Most anime lovers will tell you that Cowboy Bebop is the best anime series of all time, or at least they’ll have it in theirs top 5. That should be reason enough but if you need more reasons I can think this ones to change your mind:
Anyone could say that cowboy bebop is about the adventures of four bounty hunters in space, running from one adventure to another like any other episodic series would be an injustice with this Japanese master piece.
The real theme is loneliness, more specific the loneliness we experience when we reach adulthood. We get used to hang out with our peers most of the days because of school and college dynamics, but when we reach this point we see each other now and then, that’s the point when the main characters of bebop begins, very different to most “Shounen” with protagonists with a lot ahead and we follow the story instead we have 4 characters with a lot of backgrounds that chase them and we see how they confront it.
Each character is drawn with a lot of details and they stands out from the rest. But the thing that I really admire is how much thought they give to create them. Each character could be the protagonist of his own series and they relate to each other in such a fun way revealing about their history and about themselves. Is pure and awesome storytelling in a real high level.
The supporting characters are thought as well and they accomplished their role helping the development of the main characters who drives the story. Each supporting character has a deep background and doesn´t feel like filler, they are interesting and fun by themselves.
When you talk about space you may think about Star Wars and Star Trek, unified societies like the empire or the federation with a unified way of being. This is not the case with cowboy bebop; they take an approach from the multiculturalist showing in each planet a evolved version of an existing part of our world and our culture. They also take advantage of this approach to present us a variety of genres within the same series you can enjoy western, action, terror, drama, comedy, suspense among others in the many episodes of the show and each of every one of them are made with uncanny quality.
The show debuted in 1998 and the drawing is still current to this day, this is a great feat if we think that by that time there wasn´t so much editing programs, those same programs that enhanced the drawing in most of the animes now days. Every single frame is done with high quality and a lot of detail, making the scenery feels alive. Just for the drawing and the smooth of the character movements this one can be considered a master piece.
The music by itself is amazing, I could be driving in my car for hours listening to it and don’t feel bored. Different genres an styles what shows diversity. But the best thing of all is how every piece is thought to enhanced the power of the scene, making a great symbiosis between image and sound creating this incredible experience we loved and call Cowboy Bebop.
Maybe is just my opinion but I’ll leave you the opening to have a little test of it.
