Anime Reviews (The '90s): Cowboy Bebop - The Complete Series (1998)

With “Cowboy Bebop” featuring a great balance of episodes featuring a captivating story, entertaining characters, vibrant and detailed animation, delightful music and wonderful acting, you’ll find very few anime TV series that get that much time and love and commitment dedicated to it. Highly recommended!

TITLE: Cowboy Bebop – The Complete Series

TV SERIES AIR DATE: 1998

DURATION: Episodes 1-26 (650 Minutes)

BLU-RAY INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, Dolby TrueHD English 5.1, Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0

COMPANY: Funimation

RATED: 17+

US Release Date: September 15, 2020

Original Concept by Yatate Hajime

Director: Watanabe Shinichiro

Series Composition: Nobumoto Keiko

Music by Kanno Yoko

Character Design: Kawamoto Toshihiro

Art Director: Higashi Junichi

Animation Director: Kawamoto Toshihiro

Mechanical Design: Yamane Kimitoshi

Director of Photography: Oogami Youichi

Anime Production: Sunrise

Featuring the following voice talent:

Yamadera Koichi/David Lucas as Spike Spiegel

Ishizuka Unsho/John Billingslea as Jet Black

Tada Aoi/Melissa Charles as Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV

Hayashibara Megumi/Wendee Lee as Faye Valentine

Hiyama Nobuyuki/Bo Williams as Shin

Midorikawa Hikaru/David Umansky as Lin

Wakamoto Norio/Henry Douglas Grey as Vicious

Nagasawa Miki/Lia Sargent as Judy

Takashima Gara/Melissa Williamson as Julia

The Bebop crew is just trying to make a buck. This motley lot of intergalactic loners teams up to track down fugitives and turn them in for cold hard cash. Spike is a hero whose cool facade hides a dark and deadly past. Pilot Jet is a bruiser of a brute who can’t wait to collect the next bounty. Faye Valentine is a femme fatale prone to breaking hearts and separating fools from their money. Along for the ride are the brilliant-but-weird hacker Ed and a super-genius Welsh Corgi named Ein.

On their own, any one of them would be likely to get lost in the sprawl of space, but together, they’re the most entertaining gang of bounty hunters in the year 2071.

Please note that I am reviewing a Digital Copy version and not the Blu-ray version

It was back in April 1998 when TV Tokyo aired the 12 episodes of the 26-episode series “Cowboy Bebop”. A film titled “Cowboy Bebop: Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” was released in 2001. The full 26 episodes would be aired on WOWOW later that year.

The series is directed by Watanabe Shinichiro (“Samurai Champloo”, “Carole and Tuesday”, “Space Dandy”), series composition by Nobumoto Keiko (“Wolf’s Rain”, “Tokyo Godfathers”, “Space Dandy”, “Carole & Tuesday”), character design by Kawamoto Toshihiro (who would go on to become the co-founder and director of the anime studio, Bones), mechanical designer Yamane Kimitoshi (“Mobile Suit Gundam Seed”, “Xam’d: Lost Memories”, “Space Battleship Yamato 2199, “Gundam Reconguista in G”) and Japanese composer/arranger/musician Kanno Yoko (“Wolf’s Rain”, “Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex”, “Macross Plus”, “The Vision of Escaflowne” and many more).

For series director Watanabe Shinichiro, his goal with “Cowboy Bebop” was to make a 20-minute movie and to make things he was unable to do, and make it possible in an anime series.

For Sunrise, the anime studio was best known for its original mecha anime series and films with a premise of commercializing mecha into toys through Bandai. But with the popularity of the new “Star Wars” film series which was gaining attention, the idea was why not create an anime series where plastic models of space craft can be developed.

For director Watanabe Shinichiro, he was inspired by the bounty hunter business in the US and came up with a futuristic space story with the concept of “space jazz” involving a bounty hunter titled “Nagareboshi Bebop!” (Shooting Star Bebop).

But when the sponsor said they couldn’t sell a spaceship and it was felt that an anime series featuring jazz wouldn’t sell in Japan, they didn’t think the series would work. Especially with concerns that there would be no income from the toys or with a music soundtrack based on jazz music. And there were worries that the production cost of the anime series would be too high.

In addition, it would take almost two years for the anime series to be broadcast on television. Also, because of the Kobe child murder case and the stabbing case involving a Tochigi teacher, in addition to the blinking light “Pokemon” fiasco, the series had to be edited for television. As a protest against the censorship, the ending of the episode finale had a message “THIS IS NOT THE END. YOU WILL SEE THE REAL ‘COWBOY BEBOP’ SOMEDAY!”.

In Japan, many people felt it was similar to “Lupin III” but Watanabe felt it was more like a TV police detective drama. For character designer, Kawamoto Toshihiro, he wanted to express characteristics in the character design which he was given Watanabe’s blessing.

While the Sunrise produced anime series would win at the 3rd Animation Kobe, in addition, the first soundtrack would with the 13th Nippon Record Disc Taisho “Animation Album of the Year” awards.

But the series would only receive a 12-episode terrestrial broadcast until all 26-episodes were fully aired on WOWOW later that year.

But it was when “Cowboy Bebop” would reach American shores when “Cowboy Bebop” would become a phenomenal hit anime series.

While the series was released back on VHS and DVD in 2000, in September 2001 it would be the first anime series to air on adult swim on Cartoon Network uncensored with the exception of episodes 6, 8, 22 due to the terrorist attacks in 9/11. And the series that literally opened the gates to anime being appreciated by many people, rather than niche group of Japanese animation fans.

