Cowboy Bebop sometimes seems synonymous with the word anime.  Cowboy Bebop placed many people out of Americanized anime shows and into the hard-boiled world of guns, blood, and swear words.  In other words, Cowboy Bebop acted for many as a transition into the world of anime they enjoy today.  Many people even use the show to lure their friends into anime, using Bebop as a bridge to introduce their friends to anime.  No other show really has that ability or that appeal.

There is a good reason Cowboy Bebop has that role.  Cowboy Bebop is arguably the most critically acclaimed and beloved show ever produced.  True or not, Bebop is a fantastic blend of genres, including film noir, gangster, sci-fi, and western.  Bebop has the jazz, the amazing production values, and the complete universal appeal that makes it an excellent guide to newbies.  In essence, Cowboy Bebop has acted as one of the main catalysts in making anime popular among the masses.  It is a show that cannot be ignored or passed up on.

The plot involves the character Spike Spiegel, who is a bounty hunter.  He, along with fellow bounty hunters Jet Black and Faye Valentine, hacker Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV (Ed for short), and a pet dog named Ein, cruise around a wildly fully realized universe trying to capture bounty heads.  Through the course of the series, these bounty heads serve as an excellent excuse to move the characters quickly from world to world, not only to explore this vastly imagined universe, but also to development character and build drama into the series’ episodic structure.

The main characters are fairly standard, giving the audience nothing new or exciting to truly sink their teeth into, but with the amount of time the audience will spend with the characters, Spike, Jet, Faye, and Ed will become part of the family.  Their quirks and adventures will become something more than what other anime can give.  Spike, Jet, Faye, and Ed will be characters people will remember.

The story, on the other hand, leaves something to be desired.  No one will say how Bebop’s story arc panned out, because there is little story arc present.  What people will recall are the adventures of Spike.  How he did this, or his partner Jet did that.  Cowboy Bebop's episodic nature allows the plot to recede behind its characters.  With the plot pulled behind everything else, the animation, music, setting, and characters are presented in the foreground.  They end up stealing the entire show, right down to the last frame.

Perhaps that is the brilliance behind director Shinicihiro Watanabe's style.  By abandoning plot so characters carry the show, Watanabe left himself with such flexibility that his style and personal touches shine through.  His style allowed a vast mixture of genres and pop-culture references to culminate the show.  For example, the second to the last episode contains a background with a famous Bruce Lee poster.  Spike Spiegel, near the beginning of the series, tells a stranger how he fights.  He fights like Bruce Lee.  These simple references are a joy to spot and interesting in their execution.  They are subtle and do not beat the reference cleverness over the audience’s head with a hammer.

Watanabe’s pursuit of visual and sound perfection also gave audiences some of the best animation seen in a television series.  It was not due to placing a lot of money in it, nor was it adding a ridiculous amount of detail.  What Watanabe’s animation gave audiences was fluidity and rich style never seen before.  The (pseudo)camera places the audience right with the action.  As Spike fights, the audience feels as if we are fighting too.

In addition, Yoko Kanno created a musical score that enhances the images placed on the screen.  Never before has a chapel looked so good, nor created a dramatic effect so convincing.  Bebop’s soundtrack is top notch.  It adds, and never detracts.

The Bebop universe is a fascinating place.  The moon has been half destroyed by a warp gate catastrophe, causing Earth to be a giant ghost town, full of crazies and economically downtrodden.  The entire universe uses standard twentieth century pistols and weapons, even though that technology would be outdated by the given year.  Small “zip-crafts” fly through the air, weaving in and out of buildings.  There are sci-fi elements, western elements, and kung-fu elements.  However, everything seems spot-on, like that is how it will always work.  Eccentric laser designs have no place in a western world.  It is the grit feeling of a pistol grip that belongs in the Bebop universe.

There is a lure to Cowboy Bebop not found in any other series.  Cowboy Bebop is so cool, so sleek, and so sexy in its visuals that it transcends cultural boundaries.  Like the slickest action flicks, it appeals to all genders and ages.  There is a little something for everyone and anyone can enjoy the ride.  Cowboy Bebop is not a serious work that tries to defy the way we view animation or an anime cliché.  Cowboy Bebop is a critically acclaimed summer action film.  It was all for fun, but tapped at a fun that brought people to watch anime in the first place.  If we did not watch these series, then the rest of the medium would never exist.  Cowboy Bebop is one of those series that everyone can agree that it is awesome.

Dripping with atmosphere, genres, and roughened characters, Cowboy Bebop is great anime.  It acts as a bridge to the larger anime world.  Cowboy Bebop’s production values are extremely high with an undeniable sense of coolness.  Cowboy Bebop self-proclaims itself a work that will become its own genre.  Will it?  I disagree, because a show like this can only be done once.  The characters worked because they were created with a style never seen before.  Its production values all collided to transcend its material.  Its plot was abandoned so people could see its brilliance elsewhere.  Is Cowboy Bebop's acclaimed earned?  No doubt about it, but is it the greatest anime series ever created?  No, but throwaway entertainment made this ridiculously well should never have to deal with that burden.