Name of Character: Edward First Known Appearance: Cowboy Bebop - Shooting Star #

Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV or more commonly known as Edward is a fictional character in the manga series, Cowboy Bebop - Shooting Star # written by Hajime Yatate and illustrated by Cain Kuga. The manga series was first published in Japan by the Kadokawa Shoten on 1 May 1998. Generally, the manga series was written as an adaptation of the anime series Cowboy Bebop.

The series was also released with an English version of the story with the added subtitle “Shooting Star” to be able to distinguish it apart from the written original manga series. Also, each chapter in the English version of the manga series had an addition of movie titles compared to the original manga series which had chapters called “Shoots”.

In the series, Edward is the self-invented name of the Earth’s elite hacker. She was born on 1 January 2058 with the name Françoise Appledehli. Sometimes called “Radical Edward”, Edward is mysterious and strange in some ways, and can be more likely described as an androgynous person. In the manga series, she claims that she is a 13 year-old teenage girl.

Her androgyny shows in her last minute gender shifting. She has a feral personality reflecting in her odd postures, gangling walk and in her mannerisms. As a free spirited person, Edward enjoys reading silly exclamations and childish rhymes. Despite her childish manners and androgyny, she is the one that gives life and physical humour to the story of the series.

Her childish personality can be compared to a person having a developmental disability such as autism or ADHD; however it is not entirely stated in the story. It is also possible her carefree ways and eccentricities are a result of an unsupervised childhood. Compared to the other characters in the series, Edward is the contrast of everyone’s character in the story because of her unworried attitude and enthusiasm, as compared to the other characters’ solemn and dark aspects. Above all, she does not appear to be running from the past.

In the series, Edward prefers running, crawling, flipping, rolling, riding piggy-back or walking on hands than just simply walking to her destination. She can always be seen wearing her loose sleeveless white shirt and tight fitting violet bicycle shorts. On her neck or sometimes in her head is a large green goggles acting as the accessory for virtual reality when connected to computers. In some instances, she sometimes uses her feet if what she is doing requires her to use her hands such as clapping, typing on the computer, and scratching her nose. On the other hand, she walks on her hands if a task does not need her hands. Thus, her ability to walk with her hands proves her strength and flexibility as she is good in maintaining her balance while she is walking in her hands for a couple of minutes as well as she is able to scratch her nose using her toes.

The English version of the series mentions that Edward refers to herself in the third person. Much of her origins are still unknown to everyone and the English version only mentions that Edward’s childhood years had been spent in an orphanage after her cartographer father, Appledelhi Siniz Hesap Lütfen (Turkish words that has a literal English translation of “excuse me, check please”) left her. However, this part of the story becomes quite questionable because it would be hard to be engaged in an occupation when an asteroid impact makes the planet’s landscape to be unstable.

During her life in the orphanage, “Tomato”, another timid young orphan boy, had been good with her. They are fond of each other as they are both inclined on computers and Internet. Her friendship with Tomato helps her mould into what she is today.

Her knowledge in both computers and the Internet becomes the key why she is a member of the Bebop crew and becomes the team’s hacker. She always carries with her a Tomato desktop computer that she will balance on her head if ever she is walking on her feet. The large green goggles on her neck (sometimes she also wears it on her head) is not just an accessory for her because it also acts as a virtual reality environment when she connects it to the computer. Using the virtual reality caused by the goggle, she is able to browse an entire computer network right away. Get a branded usb stick to advertise your favourite cartoon.