I would say the themes are there. The first episode deals with a drug dealer selling a stolen combat drug. There’s an episode about ecoterrorists fighting the destruction of nature. Faye’s backstory has her indebted to a ruthless mega corporation. Jet is a disillusioned ex cop with cyberware constantly complaining how broke they are. Ed makes friends with an AI military satellite and has a genetically engineered corgi as a companion. Spike is an ex mob lowlife on the run from his past. That’s all cyberpunk as fuck to me.

I honestly don’t, and feel it’s mostly sci-fi. There are a couple episodes that do deal with some cyberpunk themes, but it’s just not prevalent enough to make the whole show fit the bill.

It’s spaghetti sci-fi jazzpunk.

I think pigeonholeing this masterpiece of an anime into simply “cyberpunk” does a major disservice to the creators. The music alone sets it apart from other genres of anime.

I lack the artistic elegance to explain the depths of the anime but, it can’t be reduced to one genre. To reduce it like that would be doing a great disservice to the talented team that created it.

“If it’s not constantly raining, it’s not ‘Cyberpunk’, it’s just ‘SparklingDepressing Sci-Fi’”

I’m not going to pretend to have any expertise on what is or isn’t Cyberpunk, but I would like to voice a differing opinion here, namely that locking genres into rigid boxes does a disservice to the genre itself, and literature on the whole. Nitpicking creative works that don’t check every box on a list doesn’t really help anything.

Funnily enough, most people here are saying “it’s a Space Western, not Cyberpunk”, which itself deviates wildly from the quintessential genre of Western. Why so quick and happy to broaden the scope of one genre, but not another? Frankly, I’d argue its Western elements are even more loosely held then its Cyberpunk ones, but everyone’s jumping on that definition as though it’s obvious.

The real truth, though, as some others here have said, is that the show is a fantastic blend of all of these genres and themes, balanced fantastically to give a unique result that’s nigh-impossible to tie down with one rigid definition. And overall, it’s clear to me that Cowboy Bebop wouldn’t be remotely the same without its Cyberpunk influences, and that’s good enough for me to let it sit under that lable without interrogating if it “belongs”.

Eh sorta. It touches on some of the noir and “no good endings” that come with it, and those are where cyberpunk pulls a lot of inspiration… But it’s definitely a space western. Like there is hacking, but it’s silly Ed being silly with a silly corgi friend.

Less Dystopia and more nostalgia, longing, etc., something that the live action missed completely.

This is the first I’m hearing of Cowboy Bebop being cyberpunk. I don’t think the lable really fits. It’s such a well rounded show I don’t know exactly what category I’d put it in, but it’s definitely not cyberpunk. It’s more of a noir space-western with a lot of action and comedy mixed in. If someone put a gun to my head and said pick a genre I’d probably just call it sci-fi since that’s a pretty broad term that covers a lot of ground

It takes place in a futuristic sci-fi world, but theres not much cyberpunk about it. The overarching story of the show isnt really centered around cyberpunk themes, either. The story is pretty much focused on the characters as bounty hunters and their history coming back to haunt them. Changing the setting, for example from space to the 1880s, wouldn’t affect the story much at all, in my opinion.

Looking at wikipedia, they describe it perfectly. “Neo-noir space western”.

I didn’t know cowboy bebop was commonly considered cyberpunk. I personally don’t see it that way, it feels more sci-fi to me or as you said in your post more like a space western. Space bounty hunter is basically a genre of its own and while it can contain similar themes to cyberpunk such as capitalism in decay and everything that comes with that it typically lacks the neon grunge vibe that’s so heavily associated with cyberpunk media.

Aside from aesthetic, the hopelessness and brutality that comes with large wealth gaps and an oppressive corporate owned police state is missing from cowboy bebop. You aren’t constantly being confronted with a miasma of despair from an abused populace that must turn to hurting each other and themselves just to keep going. Instead you have someone who is bored, lonely and haunted by his past. While some of the emotions he feels and the problems he faces are rooted in capitalism they aren’t as obviously hostile as what’s seen in cyberpunk. Cowboy bebop is more of an existential journey and less about surviving under or fighting against an owning class.

In regards to the specific genre of cowboy bebop it’s a bit of a unique case that fits into a lot of categories. It has aspects of pulp fiction, westerns, space opera, noir, and a bit of cyberpunk. Most people just call it a space western though because it seems to fit best

Edit: I think the lack of dehumanization associated with cybernetics is a huge mark against it being primarily cyberpunk. It doesn’t make you wonder when someone stops being human which is a HUGE part of that genre. I also wanted to clarify that the settings feels like the beginnings of late stage intragalactic capitalism rather than the fascism typically seen in cyberpunk. The tone is also way more upbeat most of the time.

So basically no your not crazy, cyberpunk has just recently become a popular genre and fans who don’t fully understand it’s distinctions using it to describe aesthetics rather than themes. Aesthetics are important to the cyber part but themes are important to the punk part.

my highschool literature studies courses prepared me for specifically this, thank you Mrs. Lavelle o7

High-tech? Yes. Low-life? Also yes.

I’d say no. I would say it’s a space western. L

Both cowboy bebop and cyberpunk are based on film noir and pulp fiction. Jackdaws aren’t crows but they are corvids.