List of Cowboy Bebop characters
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The following is a list of major and minor characters, with biographical information, from the anime and manga series Cowboy Bebop.
Contents |
[edit] Spike Spiegel
Seiyū: Koichi Yamadera
Voice Actor: Steven Blum
Spike Spiegel (born June 26, 2044) is a tall and lean 27-year-old bounty hunter born on Mars with a history of violent activity seen through flashbacks and dialog with the Red Dragon Mafia. He is often depicted with a cavalier attitude, but often shows signs of compassion when dealing with strangers. The inspiration for Spike's martial arts is found in Bruce Lee who uses the style of Jeet Kune Do as depicted in Session 8, "Waltz For Venus". He has fluffy, dark green hair (which is inspired by Yusaku Matsuda's) and reddish brown eyes, one of which is artificial and lighter than the other. He is usually dressed in a blue leisure suit, with a yellow shirt and Lupin III inspired boots. A flashback in Session 6 revealed it was his fully functioning right eye which was surgically replaced by the cybernetic one (although Spike himself may not have conscious recollection of the procedure since he claims to have lost his natural eye in an "accident"). One theory is that his natural eye may have been lost during the pre-series massacre in which he supposedly "died". The purpose of this cybernetic eye is never explicitly stated, though it apparently gives him exceptional hand-eye coordination—particularly with firearms (Spike's gun of choice is a Jericho 941, as seen throughout the series). In the first episode, when facing a bounty-head using Red Eye, Spike mocks him, calling his moves "too slow". At first, this seems like posturing on Spike's part, but even with his senses and reflexes accelerated to superhuman levels by the drug, the bounty cannot even touch Spike. A recurring device throughout the entire show is a closeup on Spike's fully-natural left eye before dissolving to a flashback of his life as part of the syndicate. As said by Spike himself in the last episode, his right eye "only sees the present" and his left eye "only sees the past". Spike often has a bent cigarette between his lips, sometimes despite rain or "No Smoking" signs. Spike's final fate is left somewhat undetermined with a split between fans on whether or not he survives his final duel with his nemesis Vicious. Series creator Watanabe has stated that he himself is not sure of Spike's ultimate end and has largely left it up to the audience to decide for themselves what happens next.
[edit] Jet Black
Seiyū: Unshō Ishizuka
Voice Actor: Beau Billingslea
Jet (born December 3, 2035), known on his home satellite as the "Black Dog" for his tenacity, is a 36-year-old former cop from Ganymede (a Jovian satellite) and acts as Spike's foil during the series. Physically, Jet is very tall with a muscular build. He wears a beard with no mustache, and is completely bald save for the back of his head. Spike acts lazy and uninterested, whereas Jet is hard working and a jack-of-all-trades. Jet was once an investigator in the Intra Solar System Police (ISSP) for many years until he lost his arm in an investigation that went awry when his corrupt partner (and friend at the time) betrayed him. His arm was replaced with a cybernetic limb (later revealed to be by choice, as biological replacements were possible, he wanted the fake arm as a reminder of what happened), yet his loss of limb coupled with the general corruption of the police force prompted Jet to quit the ISSP in disgust and become a freelance bounty hunter. Jet also considers himself something of a renaissance man: he cultivates bonsai trees, cooks, enjoys jazz/blues music (he named his ship the Bebop, referring to a type of jazz), especially Charlie Parker, and even has interest in Goethe. As a character, Jet is the quintessential oyaji or "dad" even though he often wishes people would view him as a more brotherly figure (so as not to seem old).
Jet is skilled with handguns, typically carrying a pre-2004 Walther P99, as well as the use of the netgun. He is good with hand to hand combat as well. Unlike Spike, Jet tends to use more raw muscle than technique. He is also a great mechanic and pilot. Aside from the converted interplanetary fishing trawler vessel Bebop, Jet flies a smaller ship called Hammerhead. The Hammerhead appears to be a modified (Jet added larger engines and fuel tanks) salvage-craft that uses a mechanical arm equipped with a harpoon as its main weapon, which is somewhat analogous to his own mechanical arm. Both the Hammerhead and the Bebop are able to land on water, and have a fishing theme, most likely because Ganymede's surface is mostly covered with water (it is later revealed that the Bebop was originally a fishing ship that Jet "customized" with larger engines).
