Cowboy Bebop Was Made Specifically For Girls?
Twitter is abuzz with anime fans discovering that originally girls were the target demographic for Cowboy Bebop.
Twitter is exploding with anime fans expressing their surprise after learning that one of the greatest anime shows of all time was geared toward girls. After reading an article listing the top 25 anime series ever created, Twitter user @shoujoscholar explained that two shoujo animes made the cut, despite the list only referencing one, since the writer of the original article didn’t realize that Cowboy Bepop was actually a shoujo. According to the tweet, one of the reasons why the sci-fi neo-noir series (which was later turned into a live-action Netflix series) is considered a masterpiece is because people don’t know that it was made for girls.
After @shoujoscholar shined a light on the original demographic for the classic anime, the tweet was met with reactions varying from disbelief to newfound interest in watching Cowboy Bepop.
Some anime fans mentioned that they had never been interested in watching the show before, despite its high reputation, but now knowing that it is a shoujo, they might give it a shot.
Shoujo roughly translates to “for girls” and is a reference to the demographic that magazines target. Shonen is the opposite of shoujo and roughly translates to “for boys.” In the late 90s and early 2000s, many shoujo animes were extremely popular, including classics like Sailer Moon and Fruit Basket. However, during the 2000s, shoujo became less popular, although it is currently experiencing a comeback, with many mangas receiving anime adaptations and some of the animes receiving live-action adaptations, like Cowboy Bepop.
In response to a Twitter user expressing how they just learned that Cowboy Bepop is a shoujo, Twitter user @summosa explained that the anime for the series came first, and when they published the manga, it was published in the shoujo magazine Asuka Fantasy DX.
Cowboy Bebop follows the lives of a space-traveling bounty-hunter crew in the 2070s who live on a spaceship called Bebop. Not tying itself to one category, Cowboy Bebop blends itself between film noir, science fiction, and Western genres. The series explores central themes like the dissatisfaction that comes from existential ennui, loneliness, and the inability to escape from one’s past, such as the protagonist Spike Speigel being haunted by his previous relationship.
Many of Cowboy Bepop’s themes are shoujo in nature. Although shoujo is not a genre in and of itself, it often has repetitive themes that appear in many shoujo series. Many of these stories center on human emotions and romantic relationships. In addition, these stories might also explore gender norms and identities, which is shown in Cowboy Bebop with self-named Edward (aka Radical Edward) referring to themselves in the third person, expressing a sense of gender fluidity that was rarely shown on screen at the time the series came out in the early 2000s.
Attempting to continue the revolutionary storytelling that the original Cowboy Bebop was famous for, Netflix’s live adaptation of the anime officially made the character Gren non-binary. Unfortunately, the live-action series received mixed reviews, with Netflix deciding that it wasn’t worth risking making a second season, and the series was canceled.
