendary anime remains elusive for so long.

Spike, I still love you. You do enough other awesomely badass things to more than make up for the fact that just that one time you weren’t so much of a badass. I have no doubt that HAD they shot you with real bullets….you STILL would have come back to us.