Of the many beloved elements of “Cowboy Bebop” — the seminal late-1990s anime series that became a cult sensation in the U.S. after it premiered on Adult Swim in 2001 — arguably the best known is its killer opening credits sequence, set to the singular jazz theme “Tank!” by Yoko Kanno.
The opening credits are so iconic that, rather than release a trailer to promote its upcoming live-action adaptation of “Cowboy Bebop,” Netflix elected to debut the full opening credits for the show during its Tudum global fan event on Saturday.
The series follows a team of bounty hunters, or Cowboys, who patrol the solar system for criminals in their spaceship, Bebop. The crew consists of Spike Spiegel (John Cho), known for his sharp dressing and floppy hair; Jet Black (Mustafa Shakir), an ex-cop with a robotic arm; and Faye Valentine (Daniella Pineda), who spent over 50 years in cryogenic sleep before joining the Bebop. Also joining the main cast are Alex Hassell (“The Boys”) as Vicious, Spike’s former crime-world partner and current nemesis, and Elena Satine (“The Gifted”) as Julia, the woman who came between Spike and Vicious.
You can watch the new credits below:
And as a point of comparison, here are the original opening credits from the anime series:
“Cowboy Bebop” is executive produced by showrunner André Nemec (“High Fidelity”), along with Jeff Pinkner, Josh Appelbaum, Scott Rosenberg, Tim Coddington, Tetsu Fujimura, Michael Katleman, Matthew Weinberg and Christopher Yost, as well as Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements of Tomorrow Studios and Makoto Asanuma, Shin Sasaki and Masayuki Ozaki of Sunrise Inc. The director of the original series, Shinichirō Watanabe, serves as a consultant on the live-action show.
It is set to debut on Nov. 19.