Cowboy Bebop

People who know me know that I'm not a fan of episodic anime series unless they're either one season (12-14 episodes) long or a slice of life series. Why? They have a tendency to get boring, or repetitive. But all rules and preferences have exceptions. You know what? Cowboy Bebop is that exception.

The story is set in a space western setting - a genre and setting I'm loving more and more for each show I watch that falls under the genre. We follow two bounty hunters, Spike and Jet, who own a ship called the Bebop. They travel the Solar system, chasing wanted criminals to ... earn money. Along the way, they also pick up two women; the debt-laden Faye Valentine and the playful kid and computer genius Edward (yes, Ed’s a girl).

Each episode brings about a new bounty which they chase after, and while that doesn't sound too exciting to watch 26 episodes in a row, you'll end up loving the show. All the different events makes for a certain degree of unpredictability, and you'll sometimes wonder how things will end. However, that alone is not enough to give the story the rating I've given it. So why have I given that rating? Let's continue...

One of the things that elevate the show a bit above the rest is the manner in which the main cast's pasts are explored. It's not like one flashback episode and you understand everything about how they are today. In one episode you might get one piece, and then the next one in another episode, and it's not until the final three episodes of the show that everything falls in place. This way of executing it makes you want to watch another episode, so that you can find out more about the characters (some may say that this falls in under "Character", but the manner in which the pasts are explored are more "Story" than "Character", IMO). Now, that's so far a 9 for the story. Why did it deserve a 10?

The answer is easy: the way they executed many scenes in the show. The contrasts which you get to see between, music, the setting of scenes and what's really happening just gives the story that extra edge deserving of a perfect score.

The characters are all really good and interesting fellows. Though they every now and then reminded me of characters from other shows, they preserved that originality which gave a feel that they were, if not completely, then at least a little bit more real than most characters out there. The way their pasts intertwine with the future and how everything ends with them confronting and settling open ends from their pasts is also something that's impressive to watch. I don't really have anything more to say than "perfect".

The animation is, for a 90s anime, stunningly good. The detail put into backgrounds and surroundings is really good, and I also love how good lighting effects and shading are at times. All of Ed’s strange movements are animated really nicely too. If there's something negative, it's the somewhat dull coloring (compared to today's standards), as well as poor effects when traveling in hyperspace.

The soundtrack is also astounding! The music used for the show is so incredibly varied, and while keeping mostly to the more jazzy tunes, the soundtrack visits so many genres that it's hard to not like at least a few pieces. What I also loved is the way the music was used not only as a medium to go with and amplify the mood, but also as a contrast to what's happening in several scenes. All in all, it's really amazing. Don't have anything to say against voice acting and other sound effects either.

All in all Cowboy Bebop is an anime that’s in the top tier on the greatness scale, and a show I believe every anime fan should give a try.

To 'Not Helpful' voters (and you 'Helpful' voters too): Feedback greatly appreciated =)

Cowboy Bebop is one of those series that is just impossible to criticize. Not because it has no flaws, but because it has rabid fans who will defend it to the death. It has obtained the mythical “classic armor,” which is an abhorrent carte blanche, bestowed upon only the most overrated of anime, that is used to automatically defend against any sort of legitimate criticism. Cowboy Bebop certainly has good qualities, and it is relevant in how it influenced western perception of anime, but it wasn't quite groundbreaking or revolutionary in and of itself. You could argue that its audiovisuals were in fact groundbreaking, but ... I think a work needs more than superficial qualities to be truly revolutionary or great.


Cowboy bebop borrows much from western media and pop culture in general. his show pays homage to or references, subtly and overtly, things as disparate as Antonio Banderas, Bruce Lee, John Woo, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Convoy, Biggie Smalls, Donald Duck, various mythologies and folktales, The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Bill Evans, Stray Cats, Alien, blaxploitation films, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Queen, George Clooney, Led Zeppelin, Django and other spaghetti westerns, Herbie Hancock, American and Japanese professional baseball, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Jean-Luc Godard, Batman, B.B. King, Beverly Hills 90210, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, The Unabomber, Heaven's Gate and Marshall Applewhite, Kiss, film noir, The Beatles, Sleeping Beauty, Bonny & Clyde, Ziggy Stardust, Charlie Parker, Woody Allen, Star Trek, Cool Hand Luke, and Taxi Driver. I kid you not. And that's not a complete list. References in character design and dialogue are forgivable, but when it straight up copies scenes and plots then I think it can be held against the show. I feel like I've seen Cowboy Bebop before, it's just been packed into a pretty package. I enjoyed a lot of these homages, but that does not excuse the marked lack of creativity. The mere evocation of a masterpiece does not make a masterpiece. Quentin Tarantino is an example of someone who uses pastiche and cultural references well, and most importantly, his references and homages don't make up his entire videography. There is far too little originality in Cowboy Bebop.


The fact is that Cowboy Bebop is the epitome of style over substance. I can appreciate it for its audiovisuals, but, to me, a show needs more than that to be a true masterpiece. Make no mistake though, it does have some of the best audiovisuals I've ever seen, and could arguably be considered a must-watch for that alone. The OST is good (despite also being a tad overrated,) the art is great, and the animation is extremely fluid. It should also be noted that Cowboy Bebop is one of the few anime that holds the distinction of having an English dub superior to the original Japanese. The atmosphere that the audiovisuals achieve is their greatest quality, and is distinct in almost every different setting. This is not done well in most space travel anime, and I have to applaud Cowboy Bebop for that achievement at least.


The main storyline consists of about 5 episodes, the rest of them being episodic individual stories. This wouldn't be a huge problem, but the episodic stories were hit or miss, and they never measured up to the main plot. Some of the non-main episodes focus on a character and their past, and this is good, but most of them are completely pointless and could be removed without anybody noticing. One of them was about fighting an alien-fungus-fridge-monster, it was an interesting and silly parody of Alien, but it contributed nothing to plot or character development. Considering how character driven this show is, that's a problem. There was also an entire episode paying homage to blaxploitation. Seeing as the allusion was presented in a more original way, and the episode showed a lot about Ed's character, that one was not only forgivable, but it was one of my favorite episodes. Like I said, hit or miss. There is an episode about catching a super-dog. There is an episode about a virus that turns people into monkeys. There is an episode where they chase a bomber (Woody Allen) with some help from a transsexual looking trucker. At least 4 episodes were easily 10s, but more of them were closer to 5s. The first 4 episodes were particularly weak, which is a huge problem in a 2 cour anime. The anime may have had a good conclusion, but the sub-par exposition cannot be ignored.


The main crew was made up of interesting and entertaining characters, and they prevented the episodic nature of the show from being a complete flop, although there were some unanswered questions about Faye's past in particular. Actually, strangely enough, the unanswered questions contributed to the splendid atmosphere. Everything had a rich backstory, but few flashbacks and no infodumps. This helped give the show its characteristic nostalgic atmosphere. One complaint I would have is that the main antagonist is simply not compelling, his motivations are somewhat unclear, and he's just one dimensional. He also uses a katana, even though it’s the future, and somehow still manages to kick ass. He’s just very cliché and lame. The antagonist in the movie was very well done with his depth, motives, and parallels to Spike, and that makes me wish Vicious got the same treatment, as it would fit his character far better, and his character is far more important.


One thing you should understand is that the characters are often good examples of clichés done well. Jet, for instance, is the typical hard-boiled former cop, but he is also the most empathetic of the crew. He is a foil to Spike and is hard working, but they also parallel in many ways. Ed is the teen genius/tomboy and hacker with little depth, but she also serves as a foil to Spike and many of his views on life. Faye is like a mix of all of the other characters' worst traits in terms of personality, but she still manages to be a sympathetic character. In fact, even though she keeps up her unpleasant exterior and despite her being the anime's main source of fanservice, she arguably experiences more development than any other character. Still, they lack any sort of real innovation, in anime or otherwise.


Despite all my criticisms, Cowboy Bebop is cool. It's very cool. The characters and aesthetics were compelling (for the most part) to the point where I even enjoyed some of the admittedly weaker episodes. I can't give it a 10, it's simply not a masterpiece. I can't give it a 9, it's not truly great. I can't give it an 8, it's too flawed and unoriginal. I don’t want to give it a 7, it was just too inconsistent. I have to settle on a 6.7 or so, which could be rounded either way. That said, an average of my story, art, sound, and character scores did give me around a 7.2.


Cowboy Bebop is enjoyable and it has wide appeal; I would probably recommend it to just about anybody. It was up and down in terms of quality, and it was similar to a slice-of-life in its episodic and relaxed nature and its lack of an explosive climax, but it was good. I liked how the anime takes place after the "important part" of the main characters' lives is over, and nostalgia becomes a huge theme, seeing as it was the first anime I ever watched and it thus evokes a huge sense of nostalgia for me anyway. I loved the laid back atmosphere. The problem is that after looking through all of the episodes and rating them individually, I realized that the majority of it was nothing special. With a little restraint and reworking, Cowboy Bebop could have been the masterpiece that it is widely regarded as, and it does hold a special place in my heart regardless, even if that is only due to it being my first anime. That bias is probably why I choose to round the score to 7, rather than to 6, despite the fact that the latter is typically the better practice.


I am always willing to defend and justify my scores so leave me a comment if you disagree, and tell me why I’m wrong. I say that because this does seem to be a pretty uncommon score, even among those whose opinions I have great respect for. Keep in mind that a 7 is a generous and good score in any case.

Only a few anime series or movies could be considered true classics, and one of the most notable shows to fall into this category is iconic not just for its style, design and animation, but also for the depth of its characters and its music.

That anime is Cowboy Bebop.

Story

Cowboy Bebop is told as a series of standalone episodes, each of which is only really connected to one another by the characters, with very few of them directly following on from one another. This method of storytelling is now termed as “episodic”, and while the format is now commonplace in anime, this series set the standard ... in its usage, and many purists believe it to be almost flawless in its execution of this storytelling style.

Sunrise, the production company behind the show, used this format as a tool to develop the characters in the show, and whilst many episodes are unique in terms of story content and plot, there is a strong connection to the rest of the series due to the strength of the characters, something which also applies to the movie Knocking on Heaven’s Door.

One of the big advantages to the show's storytelling method is that it allows the viewer to jump straight into the story at almost any point, however it should be noted that many shows that adopt the episodic format are often let down by poor character development. The fact that the series manages to develop its characters, and develop them well, is a testament to the strength of the individual episodes as standalone stories, and the personal history of each character (which becomes clearer as the series progresses). In essence, Cowboy Bebop is a more about the characters themselves and their relationships with each other, than it is about their “adventures”. There are a number of episodes where the viewer may feel a strong connection to the characters, their history,mannerisms, pet peeves, etc, something which is difficult enough to accomplish in a normal sequential story. Achieving this in an episodic story is a mark of the quality of the series.


Art/Animation

The animation in Cowboy Bebop is amongst the best seen in anime, and even though it is now over a decade old, it still manages to hold its own in terms of animation and character design with more modern action oriented shows. Sunrise, who generally do an excellent job on animation, really pushed the boat out with this series, and when compared with other shows that were released around the same time (Outlaw Star for example), it can clearly be seen that the art, animation and character design in Cowboy Bebop is something special. The animation during the numerous action sequences is especially impressive and the character movements are free-flowing and naturalistic.