During the series, it is revealed that Jet once lived with a woman named Alisa, who left him because he was too controlling. Later they meet up again when Alisa's new boyfriend Rhint is wanted for murder. Jet then ends up in a situation somewhat similar to that of Vicious, where he must hunt down a woman who broke his heart, and her lover.
In a later episode, another Vicious/Spike parallel is set up when Jet finds out that it was his old partner Fad who betrayed him (though in Jet's case, there was no love affair involved). Fad arranged for Jet's death in a setup, but he survived with only a missing arm and a scar on his face. It is worth noting that Jet managed to face the demons of his past and let them go, in contrast to Spike, who was (ambiguously) killed when he confronted his. This is likely due to the contrast in the two approaches to the past. While Spike hid and fled from his past, Jet tracked it down and confronted it.
A possibly related note: Jet Black is also the name of the drummer in long-running English band The Stranglers and his nickname is in reference to the Led Zeppelin song "Black Dog".[citation needed] Jet also bears a remarkable resemblance to Daisuke Jigen from Lupin III. The name "Jet Black" itself also refers to a shade of especially dark black.
[edit] Faye Valentine
Seiyū: Megumi Hayashibara
Voice Actress: Wendee Lee
Faye (born August 14, 1994) is one of the members of the bounty hunting crew in the anime series Cowboy Bebop. She is often seen with a cigarette and in a revealing outfit complete with bright yellow hot pants and a matching, revealing top (and on occasion a bikini). She sports violet hair, green eyes, and a voluptuous body. Although appearing to be no more than her 23 years alive suggests, Faye is actually upwards of 77 years old, having been put into cryogenic freeze after a space shuttle accident, wherein she spent fifty-four years in suspended animation. During the course of the series (set in 2071), Faye manages to cross paths with Spike and Jet twice before she finally makes herself at home aboard their ship the second time, much to the consternation and disapproval of the two men, both of whom have their own reservations about women in general. Faye herself is brash, egotistical, and quite lazy, despite taking plenty of time to pamper and care for her own appearance. Faye has been arrested several times in the series and has spent time in handcuffs on the ship. She, at times, expects the boys to take care of bounties for her, while she sits by idly to reap the benefits and eat all their food, another source of conflict.
Seemingly little more than a thorn in her partners’ sides, Faye is actually a well-rounded member of the team. She can handle herself exceptionally well for a woman of her slight appearance, displaying at least once in the series (in "Cowboy Funk") that she packs quite a mean punch. Adept at flying, Faye has stood her ground just as well as Spike has in an aerial dogfight in her ship Red Tail, and at times even against Spike in an aerial dogfight. She also excels with guns, and is first seen in the series completely disabling a shop with a Heckler & Koch MP5K, though she is immediately apprehended afterward. In the movie, she is seen with the same gun, in addition to her normal companion: a Glock 30. Where Faye really shines, however, is with her mouth. She has an almost unstoppable attitude, and even her sometimes innocent smile can be seen as dangerous. Sarcastic and presumptuous, she rarely appears weak or in need of support. She brags and takes care of herself, never trusting others, cheating and lying her way from one day to the next.
