Cowboy Bebop (1998 - 1999) is one of the greatest anime of all time, meaning it's difficult to pick the best episodes. Created by Shinichiro Watanabe of Samurai Champloo, Space Dandy, and The Animatrix fame, the show is a masterful mix of the Western, noir, and science fiction genres. Its vision of a future in which humanity has advanced technologically but reverted to societal norms of olden times inspired many future TV shows and movies of its kind.
The show doesn't waste a second of its 26 episodes, telling a complete story with rich characters and complex themes. While there are many excellent anime like Cowboy Bebop, it truly is unique in its style and storytelling, with many standout episodes in the Bebop crew's many adventures. The best of the best episodes tell tight, compelling stories, evoke strong emotional reactions, and tie into the show's main theme of troubled people doing their best to make their way through ruined lives.
10 Asteroid Blues
Starting the classic series off with a bang is Asteroid Blues Bounty hunters Spike Spiegel and Jet Black make a meager living chasing down criminals, most recently wanted traffickers in the drug Red Eye. When they clash on the asteroid Tijuana, it’s a perfect introduction to the fast-paced action that will propel the rest of the show.
This episode features one of the best villain couples in anime in Asimov and Katerina Solensan, drug dealers whose plans to retire after one last job are threatened by their deteriorating relationship and Asimov’s addiction to Red Eye. It’s not only a compelling and tragic story on its own, but it’s clever foreshadowing of Spike’s own ultimate failure to move on from his past. Overall, Asteroid Blues sets the tone for both the story and the show’s atmosphere as a whole perfectly.
9 Stray Dog Strut
Despite Jet and Spike’s disdain for “dogs, kids, and women with attitude,” they wind up bounty hunting with all three over the course of the show. The first one to come on board the Bebop is Ein, a “data dog” escaped from a lab. Spike gets tangled up with the lab’s scientists and a fearsome rival bounty hunter as all parties go after the four-legged genius.
Ein, one of the best canines in anime, becomes an iconic character outside the show and a vital member of the Bebop crew within it. This episode is a perfect introduction to both Ein’s smarts and his other role as comic relief. Corgis in and of themselves are adorable and goofy to look at, and watching Ein happily bounce away from his furious, desperate pursuers all over the planet is especially entertaining.
8 Ballad Of Fallen Angels
While Cowboy Bebop’s format is largely episodic, it does have a main villain. Vicious of the Red Dragon Syndicate was Spike’s former partner in the art of assassination. He more than lives up to his name, with all of Spike’s skill and strength but absolutely none of his kindness or good humor, pursuing power and revenge against those who have incited his wrath.
Not only is Vicious one of the best villains in anime, but his introduction is one of the most visually striking and narratively hard-hitting in the show. He and Spike fight in a cathedral, destroying the beautiful place, while Vicious tries to convince Spike that the two of them are still the same. Spike’s quiet assertion that he is a new man is the first thing that makes Vicious break his composure and scream at him. Their battle ends in a draw, but it builds heavy suspense for their final confrontation and introduces the first hints of Spike’s backstory.
7 Ganymede Elegy
In “Ballad of Fallen Angels,” when Spike’s demons catch up with them, Jet is annoyed that Spike never said anything about it. Spike points out that Jet never says anything about his background, either. Five episodes later, viewers find out what weighs on the mind of one of the best Cowboy Bebop characters.
Jet’s past losses aren’t as violent as Spike’s, but the reveal of how he lost his former lover Alisa is still compelling and sad. Jet is the kind of guy used to taking care of everything for everyone else, and while that saves the hides of the Bebop crew on most occasions, it made Alisa feel smothered and without any choice in her own life. Jet lets her go to be with her new beau, but is left without closure. It’s a bittersweet ending that fits with the show’s tone.
6 My Funny Valentine
Like her reluctant crewmates, unlucky amnesiac Faye Valentine hides deep pain and trust issues beneath her cynical demeanor. Cowboy Bebop may be one of the best anime set in the future, but the healthcare system clearly hasn’t gotten any more affordable. Crushed by the weight of her debt, Faye lies, tricks, and cheats to try and pay off her debts.
