Feats N' Faults: Cowboy Bebop
See You Space Cowboy...
Hello, welcome to Maria’s Corner. Today we are doing a special collaboration with
from about the show Cowboy Bebop. For this part of our collaboration, Shane is ranking the main characters of the show according to their performance, showing us which members of the Bebop crew are the most and least successful, and at the end there’s also a review for the show and the movie. It’s an honor to be able to work with Shane on the first anime entry of Feats N’ Fault, please make sure to subscribe to his newsletter so you don’t miss the second part of this collaboration!
Welcome back to Feats N’ Faults, where we use our Tiered Point System to rank and record our favorite characters based on their achievements and deeds. For a more in depth look on how points are awarded, please check the About page. Below is our Tier System for quick reference. Also Spoiler Warning!
Today, we have an exciting post for Feats N’ Faults. I have the honor of working with maria’s corner to bring you the first anime we’ve covered on the channel!
Here at Feats N’ Faults, we analyze your favorite fandoms by ranking characters based on their actions and accomplishments rather than on how powerful they are. Power scaling is fun, but it only gets you so far. This way, any character can compete! Who impacted their story or universe more, Scooby-Doo, Iron Man, or Goku? Which characters would make the best Avengers or Tardis team? All this data has endless possibilities, and we have some surprising results already. It also gives me a fun game to play as I rewatch some of our favorite series. For a more in-depth look at how points are awarded, check out my About Page.
Alright, that’s enough of my rambling. Let’s get to what we’ve all been waiting for: the Feats N’ Faults score from Cowboy Bebop! For those who want to play at home, we are covering Spike, Jet, Edward, Faye, Ein, Julia, Vicious, and Vincent. Go ahead and list them from least to greatest based on how you think they scored, and let us know how your lists turned out in the comments!
Let’s Get Started!
8th Place, Julia: 1 FN’F Score (1998-1999) 3 ep.
Julia is a character I debated about whether to cover or not. Cowboy Bebop is a series whose episodes all have pretty well-contained narratives. There are about four or five episodes in the series that I call “lore episodes.” Julia has a major role in these stories, so I had to cover her even with her measly 1 FN’F Score.
These “Lore Episodes” are my least favorite in the series. I much prefer the typical hijinx the crew gets up to in their constant struggle to put food on the table. These heavier episodes with Julia and Vicious are cool and give Spike some backstory, but in my opinion, that backstory is unnecessary. Julia was the single focus for Spike, but in the end, she had very little screen time. This led to her biggest flaw: she could never score any FN’F points.
7th Place, Ein: 4 FN’F Score (1998-2002) 1 Movie, 26 ep.
Who’s the bestest boy around? That’s right, Ein is! I fell in love with Ein the moment I first saw him. He’s also a primary reason I want a corgi. This fur ball is more than just adorableness. Ein is a data dog with superior intelligence. You think this would come up more when watching the show, but I don’t think the crew was ever smart enough to consider this dog an asset. However, for a dog who saw minimal action, he sure did prove himself. The one time Ed took him into the field, he ran down a bounty on top of a train. Grabbed the guy and flung him off into a car. The car then explodes and takes out another woman! What a move! He also put on Ed’s virtual reality goggles and hacked them into a company’s system. He proved his worth without ever being given a chance. Ein really was underutilized by his fellow cowboys.
6th Place, Vicious: 7 FN’F Score (1998-1999) 5 ep.
In sixth place, we have the first villain on the list, Vicious. Vicious is in the same boat as Julia. He is mentioned but only appeared in those few lore episodes. He’s cool, I guess. Edgy and silent most of the time, his bird was the most interesting part of his personality to me. In the past, Spike and him were on the same team, fighting the same fight and watching each other’s backs. In the end, Spike makes it out; he doesn’t get the girl but escapes the syndicate. Vicious was not as lucky. He didn’t want to run. He wanted to overthrow. To everyone’s surprise, he did it! He killed the leaders and assumed the throne. I bet he thought he’d have a longer time on that throne. Yet, his reign was what… like 20 minutes, maybe an hour? Spike was quick on the scene to settle the score and take Vicious out. He might not have held the throne, but he fulfilled his promise and was the death of Spike.
