Nobody I knew watched it, I had no idea of what to expect, except for a good soundtrack, and it was all a new experience to me. I'm usually more interested in fantasy stuff, with superpowers or supernatural beings, but I certainly did not miss that while watching Cowboy Bobop.
At first glance Spike was the skinny guy with weird hair who tried to look cool and just looked bored most of the time and Jet was the strong guy who had to make up for his partner's laziness and do most of the thinking, but this was not the case. As the seemingly completely disconnected episodes pass, we get to see much more of their pasts and what led them to become what they are now, and it does not happen over 1 or 2 episodes and bam, you know eveything, it builds up from episode to episode, finding out bit by bit about everyone's past.
Faye Valentine and "Radical" Ed are the other 2 members of the Bebop's 4 people crew (not forgetting about the lovely dog named Ein). Faye is a woman that can really take care of herself (most of the times) and has an easy time losing all her money through bad gambling or being held at gunpoint by strange people. Ed is a really weird girl who happens to work much better with her computer than with people, but she is an interesting character whose naivety and disconnection with the situations actually play for her.
I personally liked the second part of the 26 episodes more. Perhaps it took a few episodes for the characters to build on me? The combination of excellent jazzy soundtrack with unexpected situations and people you don't know very well engaging in unique bounty hunting from episode to episode on different places of the solar system is something you will probably love or hate. I loved it, and the last episode surely made me shed one manly tear (okay, 2 tears).