The art, while not vibrant with flashy colours, portrays the feeling, attitude and environmental influences for the characters perfectly. The numerous locales which the crew of the Bebop visit are rendered in stunning detail, adding a surreal sense of realism to the show, whilst the character designs were a work of brilliance, and allows each character a mark of individuality even before they spoke.

Sound

The quality of the soundwork used in Cowboy Bebop is what really sets it apart from other anime series. The music was composed by the world renowned Yoko Kanno, and performed by The Seatbelts, a band specifically formed by Kanno to perform the music for the series. The music is a strange mix of blues, classic rock and jazz, and while at first this may seem an odd choice for a sci-fi series, the music works extremely well in the setting as it reflects the generally lackadaisical attitude adopted by the crew of the Bebop. Even today, the soundtrack for this anime is unique in terms of style and composition. The opening theme, Tank!, has become one of the most influential pieces in anime history, and one of the few anime based music tracks to be appreciated by music lovers with no background in anime or manga.

The sound effects in the series are also well done. The various locations are vibrant with background noises, from the hum of the Bebop's engines and the sound of gulls by the sea, to the hubbub of a crowded street. The many gunshots and explosions are clear and sound almost as though you're standing right in the middle of the wild gun battles.

Whilst the Japanese voice actors do an excellent job with each of the four main characters, this is one of the rare anime shows out there where many prefer the English cast over the original Japanese. Cowboy Bebop is one of the few anime in existence where the English dub is equal to, if not better than, the original Japanese version.

Characters

Cowboy Bebop has some of the most original and memorable characters to appear in anime. Spike, Jet, Faye and Ed are four of the most enigmatic individuals to found in the medium, and upon seeing them, the viewer will probably wonder how they work together when all of them come from diversely different backgrounds with opinions that clash with one another.

Spike and Jet are most definitely "The Odd Couple" of sci-fi anime, or indeed any genre of anime you care to name. Their conflicting personalities bounce off each other like peas on a drum, and once Faye is added to the mix it becomes a potent brew of character interaction. It is through this interaction that the viewer is more able to empathise with each character, and the slow but steady revelations about their pasts, told wonderfully through flashbacks and reunions, have far greater impact because of this empathy. The characters are so well defined that many scenes which would normally appear mundane in other anime are just as memorable in this series as the action scenes (one springs to mind - Spike and Jet eating eggs after Faye, Ed and Ein leave the ship).

Enjoyment

Cowboy Bebop is a sci-fi western with equal parts humour and seriousness, and is already considered by many within the anime community to be a classic. There is a level of sophistication in both the story and its characters that is rare for a show, regardless of whether it is an anime or not. The great cast, the heavy drama tempered with bouts of comedy, the excellent music, all serve to cement its place in the hearts and minds of anime fans the world over. It is a testament to its quality that there is only one show, anime or otherwise, that can be held up as a fair comparison (Joss Whedon’s Firefly). This is considered by many to be a “must-see” series as it is a testament to what can be achieved in anime with the right ingredients.

The only downside to this anime would be the lack of a continuous story. Because of this, the series lacks the "epic saga" feel upon which many sci-fi stories are judged. However, the depth of each character, together with the strength of their individual stories, is more than enough to carry this series.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This review is the final result of a review team composed of members from the "Critics and Connoisseurs" club. The team members were:

Archaeon - Writer and editor
Fallen101 - Writer and editor
Vindemon64 - Writer and editor

Here are their individual scorings for the show:
Category - Archaeon, Vindemon64, Fallen101

Story - 8, 7, 8
Art - 9, 10, 7
Sound - 10, 10, 10
Character - 9, 10, 10
Enjoyment - 10, 9, 9
Overall - 9, 9, 8.5

In the club wide poll held for Cowboy Bebop it received an average overall rating of 8.73

Cowboy Bebop was one of the first anime that truly impressed me.
One of the first anime that convinced me the anime genre as a whole had something going for it, that anime has qualities that separate it from other forms of entertainment.
It is a show that has withstood the test of time and is often viewed as a masterpiece by many. With such popularity and praise there is bound to be a group of the opposite extreme that dislike the show. Now I bear in my mind that although this group is a minority their points are valid. As a reviewer I look at ... all angles and try my best to keep bias at an all time low.
Having said that, regardless of my attempts to locate the flaws of this show my overall consensus is that Cowboy Bebop is in multiple ways a masterpiece.

Here Goes The Review (Spoilers are at a Minimum)

Story~9.5
When most people think about what society would be like by the time space exploration is achieved they imagine a society that is more organized, coherent, and advanced. This is one of the key misconceptions that cause Cowboy Bebop’s story to shine.
We start our episodic space journey in an environment that is futuristic yet in many ways primitive. Watanabe Shinichiro’s depiction of the Cowboy Bebop universe seamlessly fuses the attitudes and tensions of a western shooter with the atmosphere of vast unexplored space. Due to the inability of the police to handle all criminals in such a large area bounty hunting is encouraged through media. Our four main characters (discussed more in the character section) just so happen to be bounty hunters that are all unwillingly bound together by greed, revenge, coincidence, and or desire. Furthermore, little to no background information is given about any of the characters from the beginning. Each character has a past that is hinted throughout many episodes. Slowly, the audience learns of the sins, misfortunes, and tragedies that quietly haunt those aboard the spaceship of Bebop.

And so this is the world us, the viewers, are thrust into and what an amazingly unique barren world it is. Being for the most part episodic, viewers may be deterred by the looseness and seemingly pointlessness of certain episodes. Be aware that although episodic, each episode develops the characters and is key to forming the bonds that will ultimately culminate the multiple climaxes of the story.

Art~9.5
Do not let age fool you. Despite being over a decade and a half old the animations in Cowboy Bebop are amazing in providing the dangerous rugged environment of criminal filled space. In fact, the 1998 art is more of a positive than a negative. Gone are the crisp saturated art of modern day. The outdated animations contribute greatly to the classy western style of the anime. Everything from the smoke of cigarettes to guns ablazing are portrayed brilliantly. The choreography of martial arts and space flight is done in a fluid and smooth fashion. The characters look great and production never seems to dip for a single moment.

Three simple words can summarize the art: Rugged yet Classy~

And so in trying my absolute best to pinpoint the flaws of the art I am both reluctant and glad to announce that I have failed in doing so. Cowboy Bebop’s art is amazingly well done even for today’s standards. Knowing in the back of your head that this art originates from 1998 is just icing on the cake.

Sound~10
Earlier in my review I talked about how with much praise and popularity ultimately spawns a group with ideals of the opposite extreme. I wholeheartedly believe that it is safe to say that regardless of your ideas about Cowboy Bebop, everyone can agree that the music in this anime is absolutely amazing. So amazing that without the music I believe that Cowboy Bebop would never have achieved the success it has had to this day.
Never have I come across another example such as Cowboy Bebop where the music is such an integral part of the show.
From the Blues riffs of slide guitars to the unmatched soul of harmonica solos, the music in Cowboy Bebop does its job 110%. To say that the the music is fitting would be an understatement. Cowboy Bebop’s music boosts the atmosphere and situation of every scene to its highest potential and provides a convincing atmosphere like no other.

The dub of Cowboy Bebop is the arguably the most highly praised dub ever produced in the anime industry. Watanabe Shinichiro himself has even stated that he believed the English dub surpasses the Japanese dub, a feat that is notoriously rare. Every character’s voice is portrayed brilliantly with every word filled with real human emotion. Convincingly raw and powerful, I have yet to stumble across another instance where the voice acting was this well done. I honestly can not think up a single flaw of the voice acting even while keeping bias at a minimum. The English voice acting is truly a one of a kind in a world of horribly ear wrenching dubs.

The OP and the ED of Cowboy Bebop are probably one of the most popular Opening and Ending Themes of all time. The OP ("Tank!" by The Seatbelts) is a jazzy explosion of adrenaline. Listening to it is a joy and pumps the viewer’s eagerness to watch the episode. It keeps you on your feet and is in many ways the most famous trademark of the Cowboy Bebop series. The ED for most of the show ("The Real Folk Blues" by The Seatbelts feat. Mai Yamane) is equally as amazing but instead of pumping the viewer’s eagerness the ED in turn helps the viewer digest what was just displayed on the screen. Listening to the ED causes heartwarming scenes to be that much more heartwarming while heartbreaking scenes to be that much more heartbreaking. The Real Folk Blues is a beautiful jazzy blues inspired song sung over with Mai Yamane’s powerful voice. The ED only changes twice in the anime, each change being only for one episode. As a reviewer I would not feel right about spoiling the timing of the ED changes because they are in my opinion some of the most powerful moments of the anime. And so this last bit I shall let the viewer experience.

Character~10
Cowboy Bebop has one of the most memorable casts of any show I have ever watched. They are eccentric, unique, strong willed, and powerfully convincing.
We have Spike Spiegel who is a male bounty hunter in his late twenties that is trying to escape an inescapable past; Jet Black, the father like figure of the spaceship Bebop who has been stricken by unjust tragedies; Faye Valentine, the strong independent con artist who is kept in the dark about her own life; and last but not least Edward, the androgynous female teenage hacker with a background as confusing as herself.
As mentioned earlier they are for the most part unwillingly bound together by greed, revenge, coincidence, and or desire. This is what is so great about the characters in Cowboy Bebop… they all start off the show hating each other!
The reluctant and slow change of their relationships is humorous,real, and convincing.

The climatic points of the show are the episodes in which bits and pieces of each crew member’s past is slowly revealed. We get to see and feel what they were hiding and the raw emotions that they feel. Each character is its own little mystery that keeps the audience in the dark.

Easily the most impressive aspect of Cowboy Bebop is the portrayal of the characters. The crew deals with grief, anger, sadness, and all else in their own unique ways and rarely deviate. How Shinichiro portrays this uniqueness is simply amazing. The characters NEVER falter and always stay true to themselves. As the episodes roll by, the audience starts to understand why each character acts the way they do and can relate. This understanding makes it unbearably easy for the audience to become emotionally attached to each crew member as we share their pain and memories.

All in all, the characters of Cowboy Bebop are outstanding. Their strengths overcome their flaws when united as a whole. Beautifully drawn and creative, Shinichiro has invented a golden cast.

Overall/Enjoyment~10
Even after watching dozens of anime after Cowboy Bebop it still strongly remains one of my few masterpieces.

Amazing Story
Beautiful and Impressive Art
Gorgeous Heart Pounding Music
A Cast like no Other

Cowboy Bebop is in my eyes a masterpiece of entertainment with its flaws being few and far in between.
An instant classic and an easy 10 out of 10.

Cowboy Bebop is an episodic series. By episodic, I mean that one episode doesn't necessarily lead or follow the next one. With that being said, don't expect a lot of "plot" in this series. You watch Cowboy Bebop for the characters, plain and simple. Spike, Faye, Jet, Ed, Ein are what make this anime arguably one of the most memorable series ever produced. The music is awesome (especially if you're a fan of Jazz), the animation is top notch (considering when the series came out), and the enjoyment value is second to none.

While a lot of people want that "similar episode" feel, if you're the ... kind of person that enjoys a fast paced anime (with each character getting his or her own spotlight), this is for you. If you're not the type to enjoy fast paced, bounty huntin' fun, and rather you like deep thought provoking, dark, mysterious shows...don't watch Cowboy Bebop. Vicious (one of the characters) may be able to bring a little of that sinister side for you, but this isn't that kind of show.

Cowboy Bebop has something that the anime world has seem to have forgotten in a coinpurse somewhere: balls.

