“Cowboy Bebop” is very much one of my favorite Japanese anime series. The series takes place late in the twenty-first century around 2071. It focuses on five characters whom are some a million bounty hunters scattered across the entire Solar System. Everything takes place in outer space yet everything is grounded in reality. It looks as if the series was inspired by all sorts of cultures: 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, Jazz, Early Rock, and Martial Arts. For the martial arts aspect, it looks to be greatly influenced by the great Bruce Lee who is the father of all mixed martial arts and martial arts cinema.
All actions are beautifully timed to the music such as the fight scenes. The main characters travel throughout the Solar System to catch bounties or bounty-heads. In Cowboy Bebop, the bounty hunters are titled as “Cowboys.” While catching bounties, the series explores the pasts of most of the main characters as they each play an important role. However, there really isn’t a set plot until the end of the series.
The storyline behind Cowboy Bebop itself is interesting. They managed to create easy interplanetary travel through ring-shaped hyperspace gateways built across the Solar System in 2021. However, there was an instability that proved fatal ignored by the contractors that constructed the system. A gateway near Earth exploded and took out a portion of the moon.
As a result, meteoric debris constantly rains down on the planet Earth. This is called the “Gate Accident.” Over four billion lives were loss as a result. The humans on Earth either remained to live underground while the rest went to colonies on Mars, Venus, and the various moons. Everything seems to be pretty diverse as the languages used in Cowboy Bebop are: English, French, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, and so forth.
This is a series not necessarily for kids as there are adult situations. But, there is no graphic sex acts in Cowboy Bebop.
The bounty system of the Old West is reinstalled to curb the growth of criminal activities. They have a television broadcast called “Big Shots” detailing current bounties which seems to be the driving force of the various stories behind each episode.
The crime syndicates very much have a strong foothold in the Solar System. There’s a lot of bribery, murder, extortion, drug dealing, money laundering, and other offenses being committed. There’s even an illegal casino in outer space. Cowboy Bebop presents many interesting things to the viewers.
The main characters are: Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Faye Valentine, Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV, and Ein.
Spike Spiegel used to be a former member of the Red Dragon Syndicate. He faked his death and eventually met up with Jet Black. The two of them have become partners since then.
Jet Black is a former police officer from Ganymede.
Faye Valentine is a woman trying to get rid of her large debt. She is known as the legendary “Poker Alice.” Her past is shrouded in mystery as she woke up from a cryogenic sleep.
Edward is a thirteen year old female hacker. She can be considered a genius when it comes to computers. Edward refers to herself in third person.
Ein is a genetically modified data dog. He is a Pembroke Welsh Corgi. Of the members of the Bebop, Ein is very much the most intelligent one.
Cowboy Bebop brings forth a very diverse cast of characters. This is one series that one should very much check out.
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