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You don’t need me to tell you what Cowboy Bebop is, right? Cowboy Bebop has been burned into pop culture for a long time, being one of the first shows to run on a little block on Cartoon Network called Adult Swim, and since its first airing back in 2001, it ran for thirteen years straight before being pulled from the Adult Swim Toonami lineup in early 2015. It’s a series that has had many references in pop culture, from other animated shows making nods to inspiring tons of creatives both in its home country of Japan and outside of it. I can respect and appreciate all that Cowboy Bebop has done over the course of its entire existence and I feel intimidated just writing up this casual conversation of Cowboy Bebop as I am far removed from when it first premiered. I was just a kid when it first aired and back then, Adult Swim barely appealed to me. When I was younger, I was disappointed when Adult Swim took up those Thursday night slots, as growing up, I had insomnia and I would always stay up late. One thing Cartoon Network did back in the day to fill up the late-night hours was air reruns of old cartoons, mostly shorts from the vault and some discarded Hanna-Barbera shows that aren’t The Jetsons or The Flintstones. When Adult Swim became established, it slowly took over the night and ate up those late hours over the course of years, with those old programs moving to the Boomerang network, which itself became abandoned after some time. But I digress.
Regardless of my age, I certainly knew of Cowboy Bebop and had seen episodes of the show over the course of many years. It was an Adult Swim staple, after all, so it was hard to escape it. Whether it was casually tuning in when it was on Adult Swim Action or the rebooted Toonami block, where it would run at the near end of the night, Bebop was hard for me to escape. But despite all that, Cowboy Bebop does deserve the praise it has been given over the years. Some would say that Cowboy Bebop is a masterpiece of a show. I am not one of those people. While I certainly don’t hate the show, as someone who has been divorced from that conversation for years, I never felt all that strongly about Bebop either way. But even if I don’t find it to be a masterpiece, I do think that Cowboy Bebop does deserve a lot of credit for being the gateway anime for many who would never consider themselves anime fans. In fact, if Dragon Ball Z were meant for the kids to zoom home to after a long day at school, then Cowboy Bebop was a fine wine meant for adults to enjoy the taste of every week it aired on Adult Swim. From its first moments, it hits you with its iconic opening theme “Tank”, composed by the legendary Yoko Kanno, who has done additional musical work for Watanabe’s productions over the years, including Space Dandy. From there, the rest of the original soundtrack has a combination of blues, jazz, metal, and funk. It’s an eclectic mix of music that takes inspiration from music around the world, which was very different for a Japanese-produced series of its time. That global appeal doesn’t just stop at the music; a lot of Bebop’s art and aesthetics are rooted in global pop culture, with references to western movies like Alien and even the cyberpunk type/adjacent style that Bebop oozes. Not to mention the gorgeous hand drawn and painted art and animation that still looks top notch, while also not looking dated or of its time. On top of that, the show has a high-quality English language dub that still holds up over twenty years later, and so it’s no wonder why it spoke to the western audience in a way no other anime had at that time. It’s a show that I think deserves its place in anime history and pop culture, but a perfect show, it is not.
What I think Cowboy Bebop doesn’t get correct, I want to bring up Episode 9, “Jamming With Edward” first, for a couple reasons. That episode, as one might gather by the name, is the introduction to Edward, the “loveable”(?) kid. When it comes to Edward, I neither love nor hate this character. I find her antics to be too hyperactive and uninteresting outside of being smart and knowing how to hack, but I can’t really hate her because she’s actually written like a kid, which I find refreshing. It’s easy to imagine Edward being some moody character who was changed by some war, but instead, she’s just a kid and despite her own tragic past, she seems unaffected. I just wish the show made me care more about her by laying down more of the seeds over the course of the series outside of a single episode. That could’ve done more to build her character more and have her final moment hit harder, which is sad because that episode, Episode 24, “Hard Luck Woman” has a touching scene, but it just did nothing for me. Maybe that’s just me. I think, going back to the episode she originated in, “Jamming With Edward” may shape your perspective on Ed. You could form either opinion with that episode alone because what you see is what you get. I also wanted to bring up this episode because I feel that Bebop has a pacing problem. I find that some episodes tend to go on for a bit too long and this episode would be one of them. Jamming With Edward is a fitting name because it feels like a jam session, especially by the end where it feels like it goes on and drags its feet.
