“But I’m at work,” you say. Take a half day. Start now. If you don’t sleep, and take your meals while you watch you’ll be done with Cowboy Bebop well before dawn. You can thank me later, after you’ve realigned your sleep schedule.

Okay, maybe that’s a wee bit overboard, but you should start watching it. Today or tomorrow, at the absolute latest. I’m serious.

It’s is a show unlike any other. Shinichiro Watanabe, the director, does a magnificent job blending the Gunslinger, Noir and Sci-fi genres into a grim & gritty future where nonsense and tragedy walk hand in hand. The care and attention to detail put into every frame is reminiscent of Kubrick. The musical score buttresses an already immersive world. The show is so good it elevates the English dub well beyond watchable levels (unheard of in ’90s anime dubs). This show stands at the head of the animated pantheon, unrivaled perhaps, except for the works of Hayao Miyazaki.

You’ll cheer. You’ll laugh. And if you have even half a heart, you’ll cry.

Go. Go now. Why are you still reading this?

Cowboy Bebop’s Opening Theme Song

You can scour the world for a better one. You could spend lifetimes at it. You will, on your journey, collect a handful of songs that are equal to Tank! You will find none better.

And before you get on my case about not judging a book by it’s cover, or how the intro doesn’t have anything to do with the show, let me stop you. This cover does a great job of informing you what you’re getting into. The song Tank! sets the stage for the show to come, with an old school, James Bond style intro. Action is ahead! Gun fights! Fight fights! Car chases!

Also, to the earlier point, I constantly judge books by their covers, and yes, sometimes it turns out to be good anyway, but it’s still fun to talk shit.

Cowboy Bebop’s Vibe

There is no argument to be made that Cowboy Bebop isn’t beautiful. The art, and the animation are top tier. The fight scenes ping pong between gangster movie shootouts, Bruce Lee punch ups, and Star Wars dog fights, and each one them is stunning. Every single frame of this show is beautiful.

Cowboy Bebop seamlessly integrates gritty noir realism with high concept interplanetary sci-fi. This show doesn’t stop for exposition. They drop you into the middle of it, and you’re left picking up the pieces, patching together a world that’s equal parts beautiful and ugly, while the cast wanders through it with the blithe indifference of the overexposed. They’ve seen all this before. Hell, they live here.

Cowboy Bebop’s Musical Score

Infused throughout is a musical backdrop that will literally haunt your dreams. There are weird takes on wild west themes, rain-soaked blues under flickering street lamps, high-tempo industrial techno, and melodious choral pieces that will catch your breath in your throat. All of this thematic variation might make you think you’ll struggle to catch your footing, but that’s not the case.

The music of Cowboy Bebop grounds you. It makes the fantastical worlds of 2071 feel tangible. The musical scores blast out of the radio, pour from a club onto the street. They’re an opera singer’s aria, an obnoxious TV theme song. All of this serves to place the viewer in the world. Music is everywhere. Art imitates life.

Cowboy Bebop’s English Dub is Actually Decent

Generally, I’m not a fan of dubs. Give me subtitles every day of the week. This show is the exception. Both are good. You can watch the whole thing, skipping back and forth between them and it comes out too close to call. I know, I’ve done it.

The English voice actors do extremely well with it, in no small part because the show is impossible not to fall in love with. The characters, the music, the atmosphere, they all suck you in. You’re left reeling, knowing you’ve got something great in your hands, and unwilling to let it go.

If you forced me to choose, I’d go with the sub, but that’s more out of force of habit than any strong feelings either way.

Cowboy Bebop is a Closed Loop

There is no string of steadily declining seasons. There aren’t a thousand episodes of it. You won’t get tired, or bored, or disenchanted as the seasons drag on and the writing quality slips. You get one season and a feature length film (set between episodes 22 and 23, for those interested parties). Then you’re done. You can beg for more. You won’t get it. Best I can do is a live action series later this year.

This wasn’t a cash grab, stringing you along, season after season, hoping for some kind of resolution. Cowboy Bebop goes in with a story to tell. They tell it. If you’re desperate for more, read my next blog post. It might not be exactly like Cowboy Bebop, but it’s as close as you’re likely to get.

In Conclusion: Go Watch Cowboy Bebop

Maybe you don’t like anime. I’d recommend you watch this anyway. It’s not like any anime you’ve ever seen. If you get past the end of episode 5 and you still hate it, I’ll eat my hat. If you’re someone who enjoys anime and you still haven’t seen it, then boy-howdy do you have a treat ahead of you. To the rest of you, who’ve seen it already, go give it another watch. The damned thing is timeless. It aged well. 

And, ultimately, that’s one of the things I look for in great theater. If a work can hit just as hard in the late ‘90s as it does in the hellscape that is the early ’20s, it’s transcended. It’s not locked in a single decade, trapped by the mores of the time.

It’s still relevant.

It’s art.