Cowboy Bebop

Crime is timeless. By the year 2071, humanity has expanded across the galaxy, filling the surface of other planets with settlements like those on Earth. These new societies are plagued by murder, drug use, and theft, and intergalactic outlaws are hunted by a growing number of tough bounty hunters.

Spike Spiegel and Jet Black pursue criminals throughout space to make a humble living. Beneath his goofy and aloof demeanor, Spike is haunted by the weight of his violent past. Meanwhile, Jet manages his own troubled memories while taking care of Spike and the Bebop, their ship. The duo is joined by the beautiful con artist Faye Valentine, odd child Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV, and Ein, a bioengineered Welsh corgi.

While developing bonds and working to catch a colorful cast of criminals, the Bebop crew's lives are disrupted by a menace from Spike's past. As a rival's maniacal plot continues to unravel, Spike must choose between life with his newfound family or revenge for his old wounds.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Spiegel, Spike Main

Yamadera, Kouichi Japanese

Valentine, Faye Main

Hayashibara, Megumi Japanese

Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV, Edward Main

Tada, Aoi Japanese

Black, Jet Main

Ishizuka, Unshou Japanese

Ein Supporting

Yamadera, Kouichi Japanese

Vicious Supporting

Wakamoto, Norio Japanese

Eckener, Grencia Mars Elijah Guo Supporting

Horiuchi, Kenyuu Japanese

Julia Supporting

Takashima, Gara Japanese

Von de Oniyate, Andy Supporting

Ebara, Masashi Japanese

Mad Pierrot Supporting

Ginga, Banjou Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Maseba, Yutaka Producer

Minami, Masahiko Producer

Ikeguchi, Kazuhiko Producer

Reviews

Feb 14, 2025

Prophet-234

Recommended

Cowboy Bebop is probably my personal favorite anime. Cowboy Bebop is a mostly episodic show, featuring a vary unique cast of characters that are bounty hunting in space!
Cowboy Bebop is a mix of different genres action, thriller, comedy, western, drama, romance, sci fi, noir, horror etc.
Each episode is unique exploring different themes, concepts and genres which is what makes Bebop so fun to watch. Combine this with likeable, unique and mysterious main cast (which we slowly start to find out more about throughout the show) and you get yourself a very enjoyable and unpredictable show.

Animation is absolutely phenomenal and holds up even to ... this day. Some of the best action scenes I've ever seen in anime are here! Music is also amazing, the soundtrack is a mix of jazz, blues and rock and it's easily my favorite anime soundtrack.
Despite being an anime, its influences are mostly from the west, some episodes are even paying homages to popular movies (for example "Toys In The Attic" is sort of a tribute the movie "Alien"). But don't worry there's still elements from other cultures as well, this weird mix of influences and cultures is what makes Bebop so unique.

There are also some incredibly emotional scenes, so even if you're looking for deep characters, you can still find that. But Bebop has a very unique way of telling its story, its very subtle, with a lot of important dialogue being kind of vague, as well as some plot points that are not deeply explored. So while world building *is* there, its very sparse and subtle, some people might think that its not deep enough but I disagree. You get to see different planets and the way people live on them. Bebop never outright tells you that the country/planet is poor, instead it shows you life on the said planet through short montages of the cities and people's activities in them. This makes the world feel alive and real, despite no words being said. You get to see how people live there and you can see that despite them being in the future, some people live in poor and underdeveloped environments. The show also likes to mix futurism with retro, resulting with a very unique aesthetic.

And every one of the 26 episodes are good and bring something different to the series, if Bebop wasn't episodic it would have been impossible for it to tackle as many subjects, themes and ideas as it did. So while some people would prefer a more linear, straightforward narrative that lasts from first to the last episode, I think that Bebop executes episodic story-telling pretty much perfectly. If you like episodic shows (or if you don't mind them) and very subtle storytelling with compelling and deep main characters (that are also incredibly fun to hang around with), you're probably gonna enjoy this show, hopefully as much as I did.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Feb 9, 2024

Labracadabrador

Mixed Feelings

Well-written

Cowboy Bebop was an interesting watch. It's definitely one of the anime that requires you to read in between the lines as not everything is presented to you at face value like most anime nowadays. However because of that it may be hard to grasp some of the overarching themes in this show without having to watch an explanation video of the entire series. For this reason I gave it a 7, as personally I believe that a piece should portray it's themes clearly, otherwise it'd probably be an 8 or 9.

But the more I think about the show I can see why people enjoy ... it so much. The approach to this anime is very realistic in it's portrayal. In fact I could say that in the far fetched future this could very well be the life of someone out there floating in space if we ever advance that far scientifically. As the anime has its boring episodes where it doesn't really add anything to the plot point, episodes with action aplenty as you would expect from a life as a bounty hunter, and finally episodes that build at the overarching theme, which is rather quite similar to the life we live ourselves; minus the gun slinging action for most of us of course. Looking back at it in that perspective it's almost as though we are just witnessing a portion their lives through a scope and it somewhat makes those boring episodes more bearable. As if we are just watching someone live out their life to the best of their abilities.

Overall I would say to give it a shot. I can see why this anime can hold a special place in people's hearts, but Cowboy Bebop is definitely starting to show its age.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Apr 1, 2023

ihatesgsami

Not Recommended

Imagine this show but with the soundtrack replaced with a compilation of Hannah Montana's B-side tracks and you'll realize this show is all style and no substance. The soundtrack carries it a bit but the plotline itself is incomprehensible. The characters are shallow and all seem to hate each other yet the show wants you to care about them and their relationships. It reminds me of those Family Guy episodes where the characters blabber a bunch of vitriol at each other and then MacFarlane has them smile as if to say 'it's all good, I still love you' and expects the audience to buy into ... it. A truly dogwater show that didn't deserve the work of Yoko Kanno.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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