The acclaimed anime director Shinichiro Watanabe, responsible for such classics as Cowboy Bebop, is renowned for a few important reasons. His work typically explores grounded characters and true-to-life conflicts, while the animation features fantastic action and fight choreography. One of the cornerstones of his work, though, is his approach to music, an appeal bolstered by his frequent collaboration with legendary composer Yoko Kanno.
Indeed, the stories, visuals, and soundtracks of Watanabe's work have made his shows some of the most acclaimed classics in the medium, particularly in the minds of anime fans outside of Japan. But while Cowboy Bebop a must-watch anime and is easily his best-remembered work, where do his other projects stack up in comparison?
7 Carole & Tuesday (7.9)
Carole & Tuesday is a musically themed show set in the future on the surface of a colonized Mars. Dropping the somber existentialism of the constantly quotable Cowboy Bebop and the surrealist bombast of Space Dandy, Carole & Tuesday is an unambiguously hopeful story about two girls using the power of music to grow closer and to change the world.
Typically of Watanabe's work, music plays a central role in the story. In this science-fiction future, popular music is generated by algorithms and artificial intelligence, presenting a manufactured corporate veneer that the two main characters, Carole and Tuesday, aim to shatter with their upstart performances.
6 Macross Plus (7.9)
Macross Plus is an early project for Watanabe, one that he co-directed with Shoji Kawamori, the mastermind behind the long-running mecha franchise Macross. Clocking in at just four episodes, one could be forgiven for underrating Macross Plus as a minor entry in Watanabe's work. Macross Plus is, in fact, spectacular, and shouldn't be missed by anyone, even those without much experience with the Macross metaseries.
Referred to with some affection by fans as the Top Gun of Macross, Macross Plus sets the franchise's trademark love triangle plot against the backdrop of two ace test pilots jockeying for the top position in an experimental fighter program. The animation here is of particular note, and in just four episodes Macross Plus manages to deliver some of the most spectacular visuals the franchise has to offer. Thankfully for newcomers, the plot of this short OVA is mostly disconnected from the franchise at large, meaning anybody can jump right in without background knowledge.
5 Zankyou No Terror (7.9)
Zankyou no Terror, also known as Terror in Resonance, is ostensibly a show about terrorism. In the first handful of episodes, the political infrastructure of Tokyo comes under attack by a mysterious group of insurrectionists known to the world only as Sphinx. Their strike on Tokyo's seat of governance sends the government and police into chaos, pushing the city into a downward spiral.
Despite the politically charged nature of the title and the immediate premise, Zankyou no Terror is actually a largely personal drama about two boys wronged by the world, struggling to overcome that background and inflicting violence against the structures they see as responsible in the process. That led some audiences to feel as though their expectations had been misled, but there's still a lot to love in Zankyou no Terror, namely another beautiful score from Yoko Kanno and some uniformly arresting direction from Watanabe.
4 Space Dandy (8.1)
"Space Dandy is a dandy in space" explains the narration at the beginning of each Space Dandy episode, with that simple premise being the jumping-off point for the many absurd adventures of the show's protagonist, Dandy, and his companions. Although Watanabe is credited as the show's lead director, he adopts a more hands-off approach when it comes to the show's structure. Space Dandy is a fiercely episodic story, with most installments throwing continuity out the window at some point along the way.
That disjointed narrative works to the show's benefit, though, especially because Watanabe gives individual episode directors an impressive degree of creative freedom over the episodes they're assigned to. The result is some pretty intense variety in tone, visuals, and content, but it all ends up working in the end because the project attracted some of the top names in the industry. Featuring expressive visuals and stunning animation, as well as an experimental freeform structure, Space Dandy isn't to be missed.
3 Kids On The Slope (8.3)
Also known as Sakamich no Apollon, Kids on the Slope is one of Watanabe's lesser-known works. Perhaps that's because it doesn't feature the exhilarating science fiction action of shows like Space Dandy and Cowboy Bebop, or the tragic sociopolitical commentary of Zankyou no Terror. Indeed, Kids on the Slope is a remarkably low-key story in his filmography, focusing on an interpersonal coming-of-age tale at a Kyushu high school.
Music is central to most of Watanabe's work, but it plays a more prominent role in Kids on the Slope than most. This is another collaboration with Yoko Kanno, so viewers can rightly expect the soundtrack to be thoroughly impressive. The interpersonal drama unfolds against the backdrop of a high school jazz band, and the result is a show that's moving, understated, and above all, sounds great.
2 Samurai Champloo (8.5)
In what is likely Watanabe's most popular work after Cowboy Bebop, 2004's Samurai Champloo (which is one of the best anime currently streaming on Hulu) offers a unique, funky spin on the classic samurai stories of Edo period Japan. Breakdancing samurai set to a hip-hop soundtrack is the name of the game for this show, which gives it a very interesting identity that sets it apart from similar historical action shows in the medium.
One of Samurai Champloo's most notable elements is the soundtrack, produced by acclaimed Japanese hip-hop artist Nujabes. The slick soundtrack combined with the characteristically excellent animation and action choreography forms a thoroughly entertaining product. It doesn't quite have the emotional maturity or tragic undercurrent that made Cowboy Bebop such a classic, but as a less heady cousin to that venerable sci-fi classic, it can stand on its own legs.
1 Cowboy Bebop (8.9)
It would be an uphill battle to argue that the 1998 classic Cowboy Bebop is anything other than Watanabe's masterpiece. After all, this is the work that put him on the map for many anime fans in the west, with Bebop becoming one of the most popular inclusions on Cartoon Network's late-night anime block, Toonami.
Even apart from the nostalgia factor, Cowboy Bebop excels in nearly every capacity as a masterpiece of the medium. The characters are richly established, funny, relatable, and deeply tragic, and the action and music never fail to captivate. Despite the science-fiction setting and martial arts action, Cowboy Bebop remains a resonantly human story about characters struggling, often failing, to escape their own pasts and the people in them, and the plot is deep to the point that many details go unnoticed on the first viewing. Everyone is on the run in Bebop, from someone or something, which leaves a sense of lingering sadness in the show's atmosphere. This is undoubtedly an eternal classic, and rightfully deserves its reputation as the magnum opus of Watanabe's filmography.
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July 25, 2021 at 12:00AM