Needless to say, the anime series is considered an anime classic in the US and Europe and the series is credited for making anime popular in America (and Adult Swim picking up more series to air on television). But also introducing to people animation that was more geared to older viewers with intense violence, sexual situations, coarse language and suggestive dialog.

There have been talks of a live-action film (with Keanu Reeves name attached) but as of 2020, a live-action NETFLIX series starring John Cho, Alex Hassell, Danielle Pineda and Mustafa Shakir and “Thor: Ragnarok” writer Christopher Yost will be one of the writers involved.

The series would be re-released on Blu-ray via a steelbook release courtesy of Funimation in September 2020 and I am reviewing “Cowboy Bebop” twenty years after I first reviewed it.

“Cowboy Bebop” is a series which takes place in 2071, when an accident with the hyperspace gateway made Earth uninhabitable.

Humanity has since colonized various planets and moons in the Solar System and along with growing colonization, the increase in crime. So, the Inter Solar System Police (ISSP) setup a legalized contract system in which bounty hunters (aka “cowboys”) are sent to chase criminals and bring them in alive in return for a reward.

The series focuses on the bounty hunters who ride in a spaceship known as the Bebop taking on various cases to catch criminals, especially one criminal named Vicious of the Red Dragon Syndicate.

The series focuses on the following characters:

Spike Spiegel – A bounty hunter from Mars. Smooth and cavalier.
Jet Black – A former police officer from Ganymede. Muscular and bald, he was once an investigator for the ISSP until his corrupt partner betrayed him and in the process, Jet lost an arm. Became a freelance bounty hunter who loves jazz music and pilots his ship, the Bebop.
Faye Valentine – A stowaway on the Bebop which both Spike and Jet disapprove. Mysterious, broke, unpredictable and has many bad habits but also a wonderful fighter and pilot.
Ed – An elite hacker prodiigy form Earth. Walks weird, has weird posture and always barefoot. Carefree.
Ein – A Pembroke Welsh Corgi and appears to be a very intelligent dog that can do various tasks that normal dogs are unable to do.

As I review “Cowboy Bebop – The Complete Series” 20 years later, I had to look at my DVD review that I wrote back in 2000.

“This is the anime that many friends and fans have told me to watch. I wanted to pass because I don’t like following what everyone watches. Years later I finally decide to check out the first DVD for the Cowboy Bebop series and what do you know, it’s really awesome! From the music and great color/video to the really fun plot, this drama really draws you in. Especially the fact that many fans will tell you that you have to watch the whole thing because the ending is shocking. Which leads me to believe that this series will get serious very soon.Anyway, this anime is awesome and Bandai does a great job by giving fans an awesome anime on DVD”.

Back in the day, each DVD volume only came with five episodes and people had to pay quite a bit for it. Here we are in 2020, where people can now buy complete series, which goes to show how far anime has come and how much the industry has changed in the last 20-years.

But watching “Cowboy Bebop” once again, the series was no doubt a testament to the power of Japanese animation and a shift of what would become a great appreciation for English dubbed voice acting.

While there were many anime series and films that were featured in English dub before “Cowboy Bebop”, since the series broadcast on Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network, it literally opened the floodgates to Japanese animation and a new generation of anime fans.

“Cowboy Bebop” was the first anime to be shown on Adult Swim and without “Cowboy Bebop”, where would anime be today? During the time when the series was released in the US, we would see English dub voice actors treated like rockstars, we would see many people start to go to anime conventions and take part in cosplay, we would see more anime publications, more titles being released in the US and more Japanese entertainment companies taking an interest in the US and European market more than ever before.

Bare in mind, along with the positives, there were also a lot of negatives, as the market became saturated and the economic downturn of 2008 but the industry was able to bounce back, stronger than ever and over 20-years later since the anime series first aired in Japan, there is a lot of love towards “Cowboy Bebop”.

So, much love that a NETFLIX live-action series is set for release.

But nevertheless, Funimation has released all 26-episodes on Blu-ray (in 2020, via a steelbook release) and watching this series once again, I realized how much quality “Cowboy Bebop” was for its time and even in today’s standards.

With a lot of anime going towards digital animation and having to be produced quickly to air on television, you just don’t get to see anime produced in this type of quality unless its an OVA or an animated film.

There was a lot of effort to plan on various scenes, to showcase the action, to showcase emotion, to build upon character dynamics, little things that make “Cowboy Bebop” such an amazing anime to watch but also to listen to, especially with its wonderful soundtrack.

I appreciate “Cowboy Bebop” so much now, despite giving it positive comments back in 2000.

Again, they don’t make TV series of this high caliber in quality and production because studios and in-house work are under pressure to churn out a series before it airs (sometimes hours before it airs on television). I don’t know how many anime series are saved thanks to its story and background art these days, but with “Cowboy Bebop” featuring a great balance of episodes featuring a captivating story, entertaining characters, vibrant and detailed animation, delightful music and wonderful acting, you’ll find very few anime TV series that get that much time and love and commitment dedicated to it.

And considering the amount of challenges that Watanabe Shinichiro had in the development of this series and sticking to his guns, this may not be a Sunrise mecha anime series, but it’s an awesome space drama. And one of the most awesome anime series of all time.

If you don’t own the series or have never watched it, definitely check out “Cowboy Bebop” on Blu-ray/DVD or digitally on funimation.com.

Highly recommended!