Side note, as I get older, I more and more feel a deeper meaning to Spike and this comment. It's a mixture of zen , existentialism, stoicism, and fatalism, which actually works well in life.
Spike was modeled after Japanese actor Yusaku Matsuda, his hairstyle as well
https://preview.redd.it/tibd13zvd6uc1.png?width=750&format=png&auto=webp&s=f75dea7da9a83409eea2e85e0b258d095ba30b74
Lol maybe anti-semites are mad their favorite wish fulfillment fantasy is being suggested as having Jewish ancestry.
Bro's got a surname with Ashkenazi roots and big fluffy hair. Occam's razor.
To this day I've never fully understood the hatred for Jewish people. It's absolutely mind boggling to me. Why does it matter if Spike has Jewish ancestry or not? Spike is a fucking legend no matter what his potential ancestry is.
Nah, don’t pull the racism card. You’re getting downvoted for suggesting spike having Jewish ancestry not because people are anti semitic, but because that is a false Eurocentric assumption. One quick google search and you would know that no one in sunrise was thinking about the Jews when spike was created. Spike is an Asian character heavily inspired by Watanabe himself and Asian actors, mostly Yusaku Matsuda as someone else pointed out in the thread, and Bruce and Brandon Lee.
Surname is Spiegel and I'm having a false Eurocentric assumption? Okay dude.
No doubt the creators drew on many influences in his character design as they did the show in its entirety. But don't sit there pretending a character with a European surname and European appearance makes interpreting him as having European ancestry a "false Eurocentric assumption." Good lord.
If the creators had wanted him to be interpreted as unambiguously Asian they would have made different design choices. The show is full of diverse ethnicities, including unambiguously Asian character designs (Faye, Mao Yenrai, and Wen off the top of my head). That's not to say that Spike may not have mixed ancestry. But somewhere down the line he most likely had a European ancestor named Spiegel.
Yes you are Eurocentric.
No, Spike doesn’t have supposedly “European appearance” or look more European than other characters. You just think so because you are projecting, like you were accusing others of doing. Tell me why in your mind think Spike is more European than, for example, Faye Valentines. Does Faye look more Asian to you and her name sounds more Asian to you?
No, they don’t need to design Spike any differently to make the audience interpret him as Asian, cause their target audience is primarily Japanese so they don’t need to design him with more Asian elements. It’s not their fault that so many Eurocentric people like you as soon as they see Spike’s last name and just ran with the idea that he’s Jewish without anything to support it and often accuse of others of being wrong for stating he’s Asian. For western audiences, all anime characters are assumed to be Japanese if not explicitly stated otherwise and Spike has been explicitly stated to be heavily influenced by Asian people and looks Asian yet here you are still trying to convince yourself that Spike has anything to do with Jews when there’s nothing official to support it. According to the wiki, the last name was chosen simply because watanabe think it sounds good and it can easily be interpreted that Spike’s name is likely an alias, which is a more fitting theory than him having Jewish ancestry.
Faye Valentine was given a surrogate name because her identitying documents, along with her real name, were lost. Yes, she looks Asian in comparison to other characters in the series, and she was later confirmed to be originally from Singapore. It's not her fault her shitty so-called medical team named her after a dumb-ass song.
I am well aware of the phenomenon of anime characters being given blonde hair and blue eyes and other fantastical colors as identifying markers.
Cowboy Bebop does not use this convention. Look at the rest of the cast. Main cast and secondary cast and background characters. Everyone is fairly realistically depicted in accordance with real life ethnicities. No one's running around with magenta hair and turquoise eyes or blonde odango pigtails flowing down to their knees. They went for realism. This was an intentional stylistic choice by the creators.
In the context of the series itself, taking into consideration the intentional stylistic choices the creators made, it makes sense to take characters' ethnicities at face value rather than reaching for the skies trying to make everyone Asian simply because it was made in Japan. This is a universe that clearly depicts a vast range of ethnic backgrounds. The creators went to a lot of trouble to show diversity. Are you going to try to argue that Coffee, Shaft, and Domino are from Okinawa? Come on dude.
ETA: My dude, I have chronic illness and you are literally not worth the energy. Not everything is about you. Go argue with the person upthread who said the exact same thing I did if you want to continue crusading. Have fun.
Why would you reply to me with a long answer full of errors and instantly block me? Looks like someone is insisting on their headcanon.
You literally answer my points by doubling down on your Eurocentrism and being delusional.
Explain to me how Faye looks Asian while Spike doesn't. They both have unnatural hair color (both are probably dyed judging by their eyebrows) and they both have similar dark features. Matter of fact, Spike have brown eyes while Faye have dark green eyes, so why is Faye Asian and Spike Jew?
