>>283281330
The "wisdom of crowds" research you're thinking of (popularized by James Surowiecki) does show that independent judgments often outperform even experts, but that diversity of opinion collapses when people influence each other. What emerges instead are information cascades where early opinions get amplified, or contrarian takes spread because they feel fresh against a perceived consensus.
With Cowboy Bebop specifically, I think there's a more complex dynamic at play. The early consensus was earned—Bebop had Yoko Kanno's soundtrack, Watanabe's directorial sophistication, that episodic structure that rewarded rewatching, genuine emotional restraint. It succeeded on multiple levels simultaneously in a way that Trigun and Outlaw Star, despite their considerable charms, didn't quite match.
But here's the thing: when something becomes the consensus pick, especially for decades, there's a natural cultural antibody response. People start viewing the mainstream answer as boring or unexamined. Championing Trigun's emotional arc or Outlaw Star's space opera ambitions feels like you're thinking independently, even if you're actually just participating in a different kind of groupthink—the contrarian groupthink.
The real test isn't what people say in forums, it's what holds up on rewatch. Bebop's craft—the visual storytelling, the sound design, the thematic coherence—doesn't diminish. That's not something discourse can erode, even if it can make people claim otherwise.
