The voice cast for the original English dub of Cowboy Bebop have revealed their favorite episodes of the classic anime series.
In a new interview with Polygon, Steve Blum (Spike Spiegel), Beau Billingslea (Jet Black), and Melissa Fahn (Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivruski IV), all listed the comedic episode "Mushroom Samba" as one of their favorite stories from the beloved 1998 sci-fi show. The episode focused on the crew of the Bebop, who are once again broke and out of food. Following a chance encounter, Ed comes into possession of some "bad mushrooms," which she proceeds to feed to Spike, Jet and Faye. In addition to that surreal episode, the show's cast each picked an episode that was important to the development of their characters, with Blum picking the Cowboy Bebop movie, Billingslea picking the Jet centered "Ganymede Elegy," Fahn choosing Ed's introductory episode "Jamming With Edward," and Wendee Lee, Faye Valentine's voice actor, picking the episode "Speak Like A Child," which finally revealed the amnesiac bounty hunter's surprising backstory and history.
The actors also delved into why they picked those specific stories. Steve Blum admitted he didn't completely understand Spike's character for quite some time, saying, "Oddly enough, it took me going through the entire series and doing the movie before I really figured it out who Spike was as a character... There was a moment in the Cowboy Bebop movie, when Spike and Electra were in a jail cell and he had to actually access his pain and his vulnerability. And that felt like the missing element to Spike. I knew there was something in there and it was alluded to throughout the series," Blum said, adding, "But that was when I really zeroed in on exactly who he was."
Wendee Lee, conversely, felt like she knew who Faye was from the start, saying " I honestly hit the ground running when I was performing Faye. I felt like I knew who this girl was. But I was super interested in discovering the layers. It was clear to me that there was something below the surface; she was wounded, or there was something she was hiding."
The full interview with the voice cast, which includes more commentary from Billingslea, Fahn, and their feelings on the series as a whole, can be read on Polygon.
The original Cowboy Bebop anime was released in 1998 and received near-universal critical acclaim upon its release for its jazzy soundtrack, stylish visuals, feature-quality animation, and its unique, genre-bending mix of action, comedy, and character-driven drama. The anime's localization was also one of the first English dubs to receive widespread praise. The original series was directed by Shinichiro Watanabe, who returned to the series to serve as a creative consultant for the live-action reboot. The show's original composer, Yoko Kanno, will also pen the soundtrack to the new series.
The original Cowboy Bebop anime series is currently streaming on both Funimation and Netflix. The live-action remake of the series will debut exclusively on Netflix on Nov. 19.
Source: Polygon
