@jetspikepub I made this a fresh thread because the earlier one was getting way too long and I was losing track editing it. Linking it here: https://jetspikepub.tumblr.com/post/674695246801731584/i-wish-i-had-so-much-spare-time-to-run-crazy-ship
I am glad you brought up the point about the anime guides because boy were they confusing and disappointing. The translation being this unreliable and subjective was news to me but I’ve always wondered at the low quality of the content itself.
As far as I know, these were not written with direct involvement from the creative team and were put together by someone at the publisher basis interviews and production material. The creators of Bebop mostly left the Studio Sunrise around the time the series was released to found a new studio and the Guides were published around this time as well. Not having an affiliation with Sunrise any longer, which owns exclusive rights to CB, they may not really be authorised to say anything which contradicted material already published by the Studio. That's could be why they have rarely been straightforward in interviews. Reading the guides I got a sense that they weren't very straightforward in the conversations which shaped the guides either because whoever wrote these was as lost about the show as viewers have been.
For starters, they always seem to be speculating everything, always talking about ambiguous instances as “some event” “some reason.” Like in the below they say this exchange is important but no explanation as to why:
The guides also just vaguely narrate what we see on screen, nothing more. There are so many subtle scenes in the show which give the story a different meaning e.g. the below: The guy who calls the ship in Ballad of Fallen Angels to give Faye the tip is also in the Orchestra at the Opera but does the guide tell us that? Nope.
This is how the guide covers the entire sequence:
They offer distorted/partial information. For instance, in the below story a turtle is important but a hare has no place far as I know. Then how are we supposed to magically get it?
They are factually incorrect in places. In the scene below, Spike is not going to kill any opposition leader. He’s just trying to convince Jet to take up Mao’s bounty
They’ve distorted dialogues in places. He never says any name in the below dialogue. Use of pronouns to create ambiguity is a running theme in the show.
These are just a few examples. I have neither time nor the commitment level to go through all of them but largely I found these in a cursory read.
Reading the guides is no different than watching the series again so their reliability is honestly very doubtful. With the bad translations it gets even more bizarre.
