Each episode of Bebop always introduces us to a new facet of life in space so it never, ever gets old. Each "session" is fast-paced and crazy insane - although there are a few serious ones in between. As you'll see, the sessions usually contain some kind of musical/cultural reference in the title (they're usually anmed after songs, albums, films, and musical genres), and the really amazing thing is that the actual soundtrack of each episode is made to match them. It is yet another example of the series' incredible attention to detail.
->> Session 1: Asteroid Blues
The episode begins with Spike practicing martial arts and Jet cooking dinner - which pretty much describes the way things are on the Bebop. Hungry and lacking funds due to Spike's recklessness, they are chasing down a "small" bounty by the name of Asimov Solenson - a gang member who betrayed his group and ran off with some expensive drugs. Spike heads on down to his shaman friend who - surprisingly - points him in the right direction. But Asimov's been using the drugs on himself, enhancing his combat abilities. Does Spike have a chance? (This is one of the most important episodes in the series. If one knows where to look, it's practically the whole show in a nutshell, foreshadowing most of the events to come.)
->> Session 2: Stray Dog Strut
Spike and Jet are after a large bounty, but their bounty's crime is the strangest yet: dognapping! Spike must learn to set aside his "hatred" for dogs and pets in this episode in order to catch the elusive Abdul Hakeem and claim the 8 million wulong reward.
->> Session 3: Honky Tonk Woman
Spike and Jet try their luck at gambling in a casino flaoting in outer space. But it's a case of mistaken identity when the dealer - a woman named Faye Valentine that the casino's owner had blackmailed into helping him - mistakes him for the man she has been instructed to take a mysterious poker chip from. She insists Spike give her his last chip as a tip (thinking it is the aforementioned special chip) but Spike would have none of it, knowing that she had spent the entire time cheating him at cards (very fast eyes, that boy has). When Spike runs into the real chip-holder, the special chip somehow winds up in his hands. Faye runs away from the casino and, in no time at all, a bounty is placed on her head. Of course, the Bebop crew is right on it, and Faye and Spike clash again and Spike proves that he doesn't need gravity to beat people up.
->> Session 4: Gateway Shuffle
Spike and Jet are after an unusual bounty: eco-terrorists bent on "saving" the Ganymede sea rats - at the expense of human lives. When they have captured the head of the organization, they come across Faye Valentine yet again. Later on they learn that the eco-terrorists are in possession of a dangerous virus that can destroy human civilization as they know it and the Bebop men must team up with Faye to stop them.
->> Session 5: Ballad of Fallen Angels
Spike's determined to catch a 28-million bounty - the head of a notorious crime syndicate - and will not let anyone get in the way. But Spike knows that the bounty offer is not quite real, and when Faye is caught while attempting to catch the crime boss Mao Yen Rai, Spike is forced to face his past.
->> Session 6: Sympathy for the Devil
Spike, Jet, and Faye are after a man named Giraffe who seems bent on killing his former comrade, Zebra. Before they can apprehend Giraffe, however, he dies. Before he bites the dust, Giraffe manages to whisper to Spike that he must help "him" and gives him an unusual ring. The crew assumes he means a young boy who travels with Zebra and they wind up trying to do just that. But the child is not what he seems, and they realize that Giraffe's message meant something else and it's up to Spike to save those who really need saving.
->> Session 7: Heavy Metal Queen
While on the trail of a man dealing in explosives, Spike runs into VT, a woman who professes to hate bounty hunters. But VT later decides to go after Decker on her own and winds up in a dangerous mining satellite. Spike runs off to help her and Faye hurries after him to extricate her bountyhead. Spike gets to show off his considerable knowledge of explosives as well as one of his more unusual and useful skills.
->> Session 8: Waltz for Venus
Spike has found himself a pupil and admirer in a guy named Roco, who talks our gruff, too-cool-for-you cowboy into teaching him a few special martial arts moves. It turns out, however, that Roco's got a bounty on his head and is also being hunted by his former gang for stealing a valuable Grey Ash plant used for curing Venus sickness. Roco's got a reason: namely, his blind sister, Stella. Spike gets unwittingly dragged into Roco's problems and reveals at last that he's much, much softer than he wants people to believe.
->> Session 9: Jammin' with Edward
A satellite has re-drawn the Nazca lines on Earth's battered surface and the ISSP has put out a bounty for whichever hacker was responsible. The number one suspect is a mysterious alien/prodigy/basketball star/drag queen known only as "Radical Edward." But, as usual, Radical Edward's real identity is completely unexpected and the crime (and criminal) not at all what it seems. Spike gets to do more daredevil stunts, with Faye as the reluctant decoy, and the Bebop crew expands by one.
->> SESSIONS 10-18 | UP ONE LEVEL <<-