COWBOY BEBOP (C)SUNRISE

”Comment Director , Watanabe Shin'ichiro

Hello. I am Watanabe Shin'ichiro, director of Cowboy Bebop. My name is very similar to that of Mr. Watanabe Shin'ichi, who just received the Award for Best Individual, and in fact people have been mixing me up with him for quite some time now, so let me take this opportunity to announce that we are two different people. Moving on, this series, Cowboy Bebop, had a rather troubled start: its on-air slot took a long time to be decided, and then it was shown in a somewhat irregular format when it was finally aired, and so on. So after all the bad luck we've had, I'm really grateful for this recognition. Thank you very much.

”Awards Screening Criteria

While its setting lacks a sense of actuality--and yet it is not classi fiable as "animation-like" either--Cowboy Bebop is nevertheless chock-full with a tangible realness. This program has a "mood," a "smell," that has never been seen before. The sense of reality that adults perceive is slightly beyond the reach of children, a factor that is probably responsible for the program's widespread popularity. Its high quality goes without saying, but in particular the judges were impressed by the powerful collaboration that made this work so good: the script, the drawing, the music, the direction all come together as a crystallization of individual talents. Cowboy Bebop is currently airing on the cable channel WOWOW in its entirety, but we look forward to its continuing development.

Ikuko Sayama Editor in Chief,MONTHLY MAGAZINE Newtype