Poll: Cowboy Bebop vs Samurai Champloo

[Nihilism_Is_Bliss]

Curious how these two are always being compared.
Have only seen each once, and not for a while, but I think Bebop is a little ahead, so yeah...Cowboy Bebop.

Also +1 for Ergo Proxy :3

 

[elcamino41383]

Personally I go with Cowboy Bebop, then Black Lagoon, then Samurai Champloo.

 

[Von Dean]

I haven't seen samurai champloo yet so my opinion doesn't count for much but I can say that Cowboy Bebop is fantastic,it has possibly the best soundtrack of any anime out there and Spike Spiegel is one of the coolest anime characters ever (alongside L)

 

[sumanoskae]

Hmm... Bebop I guess.

Cowboy Bebop, Wolf's Rain and Samurai Champloo form an interesting circle for me, all together they contain the elements of what could be the best anime ever, but individually they have a lot of problems.

Samurai Champloo has style but lacks substance. The characters are cool, but kind of shallow, the plot(s) is well paced but all over the place and pointless. It doesn't amount to much but it's a lot of fun

Wolf's Rain has (So I hear)a lot of hidden meaning and substance below the surface, but I never felt connected to the story. The symbolism is far to vague and require to much homework. The characters seem like they could be interesting, but they aren't ever explored enough on the surface, there is a lot of nuance, but it gets so thick that it becomes hard to tell when you're supposed to take something as abstract or concrete.

Cowboy Bebop is in the middle, and I think is the best of the three. The characters supply just the right mix of nuance and attitude to form real human beings, Spike remains one of my favorite anime characters of all time to this day. But that brings me to it's problem, it's still to heavy on execution, and to light on concept. Almost everything about Bebop seems referential. The characters are very good, but they are because they're well executed rather then being conceptually fascinating, they leave an impression, but don't really do anything that's game changing. The plot is very thin on it's own, and is really only carried by the characters in question. The "Filler" episodes are good, but only a couple of them really surprised me in any way, and I often thought about how much more interesting the one shots could be if they had more time to grow on me. I think I had more base fun with Champloo, simply because it kept me guessing more often, but never connected to it's characters like I did in Bebop. I think Bebop has the best balance of style and substance of the three, but it isn't as distinctive because of it, it's just very highly above average in both respects.

The thing is, if these three shows were mad into one, they would all repair the others faults. You'd have the immediate fun factor of Champloo, the hidden messages of Wolf's Rain, and the balance and characters from Cowboy Bebop.

Champloo and Wolf's Rain are actually the creations of people who worked on Bebop, so that might not be so far fetched.

 

[sumanoskae]

Curious how these two are always being compared.
Have only seen each once, and not for a while, but I think Bebop is a little ahead, so yeah...Cowboy Bebop.

Also +1 for Ergo Proxy :3

It's because they share some of their creative teams

 

[plugav]

Never seen a full episode of Champloo, to be honest, but I like the music in Bebop better, if that counts for anything.

 

[AbstractStream]

Cowboy...Bebop. PERIOD!
See ya later, Space Cowboy...

 

[Damura]

Noirish Space Western.

I think the both survived specifically because one of the bigger tropes is that the Heroes always die. Shinichiro Watanabe isn't one for doing exactly what always happens. I've also never gotten the "The ending is better if someone dies" thing. Surprisingly enough a lot of people go most of the lives without dying.

Just seemed like the characters deserved to die. It was incredibly unlikely given the circumstances that Jin should survive. The ending would have been more emotional if he had not survived his ordeal.

 

[AyreonMaiden]

Noirish Space Western.

I think the both survived specifically because one of the bigger tropes is that the Heroes always die. Shinichiro Watanabe isn't one for doing exactly what always happens. I've also never gotten the "The ending is better if someone dies" thing. Surprisingly enough a lot of people go most of the lives without dying.

Just seemed like the characters deserved to die. It was incredibly unlikely given the circumstances that Jin should survive. The ending would have been more emotional if he had not survived his ordeal.

But then people would be bitching about how it's a copy of Cowboy Bebop and about how Bebop "did it better."

Also, Episode 5 of Bebop. I mean, Spike's thin, sad body truly survived being shot, stabbed, and thrown out of a really really high drop on his back/neck/head? Even in a future world, there's no way he could have hung on long enough for Jet to find him, and then just how good is the first-aid in the Bebop to begin with? They're constantly broke!

Then all it takes to finish him in the final episode of the series is a cut to the chest after a wound to the shoulder? Not saying it wouldn't kill you but...if he survived that drop on his back after a gun wound and sword wound, with that thin ass body he has...how did he die from that?

To answer the topic, though...I truly can't decide.

Bebop was loaded with as much filler as Champloo. The difference is that Champloo didn't tease me with a deeper story and was clearly much more of an excuse just to thrust characters into a journey, unlike Bebop which really made me wish there were more episodes dealing with Spike's - and everyone elses- past. The theme of the past catching up with you sorta conflicted the "excuse to journey" aesthetic. For my money anyway.

But then Bebop has the better music, my most preferred aesthetic (noir), and the more impressive animation. Both also have excellent dubs that I'd never wanna listen to in Japanese...

But then again AGAIN, neither show has Black Lagoon's character chemistry...which I'm BIG on...but then Black Lagoon didn't have as good a sountrack BUT had an even better English dub than either show...