5th Place, Edward: 12 FN’F Score (1998-2002) 1 Movie, 16 ep.
Edward was robbed! She does deserve more points than this. Is she a bit mad? Yeah, but who in this world isn’t? If they’d have sent her to more jobs, she could have shut the entire city down to catch the bounty heads. Hell, if they had any augmentations, I bet she’d have been able to shut them down as well.
Ed might not show it, but she is a genius. She can hack into any mainframe, find any info, and has the wiggliest arms in the galaxy. Her digestive system must be rock solid, too. I say this because the feat that impressed me the most was when she ate a sludge monster that took out the rest of the crew! It was an homage to Alien, where this creature slowly began to infect and poison the crew. Ultimately, it was defeated because Ed was tired, rolled over, and saw the creature. Without any hesitation, she grabbed it and swallowed it whole! What a badass!
4th Place, Vincent Volaju: 4 FN’F Score (2002) 1 Movie
Vincent is a man who only wants to know if he is awake or dreaming. He was the victim of an experimental bioweapon that left him without his memories. He thought this world was fiction and wanted to find the door to leave it. While only having one movie, Vincent did much more damage than Vicious. He caused disaster after disaster and got the points to show for it.
If you don’t recognize him, he is the main antagonist from the Cowboy Bebop Movie. I had never seen the movie before doing my research for this feed. I just have to say it is a great film and a good representation of the source material. Also, for nerds like me, it can slot very nicely into the show's timeline. I would recommend it to anyone who is watching through the series. Just pop in the movie after episode 22, and you’ll be good to go!
3rd Place, Jet Black: 23 FN’F Score (1998-2002) 1 Movie, 26 ep.
Jet feels like the adult of the group. He maintains the ship, cooks, and manages the money. He might only be in third place, but the rest of the crew would fall apart without him. He is also the only one on the list who never scored a fault. He came close a couple of times. I almost gave him one because it seemed like he was about to let a bounty go. After all, he loved the woman the bounty head was with. But then the cops came and picked him up anyway. Jet gave the guy a break by not beating him up, but he didn’t let him escape. Close call there, Jet. He has some interesting feats, like when he crushed a man with his spaceship, but besides that, most of them are generic. Still, fixing a ship and taking a guy out here and there is a decent strategy for Feats N’ Faults. Jet just needed a bit more screen time for that strategy to get him higher on this list.
2nd Place, Faye Valentine: 33 FN’F Score (1998-2002) 1 Movie, 24 ep.
Faye is kind of like the Nami of the crew. “If you watch One Piece, you’ll know what I mean.” She is never really a part of the team in the beginning. She hangs out with the group and helps out but she is really only in it for herself. She runs off on her own and leaves on many occasions. Yet, she always finds her way back to the Bebop. To the point where it seems like destiny is the only thing keeping her there.
In the end, her destiny was not to be with the Bebop. Instead, the Bebop was what carried her there. Once she regained her memories, she returned to “belong” somewhere. However, the life she finally recalled was nothing but rubble and memories. I think she has the most heartbreaking departure out of the crew. Falling asleep in the ruins of her old life with her chalk bed. It’s tragic because I do not think she can go back to the life she was living. She now has these two competing personalities and lifestyles wrestling for control. I don’t know how she coped with everything as well as she did.
A score of 33 is impressive. Her biggest feat came from the movie, in which she spread the vaccine faster by making it rain, which helped her save an entire city. To put her accomplishments into perspective, she scored better than Black Panther from the MCU and Rory Williams from Doctor Who. I’d say that’s impressive for a runaway bounty hunter with a crippling gambling addiction.
1st Place, Spike Spiegel: 58 FN’F Score (1998-2002) 1 Movie, 26 ep.
