Best Anime Like Cowboy Bebop

Shinichirō Watanabe has been blazing a sci-fi way since his co-direction stint connected the fashionable Macross franchise, Macross Plus. Over his 35 twelvemonth vocation helium has created immoderate of the astir beloved and influential bid similar Cowboy Bebop, his jazz-infused magnum opus which follows a ragtag radical of badass abstraction adventurers arsenic they neo-noir their mode done heavy space. Cowboy Bebop's iconic people by Yoko Kanno is portion of what has made the bid consciousness truthful timeless and has helped it enactment successful the nationalist consciousness, done unrecorded performances, soundtrack rereleases and more.

The renowned subject fabrication amusement has agelong been shaping cinema and storytelling with creators similar Star Wars' Rian Johnson, Avatar: The Last Airbender's Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, and Victor And Valentino's Diego Molano citing Cowboy Bebop arsenic massively influential connected their work.

Cowboy Bebop besides stands arsenic 1 of the fewer anime bid that galore non-anime fans person taken the clip to cheque out. All of those reasons and much marque it 1 of the astir captious and long-lasting entries into the anime canon, truthful if you're wondering what to ticker aft your latest (or first) Cowboy Bebop binge we're present with a database of the champion space-faring, globe-trotting, morally-ambiguous anime that you tin dive into next.

Lazarus

Adult Swim

Our archetypal proposal is Watanabe's newest series, Lazarus, the archetypal occurrence of which arrived connected Adult Swim astatine midnight connected April 5th. Produced by MAPPA and Sola Entertainment, with John Wick manager Chad Stahelski successful complaint of creation and archetypal compositions from Kamasi Washington, Floating Points, and Bonobos, Lazarus comes with much hype than possibly immoderate different anime merchandise of the year. Lazarus is simply a large stylistic companion to Cowboy Bebop, a instrumentality to the grungier underdog sci-fi of that bid — compared to his newer bid similar Carole & Tuesday —that feels shockingly applicable successful 2025.

The events of the bid travel the invention of a life-saving occurrence cause that reveals itself arsenic fatal 3 years aft its use, putting millions of radical astatine the hazard of abrupt death. Here enters our hero, regular-convict and jailhouse breaker Axel who has to enactment a squad unneurotic to find the enigmatic doc who created the cause and enlist him to marque an antidote successful conscionable 30 days. So commencement the countdown and fastener successful for a darkly chaotic ride.

Terminator Zero

Netflix

Keeping with the much grounded and bleak takes connected sci-fi, adjacent up is this awesome summation to Terminator lore from manager Masashi Kudō, Production IG, and creator Mattson Tomlin (director of the Netflix, Jamie Foxx conveyance Project Power). Though it's much superior than Bebop — and overmuch of Watanabe's enactment — it has a stylistic flair to the enactment and impeccable gun-work that volition sate that peculiar hunger and capable the Cowboy Bebop shaped spread successful your action-anime viewing life.

When it comes to up to day sci-fi reckonings with the exertion and civilization of our existent times, Terminator Zero is 2nd to none, making it a indispensable ticker successful 2025. Plus, if you're looking for an aesthetically pleasing modern anime to ticker — that's conscionable arsenic casual connected the oculus arsenic Cowboy Bebop — you'll conflict to bash amended than this stunningly slick, bound pushing bid that tells the communicative of the Terminator franchise's Judgement Day done a distinctly Japan lens for the precise archetypal time.

Space Dandy

Crunchyroll

This summation to the Shinichirō Watanabe catalog saw the trailblazer stepping backmost to service arsenic wide manager to Shingo Natsume's manager connected this hilarious serialized abstraction opera brought to screens by Japanese animation workplace Bones. If you privation an easy, breezy throwback to classical Saturday greeting cartoon fare that'll marque you conscionable arsenic nostalgic arsenic Cowboy Bebop, past this is simply a fantastic pick.

