Cowboy Bebop is one of the best animes to emerge from the ‘90s. With its utter superior style of art, amazing genre mixing, and fantastic characters, it’s certainly up there with the great 90s anime like Dragon Ball and Yu Yu Hakusho.
People are still talking about how great the anime is with many having their own personal favorite episodes several decades after its release. Cowboy Bebop has brought both style and substance.
It set an extremely high bar to measure up to for other shows. The episodes which best exemplify what made this series special and iconic are listed next.
Episode 8: Waltz For Venus
An episode that has been much more than it seems, it starts with a bounty ending on Mars. Spike Spiegel teaches a man called Roco Bonnaro to protect himself, after his request.
However, the harmless episode turns into something that is even more bittersweet when he learns that there is a flower that the Mars crime syndicate is after that Roco himself is in possession of for his blind sister.
This is the reason it became undoubtedly one of the best episodes imaginable.
Episode 20: Pierrot Le Fou
One of the greatest episodes of the show, Pierrot Le Fou is a stand-alone episode focusing on horror including another version of Toys In The Attic from Cowboy Bebop.
Here, the terror is brought in even more dangerous and frightening ways, as Spike Spiegel encounters an enemy who almost kills him.
Learning about the roots of the frightening Pierrot and the animation takes on a far darker style of art definitely made this episode an easy recommendation to everyone.
Episode 18: Speak Like A Child
After receiving a mystery box consisting of a beta tape, Spike and Jet plan to go and look around for a debt collector to uncover the device’s origins. Over time, however, it is discovered that it directly ties in Faye Valentine’s history.
One of the most heart-wrenching episodes in the whole series, it not only gives dimension to the sultry Faye Valentine, but it also shows that Cowboy Bebop truly excels at its characters’ development.
Episode 5: Ballad Of Fallen Angels
This is the first episode in which viewers get an overview of Spike Spiegel ‘s character, whose history was largely unknown outside of a short scene shown in episode 1.
This is also the first appearance of Spike Spiegel’s arch-nemesis, Vicious, a frightening counterpart that reflects Spiegel’s worst but is also his exact match, arguably.
All are trying to destroy and battle each other to the end, in order to assert peace for themselves and their dark past.
To many, this is the episode that generally propelled Cowboy Bebop easily. Not only that, but so beautiful is the song Green Bird.
Episode 26: The Real Folk Blues Part 2
Cowboy Bebop’s best episode is the denouement of the entire season, too. The Bebop team has dissolved completely at this stage and Spiegel’s lover Julia is now gone.
To seek a resolution to this life, Spike Spiegel challenges the Red Dragons and Vicious in order to stop it all. It is an episode that is completely satisfying and that likely ended too quickly.
It is also the ideal send-off for the Bebop team as they all find their path to closure. What’s more, the ending is so unforgettable it’s still being mentioned to this very day.
Conclusion
Cowboy Bebop is now joining the list of shows that have stood the test of time and still remain reassuringly familiar. In fact, even a live action version has been released.
The story of outer space bounty hunters, Spike, Jet, Faye, and Edward, who occasionally struggle to catch their targets, demonstrates a magnificently wide variety of tones that jump from action to comedy.