If you were to ask just about any American anime fan which examples of the medium are among the absolute best, the odds are very high that their answer will include Cowboy Bebop, the groundbreaking 1998 neo-noir space Western that solidified anime’s ascendance in the States. Their reasons will vary, but that just speaks to how universally appealing the show really was, that it hit grad-school cinephiles as hard as it did kids from the hood — kids like myself and Maryland rapper Logic.
I’ve had a few occasions to write about the connections between hip-hop and anime this year, and Logic provides the latest, teaming up with the anime streaming platform Crunchyroll to launch a limited-edition merch collection inspired by Cowboy Bebop and the Bobby Tarantino rapper’s love for it. Logic’s Bebop fandom is nigh legendary; in addition to constantly referencing it in his music, his second studio album, The Incredible True Story, contains narrative skits featuring Steve Blum, who played Cowboy Bebop‘s stray-dog protagonist, Spike Spiegel.
Including such pieces as a varsity jacket, skate deck, and various apparel bearing Logic’s logo and an image of him hanging out with the crew of the titular spaceship, the Crunchyroll collection is an anime and hip-hop fan’s dream come true — literally. Logic and Uproxx connected via Zoom to talk about the collection, Cowboy Bebop‘s lasting resonance, and of course, the eternal debate among anime fans: Subs or dubs?
Talk to me about how the collaboration came together, who approached who, and what’s been your favorite part about the whole process?
It just very organically happened. I don’t even know when it was like, “We’re going to do a line,” but I couldn’t believe it, and the collaboration was wonderful. I got to use my art director with their people, and then obviously, the original artist [Toshihiro Kawamoto], which is wonderful, to draw me in the Bebop crew, which is just like a dream come true. I was this little kid watching this show, and now, I’m this man surrounded by these fictional idols of mine in a real space. Sh*t’s crazy.
The entire process was fun. It was loving. It was kind. It didn’t feel like, “You can’t do this, and you can’t do that,” and blah, blah blah, which a lot of people try to do. That’s why I don’t really do collabs. I don’t do collabs because people suck. And you know who doesn’t suck? Crunchyroll.
What was your Cowboy Bebop story? How did you find it? What drew you to it?
I had these two homies, Robert and Jesse, and they introduced me to Cowboy Bebop when I was 11 years old. I remember the first time that I saw the Cowboy Bebop movie, it was f*cking subbed. I remember watching this anime that they introduced me to and then having to listen to it, I’m like, “Why are they talking Japanese? What the hell?”
My household was riddled with crime and violence and drugs and craziness and gunshots and drug dealers. I learned how to cook crack when I was 12 years old. Cowboy Bebop was my first true escape from all of that. A lot of people, especially in the hood and where I grew up, they are extremely intelligent, very smart, but they get stuck in this cycle of using their smarts for bad. But the only reason that they’re using it for bad is because of the systemic nature of what our country was built upon. I was like, what if I put my wits into something else? So discovering anime was really beautiful because it was my first true introduction to art and what it means to be an artist.
I think it’s funny that you were talking about subs, because that was going to be one of my fun lightning round questions, subs or dubs? It’s like the eternal debate among anime fans.
Dubs, because I’m watching. I’m not f*cking reading. I want to watch. I have so much appreciation for the Japanese versions, and that’s awesome, but I speak English, so I just want to hear this sh*t. I think it takes me out of the experience. Even a lot of foreign films — I love foreign films, but I don’t really watch a lot of them because I’m reading.
What else have you been watching recently? What are you drawn to when it comes to anime?
I always love a good vintage feel. That’s why I think Studio Ghibli is the bomb because it’s like it gives us this truly animated feel, even in this digital era. But that’s because they care. It’s so beautiful. It’s like to really take great pride in everything that you do, and to also take your time, I think is something that’s really special. I mean, if you can knock something out because you can, then do it. But you see that [care] and you feel it.
One Punch Man, Space Dandy, Attack on Titan was fun, but I didn’t finish it. I need to finish it. People have been telling me I should watch Demon Slayer. I haven’t watched that, but a lot of the time when I watch anime, I watch a lot of the classic stuff.
If you were going to do an anime about your life, which studio would you pick to do it?
I’m going to be honest, I don’t really know too much about the studios besides… How do you pronounce it? Ghibli? Ghibli?
They pronounce it Ghibli [with a soft “g,” like “jeans”], we pronounce it Ghibli [with a hard “g,” like “guppy”] because of the way they wrote it. Doesn’t really matter, everyone knows who you’re talking about.
Studio Gangster, that’s who it is. I really love that art style. But I also love, I guess whatever studio did Akira, that sh*t is wild to me.
[Fun fact: Makiko Futaki, one of key animators on Akira, went on to become a lead animator for Studio Ghibli films such as Kiki’s Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, and Howl’s Moving Castle.]
Logic’s collaboration with Crunchyroll is available for pre-order on Crunchyroll’s store. Check it out here.