Can't decide.

None of this, of course, implies I didn't adore all three shows for what they were, or that I don't adore them now that I've looked back on them.

 

[pyramid head grape]

I watched one episode of bebop and 7 episodes of champoo so I will look at the scoreboard on this one.

 

[Viking Incognito]

I don't get why everyone always seems to be in the process of creaming their pants when they talk about cowboy bebop. I saw a few episodes a while back and it wasn't particularly amazing. It was just average.

Samurai Champloo on the other hand...

 

[Meggiepants]

Kung Fu Space Cowboys FTW!!

I think I'd have to pick Bebop, even though I love Champloo, I even have it on Blu Ray, WHERE IS BEBOP ON BLU RAY?!?!?

In any case, I think the reason I prefer Bebop is it is a little more of an ensemble piece. The added character makes a difference. And the storyline is better. The movie was great as well. I actually watched it first, and Spike's opening scene was one of the best character introductions I've ever seen.

Champloo wins points for style though. This is because it's newer, but man, the animation just pops in it. Mugen is probably my favorite character behind Spike though. I love that they have made a despicable hero.

Both series have female characters that get on my nerves though. Fuu and Faye are really annoying women.

 

[y1fella]

Cowboy Bebop, and here's why:

The characters have much more depth and are fleshed out with much better pacing. In SC, Fuu just seems rather annoying most of the time, while Jin (while having a decent backstory) just doesn't seem beat-up about any of it, and I don't think Mugen is quite mad enough. In fact, the only character I could identify with was the blind girl who was bitchin' with a jumonji yari (and once again, God, those people scare me).

The action in CB was better spread and had arcs that ranged from sneaking about to all out pounding matches that felt satisfying regardless of when in the series it was. However, once you got past the first four episodes of SC, the action just died for another six/seven episodes as it devolved into all levels of silly (the Jin impersonator/eating competition etc.).

The seiyuus for Bebop were much better, each bringing an individuality to the character. And while I don't mind Ayako Kawasumi, she just made Fuu sound like a spoiled brat, and Ginpei Sato could've been replaced by a machine for all anyone cares. (However, I would rather have had Aoi Tada do her 'Ed' voice from the film, because it was so much more eccentric.)

Won't say anything about backstory stuff, because I reckon they both cover that very well. Same with most of the bit part characters. So instead, having three central characters is always difficult to pull off in a half-year season, especially when one of them is effectively an automaton. CB introduced Ein, Faye and Ed along the way which allowed the series to flow much better.

And here's the kicker: Ein. The best animated dog in existence, seriously, who wouldn't want Ein as their pet, huh?

Thank you for an indepth answer it's just I don't quite understand this bit:

"The seiyuus for Bebop were much better, each bringing an individuality to the character. And while I don't mind Ayako Kawasumi, she just made Fuu sound like a spoiled brat, and Ginpei Sato could've been replaced by a machine for all anyone cares. (However, I would rather have had Aoi Tada do her 'Ed' voice from the film, because it was so much more eccentric.)"

Are you talking about the voice actors?

 

[y1fella]

Curious how these two are always being compared.
Have only seen each once, and not for a while, but I think Bebop is a little ahead, so yeah...Cowboy Bebop.

Also +1 for Ergo Proxy :3

I note your Pino avatar.

 

[Mr. Mortiss]

Bebop, I just couldn't get into Champloo. It got boring for real quickly, I tried to get into it, but it just fell short and I stopped watching about half way through the series.

 

[SckizoBoy]

Thank you for an indepth answer it's just I don't quite understand this bit:

"The seiyuus for Bebop were much better, each bringing an individuality to the character. And while I don't mind Ayako Kawasumi, she just made Fuu sound like a spoiled brat, and Ginpei Sato could've been replaced by a machine for all anyone cares. (However, I would rather have had Aoi Tada do her 'Ed' voice from the film, because it was so much more eccentric.)"

Are you talking about the voice actors?

Uh, yes.

One thing I remember, Champloo's prologue narration (in the Japanese theatre style)... I don't know if it was more endearing, or more irritating.

 

[KezzieZ]

I'd choose Champloo over Bebop by a very small margin.
I enjoy the light-heartedness and hip-hop/anachronisms.

 

[Wintermoot]

it,s not that I hate Champloo I just never finished it and I like Bebop more it has some deep episodes (the ones about the past of the characters) and some funny ones (like the one where they are looking for a eco-terrorist)
Champloo felt more funny and less deep

 

[Summerstorm]

Hm hm... i have to agree with the majority here (WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING?)

Cowboy Bebop is superior. The whole style, atmosphere... themes. All those stories and the totally AWESOME ending. Depressing, but refreshing and beautiful.

Samurai Champloo often comes VERY near though. (I didn't like the resolution though):

SPOILER!

Spoiler

I alwasy thought Mugen and Jin should have both died at the end. Jin, because there is always someone better than you and Mugen, because you can never run from your past and who you are.

I would rate Cowboy Bebop at 9/10 and Samurai Champloo at maybe 7.5/10.

I also throw in a recommendation:
Gungrave. It's like Mafia with Biohorror. Totally awesome too, and a bit similar to the tone of these other shows (but not really the same setup - no travels and such)