She is a woman who is skilled at getting what she wants; however, her indomitable exterior hides a more delicate interior. Upon awakening from her 54-year cryogenic sleep, not only was she saddled with a massive amount of debt that she had no means to pay, but she was also diagnosed with total amnesia, a stranger in a mysterious world that she was not a part of and did not understand, surrounded by people who claimed to be helping her but were only there to take advantage of her naiveté. The surname "Valentine" was merely a name given to her by the doctor who woke her; the circumstances of her accident, her previous life, and even her real name all remain a mystery, and are only gradually revealed as the series progresses. It has been hinted that she came from Singapore on Earth, and was the daughter of a very wealthy family, as the city's famous Merlion Statue features prominently in scenes of her childhood, and that memories and a film from her childhood showed her living in a large mansion. In an early episode, she states that she is descended from Roma people, but she may well have been lying. Utterly betrayed by someone she thought she could trust after waking, Faye found herself burdened with even more money to pay, and the situation resulted in the hardening of her personality to an extreme degree. She even says in Session 11: “we deceive or we are deceived”, and that “nothing good ever happened to me when I trusted others.”
Throughout the series, though she retains her sarcastic demeanor and unpleasant nature up until the very end, it is easy to see her grow as a character. She learns to value her comrades, coming back to the Bebop when she realizes that it is the only home that she has left, naming it as the “only place I could return to”. She grows to understand the disadvantages of being a loner, and that even though her "family" is somewhat dysfunctional it is still a place where she will always belong.
Throughout the series, though she grows to care for Jet and even Edward in her own way, it is her relationship with Spike that remains a cause for consideration by most. Many believe and even see evidence of a romantic interest on Faye’s part. Although this is never stated, her attraction may be implied by her interactions with him (Pierrot Le Fou, My Funny Valentine, Speak like a Child, The Real Folk Blues) as well as her fascination with Julia (Jupiter Jazz, The Real Folk Blues). Faye also reacts with fear and concern when being told by Vincent about his meeting with (and supposed dispatching of) Spike in Cowboy Bebop: The Movie. Faye's voice actress Wendee Lee has also stated that Faye cares for Spike very deeply, but tries to mask her feelings (so as not to seem vulnerable). Although he comes to see her as a companion, Spike's romantic feelings toward Faye seem to be void or at the least, well-hidden. Though he does come to her aid when she is kidnapped by Vicious and in session 23 when he goes to free her from the Scratch cult and watches over her while she recovers. Watanabe stated in an interview, "Sometimes I'm asked the question, 'What does Spike think of Faye?' I think that actually he likes her quite a bit. But he's not a very straightforward person so he makes sure he doesn't show it."[1]
[edit] Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV
Seiyū: Aoi Tada
Voice Actress: Melissa Fahn
"Edward" (born January 1, 2058) is the self-invented personal name of an elite hacker prodigy from Earth. Her birth name is Françoise. "Radical Edward" is a very strange, somewhat androgynous, teenage girl claiming to be around 13 years in age. This androgyny seems to have come from a last minute gender shift of the character, further mentioned below. She has a feral aspect reflected in her mannerisms, bare feet, strange postures and gangling walk. Ed could be considered a "free spirit"; she is fond of silly exclamations and childish rhymes, easily distracted, and the show's primary source of physical humor. It is presumed she has a learning or developmental disability similar to ADHD or Autism but this is never specified (of note however is the fact that this is considered highly heritable, and the condition seems to affect Ed's father as well).
Over the course of the show she rarely walks anywhere, preferring to run, crawl, flip, roll, walk on her hands, ride piggyback, or at the very least saunter. Ed wears a very loose sleeveless shirt and very tight violet bicycle shorts. She wears a pair of large green goggles around her neck or on her head that act as a virtual reality accessory for computers when connected. She is always barefoot; she uses her feet for tasks which one would usually use hands, such as scratching her nose, clapping, and typing, and it seems she has followed this habit throughout her life: even during a flashback of several years ago wherein she appears to be around 7-9 years in age, she wears a dress over her usual loose shirt and shorts but is still barefoot. In one episode, she considers putting on socks and shoes, but quickly removes them, as even wearing socks hampers her, and she falls over seconds after putting them on. She also appears to be exceptionally strong and flexible, being able to support her weight on her arms for several minutes at a time, and to scratch her nose with her toe.
