Cowboy Bebop

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 | format = Anime
 | runtime = 23 minutes
 | creator = Shinichiro Watanabe (Director), Toshihiro Kawamoto (Artist)
 | starring = Koichi Yamadera, Megumi Hayashibara, Unsho Ishizuka, Aoi Tada (Japanese version); Steven Blum, Beau Billingslea, Wendee Lee, Melissa Fahn (English version)  
 | country = Japan
 | network = TV Tokyo (1998-04-03 to 1998-06-19, 12 episodes only), WOWOW (1998-10-23 to 1999-04-23, Full Series) (Japan); Cartoon Network (USA); GMA Network (Philippines)
 | first_aired = April 3, 1998
 | last_aired = June 19, 1998
 | num_episodes = 26 (+ One episode only aired once on TV Tokyo)
 | imdb_id = 0213338

|}} Cowboy Bebop (1998) (Japanese: カウボーイビバップ) is an anime television series and motion picture that follows a band of American-stylized bounty hunters thrown together by circumstance and necessity, but each with passionately disparate private agendas. Each episode tells the story of how the group tracks down wanted criminals in a futuristic setting while dealing with personal issues that arise by location, people they meet, or misgivings about the morality of the subject of their bounty. While every episode, or the movie, stands on its own, the back-stories of the characters and their growing intimacy together make the whole much greater than the sum of its parts.

Cowboy Bebop was popular in Japan and became one of the biggest adult anime hits ever in the United States, opening the genre to an audience that previously considered anything but live action to be juvenile. The unflinching adult themes of the show, along with the cool jazz tracks and orphic political undertones became an obsession to many Americans tuning into Cartoon Network's new late-night "Adult Swim." Pirated copies of the Japanese Cowboy Bebop movie, Knockin' on Heaven's Door, became available in 2002 dubbed with rough translations. By 2003, Sony Pictures released it to theatres, and eventually DVD, an official version of the movie using the voices of the original English-speaking actors. Two Cowboy Bebop manga comic books were created based on the TV show, and a Playstation 2 video game is due in the United States in February of 2006. (See also Licensing, authors, and publishers)

The show is widely respected for its multiple layers and deep characters, combined with a very free-flowing feel to the story itself (heavily influenced by American culture, especially the jazz movements of the 1940s, hence "bebop") and a large number of well-choreographed action fighting sequences (from space battles to martial arts hand-to-hand combat).

Contents 1 Longevity 2 History of Bebop 3 Plot 4 Background 5 Characters 5.1 Spike Spiegel 5.2 Jet Black 5.3 Faye Valentine 5.4 Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV 5.5 Ein 5.6 Vicious 5.7 Julia 5.8 Punch and Judy 5.9 The Three Old Men 6 Sessions (episodes) 7 Soundtrack 8 Staff 9 Influences 10 Controversial episodes 11 Content ratings 12 Licensing, authors, and publishers 13 See also 14 External links

Longevity

Cowboy Bebop has remained a longtime favorite of anime fans in both Japan and the United States. A recent poll in the magazine Newtype asked the notoriously fickle Japanese audience to rank the Top 20 Anime Titles of All Time; Cowboy Bebop placed at number eight on a list that includes classics of the genre like Mobile Suit Gundam and Neon Genesis Evangelion. ^{[citation needed]}

In the U.S., CN has dropped Cowboy Bebop from its Adult Swim line-up several times only to return it later due to its popularity. The network has also rotated Cowboy Bebop out of its anime lineup periodically in order to show other anime features such as Read or Die and Blue Gender. Cowboy Bebop is usually rotated out for a quarter of a year and then returned to the lineup due to its long-running success and high appeal among anime fans of all age groups. Critics of the series see it as preventing other series from airing on the Adult Swim block, one of the few widely-broadcast North American venues for anime.

