As Netflix’s big-budget live-action adaptation arrives, the classic anime series remains as beloved and revered as ever.
Here’s how Cowboy Bebop defied the odds to become a classic of the form.
Thevibrant title sequenceand blaring opening bars of Yoko Kanno’s jazzy theme song “Tank!”
The ‘space cowboy’ protagonist of ‘Cowboy Bebop,’ Spike Spiegel.Everett Collection
It was that opening sequence that sold Cartoon web connection executives onCowboy Bebopin the first place.
“It immediately felt to all of us like something different than we’d ever seen.”
(That one comes up a lot.)
A moment of crisis in ‘Cowboy Bebop’.Sunrise
“It’s like a badge that you have to earn.”
“It’s great storytelling, it’s cinematic, the performances are very real, very grounded.
The writing is extraordinary.
Spike Spiegel in ‘Cowboy Bebop’.Everett Collection
The music is unbelievable.
The directorial sense and the love for American culture is palpable and infectious.
And the fact all those elements came together was like a perfect storm of awesome.
Ed and Ein in ‘Cowboy Bebop’.Sunrise
It was obviously something special compared to the shows that we had been recording at the time.”
“When I first sawCowboy Bebop, it was an eye-opener to a whole new style of storytelling.”
(The director was unavailable to be interviewed for this story.)
Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Faye Valentine, and Ed in ‘Cowboy Bebop’.Snap Stills/REX/Shutterstock
Adds DeMarco, “A lot of American archetypes are built into the show.
It’s noir, it’s cowboys, it’sStar Wars.
It’s a bunch of different things pushed together that are all separately pretty popular in the U.S. And as an American watching an anime, it felt more like you related to the setup.
“You often have stories of cute or befuddled young guys, who are sort of doofuses.
Spike was brooding, he was kind of sardonic.
She’s a complicated, very intriguing figure who almost belies her voluptuous characteristics.”
Certainly, DeMarco and his Adult Swim colleagues felt that way when they saw it for the first time.
This is gonna be likeDragon Ball Z.'
Which is funny in retrospect, because that isn’t quite the journeyBeboptook.”
“Bebop’s frequent violence (and 6 p.m. time slot) put it squarely on the chopping block.
YOU WILL SEE THE REALCOWBOY BEBOPSOMEDAY!
Like Adult Swim’s DeMarco, the creators of the dub were enraptured byBebopimmediately.
“It was our job to not screw it up, because it was so, so beautiful.
I was like, wow, nobody’s ever gonna see this.
So you know what?
Let’s just make it for us.
Let’s make it much more cinematic and really dive into these characters.”
As Blum, the voice actor who played Spike, recalls, “It was an intimate setting.
That was very surprising.
[McGlynn] said, ‘We’re going to get done whatever we get done today.
None of us were used to that.
Nobody’s ever going to see it!'”
But slowly, that was beginning to change.
The adult-orientedCowboy Bebop, however, was not exactly an easy fit for the channel.
It was a decision that would end up changing the anime landscape forever.
“It opened things up hugely.
“We just kept airing [Cowboy Bebop],” DeMarco says.
“For 12 or 13 years straight, maybe more, we literally never had it off the air.
And in terms of raw viewership numbers, it was never a hit.
It just seemed to do as well as any other anime.
AndBebopdid okay, but we never heard any of that stuff.
We never heard anyone say, ‘This is a classic, you should all watch this.'”
At least until the complaints began to roll in.
Everyone has seenBebop, we all knowBebopis great.
Why are you still showing it so much?'”
DeMarco says with a laugh.
But it wasn’t old to him, it was brand-new.
He saw it on Adult Swim the day before, like millions of other people would.
You couldn’t really tell your friends that you liked anime, because they might look at you weird.
And DeMarco creditsBebopwith helping pave the way for more shows that wowed viewers.
Adds McGlynn, “I’ve definitely noticed more mature, nuanced anime, everything fromDeath NotetoMonster.
Now shows are made with a global audience in mind.
They want a show that could ideally appeal to many different countries.”
But whatever changes it may have wrought, there’s still a unique quality toCowboy Bebopall these years later.
And it’s that personal side of the show’s impact that has struck its creative team most deeply.
Those are the moments that made me realize how powerful this show was.
It was less about how popular it became and more about how it really helps people.”
Cowboy Bebopis available to stream onNetflix,Hulu,Funimation, andAdult Swim’s website.
