Cowboy Bebop
Cowboy Bebop is well-known as a modern classic of anime. Featuring Jet, Spike, Faye, Ein, and Ed, bounty hunters on the converted spaceship Bebop, this anime has a variety of adventures as the Bebop crew chases down criminals to collect prize money. Humorous and engaging, the drama of Bebop steadily increases as the series goes along.
The way that some episodes of Bebop are connected to the overall plot, while others are not, reminds me of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. All episodes reveal something about the characters, but only some give a great amount of detail about Spike’s past, and his relationship to Julia and Vicious.
The contrasts between good and evil and between right and wrong are stunning in Cowboy Bebop. But this anime does not draw hard lines between these fields; the Bebop crew are clearly not evil in comparison to the syndicates, Vicious, Pierrot le Fou, or the corrupt authority figures that all show up at one point or another during the series, but they’re not saints either, nor are they intended to be. They smoke, gamble, and fight, and they’re all the more likable for it.
The music of Yoko Kanno is a major feature of the series, and very well done. Cowboy Bebop is required viewing for all strong anime fans.
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