Cowboy Bebop: The Jazz Messengers

Unless random trivial bits of four languages with an inability to string sentences together or comprehend them counts - which I suspect it does not - I'm sadly very monolingual to English. The writing in this book is Japanese. So, can I really say I read it? I mean, I looked at the pictures and the smattering of English words, but the majority of the character information and episode guides were completely lost on me.

What I can gather, based on visual and contextual cues, is that this was published before Cowboy Bebop had its full run in Japan. (It references Mish-Mash blues and only contains the first few episodes.) It also refers to Jet and Faye as being of unknown origin, most likely because their home planets and pasts aren't revealed until later episodes. That and the taglines associated with each character are pretty much all I can understand, and that's a shame, because there is a lot of writing to be consumed.

I did search high and low for a fan-translation, but either I don't know the right nooks and crannies or they've either been lost to time or never existed. The closest I came was a site that linked to a shady download and I'm so not about to gamble on the slim chance something that doesn't exist will manifest into reality instead of, say, a devastating computer virus. But that does mean I'll either have to find the intelligence quotient I lack, learn Japanese, and come back to this or just appreciate it for the art and aesthetic value.

My brain has been a pile of expired yogurt since this time two years ago, so ignorance wins.

But honestly? It's a very interestingly laid out art book on its own, featuring a combination of new art and screenshots to highlight aspects of each main character and each featured episode. I especially love the two-page spreads of Spike and Ein.

I got a small break from wanting to yeet 2022 into the sun just like its predecessors, and for that I'd say this book is wonderful.