Finished'Cowboy Bebop? 'Before the reality show is released, here are some great animes to help you through the difficult times.

Few animations have such a big cultural impact as Cowboy Bebop. Widely regarded as one of the greatest animes of all time, director Shinichiro Watanabe combines the influence of the West, science fiction and black to create a story that few people have ever seen. Part of the animation’s success comes from its eclectic story and tone. It cleverly balances action, comedy, tragedy, and drama into a single diverse but unified story about the ghosts of bounty hunters drifting in space and escaping from the past.

Although Cowboy Bebop is one of the best, anime is a vast medium with many other stories and sounds to explore. The animations listed here are seven shows related to Cowboy Bebop through theme, tone or character. None of them are exactly the same as Bebop, but they all form a rich story that allows you to learn more about the anime world.

If Cowboy Bebop is eclectic, then FLCL is crazy. The first season aired in 2000, 18 years before the sequel series FLCL: Progressive and FLCL: Alternative, introducing us to a group of energetic characters, most famously the bizarre alien Haruko Haruhara, who became the only one The role appeared in all three seasons. The plot of FLCL is completely psychedelic, with mechas emerging from the middle school students' foreheads, and the Vespa rider waving his guitar as a literal axis.

But FLCL is a very unique show with strong ideas and will strongly attract those who like Cowboy Bebop. First of all, because both programs feature strong music built around a genre-and Cowboy Bebop's score has jazz-style improvisations, most of FLCL's OSTs were developed by the Japanese rock band The Pillows. But the theme is where the two shows really connect. Cowboy Bebop explores the complexity of the past, while FLCL is a show about adolescence. When we try to understand the world around us and where we are in it, when we try to understand the world around us and where we are in it, and the chaos that reigns as we search, its bizarre story is that we were young An incredible mosaic of chaos felt.

In Samurai Champloo's first director role after Cowboy Bebop, Shinichiro Watanabe leads the production team. Samurai Champloo and Bebop have a lot in common, especially Watanbe likes to build his own show around music. However, although Bebop's score is built around jazz, Champloo's music is mainly influenced by hip-hop music. Samurai Champloo follows the samurai Mugen and Ronin Jin, they and the waitress Fuu travel through another Edo-era Japan, looking for a mysterious samurai who exudes the smell of sunflowers.

Samurai Champloo not only shares a director with Cowboy Bebop, but also some themes. Both shows are exploring the past because we learned that the samurai the heroes are looking for is Fuu's father, and she has been looking for his father for revenge. But the ending of Samurai Champloo is not as tragic as the ending of Cowboy Bebop, allowing viewers to have a much stronger experience when watching these two films than when watching them alone.

Related: The'Cowboy Bebop' trailer definitely looks like an animated live-action remake, for better or worse

Gurren Lagann’s background is set in the distant future. Humans were conquered by the Helix King and expelled to the ground. He gave his army of Beastmen called Gunners, and they used it to suppress humans. Gurren Lagann follows Simon, a digger who lives in one of these underground cities. Simon and his eldest brother Kamina join the Human Resistance Organization, and the tyranny of the Helix King Fight without knowing that a greater threat is waiting for them.

There are some major differences between Cowboy Bebop and Gurren Lagann. Gurren Lagann is a sci-fi story that is not very grounded, because it incorporates fantasy elements next to its huge mecha, and overall it is more comedic than Bebop. But they also pay attention to the theme of time. While Bebop reflects on the past with bittersweet melancholy, Gurren Lagann looks to the future with unbridled joy and hope. On the surface, these themes are conflicting, but both shows look at the idea of ​​making the most of life through different perspectives.

Psycho-Pass takes place in a futuristic Japan. The police use special weapons armed by the Sybil System-Sybil System is an advanced computer AI that can read the psychology of criminals and determine whether they need to use deadly force or simple stun settings . The show tells of Akane Tsunemori, a rookie inspector who joins a unit looking for criminals who can escape the judgment of Sybil Systems and use his genius to escape the authorities.

Morality is the subject of Cowboy Bebop's understatement, while Psycho-Pass embraces it wholeheartedly. But the closer connection between the two is how they function as detailed character studies. Compared to Bebop, Psycho-Pass is more inclined to its harsh science fiction environment, but both use their stories to explore how life changes us, how it bores some of us and drives others to commit crimes. It's a bit dark, but Psycho-Pass is as interested in studying a compelling set of characters as Cowboy Bebop.

Although Megalobox came out in 2018, its artistic style and editing make it look like a 90s anime that can be broadcast with Cowboy Bebop. But the artistic style is not the only thing these shows have in common. With a solid science fiction novel, aggressive protagonist and a heavy hip-hop soundtrack, it is almost surprising that Watanabe did not participate in the production of this show. Although the influence of works such as Cowboy Bebop shines in Megalobox, it is also very much like its own show.

In the near future, Megalobox tells the story of Junk Dog, a young man who fought in a manipulated megaloboxing tournament. Megaloboxing was a sport at the time, two opponents boxing each other wearing a mechanical exoskeleton called Gear. We never know the real name of the garbage dog when he fought in the slum, but he took Joe's name after forging his ID card and going to the big city to participate in the famous super boxing tournament. Megalobox uses this setting to explore several themes, most notably discovering family and class, while the second season expanded to examine the struggle for addiction and fame.

Plastic memory is another show that makes the list by thinking about how time affects us. Unlike Gurren Lagann's hopeful future or Cowboy Bebop's meditation on the twists and turns of the past, as time goes by, "plastic memory" focuses more on making use of the present. Like Cowboy Bebop, Plastic Memories ended in a tragic ending, but its tragedy unfolded throughout the series, rather than suddenly appearing here and there.

The story background of "Plastic Memory" is set in a city in the near future, where SAI company created Giftias, a robot with a complete identity and emotion that looks exactly like a human being. But the life span of Griftias is only 81,920 hours, after which they will lose their personality and rationality. This animation tells about Mizuiji, a member of the Terminator department, whose mission is to collect Giftias whose lives are about to end by SAI. Tsukasa is paired with Isla, and Isla is the Giftia whose life is about to end-the two fell in love at work. The slowly established romance uses the imminent tragedy to create a moving story about how to use our lost time.

Death Note topped the list with another anime classic. The death note tells the story of a talented high school student named Light Yagami who found a black notebook on the ground and promised to kill anyone with a name on it. When the light confirmed that the power of the book was true, he decided to become a god of justice and methodically kill criminals in order to purify the world as he saw fit. Next to him is a Japanese god of death, named Luc, who has the death note of light. Wright was called Kira, and the Japanese government hired L, a notoriously skilled and weird detective to hunt him down.

Spike, one of Cowboy Bebop's main characters, competes fiercely with the old enemy Vicious. The competition between Light and L in "Death Note" is equally fierce, in this case, it occupies the center stage of the show, not just occasionally. Death Note also thought a lot about death, as did the cowboy Bebop, but through the lens of punishment rather than the necessity of Bebop's use.

Continue reading: 3 basic animes from the creators of "Cowboy Bebop"

Another small step in the big adventure.

Andrew Walser is an animated story writer for Collider. In his spare time, you can see him playing Teamfight Tactics and Magic: The Gathering and making Youtube videos.