In the English version, she almost always refers to herself in the third person. Not much is known about her origins, only that she spent some of her earlier childhood in an orphanage after being left there by her father, a cartographer (a questionable occupation on a planet which undergoes changes to its landscape daily due to asteroid impacts) named Appledelhi Siniz Hesap Lütfen (which means "excuse me, check please" in Turkish). In the manga it is revealed that she was a friend of a timid young boy in the orphanage known simply as "Tomato" (which also happens to be the brand name scrawled in katakana on her PC) who, like Ed, knew a great deal about computers and the net, and it is probably safe to assume that his friendship with Ed helped turn her into the hacker she is today. Ed's primary use to the Bebop crew is as a hacker; she is widely known to be a whiz kid behind a computer. Ed's computer of choice is a carry-along Tomato desktop, and when traveling by foot she will balance it on her head. Her goggles can interact with it to give her a virtual reality environment in which she can browse an entire network at once. Also, "swimming" motions with her hands seem to navigate her through the environment, although her hand motions may be unrelated. Ed has a strong rapport with Jet, who acts as a surrogate father, and Faye, who acts as something of a big sister (much to Faye's chagrin). Ed also seems to be the only person who can understand Ein (though in a few instances Jet could also understand Ein).
Originally, Ed's character was based on a description of the series' music director ("a little weird, catlike, but a genius at creating music") and was originally going to be a dark-skinned boy. It was changed to even the gender ratio on the Bebop, which was, with Ed as a boy, three guys and one girl. This original character design appears in session 5, stealing a clearly adult magazine from Annie's bookstore by smuggling it under his shirt.
[edit] Ein
Ein is a Pembroke Welsh Corgi brought aboard the Bebop by Spike after a failed attempt to capture a bounty. Ein is a "data dog": while the televised series only briefly hints on the fact that this means Ein's brain was somehow enhanced drastically, the manga shows Ed accessing data stored in Ein's brain via a virtual reality-type interface with which she has a conversation with a human proprietor. It is obvious that Ein is abnormally intelligent, as he is able to answer the telephone, drive a car (just the wheel), use the SSW, play shogi, and generally perform tasks that an average canine should not be able to do, but he never talks in a human language during the show. Ein's abnormal intelligence is made obvious in Session 23: "Brain Scratch" when the "Brain Dream" gaming device is placed on Ein's head. Ein quickly navigates the system and hacks the network. He speaks in Session 18 "Speak Like A Child" after the credits Ein tells Spike "Next Episode: Wild Horses". He is able to "speak" to other species, as demonstrated in Session 17, "Mushroom Samba" (he spoke to a cow with a subtitled bark of "Thanks", to which the cow has a subtitled moo back of "No problem"). It is likely that Ed is the only crew member with any idea of Ein's capabilities, as the other crew members are quick to dismiss Ein, and never seem to acknowledge him as more than a pet. Ein initially takes a shine to Jet, but when Ed joins the crew, he comes around to her as well. Frequently the two trade roles, with Ein expressing very human sentiments via facial expression and Ed regressing to a feral state. He went with Ed after she left the crew, probably because of his attachment to her. His name is a pun on the Japanese word for "dog" (犬 inu) but is also German for "a" (the indefinite article) and similar to the German word for "one", "eins". "Ein" may also be short for "Einstein", after Albert Einstein, because of the extraordinary intelligence he possesses.
[edit] Vicious
Seiyū: Norio Wakamoto
Voice Actor: Skip Stellrecht
As well as living up to his namesake, "Vicious" is ruthless, bloodthirsty, cunning and ambitious. Considered by some to be Spike's darker half, he is willing to do anything in order to secure a position of power. He is a member of the Red Dragon Crime Syndicate in Tharsis, and is often referred to or depicted as a venomous snake (as opposed to Spike who is referred to as a swimming bird and the Syndicate Elders who see themselves as a dragon). His weapon of choice is not a firearm, but a katana which he wields skillfully, even against gun-wielders. He was an infantry rifleman during the Titan War and is shown firing an automatic pistol in a Session 5 flashback, as well as in the Session 26 flashback of him and Spike fighting back-to-back. Early on, Vicious is sometimes seen with a black bird on his shoulder. This bird is eventually used as a distraction and weapon, either a cybernetic or robotic construct with built-in explosives.
