There are plenty of anime that make a seismic impact on the community and there are an increasing amount of big hits coming out. However, Cowboy Bebop is still a series that gets brought up regularly in the discussion of “greatest anime” and it has a sterling reputation.
The love for Cowboy Bebop should not be underestimated, but it’s also not a perfect series. Additionally, now that the anime is over 20 years old, its age certainly shows in some situations. Accordingly, here are 5 ways that Cowboy Bebop is a genuine anime classic and 5 ways that it’s not.
10 It’s A Classic: The Music
There are many anime that have influential and powerful soundtracks, but Cowboy Bebop is on a whole other level. All that needs to be heard are the opening bars of the show's theme song, "Tank!," and fans will be forever hooked on the show’s sound.
Every song that Yoko Kanno and her band the Seatbelts put together is brilliant and while most songs skew towards jazz, the full spectrum of music is celebrated and explored in this anime. Cowboy Bebop simply isn't Cowboy Bebop without the music.
9 It’s Not A Classic: Not Enough Serialization
Just to be clear, Cowboy Bebop is still in the top percentage of anime and it does the majority of things well. A good deal of this is playing devil’s advocate to a degree, because if a show commits to one narrative too much, it usually means it must turn away from another.
Cowboy Bebop is largely episodic and self-contained in nature, with their only being a handful of episodes that speak to a larger overarching plot. Cowboy Bebop makes this divide work, but other classic series strike a better balance or do so in more than 26 episodes.
8 It’s A Classic: The Mix Of Genre Influences
Like many of Shinichiro Watanabe's anime series, Cowboy Bebop is a loving hodgepodge of diverse tastes and styles. At its core, Cowboy Bebop riffs on sci-fi and western motifs as it presents a wonderfully articulated futuristic version of the world. However, part of the joy of the series is its frenetic point of view and chameleon-like sensibilities. Every episode embraces something different, whether it's exploitation, romance, or even a psychedelic drug trip. Audiences never know what they're getting with Cowboy Bebop, but that's part of the fun.
7 It’s Not A Classic: Animation Could Be More Ambitious
Cowboy Bebop is still a very attractive anime series to watch and its look hasn’t become dated over the years, which is more than what a lot of other anime from the time period can say. Sunrise is the animation studio behind Cowboy Bebop, who are more known for Gundam series. Cowboy Bebop looks slick, realistic, and all of the fight sequences deliver. That being said, there are plenty of other anime series that really push animation to its limits and get ambitious with the form. Cowboy Bebop looks nice, but it doesn’t push boundaries.
6 It’s A Classic: The Eclectic Crew
There are dozens of anime series that are extremely similar to Cowboy Bebop, where a group of atypical individuals crew a ship together throughout space. The makeup of Bebop's cast is familiar, yet different. Spike, Jet, and Faye all fulfill certain stereotypes, but young disaffected super hacker Ed and their corgi, Ein, are lovable subversions. Characters like Spike put up a cold front at first, but it's incredible when everyone clicks together and they get to work as a weird, committed team. It’s hard not to love this group of misfit bounty hunters and outlaws.
5 It’s Not A Classic: The Open(-ish) Ending
Cowboy Bebop packs a lot into a tight 26 episodes and the final two installments are easily some of the most powerful. Cowboy Bebop goes for a very dramatic conclusion that puts Spike on a suicide mission of sorts. As strong as the finale is, it limits the series in a lot of ways while still incredibly open in regards to some of the characters. The fact that the anime’s film, Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, has to be set within the run of the series speaks to this, too. Endings are never easy.
4 It’s A Classic: The Action Sequences
Cowboy Bebop is an action anime, but it’s also so much more than that and it’s genuinely thrilling to see how each episode throws Spike and company into danger, albeit in entirely different ways. The caliber of action and fight scenes in the anime is impressive and it’s typically gunplay that’s the focus, but Cowboy Bebop shifts to sword fights & other sensational battles as it determines the best sort of combat for the conflict at hand. All of the action sequences really connect, but caring about these characters plays a major part in their effectiveness.
3 It’s Not A Classic: It Has A Villain Problem
So often a good series will live and die by the strength of its major villain and even though Spike and Vicious get into some entertaining battles, the character is definitely one of the weakest aspects of the series. Cowboy Bebop chooses to go the route of shrouding Vicious in mystery, but the anime does reveal that he, Spike, and Julia were all friends in the past. Those days are long gone and now Vicious is the head of the Red Dragon Crime Syndicate. He's a worthy foe to Spike, but he often doesn't feel like a real character.
2 It’s A Classic: The Top Quality Dub
The debate between subs and dubs when it comes to anime fans will likely never be over, but it's been impressive to see how much the quality of dubs has improved over the years. Cowboy Bebop is one of the best examples and it truly understands the nature and vibe of the series. Every voice actor does an impeccable job in comparison to their Japanese counterparts and it doesn’t feel like anything gets lost in translation. There's so much fun being had that this strong dub helped a lot of people learn about the series in the first place.
1 It’s Not A Classic: Some Of It Hasn’t Aged Well
All sorts of media, not just anime, can be very powerful during their time period only for certain elements to become problematic in a modern light. Above everything else, Cowboy Bebop is an impressive anime for its time, but there are a handful of elements that haven’t aged well. The series focuses on certain gender and racial politics that feel occasionally misguided now. Additionally, there’s the endangerment of children and animals, which could rub some the wrong way. These are incredibly minor things, but they might cause some to twitch during a re-watch.