The weight of Cowboy Bebop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip5CpjXR4CI - 12:06
Even before I had a student in my summer anime class recently do his anime presentation on the
series Cowboy Bebop, I was already talking about this anime in the martial arts and anime class I help
with. In that martial arts and anime class I help with, a use a video that emphasizes the similarities the
main character has with legendary martial artist Bruce Lee. However, when I was doing this before, I
had never seen the anime. I had certainly heard a lot about it before, but never got around to watching
it until now. For this reflection, I will focus on the interesting phrase in the anime that is also the title of
the video I use in this reflection, which talks about the weight of Cowboy Bebop.
To be precise, this phrase is "Your're Gonna Carry That Weight" and the only time the words
appear (not said) are at the end of the last episode, as if that's what this series is trying to tell us, which
is what I think is the case. After everything the characters go through in both trying to run away from
their pasts and also facing their pasts, including one of these characters dying before the words appear
(apparently, this death is not certain, although I think he dies, which is what a lot of people think
anyway), we all realize that their past is not something that they can run away from, even when they
do face it.
And this is also true for us. Our past is part of who we are. Running away from our past is like
trying to run away from ourselves. What we need to do is accept our past and carry the weight of it.
That doesn't mean we can't deal with it in any other way. It means we need to both accept it and deal
with it by carrying it.
Even before I had a student in my summer anime class recently do his anime presentation on the
series Cowboy Bebop, I was already talking about this anime in the martial arts and anime class I help
with. In that martial arts and anime class I help with, a use a video that emphasizes the similarities the
main character has with legendary martial artist Bruce Lee. However, when I was doing this before, I
had never seen the anime. I had certainly heard a lot about it before, but never got around to watching
it until now. For this reflection, I will focus on the interesting phrase in the anime that is also the title of
the video I use in this reflection, which talks about the weight of Cowboy Bebop.
To be precise, this phrase is "Your're Gonna Carry That Weight" and the only time the words
appear (not said) are at the end of the last episode, as if that's what this series is trying to tell us, which
is what I think is the case. After everything the characters go through in both trying to run away from
their pasts and also facing their pasts, including one of these characters dying before the words appear
(apparently, this death is not certain, although I think he dies, which is what a lot of people think
anyway), we all realize that their past is not something that they can run away from, even when they
do face it.
And this is also true for us. Our past is part of who we are. Running away from our past is like
trying to run away from ourselves. What we need to do is accept our past and carry the weight of it.
That doesn't mean we can't deal with it in any other way. It means we need to both accept it and deal
with it by carrying it.
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