Vicious was Spike's partner in the Red Dragon crime syndicate until they fell into conflict over Julia (and possibly over Spike's decision to abandon the Syndicate). After Spike's supposed death, Vicious left the Red Dragons briefly to fight in the Titan War of 2068, although his precise motivations for enlisting are debated. The blood feud between Spike and Vicious is an ongoing storyline throughout Cowboy Bebop. Vicious believes that he is the only one who can kill, or "awaken" Spike, as Spike is the only one who can do the same for Vicious. Vicious' real age is revealed in the official guidebook The After: at 27, he is the same age as Spike, although he appears to be much older. The age 27 is a significant age in the series because of the connotations it has to some legendary musicians passing away at that age, who are called the 27 Club. He may seem older due to the heavy, ever-present bags under his eyes. Because of this and his affinity towards Bloody Eye deals, it is possible that he is a user of the mind- and vision-altering drug. Evidence of this is briefly seen during a flashback at Julia's apartment which shows a capsule of Bloody Eye on the window sill during Session 13: Jupiter Jazz, Part 2.
Interestingly Vicious bears a striking resemblance to Lupin's partener Goemon Ishikawa. Although his character is far more grim, Vicious also displays Goemons' trademark stoicism and skill with a blade.
[edit] Julia
Seiyū: Gara Takashima
Voice Actress: Mary Elizabeth McGlynn
Julia is a beautiful and mysterious woman from both Spike and Vicious' pasts. Initially Vicious' girlfriend and possibly a Syndicate member herself, she and Spike started a dangerous affair that led to Spike offering to abandon the Syndicate and elope with her, despite the fact that the Syndicate punishes desertion with death. Arranging to meet at a graveyard later, Spike goes to confront the Syndicate with his resignation, resulting in a violent gun battle where he is presumed by the Syndicate to have died. Vicious discovers the affair, however, and confronts Julia, telling her that she would have to kill Spike at the graveyard, or he would have both of them killed. To protect not only herself but also the man she loved, she goes into hiding, never meeting Spike as both of them had planned; Spike himself was never aware of Vicious' threats until the very end of the series. Because of this, Spike is led to believe that she betrayed him, and adopts his characteristic fatalist mentality.
Despite being among the main driving points for the entire series, Julia only appears in flashbacks until the final two episodes of the series. She acts as a stark contrast to the world around her—her blonde hair, bright red umbrella and automobile stand out in the otherwise drab environments that she inhabits.
After meeting Faye Valentine by coincidence, Julia and Spike are reunited. However, soon they are ambushed by Vicious' henchmen at Annie's convenience store, and one of them fatally injures Julia. Her last words to Spike are It's... just... a dream....
Julia's name comes from the Beatles song "Julia" on The White Album.
[edit] Grencia Mars Elijah Guo Eckener
Seiyū: Kenyū Horiuchi
Voice Actor: Michael Gregory
Gren was once a soldier for the war on Titan, and appears in the two-part episodes of "Jupiter Jazz". On Titan he fought beside Vicious, who he admired and found encouragement in, during the war. After the war, Gren came back hoping to be a jazz musician, but that plan was cut short when he was arrested on the pretense of being a spy. In prison, Gren heard that Vicious testified against him; this and the isolation drove him mad. The prison used prisoners for drug experiments, and he was forced to become a test subject. In some translations, he suffered from insomnia while in prison and started using drugs to try and deal with it. In either case, the drugs severely imbalanced his hormones, and caused him to develop a feminine figure, including breasts.