I don't mean just any kind of balls. I mean huge, sweaty, hairy testicles that swing back and forth like wrecking balls at the sheer hint of thigh movement. The atom-slicing power of these balls could level Detroit in a single blow. I'm not talking about the steroid ravaged, "mom where's the protein" balls of TTGL or G Gundam either. Those are anime you put on right after you inject yourself with bull-shark testosterone and deadlift 440 lbs. No, the balls Cowboy Bebop slaps on the table are ... of a different caliber; a different breed entirely, than the balls other anime, good and bad, have displayed in the past. They exude confidence without devolving into double-down, Long Island guido douchebaggery---they stand ice-cold in their manliness but aren't afraid to deliver one powerful scene after another. They aren't concerned with pretentious, Freudian mindfuckery, and they're past the "edginess" of gore, tits, and embarrassing profanity. There's no shitty gimmicks or pandering, and they don't let themselves fall victim to the stereotypes of what anime is supposed to be. Like Goku and Vegeta, or white people in Baltimore, they are the last of a dying breed.

Cowboy Bebop is an anime in the most basic sense of the word. In reality, it's a 26 episode, moving piece of artwork, taking influence from cultures in vastly different parts and time periods of the world. It's film noir, Chinatown style. It's The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, with Clint Eastwood's patented ice-cold asswhippery and Sergio Leone's masterful spaghetti western storytelling. It's 1930s New Orleans, Louisiana. It's Star Wars. It's Enter the Dragon. It's a culmination of the spiciest cultural influences from the far east to the shores of the west, and it's honestly the best experience with an anime you will ever have. Some people have a bone to pick with the episodic nature of the plot, but pay no mind to them. Each new episode is like a blank slate, individually developed and shaped into a unique piece; a miniature story that calls upon a fresh set of inspirations to give it a flavor all its own. The overarching plot of the show is subtle but existent; it draws upon all sorts of themes and motifs like love and revenge, and is quietly woven throughout the series until it finally takes precedence at the end. Despite this, the transition from standalone episodes to the overall story feels natural. Some shows force plot elements onto you like an American businessman on a young Filipino girl (ever see the second arc of Death Note?), but the progression here is cool Lester smooth. You can choose to take in the show however you want to---you can relish in the individual beauty of each episode or you can view the show as one coherent story, continually building off of itself. Either way, you end up with something that's completely genuine and one of a kind---there's no other anime like it.

While Cowboy Bebop isn't really associated with VIP quality artwork like it is with VIP quality soundtracks, Bebop has literally some of the best artwork in anime, ever. For some reason when you bring up the artwork from any pre-2000s anime, people get all condescending, like anything released before 2001 was drawn completely in purple crayon by Ms. Johnson's 8:30 AM kindergarten class. I've lost count of how many times I've heard stunning 90s animation cut down as "dated" by people that praise the emotionless, passionless digital animation of today. If anyone ever tells you Bebop's art is anything less than outstanding, punch them in the uterus for me. The animation is spectacular---the movement is surprisingly natural and the action is fluid. Watch a few of the fight scenes and you'll see why the creative staff of Naruto were reduced to ripping off one from the Cowboy Bebop movie, frame for frame. A lot of the character designs did away with traditional anime characteristics: bodies are proportional, even going so far as to downsize their usually massive eyes to a smaller, more manageable scale. The designs themselves are a treat to look at, and they fit the personalities of the characters pretty solidly. The action scenes themselves are varied, ranging the gauntlets from fistfights to dogfights and everything in between. If you don't think watching losers getting their shit wrecked is awesome, you will by the end of this show. Fuck, even the CG is good, if a little rough. The amount of detail Sunrise put into the animation is just, totally astonishing---even with the technological advancements of today it still takes a dump all over most of the artwork that's been put out in the past decade or so.

Now, again, Cowboy Bebop is associated primarily with its soundtrack. There's a particularly good reason for this, and it's because it's literally the best soundtrack you'll ever hear. While most anime, especially today, resort to typical gutter trash j-pop, the music of Bebop is an ensemble of jazz, blues, classical, funk, rock, with a little pop and even a little heavy metal. You get a nice introduction to what's in store from the OP---Tank is a kick in the ass and its only amplified by what's probably the best opening in all of anime. After an entire episode of fucking outrageous tracks, you close with The Real Folk Blues which is beautiful and totally melancholy. You will want to own every OST by the end of the show; other shows might have good music but I don't think I've ever seen a show with a soundtrack that's just as good if listened to like a regular old album. From Space Lion to Ask DNA, Yoko Kanno constantly hits it out of the park, and without her Bebop wouldn't have that signature vibe it's so well known for.

Also, the English dub is the best dub ever made. Period. If you watch this subbed you might as well kick yourself in the balls and set your computer on fire because you're depriving yourself of what is some of the best voice acting anime has ever seen. As much as I respect the Japanese voice actors and don't want to minimize their work, I don't even know what the hell they sound like because the dub is that fucking good. Trust me, even if you spit on dubs like they're a woman on the Maury show or a degree from ITT Tech, you need to give this one a chance. There is no weak link among the voice actors; every voice fits its character perfectly---every performance is Oscar worthy in its own right. It's honestly god-tier.

As for the characters, well, without them the show is nothing. Literally, the characters make this show. If you swapped them out for any other cast, the result would be a vastly inferior series about a group of douchebags on a gay spaceship who hang around shitholes and fuck with losers all day. Instead, what we're given is probably one of the most dramatic and artistic character pieces ever put to film. Each character feels like a living, breathing person, with their own faults and imperfections and checkered pasts. They don't just feel like plot devices for carrying a story along. The way they interact with each other and grow as people throughout all their exploits feels authentic and real, and their development over time is part of what makes Bebop so classic. Like real people, they constantly fight and bicker amongst one another but it's that bickering, and the experiences they have together, that draws them closer as a group. It's this approach to characterization that really pulls Bebop together as a whole---each character has their own story to tell and slowly, as you work your way through the series, you find out what those stories are. You have Spike, the smoothest, most ice cold motherfucker this side of the Milky Way, who brings a little humanity to the "live life in the fast lane and kick a shit ton of asses while you do it" lifestyle that he leads alongside his life partner Jet, who despite his ruggedness really serves as kind of a father figure to the group. Faye's past envelops her otherwise forward and strong personality, and Edward is just straight up goofy, but in an endearing way that actually makes you smile. Their trials and tribulations amongst each other and others from both their past and their present are entertaining, engrossing, and touching---again, without them, the show wouldn't be nearly what it is today.

I think the sheer quality and accessibility of this anime gives a lot of people the wrong idea, because I constantly see people recommending this as a great "first anime" for trying to get people into the medium. Cowboy Bebop was one of the first anime I saw, but I think using it as an introduction sends people the wrong message about what they should expect from most of the anime they'll see. Cowboy Bebop is a pinnacle in visual entertainment precisely because it's able to shed the typical "skin" of an anime and develop into something much deeper and more culturally rich. There's a lot of great anime out there, and the more anime I watch the more of it I discover. But starting with something so dissimilar to the majority of what anime is will give people a skewed perception of what anime should be right from the start. I guess this is the only way to get some people to sit down and actually watch a cartoon, but for others you're setting them up for disappointment down the road.

Enjoyment? It's the best anime I've ever seen. That's the only way I can describe how I feel about it. It'll make you laugh, it'll make you cry (keyword you, I don't have tear ducts so I can't cry. Tragic accident, I don't want to talk about it). It'll make you think, it'll make you feel. It might give you a boner. It's untouchable. It's ice cold. It's a classic.

It's the best anime I've ever seen.

Cowboy Bebop is, in effect, an episodic, slice of life sort of series revolving around our Space Cowboys (and girls) Spike, Jet, Faye and Ed. This review is here to tackle some points about the series I feel are worth mentioning, as I know it's all been said before.

Now Cowboy Bebop has it all; great characters with good backstories, smooth animation, amazing music and lots of humor. So why don't I love it? Quite simply, Cowboy Bebop was a frustrating experience for me! I watched the series on and off over a couple of months, far longer than it normally takes for me to finish ... a series this short. I found it very off-putting that, with such interesting characters, the creators chose to spend so much time doing nothing with them!

As others have mentioned, each episode is a hit or a miss. Some tackle the main characters, mix in some plot, throw in new characters or ideas and are just amazing overall. And then others are meandering and pointless.

Now this is found in any slice-of-life series, it comes with the package. But in Cowboy Bebop it especially bothered me to spend an episode watching some character do something I could care less about when there are four amazing, interesting characters with stories that could fill several seasons sitting around and not getting anywhere!

Vicious and Julia for example; why did we spend an episode watching Jet's old friend's daughter come to grips with her father's lack of affection for her? I honestly can't remember. And then you have Vicious and Julia's very few appearances despite being characters very important in the overall plot and intriguing characters in their own right.

So before you hit the non helpful button, please remember that I do hold the series in high regard. It is a very well-made series that raises many interesting questions and concepts; and while some episodes frustrated me, others fascinated me. There's nothing wrong with the series, and I know many people like it's meandering nature and enjoy the lack of an over-arching plot (which, by the way, was rather tidily summed up in two eps at the end, nicely done).

While my objective opinion is that it is a well-made series, well worth a watch, my subjective view wishes it was different, that it had been a story about Spike's past, about Vicious, about their friendship, about Julia's love and Jet and Faye's stories as well. It is because I loved the characters so much that I wanted more of them, wanted to see them more, know them more.

Why are you still reading my review? Go check it out!

There’s nothing quite like it when you come off an anime and realize how much it has built itself as this vital piece of art that has since transcended its ever-present influence on other mediums. This particular show, named Cowboy Bebop, definitely lived up to the legacy it deserves of being the pinnacle of late ’90s anime that would influence a wide variety of anime leading up to the new millennium. Even with that being said, that’s not to say that Cowboy Bebop has its fair share of hiccups.

But before I get into that, it is essential to distinguish the inevitable nature that director Shinichirō ... Watanabe constructed from the ground up to make Cowboy Bebop’s world vibrant and distinct. Since Cowboy Bebop has separate plot arcs within each episode, with some continuity within its main cast, the show has a great sense of exploratory mystery behind every story being told. You have the feeling of wanting to know these actual people and locations because of how incredibly different they all are. They each have their distinct look and atmosphere to them. As Watanabe is vastly known, he loves to mix different types of genres into one show to make them feel unique in his eyes. Usually, this could cause an anime to lose some main focus on what it wants to be, but Cowboy Bebop, thanks to its plot structure, paces these genres evenly to make us know its true identity.

Along with mixing these genres, the sense of direction that encapsulates Cowboy Bebop as a whole transcends itself to a whole new level of creativity. The noir aspect of the show adds a lot more depth to its atmosphere, from its attention-grabbing shootout scenes to the silent moments that hook you instantaneously. There are some comedy elements to be seen in Cowboy Bebop, and the writers time it very well and give all the characters great charm to provide reliable, entertaining moments. They don’t just contain physical comedy by any stretch, but instead, the writing is very sharp and witty whether you’re watching it dubbed or subbed.

Memorable characters are in no shortage in Cowboy Bebop, at least within its main cast. Spike Spiegel, Faye Valentine, Jet Black, and Edward are the quintessential quartet to be studied if you want to replicate a great form of characters such as this. They are not just good because of their tremendous character growth, but the fantastic chemistry they all have whenever they are on-screen together. At first, they all act very indecently to each other. It isn’t until throughout several episodes that they genuinely try to care for one another, yet they still feel the slight edge to go on their own for better or worse.