Filled with nods to tons of classical sci-fi and anime, this charming escapade follows the titular Dandy, an outer abstraction bounty huntsman whose full intent is to observe and registry caller alien lifeforms. He's conscionable arsenic stylish arsenic Spike and Faye Valentine and has capable swagger to prevention the world. While it sounds similar a simplistic setup the amusement goes to unexpected and existential places arsenic Dandy discovers the truths of the beingness and his ain beingness portion hunting for aliens alongside his cute unit of a robot and a cat. While it mightiness not person had the aforesaid planetary scope and monolithic occurrence arsenic Cowboy Bebop, it is profoundly rewatchable, beauteous to look at, and incredibly fun.

Lupin 3rd

Tokyo Movie

If you’re looking for a bid that volition capable you with the aforesaid adventurous joyousness and feeling of unlimited imaginable arsenic Cowboy Bebop, past look nary further than the delightfully amusive transgression caper Lupin III. Since its debut successful 1965 — written by Kazuhiko Katō utilizing the pseudonym Monkey Punch —, the charming franchise has expanded implicit manga, anime, video games, and aggregate cinematic releases. But erstwhile it comes to on-screen adaptations, the champion spot to commencement is the 1971 anime adaption of the aforesaid sanction that introduced audiences to Lupin, a uniquely laid backmost transgression whose instauration was a rotation connected the legendary and fictional man thief Arsene Lupin.

The archetypal play runs 23 episodes and features directors similar Masaaki Ōsumi, and soon to beryllium Studio Ghibli legends Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. It's a large spot to research the champion of what Lupin III has to connection and the bully quality is, if you're a instrumentality past you person 5 decades of stories, movies, and shows to dive into next.

Samurai Champloo

Crunchyroll

Samurai Champloo is the spiritual successor to Cowboy Bepob. The bid started to instrumentality signifier portion Shinichirō Watanabe began enactment connected Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, which you tin consciousness successful the creation style, structure, and storytelling of Champloo. That said, it mightiness astonishment you that this is simply a humanities enactment communicative alternatively than the sci-fi that he's champion known for. While the genre mightiness beryllium antithetic thematically, the bid is conscionable arsenic acrophobic with life, the outgo of surviving free, and the conflict to flooded and yet judge mortality.

Like overmuch of Watanabe’s different work, the communicative centers connected a ragtag radical of morally-compromised heroes, this clip an outlaw called Mugen, a beverage server Fuu, and arsenic with immoderate bully Edo play acceptable tale, a ronin named Jin. One of the standout things astir this bid is that, owed to the play setting, Watanabe was inspired to adhd an up of his clip absorption connected the value of inclusion and tolerance to debar nationalistic overtones.

Trigun

Adult Swim

If the happening that gets you astir excited astir Cowboy Bebop is the stylistic enactment and the hook of a morally analyzable anti-hero against the world, past Trigun is apt going to beryllium your adjacent favourite anime. The bid was adapted from the deed manga of the aforesaid sanction by Yasuhiro Nightow that primitively ran successful Monthly Shonen Captain. It debuted successful Japan successful 1998 and successful the US 3 years aboriginal astatine the cusp of the caller millennium.

The bid is, similar Cowboy Bebop, a noir-inspired abstraction western, but with amped up stakes arsenic it follows Vash, a antheral with an immense bounty connected his caput owed to immoderate retired of power superpowers that led to him accidentally destroying a city. As we larn astir the antheral they privation to kill, we besides larn astir those trying to termination him, mounting up a large struggle that would motorboat the anime onto aggregate champion of the twelvemonth lists, and would marque the manga it was based connected truthful palmy that it would spell onto merchantability retired successful the US.

Rosie Knight is simply a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything from anime to comic books to kaiju to kids movies to fearfulness flicks. She has implicit fractional a decennary of acquisition successful amusement journalism with bylines astatine Nerdist, Den of Geek, Polygon, and more.