Referenced By / Cowboy Bebop

See you barcode cowboy...

Anime and Manga

• Aldnoah.Zero: The destroyed Moon as a result of a teleporting gate gone wrong brings to mind Cowboy Bebop.
• Blood Blockade Battlefront: One of the photos White takes with her camera in episode 11 is of three familiar-looking old men sitting around a cafe table.
• Carole & Tuesday: Gus' running animation is identical to Spike's.
• Death Note: L's in-person introduction to the considerably slimmed-down task force: "Bang."
• Excel♡Saga: Episode 3: A parody of the final episode of Cowboy Bebop with Nabeshin and a girl who sounds like a man standing in for Spike and Julia.
• Compare Kyon's slow-mo fall through the window in The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya to Spike's in Cowboy Bebop.
• Lyrical Nanoha: The second episode features an Expy of Ein from Cowboy Bebop being possessed by a Jewel Seed.
• Space☆Dandy:
  • The currency of the universe is the Woolong.
  • If the Bebop, the Serenity, and the Outlaw Star got really, really drunk at a Jimmy Buffett concert and had the most disturbing threeway in spaceship history, the Aloha Oe would be the resultant island-themed lovechild of that night.
  • Dr. Gel's facial hair looks a lot like Jet Black's. Doubles as an Actor Allusion as Unshō Ishizuka voices both characters.
  • Meow goes searching through the EXACT SAME FRIDGE from the Cowboy Bebop episode "Toys in the Attic", which was launched into space at the end of the episode. He even gets attacked by a blue mold inside, then eats it just like Ed did at the end of that episode. At least now no one will have to worry about getting sick with the menace gone for good this time, and Meow's Betelgeusian physiology probably let him digest that thing without turning ill, like the Bebop crew who had been infected by the creature.
  • "Episode 25: Dandy's Day in Court, Baby!": During the cross-examination of Meow, it's revealed that Dandy once tried to sell Meow at a pet shop, couldn't get a lot of money, and decided to keep him on the crew. This is much like how Ein joined the crew in the second episode of Cowboy Bebop.
  • "Episode 26: The Neverending Dandy, Baby!": The bird perched on the column Dandy is chained to looks very similar to Vicious' pet bird.
• Wolf's Rain is not notable for Shout Outs, but has a few nods to Bebop due to having some of the same staff:
  • The pre-credits scene from one episode has a cameo by a male prostitute who looks suspiciously similar to one who appeared in an episode of Cowboy Bebop (which was produced by the same team).
  • Also, the final image of Cowboy Bebop's closing titles is a flower lying in a puddle. Now look at the final image of the Wolf's Rain opening titles. Different puddle, different flower, but even so...

Comic Books

• Seconds: After waking up from Revision #6, Katie looks like she is outright cosplaying Radical Edward.

Film

• The chase scene in Brick is an obvious homage to Cowboy Bebop. Brendan even looks a bit like Spike.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons: The Dragoning: The excerpt before chapter 9 is a reference to the final episode of Cowboy Bebop.

Video Games

• Borderlands 2: Scooter's Memorial is "See You, Space Cowboy".
• Enter the Gungeon: The Bloody Eye item is basically the Red Eye drug of Cowboy Bebop. The Liquid Valkyrie passive, which has a similar effect, references the drug Valkyr from Max Payne in both its name, bullet-time effect, and flavor text (which reads "Maximum Pain").
• Fallout:
  • Kitsune has mismatched eyes thanks to an eye transplant. When asked about it, she'll say that she feels like she sees the past in one eye and the present in the other.
  • Fallout 4: A rather subtle one for Nick's backstory: Someone with the last name "Valentine" waking up far into the future, barely aware of where and who they are, who eventually makes a career hunting down and capturing criminals. Sound familiar?
• Final Fantasy XIV: Blue Mage quest 50. The Real Folk Blues
• League of Legends: Draven's seems to be a reference to Spike Spiegel's "bang" as he dies.
• The hero of Loopmancer, Xiang Zixu, is a blatant expy of Spike Spiegel, from his background in the triads to his hairstyle and the game's setting in the Chinese underworld.
• Mass Effect 3: While passed out drunk in Shepard's shower, Grunt can be heard talking in his sleep, and one of the things he says is, "Who's a space cowboy? Me!"
• Mortal Kombat 11: One of Erron Black and Sub-Zero's pre-fight dialogues makes Erron rather want to face "a goddamned space cowboy" than the Grandmaster. Bonus points for Actor Allusion.
• Overwatch: Ashe killing McCree on Horizon Lunar Colony results in her saying "See you, space cowboy."
• PAYDAY 2: The Baby Deagle, a Jericho 941 pistol added with the Point Break (2015) DLC, has a pair of attachments called the "Spike Kit" and "Spike Grip", which give it the appearance of Spike Spiegel's Jericho.
• Pokémon X and Y: The female Artist trainer class is essentially Ed with a paintbrush.
• Project × Zone: In the final chapter, Xiaomu says this Signature Line before the battle starts:
  Xiaomu: Reiji, I think it's time we blow this scene! Get everybody and the stuff together!
• Roblox:
  Younite: ...no, the best anime is definitely the one with the giant head in the ocean!
  The_Frame: Who doesn't love the one with the bounty hunters in space though! You're insane if you don't like that one!
  Younite: Literally only you like that one, The_Frame! Mine is the best.
  Younite: If only we could be more specific about these animes without risking copyright infringement.

