Details & Synopsis
In the year 2071, humanity has colonized the solar system. Two bounty hunters — Spike Spiegel, a languid ex-syndicate hitman who moves like water and fights like something out of a Bruce Lee film, and Jet Black, a retired cyborg cop with a conscience — drift through space aboard the Bebop chasing criminals for cash they never quite manage to keep. They are joined, eventually, by Faye Valentine, a gambling amnesiac with a past she can't access; Ed, a hacker prodigy who exists somewhere between genius and feral animal; and Ein, a corgi of unusual intelligence.
Directed by Shinichiro Watanabe and scored by Yoko Kanno, Cowboy Bebop is 26 sessions of the most confidently realized anime ever made. Jazz, blues, rock, opera — the soundtrack alone is a masterpiece. The animation is cinematic. The writing is lean and ruthless. Every episode is its own genre film. The finale is one of the best ever committed to any medium.
TV Tokyo initially aired it in 1998 and pulled it after 12 episodes for being too adult. WOWOW aired the complete series. Adult Swim launched with it in 2001. The rest is history.
You're gonna carry that weight.
Directed by Shinichiro Watanabe and scored by Yoko Kanno, Cowboy Bebop is 26 sessions of the most confidently realized anime ever made. Jazz, blues, rock, opera — the soundtrack alone is a masterpiece. The animation is cinematic. The writing is lean and ruthless. Every episode is its own genre film. The finale is one of the best ever committed to any medium.
TV Tokyo initially aired it in 1998 and pulled it after 12 episodes for being too adult. WOWOW aired the complete series. Adult Swim launched with it in 2001. The rest is history.
You're gonna carry that weight.
Alt Title
カウボーイビバップ
Studio
Sunrise
Network
TV Tokyo / WOWOW
Aired
1998 – 1999
Episodes
26
Genre
Action, Sci-Fi, Neo-Noir, Western
Status
Completed
Episode List
001
Asteroid Blues
Apr 3, 1998
canon
►
Spike Spiegel and Jet Black, two broke bounty hunters scraping by on the spaceship Bebop, track a smuggler dealing a dangerous combat drug called "Red Eye" on the Tijuana asteroid colony. A tragic romance unfolds as Spike confronts the desperate fugitive.
002
Stray Dog Strut
Apr 10, 1998
canon
►
The crew chases a bounty on a seemingly normal Welsh Corgi named Ein, only to discover the dog is a highly valuable, genetically engineered data dog stolen from a research facility. Ein ends up joining the perpetually starving crew.
003
Honky Tonk Women
Apr 17, 1998
canon
►
Spike and Jet cross paths with Faye Valentine, a deeply in-debt, smooth-talking gambler working at a space casino. After a chaotic hostage situation involving a casino chip embedded with a microchip, Faye forces her way onto the Bebop.
004
Gateway Shuffle
Apr 24, 1998
canon
►
Faye is forced to work with the Bebop crew when an eco-terrorist group threatens to infect a heavily populated hyperspace gateway with a virus that turns humans into apes.
006
Sympathy for the Devil
May 8, 1998
canon
►
Spike encounters a seemingly immortal child prodigy playing the harmonica. The investigation reveals a tragic anomaly caused by the astral gate accident years ago, forcing Spike to hunt down a phantom who cannot age.
007
Heavy Metal Queen
May 15, 1998
good-filler
►
The crew tracks a bounty through a network of asteroid miners. They team up with VT, a tough-as-nails, heavy metal-loving space trucker who has a strict rule against associating with bounty hunters.
008
Waltz for Venus
May 22, 1998
canon
►
While hunting a bounty on Venus, Spike is approached by a young man named Roco who begs him for martial arts lessons. Roco is caught up in a syndicate war trying to secure a rare plant to cure his sister's blindness, leading to a heartbreaking shootout.
009
Jamming with Edward
May 29, 1998
canon
►
The crew travels to a ruined Earth to track down a legendary hacker known as "Radical Edward" who is supposedly causing orbital lasers to carve images into the planet's surface. They discover Ed is actually a wildly eccentric, barefoot teenage girl.
010
Ganymede Elegy
Jun 5, 1998
canon
►
Jet returns to his home satellite of Ganymede and is forced to confront Alisa, the woman who left him years ago without a word. The tension spikes when Jet learns her new boyfriend is the exact bounty he is hunting.
011
Toys in the Attic
Jun 12, 1998
good-filler
►
A brilliant homage to *Alien*. A mysterious, highly venomous blob monster begins systematically hunting the crew through the dark corridors of the Bebop. The culprit turns out to be something Spike left in the fridge a year ago.
