Monday, April 2, 2018

Evidence #35 - Cowboy Bebop Anime Guide Books (2002)



Happy 20th Birthday Cowboy Bebop! It's been 20 years since Bebop first aired on TV Tokyo, and has made a huge impact on anime fandom ever since then. This post makes up for the way belated 7th anniversary post I never did in February, which my bad on that. 

This time we got a real showcase of several books by Tokyopop, which were like little B-Clubs in a way in throughout 2002. I remember picking these things up from Borders bookstores (you know, when those used to exist) throughout the year. My brother had half of these collected and I had the other. Eventually going through my family storage in cleaning their garage over the past couple of years, my brother was cool enough to give me his books not too long ago, so i've kept them in a box till just now for them to be scanned for people to see. As of this post, the later volumes go for $50 on up on ebay for those who really want to own these in their collection. As far as i'm aware, these only got a first printing and were never on shelves after that.

These contain brief synopsis of each episode with screen caps to help someone narrate the reader into knowing what happens without really watching the show if they are unable too (which thanks to current technology, anybody can watch Bebop on their phones through streaming sites). They remind me of the early ANIMAG issues with episode synopsis of Zeta Gundam and Dirty Pair since the editors working on that didn't think those shows would ever be released in the west. These Bebop books are interesting since the show was airing on Adult Swim in its second run by 2002, and the show was being put out on DVD around this time if not already fully put out. So this was for true Bebop fans who wanted to see concept art, what type of songs played in the episodes, and neat small wallpapers in the books if someone wanted to cut out and hang the cast on their walls somewhere next to their big boobed anime girl wallscrolls. I'm not using the term "waifu" because no one used that term in the early 2000's, you got today's current fandom to thank for that term.

So hope you guys enjoy the .pdf's provided for everyone to check these out, and See You Space Cowboy!