Do you ever find yourself watching a TV show and thinking, "I wish that had been done differently."? Do you ever find that a show which has great characters tends to be a spine, a cover and several hundred pages short of a good story? Not Cowboy Bebop.<br /><br />Something like this is hard to come by in any medium; books, films, live-action, comics, nothing I've seen has mixed such cool, well-written characters with rich character development and an intricate and complete story. Harry Potter is the only thing I can really think of, but even that let me down a bit in the final book (Ron remembered that Parseltongue? Not likely, JK.).<br /><br />This show also has a vast variety of episode styles. Some episodes are childish and make you double up laughing while some are bleakly dark and adult, only the characters tell you it must be the same show. And this is the subtle way in which the story develops the characters: by putting them in completely different situations each time, you learn more about the way they feel and react to things. The character's emotions feel so real you sometimes forget it's animated.<br /><br />It's difficult to pinpoint a real demographic for Bebop because each episode is so different. While I'd say it's an +11 in some episodes, others can be +15. But it's not a kid's show, and it's not for mindless teenagers either. It's a show you need to have a bit of empathy to really understand.<br /><br />The dialogue is witty and fresh, none of the "Love? That's why you're weak! I'll kill you with one blow!" bull you usually get in an anime series, it's a million times more realistic than that. I personally prefer the English dub, the show seems (IMO) more American than Japanese so I think the American version works better, but both are good.<br /><br />In most things I find the finale can be slightly disappointing, it leaves you thinking "well, OK, BUT...". Part 1 of a two-parter is usually absolutely brilliant, building up and up and up to something, only to nosedive in part 2 because of some deus ex machina or untied plots or just not reaching the level you thought it would (think Heroes or Doctor Who; even Battlestar Galactica let me down a little). Cowboy Bebop, however, did not disappoint. The story finishes perfectly. It could not have been better.<br /><br />If you like anime, you have to watch this right now. I can't believe it was 6 years before I finally got around to trying it out. If you don't like anime, you have to watch this right up until episode 5, just so you can honestly say you don't like anime. If you value well-written characters + brilliant plot + intelligence + style and want a can of whoop ass thrown in, you should definitely give this a whirl.