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I haven't seen it, but there's a series called Noir that's supposed to be noir-ish.

I just watched the first episode on youtube. Damn amnesia. Good music though.

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I second the uncensored sentiment. At least for Cowboy Bebop. I haven't seen the other one.

Cowboy Bebop (the movie) barely had a plot. It's stylish and has a nice soundtrack, but... nothing memorable.

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Cowboy Bebop (the movie) barely had a plot. It's stylish and has a nice soundtrack, but... nothing memorable.

What's wrong with that? Style counts for something. Does anyone here watch Samurai Jack for its riveting plots, witty dialogue, and deep characters?

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Samurai Jack doesn't pretend to be any more than what it is. Cowboy Bebop keeps this serious, mysterious air about plots that are basically Futurama's (that may be an anachronistic thing to say, but I'll say it all the same).

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Samurai Jack doesn't pretend to be any more than what it is. Cowboy Bebop keeps this serious, mysterious air about plots that are basically Futurama's (that may be an anachronistic thing to say, but I'll say it all the same).

I don't know if you can really go at Cowboy Bebop for having a serious air to it; the serious sort of nature it gets sometimes is really just a reflection of the whole noir thing it has going; a requisite of the style it's going for. There are plenty of less serious plots in some episodes, like the first Ed episode for one; which are less inspired by detective pulp stuff. If they were all like that, then the show wouldn't be the sort of super-stylised space-noir/action thing it is.

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Noir is not just a camera angle and slow ponderous discourse in front of extreme lighting. It is not just style. There is something sinister and psychological about it, there are fleshed out characters, there is hubris, guile and decadence, and Cowboy Bebop has none of it. It is just a wankery of superficial aspects of all that is perceived as noir and then it takes itself a tad too seriously for the rabid superficiality that it espouses. Or somesuch.

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Noir is not just a camera angle and slow ponderous discourse in front of extreme lighting. It is not just style. There is something sinister and psychological about it, there are fleshed out characters, there is hubris, guile and decadence, and Cowboy Bebop has none of it. It is just a wankery of superficial aspects of all that is perceived as noir and then it takes itself a tad too seriously for the rabid superficiality that it espouses. Or somesuch.

Eeer,have you watch the whole serie ?

There is no slow ponderous discourse in Cowboy Bebop and there is certainly not any kind of extreme lighting.And in terms of characters, it is not as superficial as you make it sound, granted, it's not high level characterization but you really get to learn nice stuff in the last 6 episodes.

In the end, the series take the most 'reknown' element of the Noir genre thus it's sound to let people qualify it as Noir, in the same way that it is sound to let people labelling as western films which are not quite in this genre.it doesn't do any harm.

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Noir is not just a camera angle and slow ponderous discourse in front of extreme lighting. It is not just style. There is something sinister and psychological about it, there are fleshed out characters, there is hubris, guile and decadence, and Cowboy Bebop has none of it. It is just a wankery of superficial aspects of all that is perceived as noir and then it takes itself a tad too seriously for the rabid superficiality that it espouses. Or somesuch.

I don't think Cowboy Bebop is the greatest show ever, but to be fair to it it does have more noir elements besides some visual style. This is probably best seen in the disappointingly underdeveloped Spike backstory (5 episodes in a 26 episode run?), what with the regret, betrayal, femme fatale, and the what not. Yeah, it probably could have been a lot better done, but it's still there. Whether or not the show took itself too seriously, I don't know. I don't think I ever took it that seriously. I enjoyed watching it for the style and action more than anything else. Especially since most of the stand alone plots were the same and predictable. In most shows it's a forgone conclusion that the good guy is always going to win in the end. In Cowboy Bebop its a forgone conclusion that they're always going to lose yet in some lame way win. They actually get, what, one maybe two bounties in the entire series. Again, I did enjoy it despite this.

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Feh. I watched, like, three episodes and half a movie. It bored me to tears. It was pretty at times (thought the movie moreso than the series). It ain't no Third Man. ;(:(

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'nuff said. Although towards the end of the series it got a bit too weird for my tastes.

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I watched the first season, liked it, but mostly because Kyle McLachlan is so enigmatic.

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'nuff said. Although towards the end of the series it got a bit too weird for my tastes.

Yeah. Watch the first series, and the first ten episodes of the second series, and then stop. That's the real ending. And don't forget to have donuts and coffee and pie at the ready when you watch it.

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Is that Japanese at the end of that second video?

It is amusing, and at the same time Sell-out.

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Noone's mentioned Akira yet (unless I missed it). Is that too obvious? I really liked it.

Also, Perfect Blue. Really crazy 'it's a dream, no this is the dream, no this is the dream, no this is the dream, no this is the dream, no this is the dream, no this is the dream, no this is the dream' structure, pretty cool.

Oh, and I really liked Samurai Jack, but I flicked through the Ronin graphic novel, and realised Frank Miller could probably be justified in stealthily sticking a katana up Genndy Tarkovsky's ass for pilfering his plot.

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I've watched Serial Experiments Lain, Planetes, and Samurai Champloo now. All of them were quite different from each other and quite excellent. I think I agree with Twilo, and enjoyed Samurai Champloo more than Cowboy Bebop. The second half of the show is especially good.

What's up with the way they sell anime? I'd consider buying some of these shows if they didn't charge such exorberant prices for everything. Can they really only fit four episodes per dvd? For 26 twenty episodes of a tv show I wouldn't expect to have to pay much more than $40 if I were to pick it up off the shelf brand new. Instead, they charge you $20-$30 (new) per dvd with only four or five episodes on it. What the hell?

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The humor in Full Metal Alchemist is genius. I love how they have approximately three "jokes" that they reuse every episode.

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Oh man that is brilliant. They even had the Edgeworth bow down perfectly. Thanks for the link.

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