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LonelyMachines
http://lonelymachines.org/2002/09/thoughts-on-firefly.html

"When I first heard about Firefly, all I could think was, "Hmmm...live-action Cowboy Bebop." The set-ups are remarkably similar-so much so that most feedback from geek cognoscenti has cried rip-off at every turn. Add to that the fact that this show is written by the same guy who gave us Buffy, and you've got a sure-fire recipe for disaster.

Well, I'm relieved to say that doesn't appear to be the case.

>snip<

Now on to the big gripe. Cowboy Bebop, from which Firefly lifted a great deal of its premise and atmosphere, did this all before, and did a much better job of it. Now Bebop isn't exactly something most folks have seen or even heard of. It's an anime series that ran for 26 episodes on Japanese prime-time a couple of years back, and which has recently been released here. Edited versions of some of the episodes can be seen late at night on the Cartoon Network now and then, and Bandai has released the whole shebang on DVD. Again, something that geeks like me seek out, but which doesn't exactly gain mainstream appeal.

Cowboy Bebop tells the story of a freebooting, delapidated ship called the Bebop which roams from world to world in the future Solar System picking up what work they can find, usually as bounty hunters. The ship is helmed by Spike, a John Cusack type with rakish charm and a dark past, and Jet Black, a burly disenfranchised police officer with a heart of gold. They are eventually joined by Faye, a woman whose own past is a mystery, even to her. Over the course of the show, each character's past gradually catches up with them. The whole show is shot through with traditional cowboy/western imagery and music. Sound familiar? Yep.

(I plan to do a full writeup on the incredible and moving Bebop, but for now there's a wonderful site here that more than does the show justice.)

Now, it's highly doubtful that Whedon's never heard of Cowboy Bebop. After all, this guy has earned himself sainthood in geek circles, and Bebop has a huge cult following. At some point, someone must have mentioned this to him. Either that, or this is an intentional move on his part, perhaps an homage. In either case, anything that earns some exposure for Bebop is kosher in my book, and since I doubt it'll ever be adapted for the stateside small-screen, Firefly makes a promising substitute."

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kate_nepveu: Cowboy Bebop, episodes 1-4
http://www.livejournal.com/users/kate_nepveu/119254.html

"So far, it's got very nice visuals, interesting music (though the twangy bits in the first episode were tremendously distracting because I kept expecting them to turn into the Firefly theme)

>snip<

It's interesting to compare this to Firefly, which has a not-dissimilar premise of scratching out a living through dubious means on a beat-up spaceship."

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Linkstew » Blog Archive » Stew Reviews Cowboy Bebop
http://linkstew.org/2002/12/26/1809/

"The setting is very much space western, as you'd probably guess from the name. If you saw any of Firefly, Cowboy Bebop reminded me a lot of that, though they're far from identical. The story follows a loosely knit gang of bounty hunters who experience very mixed luck. The most common story element by far was food, or more specifically the lack thereof."

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The Critical Eye | Cowboy Bebop: The Movie
http://5x5media.com/eye/film/bebopmovie.shtml

"A week or two after watching Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, I realized that the TV series it's based on shares some thematic and structural elements with the ill-fated Firefly series, which for all its science-fiction trappings and near-future setting, also focused mainly on characters in familiar locations. Both series also featured a handful of misfit characters who are a loose family, but at any given time are likely to want to be elsewhere. They also claim to value profit over anything else. The quirky Firefly didn't catch on, seeming to actively turn off more viewers than it turned on. Cowboy Bebop, on the other hand, seems to gain new converts every day. In the end, it isn't a matter of asking a question of Cowboy Bebop; rather, Cowboy Bebop demands that we answer why more shows and movies like Firefly aren't animated."

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