Reddit reviews The Cat That Lived a Million Times (Latitude 20 Books)

Sometimes I wonder if the weight is something that's missed by people who dismiss episodic series out of hand. Perhaps it's just the things I've happened to watch, but it seems like the impact is often greater when your attention isn't so divided between the characters and a grandiose or intricate ongoing plot.

About Spike's eye... contrary to some fan theories, Nobumoto (who wrote both these episodes and session 6 which showed Spike's dream/flashback) has said the right eye is the artificial one, and as timpinen mentioned in an earlier thread, Spike's flashbacks tended to be marked by close ups of his left eye, suggesting his remaining biological one 'sees the past'. I held this back from the Pierrot Le Fou thread, but my suspicion is that, like many of the other stories, Tongpu's history of ISSP experimentation to create a perfect assassin is another kind of parallel to Spike's history. Watanabe's backstory says Spike was entrusted with key assassinations in the days when the syndicates were actively fighting turf wars, and it's possible he was Bionic Man'd to give him an edge for such missions. Also tying into #20 with the cat-like reflective eye is the idea of Spike being the cat that lived a million lives, which really sums up the character for me. I've seen people complain that Yamadera sounds tired or distant (although he sometimes shows a lot of range), but I rather think that was Watanabe's intention for the character. Spike's default position is one of unflappable indifference, but occasionally something riles him to react like a normal human being.

Bebop has a thing about names- Julia's has power over Spike, how on-point Jet's nickname is, the idea that Faye's surname was chosen from a song, and that Ed made hers up (also, the fact that Spiegel is German for mirror would be an uncanny coincidence if it is one). The scene where Jet asks Faye why she can't just call Spike by name might be a bit odd if you're watching the dub, since character names are used pretty liberally; in the original scripts, it's usually only Spike and Jet who refer to each other by name, and even that is less commonplace. Off the top of my head, I'm not sure I can remember a single instance where Faye calls Spike by name to his face, only a couple where she does so with Jet, and it's a similar story in reverse. It adds to that feeling that, comrades or not, they can't quite bring themselves to get too close, something more clearly borne out in the fact they so rarely share anything about their pasts.

Vicious remains a bit of a mystery, but there are a couple of things to note. In the dub there's the suggestion that Vicious is the 'new guard' rallying against the 'old guard', which is true in a literal sense, but potentially confuses the heart of the conflict. Vicious was envisaged to be a man longing for the old days, and his sword and throwback attire is supposed to be the visual cue for this- the earliest sketches show him in samurai-style clothing, and through the flashbacks you can see he gradually became more and more formally dressed. As time went on, his sensibilities increasingly put him at odds with the Van and executives like Mao who were looking to modernise the organisation by making peace and doing business with rival syndicates.

Been interesting reading all the comments in these threads and seeing people's interpretations and opinions (looking forward to seeing what you all make of Spike's fate). Thanks u/Game3nder777 for hosting this rewatch (especially considering it sounds like you've had a hectic couple of weeks), and I'm glad at least a few people have found my posts useful too- I never really set out to write so much but there you go.

Edit: My favourite episodes were Ganymede Elegy and Speak Like A Child... this time. Probably have a different answer the next time I watch, though.

The book being read is The Cat that Lived a Million Times. You can find it on Amazon. You can also find the text online.

The hard cover, English translation, copy of this book is $400! Wow!