Title: Cowboy Bebop
Year: 1998
Director: Watanabe Shinichiro
Synopsis: 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. Over the course of the series, the team get involved in disastrous mishaps leaving them out of pocket, while often confronting faces and events from their past.
Rationale: I think this show is a great introduction to anime for people like me who don’t really like anime. Fans of Firefly and Blade Runner immediately get pulled into this show, which fits squarely into the sci-fi Western genre, in which the Earth has been ruined and people are learning how to get along off-planet. The jazzy soundtrack, differing style of each episode, and dark “film noir” undertones of the series make it an unforgettable show.