Spike performed very well in Feats N’ Faults. He comes across as a bit of a dunce, but he is a killing machine with a good conscience. Sure, he lets some bounties go, but on the off chance he does, it’s to help someone. So the end justified the means and he still got a Feat score for that. Spike ended up boosting his score much like John Wick did. Every time he won a battle or took a group of people out, he earned a feat. A couple of these don’t make much difference, but after a few episodes, they add up. I calculated 25 different occasions where he killed or knocked out one or multiple people. That really added up quickly. Because of this he was able to score better than Bucky Barnes from the MCU by 4 FN’F Score. He almost caught up to Chewbacca from Star Wars and lost to him by only a single FN’F point. Will Spike ever get another chance to beat Chewy? I doubt it, but I’d love to see the Bebop crew in the Star Wars universe. I guess Darth Vader gathered a group of bounty hunters to capture Luke. Maybe I’ll have to make a list of all the best bounty hunters across the multiverse to create the best team for Vader. Now, there is a great idea for a future feed! Do you think Spike would make that list? Who else should be on it? Let us know in the comments.
Review:
Cowboy Bebop: 8/10
Cowboy Bebop is one of those shows that anyone interested in anime should watch. It is many viewers’ first introduction to the medium. I want to stress that anime is not a genre but a medium. So many different stories and genres can be told through anime, so boiling it all down into one thing does no one any favors.
That being said, Cowboy Bebop is a fantastic space western. If you watched Star Wars or Firefly and were enamored by the smugglers and space pirate life, then this show is for you. It is a brutal profession with no glory, and this show does a great job of showcasing that. You can feel the struggle when food is running out, and they are risking their lives for a tiny bounty. It is gritty without being agonizing. The humor and character development are what keep you watching. The relationships seem to always be changing, and the second you feel like you understand the dynamic, one runs off to face a past problem or double crosses them and steals the bounty. It really is fantastic, and I would recommend it to anyone. Also, how can I talk about Bebop without mentioning the score? Oh, my word, the music in this is fantastic. Just look up the intro, and you will know what I mean. Very original music for an anime, and it just gives the entire world a very specific feel. Absolute perfect. The vinyl is something I have had my eye on for a while. One day I’ll write one of these while jamming to “Tank!”, you just wait and see.
Cowboy Bebop, The Movie: 6/10
I would rate the movie, but in my headcanon, it is just part of the series. It fits so well into the timeline that it is hard for me to think of it any other way. Also, on its own, it might not be as good. You just do not get that character development since you are expected to know these characters already. On its own, I’d probably give the movie a 6/10, but I don’t think anyone should watch it without seeing the series.
Recommendation: Absolutely, A perfect intro to Anime
Also, since many of these episodes are self-contained, I can pick a couple of my favorites! Here are my top five Cowboy Bebop episodes if you ever want to go back and rewatch some classics after reading this.
Ep. 7: Heavy Metal Queen
It’s a fun space trucker adventure with a low-stakes mystery behind the scenes: good action, great side characters, and a fun twist.
Ep. 16: Black Dog Serenade
Corrupt cops, a prison break, and a rare episode focused solely on Jet. What more could you want?
Ep. 19: Wild Horses
This is one of the funnier episodes of the series. The plot begs our characters to pay attention to it, but they simply refuse. There are too many egos in the room.
Ep. 17: Mushroom Samba
This is where our boy Ein shines the brightest. A rare occasion for Ed and Ein to do some field work with brilliantly animated fight scenes. Again, the soundtrack in this episode is superb.
Ep. 22: Cowboy Funk
It is the best space battle episode in the series. A unique weapon tries to shut down the Bebop, which causes Spike and friends to rely on unexpected tech. It also gives us a brief glimpse into Spike’s past without getting too bogged down in lore.
Thanks again for tuning into this special Feats N’ Faults. Once you finish this, visit my feed to see Maria’s fantastic post on Cowboy Bebop. If you came over here from my feed, please consider subscribing to Maria. She does an amazing job; you won’t regret it! If you are already subscribed to Maria’s Corner and enjoyed Feats N’ Faults, consider subscribing to stay current on all your favorite IP scores. We are deep into Marvel and Doctor Who right now, but we have so many more IPs to cover! If you want me to cover your favorite, let me know what it is in the comments. Who knows, maybe they will be able to score more than Spike. You never know how it will turn out with Feats N’ Fault! I hope you all have a magnificent week.
See You Space Cowboy…
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Bebop is the show to convince people that anime is worth their time. I first saw it on Adult Swim back in the day and it blew my mind. I’ve watched the whole series more times than I can count. Do Samurai Champloo next (made by the same director)
also fun Bebop lore: the show was only supposed to be a vehicle for selling toys and the director created one of the best shows of all time