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Cowboy Bebop was not the first anime I had ever watched, which looking back probably hurt my enjoyment of the series. I had been spoiled with other action/drama series that had a much better flow to the overall story, Trigun being a prime example. Cowboy Bebop for the most part scatters plot important episodes around the series, most others being ether filler or character focused. Now I'm not complaining about filler episodes, I to a certain extent I love them since they can take more liberties to be unique in various ways. My gripe is with character-focused episodes, because they're so boring I had to attempt to watch a few of them more than once not having the care to finish it the first time. The problem is that these episodes are slow, usually take up most of the screen time with just a single main character, and have an addiction to flashbacks / somber moments. It's not the worlds biggest problem, there are only about 5 episodes like this, and 2 others that are debatably so it's not a capital offence.
I mostly only have good things left to say about the show, and if you've heard anything about it you already know what I'm going to say. The animation is exceedingly good, hand drawn and beautiful. The jazz soundtrack is iconic and is frequently compared to others that are like it. Most of the characters are memorable and interesting (excluding Ed, I have zero clue why people like her).
As a closing I'll give both a compliment and a criticism. I really liked episodes that kept the amount of science fiction elements to a minimum, not talking about space ship type stuff, I mean uploading souls to the internet. The show is at it's best when it keeps it's noir feel and collapses when it goes Star Trek. Most episodes sticks to the noir, but every once in a while you feel like you put on the wrong series.
