Plot Synopsis

In the not-so-distant future of 2071, humans have abandoned Earth and instead inhabit a dystopian interplanetary landscape indicative of the films of Leone and Kurosawa. This America western/Japanese samurai counterculture fusion influences the anime series' 26 parts - telling the tales of five crew members of the spaceship Bebop, who work as freelance bounty hunters, or "cowboys." Each episode focuses on the attempt to capture a specific criminal causing trouble in the solar system, but often ties the current story to peel back the layers of the past for one of the "cowboys": be it the ultra-slick former crime syndicate member (and Jeet Kun Do aficionado) Spike Seigel; the hard-boiled former police officer Jet Black; the amnesiac femme fatale Faye Valentine; the incredibly smart yet incredibly immature hacker Edward; or the mascot of the Bebop, a "data-dog" named Ein. Noted for its intricate writing, cinematic style and diverse use of musical genres, the show is consistently ranked as one of the best anime titles of all time.