Why was Cowboy Bebop so controversial? Pushback on the series when it debuted, explained

While Cowboy Bebop is considered to be one of the most classic anime series to exist, it did have its fair share of controversies. The anime's director, Shinichirou Watanabe, put his heart and soul into the project. However, the anime began facing issues in the development stage itself.

Cowboy Bebop follows the story of Spike Speigel and his partner Jet Black, both of whom together catch criminals to make a living. However, beneath Spike's cool persona was a troubled past that got caught up to him. During this journey, they were joined by con artist Faye Valentine, odd child Edward, and a bioengineered Welsh Corgi, Ein.

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What led to the controversies around Cowboy Bebop?

Spike, Jet, Faye, and Edward as seen in the anime (Image via Sunrise)

While one would feel that an anime like Cowboy Bebop must have had an incredible project plan, one that is backed by its producers, that was far from the truth. In reality, Shinichirou Watanabe was hired by Sunrise Studios to create an anime that would promote space-themed merchandise sold by Bandai Toys.

However, when Watanabe started creating the series, it seemed evident to the executive at Bandai that the anime did not match their requirements. The anime was clearly for adults as it contained s*xual and philosophical themes that were unsuitable for children to watch. Thus, the anime would not cater to an all-age audience and lose Bandai a major portion of their merchandise's target audience. Keeping this in mind, Bandai pulled out of the project.

Spike Spiegel and Jet Black as seen in Cowboy Bebop anime (Image via Sunrise)

Fortunately, Bandai Visuals came to the rescue and took over the project, allowing Watanabe to create the story just as he wanted. Even after that, the anime had its fair share of problems. Many did not like how Watanabe had planned the series' ending. Given that Spike Speigel was bound to die at the end after his encounter with Vicous, many executives felt like such an ending would not allow the anime to create a sequel.

Nevertheless, Watanabe had planned a decisive ending for Spike from the start. Thus, he decided to end the series in only 26 episodes, giving producers no scope for creating a sequel series.

Faye Valentine as seen in the anime (Image via Sunrise)

That being said, the creative differences with the producer weren't the only issues Cowboy Bebop faced. While the anime aired all of its 26 episodes in the United States, only the first 12 episodes were broadcast in Japan due to the adult-themed content in the series.

Cowboy Bebop had several themes that just weren't suited for a diverse audience. This included several graphical scenes that were etched into the anime. As such, there was no way of censoring them, which is why the anime could only release 12 episodes of the same at the time.

Spike Spiegel as seen in the anime (Image via Sunrise)

The issue at hand was that the anime was released at a time when school violence was increasing in Japan. Thus, releasing an anime that largely focused on gun violence as a form its action would have only led to incentivizing more such incidents. This is why, Cowboy Bebop, despite being a great anime, is riddled with controversies.