Finally, after his body had been transformed and his sanity shattered, he managed to escape from prison. After his escape from jail, Gren worked as a saxophone player at Rester House, a bar in a sector called "The Blue Crow", which is located on one of Jupiter's moons, Callisto. He met Julia there and found out from her how Vicious betrayed him. Two years later, Faye met Gren. In an act of kindness, Gren 'rescued' Faye from a fight she caused and allowed her to come to his apartment. While Faye was there, Vicious called, alarming her and raising suspicions about the musician. Intruding on him while showering, Faye discovered Gren's secret. Gren explained how he became what he was, and told her that he was going to see if Vicious really framed him. When Faye said he'd be killed in the process, he replied that death did not frighten him, and that he would not live longer anyway.
Disguising himself as a woman, Gren met the Syndicate member, along with Lin, who went to protect Vicious. Exchanging Red Eye for Titan Opal, Gren suspected a trap. He shot it open, setting off the explosive, and then revealed who he was, finally confronting Vicious about what happened when he returned from Titan. In the ensuing battle, Lin died to protect Vicious. Meanwhile, Spike arrived and began to attack Vicious as he fled. Gren had planted the music box in the bag of Red Eye, rigged with an explosive, which damaged Vicious' ship. However, in the 3-way dogfight with Vicious and Spike, Gren's ship was severely damaged, forcing him to land. Spike, wanting to find out more about Julia, landed next to Gren's crashed ship to find Gren lying in the snow, badly wounded. Rushing to Gren's side, Spike asks Gren about Julia. Gren guesses who Spike is by his eyes; "Julia was always talking about you; your eyes are different colors. I remember her saying that." Gren refuses Spike's offer of assistance, knowing that he is dying, and instead requests that Spike help him back into his ship, allowing him to die on a final voyage to Titan.
[edit] Punch and Judy
Seiyū: Tsutomu Taruki and Miki Nagasawa
Voice Actors: Paul St. Peter and Lia Sargent
Punch and Judy are the characters of the TV show Big Shot. The show provides information on various bounty heads, but is often unreliable. The Bebop crew often has the show playing in the background, but seldom pays close attention (they usually get their information from close contacts). Punch and Judy play the "cowboy" persona in a characteristic, "over the top" fashion. Punch adopts a mid-western drawl mixed with a Mexican accent (both faked), and uses random old-West sayings. Judy plays the stereotypical dumb blonde, and always appears in an open bolero jacket with nothing underneath, frequently wiggling her hips with excitement. Big Shot gets canceled towards the end of the series, and Punch (lacking accent and costume) makes a brief cameo revealing his and Judy's fates: He moves to Mars to take care of his mother and Judy is engaged to marry her agent. His real name is Alfredo. In the last episode of Big Shot, it appears that Judy was not informed of the show's cancellation and shoved Punch out of the way as she said into the camera that "[The station] will hear from [her] agent about this!"
The character names and the loose concept of Big Shot are most likely a tongue-in-cheek reference to the British style of puppet-show also known as Punch and Judy.
[edit] The Three Old Men
Seiyū: Hitoshi Hirao (Antonio), Toshihiko Nakajima (Carlos), and Hiroshi Naka (Jobim)
Voice Actors: Steve Kramer (Antonio), Richard Cansino (Carlos), and Paul St. Peter (Jobim)
Throughout the series and the movie, three rude, foul-mouthed, crotchety old men make frequent appearances, as speaking characters, or in the background during scenes. They make various claims about what they did before becoming old-timers, including bounty hunting, building the stargates, farming, piloting planes in a war, sinking the Bismarck, digging ditches, and crop-dusting, all of which is almost always followed with the rest claiming they were part of that project as well. They seem on speaking terms with many supporting characters, and though they run into the main characters often there is not much attention paid to them (or even mention that the main characters have seen them before). They also did the voice-overs for the preview of the episode "Mushroom Samba". According to the movie credits, they are called Antonio, Carlos, and Jobim (a reference to the Brazilian musician Antonio Carlos Jobim). In the feature film, they aid Jet and Faye distribute the antidote for a deadly, hallucinogenic nanovirus by flying 20th-century era antique planes over Alba City.