History of Bebop

Cowboy Bebop almost did not make it on Japanese broadcast television due to its (relatively) graphic depictions of violence. The show had an aborted first run beginning on April 3, 1998 and running until June 19, 1998 on TV Tokyo, broadcasting only episodes 2, 3, 7-15 and 18. Later that year, the series was shown in its entirety beginning on October 23 and running until April 23, 1999 on the satellite network WOWOW. Cowboy Bebop was popular enough that a movie, Cowboy Bebop: Tengoku no Tobira (Knockin' on Heaven's Door), was commissioned and released in Japan in 2001 and later released in the United States as Cowboy Bebop: The Movie in 2003.

Image:Cowboy bebop01.jpg In 2001, Cowboy Bebop became the first anime title to be shown as part of the U.S. Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block of programming. At the time, it was quite a risk for the fledgling networks as a more "adult" anime had never been broadcast in such a mainstream venue before. However, it turned out to be a rousing success, continuing to be broadcast regularly until present. The success of Cowboy Bebop paved the way for Cartoon Network's embrace of mature anime, including InuYasha, Lupin the Third, Fullmetal Alchemist, FLCL, Samurai Champloo, and Wolf's Rain.

In the United Kingdom, Cowboy Bebop was first broadcast in 2003 as one of the highlights of the ill-fated 'cartoon network for adults', CNX.

In France Cowboy Bebop was broadcast during summer 2000 on [[Canal+]].

Bandai released a Cowboy Bebop shooter in Japan for the PlayStation in 1998 . A PlayStation 2 Cowboy Bebop video game has been released in Japan already and the Region One version is set for release in North America during the first quarter of 2006. [1]

In 2005, seven years after its original Japanese broadcast, Bebop was finally licensed and released in the European market by Beez, an extension of Bandai Entertainment.

Plot

For more details on this topic, see List of Bountyheads in Cowboy Bebop.

In the year 2071, the crew of the spaceship Bebop travel the solar system trying to apprehend bounties. In the slang of the era, "cowboys" are bounty hunters, hence the name of the series. Each member of the Bebop crew contributes their own unique abilities to help catch bounties. Most episodes revolve around a bounty; however the real focus of the show concerns the pasts of each character, which unravel and connect as the series progresses.

Arguably, the main plotline focuses on Spike Spiegel, a former member of the 'Red Dragon' crime syndicate who is haunted by a past love triangle between his former syndicate partner, Vicious, and a mysterious woman named Julia.

The series also focuses on the histories of the other Bebop crew members: Jet Black, a former ISSP officer on the Jovian moon Ganymede; Faye Valentine, an indebted gambler recently awakened from cryogenic slumber; Edward, a genius child computer hacker; and Ein, a revolutionary "Data Dog" capable of countless amazing acts, including hacking at twice the speed of an expert hacker.

Background

In the year 2021, a series of ring-shaped hyperspace gateways were constructed across the solar system, allowing for easy interplanetary travel. Unfortunately, the gate network contained a fatal instability that was ignored by the contractors who built the system. The instability grew until a gateway near Earth exploded, releasing a powerful burst of energy that cracked the Moon. In a disaster referred to as "the Gate Incident", meteoric debris from the Moon destroyed much of Earth's surface, killing billions. People mostly live underground, as debris continues to rain down on the planet daily, although a sizeable number of people refuse to leave or simply can't afford to. Most, however, left Earth after the Gate Incident and spread out across the solar system, living in colonies on Venus, Mars, some habitable asteroids, and the Galilean moons of Jupiter.

It is interesting to note that the total population for the Solar System of 2071 is only about 1.3 billion. Assuming that the population of Earth in 2021 was greater than 6 billion (as on present-day Earth), the explosion of the gate was the worst disaster to ever befall humankind — at least 4.7 billion lives were lost.

Some of the colonies are more hospitable than others, however all planets and moons seen in the series except for Mars are terraformed; a situation which points to the soft sci-fi nature of the series with Mars often being considered the most easily terraformable planet while terraforming the others within the next century being an almost impossible undertaking.

