Premise: Investigating Cowboy Bebop + Fight Scenes

Moving forward I need to construct a storyboard which display the events which will take place within the action sequence. From the brief I know that the animation has to be between 2-4 minutes long. I know that I want to show off the battle between traditional and technology, through the use of Japanese culture and the cyberpunk genre. With two characters as the focus point, I want to display a confrontation between the two sides, with movement as the focus. My aim is to create two characters which are products of their environments and then tell their story through their movement and actions in the world. 

 After looking at previous students work, I saw that someone had done a fight scene between two characters. I really like this idea as to me this is the best part of a story. Two characters have finally confronted each other after going through the trails and tabulations of the story. Its all building up to this moment. Their are so many factors to consider, such as where are the two people fighting, what are they fighting over and how do they fight. The fast paced action, as well as strong focus on character design, camera work and animation, all drew me in as these are skills I wish to develop further for my career. It was important that I picked something which personally interested me as I am planning on focusing on the same project for premise, minor and major. 

After identifying this fact I then investigated something which personally inspired me, Cowboy Bebop, specifically the fight scenes between the characters Spike Spiegel and Vicious. Their are many fights which occur throughout the series which capture the stylish personality of the Spike. I want to research further into what makes Spike such a compelling character as well as influences which inspired his fighting style. 

Cowboy Bebop is a 1998 anime set in 2071. After Earth has been servery damaged, mankind has spread out across the universe to occupy other neighbouring planets. Cowboy Bebop follows a rag tag team of strangers from different walks of life as they develop their relationship through the many  adventures they end up on trying to provide food for themselves as bounty hunters. The animes episodic structure allows for the development of a particular characters backstory, allowing the audience to understand that particular character in more detail. Explaining how they became the person they are and how this type of world has effected them. 

The interesting thing about Cowboy Bebop is that it feels more like the nineties then the 2070's. The world isn't clean, it does not lean into the classical tropes of sci fi. Instead it blends the genres of sci fi, westerns and noir, creating its own style. I particularly like the use of music used throughout the series, being very Jazz inspired. Almost every episode their is a new song which is used to set the tone for that episode to match the pacing and mentality of the characters. 

Cowboy Bebop is very character driven, which is played into from its episodic structure. Cowboy Bebop uses the sci fi genre to visually showcase this isolation by having the crew spend a large majority of time in the Bebop floating aimlessly through space. There is no true destination and the characters are motivated solely of the desire to get money to eat to then repeat the cycle for the next day. The plot for each episode acts as a distraction for the overarching story. Having the lifestyle they do, floating aimlessly, the characters are essentially free to do as they please, however they do not do this, instead feeling shackled by the past. 

The only time the plot moves forward is when Vicious, a character from Spikes crime syndicate past, directly intervenes. The fighting between Spike and Vicious is built on a strong code of honor. Vicious believes those who are not willing to fight don't have the right to live, and it is this idea which fuel his motivations for the plot. This is why he is so determined to kill Spike, a man who has left behind his old life, however he will not do this in a dishonest way. This idea is reflected in the way the two fight each other. In the final battle between the two for example, Spike and Vicious both pass their preferred weapon to each other in order to ensure they are both fighting at their strongest. Spike on the other hand is motivated by revenge, for Vicious murdering Julia. Spikes other motivation is to confront his past in which he questions whether he ever truly escaped. He wonders if the second life he lived outside of the syndicate was truly real or whether it was just a dream. Its only when Julia is killed by Vicious that he realizes he is living within reality. His ultimate motivation for confronting Vicious at the end is to see if he is really alive. 

The two have very different ways of fighting, with Spikes main weapon throughout the series being a gun. However this is used in an interesting way for the final battle as instead of just shooting, Spike uses his gun as a makeshift sword. This is an interesting idea as its unrealistic, however it conveys a strong message to the audience which sums up Spike's determination. It creates an interesting battle with you rooting for the hero to win as they are displaying how much the win means to them. 

Earlier in the series in session 5, the two characters meet Spike and Vicious meet and fight for the first time. 

In episode... Spike is directly confronted by another character about his unique way of fighting. The charcter wanted to know how he can also learn to effortlessly take down opponents, armed with weapons, just like Spike does. Spike explains that your movements have to flow like water. The philosphy Spike is talking about mirrors that of Bruce Lee

Ronin films - Japanese films which follow a lone samurai as they inflict what they deem justice. cultural equivelant to Japan as westerns.