List of Cowboy Bebop episodes

The Japanese anime series Cowboy Bebop consists of 26 episodes, referred to as "sessions." Most episodes are named after a musical concept of some sort, usually either a broad genre (i.e. "Jupiter Jazz") or a specific song (i.e. "Honky Tonk Women"). The first episode premiered on TV Tokyo on October 23, 1998, and ran until April 23, 1999. In the U.S., the series has aired continuously in rotation since 2001 on the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.

The scenario of the show takes place in 2071, and is about a group of bounty hunters who stick with each other in an effort to stave off loneliness, hunger, and to find purpose in their existence in a brutal and chaotic, unforgiving universe. Trying to catch up with their human prey (which they more times than not, fail at), and then escape the trouble they run into while trying to score the bounty to make a living.

The main characters are Jet Black, a retired cop-turned-bounty-hunter, the owner of the "Bebop," (the name of the main ship), a bonsai artist and the ship's chef; Spike Spiegel, Jet's partner in bounty hunting, former member of the Red Dragon Crime Syndicate, and hotshot ace owner/pilot of the "Swordfish II," a smaller spaceship that Spike docks in the Bebop; Faye Valentine, a gambling-addicted amnesiac who always finds herself in financial debts; "Radical" Edward Wang Hwe Pepel Cybulski 4th, barefoot and creative, yet strange, prodigious computer hacking young girl; and Ein, the Bebop's data dog and Ed's faithful companion.

Each episode is a stand-alone story in itself, and can be viewed without knowing anything about other episodes; however, most episodes also include continuous background storylines running throughout the series as well, focusing on each of the main characters with varying detail and significance. A few episodes, especially the last two, focus directly on issues about a character's past. The most introspection is given to Spike and his vague, shady interactions with underworld-type characters and seedy black-market dealings. Usually characters' backgrounds are only obscurely alluded to, and the audience is never directly explained details or shown the full picture until the end. There are brief flashbacks, or characters will speak of things that happened in the past, and holes are intentionally left up to the audience to fill in. Episodes have a tendency to end without finality, giving the series an apathetic if realistic essence.

A recurring aspect throughout the series is the show within the show, "Big Shot for the Bounty Hunters." In this show, a male and female host dressed in elaborate and showy sequined cowboy outfits send updates to "all 300,000 bounty hunters in the solar system," showing mugshots, listing their bounties, and some basic information on the criminals and law-breakers. Often the broadcast will initiate the plot for the particular episode or will give details about events happening elsewhere.

With the exception of Asteroid Blues, each episode includes a commercial bumper. These bumpers continually change throughout the series. Some read as boasts, such as the phrase "The work, which becomes a new genre itself".

A movie was released in 2001, titled Cowboy Bebop: The Movie. The movie is a midquel taking place between episodes 22 and 23.