Cowboy Bebop and Weezer
It’s odd that anime is still often seen as some niche thing. It’s even weirder that the word is usually acting as a genre descriptor when it’s more of a medium, but that’s another rant for another time. By now, with generations raised on Pokémon and its ilk, all many permutations of Dragonball, your garden variety Naruto, and a heaping helping of Studio Ghibli—anime is very much a normalized and integrated part of a complete entertainment diet, no matter how many body pillow jokes folks like to make. (To be fair, those body pillows skeeze me out so…I get it)
Obviously anime kept breaking through to the U.S. in multiple waves, almost always in TV shows smuggled under weird dubs and editing like Astro Boy, Gatchaman/Battle of the Planets, Voltron, and on and on. AKIRA was a big turning point globally that helped bring more attention (and a smidge more respect) to the Japanese animation, but even with the numerous cinematic successes critically and commercially, it remained in the margins. The rise of the Internet brought with it a rise of access and now folks in the west could watch more shows and movies without spending well over $100 at Suncoast Video for a single VHS cassette. On a personal note—I’m glad you failed, Suncoast. Rot slowly.
With the rise of international access also came the expanse of international fandom going from a select few in a couple of countries to exponentially more the world over. And with that fandom came more of Anime Music Video (AMVs), in which a devotee would edit scenes from a title (or multiple titles) to a particular song and it would be either a really fun clip show for fans of the title or an intriguing way to introduce people to it. The AMV using Nine Inch Nails’ “The Becoming” with AKIRA, GHOST IN THE SHELL, and Serial Experiments Lain is how I learned about the latter TV show. This was another all timer, with Weezer’s “Only In Dreams” used with a bunch of moments from the entirety of Cowboy Bebop’s run. It’s brilliantly edited, emotionally engaging even if you don’t know the show/context, and a nice melding of these ‘90s moments coming together. Enjoy!
SPOILER ALERT: The video will basically show you a bunch of the Cowboy Bebop TV series including how it all ended. It’s been around for a while though, so maybe that’s on you?