She came by those vices honestly, however; she once cared for and trusted a man named Whitney, who then used that trust to fake his death and saddle her with even more debt. When she’s reunited with Whitney, though, she bears him little ill will, and even Whitney’s true feelings towards her are ambiguous. The message of the episode is summed up in Faye’s conversation with Spike at its ending: her past may still be a mystery, but she can still move forward into the future.
5 Pierrot Le Fou
This episode sticks in the minds of many anime fans as one of the scariest episodes in non-horror anime. The unstable lab experiment and assassin Mad Pierrot escapes and embarks on a murder spree. There’s none of Cowboy Bebop’s usual humor involved: it’s pure terror the whole way through.
Mad Pierrot is terrifying on so many more levels than Spike’s usual opponents, which makes this episode stand out as a master class in horror. He is indestructible, with a lack of concern for others and enjoyment of their pain. He’s more like a force of nature than a person: Spike wasn’t even hunting him, he just had the terrible luck to run into him, and, even with all his strength, only beats him through pure luck. Finally, there’s no relief in seeing Pierrot defeated: his hysterical screaming and flailing in pain before he’s crushed to death is just as chilling as his murders.
4 Cowboy Funk
Cowboy Bebop is one of the best anime for crime drama and heist fans. Cowboy Andy apparently didn’t get the memo about what kind of show he was riding into. Doing his very best to turn this futuristic sci-fi thriller into an old-fashioned Western adventure, Andy causes trouble at every turn for Spike as they compete for a bounty.
“Cowboy Funk” ranks as one of the show’s funniest episodes. The only thing more entertaining than Andy’s over-the-top dedication to his cowboy persona is Spike’s increasing fury at it with every interaction. The icing on the cake is Jet and Faye pushing him over the edge by pointing out what’s obvious to everyone but poor Spike: that Andy’s most annoying traits are the ones he shares with Spike, just dialed up to eleven.
3 Brain Scratch
“Cowboy Funk” is also the last scrap of humor viewers get before this episode barges back in to gear them up for the show's end. The Bebop crew investigates a suicide cult that’s spreading worryingly quickly. The deeper they dig, the more in danger they are of succumbing as well.
As well as being an early depiction of the power of TV and the Internet to manipulate people, “Brain Scratch” is chillingly realistic in its depiction of cults, even with the inclusion of actual brainwashing technology. Its leader, Dr. Londes, preys on people’s dissatisfaction with the poverty and constant danger they live with. He promises that the solution is to abandon their physical bodies and ascend to a higher plane of existence, and hundreds of people fall victim to his plans before the crew put an end to him.
2 Hard Luck Woman
Faye’s journey to find her place in the world and move forward without her memories happens alongside Spike’s quest to escape a past he re all too well. Though there are plenty of reasons why Faye and Spike’s relationship isn’t romantic in Cowboy Bebop, this episode makes it clear how close they’ve become as friends. In keeping with the show’s ultimately tragic tone, this happens just in time for them to be separated permanently.
Faye finally regains her memories and tries to return to her old home, only to find deserted ruins. With nothing left and nowhere else to go, she lays down forlornly where her childhood bed used to be. Meanwhile, Ed is also dealing with her own abandonment issues, after having been left again by her father right after he got her hopes for a real relationship up. She and Ein wander away from the Bebop, taking the show’s last shred of optimism with them.
1 The Real Folk Blues (Parts 1 And 2)
Even with all the unique villains Spike faces, the show never lets viewers forget that Vicious is lurking in the distance and continually teases Julia, the mystery woman who holds Spike’s heart. With some of Steve Blum’s best anime voice work as Spike, this two-parter brings both back and is what the entire show has been building up to. It’s a beautiful and heartbreaking culmination of Spike’s character arc.
Spike found true happiness traveling with the Bebop crew despite their misfortunes, but in the end, the past catches up with him in the form of Vicious and the Red Dragon Syndicate he tried to leave behind. After Julia is killed in their attempt to escape, Spike fights and kills Vicious to avenge her and protect any of his new friends from suffering the same fate. However, it costs him his life, hammering in the show’s theme of there being no simple solutions to life’s tragedies, and that all one can do is the best they can in impossible situations. The star representing Spike’s life blinking out at the end of the final credits is one of the most poignant images in Cowboy Bebop.
There's a reason Cowboy Bebop is widely regarded as one of the best anime ever made. Cowboy Bebop's best episodes created many anime fans with their intelligence, humor, and incredible action.
