Just watched what many call one of the 'required' anime series... Cowboy Bebop. Made in 1998!
I call it Firefly v0.1.
Post apocalyptic earth - CHECK
Space travel common yet still rely on animals and cars - CHECK
Life on other planets - CHECK
Collectors like 'old earth' relics - CHECK
Asian language mixed in with English - CHECK
Weird yet oddly hot young female that really has no point in the series - CHECK
Everyone has a screwed up past - CHECK
The first 24 episodes are really disjointed.. they just look for bounties for food money. Each one has a small 'moral to the story' ending.. but really, just random shit happens.
The last two episodes (a two part-er) puts the series to rest by killing the lead character. So yeah, his past catches up to him and EVERYONE dies. His woman, his friend, his nemesis, and even Spike himself. Whats fucked up is that Jet lets him do it. And if I were Spike I would be happy to hang out and bang Faye all day long... well, the plot means Spike is gonna die. So while the ending is, really, the end... its a huge cliche.
Letting Edward (an teenage girl they 'found') and Ein just walk off really sucked. But hey, crazy chicks are crazy... and she stole their dog, too. The only character to really have any sort of bond with the others is Faye, she likes Spike and gets along with Jet and is friendly to Edward... yet Jet and Spike really could not care... so its really hard to sympathize (sp?) with anyone BUT Faye as, in the end, she FINALLY get's her past back only to lose everything she has in the present.
For what it is (a short anime series) it was pretty good.. the animation is good and the English dub is well done. Other than Faye the male characters were pretty much cardboard cut outs and really didn't evolve with series... even though they all had a their backstory told... the apathy of Jet and Spike really sours the show. Occasionally there is some banter between Spike and Faye, but it never evolves even though, at the end, Faye sorta throws herself at Spike. I mean come one... Faye is RIGHT THERE... *sigh*
Its a good, mindless show to watch.. to me Faye really is the core (even with her own problems) and she is the only one that evolves into a person that I would care about.
Edward and Ein
Faye Valentine
There must have been a remake at some point.. Faye originally had blue/purple hair but then in an updated release it was black.