“You’re gonna carry that weight…”
Love, Death, Danger, and Fun. There is something to be said about anime’s impact on film and television. When I was young and captivated by the cartoons of my time like Dexters Laboratory, Powerpuff Girls, and Courage the Cowardly Dog, a specific series called Samurai Jack created by Genndy Tartakovsky introduced me to something I hadn’t considered in my youth.
A “serious” cartoon.
Samurai Jack had elements of danger and a stoic undertone that really drew me in. I could feel the emotions of Jack, abandoned in a distant timeline on a planet he had no knowledge of all while fighting to get back to his time and his family. Jack developed friendships, suffered loss, and had a great many emotional and physical challenges he had to overcome solely with his sword and his discipline and training.
From there I discovered anime, and the first one that truly and excitedly drew me in with its visions of space travel and sprawling universe was Cowboy Bebop.
Its premise was a group of bounty hunters floating across the galaxy and taking bounties to scratch together whatever they could to keep their ship flying and their bellies full (beef and peppers were a favorite on Bebop). In the beginning, each bounty they took led them on a dangerous and sometimes funny adventure full of action, laughs, and moral dilemmas. Ultimately their ambition for riches either ended in a new crew member or little to nothing compared to what they should’ve earned on the bounty.
But under the antics of the crew and wacky bounties they pursued was a story about the main character, Spike Spiegel, whose background was a bit of a mystery. It didn’t take long for us viewers to suspect, between the outro visuals and sparse dialogue, that there was something Spike was running from, or running to. The finale of the series brought much of this to a close as we finally understood why this space cowboy would have to carry that weight.
“See you space cowboy…”
This leads me to why I hold Cowboy Bebop in such high regard. Anime like Naruto, One Piece, and Demon Slayer are excellent at telling an engaging story that spans a great deal of time. They take you on a long and tireless journey where there are many, many adventures that involve tragedy, comedy, danger, and more! While they’re great at what they do, they tend to follow a cookie-cutter format that turns out to be less unique.
Stories like Cowboy Bebop are finite. They follow an individual that becomes a group. There are questions that go unanswered during and towards the end of the series which leaves room for viewers and fans to develop their own theories. To put it simply, the story is presented, told, and ended within 12 or so episodes. It’s a blip in time in this vast universe, and as a viewer, we are granted special access to view this blip in time and connect with characters whose backgrounds may be murky, but their actions speak volumes about what could’ve been and how they got there.
I’ve always appreciated stories that start and end in such a way because in truth it’s much like our lives on this planet and in this universe. We exist, we either build or destroy, we go through trials and tribulations, and then it’s all over, for better or for worse. We can live our entire lives without someone on the other side of the planet ever knowing we existed.
With this format of anime, we get to see those people on the “other side”, and hopefully glean a bit of insight into our own lives through their story.
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Another anime that exemplifies this is Outlaw Star. Very similar to the format and form of Cowboy Bebop, albeit in my opinion a little more silly and fantastical.
This brings me to my point and the title of this blog.
I was VERY excited about the development of the video game Cyberpunk 2077 when I first heard CD Projekt Red was heading the project. CD Projekt Red had a long history of excellent releases with their flagship title being The Witcher, which has a live-action series on Netflix.
There have always been spin-offs for video games. One of the earliest I remember was the live-action Super Mario movie which flopped at the box office but eventually gained a small cult following. Video Games have historically been poorly translated to film and TV, but the Cyberpunk anime was different. It was unique and told within the universe as opposed to trying to translate the game into a series or film.
And by the grace of God, it was not live action.
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“Forgive me for letting you down…”
Cyberpunk Edgerunners follows the story of David Martinez, a young man growing up moderately well in a Cyberpunk futuristic society that will literally chew you up and spit you out. His mother takes some morally challenging jobs to get enough money to keep David in a good school where he has the chance to make it out of the streets he’s surrounded by.
Unfortunately, David finds his way through no fault of his own into those streets anyway which takes him on a roller coaster ride of emotion, danger, and chrome from his humble place on the street to the very hallows of Arisaka, a major corporation in this cyberpunk future.
David’s story is one of friendship, danger, power, and ultimately disappointment and sadness. His is a story of tragedy where, had he had a different influence or more fruitful options, he may not have ended up where he did.
Cyberpunk embodies the elements of the blip I spoke about earlier. David’s story was not entirely unique or exciting in the Cyberpunk universe. In Night City, the main setting of both the game and the Cyberpunk series, there are hundreds of Davids. People take enormous risks in the hope of gaining the enormous reward. It almost never ends that way.
In Cowboy Bebop, Spike took the risk of pursuing something he lost in the hopes he could regain that plus his freedom, not knowing the full scope of danger he was in.
In Cyberpunk Edgerunners, David knew his risks, but pushed forward for love and the chance to gain notoriety.
Both of these pursuits were futile, but as viewers, we had the chance to witness and root for that futility, and hopefully learn from the choices that were made. It was a blip in time in a universe we had no connection to, but by the end of the series, we felt the emotion and pain. We wanted them to win, but we knew they didn’t stand a chance.
It’s surreal to witness something like that. Someone fighting so valiantly knowing their chances were so low. A person that chose to face their problems head-on instead of easily flying to another planet to continue bounty hunting, delivering packages, or simply riding with the “chooms” till the wheels fall off.
Unlike Naruto and One Piece, these stories are unique to the people involved and not widely known or all-encompassing of the universe these stories are told. These stories are of people who lived, messed up, tried, and failed again.
But all along those stories continuously tell us the story of people who dared. People that went against the challenges they faced and although they failed, they left a story we uniquely got to experience and learn from.
Anime like Cyberpunk Edgerunner and Cowboy Bebop are unique and important. They tell a story we couldn’t imagine in universes we may never see. Space travel, Technology, Corporate Greed, and peril make up the lives these characters lead.
However, their story is very human and relatable to ours. Their stories aren’t filled with a lot of mysticism and magic or things humans realistically can’t achieve. They are filled with hard decisions, painful loss, incredible challenges, love, and friendship. That is what makes their stories more human and relatable.
There are many living beings in our life and on our planet. Some good, some bad. But we all have options and in the end, when it comes to the choices you make, you’re gonna carry that weight.