Spike is often regarded as the best character, and they aren’t entirely wrong in saying so. He has an alluring presence where he isn’t just some strong individual who can handle himself in any given situation or this average person. He has the wit and personality to be both of these personalities, and you want to root for him because of his likable persona. It would be a crime not to mention the Dubbed performance by famed voice actor Stephen Blum who manages to make Spike have a lot suave with his extraordinary voice. And for that matter, almost all of the English dubbed voice actors work to make Cowboy Bebop one of the few instances where the dubbing is just as good, if not better, than the original Japanese voice acting.

Faye Valentine provides some of the funniest, sarcastic humor to Cowboy Bebop. You could easily chalk her character archetype as a way to push a female character in a predominantly male present cast to let the males have their way with her body. However, they manage to make Faye into a girl who doesn’t take any crap from anyone and has complete control over anything that she finds wrong in her mind. Then we have Edward, who is by far the most eccentric character of the show because she’s in her little world where nothing seems to make her overly pessimistic, no matter how grave a situation might be. What makes her fascinating to watch is her growth as a person while at the same time viewing her child-like charm in the same way we would have viewed Edward’s way of thinking as a child. Every time she’s on-screen, there is a good chance anything is possible in terms of comedic dialogue being thrown out, and they are all fantastic to listen to. Lastly is Jet Black, who’s the most logically, down-to-earth character in the show, other than maybe Spike in most cases. While he may be the lesser of the three leads, there is no doubt to be made that Jet has his fair share of memorable moments that grows him into an actual three-dimensional character like the rest.

With this being said about our four main heroes, the rest of the side characters that crop up in these plot arcs are not spectacular or memorable. Even the show's main villain doesn’t leave much of an impression in being a noteworthy villain as initially anticipated. This problem could be forgiven slightly, considering they have only one episode to build them up, but that is not to say all of them are not noteworthy, with the Dr. Lobbes character being the best of the bunch. Considering that he was in one of the best episodes that weren’t the last three episodes that succeeded it.

Around the time when Cowboy Bebop first aired, anime recently had begun somewhat of a transitional period where it started to incorporate very challenging, philosophical themes into its narrative. The other two that come to mind are Neon Genesis Evangelion and Serial Experiments Lain. That’s not to say anime did not have anything like this before, but Cowboy Bebop and the other shows I mentioned pushed it off the stream of consciousness into the anime community. With that said, Cowboy Bebop seems to be the one that is the most subtle way of detailing its philosophical themes involving existential concepts. This approach to integrating these themes is both a service and a disservice to the show’s credit.

Although it is very admirable for Bebop to showcase its themes in a non-preachy scenario or get muddled into strange concepts that contradict each other, it subtly limits it from doing anything with most of the narrative plot arcs. You can basically watch Cowboy Bebop and have all of them fly over your head, and you would still have the same experience, but once you do notice them, there’s not a lot of meat for our brains to digest or digest comprehend. The show's finale has a significant implication of putting them all together. Still, in the long run, they don’t add up to anything other than trying to throw out whatever philosophical theme that might seem the most probable in these given situations.

While that aspect wasn’t necessarily one of the show’s best highlights, the plot that carries the main narrative is relatively serviceable and brings up one of the most poignant finales I’ve ever seen in anime. When you feel the growth that all of these characters go through, you never want these characters to go away from one another because of how amazing they play off one another. Once I saw them go their separate ways for a moment, without spoiling any of the necessary details, I almost felt upset that they were even inclined to do so in the first place. Because of the amount of care given to make the personalities of these characters genuine and delightful, the contemplative nature near the finale feels very sincere. If that is writing that could not be considered significant by that fact alone, I don’t know what is.

I’ve always believed that Yoko Kanno is one of the best composers to be working in anime to this day, and Cowboy Bebop reigns as the best-coordinated orchestration that she ever did. The opening itself garners some needed praise not only for its recognizable melodies and instrumentation but for how it captures the feel and tone of Cowboy Bebop as a whole. What fits Yoko’s style of instrumentation and Watanabe’s creative vision is how they both have the same way of mixing different types of music and genres that make them feel very on-point with the direction of the art style and the score that goes with it. Yoko’s fantastic blend of jazz, traditional orchestration, guitar rock, and occasional electronics create the ultimate soundtrack that would be worthy of being listened to without the need for the show’s visuals to accompany it.

Does Cowboy Bebop deserve the number of perfect accolades that it has gotten for the past decade or so? In most aspects, it certainly does. There is simply nothing out there that is quite like it in terms of authentic style and flair that is on-screen back then and now. It manages to perfectly pace the witty humor from the deep drama that engulfs each character and the confrontations they have to face, one way or the other. If anything, the characters are enough to warrant a watch of their unique chemistry, and the plot can be well-serviceable for anyone willing to experience it. It’s a show that literally goes off with a bang and soars ever so gently off into the blissful reaches of the heavens. This space cowboy can prove himself worthy of being called such a title in great character stories such as this.

Grade: A-

"Cowboy Bebop" reeks. It really does. It reeks of originality, it reeks of attitude, but most of all, it reeks of perfection.

I'm not gonna bother writing about how cool the main protagonist Spike Spiegel is, or how colourful the rest of the cast are - those are established facts and have been discussed to death already, so I'm gonna write about what makes "Cowboy Bebop" different instead. Almost everything about it is unusual. It's a clash of a huge number of often contradicting styles that, on paper, looks like disasters waiting to happen. However, the reality is that "Cowboy Bebop" takes everything in its stride ... and pulls off the stunt with flying colours. It catches the attention straight away with its strikingly retro opening sequence reminiscent of a typical jazzy 70/80's TV series. The feel of the anime itself is a seamless marriage of anime sci-fi and American westerns, backed up by some slick jazz/blues (as well as other African-American influenced) sound track. Even discounting these obvious western influences, it's still very un-anime like in a lot of respects - the art style goes for what I would call stylish realism, it's very slightly comically oriented, with no giant eyed cuteness or super distortions in sight. The humour it uses is also mostly toned down, subtle, western humour as opposed to the in your face, over the top slap stick found in most other anime. And yet, at other times, its anime roots shine through brightly - for example the character design of Vicious, with his katana and grey/white hair, is about as anime as you can get (well, maybe he could do with longer hair, like Sephiroth's from Final Fantasy VII).

Even in its content, "Cowboy Bebop" breaks new ground. It doesn't go for a long continuous plot, but instead opts for the episodic format, but with one flagship storyline spanning 5 episodes that pops in during various parts of the series. This doesn't sound special by itself, but what is remarkable is the sheer diversity found in the episodes. It proclaims itself to be a work that "becomes a new genre in itself", which might sound arrogant to the point of delusional. But this bold, swaggering claim actually has a ring of truth to it. "Cowboy Bebop" is like a huge number of genres combined, and yet doesn't fully fit into any particular one simply because it's composed of so many. Like one of those annoying people that you used to know from school who is good at everything, whatever genre "Cowboy Bebop" touches turns to gold. The comedy is hilarious, the action is edge of the seat stuff, and the horror themed episodes do manage to create a kind of unsettling atmosphere of anticipation and suspense. I think almost everyone will find something to their taste. Moreover, since I haven't anything like this done before, and anything that comes after that dares to attempt anything that's even remotely similar will be seen as copying (for example, even though "Samurai Champloo", produced by the same person, is an undoubted success, it had no where near the impact of "Cowboy Bebop"), "Cowboy Bebop" has effectively cemented itself as a unique experience in a class of its own.

Quite a few of the episodes in "Cowboy Bebop" reveals some of the characters' backgrounds, but they don't reveal everything. For the most part, only subtle hints are given, and you're left to join up the sparsely distributed dots using your own imagination. Usually I hate this kind of thing, but you know what? In the special case of "Cowboy Bebop", it somehow WORKS. In this case, less is more, the show's incomplete state feels just right, and the tantalising bits of clues and short flashbacks piece together into a enigmatic, fragmental past that adds to rather than detract from the flavour of the anime. There is no better example of this than during the flagship storyline where we catch a glimpse of Spike's mysterious past. In fact these episodes deserves special mention - they are clearly meant to be the diamonds amongst the gems. In crafting these episodes, the creators obviously asked themselves the question: the short stories' collective strength lies their variety, so what can we do with this central attraction to make it stand out? The answer was obvious: it was to make it into something that's the very definition of awesomeness. And boy did they achieve it. The general gist of this story is Spike settling scores with Vicious, an old enemy from his little known past. It's a classic set up that's been used many, many times before, and on the face of it, "Cowboy Bebop" doesn't really bring anything new to the table. But saying this segment of "Cowboy Bebop" is just another one of those show down between nemesis stories is like saying J. S. Bach is just another Baroque composer. Bach was not known as an innovator, and distinguished himself as the greatest composer of his time simply by being so much better than everyone else. In the same way, "Cowboy Bebop" took a much used idea and, despite not doing anything that's different, produced something that's on a completely different plane to everything else. Everything about "Cowboy Bebop" is already smooth and polished, but in those episodes the production somehow manages to climb up yet another level, and every single fiber of it is executed to perfection.

That Spike vs Vicious segment of "Cowboy Bebop" is so good in fact, that viewers often mistake it as the only story "Cowboy Bebop" is trying to tell, and thus the other episodes naturally gets mistaken as fillers, and this is one of the most common criticisms levelled at "Cowboy Bebop" - it's composed almost entirely of fillers. But I think this is missing the whole point of the series. Just like a serious show should not be faulted for not being funny, "Cowboy Bebop" should not be faulted for being episodic, but should be judged based on what it's trying to achieve. What it is trying to achieve is variety, and thus purposefully avoided the continuous story format. Those "fillers" are essential building blocks towards achieving this aim, and so shouldn't really be regarded as fillers at all. Real fillers would be like in "Full Moon wo Sagashite", where they actually got a continuous story to tell, but instead of telling it chose to go faffing around on mostly unrelated mini adventures that nearly put me to sleep. The key question is does "Cowboy Bebop" deliver what it's trying to deliver, and there is no doubt in my mind that is does.

It's generally acknowledged that "Cowboy Bebop" is not a deep anime, so the fact that shows up at the top of so many critics' list arguably makes it the biggest triumph for a style over substance anime. The show's ending theme is called "The Real Folk's Blues" (ironically, it's actually a rock song) - rather appropriately, I thought, because this series frequently give rise to some of the most contemplative, melancholy moments despite not being terribly deep. These kind of moments often left me with a feeling of immense fulfilment as the end credits starts to roll. Perhaps it's this engimatic quality that lends it that special aura. It may not be my personal favourite, but unlike, say, "Elfen Lied", I can certainly see why it deserves to be labelled as the greatest ever - I, for one, am not about to argue against it.

Story, Character, and Enjoyment: 10/10 Drama Llama?
Cowboy Bebop is probably the most amazing anime I have had the privilege of watching. Even now, seven years after watching it for the first time I am having difficulty putting it into words. What is so unique about it is how the episodes don't link together, but instead mainly focus on a character or two. Director Shinichiro Watanabe did such an amazing job flushing out the characters whether the current episode shows them living their day-by-day life in the present, or delving into a certain characters unique past it really makes the Cowboy Bebop universe seem tangible. ... Unfortunately this is also Cowboy Bebop's downfall. Not because it's bad, but because so many people pass this by thinking it has no story. To those that think this is the case I encourage you to go back, and watch the whole thing. Not only does this anime give you the most amazing character development it manages to weave in a story along the way right under your nose. Until the last two episodes hit, then you will understand what it was all about. When it was all said and done for me my first time through, and the series came to an end, I felt like I had just witnessed my best friend get run over by a bus. Most people probably think that sounds terrible, but it takes something truly great to yank that much emotion out of you.