The domed craters of Mars are a great place to live, for those who can afford it. The poor can live on Venus, although the unlucky may be blinded or killed by Venus sickness. Rough Callisto is a dreary and cold moon (with the city of Blue Crow having an all male population), Io is toxic and volcanic, while Ganymede is almost completely surrounded by water and known for its fishing industry. Titan, Saturn's largest moon, is a barren desert world which has been at war since the 2060s. There is even a Solar System Penitentiary on Pluto.

Most importantly to the general plot of the series, sometime after the advent of space travel, the bounty system of the Old West was reinstated by the government to help curb growing crime levels. Vigilantes are encouraged to capture bounties and return them (alive and relatively unharmed) to the authorities for a large reward.

At some point between the present day and the events of Cowboy Bebop, the Woolong was established as a universal currency.

Characters

Spike Spiegel

Image:Soikebebopsftd.jpg

A 27-year-old bounty hunter who was born on Mars. In appearance, Spike is tall and thin, but with muscular shoulders. He has dark green fuzzy hair, and brown eyes, one of which is lighter than the other (his left eye is a cybernetic prosthetic replacement after he lost his real eye in an accident). He is usually dressed in a blue leisure suit, with a yellow shirt and Lupin III inspired boots. Spike often has a cigarette between his lips, sometimes despite rain or "no smoking" signs.

Spike has many talents and abilities, making him an excellent bounty hunter. He has very sharp eyesight, and abnormally acute perception. Spike makes use of sleight-of-hand techniques to win card games, pick pockets, and even to slip things onto other people unnoticed. Where Spike really excels, however, is in combat. He is well versed in weaponry (such as his personal Jericho 941 as well as other guns and explosives) and hand-to-hand combat skills. He specializes in Bruce Lee's personal style of Jeet Kune Do. Spike is also an excellent pilot, and flies a converted Asteroid racer called "Swordfish II."

When he's not working or practicing his martial arts skills, Spike is very laid-back and lackadaisical, often a source of consternation for his crew mates. Some members of the Bebop crew occasionally refer to him as a "lunkhead" due to his happy-go-lucky attitude, and generally Spike just takes life as it comes. However, behind the sleepy facade, Spike is heartbroken over the loss of Julia, who disappeared rather than follow him away from the syndicate.

Although some fans claim him to be of Jewish descent (due to his last name, which means "mirror" in German, his "fuzzy" hairstyle, and his use of an Israeli-made pistol), director Shinichiro Watanabe stated at Otakon 1999 that he and the staffers initially chose the name Spiegel because they simply liked the sound of it. (It is also interesting to note that Director Spike Jonze was originally named Adam Spiegel, although whether this is a simple coincidence is debatable.)

Spike was a powerful member of the Red Dragon crime syndicate, where he was partnered with a man named Vicious. Spike was unhappy within the syndicate, and after a falling out with Vicious (Spike's affair and love for Julia, Vicious's girlfriend, was the cause for him to quit the syndicate), Spike faked his death to free himself from the organization.

At some time prior to Spike's faked death, he lost his left eye in what he calls an "accident", and has it replaced with a cybernetic implant (hence the two different eye colors). However, Spike must have lost the eye at an earlier time as Julia reminisced about Spike's eyes to Gren, a minor character in the series. This detail is mentioned to Spike by Gren in episode 13, "Jupiter Jazz Part II". If Spike had lost his eye when he left the syndicate, Julia would not have seen the cybernetic replacement until their reunion in episode 25, "The Real Folk Blues Part I".

Some time after his "death", Spike met up with bounty hunter Jet Black, and the two men became partners. Spike moved onto Jet's ship, the "Bebop", and the two men worked together for about three years before being joined by the rest of the crew.