  —Egg Hunt 2018: The Great Yolktales
  • In Egg Hunt 2019's Golden Ending, Mysterious Figure/Alternate Timeline!Eggwick states the following line: "See you, space cowboy."
• Robopon: Jett and Spiky. Spiky even says "...Bang." after you beat him.
• Skullgirls: "You're gonna carry that weight."
• Skylanders: Upon clearing all of his Supercharger Challenges, Buzz will bid Astroblast farewell with a classic starfarer's blessing: "See you around, Space Cowboy."
• Tales from the Borderlands: In Episode 4, one of the messages you can use to honor Scooter is "See you, Space Cowboy". One of the guards Rhys encounters in the next scene sounds like Steve Blum. The other guard asks what the message reads, saying "something about anime?"
• Va 11 Hall A: Jamie talks about a bounty hunter called Jet James Black.

Web Original

• Anime Crimes Division: The Season One ad bumper references Cowboy Bebop.
• Exterminatus Now: This comic is packed with Shout Outs, including a cameo of the crew of the Bebop.
• Grrl Power: Sydney, Krona, and Harem sit down for a card-game while on recon. Sydney's cards are include Spike Spiegel as the Ace.
• In To Boldly Flee, JesuOtaku gets zapped by the machine she and CR were building and transforms into Radical Edward. She also holds a stuffed Corgi, indicative of Ein.
• RWBY: Ruby and Yang's dog is an intelligent corgi named Zwei, in reference to Ein ("Ein" is German for "one", "Zwei" is "two").
• Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series:
  • Episode 35: "My name is Mai Valentine. No relation to Faye Valentine."
  • Episode 49: The maximum level on the Jiggle-o-meter is labeled 'Faye Valentine'.

Western Animation

• The Amazing World of Gumball: Larry's segment "Barcode Cowboy" parodies the opening of Cowboy Bebop.
• Archer: The opening credit sequence contains a lot of nods to the same from Cowboy Bebop.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender:
  • The scene in "The Blue Spirit" where Aang asks Zuko if they could have been friends if they met earlier in life is based on a similar scene in the episode "Waltz for Venus" of Bebop.
• Batman: The Brave and the Bold: The theme song itself is inspired by "Tank!" the Cowboy Bebop opening.
• The Boondocks: The beginning of the fight between Stinkmeaner-Tom and the Freemans closely resembles that of the climax of Spike Spiegel vs. Vincent Volaju from Cowboy Bebop.
• Regular Show: Techmo's costume at the beginning is Spike from Cowboy Bebop. Both characters are voiced by Steve Blum.
• Steven Universe:
  • "Gem Glow"
    Lars: Get off me, man! I'm stockin' here!
  • "Mirror Gem": Garnet greets Steven with a bang, just like Spike in Cowboy Bebop.
  • "Lion 3: Straight to Video": The videotape and Steven and Sadie's reaction to it bears some similarity to the betamax tape delivered to Faye Valentine in Cowboy Bebop. The opening is shot-for-shot identical, Greg (like Faye) introduces himself and then becomes embarrassed and stops filming, and Rose's words of encouragement to Steven are tonally very similar to the teenaged Faye's. It's even a message from a forgotten past life addressing a wistful present.
• Teen Titans: In "Mad Mod", Robin's discovery of the real appearance of The Chessmaster, Mad Mod, is a shoutout to the Cowboy Bebop episode "Bohemian Rhapsody" where the Big Bad is found to be a decrepit old man playing chess.
• We Bare Bears: In "Fire", Grizz turns into an overzealous version of Smokey the Bear, extinguishing such small fires as birthday cake candles and park barbecues. The music used during the montage sequence of this sounds a lot like "Tank!" from Cowboy Bebop.

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