Fluid Like Water

Cowboy Bebop (カウボーイビバップ Kaubōi Bibappu) is a Japanese anime show which aired in 1999 in Japan and went on to be a very successful and influential show in the anime community. The importance of Cowboy Bebop in this world today is its tie to America. Cowboy Bebop became the first anime title to be broadcast on Adult Swim in the United States.

Cowboy Bebop takes place in 2071, roughly fifty years after an accident with a hyperspace gateway made the Earth almost uninhabitable, humanity has colonized most of the rocky planets and moons of the Solar System. Amid a rising crime rate, the Inter Solar System Police (ISSP) set up a legalized contract system, in which registered bounty hunters (also referred to as “Cowboys”) chase criminals and bring them in alive in return for a reward. The series’ protagonists are bounty hunters working from the spaceship Bebop. The original crew are Spike Spiegel, an exiled former hitman of the criminal Red Dragon Syndicate, and his partner Jet Black, a former ISSP officer. They are later joined by Faye Valentine, an amnesiac con artist; Edward Wong, an eccentric girl skilled in hacking; and Ein, a genetically-engineered Pembroke Welsh Corgi with human-like intelligence. Over the course of the series, the team get involved in disastrous mishaps leaving them without money, while often confronting faces and events from their past: these include Jet’s reasons for leaving the ISSP, and Faye’s past as a young woman from Earth injured in an accident and cryogenically frozen to save her life.

The fight scene depicted in the pictures above is one of the most talked about moments of anime history. As you can see both fights are identical which is because Naruto stole this fight scene from Cowboy Bebop. In Cowboy Bebop, Spike Spiegel adopts the form of fighting called Jeet Kune Do (Chinese: 截拳道; Cantonese: jiht kyùhn douh), “The way of the intercepting fist.” This is a hybrid philosophy of martial arts heavily influenced by the personal philosophy and experiences of martial artist Bruce Lee. JKD is a form of Chinese Kung Fu, yet without form. Unlike more traditional martial arts, Jeet Kune Do is not fixed or patterned and is a philosophy with guiding thoughts. It was named for the Wing Chun concept of interception or attacking while one’s opponent is about to attack. Jeet Kune Do practitioners believe in minimal movement with maximum effect.

Cowboy Bebop is one of the all-time greatest and most influential anime shows from the 20th century. Without its introduction into the United States anime may have never become as popular as it is today. I highly recommend this anime to any kung fu loving people who want to watch a dark-humored action anime.

Picture Citations

Cowboy Bebop main picture

Cowboy Bebop vs Naruto gif