Spike's philosophy seems to be based on the ancient samurai ideals of immediacy: considering oneself as dead and the idea of death being an awakening from a dream are both elements of Bushido illustrated in the Hagakure.

Spike is voiced by Koichi Yamadera in the Japanese version and Steven Blum (as David Lucas) in the English version.

Jet Black

Image:JetBlack001.jpg Jet is a 36-year-old former cop from Ganymede (a Jovian satellite) and acts as Spike's foil during the series. Where Spike acts lazy and uninterested, Jet is hard-working and a jack-of-all-trades. Jet was an investigator in the Inter Solar System Police (ISSP) for many years until he lost his arm in an investigation that went awry. His arm was replaced with a cybernetic limb, yet his loss of limb coupled with the general corruption of the police force prompted Jet to quit the ISSP in disgust and become a freelance bounty hunter. Jet also considers himself something of a renaissance man: he cultivates bonsai trees, cooks, enjoys jazz/blues music, especially Charlie Parker's flavor, and even has interest in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. As a character, Jet is the quintessential oyaji or "dad."

Jet is skilled with handguns, as well as the use of the netgun. He is good with hand to hand combat as well. Unlike Spike, Jet tends to use more raw muscle than technique. He is also a great mechanic and pilot. Aside from the Bebop, Jet flies a smaller ship called "Hammerhead." The Hammerhead appears to be a modified salvage-craft that uses a mechanical arm equipped with a harpoon as its main weapon, which is a parallel metaphor to his own mechanial arm. Both the Hammerhead and the Bebop are able to land on water.

During the series, it is revealed that Jet once lived with a woman named Alisa, who left him because he was too controlling. Later they meet up again when Alisa's new boyfriend Rynt is wanted for murder. Jet then ends up in a situation somewhat similar to that of Vicious, where he must hunt down a woman who broke his heart, and her lover.

In a later episode, another Vicious/Jet parallel is set up when Jet finds out that it was his old partner Fad who betrayed him (though in Jet's case, there was no love affair involved). Fad arranged for Jet's death in a setup, but he survived with only a missing arm and a scar on his face.

Jet is voiced by Unsho Ishizuka in the Japanese version and Beau Billingslea (as John Billingslea) in the English version.

Faye Valentine

Image:FayeValentine001.jpg By all appearances, Faye is a twenty-three year old woman in 2071. However, she was actually born in 1994 and was cryogenically frozen after the gate accident. Faye is confident, audacious, independent, and somewhat self-centered. She is also quite lazy, but takes time to care for her appearance. She enjoys gambling, and often loses a great deal of money doing so. Faye is a very competent bounty hunter, being skilled in flying and both hand-to-hand and firearm combat.

In truth, Faye's indomitable exterior hides a fragile interior. Faye awoke from her cryogenic sleep with total amnesia in a mysterious world that she didn't understand, surrounded by people who were all-too-willing to take advantage of her naïveté, contributing to the hardening of her personality. The surname "Valentine" was merely a name given to her by the doctor that awoke her; the circumstances of her accident, her previous life, and even her real name all remain a mystery, and are only gradually revealed as the series progresses. It has been hinted that she came from Singapore on Earth, and was the daughter of a very wealthy family, as the city's famous Merlion Statue features prominently in scenes of her childhood, and that memories and a film from her childhood showed her living in a large mansion.

Faye is voiced by Megumi Hayashibara in the Japanese version and Wendee Lee in the English version.

Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV

Image:Ed001.jpg The assumed (read "self-given") name of an elite netdiver from Earth, Ed is a very strange young girl assumed to be about 13 years old. Ed could be considered a "free spirit"; she is fond of silly exclamations and childish rhymes, easily distracted, and the show's primary source of physical humor. Over the course of the show she rarely walks anywhere, preferring to run, crawl, flip, roll, or even just saunter. She always refers to herself in the third person. Not much is known about her origins, only that she spent some of her earlier childhood in an orphanage. (A man named Appledelhi Siniz Hesap Lutfen eventually claims to be her father and calls her Françoise, suggesting she might be Turkish, as this man's name means "check, please" in Turkish.) Ed's primary use to the Bebop crew is as a hacker; she is widely known to be a genius behind a computer (and possibly unparalleled, save for Ein the dog). Ed has a strong rapport with Jet, who acts as a surrogate father, and Faye, who acts as something of a big sister (much to Faye's chagrin). Ed also seems to be the only person who can understand Ein. In the end of the series, at Faye's prompting, she leaves the Bebop to (presumably) look for her dad, taking Ein who chose to leave with Ed, rather than remain on the Bebop with the others.

Ed is voiced by Aoi Tada in the Japanese version and Melissa Fahn in the English version.

Ein

Image:Ein001.jpg Ein is a Pembroke Welsh Corgi brought aboard the Bebop by Spike after a failed attempt to capture a bounty. Ein is a "data dog": while the televised series never explains what this means, the manga shows Ed accessing data stored in Ein's brain via a virtual reality-type interface with which she has a conversation with a human proprietor. It is obvious that Ein is abnormally intelligent, as he is able to answer the telephone, use the Internet, and generally do a number of other things that an average canine shouldn't be able to do, but he never talks in English during the show. He does, however, speak during one of the previews. He also 'speaks' to a cow (subtitled bark of 'Thanks', to which the cow has a subtitled moo back of 'No Problem') in episode 17, "Mushroom Samba". Ein is apparently also able to hack computers via a brain wave interface (demonstrated in episode 23, "Brain Scratch"), further indication of his abnormal capabilities. It is likely that Ed is the only crew member with any idea of Ein's capabilities, as the other crew members are quick to dismiss Ein, and never seem to acknowledge him as more than a pet. Ein initially takes a shine to Jet, but when Ed joins the crew, he comes around to her as well. Frequently the two trade roles, with Ein expressing very human sentiments via facial expression and Ed regressing to a feral state. He went with Ed after she left the crew, probably because of his attachment to her. His name is a pun on the Japanese word for "dog" (inu) but is also German for "one" (possibly because he is the only dog featured in the show, or because he is the first new character to be added to the series). 'Ein' may also be short for 'Einstein', after Albert Einstein, because of the extraordinary intelligence he expresses. It should also be noted, however, that "ein" is also Japanese for the perineum, but this epithet is highly doubtful.

Vicious

Image:Vicious001.jpg

Vicious is a veteran of the war on Titan, and was Spike's partner in the Red Dragon crime syndicate until they fell into conflict over Julia. Vicious lives up to his name: he is ruthless, bloodthirsty, cunning and ambitious, willing to do anything in order to secure a position of power. He is often referred to or depicted as a poisonous snake. His weapon of choice is not a firearm, but a katana which he has favored quite skillfully, even during the war on Titan. The blood feud between Spike and Vicious is an ongoing storyline throughout Cowboy Bebop. Vicious believes that he is the only one who can kill, or "awaken" Spike, as Spike is the only one who can do the same for Vicious.

Vicious is voiced by Norio Wakamoto in the Japanese version and Skip Stellrecht (as Henry Douglas Grey) in the English version.

Julia

Image:CB-Julia001.jpg Julia is a beautiful and mysterious woman from both Spike and Vicious' pasts. A love triangle between the three caused Spike to leave the syndicate. Spike had wanted to take her with him when he left the syndicate, but she was blackmailed by Vicious to stay. Julia herself only appears in flashbacks until the final two episodes of the series. Julia acts as a stark contrast to the world around her — her blonde hair and her bright red umbrella and automobile standing out in the otherwise drab environs that she inhabits. She really does love Spike, but doesn't want to spend her life on the run from Vicious.

Julia is voiced by Gara Takashima in the Japanese version and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (as Melissa Williamson) in the English version. McGlynn also directs the voices in the English version, also as Melissa Williamson.