Animation: 10/10 Keepin' it real.
CB's animation is truly something to behold. It matches very well with the character development in making the whole series seem tangible. Character proportions are well regulated, and maintained through the whole thing. Which is very important to me in an anime. It does a much better job then huge block buster animes being released now, e.g. Naruto/Bleach.
When you speak about animation of CB you definitely have to speak of the action sequences. The gunfights, and hand-to-hand combat are superb. Spike constantly gets injured also making it seem much more realistic, and interesting. The best part though about them is there is hardly any bullshit talking interrupting the action. I don't know about you, but I hate when two characters stop in the middle of a fight to drink some tea, and have a ten minute conversation, emo flash-back included. I could go on and on, but then what would be the point of you watching it.

Sound: 10/10 The hills are alive...
Tank! is absolutely the only anime music I will ever have included in my play-list. Which says a lot, because normally when I start an episode of something fresh off the torrents I pretty much skip past the opening theme. That being said, CB is deeply rooted in Jazz music, but it all sounds beautiful when played side by side with the anime. I've never been much a musician, but I do know what I enjoy, and what I don't enjoy. It all sounds excellent, and I'm not a big jazz fan at all. Not to mention Yoko Kanno mentioned to slap some Pink Floyd into episode 20, Perriot le Fou. Don't believe me? Go pop in Dark Side of the Moon, and skip to track 2.

Overall Cowboy Bebop is one big tribute to many cultures. Whether it be John Woo style gun fights, the Indian sitting in his tee-pee with his playstation, 1337 haxxors, or the Japanese's immense fear of dieing. There is a lot that Cowboy Bebop parodies while still managing to keep itself original. I'm tired of all the dime-a-dozen anime characters. E.g. the clumsy yet dormant super powerful main character, or the silent bad ass who's family died, and is in all reality an emo kid screaming out for attention. I've seen both these character types a hundred times over. This is why I idolize Cowboy Bebop, and truly believe that it is the best anime of all time.

I was scared to touch this anime. Despite the reviews, despite my friend's sage advice, despite everything, I resisted for months. I didn't want to dive into something that showed only on Adult Swim at 2 in the morning on weekdays. It didn't seem like the kind of show I wanted to watch. I want to see the latest and greatest, the anime that grab the headlines, that are here and now, that are modern and are visually appealing. Cowboy Bebop didn't seem to me like it fit into any category I ever liked either. Western styled mixed with space drama? How can that even ... mix? Old style animation from the late 90s? Kinda makes me think of Hey Arnold and those other shows. It just didn't seem to fit the mood I currently reside in. And then I picked up the first episode. And I am a changed man.

First, some background: it's a simple enough story. Spike and Jet, two oddities that somehow coexist inside the same spaceship, are partnered together in the pursuit of so-called bounties (fitting the western theme), and thus are called bounty hunters. Along the way in the beginning, they pick up some more companions to put the word "rag-tag" to shame: Faye Valentine, a debt-ridden woman who has forgotten her past, Ed (Edward), the pre-teen genius girl with computers, and Ein, the genetically enhanced and intelligent Corgi. The five travel the stars, attempting to gain bounties, but the results are....somewhat mixed.

Story: 9/10

I was skeptical. I truly was. I never liked western films, and I never cared for the themes and such of the Ol' Wild West. But the meld of science fiction with modern amenities really hit home. I could actually relate to the story, and oh what a story it was. Besides being such a motley bunch, they often were never agreeable and seemed to barely hold the peace in Jet's ship Bebop. But something about the way the story was told, how each character's mysterious past seemed to interfere with the present. Half of the series wasn't really fighting for bounties, but trying to bury or avoid their individual past without notifying or effecting the other persons aboard the ship, to no avail. It was interesting, then, when the past comes back to haunt you: nothing is as it seems on the surface, and when the past scratches at its coffin, you better be there with a nail or sig-sauer.

Art: 10/10

I must say, at first it was hard to....understand and perceive the old-style animation. This made me want to turn it off and watch the anime of today. But you got used to it real quick. And I must say, for something almost two decades old, it's gorgeous. The lighting, the style, the drawings, the shades, the colors, the environment...It was hard not to notice the variety of places the art alluded to, and of course the western touch with the deserts and saloons and gunfights and such. I loved every bit of it, and remember, I hate the west. The spaceships juxtaposed next to the average car and the old-fashioned lighters lighting old-fashioned cigarettes created this interesting mood and ambiance, one I hadn't felt....ever. It was surreal.

Sound: 9.5/10

Alright, before you blast me with why it isn't perfect, it wasn't. But it was damn near perfect. Jazz? Blues? Fast-paced music? Are those ENGLISH lyrics? Yes they all are here, for you, the watcher, to enjoy. Every major scene had a fast-paced song, and many a time it was in English. The producers and editors and such probably drew much of their inspiration from the American West, and it showed well in the sound. The OP was fast-paced and well executed, and the ED was nostalgic sounding and epic. But I didn't get too focused on the petty ending and beginning; it was the background music I'm talking about. Beautiful, beautiful salute to the American west and native American music. I couldn't get enough, especially when the main characters are so motley, the odd choice of music just made the mood that much better. And why stop there? The voice actors should be praised, no given medals, their acting was so good. It wasn't even the way each character spoke, but when each character decided to show his or her true nature to the viewer before quickly covering it up; beautiful just beautiful.

Character: 10/10

Oh how I would rate this higher if I could. I've never had such deep characters before, such amazingly portrayed people. Pretend each character is a book: Spike would be a carefree one, its leather new, its polish gleaming. Jet would be gruff and rough on the edges, worn from time. Faye's would be delicate, with an evil-looking cover that betrays evil, and so on. But as you delve deeper in the story and therefore each character's secret past, the books become much different: Spike's becomes worn and rough, like Jet's, frayed on the outside, with a hole punched straight through the middle. Jet's would be more worn, yet have a soft spot in the middle. Faye's would have a huge question mark from chapter 1 to somewhere around the middle, then soften into a golden hue. Seems stupid, but I ain't spoiling anything. But honestly, each of these characters deserves his or her own biography; each story, so different from each other, yet they all come back to haunt them in the present. And as each character deals with their ghosts, they must make a tough decision: to let the ghost keep haunting them, or to finally put it all to rest? If you don't like extended analogies, then go watch Cowboy Bebop and skip my review. Time's a wastin'.

When I think of Cowboy Bebop, I don't think of old, garish, rubbish pictures of grainy animation and slipshod storylines made to fit the mass audience it tries and fails to appeal to. What I see now is a masterpiece that will last the ages - and I should have known better if an anime gets a English adaptation and is shown in America for over a decade it should be pretty freaking good. And I finally digress; if I am not able to convince you to watch the show by now, I have failed as a reviewer because, if anything, this was the best show I've ever watched. I can't say that for anything else, because I'm one of those people that says everything is his favorite show. But this easily trumps all that. See you later, Space Cowboy.

Overview:

Today I will look at what is probably the most universally well received anime by non-otaku and casual viewers. It is well known that "film snobs" don't have the same taste as average film goers. A film snob will say Citizen Kane or Tokyo Story is the best movie of all time whereas an average viewer will generally choose something like The Godfather or The Shawshank Redemption. With anime it is the same way. If Legend of the Galactic Heroes is the Citizen Kane of anime revered by all the elitist snobs, and all those people making a pathetic attempt to "prove" that they are ... intellectuals, than Cowboy Bebop is The Godfather of anime. It is THE anime of the common man.

Story: 8/10

Cowboy Bebop is largely episodic and many episodes stand alone, but it does have an overall plot that moves forward. The story takes place in a future where warp gates have made rapid travel between the planets easy and most of the solar system has been terraformed and colonized. However, a hypergate above Earth exploded and badly damaged the moon. This caused large chunks of moon to bombard Earth and devastate much of the human population, so few humans remain on our original home world. Our main protagonist is a bounty hunter named Spike Spiegel (extremely Jewish last name) who is visually modeled on the body of Lupin the 3rd with Bob Dylan's hair and face. You know, because Shinichi Watanabe is an insane person. Spike's partner is an ex-cop and jazz enthusiast named Jet Black, who is a white man obviously voiced by a black man. You know...because Watanabe is an insane person. On their many adventures they meet a Taiwanese scam artist who claims to be a Gypsy, a genetically modified Welsh Corgi, and an androgenous, genius computer hacker. The crew of the Bebop will take on any job no matter how dangerous, but something always seems to go wrong and they never get paid very much for all their efforts. We also find out that Spike once worked for a major crime syndicate and has a tragic past love with a woman named Julia and unfinished business with a vicious mobster simply named...Vicious.

Characters: 10/10

Cowboy Bebop has an absolutely amazing cast of characters. Spike is one of the most beloved protagonists in all of anime. He is a master bounty hunter and the baddest Jew in space! Jet's humor is a bit more dry than other characters like Edward, but now that I'm older I find myself liking Jet quite a bit. Faye is a voluptuous femme fatale that is quite amusing throughout the series with her schemes and antics, and Ed is...just Ed. With the red hair, gender ambiguity, obvious Asperger's, and being the world's greatest computer hacker and Chess Player, Ed shares a surprising number of traits with Lisbeth Salender of the Millenium Trilogy. Maybe Ed gave birth to Lisbeth after an affair with the short tempered and perpetually snarky Hiei from Yu Yu Hakusho? That would pretty much explain Lisbeth to a T. Anyways, the last character is the deliciously over the top villain simply known as Vicious. He wears a trench coat over a black military uniform, fights with a katana against opponents with guns, and always has an evil raven perched on his shoulder. What a fucking badass! When Vicious isn't carving motherfuckers up with his katana, he is smiling psychotically and scheming some devious master plan to screw yet another person over. Gotta love Vicious.

Sound: 10/10

This is by far the best Jazz soundtrack in all of anime, and perhaps the best soundtrack period. I personally like the Rurouni Kenshin/Samurai X soundtrack, but Cowboy Bebop is easily my #2. Even if you think you don't like Jazz, you will love this soundtrack. It's virtually impossible not to.

Art: 8/10

The art is somewhat dated since this show was made in the 1990s, but still holds up pretty well. It is animated a LOT less lazily than DBZ, Yu Yu Hakusho, Sailor Moon, and most other 90s anime. The character designs are interestingly enough largely based on Lupin the 3rd with Spike being given Lupin's lanky body, Jet has Jigen's beard, and Vicious has Goemon's hair and face. This was a fun and clever homage by the animators to a 1970s classic.

Enjoyment: 10/10

I rated it a 10 because it won't let me pull a Spinal Tap and give it that extra little oomph up to 11! This series has plane dogfights, epic shootout scenes, fist fights, swordplay, and any kind of action you can think of. The series also homages many classic movies and genres depending on what planet the crew visits. Hell, there is even a blaxploitation film tribute episode!

