Cowboy Bebop: Inspired by Tokyo Drifter?

[atrophiedXlungs]

I'm a fan of foreign films in general, so recently I picked up a few (because Borders has a kickass sale going on!). One of the ones I bought is this Japanese film from 1966, called Tokyo Drifter. It doesn't really have an incredibly coherent plot, but basically, it's about this smooth cat in a powder-blue suit named Tetsuya, who's basically an easygoing ex-Yakuza. He drifts all around Japan, because wherever he goes, there's always guys who want to kill him. And he of course beats all of them, not only because he leads a "charmed life" but also because he's the main character, and it wouldn't be much of a movie if he died in the first five minutes (duh).

Anyhow, it didn't really occur to me while I was watching the film, but afterwards, I was thinking, and I was thinking that Tokyo Drifter may very well have influenced Cowboy Bebop. The idea behind this is that both characters are basically loners (they both have friends, and a woman in their lives, but they're still both loners at heart). Beyond that, both are filled with jazz music (the case of Tokyo Drifter describes it as a "free-jazz<super>1</super> gangster film"), and stylized violence (there are other parallels as well, of course). So...if anyone happens to know what Mr. Watanabe's influences are, or just want to speculate...feel free.

[bum]

I'm a fan of foreign films in general, so recently I picked up a few (because Borders has a kickass sale going on!). One of the ones I bought is this Japanese film from 1966, called Tokyo Drifter. It doesn't really have an incredibly coherent plot, but basically, it's about this smooth cat in a powder-blue suit named Tetsuya, who's basically an easygoing ex-Yakuza. He drifts all around Japan, because wherever he goes, there's always guys who want to kill him. And he of course beats all of them, not only because he leads a "charmed life" but also because he's the main character, and it wouldn't be much of a movie if he died in the first five minutes (duh).

Their've bein a few TV series based roughly around the ideas you described their, not just anime. Fact is, almost anything that can be considered a form of art nowdays is somehow inspired and influenced by someone and/or something in the past.

[bobbarker31]

I have both Tokyo Drifter and Branded to Kill. They were two movies that got director Seijun Suzuki in trouble with the studio for how he deviated from the script and filmed the stories stylistically.

What does this have to do with anime? Well, you can see HEAVY influences on Cowboy Bebop from both of these films. The opening montage and poster art alone is enough to send you through the roof after seeing it. I don't think any of would deny that Bebop is a very hip show and self aware that it is hip. It arrogantly pronounces itself as a new genre in the opening credits. There is no doubt though in my mind of the lineage it owes to this director and his films. They were ridiculed in their own time in Japan, but have been rediscovered as of late. Their influence cannot be denied.

If you are interested in some of the infuences that form today's anime, particularly with Cowboy Bebop, you want to take a look at Seijun Suzuki and his films. (That would be a hint to the two dozen Spike's on this forum).

[atrophiedXlungs]

All right! I knew I wasn't imagining things.