When asked how the team behind Cowboy Bebop found the perfect balance of comedy and drama for the iconic series, writer Keiko Nobumoto responded, "One thing is, everyone has all sorts of facets to who they are. In your entire life, there are different times in the day where you change".

Anyone who has seen Cowboy Bebop can attest to this versatility being one of the show's greatest strengths. Characters are not simple lists of descriptors that can be plugged in and out of situations with predictable results; no, like real people, the cast is made up of multi-layered beings. Spike isn't the same person talking to Faye as he is talking to Jet, nor are any of them the same one-on-one as they are all together, and they are still different when on the job or relaxing. This kind of flexibility is something everyone who made Cowboy Bebop was good at, but Keiko Nobumoto, in particular, excels at every time she puts pen to paper. You can see it in the selection of Bebop episodes she wrote. Episodes like the funky, lighthearted pilot and antics of Teddy Bomber in "Cowboy Funk" are on the opposite end of the spectrum from the heavy, backstory-focused episodes like Faye's "My Funny Valentine" and the two-part finale "The Real Folk Blues". Yet, they all feel like they're about the same characters and come from Nobumoto's talented hand.

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You can even find her work in later Shinichiro Watanabe-led productions, flexing her character-writing muscles in, sometimes, unexpected places. The central trio of Samurai Champloo builds a strong repertoire by playing off of each other, with most episodes finding new situations for combinations of Mugen, Fuu, and Jin to butt heads in. Nobumoto's sole episode, "Lullabies of the Lost", on the other hand, asks a question most of the show avoids - what are these characters like when completely separated? Placed roughly in the middle of the show's run, it not only gives each character a chance to shine on their own but also forces them to contemplate how they've changed and grown over the course of their adventures with each other. This casts them in entirely new lights while reaffirming the value of the journey we've watched them go on together so far.

Similarly, Nobumoto penned several episodes of Watanabe's creative anthology-esque comedy, Space Dandy, frequently choosing to either separate the crew of the Aloha Oe or explore their dynamic with characters they normally don't spend quality time with. Her only Season 1 episode, "The Lonely Pooch Planet, Baby", takes the ever-positive Dandy away from the comfort of his friends and forces him to face the pain of mortality in the form of a dog on its last few hours of life, a tonal left turn from most of the show up to that point. Later, in Season 2, her "Gallant Space Gentleman, Baby" finally gives the crew's favorite waitress, Honey, an episode to shine, fleshing out a character who could easily have stayed as another background feature in Dandy's ephemeral adventures.

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Image Via Adult Swim

Outside of the realm of TV anime, Nobumoto co-wrote the late Satoshi Kon's third film, the urban fairytale Christmas movie, Tokyo Godfathers. This, too, focuses on an unlikely trio - three homeless people from vastly different backgrounds - and constantly pulls them apart and pushes them back together to create fully realized characters out of each of them. The grumpy alcoholic, Gin, easily tires of the ever-positive Hana's can-do attitude, while he clashes with the cynical Miyuki often because of how they are similar, not different. Hana finds her worldview, ironically, both challenged and affirmed by her less enthusiastic friends; Miyuki finds reason to carve out a place for herself in life by spending time with them, but doesn't realize this until she realizes she might not be with them forever. Kon's signature surreal, dream-like imagery is elevated by Nobumoto's grounded character writing, and she once again brings a breath of life to what would already be a phenomenal production.

Of course, if you want to see her at her most raw, there are also Nobumoto's wholly original series. She has written a number of live-action dramas that are all interesting and worth checking out if you can find them. Her original anime, Wolf's Rain, however, is perhaps Nobumoto at her most subdued. Featuring a large cast of characters in an elaborate fantasy world, Nobumoto focuses on where her strengths are, choosing to not outright explain hardly anything in the world she has created. Instead, the deep cast and their complex relationships define the plot and, in turn, the world around them. The result is a heady series that very much enjoys reveling in its own lore, while also building up and then delivering on intensely cathartic emotional story beats. Juggling these sometimes conflicting tasks, Wolf's Rain uses Nobumoto's thoughtful writing to please both hardcore fantasy fans and those looking for tear-jerking drama. It just goes to show that Nobumoto is right - the key to mastering tone is to craft complex, believable characters. After that, everything else should fall into place.