I also found that some episodes simply aren’t good. Episode 20, “Pierrot Le Fou” flat out sucks. It’s a story about an assassin (who has a tragic backstory when it is told to the audience) that Spike has to take down. I tend to find the story itself is fine, but the pacing, as mentioned before, drags on and the episode itself is just not that interesting outside of the end. I don’t mind slow burn plots, and while I find the final moments succeed in what they wanted to do, it didn’t hit as hard as it probably wanted. If I’m also talking about episodes that suck, this may be controversial, but I do not like Episode 22, “Cowboy Funk”. Andy being a wealthy-but-incompetent Spike Spiegel is a hook that I just don’t find compelling. He needed to be a blistering buffoon who’s enjoyable to watch or be the character the audience can enjoy watching fail. He’s neither. Instead, I find Andy to be insufferable more than anything, and the final moments of the episode set inside of the elevator is where I had the most fun watching him. The only nice thing I could say is that this guy was basically the prototype Space Dandy, but Space Dandy was a more enjoyable character. Cowboy Bebop tends to have fun, but to me, it feels like they need to have moments of levity to balance out the drama of the show, but the ones it has aren’t as fun as other dramas. A show like Breaking Bad can switch between tense drama to humor with ease. Cowboy Bebop skews more serious than anything else, which makes the funny moments come off as shrugs or slight chuckles. I think the only fun episode was Episode 17, “Mushroom Samba.” That episode’s premise lets them have fun and do something completely lighthearted and different from the heavier episodes.
Thankfully, the drama in Bebop is so good that it can save some of the shortcomings and faults of the series. The show focuses on the past for the core cast of characters. Everyone on the Bebop has their own history and with that, their own reason for being on the ship. I found learning about Faye’s past to be the most compelling out of all of them, as her past is shrouded in mystery from the moment of her introduction. Over the course of the show’s run, more of her past is revealed and getting to her final stop of remembering her past self feels satisfying in a way that Edward’s wasn’t. As for Spike and Jet, I find that their backstories are both compelling. In the noir-inspired Episode 16, “Black Dog Serenade,” Jet’s past is fully explored, showing us his history as an officer of the law before losing everything to one criminal. This was one of the highlights of this show to me. I’m a sucker for noir-inspired storylines and this one plays into the cliches with the soundtrack and black and white flashback sequences, but also tells a compelling tale of corruption and loss. The audience learns a lot about Jet that was sort of hinted at in early episodes, but finally getting that confirmation, and a solid episode makes it all the more better. Spike’s past dealing with some sort of syndicate he left and can never escape from is very thematic of what Cowboy Bebop is. No matter how much we try to run from our past, it always comes back and catches up to us. That theme is no better represented than with the final two episodes, “The Real Folk Blues” Parts 1 & 2, with Part 1 focusing on Spike’s reunion with Julia and her meeting with an unfortunate fate in the final moments of the episode, and Part 2’s focus on Vicious, Spike’s recurring foe that matches him in his fighting skills. Vicious is a legitimate threat to Spike and it’s no surprise that the only way for him to go down was for Spike to risk his own life to kill him at the end. Everyone bounces off one another and the entire cast have excellent chemistry and that really is another thing I find amazing about this show.
Truth be told, I have been interested in writing a proper article for Cowboy Bebop for years, but I felt like I had nothing to say. I can find things to nitpick, and Cowboy Bebop is a well written and well directed series, but for my tastes, while I can appreciate everything it did for anime, animation, and the industry as a whole and its influence cannot be understated, I find it kind of dry. Out of all the Watanabe shows I want to go back to rewatch, Cowboy Bebop is the last thing I would willingly choose to watch again. That’s not to say it’s a bad show; far from it. I understand and respect its legacy for what it is and what it brings to the table. But it’s a show that does little for me and outside of some strong episodes, I find Bebop to be a slog to enjoy.
As I mentioned earlier, Cowboy Bebop is treated more like fine wine and I find that to be true. Watching Bebop is more comparable to a taste test rather than drinking the wine. It’s a show meant to be savored more than enjoyed. I respect that and it’s not to say that Cowboy Bebop can’t be someone’s escape because it is an entertaining show that doesn’t require a refined palette to enjoy. But for me, talking about or even critically thinking about Bebop is daunting because I have to put myself as the type of person at a wine tasting who notices all the distinct flavors at work and knows the craftsmanship behind that and boring things that do not interest me. I am a very shallow person who doesn’t like to consume TV or movies like that. If the piece of art is compelling enough that it’s entertaining but also has a deeper meaning beneath it, it’s easier for me to dissect than breaking down something complex and layered like Cowboy Bebop. I can tell you that Cowboy Bebop deserves its place in history and there’s a reason why Watanabe would go on to continue making great works, but all of them focus on different genres, with only the upcoming Toonami original Lazarus seeing Watanabe finally return to a more realistic, serious sci-fi setting. Time will tell how Lazarus turns out, but Cowboy Bebop planted the seeds to get there and while I respect it, it is not for me.
