The 14 Best Anime Like Cowboy Bebop, Ranked

While Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo both have very different settings, they share a lot of stylistic similarities and character personalities. If you love a hodgepodge group of people who sort of become friends along a journey and the hip-hop/jazz style music that accompanies it, you should check out this show. Through a series of events, the clumsy waitress Fuu saves the lives of two samurai whom she then hires to be her bodyguards. She has one mission she needs their help to complete: to find the samurai that smells of sunflowers.

Music is one of the biggest parts of Cowboy Bebop; it was literally created to help tell the story, after all. So if you want a new anime series that has good music, a good storyline, and a character you can't help but love, you should check out Trigun. Vash is said to be a "Humanoid Typhoon" that lays to waste cities just for fun. In truth, he's actually a huge softie that loves donuts. The story is about his trio and their misadventures on the wasteland planet Gunsmoke while legendary assassins try to chase them down. Vash, much like Spike, does have a horrifying past that will come to light. Plus, the gun fights in this are very entertaining, much like Cowboy Bebop!

The story behind each character in Cowboy Bebop usually revolves around some kind of dark tragedy, at least for the most part. And often, there are episodes that really make you feel things because of how people's individual stories went. This same brand of darkness and character development is also found in Black Lagoon; an equally dark and interesting story. Rokurou was your average businessman until he's captured by pirates. He decides to join the crew after a negotiation gone wrong and live out the harsh, but eventful life they seem to have.

While Cowboy Bebop is about bounty hunters and Michiko to Hatchin is about an escaped criminal, both have a similar kind of feel to them stylistically. They also have groups of people that clash in terms of goals and personalities, which makes the show interesting in itself. Michiko has broken out of a top security prison for the fourth time so that she may be able to find a man from her past. Her only lead is a young girl named Hana, whom she rescues from an abusive foster family. The adventure is strange, but enduring and we'd highly recommend you give it a watch!

You've probably already heard of Ghost in the Shell, especially after its live action adaptation, but the original movie is incredible and if you haven't seen it yet, you should. Much like Cowboy Bebop, it also takes place in a futuristic setting where people can replace all of their body parts with robotics. Motoko has replaced all of her body due to a childhood accident. She's been tasked with investigating the hacker known as "The Puppetmaster", leading to a much more complicated story than we would ever imagine. If you loved the action scenes in Cowboy Bebop, you'll love the fight scenes in this!

Space, crime, and adventure is what Cowboy Bebop is all about! Another anime series that has the same themes in it is definitely Outlaw Star; the next anime that should be on your watch list. In a futuristic setting, we meet Gene who has always wanted to be the pilot of his own ship. But, you should always be careful what you wish for. After taking a job from an unknown outlaw, Gene and his partner find themselves aboard the infamous ship, the Outlaw Star.

This recommendation should be a no-brainer, but it's definitely worth saying! Space Dandy is essentially the more light-hearted, comedy-fueled version of Cowboy Bebop, since it is a little more serious. Dandy is a bounty hunter who tracks down unclassified aliens as a job. Each episode is it's own adventure. Both anime share themes of space, bounty hunters, and a dysfunctional space crew.

If you're looking for great fighting scenes with a little bit of jazz playing in the background, look no further than Baccano! for your next anime fix. Much like Cowboy Bebop, this show also has a lot of action-packed scenes and is also placed in 1930's Chicago, so you know the music is pretty good. Szilard and his aide, Ennis, are looking for the missing bottles that contain the elixir of immortality, but there's also a lot going on in the background—like mafia wars, for example. The alchemists are on a road to find out the true price for immortality.

Part of what makes Cowboy Bebop so great is its leading protagonist, Spike. We know about his dark past and throughout the show he's sort of labeled as an anti-hero. The same could be said of Psycho-Pass, who's lead is similarly dark. The setting is fairly similar in that it's futuristic and has a noir feel to it. The entire show revolves around a new kind of policing that determines the state of mind of citizens before they even commit a crime. However, this system seems to have some serious faults.

Cowboy Bebop is definitely one of those anime series you show people when they say it's for kids. The content is definitely mature while also being mysterious and having serious topics of discussion. Ergo Proxy is very similar, if the edgy makeup didn't give you a clue. In a world where androids need to help humanity recover from a serious catastrophe, Re-l Mayer is out to find out why some of them are gaining self-awareness. This journey leads down a very dark path, including the discovery of mankind's most horrific sin.

We love how Cowboy Bebop always told the story from an interesting perspective; it was always a different character and it would give you new information each time. If you like this kind of style of storytelling, check out the legendary Durarara!!. This show starts off completely confusing, but as you delve deeper into it, you see how everything connects and makes it that much more interesting. The series has everything from gangs in everyday city life, supernatural happenings, and even a headless rider.

A fellow Noir-feeling anime, if you loved the kind of detective feeling Cowboy Bebop brought on, you might like Bungo Stray Dogs. While this is certainly a lighter kind of anime that often has more comedy breaks, it still is very character-driven and has excellent stories you don't even have to watch in order. Atsushi is a young, unwanted orphan who's been kicked out of his orphanage and chased down by a mysterious white tiger. Starving on the side of a riverbank, he notices a man that's fallen in and saves the drowning detective Osamu Dazai. In a turn of events, Atsushi finds himself helping the strange man.

The smooth jazz feeling that Cowboy Bebop gives you is one of the many reasons why it's entertaining, and oddly relaxing at times, to watch. It is also an anime that is character driven and that you don't necessarily have to watch in order if you don't want to. Another anime that holds these same kind of elements is Death Parade. Taking place in the afterlife, the fate of a person's soul is wagered in a game against another once-living person. These often reveal the true nature of a person and their pasts, which are sometimes intertwined.

Carole & Tuesday was the directed by the same creator of Cowboy Bebop, Shinichiro Watanabe, so it's not surprising that this music-themed anime bears a lot of similarities to the classic 90s series. The story takes place in a futuristic society where humans have recently migrated to Mars. It follows two aspiring musicians who team up to make waves in a music industry dominated by AI singers.