Arka Evren
カウボーイビバップ

TV SERIES · 1998–1999 · JAPAN

カウボーイビバップ

Network
TV Tokyo, WOWOW Prime
Seasons
1
Episodes
26
Studio
SUNRISE, Bandai Visual

22 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026

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.

  • カウボーイビバップ — production image

17 Interesting Facts About カウボーイビバップ

  1. #001

    The phrase "three years ago" is used quite frequently. Three years ago Spike and Jet came together, three years ago Faye was taken out of the freezer, and Ed also left the orphanage three years ago.

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  2. #002

    The city in Faye's memories is recognizably Singapore.

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  3. #003

    In Episode 2, "Stray Dog Strut," the fight between Spike and Abdul Hakim on the bridge is a tribute to the fight scene between Bruce Lee and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in Game of Death (1978). All of Spike's fights use Bruce Lee's "Jeet Kune Do" fighting style.

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  4. #004

    Ed's father is named Appledelhi Siniz Hesap Lutfen. In Turkish, "Afedersiniz" (pronounced exactly like Appledelhi Siniz) means "Excuse me." The rest of the name is spelled correctly and means exactly this: "Excuse me! Check please!" There are other references to Turkey and scenes in which they use Turkish. The colony on Venus resembles 19th-century Istanbul. There is also a particular store shown on screen for a long time. Its name is Aile Pazarı, which means "Family Market" in Turkish.

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  5. #007

    Jet Black takes his name from Jet Black, the drummer of the English punk band The Stranglers.

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  6. #009

    In the finale, Spike and Vicious exchange gunfire as a tribute to the deadly quick-draw in John Woo's A Better Tomorrow II (1987).

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  7. #010

    Six episodes received a TV-MA rating but never aired on Adult Swim without being edited to receive a TV-14 rating.

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  8. #011

    Spike's English voice actor, Steve Blum, has a tattoo of the sound waveform of Spike's final line — "Bang."

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  9. #012

    This was the first anime shown on Adult Swim at its launch on September 2, 2001, but the episodes Sympathy for the Devil (1998), Waltz for Venus (1998) and Cowboy Funk (1999) were skipped due to violent content after the September 11 attacks the following week.

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  10. #013

    The dog is a Pembroke Welsh Corgi.

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  11. #014

    Faye's gun is a Glock 30.45.

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  12. #015

    Spike regularly uses an IWI Jericho 941 pistol. This is the same gun seen firing in the opening title sequence.

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  13. #017

    The pistol Jet Black uses throughout the series is a Walther P99.

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  14. #018

    Although Shinichiro Watanabe claims it is a coincidence, Spike Spiegel may take his name from Spike Jonze, who was a music video director and later a filmmaker, and whose surname is Spiegel.

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  15. #019

    A Cowboy Bebop manga drawn by Cain Kuga was produced concurrently with the anime and published in Monthly Asuka Fantasy DX from October 1997, six months before the anime's premiere, until June 1998, the month the anime ended. Another manga drawn by Yutaka Nanten was published in the same magazine from November 1998 to March 2000. Both manga series followed storylines different from the anime, and the Nanten series was collected in a special issue released in September 2001 to promote the premiere of Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (2001).

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  16. #021

    In 2001, director Shinichirô Watanabe supervised remixes of the episodes Asteroid Blues, Ballad of Fallen Angels and Wild Horses. All three episodes were remixed in Dolby 5.1 with various new sound effects and enhanced musical cues. Later that same year, Watanabe released a second batch of episodes consisting of Waltz for Venus, Mushroom Samba and Hard Luck Woman. These were also remixed. For the US release, the episodes were issued as a two-disc set and remixed to a Japanese DTS 5.1 soundtrack. An English and Japanese Dolby 5.1 soundtrack was also included.

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  17. #022

    The text in the opening sequence is strongly tied to the series' themes and its creator's stylistic approach. It reads: "Once upon a time, in New York in 1941… At a club called 'Minston's Play House' in Harlem, a club open to anyone to play at every night, they play jazz sessions competing with each other. Young jazzmen with a new sense gather together. In the end they created a new genre. They are tired and fed up with traditional fixed-style jazz. Now they are eager to play freer jazz as they wish… 2071." The bounty hunters gathered on the spaceship "BEBOP" will play freely, breaking with traditional styles.

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