Punch and Judy

Punch and Judy are the characters of the TV show Big Shot. The show provides information on various bountyheads, but is often unreliable. The Bebop crew often has the show playing in the background, but seldom pays close attention (they usually get their information from close contacts). Punch and Judy play the "cowboy" persona in a characteristic, "over the top" fashion. Punch adopts a mid-western drawl mixed with a Mexican accent (both faked), and uses random old-West sayings. Judy plays the stereotypical dumb blonde, and always appears in an open bolero jacket with nothing underneath. Big Shot gets cancelled towards the end of the series, and Punch (lacking accent and costume) makes a brief cameo revealing his and Judy's fates.

Punch and Judy are voiced by Tsutomu Tareki and Miki Nagasawa in the Japanese version, respectively, and Bill Whizins and Lia Sargent in the English version, respectively.

The character names and the loose concept of Big Shot are most likely a tongue-in-cheek reference to the British show Punch and Judy.

The Three Old Men

Throughout the series and the movie three old men make frequent appearances, as speaking characters, or in the background during scenes. They make various claims about what they did before becoming oldtimers, including bounty-hunting, building the stargates, farming, piloting planes in a war, and crop-dusting. They seem on speaking terms with many supporting characters, and though they run into the main characters often there is not much attention paid to them (or even that the main characters have seen them before). According to the movie credits, they are called Antonio, Carlos, and Jobim (a reference to the Brazilian musician Tom Jobim).

Sessions (episodes)

For more details on this topic, see List of Cowboy Bebop media#Session (episode) list.

The Cowboy Bebop series consists of 26 episodes, referred to as "sessions." Also included in the continuity is the Cowboy Bebop movie, placed between sessions 22 and 23. Many episodes are named explicitly for famous songs — "Honky Tonk Woman," "Heavy Metal Queen," "Jamming with Edward," "Sympathy for the Devil," "Bohemian Rhapsody," "My Funny Valentine," "Speak Like a Child," "Wild Horses," "Hard Luck Woman," and "The Real Folk Blues," the show's ending theme. Titles which do not name a specific song generally combine some plot element of the episode with a broader musical style — "Jupiter Jazz Pt. 1", "Jupiter Jazz Pt. 2", "Mushroom Samba," "Cowboy Funk," and "Waltz for Venus," for example.

The Cowboy Bebop movie carries the subtitle Knockin' on Heaven's Door. However, due to a trademark dispute over the title, Columbia Tristar released it in America with the shortened title Cowboy Bebop: The Movie.

The title of session 2, "Stray Dog Strut", references the song "Stray Cat Strut."

Soundtrack

Main article: The Seatbelts

One of the most notable elements of Cowboy Bebop is its music, mostly performed by Yoko Kanno and her band, The Seatbelts. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the jazz-and-blues-themed soundtrack defines the series as much as the characters, writing, or animation; many fans find the soundtracks enjoyable to listen to as albums on their own merits.

Besides the three original soundtracks (Cowboy Bebop, No Disc and Blue) there is a mini-album (Vitaminless) and a greatest-hits collection (TANK! The! Best). The remix compilation, Music for Freelance, purports to be a broadcast from the pirate radio station Radio Free Mars. Finally, there is a CD box set, which includes a variety of tracks from the first original soundtracks, as well as rare/new versions of certain songs and dialogue tracks from the Japanese version of the show.

Yoko Kanno and The Seatbelts team with Tim Jensen for lyrics on songs:

• "Ask DNA" sung by Raj Ramayya
• "Gotta knock a little harder" sung by Mai Yamane
• "Call me, call me" sung by Steve Conte

Staff

The series was created by "Hajime Yatate," a collective pseudonym for members of the staff at Sunrise, the animation studio that also developed Mobile Suit Gundam, Big O, Outlaw Star and Vision of Escaflowne. Cowboy Bebop was directed by Shinichiro Watanabe, who also directed Macross Plus, Samurai Champloo and the two short films A Detective Story and Kid's Story from the Animatrix. The music of Cowboy Bebop was all composed by Yoko Kanno, who also composed music for Earth Girl Arjuna, Macross Plus, Vision of Escaflowne, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Wolf's Rain.