Overall: 10/10

Cowboy Bebop is not my personal #1 anime of all time, but it is definitely in my top 10. Even though there are series that are closer to my heart on a personal level, Bebop is probably the most flawless anime I have ever seen. There is literally nothing to hate about this series. The art, storytelling, characters, music, and direction are all so well done that I can't imagine anyone saying that this sucks! I am emotionally attached to a few series above Bebop, but I recognize that those series have some flaws and see why others might mock and ridicule them. To use a baseball analogy, Cowboy Bebop doesn't quite swing for the fences in that same way where it will either be a grand slam or a strike out. Bebop is that perfect line drive that may not knock it out of the park for you, but it will definitely connect and be a respectable hit! If you are new to anime or if you are under the age of 20 and have simply never seen this slightly older series, you should check it out!

Title: Cowboy Bebop

Manga, Anime: Cowboy Bebop has two manga incarnations to its name. The first, with the same title as the show, is a manga adaptation of the anime, with story by Hajime Yamate and art by Yutaka Nanten, and ran in Kadokawa Shoten's Asuka Fantasy DX magazine from April 1998 to April 2000. The second, titled Cowboy Bebop: Shooting Star, is a retelling of the anime, done by Cain Kuga, and also ran in Asuka Fantasy DX during 1997. Both have been licensed Stateside by Tokyopop, and the release date for the third and second and final volumes for both were ... August 20th, 2002, and June 10th, 2003.

The anime itself ran for twenty-six episodes, though it originally had a disrupted run on TV Tokyo from April 3rd to June 19th, 1998, before airing in full on a disrupted broadcast schedule on the satellite network WOWOW from October 23rd, 1998 to April 23rd, 1999. It was produced by Sunrise (famous for their work on Inuyasha and the Gundam series), and directed by Shinichiro Watanabe (famous for his work on Macross Plus and Samurai Champloo). It was licensed Stateside by Bandai Entertainment, and the box set of the Remix episodes (which was also the version I watched) was released on February 5th of this year (2008). There is a movie that was released not long after the series ended, which I will cover later in the review.

Story: It's the year 2071 AD, and mankind has colonized the entire solar system. Spike Spiegel is a Cowboy (this era's term for bounty hunters) who works with Jet Black to track down bounties and struggle to live off of them. Along the way, they pick up a few extra people and their pasts are bought to light.

Cowboy Bebop is, for the most part, a bounty of the week episode, with some minor continuing threads. All in all, it's done pretty well, with bounties delving into the pasts of characters, and being just interesting in general. The characters are an interesting bunch of people, with Ed taking the cake as crack in human form. :P

Some will complain that the plot in the last two episodes comes out of nowhere, but they're a bit inaccurate there; the threads have been building up in episodes here and there throughout the show, though they are admittedly a bit scattered.

Art: The show's a bit dated, obviously. But, compared to other shows that were airing around that time (Ruroni Kenshin, Beserk), the animation is pretty good. The designs for characters are very well done, and the designs for the ships and all the backgrounds in particular are amazingly detailed.

Music: Yoko Kanno and the Seatbelts did the work for this soundtrack, and it's absolutely amazing. There's so much variety in all the variations on jazz and blues that they do for this, and it's amazingly catchy. This was one of the first soundtracks I actively noticed in a show and tried to find.

They also did work on the OP, "Tank!" (which Baccano! takes a cue from) and ED, "The Real Folk Blues", both of which are instantly memorable and fit the series quite well.

Length: I liked sixteen out of the twenty-six total episodes, and the series probably would've done well to keep those episodes in the long run and cut the rest. Still, all in all, that's a pretty good percentage.

Seiyuu: Megumi Hayashibara (famous for her roles as Rei Ayanami in Evangelion and Atsuko Chiba and Paprika in Paprika) plays Faye Valentine in this, and Jouji Nakata appears in a minor role. I admire Ed's seiyuu for being able to capture the sheer crazy of her character. All in all, a pretty good job.

Voice Actors: Cowboy Bebop was one of the first anime I watched, back when it was regularly airing on Adult Swim. When I went back to watch it, I found that, all things considered, the voice actors did a pretty good job with their roles. The voices weren't quite the same, but, all in all, still fit the characters pretty well. One of the better dubs I've seen out there.

Dub: Looking back on the dub, it was one of the better dubs I saw back when I was first getting into anime. A few lines of dialogue were altered in the English version, and some minor edits were made so that it was able to air on TV, but compared to DiC's butchering of Sailor Moon, it was a pretty good job. If only they could've all been this good.


Overall: A well-done show, with an episodic plot that delves into it's character's past that sporadically builds to the conclusion, detailed animation, amazing music, and a pretty good dub.

Definitely in my top ten shows; a must-watch.

Story: 8/10
Art: 8/10
Music: 10/10
Length: 8/10
Seiyuu: 8/10
Voice Actors: 8/10
Dub: 8/10

Overall: 58/70; 83% (B)

I'm not one to jump on the hype train. I try to not get high hopes for anything, because usually you are going to be let down. I've heard the praise for this show so many times over the years. Google "Top Ten Anime Series" and almost every list will have Bebop in it, usually at #1. So I went in hesitantly, and I've gotta tell you...

Cowboy Bebop is a goddamn masterpiece.

Each episode is usually standalone. That right there tends to steer a lot of would-be viewers away from this series. Even I was a bit hesitant to plunge into a show with an episodic ... structure. But I'll tell you, this show really pulls it off. There are a few episodes that connect together, but for the most part, it's a standalone affair.

The series follows the bounty hunting crew of the good ship Bebop in the year 2071. It depicts their daily lives as bounty hunters, as well as giving us insight into their pasts. Most episodes or "sessions" as they are called, tend to focus on the crew attempting to secure a bounty. This might sound a tad bit repetitive, but I swear it's not. The sheer unpredictability and creativity that is put into each session assures the audience that things will never get boring.

The strength of the show really isn't in its plot, though. It's the characters that drive the series forward. They are all incredibly well developed, which is an amazing feat due to the episodic nature of the show. Each of the four principle characters are completely different, and they all feel real and authentic.

Them all being squeezed into one ship creates a brilliant stew of character interaction. Their ideals and viewpoints clash on the regular, which creates some interesting scenes. They also bond over time, even though some of the characters try their best to hide it.

Their pasts are also heavily explored, as one of the recurring themes throughout the show is that your past will always catch up with you. This applies more to the central character, Spike Spiegel, more than the rest however. Each member of the main cast gets a few episodes specifically focusing on them, adopting a flashback format. These are generally the best episodes of the show, in my opinion.

I fell in love with these characters, and it was heartbreaking to see them go through so many ordeals. Spike, Jet, Faye, and Ed won't leave your mind for a long time after you finish the show.

The art and animation are incredibly good for its time. There are some series now that fail to reach Bebop's level of artistic beauty and fluid animation. For example, Trigun, which came out around the same time, is nothing compared to Sunrise's work on Bebop. The art isn't too flashy, but it perfectly creates a realistic space western feel. You feel like this world has been lived in, and things aren't always pretty. The character designs in particular are impressive, as each member of the cast has a different and recognizable look.

The animation is flawless. Absolutely flawless. This is expertly conveyed in the action scenes, which have a naturalistic and fluid feel to them that is rarely achieved in anime. The only flaw on the art and animation fronts is the computer generated graphics that are used several times during the show. They look out of place and don't really meld well with the environments, but hey, the show came out in 1998! I think I can cut it some slack. Still worth mentioning though.

The soundtrack is where this show excels at a level I don't think I've ever heard before. The mix of jazz and blues, with a little bit of classic rock thrown in brings the show to life. It fits the mood of the show perfectly, even though it might sound odd for a science fiction show. It works, though, I swear it. As a testament to its greatness, I'm listening to the soundtrack right now, as I write this review. Props to Yoko Kanno and the Seatbelts, for real. I mean, "Space Lion" is one of the greatest tracks I've ever heard.

The English dubbing of this show is in a class of its own. It fits the show perfectly, with each cast member giving it their all. I don't know how good the Japanese audio track is, but it's going to be hard to beat this. It's fucking unbelievable. I mean, Steve Blum kills it.

This show is considered a classic today. I had heard all the praise. Not once did I buy it. I went into this show thinking that it probably wasn't going to live up to its praise. I was wrong. Dead wrong.

The sophistication of it's themes and characters are unrivaled in anime. The beautiful art and stunning animation. The wonderful soundtrack. The great ending. Oh yes, the ending. It's a stunning conclusion that managed to wow me and break my heart at the same time. This is animation at its finest.

For reference, here are my top five favorite episodes:

5. Waltz for Venus/Pierrot Le Fou
4. Hard Luck Woman
3. Ballad of Fallen Angels
2. Jupiter Jazz (Parts I & II)
1. The Real Folk Blues (Parts I & II)

See you, space cowboy.

"And the work which has become a genre unto itself shall be called: Cowboy Bebop"

^ This sentence was showed several times during the episodes and it is already giving away about the uniqueness Cowboy Bebop carries. There are many unique anime in our anime world, but most of them fail to execute it well. However, fortunately that is not the case with Cowboy Bebop. It is a truly classic anime with incredibly awesome soundtrack and brilliant character development.

Cowboy Bebop centers around a group of bounty hunters in a futuristic, space-western setting. The year is 2071 and the place is our Solar System, where various ... planets and moons have been terraformed for human settlement. Bebop is a spaceship where two bounty hunters Spike Spiegel and Jet Black are travelling around the space and hunting down their preys to earn money. Along the way their duo (2) becomes a quintet (5) when the engineered dog Ein, beautiful yet very complicated women Faye Valentine, and computer genius teenage girl Edward (yes a girl) joins their group, or I should say forced themselves in.

This newly formed bounty hunter group is ridiculously unlucky since the day their duo became a quintet. However, this is exactly what brings the comedy. Their unlucky hunt probably is due to the lack of teamwork and recognition of each other skills. Even though they are all highly skilled in certain areas, they all usually go alone on the job which is what makes the series even more entertaining.

Yes, the plot is not the main engine of Cowboy Bebop series. Every episode is a new story and rarely has any relevance to the past episodes. Sometimes they are dramatic, sometimes comedic and sometimes very serious. When the episode starts, you simply have no clue what theme and mood this time it will be and will they capture their prey or not, or maybe it will be one of those rare episodes when they follow the main story of Cowboy Bebop? In any case, all episodes are very enjoyable and unpredictable.

Since the plot is not the main engine, then what exactly makes Cowboy Bebop series so amazing that it is usually listed in most anime top lists? Well that probably is characters and OST. Every one of the main character's have some really harsh past that they do not want to share with anyone at all. It is something they treasure a lot. All of this does not stop them from some really amusing interaction.

As I mentioned already, they have some really harsh pasts. This "past" thing is what gives a lot of room for the character development. Their past is not revealed in one short episode and what is most important - the way their past is revealed. Usually past is revealed by jumping into flashbacks, however that is not the case with Cowbow Bebop. To see how it is done, you will have to watch it yourself, but I can reassure you that their growth as individual and as a team member is definitely executed extremely well and in entertaining way.

Music is the other major factor why this series is so brilliant. Whole soundtrack is simply superb. This whole jazz music is fitting the story perfectly. I have never seen another anime that could go so perfectly in sync with its soundtrack. The last two episodes is kinda a showdown of the beauty that jazz can actually offer in combination with great story.

