The Essentials

Name: Cowboy Bebop,
Genre: Adventure, Action, Sci-Fi
Episodes: 26
Released: April 3, 1998 – June 19, 1998 (first 12 episodes only); October 23, 1998 – April 23, 1999 (first full run)
Based On: N/A
Director: Shinichiro Watanabe
Produced By: Sunrise, Bandai Visual
US Distribution By: Bandai Entertainment

Major Japanese Cast

Spike Spiegel: Kouichi Yamadera
Jet Black: Unshou Ishizuka
Faye Valentine: Megumi Hayashibara
Edward: Aoi Tada
Vicious:: Norio Wakamoto
Julia: Gara Takashima
Gren: Kenyū Horiuchi
Lin: Hikaru Midorikawa
Old Man Bull: Takehiro Koyama
Punch: Tsutomu Taruki
Judy: Miki Nagasawa
Antonio: Hitoshi Hirao
Carlos: Toshihiko Nakajima
Jobim: Hiroshi Naka

Major English Cast

Spike Spiegel: Steven Jay Blum
Jet Black: John Billingslea
Faye Valentine: Wendee Lee
Edward: Melissa Charles
Vicious:: Henry Douglas Grey
Julia: Melissa Williamson
Gren: Michael Gregory
Lin: David Umansky
Old Man Bull: Mike D’Gard
Punch: Bull Whizins
Judy: Lia Sargent
Antonio: Steve Kramer
Carlos: Richard Cansino
Jobim: Paul St. Peter

Scores

Animation: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Story: 8/10 (x 4 = 32 pts)
Music: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Coherence/Story Arc: 7/10 (x2 = 14 pts)
English Dubs: 10/10 (x 1 = 10 pts)
Gut Score: 7/10 (x 5 = 35 pts)

Total: 163/200 (81.5%)

Review

Cowboy Bebop is a series about a foursome of bounty hunters traveling around the solar system, well, trying to pick up bounties. The four, who are usually broke, take on varying cases, trying to track down and capture wanted criminals, and often get themselves in trouble and getting into some big adventures along the way.

Bebop is largely a collection of unconnected episodes, though a back story, mainly dealing with Spike’s, the leader of the bounty hunters, past, does run through many of the episodes, and comes to a for, especially in two episodes in the middle of the series as well as the two concluding episodes. There are also episodes mixed in that deal with the past of the other member of Spike’s bounty hunter group: Faye, Jet, and Edward.

Probably the biggest complaint I have about Cowboy Bebop is the before mentioned fact that there is no clear sequence to the episodes, and the fact that a good half of the episodes in the series could be cut, and not very much would be lost. While individual episodes may be entertaining, I feel that the series loses some of it’s promise due to the lack of any central story beyond the fact that the group constantly needs to catch new criminals in order to pay the bills. Luckily for Bebop, the action and adventure that makes each individual episode exciting is good enough to still make the series an overall interesting watch, despite the lack of coherence.

The series does score well on technical aspects – the animation is pretty good considering when it was released, and the music is pretty unique to an anime series, being a mix of several different genres, though Jazz seems to be the predominant genre. The English dubs are also one of the best I’ve heard of any anime series.

Cowboy Bebop is, in a way, the “summer blockbuster” of anime: There is some background plot which may or may not make up the bulk of the story, but which ultimately gets resolved. But there is, of course, ample fighting, action, and cleavage (even if most of it is Faye’s). I generally see Bebop the same way – it’s sold a lot of DVDs, it’s really popular with fans, it’s not too bad of a series, but is strewn with weaknesses that hurt the overall quality.

First Watched: October 2005 – February 2007
Do I Own: No
Do I Recommend: Yes, if for no other reason than it’s considered a classic