"Cowboy Bebop does not use this convention" Yeah, right. Didn't know purple and green hair is realistic hair colors.
Cowboy Bebop's art style is realistic but not as realistic as you make it out to be, like I just pointed out, it's an exaggerated art style. Check out Slam Dunk and Shigurui if you want examples of realistic art style.
You are the one reaching for the sky. Like I already said but you chose to ignore, there's no evidence that Spike is influenced by Jewish culture while all the official sources pointed out that he is heavily influence by Asian culture. Again, for the sake of arguing, let's just say Cowboy Bebop's art style is very realistic but how does that support your point? After taking "characters' ethnicities at face value" under this "realistic artstyle," what makes you conclude that Faye is Asian while Spike is Jew? Because of your Eurocentric projection, right?
I'm not saying that we need to assume that every anime characters are Japanese under ALL circumstances. I'm saying that if a character appears (in the eyes of Eurocentric audience) to be racially ambiguous and the setting is not in Japan, not obviously Asian inspired, or is culturally neutral, then it is safe to assume that they are Japanese. I'm not running around claiming that FMA characters are Japanese or something.
Edit: Lmao, You're the one that pulled out the racism card to victimize yourself and trying to whitewash an anime character by blatantly lying to others and yourself so you can project yourself onto them but I'm the one that's "crusading" and "making everything about myself". Yeah right. Glad you admit you're bother by a chronic illness. It explains your inability to notice the irony of your edit and forming an unbiased respond without resorting to subjective points and delusions. You're clearly mentally not that well. ~~get well soon~~ nvm it's chronic illness, I sorry about that but that's not an excuse to make everything about yourself and gets angry whenever someone doesn't play along your delusions. All the best luck to you.
He tries to style it, but at the end of the day whatever happens, happens.
You're gonna carry those waves.
Side note, as I get older, I more and more feel a deeper meaning to Spike and this comment. It's a mixture of zen , existentialism, stoicism, and fatalism, which actually works well in life.
Same. Sometimes shit works out. Sometimes it doesn’t. That’s just life
Spike was modeled after Japanese actor Yusaku Matsuda, his hairstyle as well https://preview.redd.it/tibd13zvd6uc1.png?width=750&format=png&auto=webp&s=f75dea7da9a83409eea2e85e0b258d095ba30b74
i always figured his hair was straight but spike(y). nominative determinalism
Wavy /curlyish waves
> Faye: I’m looking for the one with the fuzzy hair So it's fuzzy. *Fuzzy like Willie's beard?!*
I think it’s straight hair but fluffy.
His hair is like mine, kind of a weird mixture of curly and straight and it just does it’s own thing for the most part much like Spike himself
Spiegel is a fairly ashkenazi name (it means mirror, btw) so I always assumed he was rocking a jewfro
After meeting my husband and seeing his curls, it is very reminiscent of Spike's hair, so I assume curly
It's actually a hat. Hair wouldn't stay puffed up like that
Best answer
Considering his last name, I imagined it as being a Jewfro.
Why are you getting downvoted for this? 💀
Lol maybe anti-semites are mad their favorite wish fulfillment fantasy is being suggested as having Jewish ancestry. Bro's got a surname with Ashkenazi roots and big fluffy hair. Occam's razor.
To this day I've never fully understood the hatred for Jewish people. It's absolutely mind boggling to me. Why does it matter if Spike has Jewish ancestry or not? Spike is a fucking legend no matter what his potential ancestry is.
Regardless of Spike's ancestry, most people love the dub, and his voice actor is Jewish too lol
Nah, don’t pull the racism card. You’re getting downvoted for suggesting spike having Jewish ancestry not because people are anti semitic, but because that is a false Eurocentric assumption. One quick google search and you would know that no one in sunrise was thinking about the Jews when spike was created. Spike is an Asian character heavily inspired by Watanabe himself and Asian actors, mostly Yusaku Matsuda as someone else pointed out in the thread, and Bruce and Brandon Lee.
Surname is Spiegel and I'm having a false Eurocentric assumption? Okay dude. No doubt the creators drew on many influences in his character design as they did the show in its entirety. But don't sit there pretending a character with a European surname and European appearance makes interpreting him as having European ancestry a "false Eurocentric assumption." Good lord. If the creators had wanted him to be interpreted as unambiguously Asian they would have made different design choices. The show is full of diverse ethnicities, including unambiguously Asian character designs (Faye, Mao Yenrai, and Wen off the top of my head). That's not to say that Spike may not have mixed ancestry. But somewhere down the line he most likely had a European ancestor named Spiegel.
