Cowboy Bebop Review

Cowboy Bebop Set

Doing an unbiased review on Cowboy Bebop would be difficult to me. Cowboy Bebop is everything an anime should be; after all it is my favorite anime. Along with Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Rurouni Kenshin, and some others, Cowboy Bebop is a very iconic anime name. Not only was it the first anime to run on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim back in 2001, but it ran for four years straight continuously. Cowboy Bebop took a break from Adult Swim for a while and reran in 2007-2012. Needless to say, this is an amazing anime!

The Plot of Cowboy Bebop

Cowboy Bebop is definitely a Sci-fi-Western anime. The story follows Spike Spiegel and his crew Jet, Faye, Ed, and Ein. Every episode has a sort of stand-alone story. Some of the main plot will come out in certain episodes, but may not show up in others. The Bebop crew hunts down bounties for a living. Each member has his or her own special “ability” when it comes to catching them. The main story arc though is really based around Spike and why he joined Jet to hunt bounties. Being a former member of the Red Dragon Syndicate, he basically uses the cowboy routine to stay in hiding. The main arc is about Spike’s past life catching up with him and him having to finally face the outcome.

The Characters of Cowboy Bebop

Spike is the main character of Cowboy Bebop. He is a very calm and collective guy training in Jeet Kun Do. Jet owns the Bebop and was a former detective. He lost his arm in a shootout at one time, thus he has a fake arm. Spike and Jet eventually come across Faye, another bounty hunter and bounty herself. Faye seems to bring them a lot of trouble as well as some good money at times. Ed is the genius of the crew. She helps by hacking and using her computer abilities to catch bounties. Ein is a very intelligent dog and really stays around Ed a lot and helps her with computer things.

The Bebop crew was put together so well and really makes the show. Each character that you come across in Cowboy Bebop has a lingering affect no longer how short their role was in the series. For instance the episode “Waltz for Venus” the character Rocco becomes a very interesting character to get to know and really lingers on even though he dies at the end of the episode.

The Setting of Cowboy Bebop

Cowboy Bebop is based in the year 2071. By this time the Solar System has been open up to the public for living. Most of the series takes place in the Bebop ship but occasionally they visit planets (or moons). Even though it is the year 2071 and humankind has embarked into space, there is still some very ‘old’ technology still around and in use. Ground vehicles from the 1990s are still being used in the anime. The space technology has come a long way but it left the ground technology behind.

Grade 10/10
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