Cowboy Bebop by Shinichirô Watanabe

Dubbed the greatest anime of all time Cowboy Bebop has something for everyone.  The story mostly takes place on the “bebop”, a run down space ship and revolves around a ramshackle crew of bounty hunters, “cowboys”.  Spike Speigel, the protagonist, has left “the Syndicate” an organized crime outfit and linked up with Jet Black, the owner/captain of the Bebop.   The two of them are wandering through the solar system picking up bounty heads when they start to pick up other crew members: Radical Edward, a androgynous child hacker, Faye Valentine, a mysterious hard luck woman, and Ein, a data dog/Welsh Corgi.

The anime’s charm lies in the “cool” motif that runs through the show from the jazzy funk opening to the beautifully choreographed battle scenes.  Every character, minor and Major, has quirks that beg to be explored and Watanabe does a splendid job fleshing them out.  Spaghetti western, space opera, epic, sci-fi, thriller, horror, romance, and adventure are the different story genres that mesh together to make Bebop one of the most memorable Anime ever.  Told in 26 episodes the action explodes from the first scene and hardly lets up through out.  If you missed this one go and get it, immediately!

Firefly by Joss Whedon

Quite possibly the saddest show on television. Not that the series was a sad, quite the opposite, the series was phenomenal. What is sad is what the FOX network did. First they butchered the show, refusing to air the pilot (which introduced all the characters and explained why they were all together, lack of this explination was an early criticism of the show). Then they aired the shows in the wrong order, assuming they understood the shows vision more than the director. Lastly, they killed the show after airing only 11 shows, Whedon has said that he planned for the series to go on for seven years. Firefly, you are sorely missed! Sorry for the lament, now, on to the review.

Firefly is THE best science fiction series EVER created. I dare you to watch and disagree. It is the story of a crew from a spaceship that is on the fringe; the fringe of the law, the fringe of society, the fringe of space. The captain is former ranking officer in “the war” (war between the alliance and the federation) and he was on the losing side. He names his ship after the last battle he fought in, Serenity, and decides to go into the illegal freighting business. His crew are people who have fought alongside him or have been acquired along the way, having no place else to go. The story follows the rich plots of the characters. Each episode seems to have the crew carrying a different illegal item, some times supplies, one time cows and even a sister; but what the viewer hooks onto is the back story of characters. Whedon has created a world that is easy to fall in love with but impossible to forget. The western quality to the show with the backdrop of space is the perfect juxtaposition for fanatics to find something to obsess over.