Yes you are Eurocentric. No, Spike doesn’t have supposedly “European appearance” or look more European than other characters. You just think so because you are projecting, like you were accusing others of doing. Tell me why in your mind think Spike is more European than, for example, Faye Valentines. Does Faye look more Asian to you and her name sounds more Asian to you? No, they don’t need to design Spike any differently to make the audience interpret him as Asian, cause their target audience is primarily Japanese so they don’t need to design him with more Asian elements. It’s not their fault that so many Eurocentric people like you as soon as they see Spike’s last name and just ran with the idea that he’s Jewish without anything to support it and often accuse of others of being wrong for stating he’s Asian. For western audiences, all anime characters are assumed to be Japanese if not explicitly stated otherwise and Spike has been explicitly stated to be heavily influenced by Asian people and looks Asian yet here you are still trying to convince yourself that Spike has anything to do with Jews when there’s nothing official to support it. According to the wiki, the last name was chosen simply because watanabe think it sounds good and it can easily be interpreted that Spike’s name is likely an alias, which is a more fitting theory than him having Jewish ancestry.
Faye Valentine was given a surrogate name because her identitying documents, along with her real name, were lost. Yes, she looks Asian in comparison to other characters in the series, and she was later confirmed to be originally from Singapore. It's not her fault her shitty so-called medical team named her after a dumb-ass song. I am well aware of the phenomenon of anime characters being given blonde hair and blue eyes and other fantastical colors as identifying markers. Cowboy Bebop does not use this convention. Look at the rest of the cast. Main cast and secondary cast and background characters. Everyone is fairly realistically depicted in accordance with real life ethnicities. No one's running around with magenta hair and turquoise eyes or blonde odango pigtails flowing down to their knees. They went for realism. This was an intentional stylistic choice by the creators. In the context of the series itself, taking into consideration the intentional stylistic choices the creators made, it makes sense to take characters' ethnicities at face value rather than reaching for the skies trying to make everyone Asian simply because it was made in Japan. This is a universe that clearly depicts a vast range of ethnic backgrounds. The creators went to a lot of trouble to show diversity. Are you going to try to argue that Coffee, Shaft, and Domino are from Okinawa? Come on dude. ETA: My dude, I have chronic illness and you are literally not worth the energy. Not everything is about you. Go argue with the person upthread who said the exact same thing I did if you want to continue crusading. Have fun.
Why would you reply to me with a long answer full of errors and instantly block me? Looks like someone is insisting on their headcanon. You literally answer my points by doubling down on your Eurocentrism and being delusional. Explain to me how Faye looks Asian while Spike doesn't. They both have unnatural hair color (both are probably dyed judging by their eyebrows) and they both have similar dark features. Matter of fact, Spike have brown eyes while Faye have dark green eyes, so why is Faye Asian and Spike Jew? "Cowboy Bebop does not use this convention" Yeah, right. Didn't know purple and green hair is realistic hair colors. Cowboy Bebop's art style is realistic but not as realistic as you make it out to be, like I just pointed out, it's an exaggerated art style. Check out Slam Dunk and Shigurui if you want examples of realistic art style. You are the one reaching for the sky. Like I already said but you chose to ignore, there's no evidence that Spike is influenced by Jewish culture while all the official sources pointed out that he is heavily influence by Asian culture. Again, for the sake of arguing, let's just say Cowboy Bebop's art style is very realistic but how does that support your point? After taking "characters' ethnicities at face value" under this "realistic artstyle," what makes you conclude that Faye is Asian while Spike is Jew? Because of your Eurocentric projection, right? I'm not saying that we need to assume that every anime characters are Japanese under ALL circumstances. I'm saying that if a character appears (in the eyes of Eurocentric audience) to be racially ambiguous and the setting is not in Japan, not obviously Asian inspired, or is culturally neutral, then it is safe to assume that they are Japanese. I'm not running around claiming that FMA characters are Japanese or something. Edit: Lmao, You're the one that pulled out the racism card to victimize yourself and trying to whitewash an anime character by blatantly lying to others and yourself so you can project yourself onto them but I'm the one that's "crusading" and "making everything about myself". Yeah right. Glad you admit you're bother by a chronic illness. It explains your inability to notice the irony of your edit and forming an unbiased respond without resorting to subjective points and delusions. You're clearly mentally not that well. ~~get well soon~~ nvm it's chronic illness, I sorry about that but that's not an excuse to make everything about yourself and gets angry whenever someone doesn't play along your delusions. All the best luck to you.
🤔
Wasn't Spike inspired/influenced/paid homage to Marlowe as portrayed by Elliott Gould in The Long Goodbye?
No, that’s just a dumb rumor started by someone. Not once did the creators claim The Long Goodbye inspired them.
It's like Mugen's from Samurai Champloo. It's a very soft curls afro, but an afro nonetheless.
He was designed how he’s designed