[edit] Rocco Bonnaro
Seiyū: Ryūsei Nakao (using the name of Takamasa Nakao)
Voice Actor: Tom Fahn
Rocco Bonnaro is a member of Piccaro Calvino's gang. He is involved in organized crime in order to support his blind younger sister, Stella, and does everything he can to help her regain her sight. Rocco sees Spike effortlessly take out several hijackers on a spaceliner and begs Spike to teach him how to fight. He befriends Spike although he does not tell him about the bounty on his head. Everything goes awry when Rocco gives Spike a package to hold onto, which contains a plant called "Grey Ash" that he stole from Calvino. This plant, worth millions upon millions of woolongs, is capable of curing "Venus Sickness", the disease which has blinded Stella. Rocco has a rendezvous with Spike and they fight against Calvino's gang. Rocco manages to pull off one of Spike's Jeet Kune Do maneuvers and topples one of the gangsters, but, in the chaos, Rocco is gunned down. He asks Spike if they would have been friends if they had met sooner, and dies. Later, Spike pays his respects and visits Stella, although she can feel that Rocco has died. Before he leaves, Stella asks Spike about the type of person her brother really was. Spike responded "You knew him best without looking. He was a really great guy."
[edit] Laughing Bull
Seiyū: Takehiro Koyama
Voice Actor: Michael Gregory
A kind old shaman, apparently of Native American descent. Laughing Bull lives on Mars, and figures prominently in a number of Cowboy Bebop sessions. Spike goes to Laughing Bull for advice in Session 1 while looking for bounty head Asimov; in "The Real Folk Blues, Part 2", Jet goes to him for information on Spike's whereabouts. Laughing Bull also succors Spike after his fight with Vincent in Cowboy Bebop: The Movie. Laughing Bull has a son, to whom he occasionally imparts his wisdom.
Laughing Bull refers to Spike as "Swimming Bird", and calls Jet "Running Rock".
[edit] "Bob"
"Bob" is an ISSP policeman based on Ganymede to whom Jet frequently goes to for inside information when looking for bounty heads. Throughout the series, and especially in the film, Bob provides (sometimes reluctantly) crucial information.
[edit] Annie
Voice Actress: Carol Stanzione
The owner of a convenience store on Mars, and an old friend of Spike, Julia, and Mao Yenrai. Her name is short for "Anastasia", although she allows only two certain people (presumably Mao and her late husband) to address her as such. First introduced in Ballad of Fallen Angels Annie is shown to be a keen informant and in general a very sharp lady, catching two juveniles trying to steal adult magazines from her news rack while seemingly not paying attention to them. Annie informs Spike of Mao's assassination by Vicious. She also carries a variety of small arms and supplies Spike with a Beretta pistol and a large carton of ammunition. She also chides Spike for seeking to avenge his mentor (by picking a fight with Vicious) and calls him a stubborn show off. Annie is fatally wounded in the stomach prior to Spike and Julia's arrival in the two-part conclusion, "The Real Folk Blues". She dies soon after their arrival.
[edit] Red Dragon Crime Syndicate
Not too much is known about the crime syndicate. It is led by a group of mysterious elderly men who are called The Van. The syndicate specializes mostly in assassinations, but are also involved in the trafficking of narcotics, Red Eye in particular. The rules of the syndicate states that members who attempt to leave, or fail to complete tasks, are punished by death. Mao Yenrai served as a captain or Capo to the Elders and was a mentor to both Vicious and Spike. He is most likely the one who brought them into the Syndicate (since entering into a major criminal organization usually requires sponsorship from a higher ranked member). Annie, Julia, and Spike, were once high-ranking members of the syndicate alongside with Vicious, but chose to leave. Those who remained are Vicious, Lin, and Shin. Vicious, feeling betrayed by his former partner/best friend, has two major desires: to kill Spike and like his nemesis, reunite with Julia, as well as take over the syndicate.
[edit] References
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