When The Mandalorian premiered on Disney+ back in 2019, it felt like a breath of fresh air for Star Wars after the box-office disappointment of Solo: A Star Wars Story and the mixed response to the sequel trilogy. For its first live-action series, Jon Favreau ditched the usual Skywalker family drama for Pedro Pascal’s masked bounty hunter, Din Djarin, taking dangerous jobs across the lawless Outer Rim with an adorable Force-sensitive child named Grogu. The first two seasons nailed the space-western formula, with every new planet bringing another bounty, strange local conflict, or familiar face from the franchise.
Sadly, the show gradually lost sight of what made it work. The Book of Boba Fett pulled Grogu back into Din’s story before season 3 had even begun, while the next batch of episodes leaned more heavily on Mandalorian history and franchise lore than the bounty-hunting adventures that made the series stand out. The May 2026 movie, The Mandalorian and Grogu, didn’t quite turn things around either, earning around $345.6 million worldwide and finishing below Solo as the lowest-grossing live-action Star Wars movie in history.
For a space western that never loses sight of its outlaw roots, Prime Video’s 26-episode Cowboy Bebop is a much better bet. Directed by Shinichiro Watanabe and animated by Studio Sunrise, the 1998 classic never abandons its episodic outlaw roots or waters down its stakes, making it everything The Mandalorian should have been.
Cowboy Bebop Actually Sticks To The Gritty Space Western Roots The Mandalorian Abandoned
Currently available in the US on Prime Video (via purchase or the Crunchyroll Amazon Channel), while streaming on Netflix across 36 international regions, Cowboy Bebop is set in 2071, decades after a hyperspace gate accident leaves the Moon shattered and Earth barely habitable. Humanity has since spread across the solar system, settling planets like Mars and Venus and even the moons of Jupiter.
Naturally, crime has followed, forcing the Inter-Solar System Police to introduce a bounty-hunting system that lets licensed hunters, known as “Cowboys,” track down fugitives for cash. It’s a setup that should feel familiar to The Mandalorian fans, but this time, the story follows an entire crew of broke outlaws rather than a lone gunslinger and his tiny companion.
At the center is Spike Spiegel, a laid-back martial artist who shares the spaceship Bebop with Jet Black, a former cop who has become his closest partner. Their makeshift family eventually grows to include Faye Valentine, a con artist with amnesia, teenage hacker Radical Edward, and Ein, an unusually intelligent Welsh Corgi.
They’re hardly a perfect bunch. They bicker over money, get on each other’s nerves, and regularly find themselves with empty stomachs after another failed bounty. Yet each carries a past they’re trying to escape, and their time aboard the Bebop gives them something they rarely had before: people to come back to.
Much like Din Djarin’s early adventures, the fun comes from never knowing where the next job will lead. But Cowboy Bebop also has a bigger story brewing beneath its episodic adventures. Spike’s violent past with the Red Dragon Syndicate and his unfinished business with Vicious eventually catch up with him, giving this stylish space western a surprisingly emotional edge.
Unlike The Mandalorian, Cowboy Bebop Actually Knows Exactly When To End A Story
There’s a reason Cowboy Bebop is still regarded as one of the greatest anime ever made. Despite debuting in 1998, its hand-drawn animation gives every fight a sense of movement that many modern CGI-heavy shows struggle to match. Produced by Sunrise, the series features beautifully choreographed action, whether Spike is throwing Bruce Lee-inspired kicks in a cramped alley or taking his Swordfish II through a dangerous space chase. Yoko Kanno’s jazz soundtrack and Steve Blum’s brilliant English voice performance only make the experience better.
More importantly, Shinichiro Watanabe knew exactly when to bring Spike’s story to an end. Across 26 episodes, Cowboy Bebop builds from hilarious bounty-hunting disasters to the unforgettable cathedral shootout in “Ballad of Fallen Angels” and the emotional two-part finale, “The Real Folk Blues.” Even the 2001 movie, Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, fits neatly into the series without taking away from its ending. For anyone who misses the smaller, character-driven adventures that made The Mandalorian special in the first place, this space western series is essential viewing. And unlike most bounty hunters, Spike’s story actually knows when to say goodbye.
- Release Date
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1998 – 1999
- Network
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TV Tokyo, WOWOW Prime
- Directors
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Yoshiyuki Takei, Ikuro Sato, Hirokazu Yamada
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Koichi Yamadera
Spike Spiegel / Ein (voice)
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Unsho Ishizuka
Jet Black (voice)