The Cowboy Bebop movie was animated by Studio BONES, a new studio created by many former employees of Sunrise, and was one of their first projects. They have since developed other popular series like RahXephon, Wolf's Rain, and Fullmetal Alchemist.

Influences

Cowboy Bebop's influences are many and varied.

• Cowboy Bebop is heavily influenced by American culture: from cinema, including mobster movies and westerns, to the jazz music out of the Harlem nightclubs of the 1940s. It is referred to as Space Jazz by its creators, as opposed to Space Opera, although it has strong similarities to the character-centered action-packed genre probabaly for it's lighter side, as it is more humorous than the standard Space Opera, often poking fun at the genre.

• Cowboy Bebop has marks of Bruce Lee and his martial arts movies. Spike's fighting style (Jeet Kune Do) is borrowed directly from Bruce Lee. Also, the name of the bounty in the second episode is Abdul Hakim, borrowed from the Bruce Lee film Game of Death that co-starred Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who played a character called "Hakim." On two other separate occasions, Spike also mentions Enter the Dragon and Way of the Dragon, two more Bruce Lee movies.

• Spike's lanky and laid-back character was heavily influenced by the charismatic thief Lupin the 3rd, from the anime and manga Lupin III, and they have similar characteristics. Likewise, Jet was influenced by Lupin's partner Jigen. Tributes to Lupin are peppered throughout the show, including characters wearing clothing worn by the cast in the Lupin series, and some of Lupin's cars, especially the famous yellow Fiat 500 from the movie The Castle of Cagliostro, appearing in scenes or in the background.

• Spike's character had mainly been attributed by creators to the Japanese actor Yusaku Matsuda from the Japanese TV series and movie entitled Tantei Monogatari. It is from Matsuda that Spike is credited for receiving his unique hair style and other physical features.

• As suggested by the series' title, Westerns play a major influence on Cowboy Bebop. Like most Westerns, the main characters are nomadic, self reliant individuals with personal moral codes, the weapon of choice for most dramatic scenes is a handgun, and episodes often revolve around codes of honor and themes of morality. There are also more explicit western influences such as Spike Spiegel's character's influence from the Man With No Name, a cowboy bounty hunter played by Clint Eastwood in the Dollars Trilogy by Sergio Leone, and one of the funniest antagonists in anime, Cowboy Andy, the naive poseur cowboy/bounty hunter with steed who contrasts with Spike's darker antihero cowboy.

• According to mechanical designer Kimitoshi Yamane's notes, Spike's Swordfish II MONO racer was inspired by Britain's Fairey Swordfish torpedo-bomber of World War II. The Cowboy Bebop movie includes a cameo of the Fairey Swordfish along with a dialogue reference to the sinking of the Bismarck battleship (Fairey Swordfish bombers were crucial to the sinking of the Bismarck). There is also fan speculation that the Swordfish II is based on the Swordfish, an experimental airplane in Edgar P. Jacobs' comic series Blake and Mortimer, although the creators have not stated this.

• The eponymous character from the episode "Pierrot Le Fou" was influenced by Alan Moore's V for Vendetta. The villain of the episode is a creation of a government laboratory project that involves physical and mental torture and which ultimately goes horrifically wrong, producing an uncontrollable and unmatchable killer who slays the staff working on him and escapes. Although this character shares physical appearance (itself based on British revolutionary Guy Fawkes) and dominating combat competence with the protagonist of V for Vendetta, he has neither his mental prowess nor his political motivation as a basis for his homicidal activities. The episode's name is also a reference to the Jean-Luc Godard crime film Pierrot le fou (1965), in which the assassin Tompu is brainwashed. Many fans thought that the episode was a tribute to The Joker, The Penguin, and Batman: The Animated Series.

