Cowboy Bebop Opening AnalysisCowboy Bebop is a famous anime movie and series that fit into the film noir genre with the two sub-genres, anime and science.

The opening starts with another person lighting a cigar for main protagonist (who is also an anti-hero and detective). This has common conventions of the film noir genre, as there tends to be a lot of links to smoking and other addictions. The fact that there is another person lighting the cigar for him proves that he has a helper that could likely be the Deadpan Snarker who is also normally found in the film noir genre. There’s also text in the background that is in a similar style as to that of a newspaper which is another common convention found in a film noir and will tend to have the detective reading it, this could likely be the reason why Spike Speigal (the main protagonist) is framed by the newspaper text.

The next shot has the main protagonist facing forwards with a direct mode of address. This emphasises to the audience that he is the main protagonist but the cocky smile on his face suggests that this character is an anti-hero.

The shot after is incredibly effective at subtly introducing a new character to the audience.

This shot alludes to a woman that could possibly be a femme fatale or a mysterious woman. The way that she is walking suggests that she is the femme fatale.

This shot helps to emphasise the fact that this new character is the femme fatale as she is smoking a cigarette and looking below the camera to add mystery to her personality.

The next shot connotes the film noir genre.

The guns firing tell the audience that during the movie there is going to be a lot of action, which are primarily gunfights. This is effective as film noir had the main protagonist getting into a lot of gunfights and put into very dangerous situations.

The next shot introduces yet another new character being introduced.

This character is on a similar background to the first shot. This suggests that he is the helper/deadpan snarker that I mentioned earlier in the first shot. He seems to be smoking a cigarette instead of a cigar which could imply to the audience that he is not as important as the other character seen at the start of the opening.

The next shot re-emphasises a character.

This shot again hints toward this character as being the main character of the film. He still has his cigar which could emphasise again that he is an anti-hero as well as the main protagonist.

This shot also re-emphasises a character.

This shot has the girl, whom we predicted as the femme fatale, looking away from the camera with her hair covering her face on a red background. The fact that we can’t see her face express to the audience that she has something to hide and could well be the mysterious woman. On the other hand, she has been place on a red background. This leads the audience to believe that she is the femme fatale.

The final shot is similar to one of the shots in my previous analysis.

In my previous analysis, one of the final shots was ‘007’ to tell the audience again exactly what they are watching. In the ending of the ‘Cowboy Bebop’ opening it also shows the title again so that it emphasises to the audience exactly what it is that they are watching.

By Mathew Bray