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Shinichirō Watanabe’sCowboy Bebopis a world-famous anime TV series that features a brilliant narrative and some great characters, but one thing that the series is most known for is its music.Cowboy Bebopfeatures some of the greatest anime scores in the industry, and they are the only iconic feature of the series that has lasted even after 26 years.
The entire music for the series was created by the Japanese band Seatbelts, led by composer and instrumentalist Yoko Kanno. The band infused multiple genres like jazz, rock, electronic, funk, blues, orchestral pop, etc. to make one of the best anime music albums in the industry. However, Kanno was not too confident about the series’ music.
Kanno once revealed that when Watanabe explained to her the type of music he needed forCowboy Bebop, she was not sure whether the music would work well with the series or not. But her prediction came wrong, and the anime scores ofCowboy Bebopare still iconic even after so many years.
Yoko Kanno Was Not Confident AboutCowboy Bebop’sMusic
Dazed Digitalrevealed a few years ago that composer Kanno once explained how she formed the Seatbelts band, especially because ofCowboy Bebop, and how they developed the music. She also pointed out that it was Watanabe’s idea to infuse some jazz into the anime scores to make them more aligned with the central theme of the series.
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Kanno stated:
I first met Watanabe while working on Macross Plus. He asked me, ‘I want to make this series (Cowboy Bebop) jazz-oriented. Can you make it work?’ My answer back then was, ‘I think I can, but I don’t think it will sell.’ I’m glad that my prediction has been proven wrong.
According to the composer, she knew that she could make jazz-oriented theme songs for theCowboy Bebopseries, but she was not confident about how they would sound in the series. She even confessed her doubts to Watanabe, but as the series became popular, she found out that the music played a big role in the success of the series, thus proving her wrong.
The Iconic Anime Score ofCowboy Bebop
WhenCowboy Bebopwas in production, the music for the series was one of the first things that was created. Kanno had full independence over the kind of music she wanted to compose for the series. Watanabe only instructed her on the genre of music that was needed to fit with the series, and the rest was all done by Kanno.
Kanno revealed:
These songs had to be recorded when no visual image of the film work was available yet, so I didn’t write the songs side to side with the film, rather, the film adapted itself to the music.
Kanno even pointed out that she had no material or visual representation of what the scenes or the story would look like, which made it even more difficult for her to compose music.
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Instead,Shinichiro Watanabeadapted scenes according to the music, which in itself speaks for the importance of scores in a series likeCowboy Bebop.
You can watchCowboy Bebopon Hulu and Crunchyroll.
Tarun Kohli
Senior Writer
Articles Published :2959
Tarun Kohli is the Senior Anime Writer at FandomWire, with over 2,900 published articles. He currently specializes in critiquing One Piece and other Shonen anime. A passionate fan of the genre, his love for thoughtful analysis reflects his genuine appreciation for the art of anime. His deep understanding of anime culture has earned recognition from industry figures such as Adi Shankar and the creators of Blood of Zeus.
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cowboy bebopShinichiro Watanabe