• Many of the stories of Cowboy Bebop and even cinematic stylings were lifted from other movies. These include influences from or homages to 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Crow, John Woo, Alien, blaxploitation movies, Star Trek, Desperado, and Dirty Harry.

• In the episode "Ganymede Elegy", Jet's past relationship with Alisa is similar to that of the husband's and wife's from Henrik Ibsen's play The Doll House. Alisa's lover even borrows money from a loan shark just like the wife from "The Doll's House".

• Allusions to external works are often made to hint at some of the darker themes. In part one of episode 26, Jet makes reference to the Ernest Hemingway classic The Snows of Kilimanjaro. Spike also recites the Japanese tale Hyakumankai-kai Ikita Neko ("The cat that lived a million times") in the final episode as an explanation of his life, although he claims to hate the story because he hates cats.

Controversial episodes

• Shortly after the terrorist attacks on 9/11, Cartoon Network decided not to air episode 6, "Sympathy for the Devil" (due to the depiction of a gun wielding 'minor' who also gets shot in the wake of the Columbine High School massacre), episode 8, "Waltz for Venus" (which features criminals hijacking an airplane), and episode 22, "Cowboy Funk" (which features a terrorist who blows up tall buildings, including one that looks remarkably similar to the World Trade Center). Eventually, the episodes were put back into the regular rotation. The terror attacks and subsequent anthrax scare were also credited with delaying the release of the Cowboy Bebop movie in the United States by Sony Pictures, which featured a terrorist who used biological agents. (Oddly enough, the 9/11 attacks happened exactly one day after the Japanese release of the film.)

• Following the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, Cartoon Network decided not to air episode 19, "Wild Horses", in which the Columbia shuttle is featured as a prominent plot point in the story. The episode had been shown in previous airings of the series, and has since been put back into the rotation.

Content ratings

The certifications for Cowboy Bebop are TV-14 in the USA, M and MA in Australia, PG in Singapore, 13+ and G in Quebec, Canada (different episodes received different ratings), and 12,15, and PG in Britain (different episodes received different ratings).

Cowboy Bebop contains language, violence, and brief nudity. The language and nudity has been edited out of the English translation aired on Cartoon Network, but not on CNX. It is retained in the DVD releases.

Licensing, authors, and publishers

• Cowboy Bebop is licensed by Bandai in the United States.
• The following manga series were published by Kadokawa Shoten in Japanese and TOKYOPOP in English:
  • Cowboy Bebop by Hajime Yatate and Yutaka Nanten
  • Cowboy Bebop Shooting Star by Cain Kuga
• Bandai plans to release the Cowboy Bebop game for PlayStation 2 in the United States in February 2006. The game is already released in Japan.

See also

• Cowboy Bebop: The Movie
• Soundtracks and manga releases
• Cowboy Bebop PlayStation 2 Game
• Red Eye (drug)
• Science fiction Western

External links

• Mirror of Cowboy Bebop official site
• Official U.S. Cowboy Bebop: The Movie web site
• {{{2|{{{title|Cowboy Bebop}}}}}} at The Internet Movie Database
• Cowboy Bebop at the Anime News Network Encyclopedia
• Adult Swim - Cowboy Bebop
• Cowboy Bebop - Somewhere Down The Crazy River
• Cowboy Bebop: Space Cowboy- Bebop Wiki and Open Source MUD
• Cowboy Bebop: The Real Folk Blues A comprehensive fan site.
• The Jazz Messengers A fan site including video and audio from the series.de:Cowboy Bebop

es:Cowboy Bebop fr:Cowboy Bebop it:Cowboy bebop ja:カウボーイビバップ pl:Cowboy Bebop pt:Cowboy Bebop zh:星際牛仔