014
Bohemian Rhapsody
Jul 3, 1998
canon
►
The crew hunts the mastermind behind a string of hyperspace gate toll robberies. The trail leads them to Chessmaster Hex, a brilliant but senile programmer who helped design the gate system decades ago.
015
My Funny Valentine
Jul 10, 1998
canon
►
Faye's mysterious past is partially revealed. She tells the story of how she woke up from cryogenic sleep with massive debt and severe amnesia, only to be manipulated by a con man who broke her heart and left her holding the bag.
016
Black Dog Serenade
Jul 17, 1998
canon
►
Jet's past as an ISSP officer comes back to haunt him when a prison ship is hijacked by the man who cost Jet his left arm. He teams up with his old partner, Fad, to finish the job, but uncovers a deep betrayal.
017
Mushroom Samba
Jul 24, 1998
good-filler
►
With the rest of the crew incapacitated, it's up to Ed and Ein to track down a bounty hunter dealing highly hallucinogenic mushrooms on a desert planet. A wildly stylized, blaxploitation-inspired fever dream of an episode.
018
Speak Like a Child
Jul 31, 1998
canon
►
A mysterious, obsolete Betamax tape arrives addressed to Faye. Spike and Jet go on a massive, city-wide quest through the ruins of Earth to find a working VCR, ultimately revealing a heartbreaking message from Faye's teenage self.
019
Wild Horses
Aug 7, 1998
canon
►
Spike's Swordfish II breaks down, forcing him to visit his old mechanic, Doohan. Meanwhile, the rest of the crew tangles with a group of space pirates using computer viruses to disable ships, leaving Spike to attempt a reckless atmospheric reentry.
020
Pierrot le Fou
Aug 14, 1998
good-filler
►
Spike inadvertently witnesses an assassination and becomes the target of Mad Pierrot, a genetically enhanced, heavily armed super-soldier whose mind has regressed to that of a homicidal child. A terrifying, masterfully animated horror episode.
021
Boogie Woogie Feng Shui
Aug 21, 1998
canon
►
Jet receives a cryptic message from an old friend, leading him to protect the man's teenage daughter, Meifa. They use a hyper-advanced form of Feng Shui to locate a mysterious artifact hidden within the solar system.
022
Cowboy Funk
Aug 28, 1998
good-filler
►
Spike's attempt to catch a bomber is repeatedly thwarted by "Cowboy Andy," an insanely wealthy, completely oblivious rival bounty hunter who rides a robot horse and acts exactly like Spike. Pure, comedic gold.
023
Brain Scratch
Sep 4, 1998
canon
►
Faye goes undercover to infiltrate SCRATCH, a massive digital cult that encourages its members to abandon their physical bodies and upload their consciousness to the internet. The crew must pull her out before her mind is wiped.
024
Hard Luck Woman
Sep 11, 1998
canon
►
Faye travels to Earth to find the ruins of her childhood home, while Ed reconnects with her absentee father, who is obsessed with mapping the meteor strikes. Realizing they need to find their own paths, Ed and Ein leave the Bebop for good.
005
Ballad of Fallen Angels
May 1, 1998
canon
►
Spike's bloody, buried past catches up with him when a Red Dragon Syndicate boss is assassinated. Ignoring Jet's warnings, Spike walks into a deadly trap at an abandoned cathedral to face his former partner and bitter rival, Vicious.
012
Jupiter Jazz (Part 1)
Jun 19, 1998
canon
►
Faye empties the ship's safe and flees to Callisto. Spike abandons the crew to follow a rumor that Julia—the woman from his past—has been spotted there. Meanwhile, Vicious conducts a massive drug deal on the freezing moon.
013
Jupiter Jazz (Part 2)
Jun 26, 1998
canon
►
Spike clashes with Vicious in the snow. Gren, an ex-soldier betrayed by Vicious during the Titan War, seeks his own revenge, culminating in a tragic, three-way shootout set to a heartbreaking jazz soundtrack.
025
The Real Folk Blues (Part 1)
Sep 18, 1998
canon
►
The Red Dragon Syndicate launches a massive purge, targeting former members—including Spike. Spike is finally reunited with Julia, the woman he has been searching for, but Vicious orchestrates a violent coup to take over the syndicate.
026
The Real Folk Blues (Part 2)
Sep 25, 1998
canon
►
Following Julia's tragic death, Spike shares one last meal with Jet before heavily arming himself and storming the Red Dragon headquarters alone. He slaughters his way to the top floor for a final, legendary duel with Vicious. Bang.
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