PERCEPTION OF FUTURE WORLD IN POP CULTURE

1. PERCEPTION OF
FUTURE WORLD IN POP
CULTURE
COWBOY BEBOP
SEE YOU SPACE COWBOY

2. SNEAK A PEEK(A SCI-FI DYSTOPIAN TALE)
• Directed by Shinichiro Watanabe and written by Keiko Nobumoto & aired in 1998.
• Heavily influenced by American jazz and early 70’s & 80’s rock music. Many action
scenes are timed to music. (To me Watanabe’s every work is an individual musical
euphoria)
• The anime consists of 26 episodes (called Sessions to go along with musical theme)
and a movie. “Almost did not appear on Japanese broadcast television due to its
depictions of violence”
• Set in the dystopian year of 2071.
• Earth’s surface was virtually destroyed and is now uninhabitable (where meteor
shower is a regular phenomenon) , so the population spread out across the solar
system. Portals known as Astral Gate are used as the main transportation system.
• People live in colonies on Venus, Mars, Titan (Saturn’s largest moon), Callisto, Io,
Europa, Ganymede (some of Jupiter’s moons), and space stations.
• Crime syndicates have large influence in the solar system.
• Bounty hunters are encouraged to capture criminal. Four main characters end up on
the ship the “Bebop”.
• “Spike Spiegel” (main protagonist) is a former member of a crime syndicate.
• “Jet Black” is a former Inter-Solar System Police and the owner of the Bebop.
• “Faye Valentine” is an amnesiac woken from a 54 year cryogenic sleep.
• “Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV aka Ed” formerly known as Françoise
Appledelhi is a genius hacker.
• Four of them are basically bounty hunters, brought together by some interesting
events and the have a corgi doggo named “Ein”.
JET BLACK
FAYE VALENTINE
EDWARD
EIN
S
P
I
K
E
S
P
I
E
G
E
L
JET BLACK

3. In the year 2021, an Astral
Gate exploded above Earth in
an event known as the Astral
Gate accident. The explosion
destroyed most of Earth's
moon, causing a near-
constant natural disaster of
rock showers falling into orbit
and hitting the planet's
surface.
What happened
to Earth?
ASTRAL GATE
ABOVE THE EARTH

4. TIJUANA(TJ)
A CITY BUILT ON
AN ASTEROID
Tijuana (aka TJ) is an asteroid
and colony in the asteroid belt.
Environment
The artificial environment of Tijuana
is arid and desert-like, with grassland
regions. The city has large
metropolitan areas and highways.
Also has a Belt of Ocean directly
separating the space and the city.
Asteroids are small rocky body
orbiting the sun. Large numbers of
these, ranging enormously in size,
are found between the orbits of
Mars and Jupiter, though some have
more eccentric orbits.
SPACESHIP BEBOP LANDING ON TJ’S OCEAN
OCEAN BELT

5. TRIVIA
• The asteroid colony of Tijuana is
named after the present-day city in
Mexico's Baja California, thus the
Mexican cultural elements
depicted in this session. However,
the asteroid also seems to be very
culturally diverse, with many street
signs in English, Japanese, Chinese,
Korean, Russian, Arabic and Hindi
in addition to Spanish.
• Zona Norte, mentioned by
Laughing Bull as a section of the
colony, is actually a red light district
in present-day Tijuana, Mexico.
• Even though the timeline is set in
the dystopian year of 2071, the
premises of the streets are very
much similar to this day ,it’s like
the streets carry the symbolism of
human past.
STREETS OF TIJUANA

6. Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. It was
terraformed in the 21st century and became the most populated
planet. Mars is sometimes nicknamed as the "Red Planet" because
of its reddish appearance, due to iron oxide prevalent on its surface.
According to Spike, Mars is a good planet to live on if you're rich.
MARS
LIFE ON MARS
• Mars colonies are mostly built inside large
craters on the surface, covered by artificial
atmosphere that is constantly replenished
via large devices at the edge. In this way, a
colony could be established with
atmospheric and climatic features similar
to those of Earth.
• Large cables connected different crater-
cities and covered highways allowed travel
between.
Tharsis City and Alba City were two cities on
Mars
A
C
I
T
Y
V
I
E
W
REPLENISHING DEVICES MARS CEMETARY

7. VENUS
Venus was the second planet in the
Solar System. It was terraformed in
the 21st century and had an Astral
Gate.
LIFE ON VENUS
• Using floating islands covered in plants, which
converted carbon dioxide to oxygen through
photosynthesis, Venus had a breathable
atmosphere. Venus did not have any natural seas,
so most of its surface was a vast desert.
• The atmosphere of Venus had a high content of
helium, which caused people to speak in a high-
pitched voice, but was otherwise harmless. Pills
could be taken orally to counteract the voice
modulation.
• The surface of Venus is depicted as very dry and
characterized with flat plains, highland regions,
and depressions. There are very few impact
craters, in contrast with Mars, the Moon and
Mercury.
• The architecture of the city has Arabic-Farsi and
Turkish-Islamic architecture.
• Civilization on Venus is modeled after 19th century
Istanbul, Turkey.
CITY VIEW
VENUS SPACE PORTFLOATING ISLAND OF VENUS

8. Ganymede is the seventh and largest moon of Jupiter, as well
as the largest moon in the Solar System. It has 8 million
residents
• Ganymede was terraformed in the twenty-first century by
heating its original thick layer of ice to reveal a great
seawater ocean underneath.
• With very little natural landforms, Ganymede had a
prominent commercial fishing industry to harvest animals
such as the Ganymede rock lobster and the endangered
Ganymede sea rat.
• As the moon was on the outskirts of inhabited space, it did
not have access to many new technologies before the Astral
Gate system reached it.
Ganymede is modeled after
Marseille, France and much of the
language is French.
GANYMEDE

9. Callisto was an ice-covered moon of Jupiter, and the third-
largest moon in the Solar System behind Ganymede and Titan.
• Callisto was terraformed in the 21st century, though only
barely, as it was a cold and desolate natural satellite.
• Existing on the outskirts of inhabited space, Callisto had
become a refuge for illegal groups and trades, and the
population was almost entirely male. As such, there were
also very few families or children.
• The moon underwent a financial depression in 2071.
CALLISTO
.

10. Titan was a moon of Saturn and was terraformed in
the 21st century. Its climate was largely desert with
windstorms.
Titan was the site of the Titan War and subsequently
underwent scarring from the conflict
TITAN
SCENES OF TITAN WAR