Cowboy bebop was written by Keiko Nobumoto and directed by Shinichiro Watanabe. Because of the violence in the anime, Cowboy bebop almost did not appear on Japanese TV. In April 1998 Tokyo TV aborted the first run of the series; then in June they decided to only broadcast episodes 2, 3, 7 to 15 and 18 of this 26 episode series. Later that year WOWOW decided to broadcast the series in its entirety. In 2000 Cowboy bebop won the Seiun award and to this day Cowboy bebop is still a favourite amongst Japanese and Western viewers. The sound track was composed by a God in the anime soundtrack business Yoko Kanno (if you love watching anime chances are you have heard some of her music). The music in this anime has a jazz and blues theme to it. And this soundtrack is still the most popular anime sound track to date (take my word, it’s a good one).
Cowboy bebop is set in the year 2071 after the 2020 hyperspace gateway explosion devastated the moon and left the Earth virtually uninhabitable (due to the constant meteor showers). As a result humans have spread out across the solar system; because of this, there is a lot of crime throughout the solar system. To help combat against the growing crime levels the governments decided to reinstate the bounty system of the old west. Bounty hunters (called cowboys) are encouraged to capture criminals alive and unharmed and return them to the authorities.
The series follows the crew of the bebop, at the start of the series these are only two members on the bebop: Spike Spiegel and Jet Black. They are bounty hunters that have constant bad luck bringing in their bounties. And as a result usually scrape by, by going after small time bounties. Throughout the series, the crew of the bebop expands as they take on Faye Valentine a gambling addict, Ein a dog and Edward a master hacker. This unlikely group of cowboys’ travel throughout the solar system getting themselves in to lots of trouble.
The series does have a storyline from start to finish but it is very loose and some episodes have nothing to do with the storyline at all. This actually works for this anime and I think that if Cowboy bebop stuck to a firm storyline then it would not have the same feel. When I first looked at the cover of Cowboy bebop in the video store I wrote it off as one of those crappy macho animes. And when my husband bought the series I flat out refused to watch it and it sat on the shelf for 6 months until one day when I was avoiding work and had watched all my other anime. I was happily proven wrong and watched the whole series in 2 days. I love this series; it’s funny, action packed and even has drama to it and the soundtrack kicks ass. I would recommend this to anyone that likes anime. If you only like your anime to fallow a strict storyline from start to finish then you will probably not like this thought as it does have quite a few episodes that have nothing to do with the main plot what so ever.