Roco Bonnaro

Roco Bonnaro is a minor supporting character in the Cowboy Bebop series, serving as the deuteragonist of the episode "Waltz for Venus". He's a bounty head and a member of Piccaro Calvino's gang who was caught smuggling a rare Grey Ash plant in hopes of using it to cure the blindness of his younger sister, Stella, induced by her Venus Sickness.
He's voiced by Ryūsei Nakao in japanese and by Tom Fahn in english.
== Personality ==
Roco is a cheerful and affable individual who's portrayed as being very kind, albeit with a short temper. He's shown to love his sister immensely and does everything in his power to give her a happy life, even if it means commiting crimes to do so. Because of his reckless nature, Roco is shown to be very selfless and, unlike his fellow criminals, tries his best to not get other innocent people involved in his activities. He has a very profound respect for Spike Spiegel ever since meeting him at the Venus airport, often calling him "master" for having taught him basic defensive martial arts. In return, Spike also ends up gaining a lot of respect for him after finding out his true intentions with the Grey Ash and admires his commitment to his goal, calling him a "terrific guy" after his death.
== History ==
=== Background ===
Roco Bonnaro was born in the planet of Venus, alongside his younger sister Stella. Due to her prolonged exposure to the spores that were released by the planet's plants, Stella developed a case of the so-called "Venus Sickness", which caused her to lose her vision on both of her eyes. Although she did not mind her own blindness and had, in fact, grown accostumed to it, Roco made it his life goal to find a way to find a cure for her. This led to him becoming involved on the criminal underworld and joining the gang of the famed crime lord Piccaro Calvino, as a means to get himself close to a sample of the "Grey Ash", (a rare plant that withers in contact with Venus' atmosphere) which was essential in the treatment for the Venus Sickness.
=== Waltz for Venus ===
Roco is first seen during a commercial space shuttle heading towards his home planet, Venus, which gets hijacked by three space terrorists known as Huey, Dewey and Louie. Spike Spiegel and Faye Valentine, who were aboard the flight and after their bounties, very quickly disarm the trio and incapacitate them. This catches Roco's attention, who's very much impressed by Spike's smooth fighting style. 
Once in the spaceport, Roco tries to haggle with a customer service on the price of the delivery of a package, to no avail. Roco resorts to threatening him and is only interrupted after he sees Spike from afar again. After giving the customer service officer a vague threat, Roco rushes towards Spike and tries to attack him with his knife, which Spike very quickly dodges and trips him over. After getting up, Roco explains that he had witnessed his fight with the terrorists and was very impressed with his fighting skills all the while begging Spike to teach him how to fight like him. Spike is initially dismissive of him and tries to ignore Roco, but eventually gives in. Outside of the spaceport, Spike starts teaching Roco, telling him that his abilities don't come from excessive strenght, but rather his fluid motions, which allow him to react effortlessly and channel his opponent's power to use against them. Their brief training session is soon interrupted by Piccaro Calvino's thugs who suddenly show up at the spaceport. With no explanation, Roco hands Spike his bag, containing the Grey Ash, and tells him to meet him the next day, before running away.
Eventually, Roco gets caught by Piccaro and his thugs in a public bathroom. He gets interrogated, beaten up and burned with cigarettes, but refuses to tell them the location of the plant, until Piccaro threatens his sister. A few hours later, Roco meets Spike with the plant at their arranged place. While he's initially happy to see him again, Roco very quickly becomes suspicious of him and draws his gun upon learning that he was a bounty hunter. Spike, who had just met with his sister in Venus and learned about her condition, makes it clear he's not interested in his bounty and tells him that he can have the plant. Knowing that Piccaro and his thugs nearby, Roco tells Spike to get out of there immediately before they kill him. After they're both surrounded by Piccaro's gang, Roco begs for him to spare Spike's life in exchange for the plant, but Piccaro refuses. Roco, angry, bravely fights back with him in order to give time for Spike to run away, which kickstarts a shootout between the gang members. Faye and Jet Black both arrive on their ships and start shooting on the gang members. During the fight, Roco gets attacked by a thug, but he very quickly dodges and knocks him off using Spike's teachings. Roco gets ecstatic for a brief moment, but just then, gets shot in the back by Piccaro Calvino and drops the plant's container, which breaks, causing it to quickly wither. After Faye arrests the crime lord, Spike rushes to help him. In his final moments, Roco tells Spike about the spare seeds he had hidden inside a music box on his home, telling him to use them on his sister's treatment. Before succumbing to his wounds, Roco wonders if he and Spike would have become friends had they met under different circumstances.
==== Legacy ====
After Roco's death, Spike uses the seeds and Roco's spare money to pay for Stella's treatment. He visits her once again before her surgery, where she tells him how she can't wait to be given her vision back and that she can't wait to finally be able to see her brother. However, upon noticing Spike's silence and his facial expressions, she realizes that Roco had died, leaving her saddened. Before Spike leaves her alone, Stella asks him how did Roco look like, to which Spike responds that she didn't need to see to know, and that he was a "terrific guy" and "exactly the person [she] thought he was".
== Gallery ==
File:Roco bonnaro watching spike.jpeg|Roco aboard the space shuttle watching as Spike defeats Huey, Dewey and Louie
File:Roco haggling.jpeg|Roco trying to haggle the delivery price of his package
File:Roco bonaro customer service.jpeg|Roco threatening the customer service officer
File:Roco and spike.webp|Roco begging Spike to train him
File:Roco stairs.jpg|Roco after climbing a set of stairs to talk with Spike
File:Roco medicine.jpeg|Roco offering Spike a medicine to cure his helium voice...
File:Roco and spike mint.webp|...only for him to find out it's actually just a throat drop
File:Roco bonnaro knife.jpeg|Roco attacking Spike with his knife during their training
File:Roco bonaro knocked out.jpeg|Roco after Spike knocks him down
File:Roco and spike training.jpg|Roco trying to understand Spike's teachings
File:Roco and spike grey ash.jpg|Roco giving Spike his Grey Ash before running away
File:Roco bonnaro mugshot.jpg|Roco's mugshot and bounty on Jet Black's computer
File:Roco bonnaro gun.jpeg|Roco drawing his gun at Spike after he tells him he's a bounty hunter
File:Roco gets shot.jpg|Rocco getting fatally shot on the back
File:Rocos death.webp|Roco's death
== Trivia ==
* Roco was one of the few characters from the series to have been absent from the Netflix live-action series (alongside the likes of V.T and Cowboy Andy) as the events from "Waltz for Venus" were not adapted in the series. However, it's possible that he was set to appear in the show's cancelled second season, though this was never confirmed.
== External Links ==
* Roco Bonnaro on the Cowboy Bebop Wiki
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