What is really surprising that animation is rather good considering in what year Cowboy Bebop aired. Usually I am very picky on the old anime because I cannot withstand crappy animation and just because of this I avoided Cowboy Bebop too. Well now I can certainly say that either the series were so entertaining that I did not notice animation flaws or the animation was just simply good enough considering it was released in 1998.

Overall, Cowboy Bebop is in the anime top tier list definitely for a reason. With its great amusing characters, beautiful and very fitting jazz music it also gives many short yet brilliant stories. I am not afraid to use this word to describe Cowboy Bebop at all - MASTERPIECE.

P.S. I must praise the voice actors who dubbed it amazingly well. I do not know how was the Japanese dubs, but English were great.

I had the chance to watch Cowboy Bebop before. Why didn’t I watch it?

After watching Cowboy Bebop, it was as if I went through an otaku ritual. I believe that every otaku out there should watch Cowboy Bebop – at least once in their lives – and realize how anime should be done.

The story-telling, the dialogue, the feel, the emotions. Everything was just mixed right. Every episode was unique and almost perfect. Every episode started and ended in a way you didn’t expect. My personal favorite, was Session 20, Pierrot le Fou. That episode sent chills down my spine. I won’t tell why, just so ... anyone who reads this review would feel obligated to watch Cowboy Bebop in its entirety. Session 23 was not bad either; I love the intellectual conversations about who God is throughout the episode.

The characters made this anime. I loved every single one of them (including the supporting characters) and their individual quirks. My favorite was Spike Spiegel, of course. I love it whenever he did jeet kune do, the martial arts system that was developed by Bruce Lee. It was just exciting to watch him fight. Jet Black was just as cool as Spike. I am fascinated at his bounty hunter skills, as well as his past. Any man with a past is automatically cool. I didn’t like Faye Valentine at first, mostly because of her voice, but after you get to know more about her (the anime will reveal her past), you’ll realize that she’s one strong woman. Finally, there’s Ed. She (It’s not a typo) is one wacky kid and surprisingly adorable.

The voice acting really contributed to the characters personalities. Spike, without Kouichi Yamadera’s voice, would never be as cool as he is with him. Jet’s past would almost seep through Unshou Ishizuka’s voice. I already said that Faye’s voice, more specifically Megumi Hayashibara’s voice irritated me in the beginning, but she really brought out Faye’s personality. Aoi Tada’s voice made Ed even cuter. I also have to note that the banter and random discourse between these four are absolutely entertaining.

Shinichiro Watanabe played a huge role in making Cowboy Bebop visually appealing. Watching the series was just so easy on the eyes – the scenes weren’t heavy or overloaded at all. The scenes went on smoothly, and each scene was lovely to look at. The colors were great, and the backgrounds were detailed enough. However, I did not like the 3D animation all too much cause I found it a bit too rough, but considering it was made in 1998, I guess it wasn’t that bad.

Yoko Kanno was another factor that made me love this anime so much. She is one musical genius, and I love her work on Cowboy Bebop. I think there were new tracks for every episode, and each one complimented the scenes beautifully. Each one was different too – Tank! And The Real Folk Blues were jazzy and bluesy, but there were pop, classic, whatever tracks throughout the series too. While Shinichiro Watanabe was telling a story through sight, Yoko Kanno was doing the same through sound.

Truth be told, I wasn’t enthusiastic in watching Cowboy Bebop in the beginning. That’s because I’m not really into sci-fi themes, but Cowboy Bebop was different. The thing I like about it the most is that it’s charisma transcends through time. In three words, it’s a classic.

If you've been a fan of anime for any length of time, chances are that you've come across a bunch of shows that people hail as nothing short of masterpieces such as Neon Genesis Evangelion. Now, whether or not those programmes are perfection is entirely up to interpretation but if there's one programme which has been lauded as as nothing short of a masterpiece ever since its creation, it's Cowboy Bebop. Such a lofty title is not without those who question it, and indeed there are people who happen to dislike Bebop for a variety of reasons. I personally don't think that Bebop is a ... masterpiece (and I do consider it to be overrated), but I do see where the praise comes from. In fact, I do believe that Bebop deserves most (but not all) of the praise that it gets. Let's go into great lengths to find out why.

When it comes down to the actual story, it's rather disheartening to say that Bebop is lacking. The actual "plot" of the show is easily resolved within 4-5 episodes despite being 26 episodes long, so it might seem like there is a lot of filler. That's not really the case whatsoever, since Cowboy Bebop opts for a mostly episodic approach. With the exception of the 4-5 episodes where the plot moves forward, this is a show that you can jump into from virtually any point and wouldn't really get lost, provided you're familiar with the basic concept and the characters. In that regard, Cowboy Bebop may very well be considered analogous to something like Batman: The Animated Series in terms of both style and approach.

Unfortunately, Cowboy Bebop is prone to the same problems that episodic shows of its nature tend to have. If you don't know what I'm talking about, allow me to fill you in. While episodic programmes are easy to get into if you're a complete newcomer to a particular show, the quality of each episode tends to vary quite a bit. Some episodes are absolutely amazing while other episodes are rather tedious to get through. There's also the matter of certain episodes being a bit formulaic in approach. For example, you'd think that a crew of bounty hunters would at least catch a break every now and then but that's not the case at all. No matter what the situation, it's like the Bebop crew would always be down on their luck despite how skilled each member of the team is.

These might seem like relatively minor problems for a show that has a LOT of merits to stand on, but people often forget that this show is hailed as nothing short of a masterpiece. All it really takes is one relatively mediocre episode for someone with absolutely no prior knowledge of Cowboy Bebop to get a sour impression of this programme. So how would you remedy this? Obviously, you'd watch the episodes in chronological order, right? Uh... not exactly. The first four episodes aren't bad in the slightest, I fucking LOVE them as a matter of fact. But those first four episodes might not be the best introduction to a show lauded as much as Bebop is. If you really want my honest recommendation as to how you should view this programme, I'd say start out with Episode 5 just to get your general impression of the programme. If you like what you see, watch the first four episodes next and then keep watching in chronological order. The reason why you should watch it in that order if you're completely new to Bebop is simple: Episode 5 is a spectacular episode which contains virtually everything that this show is known for so if you don't like Episode 5, Bebop is most likely not going to be your cup of tea and if that's the case, watch Samurai Champloo instead.

With all that ranting out of the way, let's talk characters. The biggest strength that Bebop has when it comes down to its characters is the fact that they're played straight. This might not seem like such an accomplishment, but keep in mind that characters meant to be overacted were more or less the norm back in the 80s/90s so for its time, this was a rather huge deal. Another thing that Bebop's lead cast all share (for better or worse) are dark pasts that with the exception of Faye, they all try to avoid confronting. Why is this a good and a bad thing? On the one hand, a dark past that slowly gets revealed throughout the course of the programme makes for some awesome plot twists and they are given a fair amount of foreshadowing so the reveal doesn't come off as an asspull. HOWEVER... the concept of a ragtag bunch of misfits with each member having a dark past is a trope which has become rather commonplace in anime/manga over the course of recent years so chances are that some might find it rather cliché which brings me to another point.

While the leading cast of Bebop certainly does a good job of carrying the story without feeling like cardboard cut-outs a good majority of the time, the fact still remains that they all fall under common archetypes and it gets a little too obvious at times. If you've ever watched a little programme called "Lupin III." you'll be quick to notice that Spike Spiegel bears somewhat of a resemblance to the much beloved Arsene Lupin III with a sense of humour to match (although nowhere near as exaggerated). For that matter, I guess you can say that Jet and Faye are more realistic versions of Daisuke and Fujiko if you want to keep making the comparisons (Jet/Daisuke being the voice of reason and Faye/Fujiko being the "femme fatale" so-to-speak). To be fair, I understand that Lupin III was one of the influences behind Bebop's creation. At the same time, I saw Lupin WAAAAY before I ever watched Bebop so the resemblance is rather uncanny to me. With that said, it's still nice to see an interpretation of Lupin, Daisuke, and Fujiko being played straight.

It's not like they remain static throughout the entire ordeal. With the exception of Edward who's more or less just the quirky and hyperactive computer genius (that still gets a bit of time in the sun regardless), everyone gets a fair amount of development and time on-screen so they're more than just the common archetypes like I've mentioned earlier and in some cases, actually feel like real people rather than you know... characters. With that said, let's talk about secondary/tertiary characters. A good chunk of the episodes introduce a new character whom the Bebop crew ends up dealing with for 20 minutes before their story is resolved by the end of the episode and they are quickly forgotten about. I suppose in that respect, Cowboy Bebop is similar to Mushishi.

Unlike Mushishi however, Bebop actually does have recurring characters and they do what they do rather well without becoming a distraction. Of course, that still doesn't change the fact that I consider most of them to be like the cabbage merchant from Avatar: The Last Airbender. The standalone characters in Cowboy Bebop on the other hand are hit-and-miss for me. This goes back to the problem that most episodic shows tend to have with varying degrees in quality. Sometimes, I got REALLY attached to the character(s) introduced in one episode and was disheartened to never see them again and other times, the character(s) introduced in another episode were so dull to the point where I felt like the episode was dragging on.

When it comes down to substance, Bebop falls a little flat so you may be wondering why you should even bother watching it if it's not the epitome of perfection. The answer is very simple: Cowboy Bebop is among the most influential anime of the 90s and its influence can still be seen to this day. In its heyday, Cowboy Bebop achieved a lot of success due to various factors. From its Space Western setting to the well-choreographed action sequences, a soundtrack composed by Yoko Kanno consisting of mostly Jazz and Blues tracks to an amazing English dub where everything was played straight and was allowed to air uncut due to the fact that it was the first anime series that [adult swim] picked up (coincidentally on the same night the network made its debut), it seemed like the odds were stacked in Bebop's favour from the very beginning. Let's not forget the aesthetics because it would be a travesty not to do so.

For one thing, this is the best-looking TV show from the 90s without a doubt, and to this day it still looks amazing. It's one thing for digital animation to be fluid, but to see that same sort of fluidity with cel animation where each frame was drawn by hand without losing any sort of detail whatsoever really just shows the meticulous amount of time and effort the blokes over at Sunrise put into the art and animation. That's actually kind of funny (in an ironic sort of manner) given that Sunrise was kicked off the animation team for Batman: The Animated Series because of the fact that nearly all the episodes that Sunrise took a part in had to be redone multiple times (or even re-animated in America) because of the fact that virtually everything was off model. I'm guessing that they were basically looking for a way to get back at Bruce Timm and Paul Dini for kicking them off the animation team, so they decided to basically bring out their A-game to their next project which just so happened to be Cowboy Bebop.

Going back to the soundtrack, what I love most about it (aside from the fact that it was composed by Yoko Kanno) is the fact that the OST isn't an afterthought of any kind since there are multiple scenes throughout the show which forgoes dialogue completely and instead rely on the music to actually convey the moment. It's the little things like this that make it so much more difficult for me to pick who's my favourite composer since the only other composer I can think of who'd actually do such a thing would be Kenji Kawai given that there were similar moments in the Ghost in the Shell films. What's more is the fact that a combination of jazz and blues among other such genres really helped give this show a unique flavour which has yet to be mimicked. Say what you will about Samurai Champloo being a carbon copy of Bebop when it comes down to story/characters, but one thing's for certain: Bebop's style is something that Champloo just cannot imitate (and that's a good thing, since Champloo's got its own style which works amazingly well for it).

