I messed up by not watching Cowboy Bebop

I should have watched Cowboy Bebop sooner.

Okay, so that’s kind of a half-truth. I actually did watch Cowboy Bebop about 10 years ago. The problem was, I watched it while I was drunk, so rather than enjoying this classic I found it boring and hard to follow. I made it five episodes before abandoning it for Space Dandy.

I’ve changed a lot over those last 10 years. For starters, I’m not always drunk. My tastes have evolved, my observational skills have sharpened, and I’ve grown more of an appreciation for anime in general. Realizing this, I decided to give Cowboy Bebop another shot.

I’m glad that I decided to come back to this series, it’s fucking great.

Cowboy Bebop is one of those classics that, even if you’ve never watched it, you’ve definitely seen it around. Most of you have probably seen the phrase “See you space cowboy…” in memes (I think one of the more popular ones features former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe). You’ve also probably seen pictures of Spike, the main character:

There’s a reason that this series is still so popular in internet culture even though it wrapped up way back in 1998. It really is that good of an anime.

Cowboy Bebop takes place in the not-too-distant future (but not Next Sunday, A.D.- sorry, couldn’t resist). The year is 2071, and humanity has colonized most of the solar system. The result is a solar system reminiscent of the wild west, with crime running rampant. The Inter Solar System Police (ISSP) has created a bounty system, allowing bounty hunters like our main characters, Spike and Jet, to make a living chasing fugitives. Spike and Jet are later joined by Faye, a woman trying to figure out her past, and Edward, a young girl with a childish demeanor and serious computer hacking skills.

The series is, for the most part, episodic. Stories are generally contained to one or two episodes, with occasional callbacks to previous ones. There are overarching plot points, like Faye trying to find out who she actually is, or Spike’s rivalry with Vicious, a hitman for the criminal syndicate that Spike previously worked for, but these are fed to us in bits and pieces, and they function as a buildup to the last two episodes of the series.

What makes this series so great to me is its balance of humor and seriousness. Sure, a lot of anime does this. But very few anime do it as well as Cowboy Bebop does. Take Demon Slayer, for example. When it’s time to get serious, Tanjiro gets serious. But Tanjiro’s seriousness is often disrupted by Zenitsu or Inosuke. In fact, Zenitsu is so disruptive and obnoxious that they have to have his character fight in his sleep when it’s time to get serious. I can’t stand Zenitsu, I wish Muzan would rip his autistic ass to shreds. Same with Inosuke, all he does is scream and yell about how tough he is. At least he doesn’t screech about Nezuko every other scene though, so I guess that’s marginally better.

There’s plenty of fighting too. Spike is a highly skilled martial artist, and his fighting style is based off of Jeet Kune Do, a fighting style created by the martial arts legend himself, Bruce Lee. Spike uses his skills to open up ten cans of whoop-ass on bounties, and, aside from his fights with Vicious, rarely meets his match.

The wonderfully choreographed fights are good, but so are the space battles. If Spike isn’t throwing hands, he’s destroying shit in his ship, the Swordfish II. Sometimes Faye joins in the fun, and the two engage in dogfights with bounties, who usually end up dead (and the crew of the Bebop ends up moneyless, since you can’t collect on a dead bounty). Sometimes Spike will use his ship to pursue some poor hapless criminal on the ground. Bro, this ain’t Star Wars, you ain’t Starkiller, you ain’t using the Force to bring down Spike’s modified racer. When Spike comes for you in that ship, you’re fucked.

Cowboy Bebop has humorous moments and stories, but the transition between being funny and being serious isn’t jarring like it is in many series. A lot of funny moments come from Ed’s childish behavior, and to a lesser extent Faye acting bratty and entitled. These light-hearted moments don’t break up the serious moments, except when the serious moment needs to be broken up. Ed might spring into the middle of a heart to heart between Spike and Jet, or Faye might walk into a serious discussion between the two ready to complain about something silly like the water pressure, but their intrusions usually add something to the plot. Ed has probably already hacked into a database somewhere to get intel on the latest bounty, or Faye just happens to have seen the bounty somewhere before. The comedic relief has more of a purpose than just being comedic relief, Ed and Faye are both solid characters who still bring something useful to the table even when they’re being funny. This is a kind of balance that you just don’t see anymore in anime, with so many comedic relief characters serving as walking memes.

Trying to brand Cowboy Bebop with a genre is hard. Wikipedia has it listed as both a neo-noir and a space western, and, while those are the two dominant themes in the series, there’s just so many more elements that it encompasses. One episode has horror elements, while another is reminiscent of a 24-esque thriller, with Spike and Jet racing to catch a bomber before he strikes again. The creator, Shinichirō Watanabe, originally touted the series as “a new genre unto itself”. He later walked that statement back, saying it was hype, but in a way he wasn’t wrong. The series is almost genre-defying.

I don’t know why I didn’t properly watch Cowboy Bebop sooner, but if you haven’t watched this series yet then stop sleeping on it and go watch it. Don’t make the same mistake I did.

Cowboy Bebop gets an 8/10 from me. Stop reading this and go watch it. And if you’ve already watched it, go rewatch it.