Another thing that Cowboy Bebop has going for it? An absolutely spectacular English dub which is so good to the point where dub haters generally make an exception for this show. This goes back to how everything was played straight in Bebop from the get-go. In the past, English dubs of anime varied quite a bit in quality. Some dubs like the DiC dub of Sailor Moon changed up the dialogue so heavily edited for content and censored to high heaven to the point where it makes 4Kids' One Piece dub blush. Other times, dubs were actually pretty damn good (such was the case with Neon Genesis Evangelion and Yu Yu Hakusho) but were unfortunately butchered when they aired abroad due to the fact that those shows were airing on children's programming blocks and standards back then were much tighter than they are now. That was never the case with Bebop since it was aired on an adult programming block and as such, it was able to forgo most (if not all) of the censorship regulations during its broadcast on [adult swim]. Aside from that, we also had wonderful voice actors working on this like Steve Blum, Wendee Lee, and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (fun fact: McGlynn also directed the English dub of Bebop) and a slew of many others, all of whom gave excellent performances.

Aside from the visuals and the audio, what other merits does Bebop have? Well for one thing, its style is something that allowed it to achieve widespread success with Western audiences. It's impossible not to notice that a good majority of anime these days require you to have some pre-existing knowledge of Asian culture in order to properly understand what's going on. Haven't you ever wondered why films like Akira and Ghost in the Shell (and to a lesser degree, Studio Ghibli movies) were huge hits back in the day? It was mostly because these were films that nobody needed any knowledge of Japanese culture to enjoy. Yes, Akira and Ghost in the Shell both took place in Tokyo, but it was really the the concepts, the gloomy atmosphere, the action, the blood, etc. which drew in Western audiences. It was taking place in Japan, and yet it didn't really feel like Japan at all outside of naming conventions, but that's a minor detail in comparison to everything else. It helps that unlike the former two, Bebop actually had virtually all the signs, posters and such in-universe written in English rather than Japanese in the original dub. Don't even get me started on the subtle cultural references and its film noir overtones because if I did, you'd be here for hours reading this review.

So when you combine all these things together, it's no secret as to why Cowboy Bebop is as lauded as it is now. I can certainly see why it wouldn't really be everyone's cup of tea (especially given some of the flaws I mentioned earlier). Regardless, its influence can't be denied. For all its worth, Cowboy Bebop is certainly a show that deserves most (but not all) the praise it gets. I get the feeling that if it had more of a plot to it and didn't rely so much on being badass and awesome to make people forgive its lack of a plot, it would definitely receive more praise than it already gets. The stage was set perfectly, so I question why Wantanabe and the rest of the Bebop team decided to opt for a mostly episodic nature when the ones where the "plot" actually progresses were nothing short of spectacular. Oh well, I guess it's too late to find out why... unless Wantanabe decides to do to Bebop what George Lucas did to Star Wars. Thankfully, Wantanabe seems to have more integrity than that.

Anyway, that's it for my first review on this site. Please be gentle, senpai.... (>/////

This is the best anime ever made.

Why?

Because it isn't anime.

There aren't any anime conventions in it. There is no anime soundtrack. There are no schoolgirls, no tsundere, no moe, no giant robots.

This is a TV show.

... Anyone can watch it and enjoy it.

It has a plot, but it's also episodic so you can just sit down and watch it.

It's about bounty hunters, something Sergio Leone made popular--and put to good use here.

The characters are well put together with distinctive personalities (and an Homage to Lupin). Bruce-lee-esque Spike that looks like he's out of a 70s action flick, a Tarantino Movie, and stole his wardrobe from Lupin. Jet, the sensible foil to Spike--cop turned bounty hunter. Faye Valentine, the typical scantily clad woman. But her gambling problem, poignant backstory, and the fact she's out of place in the "future" world rounds her out perfectly. You could argue that the comedic "Ed," a hacker child, is the least fitting out of the four, but honestly odd episodes like Mushroom Samba and when she searches for her father seem to redeem that. And finally there's Vicious, the cold hearted syndicate killer and perfect antagonist to Spike. His katana to Spike's guns.

The settings are our solar system in the near future, with creative takes on each planet/moon--everything is beautiful and fitting, like Mosques on Venus, a sprawling Mars, crater-ridden Earth. Nothing extravagant, but the backgrounds are always there, noticeable, and fitting for the story. Shootouts in cathedrals, homage to kung fu, Tarantino, Leone.

This is good because it's derivative of things that work. It has a great jazz soundtrack that doesn't fall prey to squeaky j-pop music and also matches the mood. The backstory is a simple one of the betrayal between men and women. The pacing is fast and uncluttered.

And the ending is satisfying.

This is also the only anime where the English dub is peerless and so much more fitting than the Japanese version.

Watch it in order, or just watch one episode.

If you have to buy just one anime for your collection, you can't go wrong with this--the replay value is excellent, like watching your favorite childhood action films on the weekends that you never get sick of.

This is the exception to anime, not the norm.

And something like this comes out every decade or two. It's impossible not to enjoy. If anime was more like this than the shit that's around now, it wouldn't be seen as a distraction for socially maladjusted shut-ins.

At its core, Cowboy Bebop is the story of Spike Spiegal, Jets Black, Fay Valentines, Edward, Ion, Vicious, and Julia. But that's where the whole anime, in itself, drives a whole lot more in its 26 episodes. It leads us through a universe somewhere around 2080s space - I'm not sure, because in one episode one of the characters died in 2071 - where we still have the planets of the Milky Way, but because of the presence of orbital gates and space travelling and colonization, all the planets are now in themselves environments with interactive stories to tell. And yes, a lot of stories ... happen in either the planets (Jupiter, or Mars, or Earth, or Pluto), or their moons (like Titan, for instance).

For instance, Cowboy Bebop doesn't refer to either Spike or Jet, but rather the spaceship they use which has been named "Cowboy Bebop". Now, unless you had seen all the episodes, this small little thing might have been missed out. Its not a spoiler by any means, but it is stated to illustrate how the anime is presented.

While it is preferred to watch Cowboy Bebop in sequence, the episodes themselves are arranged like vignettes with only the characters forming the core bond holding them together. All of them. In the case of Cowboy Bebop, the best thing are well developed characters, even when they occur for one episode only. They not only interact with their environment (like bounty hunting, or hacking systems, or going to bars to drink, or even casual conversations between non-interactive characters who are very minor, for instance), but even amongst themselves are very... organic.

While the fight scenes and battle sequences in Cowboy Bebop are limited, they are nevertheless well handled. My personal favourite fight scenes are from the ending moments of "Hard Luck Woman". But in terms of personal favourite episodes, I'd choose "Pierre le Fou", "Cowboy Funk", "Mushroom Samba", and "Heavy Metal Queen".

In terms of characters, however, I'll be sadly blunt here, and by saying so I do solemnly want to inform everyone reading this review, that this is a massive spoiler, so be warned: Julia is a bitch. I'll not tell you why, but after seeing Cowboy Bebop, you'll realize this as soon as you reach the arc "The Real Folk Blues".

Cowboy Bebop has its moments of contemplation, and it also has its moments of melancholy as well, but it does its best to integrate these alongside countless other emotions into the universe it is set in. Again, I repeat, the universe Cowboy Bebop is set in, is very dynamic, and in this anime it is very well executed.

This is a classic by many significant anime standards, and it doesn't come as a surprise why most traditional anime fans tend to bash modern ones. Its a timeless tale, and it is presented well. And it deserves to be recognized.

All in all, a deserving watch.

Cowboy Bebop is a household name to anime fans. Either you've seen it, or you've at least heard about it from your friends. Being one of the original anime aired in the US via Cartoon Network, it served as a gateway anime for many, a taste of what Japanese animation has to offer. Because of this, many people give it glowing reviews as a masterpiece, and a textbook example of what a good anime is. I am not of those people. I'm from the latter group of people, who heard the reviews about how good it was. So naturally, I ... had to see if the hype train was real, if it's really that good, or if people think it's better than it really is because of the sentimentality of it being(probably) their first anime. Here are my thoughts:

Story:6
The story of Bebop is a bit convoluted, in the sense that it's a roller coaster of fillerish material and key plot points. What I mean by that is that the series definitely has its ups and downs, with the down episodes seeming to have no point to the overall progression(essentially filler), and the up episodes having lots of action and plot in a 20 minute block(these are of course, sprinkled throughout the 26 episodes). While Bebop does a great job of tying everything together into a cohesive story by the end, I found that in the midst of it, I could never expect what was going to happen in the next episode, which makes it hard to follow the story as you watch it. So overall, the story overall is good, but falls apart episode to episode. I wish the main plot was emphasized more throughout the whole anime, as opposed to the last 4-5 episodes.

Art:8
The artwork in this anime is good, so much so that I was surprised when i found out it was 15 years old. Obviously it won't look as good as your 2014 summer anime, but the art style definitely complements the overall feel of the anime. I think if you redid the anime with modern animation, it wouldn't hold up well at all. You pair a sort of western feeling anime with a sort of choppy grainy animation, and it definitely works. No complaints here.

Sound:10
What I said for the art holds even more true for the sound. In my opinion, the sound is what really carries this anime. The music in this anime is very jazzy, ranging from upbeat to emotional pieces, from the sultry orchestral opening to the subtle guitar/piano background music scattered throughout. I don't think the creators could have done a better job of pairing music with animation, because the music really does set the tone well. Even if you're not the type to actively listen to the music in your anime, I bet you'd be surprised by how easily you could pick out a song from Bebop if you heard it somewhere else. Hell, I bet if you gave me a piano I could learn the opening by ear, and that's saying something. It's that memorable.

Character:7
The characters in Bebop are a likeable motley crue of varying personalities. No one is particularly fascinating(although the dog Ein is hilarious), but no one is particularly boring either. They're just a very normal, dare I say average, group. No Makoto-esque characters that make you want to swallow a spoon and/or yell at your screen(damn you School Days), and no *Insert stereotypical heroine from harem anime here*-esque characters with the emotional depth of a puddle. I will say that the characters are developed well throughout the anime, so the filler I mentioned earlier did serve a point. Although, considering your main cast consists of 4 characters and a badass dog, character development should be a given considering 26 episodes is significantly longer that your typical 12 episode animes, and you've got such a small cast to work with.

Enjoyment:7
I usually judge my enjoyment factor by how many episodes I can watch in a row before I want to do something else, with 1 episode being painful to watch(School Days, Aku no Hana) and 5+ being "Holy shit! Is it that late already?!?"(A Certain Magical Index, Clannad). Bebop scores in the 2-3 range, usually 2. The reason I'm scoring that in the middle is because of the roller coastering(Adding that to dictionary) between episodes. You finish one episode that's awesome, and action packed, and makes you want to punch a stranger because "fuck yeah!".....and then the next episode is kinda boring. Usually I stop after a boring (and I'm using boring here to contrast the exciting episodes, not so much that the episode it self is terribly boring) episode, which is about every other episode.

Overall:7(Worth watching once)
Overall, Bebop is a good anime. Is it worthy of the more recent Attack on Titan or Sword Art Online hype train that it still garners(For those of you who have been lambasted for not watching those while they were airing like me, you know what I' m talking about), I don't think so. It's worth a watch if you haven't seen it already, but it's not worth seeking out for anime enlightenment. It's not your anime Mecca, and I challenge anybody who thinks that it is to watch it again without bias, because I bet if you're one of the people who watched it when you were younger, you'll find that it's not as good as your remembered. You'll probably still enjoy it, but it won't seem as fulfilling the second time around.